There are a few more photos I wanted to share, but they will have to wait as Blogger is having a fit when I try to upload photos.
Saturday I joined Melissa and Shane and some of their friends for a going away get together at a pub in west London (in Hammersmith). Melissa and Shane are off travelling for 4 months or so (including a trip home to Oz) and will be back in August. I caught up with Ayesha as well. I also saw a girl I used to go to school with, Sarah Edwards. It was nice, and yet really odd, to see her. I never really had anything to do with her at school, and we never really had anything in common, but it's been nearly 10 years since I left school (a very scarey thought!!). Scott came along after he had finished up at work and we stayed on for a few hours before heading off to grab some dinner and head home. We didn't want too late a night as we had a big day the following day.
Sunday we got up early to get the train to Hampton Court Palace from Waterloo. We were not as early as we would have liked, but we had plenty of time at the palace as it turned out. The train ride from Waterloo was only half an hour, on a shiny train too. We had 2 for 1 entry to the palace because we caught the train there - bonus! We arrived at the palace about 11.15am. We bought our tickets and headed on in. We were just in time for a tour of the King's Apartments with a costumed guide. He was fantastic. He was dressed as a gentleman from the 1690s, with a very long wig on (which I later asked to feel!!) and tights and a fabulous red coat. He was very informative, and gave a lot of extra information. He even gave a demonstration on how a gentleman would enter the room and present himself to the king. After the tour we got ourselves audio guides, which were part of the entry price, and wandered through the Queen's Apartments and then to King Henry VIII's section. It was all very interesting and very informative.
After that we wandered through the gardens. The gardens were magnificent. As you can see in the photos below, the colours are just spectacular. It's funny how wandering through beautiful flowers can make you feel better about the world. :-) We wandered through the maze which is where the servants used to go to find solitude and hide away from the world. It was fun. There were people running through it to try to beat others to the middle, but we were just happy to wander through. We found the middle, and that's where I took the photo from. I think the hedge walls were about 2 metres high.
We had a carriage ride through the park. Hopefully I can post a picture of that soon. It was very romantic and a lovely way to spend half an hour or so. Then we wandered back to the palace, oggling at more flowers and ponds and the oldest grape vine in the world. The privy gardens (as they are called, are some of the best I have seen. Everything is perfectly trimmed and manicured, the trees topiaried. Amazing stuff. :-) We saw the tudor kitchens, where I took lots of photos for a colleague at work who is doing a new Tudor workshop in the next school year at my museum. I couldn't take photos anywhere else inside the palace - it's apparently to do with Crown copyright, but we bought the shiny guidebook.
We took the ferry all the way back down the river to Westminster. It took about 2 and a half hours. We sat up the top for the first hour, until we got to Richmond, then it became too cold so we headed downstairs into the warmth. We went under 21 bridges and through one lock, the Teddington Lock, which is, I was told today, where the River Thames stops being tidal. It is a tidal river up to that point.
And then today it is back to work.
Monday, May 15, 2006
Pink pink PINK!!! My camera does do justice to this amazing pink azaelea I found lurking near the maze. I immediately thought of mum, as she loves wearing this colour.
This is the view of the maze from the centre (with me standing on a chair and the camera held up high!!).
I love these manicured trees leading up to the palace. And I love the fact that the two black lines in the bottom left of the picture look like tiny, tiny people!!!
I love this time of year in London. It is spring, the tulips are out in full force, as are all the other gorgeous colourful flowers. The air smells delightful.
This is the view of the Queen's Apartments. They were designed by Christopher Wren, he of many other famous landmarks - namely St Paul's Cathedral in London.
This is the imposing view with which we were confronted when we first arrived.Friday, May 12, 2006
PHOTOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And this is our garden!!
This is the main room of our flat. As you can see it is a studio, ie one room for living and sleeping. But the room is very large and there is planty of space.
This is our flat again, looking out towards the garden.
This is sunset taken near my work.
Looky, a baby! Concentrating very hard on her own fingers.
Hello!
Yes it has been a while. The computers at my work are so slow!! And now that I am back in the galleries (as opposed to the call centre) my breaks are shorter. Hopefully we shall get the internet at home soon. We do finally have the phone on though. I should email that around to everyone.
Nothing much has been happening really. On Tuesday I met up with Sarah, her 10 week old daughter Orlaith, and her brother Martin who is over for 4 months from Oz. We met at Liverpool Street station and caught the bus to the Geffrye Museum. The museum shows off interiors from English middle class homes. An odd topic I would have thought, but it's very interesting. They had rooms from the 1600s to the 1990s. Very interesting and very well done. I kept thinking that my dad would love the museum, as he loves interiors and seeing how other people design them. (Years of reading Architectural Digest!!)
