Whatever the Weather

There really hasn't been a lot happening since my last update... but I feel the need to update anyway because it was my 'little' brother's 18th birthday last week, so:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISY-POO!

Other than all of that stuff, we played netball on Wednesday night and, despite it being a really good fast game, we lost. We'll still be in the finals next week though, competing for third spot, which is okay I reckon. It'd be nice to be a bit further up the ladder, but the result certainly wasn't for lack of trying!

The other item of interest is the weather - It's nuts! Yesterday it got up to 22 degrees or something - the warmest recorded day for this time of year in London in a very long time. And yet, we're apparently meant to expect the coldest winter since 1963... I'm not quite sure what's going on!! Today is mild as well - top of 18 degrees. I'm sure we'll probably have a couple of days of this and then WHAMMO! Freezing again! The whole world has gone mad.

Also, I've booked my flights for Dublin - I'll be visiting Casey from Saturday November 19 to Monday November 21, which should be rockin'. I'll be keeping an eye out for Leprechauns, James Joyce and stray Guiness bottles.

Speaking of leaving for stuff, The Amazonians are off on their adventure very shortly. Good luck to Dave, Laura, Jin and Cathy!! I'm sure they'll have a blast and a half. The Jungle Party was held in their honour on the weekend, and here are some pics. None of me I'm afraid - you'll all just have to cope!














Yes, apparently there are Lions, Tigers and Giraffes in the jungle...

Isn't it Romantic?

One of the best purchases I've made since being in the UK is an Art Deco music collection from the Victoria and Albert Museum. Three CDs of pure joy! Think Fred Astaire and Nina Simone.

That aside, it's been a while since I last updated. 'A while' for me constituting a week.:D

So, the general update:

- Very busy week at work last week, and organising my life, culminating in a trip to the bank, and angry phone call to a certain company which made my trip to the bank all but pointless.

- I had Friday off work to show Andy and Sara and their kids around London. The weather started off terribly, but got finer though cold. We ended up hopping on a tour bus which was the best way to see everything at a glance, then we went to Hamley's (THE BEST TOY STORE IN THE WORLD!!! I could seriously spend hours in there) and then to Harrods. It was so lovely to see them again! Hopefully I'll be able to steal a photo off Andy in the near future...

- Saturday night I went to Laura and Dave's jungle party which was rockin. Didn't leave until 3.30am, which is always a good sign! Heaps of people there, and some fabulous costumes. Once I upload my photos I'll post a few up here.

- Sunday, after eventually extracting myself from bed, I met up with my housemates in Piccadilly to discover they were also a little worse for wear. We ended up in Lillywhites, a HUGE sports store that has this sale on the moment ('All stock must go!' type of thing) which was a very good sale, but I'm being a good girl and I didn't buy anything but lunch.

- Went to the accountant this morning which gave me a big relief and I know I'm going to be okay. I guess I knew that all along, I just expected things to be worse. And Inland Revenue actually rang me! SHOCK, HORROR - GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT RINGS PERSON, RATHER THAN JUST EXPECTING THEM TO KNOW SOMETHING'S WRONG! Anywho, I got what I needed for them from the accountant this morning and have faxed that off, so I should get an National Insurance number soon (like Medicare).

- Got the forms I need for the bank, from the company that should have known better given they do this stuff all the time (grrr!), so I can hand those in tomorrow and get all that stuff sorted.

Finally, the ball is rolling!! I'm still going to have a few bills at the end of this, but at least it'll be organised.:) Maybe I'll be able to afford that weekend to Dublin after all....

Walkin'

I've had a bit of a tough time recently, feeling incredibly homesick and financial woes. They've both combined to make me quite anti-social of late, and stressed to the max. So it was nice on the weekend to get out and relax a bit, despite me still not being able to sleep. Have to learn to switch my brain off!

