Back in England

Hello out there!!

Yes, i made it back to London yesterday, with decidedly more luggage than I left with! Oh well, it was all in a good cause, and some of it will be consumed anyway. For Scott I bought some apfelwein (apple wine, kind of like cider), some Darmstadt beer, chocolate, some cherry chewing gum, pink grapefruit chewing gum (yes, Scott likes his weird chewing gums!!), and some tea bags that make gluhwein, which is the hot spiced wine that Gremans drink at Christmas time.

The flight back was good. I was very early to the airport, but I would much rather be early than late. So i checked in, said goodbye to Gisela who had kindly dopped me at the airport, and went through security. I was warned about there being two security checks, and that i should leave 40 minutes. Ok, fine. I went through the first lot, then had a look at some shops. I sat down in an empty gate lounge and drank the fruit juice I had bought myself. Then I wandered towards the British Airways end of the terminal, to find that there was another security check. My stuff was x-rayed again, and this time there was no walk-through metal detector. So I had a metal detector run over my body by some lady. Nice. I made a comment that it was a bit personal, but her English obviously wasn't good enough to understand what i said! The woman x-raying my bag picked up something metal in my bag and wanted to have a look as it was a strange shape. It was my flying pigs hair clip. She thought it was very cute, and proceeded to show it to her collegue. I don't understand why they needed a second security check. It was only if you were going through certain gate lounges.

While I was sitting in the gatelounge, before the second security check, I walked over to the window. And guess what? It was snowing. So on my trip to Germany it snowed the day I got there, and the day I left (but only after I was safely through immigration etc). Unbelieveable!!

I made it back to the house, Scott met me at the tube station which was nice. It's always handy to have a porter!! Went back to the house, unpacked a bit, wrapped Scott's pressies up. He made dinner for me which was lovely. We had our Christmas celebrations, well, we opened our presents anyway! I got three novels (all by Dan Brown who wrote The Da Vinci Code), two pairs of earrings, an Eeyore phone cover, and a lovely gift set care of his workplace as they miscalculated and had one male and one female gift for two male employees, so Scott chose the female one for me. It is really expensive stuff too!! A nice shower gel, eau de toilette and a body lotion are in there. Yum! Then it was to bed, as I am still a little unwell and the plane flight wreaked havoc on my ears and i was a bit deaf... what?? ;-)

Today, we got up early, as it was our "Christmas Day". We caught the tube to Notting Hill Gate, changed to the Circle line to Paddington. Got off there and made our way to the main line station (ie the long distance, overland railway system). We bought tickets to Oxford, and hopped on a train pretty much straight away. And it was an express train too, stopping only twice on the way there. We arrived at Oxford at 10am, and jumped on a sight seeing bus. Got off at Christ Church College, and wandered in. We had been told that the dining hall had been used in the filming of Harry Potter, but when we got there the sign said it was just used as inspiration. Nevertheless, it was interesting to see inside one of the colleges though. The buildings are beautiful. And coincidentally, when we were there, a group of school students from St Peters in Indooroopilly (for those of you outside Brisbane, it is a school near my university). The group was a choir doing a tour of Europe, and they were there to give a concert.

From Chrsit Church College, we jumped back onto the sight seeing bus. We had read in the Lonely Planet Guide that there was a really "cheesy" attraction in Oxford called The Oxford Story. So, we went and checked it out. I tell you what, I am so glad Scott decided to treat me, as it was so bad! Basically, the whole experience was us riding on a train, in carriages shaped like scholars desks, looking at models of people doing scholarly stuff, and listening to commentary. I can see you rolling your eyes from here!!

After that experience, we grabbed some lunch in the covered market, and had a wander around there. It's like a very mini version of the Victoria Markets in Melbourne. Very very very mini!!

After that we walked to the Pitt Rivers Museum and the Natural History Museum (they are joined really). So, again, Alex was in heaven! The Pitt Rivers Museum was great. It was a bit like the Horniman Museum in London (which I think I neglected to tell you about!!). Basically it is quite old fashioned in the museum world, in the display techniques. But I think theat is the appeal of the place. The cabinets are crammed full of stuff (like shrunken heads, baskets, knives, guns etc), all sorted into categories. It was fantastic. Although, the labels left a little to be desired (...Nic??).

