Mel-lifluous

Cake love, not war

2009-02-19T21:57:00.002+11:00

Who is that boy in my bed?

2008-11-24T00:17:00.003+11:00

Ralph, you tart!

Ninja Kittens

2008-11-18T22:22:00.001+11:00

I love this ad so much!

Cake = Celebration

2008-10-16T11:40:00.002+11:00

IMGP1313
Originally uploaded by Daisymel79

Birthday Cakes... Christening Cakes... Engagement Cakes... Wedding Cakes... I love to make them.

I've also made cakes for album launches, for project completions and now for baby showers (congratulations Ellen and Doug!).

Cake is such a simple and lovely way to mark the little moments of life. I think that's why I like to make them. We have so few traditions left, I hope this one always remains.

In support of this thought, I was reading about the history of cake in western traditions of celebrations, hoping to discover a little gem of wisdom to write about. Not sure if I found it, but after recent discussions with mates about what our back up skills are (should current careers paths be unavailable) I am now unclear whether my back up skill to make cakes equips me to be a baker.... or a housewife?! (http://www.foodmuseum.com/excake2.html)

"In most of NW Europe and North America a well-developed tradition of home baking survives, with a huge repertoire of cake recipes developed from the basic methods. The abililty to bake a good cake was a prized skill among housewives in the early to mid-20th century, when many households could produce a simple robust, filling 'cut and come again' cake, implying abundance and hospitality.

Although the popularity of home baking and the role of cakes in the diet have both changed during the 20th century, cakes remain almost ubiquitous in the western world. They have kept their image as 'treats' and maintain their ceremonial importance at weddings and birthdays."

Either way, photos are now a wonderful way to eat your cake and keep it to.

Not Quite Around the World

2008-09-25T17:10:00.003+10:00

Today is the last day for me to take the final leg of my expensive and OTT Round the World ticket. The flight is from Tokyo to London and I have to be on it before midnight.

Given I am sitting at my desk on Flinders in the Melbourne CBD watching the sun start to set over the docklands and typing this post, I think my chances of making it to Narita on time are looking slim.

Finance, distance and job security, plus a need to just think sensibly mean I decided not to push my luck with another extravagant trip. Its just another short term pain that I hope will pay off in the long run.

Tracey, James, Lauren, Craig and Aidan, I am sorry I won’t be in Japan to welcome you when you come to visit me.

Good bye poor old RTW dream.

London – can I take a rain cheque?

Who are you?

2008-09-17T21:21:00.001+10:00

According to www.astrology.com.au

YOUR BIRTHDAY: 11 August (LEO)

Your personal ruling planets are Sun and Moon.

You feel things, deeply and passionately, and so relationships and a mutual support system is indeed an important focus for you. You are capable and sympathetic enough to bring the best out in others, especially when you are able to relate emotionally to them. Though you push yourself independently you will experience far more satisfaction and success through shared and cooperative ventures. You need people and they need you.

You are able to aspire to a very high standard of work whilst maintaining a strong commitment to home and family. Learn the art of balancing both sensitively.

Your lucky colours are cream and white and green.

Your lucky gems are moonstone or pearl.

Your lucky days of the week Monday, Thursday, Sunday.

Your lucky numbers and years of important change are 2, 11, 20, 29, 38, 47, 56, 65, 74.

Famous people born on your birthday include Carrie Jacobs Bond, Jane Danson and Diana Woei.

Shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, testing and acceptance.

2008-09-04T11:07:00.004+10:00

These are the cycles of grief according to Kübler-Ross. Clever lady.

I am back in Melbourne now for a new-new start. For me it is the end of this cycle and the beginning of a new adventure.

There are no regrets for following my heart to Japan. Love is powerful and steers us through all sorts of storms and paradises. I am happy to be the sort of person who is not afraid of where love may take me. I always want to be too. I don't want to be bitter or angry. I don't want to be closed.

But I know myself too and love cannot be completely blind - its definitely got to be vision impaired, but it cannot be without all sense and reason if you want to survive it! I have spent a lot of time in my 20s figuring this out and I know what I want and how I want to live. I know how I deserve to be treated and I know what will make me happy.

