Sunny Day in London

Ah finally the Blogger app for iPhone has allowed horizontal typing. Here is a happy post after I put all the whinging in an email to my mum - sorry mum!

Well I've spent a beautiful day starting with church, following on with a church barbeque which I was kindly & spontaneously invited to, finishing with church in the evening. Right now I'm in the park killing time before hand but I prefer to do that than go home and turn around again. It's such a sunny day - I GOT SUNBURNT!  Not proud but very pleased with the weather.

This church is unlike St Marks in that the services are not considered separate congregations or even separate churches, but the evening is more of an add-on for those wanting a slightly less formal and organy do, hence it's a wee bit smaller.

I've been Christened 'Jesso' after admitting that some people back home do in fact call me that. Introducing the word 'bogan' caused a huge sensation, but 'wife beater' didn't really compute. I can't believe so many people here watch Neighbours. 'What? No badgers?' 'The mullet, that's an Australian hairdo right?' 'Have you eaten kangaroo?' I could say yes to that last one happily. 

Oh I still have to write a post about my Tower Hill explorations yesterday. For now here's a picture of something yummy I have not seen in Australia - it looks like an ordinary Snickers bar but it's ice cream!!

Pigeon "rescue"

Folk I've met at church are really into The Cat Empire (a band from Melbourne - they had some Australian friends), and so I'm listening to the new album. It's good. Also, I'm not sure why my post on Portobello Road disappeared but I don't want to write it again so I'm sorry about that.

Well yesterday I went outside to water the garden, and saw a pigeon sitting in a pot plant. It was quite injured and could only walk. I called the RSPCA, they said take it to the local vet, so Little Miss and I herded him into a box and walked off down the road... The vet look one look and said "Oh geez." and then, "yep we're going to put him to sleep" (sensitively of course because of the four year old). I'm not sure how much she understood of what happened, but from the start I made it very clear that we would not keep it and we wouldn't see it again after we took it to the vet because they could take care of it. When she asked about it later that afternoon I said it had to go to sleep because it was in too much pain. I don't know how much we ought to talk about death. She knows that Aslan dies but comes back to life. She knows that flies die and yesterday morning when she asked what butterflies & bats turn into I said "nothing, they just die." I do fast forward the killing & battle scenes in Narnia though because there's knowledge and there's over exposure I guess.

She's a very bright young thing, my Little Miss

Necessities

Just took a red London bus. For the first time. Ah, you're thinking that it was my first time on an actual classic double decker? I'm sorry to disappoint but I mean that until today I had not used the bus service. At all. I have to say I much prefer the tube... You don't have to press the stop button! Who wants added stress in their lives? Yes the bus is cheaper. I will give it another go. Ok.

Afternoon activity

Hiyeh

That's how I say hello now. Sometimes. Picking up quite a bit of lingo. I discovered that the term "bubbler" (water fountain) is totally not used in London. Huh? The what? But Little Miss pronounces "yoghurt" my way now so the influence is two-way. "Pasta" is getting there gradually. (The Brits pronounce it so it rhymes with alabaster). I think I like the northern accents a lot.

This was meant to just be a post that said "I'm still alive but there's nothing to write," but it turns out there was. Yay!

So green

I'm sitting in a park on a bench. It's lightly raining but I'm under a big oak tree so I've got a sheltered view of several acres of mostly empty green grass. I'm glad I got out of the house, but still didn't feel like going into town for hours of pushing through crowds. Just me and the few dog walkers is good. The pathways are just so lovely around here! I took more photos but I'm conscious of the fact that it's just more trees and flowers and stinging nettle and ivy and river. Actually, through some of those paths it almost felt like I was heading to the beach. The highway sounded a bit like waves...

Uh oh, the rain just got heavier.

Hermit mumbles

I had a completely lazy day today. It rained. Welcome to summer! I made a discovery with my aunty on the phone that the average max temp for summer in London is quite similar to the numbers that Brisbane is having... right now. Funny old world.

I was going to go to Camden Markets or go and see Westminster Abbey or something. But I am wretchedly tired and needed one of those nothing days to regain my composure after a long week. London sights aren't going anywhere. Besides, the air show for the Queen's birthday flew right over our house so I could see it from my window. (I didn't realise what it was at first, because the planes were flying so low and they didn't look like passenger planes. I'm not one to freak out about stuff even if it's possible, and the sky was too blue for an invasion, but it certainly came into my head.)

Sorry there's no interesting news, and I know I go on about being tired a lot but if you saw the skin around my eyes you wouldn't wonder. Oh actually I rode in a convertible car yesterday, my host mum has one. The roof was down. That's a first for me. The dad has a porsche, and I guess when I got a lift home from the airport that was my first time in one of those too. I'm such a country kid... Little Man asks me what kind of car I have, and I say "Toyota Camry." One time he said "Oh yeah I've ridden in one of those." "Uh-huh, do you know what they look like?" "Yeah, um, sports car." Mmmhmm. It's a pretty wealthy neighbourhood. There's a stretch limo parked outside the school every afternoon, I have no idea why. Maybe I don't want to know.

