australia day in london...

I've just spent my first Australia Day away from home - it was enough to make me rather homesick!!

But I had a good day. In the morning I took the bus to Hyde Park and walked down to Kensington Palace where Princess Diana lived for a while. (Thanks Sharon, I got in for free, no probs!). Downstairs there were a few rooms showing projected footage of Princess Di throughout her life, and upstairs were (relatively) modern apartments and the older 18th century Kings and Queens rooms.

From there I walked back the way I came, stopping to play with the cute, fluffy and friendly squirrels along the way (they miss you Sharon).

Across from Hyde Park runs Queensway, and I walked down there to the Prince Alfred pub where I was meeting fellow Aussie friends for a few drinks. It was very noisy with loud music playing, but we stayed for 6 hours yelling at each other.

I left my camera on the table for anyone to use - and this is the result!!

[Top left, a fairly quiet start to the arvo, Damo, Ingrid & I ; then below, Anna, Elisa, Ingrid and I. Top right, Mike & Anna, Steve & Elisa ; bottom, Scott doing a Tim Tam slam with Guinness! A waste of hard-to-come-by Tim Tams if you ask me!!!]

the keeper of the library...

Ah, sleeping in... That's what saturday's are for. Nothing else exciting occurred - I went to the supermarket and watched a movie on tv in the arvo.

Sunday though, I packed my trusty camera and took the tube to Temple. The Temple Church and associated Inner and Middle Temple law chambers were having an Open Day. The weather was a balmy 14 degrees, great for wandering!

I took a peek inside the Royal Courts of Justice (pic left - where the Diana case is currently being heard - I have to fight my way through a million photographers on my way to work every morning, slightly ironic). It was amazing - a massive open foyer with a mosaic'd floor, and the court rooms were done in ornate dark wood, showing their beauty from the 1800's - but with every conceivable computer appliance fitted.

I rushed out of there to go on a guided tour of the Inner and Middle chambers, which turned out to be interesting but boring at the same time, so I snuck off to go to another talk - in the unbeliveable Temple Church (bottom left). This talk was supposed to be about the Da Vinci Code, but he seemed to be rambling and making no sense, so I left that too.

I did however seek out the Inner Temple library, and the very interesting Middle Temple Library (pic right). Trust me to be the only person there taking pictures of old books. The libraries are mostly for barristers etc, so are essentially law libraries - but the Middle Temple library has a few extras, like two old earth globes made in the 1600's, that don't have Australia on them as we hadn't been discovered yet! They don't have a librarian as such there, they have the wonderful mystery-shrouded title of Keeper of the Library!

one ring to rule them all...

On friday, Sharon had a birthday, so I took the afternoon off and we met at Harrods. It's the most amazing store, but completely confusing - even the map! Eventually we found what we were looking for - the scones and cream. I had mine with a pot of tea called 'afternoon blend' - it was entirely appropriate.
That night we went to Covent Garden, to the Drury Lane theatre, and saw the stage production of Lord of the Rings. Some might think that's a little nerdy, I'm cool with that, and the play was nothing short of absolutely amazing. I wish I'd been able to take photo's of the stage as the sides and top were covered in a layer of branches. The stage itself was circular, and revolved, and was also segmented so depending on the scene they could raise sections and create a bridge or a valley, or the firey hole at Mordor where Frodo drops the ring. At one point the scary Orcs came into the audience and were sneaking up on people - you could hear screams and then laughter all over the theatre. It was 3 bum numbing hours, but I hardly noticed.
(The one piece of theatre I must see before I go, is Dirty Dancing. Yeah, now you're really cringing!!)

the king and eye...

It's a real bummer, but I've had to go back to work. Sigh. And while Sharon and Karl were out sight-seeing and having fun. It wasn't fair....!

But on the saturday before last, we headed out to Westminster Abbey. It's quite amazing architecturally - and heaps of famous people are buried there. I saw the grave of Mary Queen of Scots (that's the one I can remember!), and I walked over the graves of Charles Darwin, Chaucer, and Dickens. Freaky to think they were beneath. We also saw the chair used for all coronations since the 1300's (a wooden chair 700 years old!).

That night we went to the Tower of London after dark, feeling the chilly breeze off the Thames, to watch the Ceremony of the Keys - the nightly locking of the Tower. For me it was just as amazing the second time - I could watch it every night.

On tuesday I took the day off, and we went out to the O2 arena, this time to see something a few thousand years older than the coronation chair. We had tickets to see the Tutankhamen and the Golden Age of the Pharohs exhibition (hence the refence to the King!). I've been walking around London thinking things are old, but Tutankhamen was 3000 BC and the exhibition had things on show from his family, plus artifacts from his tomb. (I've walked past his tomb in the Valley of the Kings, but didn't go in). There were so many beautiful things - including a folding wooden chair (we haven't thought of anything new), storage drawers, and one golden layer of his coffin. He was only 19 when he died, and they still don't know what killed him.

Afterwards, we caught the tube back into the city and got to take that flight on the London Eye! It was still overcast, but no rain or fog to spoil things. It's the 3rd time I've been up, and it never ceases to scare the crap out of me. But it's an amazing way to see the city. Pic on the left was taken not long after we took off, and on the right was coming down.

P.S. I have to credit Sharon with this blog title - I wish I'd thought of it myself!!

new years eve on ice...

Goodness me, has the year ended already?? 2007 was the Chinese Golden Year of the Pig - which is my sign. No wonder I had such a good year!

New years eve was spent chasing friendly squirrels in the gardens outside Kensington Palace, with a walk through Hyde Park, and small wander along the Oxford St shops. Just after dark we headed back to Hyde Park, as Sharon, Karl and I were going ice skating!! They have a Winter Wonderland there, with a German christmas market and a huge ferris wheel.

