And now, the end is near

I can't believe that my time in London comes to an end today. Even as I'm writing this I am tearing up.

The past year has been the best year of my life. I have had some fantastic adventures, seen some great places, and made and strengthened some wonderful friendships.

Last night I had a farewell dinner in Covent Garden and was truly touched by the turnout, that so many people would come along to see me off.

Whilst saying goodbye to Matt, Mark, Emma and Laura wasn't too bad, knowing that I would see them again soon, saying goodbye to others was a little heartbreaking.

Bondy and Alli were the first friends that *I* made in London, and through them I became good friends with Kasia, Matt, Beavis, Matt (yeah, there were a lot of Matt's there last night), Sarah and Adam. I have had some hilariously fun times with these guys, from long orphan Christmas lunches to weekends away at the most unlikely of places. My time in London wouldn't have been the same without these guys.

The other people I shall dearly miss are my friends from The Government Agency, Georgina, Colm and Keef. After seeing you every day it was extremely difficult to say goodbye, and there was a stiffled sob at Waterloo train station last night. Colm, I know you are reading this, so please pass it on to Georgina as well. I shall miss you two dearly and promise to stay in touch. And my parents' beach house is available any time you decide to come to Australia! (That's okay isn't it mum?)

Now Amber, either you are going to have to move back to Australia or I am going to have to move back to London, okay? Amber was the one that convinced me to move overseas and I would not have had the brilliant time here without her. Amber is one of the most intelligent and funniest people I know, and quite often I am her little prophet, quoting her words of wisdom to others (Olly looks like he smells like dairy, jewellry is for Greeks and mistresses). I warn you Amby, that our goodbyes in Brisbane aren't going to be a dry affair.

And Angela, my little Model Mondays and Wild European Vacation partner in crime, what am I going to do without you? Part of me wants to stay here just so that I can share all of your London adventures with you. I hope your time in London is as happy as mine. Make the most of the opportunities you have here and just live it up.

After nearly two years in London I am going home with £500 in my pocket. I know, it's not much is it. But I have had so many holidays and nights out and trips to the theatre and a Chelsea football game and a glorious Marc Jacobs handbag and hundreds upon hundreds of photos of all the fun and mementos of my time here and a blog detailing my time here and a suitcase of cute dresses and some lifelong friends. So I would say that I have done pretty well.

Adieu London, see you soon.

PS. This blog is not going to end just because I am going home, not now that I have four readers (hi!)

Two Aussie girls in a quaint English college town

The other weekend Alli and I went to Cambridge, and discovered where England is hiding all of their good looking men – on the punting boats on the Cam River. I’m serious, I have never seen so many attractive guys in one spot in all my time in England. Needless to say, we spent quite a bit of time down by the river that weekend.

Cambridge is a gorgeous little town, nicer than Bath I might even say, because it isn’t quite so touristy.

Alli and I took the train from Kings Cross on Saturday morning and 45 minutes and a good gossip later, arrived in Cambridge. I’m not sure if they layed it on just for our arrival, but the stench of horse manure was the first thing that hit us when we arrived. It was rather awful.

After dropping our bags off at our cheap and compact (but cute) hotel we walked the mile and a half into the city to begin our sightseeing – at H&M, where I contemplated purchasing a jumper because of the overcast weather and my stingy packing. Instead I bought a sequin top, which turned out to be a better investment as the sun came out and the day turned in to a beautiful one.

We walked through the town, and around the amazing Kings College, and headed down for our highly anticipated boat ride. Cambridge is famous for its river Cam and the punting boats. According to Wikipedia…

A punt is a flat-bottomed boat with a square-cut bow, designed for use in small rivers or other shallow water. Punting refers to boating in a punt. The punter generally propels the punt by pushing against the river bed with a pole. A punt should not be confused with a gondola, which is propelled by an oar rather than a pole.

Alli and I sat up the front of the boat, enjoying the sun and the views, and playing the ubiquitous travelling game – Tap That. It is Sparky, Bec and mine’s favourite game, and if you have travelled with us before you will know how to play it…

Saturday night Alli and I had an uber romantic meal at an outdoor Italian restaurant, where we got the party started with some champagne. Then we met up with some friends of Alli’s at where else but the Slug and Lettuce. After a bottle of wine and a couple of cocktails between us, we decided to call it a night.