From there we jumped on the bus again, and went all the way round to Christ Church College again, where we had a look at Alice's Sweet shop. it's basically just a small shop that is amking money off the fact that Lewis Carroll had something to do with Christ Church College. They had some cute stuff, but I bought nothing.

Then we wandered to Blackall's Bookshop, which is supposedly famous etc. Had a good look around. There were so many archaeology books, I had to stop myself from looking at too many as I would have wanted to buy them. It is very dangerous to take me into a book store!!

From there we managed to jump on the last bus back to the station and got on the next train to London. It turned out to be to non-express one, so it took forever to get us back. But we were able to jump off before the train went all the way to Paddington, and change to the tube. And now you are up to date! I am sitting in Acton after our day in Oxford, feeling still a little unwell, but I will have a quiet next few days, then it's New Years! Then I start a new job on Monday for two weeks for so. But, it's a change, it's money etc.

:-)

Me

Last entry from Germany

Hello there,

As the title says, this will be my last entry from Deutschland. I have had such a wonderful time. It was so great to see my host family again, and share Christmas with them like I did 8 years ago.

Today I wandered around Darmstadt by myself. I went in with Henrike and Gisela, as they had to take Henrike's Christmas present back. Gisela bought her a phone for her apartment in Cologne, as her old one didn't work very well. But when Henrike opened the box, there was no phone inside. Nothing at all!! But it all got sorted out today.

I didn't intend on buying any clothes for me today. But I ended up with three items of clothing, which I am very happy with. I bought a pair of jeans (I brought a black pair with me, and a brown pair, but a little variety after 6 weeks in the same clothes never hurts!!), a kelly green jumper (Irish colour, suits me well), and a chocolate brown v-neck top that I can wear for work. And some stuff for Scotty too. Which I cannot put on here just yet, as he may read this before I get home tomorrow and spoil it!!

I am finding that I am developing a travel style. Let me explain. I really enjoy just wandering through a place, experiencing the local sights, smells, etc, rather than rushing around sightseeing. Maybe that comes from the fact that I will be over in Europe for a while, so subconsciously, I know that I don't have to rush around and see as much as I possibly can. I know I will be back to Germany, so for this trip, spending time with Vera and everyone was much more important than going to see other places. I can do that on my next trip, because I know there will be one. And besides, I am a people-watcher. I like looking at people from different cultures, looking at what they eat, how they dress, etc. It may sound odd, but that's me really!!

Bis London meine Freunde und Freundinnen!!

A quiet day

Hello there,

Well, today I was meant to go with everyone to the grandparents house near Stuttgart. But, I wanted to stay home, as I have a cold and I didn't want to pass on my germs. And I think a day of rest has done me a lot of good too. It is a pity I missed going to see them, I vaguely remember them from 8 years ago and they were very nice.

So there really is not all that much to write today. Yesterday was a very lazy day which was great. Vera and Chris went out last night to Das Kaffeehaus again, but I stayed in, because of the smoke. But that's cool, because I got to watch "Shall We Dance" auf deutsch. It was so lame, I am kind of glad it was in German!! I had a bit of a language barrier, but that made no difference, as Henrike had difficulties understanding what was going on in the plot, or should I say, lack thereof!

So today, I lazed around. I read some of my book, I took a nice hot bath, napped, and watched The Incredibles on dvd (a pirate copy obviously!!) but it was auf deutsch to, which was fun. I am feeling a lot better for a lazy day too. I am worried about flying with a cold on Tuesday, but hopefully I will be a little better by then. I think I will try and get some Sudafed tomorrow (or the German equivalent!!). Gisela will take me to the Pharmacy and do all the talking. It was bad enough when we were in Austria trying to explain what I needed to the pharmacist there (that too was for a cold, similar to what I have now...gotta love winter, hey??)

Scott said it was cold, but bright sunshine for Xmas day in London yesterday. And no snow here. What is the world coming to??? :-)

Tomorrow hopefully I will get to go shopping. I really love wandering and exploring by myself. Hopefully I will get to do a little bit of that tomorrow. I think Henrike goes back to Cologne tomorrow, and then I leave on Tuesday. I must remember to get her email address, so perhaps we can meet up in Dublin, or she can tell me a good place to stay etc. Insider knowledge is always good!!