At 6.30 we donned our skates and tentatively took to the ice. There were too many wall huggers, so I took to the ice unsupported straight away. A lap in, and Sharon and Karl were doing the same. We tottered around for a few laps but got the hang of it quickly.

Amazingly, none of us ended up with wet arses, although we didn't get the chance to get up to olympic speeds, nor was I trying out pirouettes or figure 8's! It was quite packed, which didn't help - we were always dodging flailing arms and mad skittering feet of people trying to avoid falling (hilarious to watch, but not when I might have been taken out by them!). Bodies thudding on the ice was not a nice sound.

We couldn't take camera's onto the rink, so no photo's of us in our skates, but I did get one of the rink afterwards. It was much lighter than the photo appears, and they had classical music playing while we skated.

We headed home, getting gourmet burgers along the way, and at 11.45 turned over the telly to watch the count down to midnight. I almost missed it, but Karl managed to pop the champagne right on midnight, and we toasted to 2008.

Or as I heard someone say - two thousand and great.

Happy new year - and I hope yours is great!!

Edinburgh and back to London...

Sharon and Karl came to Leeds the day after boxing day, and we leapt into a hire car and headed further north to Edinburgh. John had told us to head sort-of via the east coast, through the (apparently) beautiful countryside called the Scottish Borders. But the silly sat nav that I hired took us via Manchester and the west coast. We were on the major freeway before we realised, and couldn't turn back...such a bummer.

But we made it to Edinburgh just after dark and picked up our keys to an apartment on the famous Royal Mile (pic right). It was accessed by a covered lane with an overhanging sign for the Jolly Judge pub, and we took a winding old stone staircase to the third floor. The apartment was nice - old wooden floors and all that.

The next day we headed to the amazing Edinburgh Castle (just up the road from where we were staying), high up on the hill in the old town - overlooking the 'new' town down below. We spent that afternoon shopping and wandering. In fact we spent the next morning happily exploring again, before heading back to London on the train.

We set out into London on sunday, where we got out of the tube at Westminster again, but this time walking along the other side of the Thames, underneath the Eye - pausing to spend an hour or two at a Star Wars exhibition! It had props and models from all 6 films - I had my photo taken next to R2-D2 (he made me feel tall!).

Afterwards we walked right along the Embankment to Shakespeare's Globe theatre where we took a tour - and it was one of the best tours I've taken. The guide effectively described the types of people that would attend a play, with penny stinkers standing on the floor - a penny to get in, and stinkers cos they would never have bathed or changed their clothes, and ate garlic to keep the plague away - imagine it! The cost of seats increased depending on the view and height. It's the 3rd Globe to be built, the first (in the 1600's) had it's thatched roof catch fire when a cannon went off as part of a play. The current Globe has the first thatched roof to be 'built' in hundreds of years - and has sprinklers!

It's currently getting colder, but still not enough to snow.....

an un-white christmas...

I arrived in Leeds on christmas eve, to stay with my uncle John, Helena and my two gorgeous little cousins Felix and Hetty. Not long after arriving, we headed out to an amazing church built in 1154 (!) to listen to a crib service (for kids - where the story of Jesus is told, and soft-toy Joseph, Mary, wise men and animals are added to create the scene. Baby Jesus is added on christmas day, of course).

On christmas day I was awoken, not by Santa, but to the wonderful sounds of little-ies - "I got Disney knickers!" (Hetty, 3) - "A chemistry set! Just what I've always wanted!" (Felix, 5). It was lovely! We spent a good while watching them open presents under the tree, and some time after 11 hit the road to have lunch with Helena's family in Sheffield.

We arrived home some hours later stuffed full of turkey, bread sauce, veggies and pudding in time to light a fire in the sitting room (John finds it funny that I say 'lounge room'!), and to put the telly on to watch the Dr Who christmas special (with Kylie Minogue). I'm not giving anything away, but it was absolutely excellent!! - as expected. Mmm, David Tennant...

On boxing day Helena packed a picnic lunch, and we headed out for a 5 mile walk at a place called Bolton Abbey. It too was built in 1100-something, but is partly falling down which gave it a wonderful medieval feel. We started out at a cafe enjoying coffee and biscuits, and I saw the start of a hunt, Beagles and all! (although I gather hunting is illegal, so it wasn't a real hunt, it was just for show). We walked around the abbey for a while, had lunch (I'm a Bovril convert, it's sort of like Vegemite), then set out on our 5 mile walk. Felix and Hetty ran all over the place, up and down and all around, and I was the one who was the most buggered by the 5th mile...!

Unfortunately it didn't snow over christmas, but it was a lovely time none the less.

new arrivals...

'Twas the thursday before christmas, when all of London was stirring....and I headed out to Heathrow to meet Sharon and Karl at the arrivals gate! They'd done what most seasoned travellers don't do, and that's fly straight through from Australia. I waited anxiously, hoping they were still able to stand upright, when they came bounding through the silver doors, full of energy! I was in awe, and amazed!

I got them back to Chiswick via the glorious London tube, and that night we went to the local pub, the Swan. Not surprisingly they crashed not long after forks were downed.

On saturday we headed out to Hampton Court Palace, where Henry VIII lived. It was amazing, and we spent all day there. Sunday was the foggiest day I've ever seen (and it didn't lift all day!), so the proposed flight on the London Eye had to be postponed, and we walked our legs off seeing Big Ben, Westminster, Downing St, Trafalgar Sq, St James Park and Buckingham Palace instead. Oh and then we hit the London Dungeons and had the crap scared out of us.

Monday was christmas eve, so the 3 of us headed north to the country (me to Leeds), and departed from Kings Cross. For the Harry Potter fans, here's me at Platform 9 3/4!