the return...

I've been very neglectful and not wrapped up my blog, which I've been meaning to do for weeks. I think I've had blog-writers block!
I've been back for 2 months now, and life is finally settling down. It wasn't easy to return (I thought it would be) and I've had a wee dose of the post holiday blues. At the start I felt like a stranger in a familiar place - and I really missed my London life, but was happy to be home.
But I'm settled now. A place to live, a new challenging job - even a new couch! It's been fantastic to see everyone again; to rediscover the joy and freedom of my car; and I have a new suburb to get to know (although, I did live only 4 streets away when I was first born so I've kind-of come full circle).
Day to day life has taken over and London is almost a distant memory - but everytime I catch a glimpse of it on TV I feel an intense yearning and happiness. I've seen that! I've been there! I wasn't there long enough for life to become dreary, although the 7th month of winter pushed that boundary a little! It was an unbelievable time - meeting amazing people, of sightseeing, discovery, freedom, my first new job in 13 years, and spending time with my sister, who I hadn't even lived in the same state as for the last 17 years.
Anna was awesome, and I wouldn't have done it without her. It was her suggestion that I consider London, and she made it so easy for me. I had a blast. And Mike as well (I was a good scooter apprentice, wasn't I!?). I miss you guys!
Was it worth it?? Absolutely!! Even though it was hard to leave Melbourne, and even harder to leave London. For most of it, it was the Chinese Golden year of the Pig - which is my year - and it sure was! Things couldn't have turned out better, had I tried to plan it to the millisecond.
Thank you for tuning in to the blog (especially those who checked it daily!), I'm truly amazed that so many enjoyed it. I guess if it had been totally crap it would have fizzled out after the first few entries. There was so much to wite about...
What a year...

eyes like hot coals...

I am 2/3 of the way home!
Leaving London was very hard - and poor Anna who came to see me off at the airport. There were lots of tears when I left, and I tried to look dainty dabbing away with a tissue. I got through security doing little hiccupy sniffs. Blimey.
The A380 aeroplane was absolutely amazing. I was on the lower deck (not upstairs, bummer!), and we left half an hour late. Luckily we had a pilot with a hot foot, cos he shaved an hour off the trip. I so wanted to hug him for that!!
The plane was so big that it cruised through turbulence with a slight buoyancy rather than a judder, and to me that was worth every penny!! I didn't sleep at all, partly due to the row of babies in front of me (and there I was thinking I had an awesome seat at the front), so my eyes were like hot coals by the time I got to Singapore.
I'd booked a room at the transit hotel and immediately slept like a log for 8 hours. A long shower and crappy american shows on tv made it even more excellent.
My flight to Adelaide leaves in 2 hours, better get some duty free shopping in before then....!

the last hurrah...

I've just had my last weekend in London... :( I can't believe I've been here for over a year - in some ways it has gone so quickly...

Saturday was a brilliant day! It was the sunniest and warmest day of the year, and 15 friends came over for a BBQ. We sat outside in our little backyard and chatted and ate and drank the day away. We sat there for almost 11 hours! I had the best day. The die-hards that were still here at 11pm, are in this photo.

L-R (back) Dirk, Benno, Scott, Shirl, Mike (front) Niamh, me, Anna, Khanh, Chris.

It wasn't goodbye, but an optimistic 'see you soon'..... I will miss everyone.

Sunday, today, was spent packing and we're now about to go to the pub. On my first night here 14 months ago, we went to the Swan - so it's only fitting that I end this way.

Tomorrow I fly home, on a massive A380 aeroplane. The plane is a double-decker and takes 800 passengers, so I sincerely hope we get off the ground. I have a 15 hour stay in Singapore, and arrive into Adelaide on wednesday morning. I'm inexplicably sad but excited.....!!

free lunch, from the tardis, beneath the gerkin...

Sounds like I've had a wild weekend on something illegal from Amsterdam! But no, this is essentially a long-winded story about Anna and I having lunch today....

Where to start? It seems that the streets of London are paved in silver and bronze and the occasional gold. Since arriving here, I've been finding money. A fair amount of money. At first I didn't pick it up - but I kept seeing it so I decided I would see how much I could gather. Just like a little magpie, searching for shiny things... For the first few months I put it in my purse and spent it.

For christmas, my housemate Scott gave me a Tardis money box!! It's the most amazing thing - you have to open the doors to put the money in and as you open them the Dr talks to you (usually a line from the series). Mmm, David Tennant..! [2 minute daydream]. Where was I? Oh yes, and as you close the doors a blue light on top flashes and the Tardis makes it's disappearing noise. It's ace!!