The museum takes up a lovely building. And it is surrounded by lush green gardens. It is spring here, which of course makes everything green and lush and lovely. The flowers are out and gorgeous. There was a walled herb garden too. I am not much of a green thumb, so I learnt a little about what plants I knew of actually looked like! I didn't know (but I am sure a lot of people already do) that chives flower. The ones in the herb garden had purple buds on them. The museum also had four separate gardens behind the museum buildings which were reminiscent of the rooms inside. For example they had a knot garden based on a design from Elizabethan times, a Georgian garden, and a Victorian garden.
After leaving the Museum we hopped on a bus that took us to the City. We hopped off the bus just near London Bridge and walked to the Monument. We Climbed up the 311 steps to get to the top. The Monument is a doric column, which stands 200 feet tall, and very close to the spot where the Great Fire of London in 1666 started in a baker's shop in Pudding Lane. So to get to the top we had to climb a spiral staircase. Sarah is a little afriad of heights, which made the descent a little stressful for her. But the views at the top were amazing. It was a nice clear day too. AND!!! We got a certificate when we reached the bottom!!
After the descent we went to calm Sarah's nerves with copious amounts of tea at a nearby cafe. We stayed there about an hour and a half just chatting. Sarah fed Orlaith and then we made our way to Postman's Park. This park is in the middle of the city, near the Museum of London. There is a commemoration wall to people who gave their lives to save others, or in the process of saving others. It is very humbling reading the inscriptions, especially as they are not all about people you would think they would be. By this I mean that there are many inscriptions about children who died saving their siblings or friends.
I sent off a fax today to the real estate maintenance people. Our boiler's timer (it controls hot water and heating) is not working. Not a big deal, all it means is that we have to get up half an hour or so earlier to turn it on so we have hot water for the shower. Other than that the oven part of the stove and the grill don't work. A pain considering we don't have a microwave, so I am limited at the moment to what I can cook on the stove top. I might be getting a microwave from a friend Alison who is moving house - not sure yet though.
Other than the the flat is working out really well. I love having our own space. And it is so convenient for work. In a month or so when it is warmer I shall invite some people over and have a belated housewarming. Who wants to come? :-)
I shall post this, then try and post some photos!!
xxx
Yes it has been a while. The computers at my work are so slow!! And now that I am back in the galleries (as opposed to the call centre) my breaks are shorter. Hopefully we shall get the internet at home soon. We do finally have the phone on though. I should email that around to everyone.
Nothing much has been happening really. On Tuesday I met up with Sarah, her 10 week old daughter Orlaith, and her brother Martin who is over for 4 months from Oz. We met at Liverpool Street station and caught the bus to the Geffrye Museum. The museum shows off interiors from English middle class homes. An odd topic I would have thought, but it's very interesting. They had rooms from the 1600s to the 1990s. Very interesting and very well done. I kept thinking that my dad would love the museum, as he loves interiors and seeing how other people design them. (Years of reading Architectural Digest!!)
The museum takes up a lovely building. And it is surrounded by lush green gardens. It is spring here, which of course makes everything green and lush and lovely. The flowers are out and gorgeous. There was a walled herb garden too. I am not much of a green thumb, so I learnt a little about what plants I knew of actually looked like! I didn't know (but I am sure a lot of people already do) that chives flower. The ones in the herb garden had purple buds on them. The museum also had four separate gardens behind the museum buildings which were reminiscent of the rooms inside. For example they had a knot garden based on a design from Elizabethan times, a Georgian garden, and a Victorian garden.
After leaving the Museum we hopped on a bus that took us to the City. We hopped off the bus just near London Bridge and walked to the Monument. We Climbed up the 311 steps to get to the top. The Monument is a doric column, which stands 200 feet tall, and very close to the spot where the Great Fire of London in 1666 started in a baker's shop in Pudding Lane. So to get to the top we had to climb a spiral staircase. Sarah is a little afriad of heights, which made the descent a little stressful for her. But the views at the top were amazing. It was a nice clear day too. AND!!! We got a certificate when we reached the bottom!!
After the descent we went to calm Sarah's nerves with copious amounts of tea at a nearby cafe. We stayed there about an hour and a half just chatting. Sarah fed Orlaith and then we made our way to Postman's Park. This park is in the middle of the city, near the Museum of London. There is a commemoration wall to people who gave their lives to save others, or in the process of saving others. It is very humbling reading the inscriptions, especially as they are not all about people you would think they would be. By this I mean that there are many inscriptions about children who died saving their siblings or friends.
