Another long weekend

I can't believe how many long weekends they have in this country. Not that I'm complaining - it's brilliant - and now I have only three days of work before we head off to Germany for the Bergkirchweih (three days of beer, beer and more beer...and then some giant pretzels). Only disadvantage of this is that because I am now a freelancer, I only actually get paid for the work that I do (and no paid holidays) so only working for three days means I only get paid for three days. But that's what budgeting is for I suppose. Thankfully the beer in Germany is cheap.

Have started playing netball again and we have our second game tomorrow night. Unfortunately at the end of last week I wrecked my ankle so don't know if I will actually be able to play anymore. We will see. I haven't been to the gym in about two weeks so better do some kind of exercise!

Nae bother, just go to Edinburgh

Well the sun has come out in London again, but my new favourite place is Edinburgh. We had such a nice weekend there - it is beautiful, the people are unbelievably helpful and friendly (compared to London anyway), and there are plenty of places to visit, alleys to explore and great bars, restaurants and cafe's (obviously one of the most important attributes!). See my updated photostream-thingy down the right hand side for some pics of the castle and various other sites in the Georgian new town (which is really not so new) and the Old Town - the side of town where the castle and the Royal Mile is. We didn't really do much except walk, eat and drink, but it's exactly the sort of city where you can happily do nothing but. And if you get lost, there are plenty of people to help you out or point you in the right direction, along with a friendly "Nae bother!" (in London if you asked a bus driver for help he would just pretend he didn't hear you). Due to a mix-up with our booking, we were effectively upgraded to stay at the Canon Court Apartments which gave us a one bedroom apartment with huge bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living room for a reduced rate (we deserved this due to the near heart-attack I suffered when I was told on Thursday afternoon that our booking at another nearby guest house hadn't been confirmed for the right dates - their fault - and that we didn't have a room at all. A few deep breaths and some frantic phone calls later it was thankfully solved).

On Sunday we took a short bus ride to Leith which is by the water and had a huge pot of mussels and a glass of wine at a beautiful restaurant by a lock. Absolute bliss - I must have put on about a hundred kilos though. Oh well! More on Edinburgh later - am going outside to enjoy the London sun!

There's a mouse in the house..

We have a small hairy problem in our house. Apparently this is par for the course while living in London (and incidentally, next to a Chinese restaurant) and I guess I should be happy that this is the first time we have had this problem. Sim was terrorised my a small furry friend all last year - to the extent that she would come home and find the little mouse sitting on her pillow and munching on her clothes. And now we have a little rodent of our own - how nice. Shell's screams yesterday alerted us to the fact! Now apparently we must get mouse traps etc which I really want absolutely nothing to do with (I don't think I could handle if it I was the one to discover the corpse!). Perhaps we need a cat...

I am currently on a contract working for a government department which has actually been quite good and suprisingly well-paid. However I am suffering as it's now 4.30pm (yes I am working, shhhh) and normally about this time I would be contentedly sipping some tea. Yet this place (shock/horror/gasp!) does not supply tea and/or coffee and I am suffering severe withdrawals. You even have to bring in your own milk - I severely object.

Up in the UK Newie

We went up to Newcastle on the weekend - probably a good idea since the rain has come back with a vengeance (we knew this April summer madness couldn't last). Newcastle is waayyy up north and is actually not too bad a place. It sits on the River Tyne and has some nice coastal spots and even a mini Sydney Harbour Bridge (apparently it was built around the same time by the same architect as kind of a prototype - but I could be misinformed..) It is also (somewhat unfortunately) the stag and hen night capital of the UK so wherever you go, you can spot groups of sexed-up men or sad looking ladies in pink sashes and tiaras. The nightlife is pretty good though - we sampled it when I ventured up there in my first few months in the UK. This time it was a BBQ at Nicola's house for her birthday which was just as good, and involved around the same measures of alcohol. We stayed in Jesmond, which is a pretty, convenient area for anyone looking to visit Newcastle - there are a ton of reasonably priced hotels (but if you don't want to share it with a bunch of stags and students, maybe head elsewhere).