So from christmas I began putting my findings in the Tardis. I emptied it last week and gave the coins to Anna to deposit via the coin counting machine at her bank. As you can see from the receipts I found 15 pounds and 35 pence! That's like $35! (There was so much to count that the machine broke down in the middle of it all).

I wondered what I could do with these winnings, and decided I would take Anna out for lunch. I met her today (thurs) beneath the famous Gerkin, otherwise known as the Credit Suisse building (also amusingly, overheard it called the Aubergine by an american tourist), and we ate from a fancy cafe whilst admiring the view above us. We were going to try one of the cafe's massive meringues, but we were too full to contemplate them! Of course I had to do a self-portrait, sorry abut the unflattering view of my chins...

So, a free lunch courtesy of Londoners who don't care to pick up their 1 & 2p's - from the Tardis - sitting beneath the Gerkin. Nowhere else but London.....

a very london sunday...

I made plans on sunday to meet two friends for a farewell lunch, Nikki and Fiona. We met beneath Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square, and this was a great start to a very touristy day!

We went to the National Portrait Gallery restaurant for lunch, which had unbelievable views back over Trafalgar Square, ol' Nelson, and down Whitehall with Big Ben and Westminster in the distance. We had an extremely delicious 3 course lunch, with wine, which ended with raspberry cheesecake and coffee.

We jumped on a big red bus and went down The Strand to a place called Somerset House, which is essentially an art gallery - and in their huge outdoor courtyard they'd set up London's Largest Livingroom, complete with oversized furniture. We sat with our legs dangling and ate ice cream (yep, after all that lunch!).

To burn that off we walked over Waterloo Bridge (pic left) and down to the London Eye, where we went for a spin. It was my 4th flight, and I'm not tired of it yet!

As we ate cinnamon donuts, we walked back over the Thames on Westminster Bridge and bought tickets for a short boat trip up to Tower Hill. It turned out to be a comedy of errors for the two guys driving the boat, and I wasn't too happy being on water again - especially after we crashed head-on into Blackfriars pier (they left a chunk of boat behind!).

But, it did have it's up-side (apart from me getting to land, having not drowned) - as we got off at Tower Hill they began opening the Tower Bridge, which I'd never seen before! (pic right)

It was a totally excellent day, great weather, great company - and I want to bring London home with me....

cambridge and duxford...

On saturday I took a train to Cambridge, with the purpose of going to a place just south of there called Duxford - where there is an Imperial War Museum. Our grandfather flew Lancaster bombers in WWII, and I wanted to stand beneath one and get a feel for what it would have been like. You weren't allowed inside most of the planes, and it crossed my mind to try batting my eyelashes to see if someone would let me in the Lancaster (I didn't, I should have)...

The Lancaster was huge, and I couldn't imagine piloting one. From what I remember (hopefully correctly) grandpa didn't pilot any of the famous dam buster planes, but was part of a secret squadron (101 Squadron) and survived all his flights - which statistically was against the odds. So seeing the plane in it's metalic flesh, made it even more amazing to me.

I got to walk through a Concorde, and walked around heaps of other amazing planes - an F-111, Mustang, a Blackbird, and watched people taking joy flights around the air-field in a Tiger Moth.

It's so funny that I'm terrified of flying, and yet with my genes I should at least be comfortable with it!

I had a bit of spare time after Duxford, so went into Cambridge. I'd stayed there 10 years ago so had pretty much 'done' it, but walked around the city area loving how old everything was. The pic to the right is Kings College (not affiliated with King's College London where I worked).

I wish I'd been more prepared (like gone with a map), cos I wanted to find the river and see some people punting - but alas, I ran out of time and didn't find it...

a little toot of the ol' trumpet...

I knew last week was coming, and then all of a sudden it was there - my last week of work! Relatively speaking it's a quiet time of year for subscriptions, so I was all up-to-date - and training the girl who was taking over from me was foremost on the agenda...
And then it was friday. For once I didn't have a mad panic finishing things off, and at 4pm we downed tools and laid out some cakes for a little farewell party.
Geez, being in the spotlight - I'm so not good with that! And to make matters worse Claire made a speech about how lovely it was to have worked with me (aw..) and left me to say something in return, and like a complete goose I froze and didn't know what to say! So to divert attention off myself I offered to open the gifts they'd bought me, but that wasn't much better cos they were all watching, and my hands were shaking! What a nincompoop.
I got lots of hugs goodbye, and they said some really nice things about me in my farewell cards (yes, I got two!), which I read on the tube going home. I'm going to miss some genuinely lovely people.
I'm just glad I survived the year - admirably I think - and now I'm officially unemployed for the next 3 weeks! I need a holiday...