I sent off a fax today to the real estate maintenance people. Our boiler's timer (it controls hot water and heating) is not working. Not a big deal, all it means is that we have to get up half an hour or so earlier to turn it on so we have hot water for the shower. Other than that the oven part of the stove and the grill don't work. A pain considering we don't have a microwave, so I am limited at the moment to what I can cook on the stove top. I might be getting a microwave from a friend Alison who is moving house - not sure yet though.
Other than the the flat is working out really well. I love having our own space. And it is so convenient for work. In a month or so when it is warmer I shall invite some people over and have a belated housewarming. Who wants to come? :-)
I shall post this, then try and post some photos!!
xxx
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Anzac Day
It is Anzac Day. For those of you unfamiliar with this day, it is Australians' Rememberance Day. We remember the fallen on the 25th of April each year, as this was the day of the dawn landing at Gallipoli during World War 1. Scott and I got up at 2am to go to a dawn service in at Hyde Park Corner near Buckingham Palace. I had had a look on the Transport for London website to see what time we would have to leave. It said to be on the 3am night bus. So we were. The only problem was..... we arrived at Hyde Park at..... a quarter to 4!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So we had more than an hour to wait until the service started. There was nothing to do, so Scott and I went for a very slow wander down Knightsbridge (the same street that Harrod's is on), and back again. We met Ayesha and her friend Karline at just before 5am.
The service was very good. Well worth getting up in the dark and travelling across London for! I always get goose bumps when I hear the Last Post. No matter in what context. It is such a powerful and moving tune.
I was supposed to have today off, but I am working for one of my colleagues, who will work for me when I choose. I would have liked to have a sleep this afternoon, but still. I must soldier on!
I am now out of the Museum's call centre. I was getting very tired of being here. I enjoyed it to a certain extent, but I was getting sick of certain things. But realistically, I am happier in the galleries, talking to real people.
I got an email today from Ian, the curator at the Commissariat Store Museum. He is my referee for my job, and he emailed to see if I got it. He will come visit the Museum and bring his wife Rachel and his baby George who was born in December. Should be lovely. And besides I have not seen him since last summer.
Should be getting the internet at home soon. The internet package we are looking at includes 2 hours per day of international calls. So all of you who would like a call, please let me know and email me your phone numbers!! :-D
xxx
The service was very good. Well worth getting up in the dark and travelling across London for! I always get goose bumps when I hear the Last Post. No matter in what context. It is such a powerful and moving tune.
I was supposed to have today off, but I am working for one of my colleagues, who will work for me when I choose. I would have liked to have a sleep this afternoon, but still. I must soldier on!
I am now out of the Museum's call centre. I was getting very tired of being here. I enjoyed it to a certain extent, but I was getting sick of certain things. But realistically, I am happier in the galleries, talking to real people.
I got an email today from Ian, the curator at the Commissariat Store Museum. He is my referee for my job, and he emailed to see if I got it. He will come visit the Museum and bring his wife Rachel and his baby George who was born in December. Should be lovely. And besides I have not seen him since last summer.
Should be getting the internet at home soon. The internet package we are looking at includes 2 hours per day of international calls. So all of you who would like a call, please let me know and email me your phone numbers!! :-D
xxx
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
I really need to update this journal more often. Don't I?
Anyway...
Even thought it was a four day weekend for Easter, I had only three. I worked on Good Friday. I am still in the Call Centre/Box Office of the Museum, which meant we were quiet quiet quiet. We had a fiar number of calls first thing asking if we are open, what activities we had on for the kiddies, where are we? That kind of thing. Once it hot lunch time the number of calls seriously died off. I came back from my lunch break at 3, and between then and 6 when I finished I answered zero phone calls!! Pretty amazing. I was surprised anyone called at all really!
Saturday Scotty and I made the trek to Ikea in Croydon. Croydon is in south west London, and we are in east London. So it took over an hour. But, on the plus side, we got to ride on the tram! There is a tram in the area, which is super speedy. And it took us right to the door, well, almost!! We bought some stuff for the flat - kitchen stuff that we needed, a dirty clothes basket, a shoe rack, those kind of things. We also bought two chairs. Sounds crazy I know. The flat is furnished, but the chairs that are in there are a bit crap, and are not very sturdy at all. So, we grabbed two really cheap, but sturdy and comfy chairs, that can be used inside and out (a consideration now we have a garden!!!!).
Sunday was a quiet day as there was nothing open in London. We stayed at home and tidied and found places for things. Not very exciting I know.