So, what did everybody out there do over Christmas? I would love to hear all about what you got up to!! Please post a comment or email me and tell me! I still don't know how many people read this thing, so make contact, then I can find our just how many people I am putting to sleep.....

That's it from me. Hope all is well with y'all!

Alex :-)

Weihnachten!

Hallo from Deutschland! Today we walked into the village to get some last minute Christmas shopping done. Went to the butchers, to the wine merchant, that kind of thing. As I write this, Gisela and the girls are off buying the tree. A last minute purchase, but one that saves money apparently. I think it's a great idea, really. I think it's funny how people have Christmas trees for so long.

Last night we went out to Das Kaffeehaus to meet Vera's friends. It was nice to see some of her friends from school I met 8 years ago. But the place is so smoky, I am really suffering today. I feel like I smoked an entire packet of cigarettes last night. And I have never actually smoked in my life. I think it's an awful habit personally, but the number of smokers here in Germany is phenomenal. I noticed it 8 years ago, and it hasn't changed much, if at all. Scott and I noticed on the tour, that smokers in Europe seem to be so inconsiderate of others. At least in Australia, most people think about others before lighting up. Ah well, the beauty of cultural differences, right??

Anyway, there is a tree to be decorated etc.

Frohe Weihnachten, Merry Christmas!!

ahem

So, I was saying yesterday about a white Christmas? Well, my mistake, as I woke up this morning, looked out of the window and it had all washed away in the rain. How rude! Oh well, no white Christmas for me I'm afraid. But, nevertheless, I shall be having a German Christmas!

Gisela told me this morning that we were lucky yesterday with regards to Frankfurt airport. I think I mentioned that the pilot had never seen so much ice. Well, an hour after I landed, the airport was closed to all flights for 5 hours as the runways were too icy and dangerous. Good timing, hey?

I can't think of much else to say at the moment. I will try and update later tonight or tomorrow with some more news. Keep well.

A.

Darmstadt!

Hello! Well, I lied about the lack of entries before Christmas. I am sitting in Darmstadt at this very moment. I have not been in this house in 8 years. It is so nice to be back! Vera and her sister Henrike will arrive tomorrow by train from Cologne. Gisela and I will go into town in the late morning, and do a little shopping. I will hopefully find the rest of Scott's present here somewhere!! If not, I have something I can buy for him in England. :-)

I am so happy to be here. I cannot explain it. I had such a great time here 8 years ago, I have many fond memories of my short 6 weeks here. I am looking forward to being a part of Christmas here again. I am sad to leave Scott behind, on what is our first Christmas away from home together. But at the same time, we are not joined at the hip, so to speak. We have just postponed our Christmas day for a few days. A trip to Oxford for the day sounds good to me!

It is cold here too, so I get a white Christmas. YAY!!!! Apparently, it's my fault it snows at Christmas. Let me explain... When I was here last, in 1996, it was the coldest Christmas in 50 years or something. So when I woke up on the 23rd of December that year and looked out the window, it was all white. It is really hard to describe what I felt at that moment, looking out onto all that snow for the first time. Just breathtaking! And so this year, it is snowing again at Christmas, for my benefit of course! I think it's great that I can control the weather so well. I should get paid for that!!

I am looking forward to checking out the town I spent so much time in all those years ago. Do a bit of shopping. Maybe they have Christmas markets like they used to. I can't wait!!

So that's all for now. Toodles!!

I forgot...

Some people had asked me to describe the albino Indian man I saw.

The first thing about him that struck me was that he looked like any Indian Sikh man, with the beard and the turban on. But upon closer inspection, his skin was pink, not olive or dark like I expected.

Now, the parka and beanie wearing Hare Krishnas were just funny.

An update before Christmas

Helloo out there!!

This will be my last update probably before Christmas. Scott and I are postponing our Christmas celebrations until the Wednesday after I get back from Germany (the 28th I think??). He has the day off, so I suggested we hop on a train and head off somewhere. I thought of Oxford. A couple from our tour went there after we got back, and they got to see the Great Hall from Harry Potter. So I think we will study the Lonely Planet guide and see what in instore for us in Oxford.

I am really looking forward to Christmas. It is going to bring back a lot of fond memories of my 6 weeks in Germany. It was funny how much of it I thought about when we were on the Contiki tour. Even though it was so long ago now, 8 years!