We also visited some nice coastline - like the beach at Tynemouth which if you close your eyes and squint, could pass for a beach down the south coast of New South Wales somewhere. Nearby is also the famous Hadrian's Wall which I didn't get the chance to see (ok, so it's only a wall but it's around 2000 years old and was built by a Roman emperor which I think is pretty cool). I really want to get around and see more of the UK this year - as there are some quality places to go which are so cheap as compared to London. I'm heading to Edinburgh this weekend which I'm very excited about. Got to make the death-haul to Gatwick but oh well - at least it is not Stansted! (I'm reserving that for my trip to Germany in a few weeks..).

Pru and Kylie...

After all my huge ideas about how I was going to maximise my long weekend by going to some gorgeous, exotic destination - I ended up doing nothing but relaxing (and eating) for three long days. Which, I have to say, was actually quite enjoyable. I have made the resolution that I want to visit more museums in London, since there are so many good ones (all of them free) and since I first arrived here and went to a million in my first few months, I haven't really been to another. So the long weekend (and some quite dreary weather) was the perfect opportunity. I took a suprisingly compliant Paul along to the Victoria and Albert Museum (known as V & A for the cool locals) and saw the Kylie exhibition. I thought it might be a bit naff, but it was actually really entertaining. Paul got annoyed with me though as I kept incessantly repeating how I couldn't believe how tiny Kylie Minogue actually is (all her costumes are displayed on pint-sized Kylie mannequins). Now I'm the kind of size which people would class as slim and I am also a midget, and there is no way I could have fitted in some of those sequinned creations! The rest of the V & A is also fascinating (it's like a design/textiles/fashion museum) but we just didn't have enough time to see everything and so will have to go back. We also spent a good hour or so relaxing by the gorgeous lemon tree grove and fountain in the centre courtyard of the museum having a coffee in the sun, which took up quite a bit of time of our 'museuming'. The whole day was free, so you can't complain really!

Come on, i know you want to - here you can Dress up your own Kylie cut-out doll (I really hope this is aimed at children, otherwise it is just plain bizarre)

London on the cheap

There's no shame to wanting to save a few pounds here or there while still wanting to enjoy the finer things in life. When you live in London and every £10 you spend could have gone on a flight to Paris/Berlin/Budapest you have to save the dosh where you can. A couple of weeks ago I had possible the cheapest evening I have ever had out in London while actually attending an interesting event (ie not just going to a bar and scabbing free drinks of everyone else). This may sound incredibly dorky, but I actually went to a book reading at my local Waterstones (a high street bookstore chain) and was pleasantly surprised. It was packed for starters, and the author was considerably famous - Marina Lewycka - who wrote the funny and sweet A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian and has a new novel out called Two Caravans. She read excerpts from her latest novel, spoke about it and answered questions, and was thoroughly interesting. Before you think I've completely lost it, the other redeeming quality of the night was that there were free snacks and wine! I had dragged Shell along (she only came for the wine I suspect :) and tickets were only £3, which was subtracted from the cost of the book if you bought a signed copy. Not bad for a weeknight out I reckon.

While on the subject of wine and saving money, is it wrong that I have taken to buying wine online? This may sound like I am sinking into alcoholic depths, however it is incredibly economical if you get the frequent cheap deals from the major supermarkets like Tesco and Sainsbury's. And when you exist in a wine-drinking household such as hours, it is normal to expect that you are probably going to go through six bottles a month anyway..(right?), so why not just save the money by buying in bulk? Plus it saves you lugging the bottles back from the supermarket - a nice man delivers it to you! This is my money-saving tip for winos living in London anyway.