Anywho, my housemate Tang and I went by train down to Kingston on Saturday morning. Kingston is in the very South-West of London, still on the Thames. It's a university town and has a really great vibe to it. From there we walked all the way down the side of the Thames to Hampton Court Palace. The Palace is MASSIVE. When I'm no longer poor (perhaps in a few years!) I'll go back and pay to have a look around the inside and the gardens. Although, we did get a sneak peek at the gardens through the fences at the back. We wandered through a gate into what's known as the 'Bushy' - a cute wooded area behind the Palace - and then back up to Kingston. All-in-all, a VERY long walk but it was a beauitful day and I was just happy to get out in the sunshine.


Hampton Court Palace


Hampton Court Palace and the River Thames


Sunday morning most of us were up fairly early and we decided to go to Starbucks for a coffee. Kerry and Audrey - two of my South African housemates - and Kyle's friend Ryan (who is staying with us temporarily) and I all walked to Southfields and then hopped on a tube. We alighted at London Bridge and I proceeded to take them on Mel's Tour du Londres! I'm constantly amazed at how much useless information I keep in my head. I can organise myself at work, organise other people, but can't organise myself and can never remember important dates and details, but I can remember useless information! So basically, I was a walking guide book. Despite being in the country for some time now, Audrey had seen very little of London and Ryan had only just arrived in the country, so it was a good chance to see the place. Again, it was a beautiful day although it clouded over by evening. We walked past the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, St Paul's Cathedral. On our way to Covent Garden, we had to take a rather long detour because they had a central road blocked off - they were making a movie in which there was an explosion and there were hundreds of extras around and dirty busses and things, all part of the explosion effect. So we got to Covent Garden and then wandered to Trafalga Square where we met up with Kyle. From there we took in Leceister Square and Picadilly, before taking a bus along Whitechapel and past Downing Street towards Parliament House and Big Ben. We alighted there and walked around Westminster Abbey before heading home.


We found this statue on the banks of the Thames and thought it was pretty....that's pretty much the only reason for the photo!:D


Tower Bridge on a nice day!


Pawo, our old housemate, left us his tellie when he went off to Ethiopia and so Kyle has hooked his playstation up for us to watch DVDs ... and we've been watching DVDs every night for the past week or so! It's cool though - one of our landlords owns the video store in Southfields and so we hire DVDs for free. All very convenient!

I've been super-busy already this week, just trying to organise my finances. I've got an appointment with the bank tomorrow and one with an accountant on Monday, along with applying for my NI number last Friday (THE definition of 'frustration') and sorting out my ltd company stuff... It's going to be hectic! I'm also taking Friday off because Andy and Sara will be here from Oz and I'm going to show them around.

Once I get this finance stuff sorted, I know I'll be poor for a really long time ... but at least everything will be above-board. *sigh!* Life would be great were it not for money!

Money Makes the World Go 'Round

*sigh!*

Stressing out, not sleeping, running around like a chook with its head cut off and over what? Money!

I hate how the whole world revolves around it. It's like you can't do anything in this city without worrying about how much it's going to cost you in the long run.

Why does money have to be so important? Why can't we just go about our daily lives without worrying about it at all?

GAH!

Anyway, today I'm off to get my National Insurance number organised, but I know it's going to be a big fat waste of time - I won't have enough proof of address. And the Northern Line hasn't been running at all either today or yesterday, so to get there is going to be a hassle-and-a-half.


Whinge whinge whinge, I know!

To Be or Not To Be

Whew! It's been a busy few days, so I'll try and keep the recap as short as possible ("Hah!" I hear you all say!). In the first most important piece of news, Dave, Jaimee, Laura and I are all going to the Bon Jovi concert at Wembley next year. Huzzah! I can't wait, it's seriously going to rock. Of course I HAVE to wait until June... but these things happen.

Also, on Saturday while I was out, our landlords came over and told us we all have to be out of the place by January 13 because they're demolishing the building. It would have been appreciated if they told us this BEFORE Lauren and I moved in, but whatever. We've decided to take it as a good thing - we can find somewhere nicer, perhaps with a little garden, and get a cat!

And the reason I wasn't there on Saturday to hear this news was because I went to the Home of the Bard: Stratford-Upon-avon! Early Saturday morning I boarded a bus at Victoria and started the 3.5 hour drive. We passed through some beautiful country, up into Warwickshire, through the town of Warwick itself and Leamington Spa. It's very typically English countryside, rolling green hills and mist. I'm intrigued about Warwick after passing through it, I really want to go back and check out the castle there.