Phone update

This is a quick note to say that I finally have a UK SIM card. As of a couple of hours ago my Australian mobile number will no longer be checked, so if you want the new one (for Viber or Whatsapp) let me know. Or ask Izzy. Cheerio!

My day

Well let's just say that getting off to school this morning was a bit of a drama, so after that I decided to go for a walk along the river. It's so pretty, I love it; and I wanted to find that echoey train tunnel... I wandered along further than before, then sought out the path through the paddock of shoulder-high grass. I came to a gate but it was to the main road which I don't think has a footpath, so I turned around and found my way through nettles (was safely clad in warm jeans, boots and coat despite it supposedly being summer) to what opened into a small flattened nest-like area with... a purple balloon? Ugh that's not a balloon. Yuck yuck yuck. I came away feeling disgusted and very disappointed, and on the path back to the river I saw slugs. Seems it was destined to be a bad day.

But then I found a place to cross the river, and on the other side there's a proper path made of gravel leading through a much nicer open mowed grass area. Passed some friendly dog walkers and eventually found the tunnel!

The path divided and led to the main road again (I saw a notice that I think said path closed - oops), or through a golf course. Not sure how to get to those fields mentioned but I'll keep exploring. By then I was sneezing constantly and my eyes were weeping from hay fever, so I went home and had ice cream and watched some drop dead diva before pick-up time at the nursery. Now I'm sitting in the swing while Little Miss makes new friends at the park. She's good at that.

Spot the pidgeons!

Yesterday was my one-month-in-England day, and I didn't even commemorate it with a post. Oh well.

I met the kid's grandparents and they're lovely. I feel at home already with them which is great. There are some
things about being a nanny which I find draining and often disheartening. It's hard work. I need strategies but mostly just love and patience. And a good walking path like the second one I discovered today. Not the first. The second one of which I saved some for another day...

I'm sleeping better now. I still wake up at 5, but I go back to sleep again and wake up around 6:30 or 7. I think I just needed it so badly and told myself to change the pattern. If you expect to wake at 3 - you will. If you think you're so tired you'll sleep through - well you've a better chance. I realised I'm doing that eat-when-bored/stressed thing. And there's so much snacky sugary salty stuff in these cupboards it cannot go well. Actually it goes really well. Which is not well at all. Deary me.

Anyway, happy birthday Sarah & James! It's yesterday's jam for you now, but I'm still on the 12th. Hope you had a great day.

Leaf Blower Bandits

So now, I've finished for the evening and had a nice chat with the parents and aunty (it's Little Man's birthday and we had a lovely dinner) and I'm signing on to yatter out my post for this evening (which will actually contain an interesting anecdote) BEFORE I flick on the telly. Isn't that great? And a fantastically long sentence?

Sorry to those people I haven't replied to via email. It takes a different mindset to write more personally, and I want to do it when I'm fresh and perhaps with tea in hand.

You know, I'm called a nanny. But if you were to picture a nanny from a hundred years ago, or even now maybe, they wouldn't be part of the family like I am. They wouldn't be invited to the Christmas holiday in Spain. They wouldn't have a cup of tea with the kid's mum, or the relatives. I feel accepted. I've only just put my finger on that. I'm looking forward to meeting the kid's grandparents who have been in America since before I got here. I'm part of the network. I feel at home - almost.

Anecdote

I was walking to nursery to pick up Little Miss, and I saw a truck that was some kind of gardening maintenance business. I became aware of a grey-hooded fellow who was digging shiftily into the tray of the truck and looking mischievous. Then a white van (really!) pulled out from the other side of the truck and the guy shouted - he took a leaf blower out of the tray, looked around and laughed and got in the van. I'm pretty sure they saw me but I'd only just figured out what was going on. The van sped off (I know it's sounding silly but I'm serious!) and they honked and hooted as they turned the corner. I stepped into the yard of the house I thought the truck was at and rang the bell. No one answered so I stepped into the street. An old lady was there and she said "are you lost?" I said "no but do you know who that truck belongs to?" Then a young guy came out of the door and said "that's me sorry I'm just moving it" I said "no it's OK, well, um, some guys just took your leaf blower!" he said "really? Which way did they go?" (sounding really agitated obviously) "yeah, there was a guy in a grey hoodie and they got in a white van and drove that way. I didn't get the license plate or a picture I'm sorry" And he went off after them. I hope he found them or phoned the police. I felt stupid for not whipping out my iPhone and snapping them. Or running up and yelling "HEY! Whatcha doin' punks!?!" And then later I thought 'oh man, he might think I took it!' But I was wheeling Little Miss' scooter at the time so probably not. But I was wearing a grey hoodie... Oh my gosh I just googled "stolen leaf blower" and it's so common!! Bizarre.

Anyway there's some London drama for you. Hah.