And I hope to get to Hungary soon too. I have many relatives there on mum's side. I am looking forward to meeting them all, hopefully sooner rather than later. As an only child, with very few close relatives, it is a little bit of a novelty to have all these people I can visit.

I hope everyone reading this has a wonderful Christmas, and a happy new year. Enjoy your break from work etc if you get one. I send hugs to you all!

Alex :-)

In heaven :-)

Yes, for those of you who know what I am interested in, you will understand what I mean by heaven, when I say I went to the British Museum today. I love that place. Nic, there is an exhibition (very small though) on badges and identity. It was quite interesing. I took photos of three of the badges. One of them I feel was quite appropriate to a certain friend of mine. It said "Genuine Nerd". One person reading this will know I am talking about them. Yes, you, Nicole!! My other fav badge said "Nuke a gay whale for Christ". I have no idea what it means, but it sounds very amusing. I saw the Rosetta Stone too, and Lindow Man. He is smaller than I thought he would be. Although, after all those years of being squished in a peat bog, you'd expect that, right? And the Rosetta Stone was bigger than I thought it would be. For some reason I had it in my mind that it was small. Not sure why.

Yesterday we went to Portobello Road markets. They are huge. Bought a few things, like vegies and stuff. We caught the bus there. We are exploring the buses. Our area is quite well served by buses which is great. There is a bus from the bottom of the hill to the British Museum. Hello!

I made soup last night. Leek and potato. It was quite nice really. We had sour cream with it. But here, its not called sour cream, it's called Creme Fraiche. The English are a weird bunch!! ;-)

We also exlored the smaller grocery shops in our area tonight too. There are four or five. In England they have shops that are like convenience stores, and they advertise themselves as selling "Food and Wine". They are not more expensive on the whole. The ones in our area have some really cool stuff in them. We bought rose hip juice, couscous, semolina (for porridge!!) and salami. They have yummy cheeses and olives, and so many different kinds of yoguhurt! It depends on the nationality of the owner, as to what they sell. There is a polish one, a russian one, a middle eastern one and a medditeranean one. YUM!!

I am going to Germany for Christmas this year. I will have a kind of reunion with my host family from all those years ago. I am leaving Scott behind as he has to work. I feel bad about it, but he told me to go, and I guess I would have to wait 12 months for the next Christmas!! We will be together for New Years though. I am really looking forward to seeing Vera and her family. It's been 8 years since I was there in Germany with them, and 7 and a half since I have seen Vera. I can't wait!

:-)

not much

I saw an albino Indian man today.

And I am now a tenant. Signed the lease today, and we have keys. Move tomorrow. Should be exciting!

:-)

a place to live!

Hello! Yes, finally, we have a place to live. We sign the paperwork tomorrow, get the keys and move in on Tuesday. Well, when I say we, I mean Scott and Judy will actually do the moving, and I will just come home from work on Tuesday to a different house! It will be odd, but Scott starts work on Wednesday so it's the best time to do it. We will be living a short distance away form Scott's work which is good for him. And as we don't know where I will be working, it will not matter for me. We are close to the tube, so it's quite accessible.

Funny thing I saw today:

Hare krishnas walking down Oxford Street, wearing ski jackets and beanies. Made me laugh.

Mum put an idea in my head tonight. Spending Chrismas or New year's someplace other than London. Germany perhaps, or Hungary. I would love to! Andif we stay with someone I know, then no accomodation costs, right? Scott has to find out when he has to work over the holiday period, then we can work it out from there!!

:-)

can't think of a title tonight...

hey people,

Well, it is the end of my first week of work. All in all, it has been quite good. I am working there again next week, which is great. Nice to know they will have me back. I get to read my book on the tube, if I get a seat that is! I have done various admin stuff this week: typed out letters, filing, answering telephones, making telephone calls to chase staff. That kind of thing.

One thing I forgot to mention the other day, and I was reminded of it on the walk back from the train station tonight. In the toy shop in the suburb where I am staying, they sell Sylvanian Families. I don't know if anyone reading this had those when you were growing up. I did. And I loved them. They are still under the house somewhere too I believe! Brought back memories :-)

We are looking at three flats tomorrow. Well, rooms anyway. Some of them sound good on paper, I guess its a different thing to see them in the flesh. But thats the plan tomorrow. We are looking in north London, close to the tube etc. And hopefully with my own bathroom!! Keep your fingers crossed for us!!