At the end of this chapter I am left feeling strangely numb
The moments of despair and anger have passed
I am no longer overwhelmed.
The path ahead is not laid out, but the next step is very clear.
I wish you well.
Perhaps there will be a time when fond memories connect us instead of this grief.

Tokyo... finally!

2008-05-28T11:21:00.002+10:00

So I am in Tokyo now, and not just to visit.

Its been such a long time in the planning that I can`t believe I`m finally here. I mean its been over a year since Mac asked me to come and live with him, and over six months since deciding to actually leave London and start the journey to get here.

Since then there have been 13 countries in between and a wonderful wonderful wonderful few months back home in Melbourne with family and friends!

With no job, no contacts, no friends, no car, no language, no money and a very busy boyfriend, its been an interesting few weeks so far.

But one thing I know how to do well now is to build all of these things again and with the support of my recent Australian injection so vivid in my heart, I feel very supported and very inspired to make the most of this amazing experience.

Happy Valentines Day to my partner in crime...

2008-02-14T16:31:00.003+11:00

Shaman Shaman Shaman Shaman Shaman Shamelia

2008-02-05T21:37:00.000+11:00

October 2007

Perched on a high cliff of the Isla Del Sol on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca, we participated in a small ceremony where we were blessed by a local Shaman.

In a small basket he had a collection of small sweets in the shape of items important to travelers - passport, money, plane ticket and map etc - to which he added some herbs and some straw. He said a prayer over it and then the offering was burnt in a small fire he had prepared nearby while we sat and watched mesmerised.

He prayed to Pacha Mama (mother earth) that we would be safe and travel well and then very simply walked by each of us and said a prayer for us as he dropped a small amount of water in our open palms.

It was so simple, so beautiful, we were all moved by it. These are the things we wanted and it couldn't hurt to ask Pacha Mama to give them to us.

Now I don't want to go all native on you here, but the experience and the place were very special. Incan legend holds that the god of creation made the sun at Isla del Sol and despite the sometimes touristy trek we were forced to take, I definitely felt like I was gracing some ancient and sacred place. The Incas seem able to leave an impression whether their buildings and culture survived in tact or not.

Loving Melbourne

2008-01-27T23:32:00.000+11:00

I spent the first 26 years of my life in Melbourne. I am one of its biggest fans. Over the past two years when living in London, it featured in my thoughts often. Naturally because most of my family and friends live here but also because I think your home town is always a character in your life, as well as a destination. Its something that you hold on a pedestal when visiting other cities around the world. It is definitely a friend that you want to keep in touch with.

Coming home again (for more than a weekend) has been a really important decision for me, although not the easiest one to make and execute.

I guess its natural when coming home after such a long time to feel a little bewildered, and I admit that I have felt like that a lot these past few weeks. Tonight however, I walked along the beach in the lovely summer cool with the dog and looked up at the stars and was hit with so many great feelings and memories about this place. I felt safe and happy to be home and excited about the next few months here, the last chance to commune with Melbourne for who knows how long?

(Picture is a photo of the beach at Mordiallocat sunset, where I was born and now live again.)

Japan in Autumn - as posted on www.japanimaction.blogspot.com

2007-05-12T21:00:00.001+10:00

Winner of the '2006 Weekend Destinations from London' (5,900 miles or more division) is…. Japan.

This amazing weekend package comes in all shapes and sizes and can be tailored to suit your travel preferences and requirements. The package we are highlighting today is the Autumn in the Countryside tour, a new offering from the award winning team at Japanimaction Travel, perfect for your 3rd trip to Japan and a fantastic remedy to too much time in London and/or Tokyo.

Autumn is beautiful in Japan and for those Japanimactors who come from countries where the majority of trees are ever-brown and seasons are generally 'wet' or 'dry', a real Autumn and a real changing of the leaves is something amazing to see.