Monday we were going to go on a random tourism trip, but we decided we was too poor until payday on Friday. So we went to the movies instead. There is a deal over here with one of the cinemas, Cineworld, which allows you to join a club in a sense. You basically get as many movies as you like for £13.99 per month. Scott paid for his whole year's worth. I was lucky as I was given a voucher for a year's movies for free. So effectively, we are going for free!! It makes it much better when the movie is not so great. :-)
Not much exciting has been happening. I finished my knitted iPod cover though. I am so impressed with the way this has turned out. I shall have to post photos on here for you all to see (and of the new place). I seem to be an experimental knitter. I knitted the whole thing in two strands, changing colours as I went along the row to make stripes (vertical on the front and diagonal on the back). I am SO impressed with it and with myself. Another thing I am impressed with is..... I have taught myself how to do eyelets. They can also be used as button holes, but I have knitted a square with them, in alternate positions along the row thso it looks a bit like lace. I want to make a rug or a throw. So I am going to knit lots of squares and them sew them together. I am still a beginner knitter really. I am in need of practice. Well, maybe not a beginner, but I am certainly not advanced. Maybe intermediate then? Anyway, I really enjoy being able to create things. Things I can do: knit, cross stitch, tapestry, latch hook (a while ago now though). Yay me! ;-)
I hope all my readers are well and happy. :-D
Anyway...
Even thought it was a four day weekend for Easter, I had only three. I worked on Good Friday. I am still in the Call Centre/Box Office of the Museum, which meant we were quiet quiet quiet. We had a fiar number of calls first thing asking if we are open, what activities we had on for the kiddies, where are we? That kind of thing. Once it hot lunch time the number of calls seriously died off. I came back from my lunch break at 3, and between then and 6 when I finished I answered zero phone calls!! Pretty amazing. I was surprised anyone called at all really!
Saturday Scotty and I made the trek to Ikea in Croydon. Croydon is in south west London, and we are in east London. So it took over an hour. But, on the plus side, we got to ride on the tram! There is a tram in the area, which is super speedy. And it took us right to the door, well, almost!! We bought some stuff for the flat - kitchen stuff that we needed, a dirty clothes basket, a shoe rack, those kind of things. We also bought two chairs. Sounds crazy I know. The flat is furnished, but the chairs that are in there are a bit crap, and are not very sturdy at all. So, we grabbed two really cheap, but sturdy and comfy chairs, that can be used inside and out (a consideration now we have a garden!!!!).
Sunday was a quiet day as there was nothing open in London. We stayed at home and tidied and found places for things. Not very exciting I know.
Monday we were going to go on a random tourism trip, but we decided we was too poor until payday on Friday. So we went to the movies instead. There is a deal over here with one of the cinemas, Cineworld, which allows you to join a club in a sense. You basically get as many movies as you like for £13.99 per month. Scott paid for his whole year's worth. I was lucky as I was given a voucher for a year's movies for free. So effectively, we are going for free!! It makes it much better when the movie is not so great. :-)
Not much exciting has been happening. I finished my knitted iPod cover though. I am so impressed with the way this has turned out. I shall have to post photos on here for you all to see (and of the new place). I seem to be an experimental knitter. I knitted the whole thing in two strands, changing colours as I went along the row to make stripes (vertical on the front and diagonal on the back). I am SO impressed with it and with myself. Another thing I am impressed with is..... I have taught myself how to do eyelets. They can also be used as button holes, but I have knitted a square with them, in alternate positions along the row thso it looks a bit like lace. I want to make a rug or a throw. So I am going to knit lots of squares and them sew them together. I am still a beginner knitter really. I am in need of practice. Well, maybe not a beginner, but I am certainly not advanced. Maybe intermediate then? Anyway, I really enjoy being able to create things. Things I can do: knit, cross stitch, tapestry, latch hook (a while ago now though). Yay me! ;-)
I hope all my readers are well and happy. :-D
Thursday, April 13, 2006
COMPUTER DEFINITIONS AUSSIE STYLE
LOG ON: Adding wood to make the barbie hotter.
LOG OFF: Not adding any more wood to the barbie.
MONITOR: Keeping an eye on the barbie.
DOWNLOAD: Getting the firewood off the ute.
HARD DRIVE: Making the trip back home without any cold tinnies.
KEYBOARD: Where you hang the ute keys.
WINDOW: What you shut when the weather's cold.
SCREEN: What you shut in the mozzie season.
BYTE: What mozzies do.
MEGABYTE: What Townsville mozzies do.
