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!!