The Autumn in the Countryside tour entitles you to -

3 days and 2 nights at the Earth Embassy & Solar Café

Renaissance Mac, man of many varied talents and connections surprised even himself with the discovery of this haven of tree houses, tepees and vegetarian food (and no running water) in Koyodai near Kawaguchiko in the foothills of Mt Fuji.

The Embassy has its own resident Guatemalan artist named Martin (who will confess to you that he is 'a little bit crazy' while showing you his paintings of Mt Fuji dancing with brightly coloured spirits) and has one of the most amazing uninterrupted views of Mt Fuji.

The Embassy is a great escape from the chaos of London and Tokyo and a fantastic glimpse into a little known multi-cultural alternative subculture in Japan sometimes referred to as (insert the katakana for hippies for me please? Ed - no).

Monkeys

Japanimaction Travel are pleased to announce that this tour comes complete with its own monkey show. The little monkeys have little costumes, jump through hoops, walk on stilts, act out scenes from Samurai legends and you will get to shake their little monkey hands afterwards. The show comes complete with English Subtitles like 'This is a funny joke' and 'Let's enjoy' to help you understand the complex dramatics of each part of the performance.

NB. Japanimaction Travel witnessed no ill treatment of animals in this performance however we do recommend not mentioning the Monkey show to the team back at the Earth Embassy.

Caves

The Koyodai area is famous for its amazing caves and there are 3 within walking distance of the Embassy. There is an Ice Cave, a Lava Cave and yes….a Bat Cave. To climb the Bat Cave you are provided with protective head gear to get through the crevices into to the heart of the cave. Bats have yet to be actually seen in the Bat Cave, but the Batman pop art collection back in the tourist centre for is very cool.

Live Fish Gasping for Air on your Plate

After 3 solid days of healthy, organic vegetarian eating its important to balance off your weekend with a carnivourous effort at one of the Sangubashi Isakayas. This can be fulfilled by eating a steak or some kind of chicken on a stick delight, or for the truly brave, have a live fish splayed open into a beautifully presented fan on your sushi platter. You are not obliged to eat the live fish's flesh, however the rest of the platter is highly recommended. Footage of this will soon be available on U-Tube.

Other Highlights

Horse Riding, a vist to the Onsen, a Boat Cruise, a Cable Car trip, Mt Fuji at dawn, lots of walking up, down and around mountains and some brilliant breakfasts sitting outside watching Mt Fuji are also included in this amazing Autumn in the Countryside weekend.

Terms and Conditions

3 days must be taken off around a weekend (we suggest Thursday, Friday and Monday)
Departure from Heathrow Wednesday night will mean landing in Tokyo Thursday afternoon, flying back Monday morning and landing in Monday afternoon back in London.
The Autumn in the Countryside weekend package comes with its own Jet-lag free guarantee.
This guarantee does not apply on Cane it around Tokyo, or the Fly via Tokyo to Sydney for Work weekend packages.
Working hair dryers are not included in this or any of our Tokyo weekend packages. Western hair will become frizzy and curly under Japanese conditions.
This particular tour is only available once. Your own tour will be customised to your needs.
The term 'Is better' is Japanese/English for, "Please stop asking questions and just do as you are told because no answer I give you will make sense if you aren't Japanese."

Click here<>

Prague - Too many cocktails? Never!

2007-05-12T20:57:00.000+10:00

Bugsy's Bar

Voted one of the world's top 20 bars by Newsweek, this famous Prague bar offers over 300 cocktails and hundreds of other drinks, presented in an original menu called the "Blue Bible".

After despairing that the bar had been turned into a Nespresso bar, Hilary and I were relieved to discover its entrance hiding around the corner. We entered to discover a lovely little haven of vodka and table service which we chose to grace with our presence to the wee hours of the morning.

Apple martinis for Hilary, peach for me (if I remember) about 8 each in total (plus knowing me probably a round shouted for the slovakians on the next table who I was having a lovely chat about the history of the region with) and the bill came to about £40 total. Brilliant.