Plans, plans and more plans

With the Summer getting closer and the weather getting warmer, it has come time to start planning my summer holidays, my favourite part of living in London! With a lot to top from last year's travels (Italy, Croatia, Bulgaria, Germany - three times, France - three times, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Morocco) I've got to start planning! The whole month back in Australia obviously took the toll on my finances but I've been (kind of) good and can start planning more ways of spending my money! Next weekend we are off to Newcastle again for a friend's birthday and the weekend after that I am FINALLY going to Edinburgh for a weekend. I'm quite excited about this as I have been wanting to go to Scotland for ages. Flights were pretty cheap (£80 each return)and at convenient times, and I've found what looks like and hopefully is.. a cute B&B in the centre of the Old Town of Edinburgh. Accommodation also quite cheap: £68 per night for double room with ensuite in a "mid-range" centrally located B&B. Excepting Australia, this will be my first trip out of England since skiing Switzerland in January so I'm itching to go somewhere new.

Other trips so far planned is the annual trip back to Erlangen, Germany for the Bergkirchweih - sure to be a huge three days AND, the most exciting, two weeks in the US in August! Not sure if the US is quite ready for me, but nevertheless we are heading to San Francisco, LA, Vegas and Austin, Texas for two weeks and I can't wait. The Californian wineries are not going to know what has hit them! And Shell is clueing me up on the celebrity mansions I have to stake out in LA. Hopefully I make it back in one piece - I'll probably get arrested trying to tail Jennifer Aniston. More updates about our itinerary to come as they are actually planned (all we have done so far is book flights!)

Happy ANZAC Day

Today it's ANZAC day, and if ever there's a day I'm going to be homesick, it's today. And then I see images like this one - which get me all choked up and wishing I was standing in front of the Town Hall with the rest of my family waiting for my Nan to march past (and laugh with surprise when she sees us all waving frantically even though she knew we were there all along). My mum will without fail be holding back the tears and afterwards we would all go to a packed pub (usually packed with a bunch of young sailors, ahem) and have a beer or play some 2-up. So I guess that not only is it an extremely important day for all Australians and New Zealanders, but for my family too. I wonder what happened this year - as I have read that it was pouring. So I hope my Nan was ok! She probably just brought out her trademark brolly and red shoes :)

i didn't make it to Gallipoli this year. I intend to go there one day - but maybe not actually on ANZAC Day itself.A lot of travellers did make it over there today though. I hope they don't get all the news stories back home about how they desecrated the place - some idiots unfortunately just use it as an excuse to go somewhere, be loud and obnoxious and get drunk.

The Aussie pubs in London will be packed tonight. Our compensation for not getting the day off.

More London BBQs and the post-weekend detox

All this sunshine in London must have gone to my head, as I'm still feeling a little dizzy from the weekend. My quiet, 'i'll-be-home-by-nine' drink on Friday night with Shannon in Clapham turned into a bar-hopping mojito-fest which saw the pair of us (plus Shannon's cousin) stumbling into a Brixton Club at about 2am on Saturday morning and emerging some time after they turned all the ugly-lights on.

I was then forced to endure the embarrassment of being the only ill housemate on Saturday morning (well, I didn't really surface until about 1pm, even then it was very reluctantly). BUT, full credit to them, Paul and my housemates didn't let the fact that I was looking about as charming and healthy as a toad detract them from their mission, which was to bring me along to the picnic they were having in the park. More food and booze followed (and boules!) which was actually lovely and distracted me from the little gnome pounding my head with a hammer. I thought Aussies had really got the whole picnic in the the park thing down pat, but I have to say the English would definitely give us a run for our money. In the UK they don't have the luxury of built-in BBQs in parks like we do back home, so they just bring their Webber along with them to the park, whip off their shirts, set up the inflatable pool/cricket pitch/boules pitch and voila - a perfect picnic!

A few glasses of sparkling wine (topped up with juice for me - i did make some concessions to my hangover) and we all headed back home for another BBQ. I could definitely get used to the endless BBQs! (especially since the boys do it all - woohoo!).

Sunday we all went for a walk and discovered a great beer garden in Barnes at a gorgeous pub called The Red Lion. More lounging in the sun and Pimms followed.... you can see why I was a little bit shaky on Monday.

