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Saturday Night

As I sit down to write this post, I have been in London for one week - to the minute. I just looked out the window and saw an Emirates plane flying towards Heathrow. I'm not sure if the schedule stays the same, but if it does that's the same flight I took last Saturday. I'm completely synched to local time now, but I still wake up early due to the sunrise. The internet's down at the moment which means I can't publish the post for a while (and I can't catch up on Doctor Who! The season finale just finished, but the signal's really bad in overcast weather anyway. Digital TV sucks).

One week... it's all so surreal. Am I really in another country? I'm not sure if I've grasped that or if it's really as small as I'm feeling it. But as my dear friend put it in an email the other day "They are just different people in the same world". I've gotten used to saying 'pounds' (haven't actually bought anything yet, that should be fun), but 'pence' is too weird. Everyone says 'p' anyway though.

If you're into linguistics like me, you might already know that when Brits ask a question the pitch goes down at the end, but Aussies' questions go up (an inflection I think it's called?). Well if you can count that as acquiring part of an accent then I'm afraid to tell you that I'm fully there. Afraid my foot - everybody knows I wanted one. Still got some pride, though. Scoffing at a "long" drive (3 hours) made me feel great. But I may have exagerated when I said that's a day trip for us, there and back.

We went to the school fete today - a May Fayre it's called. (Real spelling! Not Mayfair.) It's to kickstart the Spring they say. There was Maypole dancing and bouncing castles (jumping castles!) and a petting zoo and food and craft stalls. When I arrived there was folk music for the dancing and I thought "what a great traditional atmosphere!" Then it finished and they put on One Direction and Taylor Swift. Oh well. I thought of you Charlotte. I'm breaking my blogging rule to put in a smiley face for you! :)

I walked around for a bit but then I started to see faces of friends back home. Either that or Lady Gaga was the reason I left but it was nice to get back to my room and write some letters. I've had a couple of days of homesickness. Gone for a year - that is damn scary. I miss everybody and I've wished I was back with my family, but I know it will get better as time goes on. I'm trying the local church tomorrow and I hope it's really great (and that I make friends close to my age - is that too much to hope for?). I need a new wallet since pounds are wider (upways) than aus dollars. And they're made of paper - I mean really, don't they sweat here?

Sunday afternoon

Well the internet's down for a few days they say. That's fine I'll just keep adding to this TextEdit document.

Today I went to the local church. It's a big old building - you've probably seen one like it - and on the inside it has all those tacky banners and flowers and traditional stuff. But the people there were really, really friendly and I even got a mention from the front as "Jessica from Armidale, Australia" so that was a nice way of being introduced. About 88% of the people there were at least sixty, but I don't think it was a typical sample because the 'junior church' were off doing something and there were extra people from the partner church down the road because it was the vicar's last service before retiring. I almost forgot I was in England while I was in there, because apart from the lady who read the bible the accents weren't very obvious. Or maybe they just suited the building. They sang hymns with an organ and a choir. It's not identical to my home church, and I didn't gather much from the 'message', but I'll definitely go back again next week. Maybe see what else is in the wider suburb too.

I'm feeling good today. Watched Pollyanna after lunch on telly, golly it's a feel-good-film. I cried for joy in the ending and was happy for the rest of the afternoon. Thanks to everyone who's been emailing! It means SO much and I can't wait till I get the internet back! 'Africa' by Toto was on the radio the other day which made me happy. Gotye was on today! Wow! And thought of you Izzy (and Stu) because they played Passenger's 'Let Her Go' (and I wasn't even annoyed, happy even). Some Florence took back with you, Sarah. They love Paul Simon here - I've heard more of him and Garfunkel than anything else. And if I told you I was kind of over the new Doctor Who, I take it back. This season is really good! I'm enjoying it so much more than 2011's.

Well I actually woke up with a cold this morning, but when I said good I meant good in an emotional way. I would have loved to have been sitting next to a friend in church but it was all OK and I enjoyed it. Mostly. They do good tea (everywhere) and they give it to you with milk already. My nose is red and sore from snotting all day and I've got hives on my leg from being too hot (polar opposites on my own body!?) but compared to Friday night I'm one happy little Vegemite. Ah, that's something that would make no sense here. My host Mum made Yorkshire puddings with tonight's roast dinner. And we had European cheeses for supper last night. Feel so spoiled! This weekend I might go into Baker Street (and visit 221B, there's a museum I think) or somewhere exciting and go bananas. The London Eye... gotta rustle up the guts... gotta get that new wallet. Or an underclothes bum-bag equivalent. Grooovy.

Monday night

Ugh my snot turned yellow today. I woke up feeling rotten after a rotten sleep. I haven't caught a cold in years! Until now. Second week in England. Oh well. I bought some stuff today! And I think I've got my head around the coins. Anyone could probably rip me off still but soon it will be second nature I'm sure. The lady must have thought me weird when I had to read the amount on the one pound coin. 

Tuesday morning 

The cold is a bit better today, I slept soundly and woke 1 minute before my alarm - proof: body clock totally atuned. It's miserable outside though, and most of the blossoms are pretty much all dropped. It's a good thing my life isn't a movie or that could be some gloomy metaphor (for want of the proper term, help me out here?). I'm doing alright though. People here, instead of saying "how you going?" say "how you doin'" and then they answer it straight away with another question: "alright?" or they just say "you alright?" I remembered a couple of days ago that a friend warned me of this because at first she thought people were thinking she wasn't "alright," when really it's just their [insert linguistic term that I have forgotten and would google if I had internet - it must be my cold]. It's still weird though. I have to stop myself and focus on a polite answer...

I must remember to get postcards in the city. Sending a letter to Australia is a lot cheaper than I thought it would be, which is great. The chocolate here is much less creamy, I don't enjoy it as much. The peanut M&Ms taste like they've had liposuction - you know where they suck fat out of your bum or something. I think that this country hates fat and oily fat more than anything...! I bought my usual moisturiser and it came out looking like unhomogenised milk, or that rice goo that babies have, but 'healthy' white. It's weird how they have to change products for different places. 

Tuesday night

Not much to talk about, it's just the document was on my desktop and there's STILL NO INTERNET and nothing on TV and I have hives again because it's really warm inside. But the hives are dots and not stripes like usual, which makes me wonder if I'm reacting to something that's not the usual thing I react to (which I'm unsure of but I think it's heat or stress). But I have dotty and stripy hives and I'm thinking if this makes the cut to the final blog I'm a looney.

Wednesday Morning

Oh yeah, being stuck inside all day due to the weather isn't all bad. Yesterday Little Miss and I danced around the kitchen to "I Like To Move It" and some 1D... We made orange juice, took the "puppy" to the "vet"...

I just want the internet back!! And an old friend. I'm not great at working at new friendships, and one family is quite a lot to get to know. Well I should have thought of that before I came. It'll be good for me I know. My cold is getting better and I'm sleeping well, I just hope this cough doesn't linger. My hayfever's back too. This is not a grumble blog! Shut up!

Later

Hmm I'm so bored I'm actually watching Top Gear. Maybe it's comforting since I am so so so far from anything familiar...