Address: Pařížská 10, Prague 1
Getting there: Metro A to Staroměstská
Website: http://www.bugsysbar.com/

Stop Five - Japan Again

2006-10-10T08:13:00.000+10:00

Stop Four - Sydney Again

2006-10-10T08:09:00.000+10:00

Stop Three - Melbourne

2006-10-10T07:50:00.000+10:00

Stop Two - Sydney

2006-10-10T07:44:00.000+10:00

Stop One - Tokyo

2006-10-10T06:32:00.000+10:00

London - Tokyo - Sydney - Melbourne - Sydney - Tokyo - London - halfway around the world in 15 days...

2006-10-07T23:11:00.000+10:00

I definetely would not have thought 2 months ago, that I would be blogging about a second trip back to Aus before the end of 2006. However a great opportunity at work recently presented me with just that.

Current plans mean that from now on, I will probably be coming home 3-4 times a year for work, mostly in Sydney - but always finding time for at least a weekend in Melbourne.

Whilst the trip was mostly for work, I was lucky enough to also manage a weekend in Tokyo each way. Absolutely brilliant.

The following blogs are therefore proudly sponsored by www.fastrackuk.com (new website coming soon), my new little project.

Oxford

2006-10-07T23:10:00.002+10:00

Photos to come...

Paris in a day

2006-10-07T23:10:00.001+10:00

Photos to come...

Brugge, Belgium, Beer

2006-10-07T20:32:00.000+10:00

Apparently....

"Just a few kilometres inland from the North Sea coast of Belgium lies the popular tourist city Bruge (spelled Brugge in Flemish, and sometimes also in English).

Its popularity stems from a stunning collection of architecture, canals, and art dating from medieval times.

At one time Bruge was a major centre of trade, but it suffered a gradual economic decline through the 1500s.

The city’s “neglect” became a major asset in the modern era of easy global travel and tourism.

Today, millions visit the city each year to enjoy the extraordinarily well-preserved feel of a town reaching back through centuries of history."

So Hilary and I, enjoying the European Summer long weekends, ventured over in late July to Visit Brugge... not really knowing any of the above, but instead enticed by the guiding light of so many travellers - the cheap weekend package from Expedia. Bless.

And whilst our trip to Brugge did involve the perusal of many wonderful historical, artistic and religious wonders including:

a variety of museums tracking the rise of democratic ideas amongst the artisans and business people of Brugge

the viewing of some amazing ancient art works in crypts, thought to be over a 1000 years old

and of course visiting a church that held a vial of Christ's blood

- really, we quickly discovered that Brugge is actually all about Beer, waffles, chocolate, frittes with mayonnaise and for us forever now, Belgians singing Abba and The Village People in their 1000s in the city square of Brugge on Belgian national day. Brilliant.

Brugge is also known as 'the Venice of the north' for its beautiful canals and other trade, political and artistic similarities - however given the list of edible wonders above, I would highly recommend thinking carefully about the order in which boat trips on the canal and the consumption of many rich foods and beer occur. Good luck with that.

Visting Australia - Episode Two - The Wedding

2006-09-13T04:02:00.000+10:00

Here's a piccy of my darling Lauren, looking absolutely gorgeous on her wedding day... and me staring at her. Because you obvisously do whatever the photographer tells you to do in such circumstances!

The piccy was taken at the aptly named 'Boobiala Lodge' at Moonah Links. I heard they have now changed the sign at the Golf Course where the reception was held from "Home of the Australian Open" to "Home of Craig and Lauren's Wedding".

Loz - I apologise again for being so terribly ill at your beautiful wedding. I thought being allergic to English winters was to be expected, but I can't believe I folded so quickly after a week in Melbourne. What a girl I am.

Visting Australia - Episode One - The GB

2006-09-13T03:32:00.000+10:00

So good to see you guys back in May/ June!

Bloody brilliant actually!

Had missed you all so much in the 6 months since leaving and it was just wonderful to be in Melbourne and be with you all - even though it was only for a short period of time.

Am looking forward to a brew with you all again soon! September 21-24 I will be in Melbourne, super-Van is hustling up some drinking plans again. God bless her!