We were up at a reasonable time and were in reasonable health, which is a rare occurance when Alli and I travel together. We made our way back into town and set ourselves up in a park beside the river, watching all the self punters run into each other and fall into the water – hilarious!

Sunday afternoon we visited Alli’s friend’s mum for lunch, before making our way back to the train station and then spending most of the trip back sleeping and sweating it out in a cattle class train.

Another thing to cross off on my “to do before I leave England” list!

Update

Okay, so I have been a little slack with my blog lately. I've been doing stuff, it's just I don't think it's that interesting to read about.

The other weekend I went to Cardiff with Alli, Kat, Kasia, Karina and Beavis. There isn't much to see or do in Cardiff to be honest, so we went to the Australian-themed bar and cut up a rug. Honestly, we owned that joint. Apart from that, we walked around the city and bought some souveniers to prove that we were actually there.

The UK is currently in the midst of swine flu fever, and I have been doing a lot of work on this. As Internal Communications Manager at The Government Agency, I am privy to the inside information. My manager has come to my desk several times and asked to see me in private on several occasions, leading me to think that I was in trouble, however it is just so I can get the low down on what's happening. I am not as important as Bec though. She is sitting on the crisis response team at The Local Borough Council, which allocates her the prestigious 'category 2' rank for when/if the UK decided to carry out nation-wide vaccinations, putting her just after emergency service front line staff who are category 1.

Also at work, I had my annual performance appraisal with my manager. He is extremely pleased with the work that I have been doing, so it looks like my job is pretty secure.

I continued with my lucky streak, winning tickets to a play through the London Paper . So far I have won music festival tickets, a trip to Copenhagen, and some lettuce seeds. London Paper, you rock! Dom and I went to see the play on Friday, which was actually pretty good. Much better than the opera that Dom had convinced me that we were going to see. We had a few drinks in Fulham afterwards, though quickly sobered up when we saw a fight in the middle of the street. Some kid smashed another with a bottle, and I saw him fall with a thud to the pavement, his head falling heavy on the cement. Everyone was running around screaming but no one thought to check the guy on the floor. I went over to see if he was okay, but was pushed aside by a heroine screaming "get him in the recovery position!", so I left them to it. Dom and I hailed the first cab we saw and hot footed it out of there. I have never seen such a fight. Honestly, I cannot understand it.

I am having drinks this Saturday to celebrate the second anniversary of my 25th birthday. I don't like not being with my family for birthdays, however I LOVE the Dora the Explorer package of birthday presents that I received from home today. I promise not to open it until my birthday mum!

The highlight of the month would have to be Croatia! On Saturday 16 May we head to Split for a week cruising around glorious Croatia. I. Can. Not. Wait!

And that's it really. A boring, jokeless update. Sorry guys, I promise something more interesting next time.

A very happy Easter

I have attempted to write this blog entry several times, but I haven’t known where to start and I have been overwhelmed by how much I have to share. Perhaps I should start it with my catch phrase for the holiday…

Disneyland is the happiest place on earth!


For months and months I have been saying how badly I wanted to go to Disneyland Resort Paris, and finally someone entertained the idea with me. Eurostar had some fantastic package deals going (£230 for train and accommodation), so Alli, Karina and I decided to go for the Easter long weekend.

We had a very early start on Friday morning, as we boarded the Eurostar with ham and cheese sandwiches (Alli and Karina) and a belly full of excitement (moi). I’ve said it before and I will say it again, Eurostar is my favourite way to travel. Within a few hours we arrived at the train station outside Disneyland Paris (henceforthwith to be referred to as Disneyland), dropped our bags off at the hotel, and then hit the massive shopping mall across from where we were staying. This was a bit of a novelty – you don’t get shopping centres in London as all of the shops are on the High Streets. We picked up a few necessities (dresses and denim skirts) and then proceeded to set up shop at the only pub in the funny little village, where we sat drinking inexpensively good wine and beer until the sky got dark at 9pm.