Once in Stratford, I headed to the town centre and bought an all-day tour bus ticket. Basically, thanks to my International Student Card (don't ask how I got this!), I paid 6 pounds and could hop on and off this bus all day, and it took you out of the town to the sights that are a bit further away. I stayed on the bus as we passed through the town centre, and then got off at Anne Hathaway's cottage (Shakespeare's wife's house).



It's really cute and preserved really well. The gardens are absolutely lovely and obviously a lot of care has been put into the preservation of the house.

From there I hopped back on a tour bus and headed past Mary Arden's house and back into town. From here I wandered the little cobblestone streets and made my way to the Holy Trinity church, where I gazed upon the grave of the Bard himself.



It was quite eerie, made more so by the fact that the weather was completely miserable. By this time it had started pouring down with rain and, despite my umbrella, everything from my waist down was soaked. It didn't help when I inadvertantly stepped in a puddle, either, and ended up with shoes full of water and probably a few guppies swimming around my ankles.

Deciding to find somewhere dry and warm to rest, I headed around the corner to Nash House (owned by Shakespeare's son-in-law) and found it now houses a tea room. So I had the obligatory scones with clotted cream and jam with tea and wrote my postcards and dried off a bit.

From there I headed towards Shakespeare's birthplace, along the way stopping to take a look at the Royal Shakespeare Company's theatre building. Yes, all they ever play is Shakespeare's works and if I'd had more time I would have seen a performance of "A Midsummer Night's Dream".



To Shakespeare's birthplace! Realistically, they have no idea if he was actually born here, but it is known that his parents lived here. Like Anne Hathaway's cottage, it's decorated to the style of the period and the interior was very cute, and the gardens immaculate. If there's one thing I noticed about all the properties pertaining to Shakespeare in Stratford, it is the amount of effort they have put into the preservation of the buildings and the appearance of the gardens.



The rest of the town is a mixture of more modern buildings with the old, some dating from as early as the 1400s. It's just incredible to walk around knowing how old these places are. The AlmsHouses, for instance, were built in the early 1400s and people still live in them today.


So after a long day of sight-seeing I headed back to London. On Sunday morning two of my housemates - Kyle and Audrey - and I decided to go to the Camden Markets. The weather was fabulous and we had a really good time. Camden markets are known for their wackiness. While Notting Hill has a lot of clothes and antiques and jewellery, Camden has lots of tattoos, piercings, goth clothes and GREAT food. So we spent the afternoon walking around before catching a bus through central London (where I took on the role of tour guide for my South African friends!) and heading home.



Hopefully tonight we'll be going to the London Eye. There is a promotion on at the moment where, if you have an Oyster Card, you can get on the Eye at 2-for-1 prices. Oyster cards are travel cards used on the underground, overland trains and busses. The weather's holding out so far... I hope it stays nice tonight!

In the meantime, I know Mum particularly was interested to see what my new room was like - don't look to quickly though, we'll be moving again in three months! But here's a couple of shots:





They're not particularly good pics, I know, but you get the general idea.

Also, as promised, pics from Kensington Palace and Hyde Park from a couple of weeks ago:


Me outside the palace gates


Casey on our paddle boat!


The Orangery - now an extremely expensive cafe - at Kensington


A MASSIVE statue built in memory of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's hubby


Royal Albert Hall


Squirrels! So cute! We hand fed them... I want a squirrel!



Okay, that's about it.

See, I said it would be short!:D

A Message From the Universe

So a bizarre thing happened to me yesterday - not that that is a terribly unusual occurrence when it comes to me - which I thought was worth blogging about.

As I walked out of the tube station towards my office yesterday morning, I felt something sticky on the bottom of my foot. My first thought was, "bother, I have a hole in the bottom of my shoe." Upon arriving at the office, I took my shoe off to investigate and there was no hole... so I took my sock off and it would appear I had a postage stamp stuck to the bottom of my foot! That caused laughter enough, but the truly bizarre thing was it was an Australian postage stamp. How an Australian postage stamp got stuck to the bottom of my foot, I shall never know, but it was funny nonetheless! Made me think that it's probably a sign of something to come...