Backdated Blog Entries... Venice!

2006-08-31T03:14:00.000+10:00

"White swan of cities, slumbering in thy nest So wonderfully built among the reeds Of the lagoon, that fences thee and feeds, As sayeth thy old historian and thy guest!"
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Venice.

Venice is divine. Anyone not impressed by this place has no heart and I'm not afraid to call it as it is.

Hilary and I stayed in a beautiful palazzo, wandered the streets aimlessly and soaked up as much as we could in our short stay.

Bellini's in Harry's bar, hours and hours in the Doge's palace learning more about the republic and shielding our eyes from gold encrusted celings.

We took the 'standup-like-the-locals' gondola ride from the fish markets and laughed at all those lovey dovey couples with their personal tenors cruising around. (Laughed in the way that only single can in such situations when we got our gondola ride for 2 euros and didn't even have to hold each others hands!)

We also had champagne is St Marks square (courtesy of Mrs Bell, thank you very much!).

More photos here.

Testing Updating Via Email

2006-08-14T22:50:00.000+10:00

Let’s see how this baby works…

I am a bad blogger I know!

2006-08-11T03:39:00.000+10:00

Its been so long since I've updated my blog that I'm suprised there aren't cobwebs all over it.

The only excuse I have - and its not a good one - is that I have been playing hard, working hard and travelling a lot and haven't had hours and hours of cruisy time left to update my poor old sad blog. Especially not when you take into account the dedication required to keep up the pre-requisite 4 nights out a week. I'm telling you, if summer drinking (magners, pimms, beer, more pimms, champagne, wine more pimms) were Olympic sports, the young men and women of London would creep the UK up the ladder for the medal tally - for silver that is. We would obviously still come in 1st.

Since my last entry, I've been to Venice, home to Oz for Lauren & Craig's wedding, I've moved into a new house in Balham (just round the corner from the old one), been to Brugge in Belgium and also back to Paris for a flying trip - all of which have photos and updates of their own to be uploaded.

Summer has been brilliant so far and with my birthday looming over me, and your well wishes flooding in I am feeling a little blown away with how lucky I am to be leading such a charmed life at the moment. I know it won't be forever, but right now its pretty wonderful and if only I could have everyone I love here with me too, things would be close to perfect.

Missing you all terribly and promising (again) to shortly update photos and stories.

Paris

2006-05-09T04:13:00.000+10:00

Hilary and I had a fantastic time in Paris over the last weekend in April, taking in many sites and glasses of wine. (check out the nice self taken photo of the 2 of us - very bad...) Anyway, what a absolutely gorgeous city! I spent most of the time oohing and aahing at anything and everything we went to and walked past.

We went to.... Notre Dame, The Pantheon, The Lourve, Sacre Couer, Montmatre, the Arc De Triomph, Champs Elysees, Luxembourg Gardens a cruise along the Seine to the Eiffell Tower and back and lots of other places too.

I must admit I found myself quite overwhelmed once we got inside Notre Dame. I'm not sure if it was the age or the art or the architecture, but something is very special about that place.

Melbourne Visitors Beware

2006-04-27T04:15:00.000+10:00

If you come to London for a flying visit and decide to catch up ... I will make you drink excessively and talk about rubbish til the wee hours of the morning with me.

Was great to see Shane on a flying visit last week, we drank Covent Garden out of beer and then stumbled onto some strange bar in Soho for more trouble and philosophizing.

Oxford Cambridge Boat Race

2006-04-27T03:57:00.000+10:00

Andy and I had a great day out in Putney with our dear friend Heineken to enjoy the great tradition of 'Boat Race'. We cheered for Cambridge on the vague connection that they had an Aussie rowing for them and we know 1 girl from Cambridge... Oxford ended up beating them for the 6th year in a row or something.

Anyway basically the day involves a couple of 100,000 Londoners trekking down to Putney to watch the start of the race or further up the Thames for various viewing spots and then to a nearby pub. Hard work for a Sunday afternoon.