Sunshine and shopping

The weather is gorgeous! BBQ round two will definitely be occurring this weekend - combined with a boules tournament in the park I think! I am temping this week which has been great. I got a short contract working on some different magazines so it has been a nice change of scenery for me. Only bad thing is I am working near Oxford Circus in dangerously close proximity to Topshop, Miss Selfridge, Warehouse and many other shopping havens (ie deathtraps for paupers like me.) I haven't reduced myself to heading to the gargantuan new Primark on Oxford Street yet - the riot scenes when it opened (I'm not kidding) were enough to put me off for at least a few weeks! It is the size of a shopping centre on it's own for god's sake. For the Aussies - Primark is kind of like Target but cheaper, and with better clothes. Even though they have a lot of crap - really cheap crap - you can find some bargains if you are willing to search - jostling and grabbing may or may not be required at some branches (and one must always deny that the items they are wearing are actually from Primark - even though you are guaranteed to get comments on how cute you look on a budget!) Although, a lot of times I have found myself in this conversation with girls from work
Girl: "wow, cute top!"
Me: "um, thanks"
Girl: (hesitation) "um, is it from Primark?"
Me: (after deciding whether I know this person well enough to admit i am wearing clothes from Primark, and whether they actually own the identical top in another colour): "yeh! it was a bargain!!"
Girl: "I know! i have the same top in blue. I love Primark!"

And the friendship is born...

The BBQ is finally baptised

Yes we may have bought it back in August last year, but our BBQ is getting it's virgin run tonight (see it modelled beautifully here by Shell). The weather this weekend has been amazing and it would be criminal not to take advantage with some old-fashioned outdoor cuisine. I think everyone has had the same idea - Shell and Ray went to Homebase to pick up the missing part for our BBQ so we could get it working and apparently the BBQ section was crawling with happy punters! Temps hit a gorgeous 26 today which has just been bliss. This morning I was sunning in the overgrown, weed-ridden jungle that was once our manicured back garden - but with the sunshine Paul became filled with energy and did some mowing and weeding to return it to it's pre-winter state. I was cleaning up our side patio and was fishing plastic cups and cigarette butts from our house party last year out of the bushes (a clear indication that we haven't really been out there very much at all lately!). But our new outdoor furniture should be arriving next week and we are looking forward to lots of parties, BBQs and lazy Sundays in the sun. I love summer in England!

Did someone say 24 degrees?

Bring out the sunscreen, slap on the shorts and roll out the ice cream vans - predicted weather for tomorrow in London is a gorgeous 24 degrees! Scoff not, all you Aussies who think that just sounds like a warm winter day in Sydney, over here 24 degrees may as well be a sweltering day at the beach! I aim not to be a moaning Aussie who complains about the UK weather (and to be honest, you really do get used to it) but the thermometer going above 20 really is something to be celebrated at every opportunity. And 24 in April really is quite impressive - rest assured, I have a table by the Thames drinking Pimms tomorrow with my name written all over it. Summer's on it's way! (First I have to recover from my rather large night out at a charming little pub in Holland park last night - The Prince of Wales http://www.professorharbottle.co.uk/pub/londonwest/princeow3.html ) Ben is off to Brighton this weekend I think - it is going to be pumping with pasty English sunbaking on the beach!

Last weekend was of course Easter and it was also gorgeous weather then. We all went to the Cotwalds to get a nice home-cooked Easter meal by Ma and Pa Seddon and ended up doing quite a lot of reclining and relaxing in the sun and eating quite a lot of chocolate and cheese - perfect really! As it was Shannon's first time in this beautiful part of the English countryside we took her on a tour to some of the must-see hyphenated villages in the Cotswalds such as Stow-on-the-Wold and Bourton-on-the-Water (didn't make it to Stratford-upon-Avon this time as I have been there three times already and am really getting over it!). Of course had to stop by the organic dairy Daylesford and ogle at all the nice food we can't afford (well, we did buy some cheese - i've always got pounds for Daylesford cheese!). All in all, a very successful Easter weekend.