...or I should clean the bottom of my foot more thoroughly.




Anyway, that's about it. New place is working out really well, hopefully going to Stratford-Upon-Avon this weekend, we'll see how we go...

Palaces, Moving and Hangovers

I know I've been slack in updating this thing, but you'll all get over it I'm sure.:)

Last weekend was Casey's last one in London, so we decided that rather than spend a fortune getting to Stonehenge, we'd do London-ish things instead. Saturday we met up at London Bridge and, as the weather was quite nice, wandered across the city to Hyde Park. Along the way we got caught up in a big anti-war protest, but we got there eventually! We fed squirrels (SO CUTE!!) and hired one of those paddle boats and went around the lake. Some horrible little cretins decided to throw rocks at us from the bridge, but other than that it was nice. We then wandered off and found ourselves outside the Royal Albert Concert Hall and the massive statue dedicated to Prince Albert.

Sunday we again started off at London Bridge, but this time took the tube to High Street Kensington and, after some geographically-challenged walking (on my part!) we made it to Kensington Palace. Kensington was the home of Princess Diana, and is still used by the royals today. As such, like Windsor and Buckingham, only part of the palace is open to the public. It costs 11 quid to get in, but the audio guides are free. The first part of the tour is kind of disappointing - only a handful of rooms had displays in them. One room had a collection of Diana's dresses, two rooms had collections of the Queen's dresses and her memorabilia. The other rooms, however, were just empty rooms with little plaques describing what they were used for. The second part of the tour, however, was much more interesting - from the amazingly decadent King's Stairway you enter the state rooms which are just lovely. It was quite funny - one room had four massive chandeliers and, according to the audio guide, these are just copies. The original four were 'lost'. How, I ask you, do you manage to 'lose' four great big bloody chandeliers?! And even if they were stolen, how do you get them out of the palace unnoticed?! I wonder about some things...

From there we went and explored the gardens around the palace a bit, which are absolutely beautiful, complete with hedges and a lake and more squirrels (which we hand-fed again!). Very pretty indeed.

Tuesday night Casey headed off to Dublin and from what I've heard so far she's enjoying it.:)

In other news, I went out for a couple of drinks with Laura on Thursday night after work, then Friday night we decided a decent boogie was in order. As such, I met up with Laura after work at Victoria station and we went to a pub - the Royal George. The pub is quite famous because during WW2, the nazis were trying their best to bomb Victoria station. They bombed the bejesus out of the surrounding area, but never actually hit the station. The only buildings that survived that particular campaign were the station and the Royal George. During the day, World War 2 vets come in with their uniforms and medals on and drink there, very cute. Anyway, Laura was having drinks with people she used to work with at Westminster City Council, so we joined them for a few hours, and we all eventually moved on to a very funky cocktail bar around the corner.

From there, Laura and I went to meet up with Dave at a big club called Scala at Kings Cross. We danced the night away there and got home about 4am.

Come 8am Saturday morning, and I'm not feeling too pretty. And I had to get up to move. Moving + hangover = very delicate Mel. Justine, my editor, was a gem and her and her boyfriend came and helped me move. Justine has a car, a very rare commodity among my connections here! Eventually, after a slight hitch on my part, all my stuff was moved. Needless to say, by yesterday afternoon I was not in the mood to go out, but Nicole from my netball team is about to take off travelling for three months and was having a little celebration. So we went bowling at a place called Funlands in Piccadilly Circus. My bowling-fu is not best, but we had a great time just chatting away. I was home and in bed by midnight, though, I wish I could've stayed out longer...

Today I'm tidying up Jody's place and then going to do some grocery shopping. Food is always a plus when you're living somewhere. Unfortunately, one of my new flatmates went on a total cleaning spree while I was out last night and threw out my vegemite, thinking it belonged to a previous flat mate:(. No vegemite for me, so I'm going to have to get to the Australia shop at some point.

Anywho, my next update I promise to put up some pictures of my new room and of Kensington Palace. This week not a lot happening, which is good given how crazy the last week has been... Melanie needs a rest!!