New House

2006-03-25T03:19:00.000+11:00

My new house is in Clapham, which is lots of fun. I have a huge bedroom with a giant walk in robe, bay window and an ensuite with a full size bath and a shower and I’m about 5 Mins walk from Northcote Rd and a couple of other streets which are full of lovely restaurants and cafes and shops.

I’m about 5 mins walk from the Common which is lovely and gives me no excuses not to go for big long walks. I am sharing with 4 guys who all know each already, they went to college together or have worked together, but they have all been very friendly and welcoming.

I am the token female, outsider, non-pommie and non lawyer/accountant so will keep you posted on how it all works out

Bath

2006-01-24T04:00:00.000+11:00

Had a lovely weekend visit to Bath on the 21st-22nd January. Hilary, Cat, Kath and I drove over from London to see if we could cram in A quick drive by Stone henge on the way and then more time once arrived looking around Jane Austen Centre, The Assembly Rooms and the National costume museum, the roman baths, the circus and the crescent. I hadn't seen any Roman ruins yet so the Bath's were absolutely fascinating.

Hogmanay

2006-01-24T03:27:00.000+11:00

Edinburgh is beautiful. Its got to be one of the prettiest cities in the UK with the castle looming above, beautiful Georgian buildings, and when I was there, with a haze of white frost and melting snow dusting everything.

As I happily wandered around by myself over the city, up to the castle, through the old town and then back through some beautiful Georgian streets, I frequently imagined myself in the same place at some other time in history. Its a great place for daydreamers!

The streetparty at Hogmonay was lots of fun too, we heard Texas and KT Tunstall with El Presidente as well as a bit of Boy George doing Karma Chamelion and the bloody Proclaimers doing 5,000 miles which as my family well know, I DETEST! Can I just say that even in the middle of all those Scots no-one could tell me what "havering" was... stupid song.... but anyway, the rest was good!

Some of the papers touted 225,000 people at the street party, but we only personally met 100,000 of them (they all said to say hi by the way) so I can't confirm of deny the figures.

Sorry about the terrible photo Dave, but I'll use it as ranson until you get Bansi to flick me some better ones!

Parlez Vous Francais?

2006-01-05T02:30:00.000+11:00

I arrived in France late on the Wednesday before Christmas. I left London for Geneva first (or Geneve as the Francophites say) and decided to save Paris for another time, perhaps spring. There were many planes, trains and automobiles to get me to Moutiers, which isn't too far from where Nicole and Hugh live in Naves up in the Alps - but eventually I made it.

It was pitch black when I arrived late at night, so I can't tell you how excited I was to see the mountains and the snow when I got up on Thursday morning. The small village that Nicole and Hugh live in must have some of the best views anyone in the world could boast of! Mountains, valleys snow and other small little villages dotted up and down the slopes.

Their house is just wonderful too. Hugh has done most of the renovations on it himself and its so warm and friendly when you walk in the door with Nik's rustic hearts to great you at every moment. I stayed in one of the newly finished guest rooms, dubbed the 'Princess Room' and I did indeed feel like a princess.

Of course, the house rightly and deservedly revolves around the children - Bailey and Milo (pictured right). We became great friends over the week and I miss them already. Nik's not biased - I agree that they are perfect and priceless. (Mum, Please don't tell Ralph I said that!)

Christmas was great, Nicole and I decided to have a glass of bubbles on Christmas eve, which turned into 3 bottles and a slow Christmas morning... None-the-less Santa did manage to find me way up there and Hugh and I had a lovely day recovering infront of the fire while poor Nicole had to go to work.

That night, we had 10 for Christmas dinner - with everything good thing you can imagine and more. Champagne, prawns, foie-gras, smoked salmon, turkey, roast vegies, sticky-date pudding, Christmas pud, mince pies, brandy butter chocolates and buckets of baileys and cointreau or whatever you wanted. Excessive and lots of fun.

Merry Christmas

2005-12-21T10:23:00.000+11:00

Merry Christmas everyone! I will try and update the blog again before Christmas, but I don't know how that will go. Anyway, will have much more to update on after Christmas with all my France photos as I am heading there on December 21st for a week.