This is me - my 'visual DNA' (apparently)

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Rise in costs of UK visas - what do you think?

I'm doing a mini survey for the WORKgateways newsletter I write for, about the recent hike in costs of UK visas. If you are not aware, the prices of all UK visas has been dramatically increased, as of today. Working holiday visas and Ancestry visas which used to cost £85, now cost £200. The price of Entry Clearance for work permits and the HSMP has also risen from £85 to £200. Settlement visas which used to be £240, now cost a whopping £500.

UKvisas justification for the rise in costs is that they are 'aiming to improve the UK's competitiveness as a destination for travel, trade, migration and investment through programmes which prevent immigration abuse, deliver value for money and earn public confidence'. Read the full article here. One of the groups hit hardest will be working travellers from countries where currencies are getting weaker and weaker against the pound. UK Working visas for Australians and Kiwis now cost a huge $520 AUD/ $620 NZD (in comparison, British people wanting to work for 12 months in Australia pay $185).

As many travellers as there are out there who are fuming at the increase in costs, I'm sure there are also those who think it's a good thing (a few less Aussie's in Earls Court would probably be not such a bad thing!). If you have a comment, please feel free to post it in response below. Again, thanks to recent posts by certain Anonymous individuals, I am now moderating comments - but I will certainly publish yours if you have something valid to say!

Do they hate us?

Some interesting points - some of them extremely valid. New Yanks and Jafas - Why no-one likes Aussies anymore. My first foray to a Walkabout on the weekend for the first time since the AFL grand final last year, was thoroughly embarrassing. The point must be made however, that for every bogan, idiotic, ignorant and completely juvenile Aussie I meet in London (of which there were quite a few there on Saturday), I meet an educated, interesting and worldly Aussie to match. So perhaps Australia is like any country - you get the morons, and then you get the ones worth worrying about.

PS This is not an open invitation for 'Anonymous' individuals to write insulting comments about Australians on my blog. Thanks.

Getting the best seat in the house

This is a topic close to the hearts and minds of travellers everywhere - especially for me with my apparent genetic tendency to blood-clot! I had no idea things had got so advanced - and so competitive. It's no longer good enough to turn up at the airport early and ask for a window seat! Check it out - How to get the best seat on the plane

NSW Election Day this Saturday - Iemma Vs Debnam

Either you're newly arrived in the UK and fresh from the NSW debates about de-salination VS recycled water, Debnam's budgie smugglers, Iemma's embarrassing "More to do...but heading in the right direction" campaign slogan and grumbles over the NSW transport and road systems, or you've been neglecting your Australian citizenship duties while you're living it up in London!

If you haven't voted already, today is your last chance to make your voice heard from an afar - it's the NSW election and even though you're in London, you can still cast your vote.

How do I vote?
Get down to Australia House today before 3.30pm to cast your postal vote! Find out more here

Help! I have no idea what's going on in Australian state politics!
Iemma and Rudd have just made their 'plea' to NSW to warn of the dangers of a backlash of protest votes (understandably the NSW public has been quite irate of late! - opening of the M2 tunnel anyone?). But opinion polls have consistently placed Labour ahead of Debnam's Liberals - prompting commentators to lament about the choice of picking 'the best worst one'.

To read more about the election, visit the Sydney Morning Herald NSW Election microsite or the NSW Election official site.

You can't beat the Borough

Tomatoes at Borough Market, London,
originally uploaded by WordRidden.

In the past year and a half, I've steadily been completing a comprehensive tour of all the great markets in London. Until Saturday, I hadn't yet ventured to Borough Market, and I'm very glad I finally did! Borough Market, minutes from London Bridge, is London's oldest food market and it is amazing - it's the most delectable smorgasbord of tastes, smells and sights and will have you breaking every diet rule in the book as you wander amongst all the stalls taste-testing all the wares. I actually didn't need to buy any lunch for myself as I was so full from sampling cheese, chutneys, tapenades, sausages, falafel, cured meats, muesli, chocolate brownies etc etc (it really is the perfect destination for skint working travellers in this respect!) Just watch out you don't spend as much money as we did on purchasing a gourmet selection of the things we sampled (hhmm, I'm thinking this is the whole point of taste-testing, no? Crafty buggers).

