Happy Halloween - if it's your thing

We had a lovely dinner on Saturday night. Not as many people turned up as I would have liked, but there were obviously better places to be! There were five and a half of us - Scott and I, Isa, Sarah, Jake and Orlaith (the half). Lovely food and great company, I can't really ask for anything more!

Tonight we are catching up with two old friends of mine from home - Aliza and Rob. I am looking forward to seeing them both. I have not seen Aliza in 10 years I reckon and Rob for a year or so. Aliza is coming to my museum for a visit and then we shall meet the boys in Brick Lane.

I promise I will post photos soon!

On the 27th October 2004, I:

Said good bye to my parents and friends at Brisbane airport
Burst into tears as I went through customs (didn't really stop until we got on the plane)
Took off in a plane for London
Began an adventure

So there you have it. Two year ago Scott and I left home to come to London. I can't believe it has been so long. In that time we have seen and done a lot. The countries we have seen are:

France
Germany
Scotland
England
Ireland (I have with my dad)
Austria
Hungary
Leichtenstein
Switzerland
Belgium (drove through it on the tour we did, and I have been back to visit a relative)
Sweden
Denmark
The Netherlands
Italy
Monaco

I think that's the lot. ;-) Anyway, quite a few.

We have lived in 5 houses, in 4 different postcode areas.

I think I have experienced almost every emotion living in London. Sometimes more pronounced than at home being so far away. Homesickness is not much of a problem, unless I am tired or sick or feeling lonely. Excitement at being in new places. Happiness for getting my job. Sadness when I heard about two death's in my friend Lisa's family.

London has so much to offer. If you can put up with the pollution, the noise, the smells of urine and sewerage that seem to permeate every surface, overcrowded public transport, people spitting on the street, people not smiling at you, crap customer service etc etc... then London is for you! You become numb to it after a while I guess. But there is history dripping from every orifice, sunshine occasionally, snow if you are lucky, awesome museums, shopping, red buses, black cabs. I have enjoyed my time here, and while there have been frustrations, times I cried, laughed, grimaced, I have a soft spot for the place. There is much opportunity here. Plenty of work and experience to be had. I can't recommend it highly enough. Come if you can!

We have organised a dinner for our friends tomorrow night. A lot of people cannot make it so it will be a small party, but that's fine. I shall update y'all on that when I can.

Alex xxx

Ok. I am in the call centre again today. Why? Who knows, but I had not written it down when asked in an email, so I had no clue until I got to work! Oh well! :-) Had a lovely email chat to my dad. I am in here again on Friday, so if anyone would like to have an email chat, email me at my yahoo address, or my work address if you know it.

This Saturday night we have arranged a dinner with friends at a local restaurant to celebrate two years in London. I cannot believe it's been so long. We have had a great time. It has been a wonderful learning experience - in many ways. Living in another country far from your home and your support network takes guts. I am proud to say that I have done it. I am not ready to go home yet. I am enjoying myself, and there is still much to see and do over here. We have two trips booked, and one more planned (two before the end of the year and one in January). I want to go to Spain and Portugal soon too. So many places on the list!

So far for the dinner it should be about 10 people. I am looking forward to seeing people, especially those who I have not seen in a long time! Any of you who read this and would like to come, please comment (by clicking on the "0 comments" link then posting a comment). I would love to hear from you! Otherwise drop me an email. Even though I would love all my friends from Australia to come, I cannot find the cash! Sorry! :-)

Went out to dinner last night at Isa's house. It was a birthday celebration for her and her housemate. One her of other housemates Lee cooked up a storm with the help of his German friend Constantine (male). Pretty much all the food they cooked was "acquired" from where they work, as they are both chefs for one of the large banks at Canary Wharf. So there was fish, venison from the Queen's estate in Balmoral, prawns, etc. Yum!! We had a lovely evening. There was even a pinata (I am not sure where the squiggly bit for over the n is) to smash to pieces. I always thought it was for kids, but you need a lot of strength to break it open and there was a single condom inside! Hmmmmm

Working this weekend has been quiet. Nothing major going on at work, apart from a conference for the Historic Divers. They were here last year and put on a demonstration which they have sadly not done this year.

I am looing forward to a bit of a sleep in on Tuesday. Hopefully seeing Sarah as well, as we had booked the day when we went to the craft fair. Friday Melissa is coming to the museum to check out where I work. Excellent.

Until next time!

Tuesday evening we went to a restaurant in Soho called Garlic and Shots. Everything on the menu has garlic in it, and I mean EVERYTHING! Garlic ice cream, garlic beer, garlic cheesecake... You get the point. Anyway it was a nice idea, even though we had to wait what seemed like forever for our food to arrive. We did however go to the restaurant for Isa's birthday. There were 6 of us there, one joined us about 10:3pm after he finished work. It was a lovely night, with interesting (if not explicit!!) conversation. We arrived home about 12:30am.

Tonight we are meeting up with Melissa and Shane. They are back in London after travelling about the world for the summer. Meeting them somewhere near Waterloo station then heading somewhere for dinner (well I assume so anyway!!).

Day off tomorrow. Curtains (which I finally found last night) shall be going up! I had a comment in my journal from an old friend from school (Hi Toni!!) who suggested I make some. I would if I had had a sewing machine. Mum did offer to send some over, but I figured that it was easier to get some here. I shall post pics of new curtains soon!

Two weekends worth....

Hello All,

I have time to update this today as I am home sick from work. I have slept half the day away (waking up at 2pm). Not bad huh? I feel better for it.