Not this weekend, but the weekend before, Sarah and the kids took me down to Richmond Park a former private hunting ground for the monarch of the day. The Park is huge, right in the middle of the suburbs and surrounded by a giant wall.

There are deer and birdlife throughout and we were there in the afternoon, in time to watch the sun set and the colours change. It was very beautiful. You can see the fog in this picture on the left taken from the top of the King's Mound was pretty severe, but apparently on a clear day, if you look the otherside of the mound, you can see right through to St Paul's in London.

By the time we got back to the car we could barely see 20 metres clearly. But it was still enough to spot some deer, which come very close to the path, so I was happy.

Last week I also went to Hampton Court Palace (home of Henry VIII to name but one) for the day, which was fantastic. See a piccy here to the left but will try and get some more up in the next few days.

On the weekend went into Harrods, to Kensington Park, saw the Princess Di memorial fountain (its like a weird river thing that flows into itself...) went to the Portobello Markets and Notting Hill and went to the victoria and Albert Museum where they have set up an ice-skating ring out the front and have a little Christmas market going on.

There are fairy lights in the trees, the beautiful buildings in the background and kids skating and laughing. Very filmic. as you see below.

Touring London

2005-12-10T08:46:00.000+11:00

One thing I have learnt over the past few days is that it is quite tricky to take accurate photos of yourself outside famous landmarks without a travel companion or at least one of those flip viewfinders on your camera... as a result you will see here a lovely piccy of me and part of Buckingham Palace, as seen from the edge of St James Park.

Whilst the Palace itself is not as grand or impressive as some of the other amazing London landmarks (its actually sort of plain), the whole area from the palace, incorporating all the parks down towards Westminster Cathedral and Parliament and round further to all the other guards houses and arches etc was pretty mind blowing.

Eager to see the stoic guards and catch a glimpse of a corgy or Prince William in his jammies, I loitered with the German and Swedish tourists out the front of the palace for a while waiting for some action. Just when I'd given up on standing in the freezing cold to wait for the changing of the guard and started walking back, a band of soldiers left their barracks and marched right by me, so in good style, I ran after them like a crazed paparazzi (or perhaps a younger Bennett) trying to get a nice close up. They were a bit quick for me.

See below also some of my piccys from parliament, Shakespeare's Globe & the Millenium Bridge and Big Ben. All very cool.

2005-12-05T05:44:00.000+11:00

Arrived safe and sound in the UK after a long flight via Vienna through to London.

My luggage was so impressed with icy Vienna that it decided to stay on for a day there without me. We were reconciled by the end of the day, but there were a few scary hours were I thought I would be stuck surviving off the contents of my hand luggage for the first few weeks of my OS adventure. At least I would have plenty to read.

So far I have had a quick look around Kingston upon Thames with Sarah and Mike, been to see where Edith and Callum go to school and been away for the weekend up in the country to the North of London where we stayed in a wonderful, grand country manor house (see picture). Not a bad way to spend your first weekend in the UK eh?

This week will involve sussing out my surrounds, touching base with mates and getting my CV sorted. Will try and upload some more photos during the week.

Farewell Australia

2005-11-30T12:07:00.000+11:00

Have had a wonderful week of bon voyage parties and catching up with friends and family.

It was a great feeling to not have to go into work this Monday, after 5 years with Planpower I am ready for a big change for 2006.

The Brunswick Green on Saturday was fantastic - just what I wanted, the chance to sit back and relax and consome ample amounts of beer in the back garden.

45 Sleeps

2005-09-19T12:32:00.000+10:00

I bought the ticket, no more lip service. It has been purchased. Leave is approved. Passport ready.

Booking

2005-09-16T00:16:00.000+10:00

Well equipped with no money, boredom, romantic notions and lots of accrued annual leave, I am about to book my first European Trip.

Having had my share of sunny holidays, I have decided to embark on a winter adventure. Any excuse really for new coats, shoes an scarves...