You can get every imaginable type of cheese (yes, I had a field day), all kinds of fresh produce from France, Switzerland, Germany and more, plus fine wines and pate's, and weird stuff like haggis, fresh hare and pigs feet - mmmmm. There's also some great deals to be had at the fresh fruit and vegetable stalls, if you're over buying sick-looking veggies from Tesco and Sainsbury's. We got about 60 of the reddest, ripest, most delicious vine tomatoes for a pound - bargain! Will definitely be going back.

Beating the British Bulge - staying fit in London

I've lived here for over a year and a half so I can't really use the Heathrow Injection - the old adage that everyone piles on a few pounds once you walk through the gates of Heathrow - as an excuse anymore. These days my biggest problem is the pile of Tim Tams/Caramello Koalas/Cherry Ripes etc that I brought back with me from Australia 'to share' with my London housemates (let's just say there has not been much sharing).

Anyway, it's about that time of the year when it starts to get warmer and you start thinking about all those summer clothes you've got to squeeze back into in a few months. It's a little bit harder for working travellers in London who have been coping with the unfamiliar winter chill with cheap pub meals, pints and nights out in the capital. The good news is though is that there are plenty of (affordable) ways to beat the bulge in London.

Social sports
Now it's getting warmer, the outdoor social sports comps are starting again. I've signed up for netball again (£45 for 10 games in a social league) and my mates have organised a touch football team. There are heaps of comps and leagues across London and the UK where you can meet friends and get fit. I wrote about some of these leagues in the WORKgateways newsletter last year - check it out here

Gyms
Many travellers are astounded by the cost of gym memberships in London - for a decent gym in inner London you are looking at membership fees of between £60-£80 per month. You should instead look to smaller community fitness/rec centres which allow you to pay per visit or have lower fees (of course the equipment and decor of these places is not going to be as nice as the plush inner city gyms though). You could always just head to your local lido (the Brit name for an outdoor swimming pool) for a calorie-burning splash.

Gym deals
Having said how expensive gyms in London, you can definitely pick up some great discounts and deals so keep an eye out. PruHealth is currently running a promotion that if you sign up for health insurance with them (at a cost of £18-£25 per month), you can get six months free gym membership at Cannons health clubs. They also offer a discounted rate for Virgin Active gyms across London. Another loophole to saving cash, is that if you join up to PruHealth via the online cashback co-operative Quidco you get £115 cashback on top of your free/discounted gym membership (I did this myself in February so can guarantee it works).

Spectator sports
If exercise is not for you (and who are we kidding, there are a lot of us out there!), perhaps spectating is more your style. One of the most fun sporting events in London coming up is the Oxford and Cambridge Boat race, held on the Thames in Putney. It's on 7 April. Everyone over here is also getting excited about the Rugby World Cup, to be held later this year in France, and the Cricket World Cup which has kicked off in the West Indies. Go team!

Back in the UK...and Brighton

It's good to be back. Freezing...but good to be back. My jet lag is only just starting to wear off (I have been bouncing off the walls at 6am most mornings), and was combated by perhaps not the most effective method: denial. Adamant that I was fine I went about the weekend, planning dinners out etc. This has resulted in me being more than just a little space-cadet-esque for the past few days. We did go to Brighton though (my 'welcome back to the UK' treat) and although the winds were hurricane-inducing and the rain was torrential, it was still a very nice couple of days. I finally made it inside Brighton's Royal Pavilion this time too - a feast of opulent design and architecture. It really takes your breath away (last time we spent so much time in the fascinating museum nearby we never made it to the pavilion). Also discovered more of Brighton's delights in the form of the vegetarian and organic cafe's and restaurants (a great one we tried was Food for Friends) and of course browsed the local boutiques, art studios, and unique shops. Oh I love that place.