CHIP: A bar snack.
MICROCHIP: What's left in the bag after you've eaten the chips.
MODEM: What you did to the lawns.
LAPTOP: Where the cat sleeps.
SOFTWARE: Plastic knives & forks you get at Red Rooster.
HARDWARE: Stainless steel knives & forks - from K-Mart
.MOUSE: The small rodent that eats the grain in the shed.
MAINFRAME: What holds the shed up.
WEB: What spiders make.
WEBSITE: Usually in the shed or under the verandah.
SEARCH ENGINE: What you do when the ute won't go.
CURSOR: What you say when the ute won't go.
YAHOO: What you say when the ute does go.
UPGRADE: A steep hill.
SERVER: The person at the pub who brings out the counter lunch.
MAIL SERVER: The bloke at the pub who brings out the counter lunch.
USER: The neighbour who keep's borrowing things.
NETWORK: What you do when you need to repair the fishing net.
INTERNET: Where you want the fish to go.
NETSCAPE: What the fish do when they discover the hole in the net.
ONLINE: Where you hang the washing.
OFFLINE: Where the washing end's up when the pegs aren't strong enough.
Monday, April 10, 2006
It's a new week, and I am already tired! But I have had a long couple of weeks now, what with moving house twice!! We picked up the keys to the new place a week ago now. Signed all the scarey paperwork. Well, not scarey, as we are dealing with an agency, and not with a dodgy landlord!!
Early last week I caught up with Melissa and Ayesha. The three of us went to the theatre to see The Producers. The show was fantastic. Better than the movie, even though I remembered some of the lines. It was nice to catch up with the two girls. Melissa is going travelling for a while and Ayesha started a new job this week.
On Friday morning I had help from my friend Giulia from work. She and I have the same roster, which came in handy. We made three or four trips from Isa's house to the flat - one way it would be about 400/500 metres. Giulia and her luggage trolley were a big help in getting things moved!!
Friday afternoon/evening both Scott and I had doctor's appointments (nothing is wrong, just a check up for him and a prescription for me). We decided to drop in to the old house to see if there was any mail. We had contacted the guys we used to live with, but the response was "we will contact you". We decided to go around there anyway to see what happened. The guys were both there and let us in around the back of the house. This was because, as we saw as soon as we entered the house, that we saw why. They had completely looted the house. Turns out they had found a place in Canning Town, but it's completely empty. Considering that the landlord is not giving them any deposit back, they are taking everything they can from the house - including the kitchen cupboards!! It was going a little far I think, but still.
The weekend I worked. We kept Isa company on Friday night as her mum had had a stroke that day in Portugal and she was feeling a bit sad and lonely. We had pizza and watched a movie. Saturday night was the first night we spent at the new place.
There is still stuff everywhere in the new place. But hopefully by the end of the week we shall have it organised and everything in it's right place.
So there you have it. :-)
Early last week I caught up with Melissa and Ayesha. The three of us went to the theatre to see The Producers. The show was fantastic. Better than the movie, even though I remembered some of the lines. It was nice to catch up with the two girls. Melissa is going travelling for a while and Ayesha started a new job this week.
On Friday morning I had help from my friend Giulia from work. She and I have the same roster, which came in handy. We made three or four trips from Isa's house to the flat - one way it would be about 400/500 metres. Giulia and her luggage trolley were a big help in getting things moved!!
Friday afternoon/evening both Scott and I had doctor's appointments (nothing is wrong, just a check up for him and a prescription for me). We decided to drop in to the old house to see if there was any mail. We had contacted the guys we used to live with, but the response was "we will contact you". We decided to go around there anyway to see what happened. The guys were both there and let us in around the back of the house. This was because, as we saw as soon as we entered the house, that we saw why. They had completely looted the house. Turns out they had found a place in Canning Town, but it's completely empty. Considering that the landlord is not giving them any deposit back, they are taking everything they can from the house - including the kitchen cupboards!! It was going a little far I think, but still.
The weekend I worked. We kept Isa company on Friday night as her mum had had a stroke that day in Portugal and she was feeling a bit sad and lonely. We had pizza and watched a movie. Saturday night was the first night we spent at the new place.
There is still stuff everywhere in the new place. But hopefully by the end of the week we shall have it organised and everything in it's right place.
So there you have it. :-)
Monday, April 03, 2006
200th Post!!
I can't believe I have written in this journal 200 times now. Scarey thought. Although I think I have had this now since June/July 2004, so I could document our preparations for leaving Oz. It seems so long ago now that we left Australia. So much has happened since then.
:-)
:-)
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