Now, my last journal entry promised updates from last weekend. So I will start there and fill you in then move onto the weekend I have just had. Here we go! :-)

Last weekend at work we had a special family day for all the ex dock workers and their families. It was a great success. I felt that it was really what the museum is all about. Not only do we show/tell people about the past, but it proved the point, so to speak, that history is alive and continuing. The ex dockers were able to pass on their stories to their families, and also have the opportunity to record them with us to keep it alive. I heard some wonderful stories from people coming in. I worked the front desk and they were very willing to chat! One guy came in and said he was a little lost, as the last time he came to the area he was shifting bananas! The area around work has changed so much in the last 30 years or so that it is basically unrecognisable from how it used to be.

Monday night there was a work outing to a local restaurant in aid of someone leaving work. I had a fantastic night. My work colleagues are all mad and we get along really well, and I feel very lucky to be able to work with such a bunch of people.

Tuesday I had the day off and went to the dentist. Oh the excitement!! ;-) I hadn't been in two years, so I was really nervous and stressed that I would require lots of work done. BUT I didn't! And I found me a cute dentist to boot! The surgery is just around the corner from work too which is very handy. Curtain search was fruitless, but the shop I went to was very helpful in educating me in the ways of the curtain.

Wednesday we had an inspection of the flat. We passed (well we have not received an eviction otice so we firgure we are in the clear!). I had an apoointment that morning with my "mentee" (the guy I am a mentor to at work) to have a tour around one of the other sites of my museum's group. It was fantastic, and a real eye opener. They store all the archaeological archives (ie all the photos, paperwork and artefacts from a dig) for every dig in London. Also in the building is the social and working history collections of the museum. There is an astounding amount of stuff - penny farthings, phone boxes, dolls house furniture, toys, board games, the Queen's telephone exchange, lighting, theatre seating, tube signs, irons (clothes), etc etc etc!! Photos to follow...

The weekend just gone was busy. Scott and I headed to Chrisp Street Market near us in search of the ever-elusive curtains! And they eluded us again. I need tab top curtains, which are proving hard to find. Then we headed to the movies and saw "Barnyard". It was very good, but one thing about the movie disturbed me. The cows (who were all BOYS) all had udders (they walk upright like humans so all was on display). I thought boy cows, ie bulls, did not have udders. Am I wrong? Someone please put me out of my misery!!

Sunday was a fantasic day. I headed in to Bank station with Scott (who did some overtime at work) and then I continued on to Alexandra Palace (yes, my palace!!!). There was a knitting and stitching show on there. Heaven for all the craft nutters such as myself. I focussed on yarn only this time (no cross stitch). I bought some lovely stuff too. Some sock yarn out of which I shall make a pair of gloves, some sari silk which I will make a bag out of, and some New Zealand merino/mohair 2ply lovely soft yarn. Mmmmm!!! :-D Sarah met me there (Jake had Orlaith for the duration we were inside). We had a lovely time. It was nice to have Sarah without Orlaith. As much I love Orlaith, she is sweet and cuddly etc, but having Sarah as a non-attached person was lovely. She was able to focus on herself. I am not expressing it very well, but you get what I mean!

After the knitting show I headed to the movies again with San who used to work at the museum with me last year. We saw The Devil Wears Prada. It was entertaining and an interesting insight into the weird fashion industry!

And today I am ill. So there you have it. All updated now!! :-)

Still alive, I promise! Just have not had a chance to sit down and write in this here blog to catch you all up with what I have been doing. So when I get a chance, I will catch you up on the following:

Weekend - Saturday's event at work
Monday night - went out with work colleagues
Tuesday - dentist and curtain search
Wednesday - inspection of flat and visit to one of my work's other sites which houses all the shiny artefacts not on display
Thursday - today, not much to say really!

:-)

Hump Day

It seems like a few days since I have updated this here blog, so now is as good a time as any. I am covering the reception desk for our archives. It is very quiet, just a few people marvelling at the free postcards!

Last week sometime I managed, very cleverly, to trip over the phone cord and pull the cord out of the wall and in the process completely bugger up the plug! So we have had no phone line and therefore no internet since then. We are having it fixed tonight by an electrician. Over here any old electrician can fix your phone plugs which is handy and not as expensive as getting the phone company to do it for us! Then we shall be connected to the world again. What a relief!

On the weekend I went to have a look at a new part of London (well, new to me!). It is in the east, as we are, and called Hackney. It is a much more culturally diverse part of London than I thought it would be. I really enjoyed wandering the streets with my friend Isa. She used to live there so she knows all the good places etc. Found a great curtain shop which I am sure we shall be visiting again. They even had a lovely cat who was perched on a roll of black material.

We have asked our landlord to put in a new curtain rail as the current one will not hold winter curtains. Winter curtains are a must here as so much heat escapes through the glass, even though all our windows are doubled glazed. Our current curtains are just flimsy cotton things, fine for summer but it is getting cool at night now so they need to be changed!!) After much deliberation, the landlord seems to have come up with a solution. We can buy a curtain rail to be fitted (someone will fit it for us) but it must be left there and the current curtains put back when we leave. Fine. So now comes the fun of finding suitable curtains etc. We have already found some curtain linings we want (they are thermal and blockout) so we just need the curtains and the railings! Oh joy!

We had a quiet day on Sunday and saw two movies. We saw The Queen and then Children of Men after that. It was raining very hard all day on and off. I enjoyed The Queen as it gave an interesting perspective into the events after the death of Princess Diana. The Australian media did not cover as much as the British media did regarding the lack of response from the Royal Family. Or not that I can remember anyway! The other movie was a little confusing, but there were excellent sets and it was certainly a story to make you think "what if".

:-)