Side note – they built Disneyland and it’s surrounding hotels in the middle of nowhere, so it felt like you were on a movie lot. You would look down the street and it would end and there would just be flat empty fields. You would look the other day down the street and it was the same again.

Saturday morning we got up early, put our most comfortable shoes and flattering tops on (in preparation for a lot of walking and a lot of photos) and hit the park.

The week before I had done some internet research and found a website created by a woman that must go to Disneyland several times a year. She gave explicit instructions as to which turnstile to go to, which ride to go on first, how to dissuade people from overtaking you and other handy tips.


First up was Frontierland, and the Thunder Mountain Railroad ride. This was the best thing to wake up three slightly sleepy girls, and we laughed so hard we had tears in our eyes. From there we hit Indiana Jones, where I questioned the need for a harness until we found out the ride went upside down. Karina and Alli weren’t too happy with that.

We got Fast Passes for Peter Pan, and while waiting for our allotted time to ride we pepped ourselves up with a fantastic espresso (French coffee is so much better than the rubbish you get in London), surprisingly enjoyed the annoying song and freaky animatronics of It’s A Small World, nearly brought up said espresso on the Spinning Tea Cups, and had a little wander around Fantasyland.

Peter Pan was okay, though not worth the 40 minutes wait that many poor parents were enduring with their restless children. However the Snow White ride was even more disappointing, with the woman in question making just one appearance at the end of the ride. We took a shortcut through the castle over to Futureland, where we picked up Fast Passes for Space Mountain, before heading back to Frontierland for a delightful and well-priced lunch of fajitas. The rest of the afternoon was a busy one as we tackled Space Mountain (Best. Ride. Ever!), the carousel, the Buzz Lightyear laser ride, the Honey I Shrunk the Kids 3D show, the Haunted Mansion, the slowest train in the world, and the Storybook boat ride.



Surprisingly, the Storybook boat ride provided us with the biggest laugh of the day. Each boat has four rows of seats, and Alli, Karina and I sat in the front row. The next to board the vessel were a couple and their two kids, however the wife and one child got in the second row and sat on the left hand side, and her husband with the other child got in the third row and sat on the left had side. Suddenly the little pink boat lurched to the side and we were in danger of capsizing among the minature replicas of storybook settings. Without missing a beat, Alli has turned around and said “I’m no marine expert, but I know what floats! Now one have you is going to have to move over”. Ha ha ha!

I had the most fantastic day, and was walking around the park with a massive grin on my grid for most of it. Everything at Disneyland is done so well. All of the waiting areas and exit areas for the rides are themed – actually, there isn’t a single square metre of the park that isn’t themed. Music is piped throughout the park, with the theme songs from all your favourite Disney movies. Everyone is getting around wearing Minnie or Mickey Mouse ears or toting massive character-shaped helium balloons behind them. Little girls could buy replica Disney princess dresses, so there were lots of cute Belles and Cinderellas and Sleeping Beauties everywhere. Being in France, the place had a slight European feel to it, and all of voiceovers for the rides were in French.

We finished the day with some souvenir shopping and Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream, before we went back to the hotel and crashed, very happy and very tired.

On Sunday we decided to go to Warner Bros Studios next door to Disneyland with our two-day park hopper pass, but not before another ride on Thunder Mountain Railroad to wake us up. There were at least three times as many people in the park on Sunday, which sort of killed our excitement. And I have to say, after the magical day we had at Disneyland, the Studios were disappointing. Alli and I lined up for the Aerosmith Rock and Rollercoaster, but it broke down as we were nearing the front of the queue. Then we waited nearly an hour to go on the Studio Tour, which was the biggest piece of rubbish ever. I got a Fast Pass for the Hollywood Hotel ride, but even that didn’t work as I had to wait in line for nearly half an hour while a German family standing behind me got all up in my business. There is a joke about invasion of personal space and invasion of Poland to be made, but I’ll let you do it. In theme park terms, if Disneyland is the happiest place on earth, than Warner Bros Studios is the crappiest place on earth.

All in all though, I really had a wonderful time. I missed spending Easter with the family, but this was best way to spend it otherwise!

“When you wish upon a star, Makes no difference who you are, Anything your heart desires, Will come to you” When You Wish Upon a Star, Disney