I bought blue roses today. Cos I could. Not for me though, but for mum's cousin who has done so much for us.

Over and out. ;-)

A job for Scotty!

Helloo! Seeing as though I update my journal more often than Scott does, I feel it is my duty to tell you all he has a job. He wil be working in the correspondence department of a major mobile phone company in London. I am so happy for him! Apparently the company seems like a great place to work, they treat their employees well, which is great.

We will be looking at a couple of flats tomorrow night too. On the tube, zone three, so should be ok. I wanted my own bathroom, but I think it is more important to meet people. So I will bite the bullet, and we will look at flats/house shares. Most of the places in the area we are looking at are filled with Aussies, Kiwis and South Africans anyway! I am looking forward to meeting other people in the same working holiday situation we are in.

Work today was good. I am flying through the work that was supposed to take me all week to do. I have now finished that and I have moved on to something else. According to the boss, I am doing " a brilliant job". Yay!

:-) ta ta!

Another relative

Hello! I met another relative today. She is 83, and the mother of Judy, who I am staying with. Anne is her name. And she's one of these really cute old ladies. She has Alzeihmers, so she doesn't remember who her own daughter is. She forgets to speak English too, or cannot remember that she can. But she was pleased to meet me, even though she cannot remember the people she has met in Hungary I am related to.

As for the rest of the day, I will go for a walk I think. And we will go out to dinner, as both Judy and her son will be out for dinner. Turkish perhaps. Something cheap anyway.

Toodles. :-)

Sitting in a pub, reading about family history

As the title of this entry says, that's exactly what I did today. I walked down the Dulwich Village to buy a present for the parents. I wrote them a card while sitting in the Crown and Greyhound, drinking bitter lemon. As you do. And as I was sitting there, I noticed a booklet on family history. So I picked it up. Turns out, the BBC is putting on a family history fair this weekend at the National Archives. Good timing, huh? It will interest Scott more than me, but we are going along tomorrow to see what the deal is. My ancestry is more to do with Scotland and Ireland. I have only one ancestor to trace. All I know is his name, that he was born in London, and his parents names. And it is a common name - Stone. Great.

Scott had his assesment thingy today. He will find out about the job on Monday or Tuesday. Fingers crossed!!

As for me, I have work for next week. I am happy. I was really happy today, for no apparent reason. I like days like that.

A job!!

Of sorts. I got a phone call today from the first agency I had an interview with on Tuesday telling me they had a position for me, and that it was all mine. It is only for a week, but it sounds good enough for me! And its for an agency that has many branches. They prefer to have temps in their offices who have worked for them before. So there is always the possibility of further work.

As for Scott, he went for an interview today for a call centre position. He was then called this afternoon by the interviewer from the agency, who asked him if he would like to be put forward for another position within the same company. This position would be more suitable for him as it deals with the written side of communication rather than on the telephone all the time. Sounds good, and I am happy for him. The job is a permanent one too. Depending on whether he gets the job or not, travel plans can be changed, etc. We don't have any firm travel plans at the moment anyway. I want to go visit an uncle in Belguim, but I should do that on my own Ithink. He is 85, and I want to go asap.

Life in London is fun. I am enjoying just being here. Today we went on a bit of an adventure. Scott had to be in a place called Mill Hill today for 11am. I went with him, as I didn't have an appointment to go to today. We left at 8.45am and walked for 20mins to the train station (as opposed to the tube). We got off at London Bridge, changed to the tube to Kentish Town, then got on the Thameslink to Mill Hill Broadway. Mill Hill itself was boring, but I had less than an hour there. I read the paper in the library, and wandered around a bit. Scott met me after his interview and we headed back towards the city. We got off at Bank, then took the Docklands Light Railway. That was really creepy. The carriages are kind of a combination of a monorail and a tram. There are no drivers, as they are controlled from some central point and its quite strange. We went to the end of the line, and got off to look around. Had lunch, then got back on the DLR to get home. Took a while, as we took two light railway lines, and two trains to get back. Then the 20 min walk back to the house. But it was an adventure which I enjoyed.

And it gets dark here, like pitch black, at 4.30pm!!! Quite disconcerting really!!