Penny drops

Woo, clocked a thousand views. Someone must be reading this gabble. I realised last night (and I should have known earlier) that blogging helps me wind down and process stuff. I used to journal, when I felt I needed to, and it was worthwhile. So... you can figure out how things are going to work from now on I think. I'll keep up the exploring chronicle of course but this isn't really a travel blog. It's a me-happening-to-be-in-England blog. Waffly-waff-waff-blub. Feelings.

Little world

Well yesterday I topped up on things that I should have bought when first I arrived - nail clippers, cotton tips, extra writing paper and more toothpaste - that sort of thing. The nearby shopping centre is in the same place as my new church, only 3 pounds away. Poundland - oh wow. Three crunchie bars for the equivalent of $1.50. It's awkward that my keyboard has a dollar sign but not a pound sign. And that I still have Australian chargers so I have to use my power point adaptor.

I had a rotten sleep - it was 3am this morning and at 5am I gave up and ate a crunchie (terrible, I know). I think I went to sleep for a bit around 6 but it was that rotten sleep that makes you feel like your head and limbs are stuffed with really heavy chicken fat. How is that a feeling? I don't know but I really should be trying to sleep now.
Anyway after church - which was lovely and they sang familiar songs and the sermon was really, really good - I went back for Little Man's birthday barbecue! It was great fun, a terrific afternoon. Lots of ten year olds being fun and loud, and I had a good chat to a few of them and some of the parents. The cake said "Keep calm and eat cake" in that propaganda poster style. Cute. Then I watched more IT Crowd and my host mum recommended Drop Dead Diva. Oh yes, Legally Blonde as a TV series but the girl, her soul has been put into the body of a less-than-skinny brunette... I don't really like court room dramas, or rom coms, or American TV shows, but for some reason I want to stay up for many more hours watching it. Perhaps it's the guardian angel character... Oh gee I really am tired.

Oh man, I'm so tired I'm not even going to brush my teeth. Don't worry grandparents! I am a responsible and hygienic adult and I "hoovered" my room yesterday and changed my sheets too but I just have to sleep.

But about bigger things: I've got holidays in July and am wanting to travel around the UK and maybe some of Europe... where do I even begin??

Jess' Brief Pictorial Summary of Four Weeks in England

Great

Great

Good (despite ads)

Good

Fun

Handy

Invaluable

Not too bad

Good

Great

Not as great.

Promising to be really great

(V&A) Amazing.

What a great achieeevement

Tomorrow will be four weeks!

My debit card arrived in the mail today, which makes me feel like half a legitimate person. I only set up the account on Monday because I only got around to it then... but it will be nice to have a bit of plastic to pay with instead of notes and coins that I'm still not totally familiar with, and an online presence in pounds. I'm also getting registered with the health thingo - an NHS number it is. That's a good thing, I reckon. I bought me some air mail envelopes to save the post office folk some stickers, and also because I think they are doubly (if not triply) exciting with blue and red parallelograms along the edges. I tried a Daim bar thanks to my cousin Emma's recommendation and they are terrific!

We're going to Brighton for a weekend in July which should be smashing, what. I am rather excited. I always think of Pride & Prejudice when I see the name. Also, I won't be home for Christmas unfortunately. I am genuinely sad to be away from family for the first time ever on that day but I'll be in Spain watching the sun set over the ocean. Ahhh sorry I should have thought of a nicer way of putting it... No white Christmas for me, nope! Spain. How marvelous!

Well after almost a month I think I am wearing out a little. Or a lot. I may not have anything interesting to write about this weekend because I might just do a whole lot of relaxing. We're having a barbecue on Sunday and since I come from the land down under where they supposedly invented the thing, I'm to be overseeing it all to make sure they're doing it right. Pshaw, like I've ever barbecued a sausage in my life. It's a man's job! Anyway it's nice to feel important. Have I mentioned that my English family has a hills hoist (clothes line)? It's one of those silly green and yellow ones, and when I first looked at it I couldn't quite figure out what was wrong. It took two weeks for me to decide that yes, the top bit is upside down like a blown out umbrella. Not sure if I'll ever let on, but it still amuses me a little.

Time to bring down the snooze mask and zzz. I can almost lie on my right ear again! If ever you want to get your forward helix pierced, expect at least 5 months of sleeping with air between your ear and the mattress - using the pillow or your arm as a prop. Second nature now.

Righto then, goodnight!

Duck Pond

For the romantics and Doctor Who fans -

It's such a pretty area.
This pond is in the middle of a huge park that I've only seen a bit of. When I'm sleeping well enough to go on early morning walks (yeah, I can dream) this is where I'll be going!

Fluff

I am so tired I think I'm beyond feeling it. I have accumulated tiredness which is the worst type because it takes so much longer to get rid of than to gather. I wasn't kidding when I said I wake up at ridiculous hours. The last few days have been 4am, and before that it was 5am and before that since the day I arrived it was 5:30am. Trying not to think about the summer solstice. Eek.
Also my job is pretty exhausting. An afternoon in the park on a beautiful sunny day is absolutely lovely, but also quite tiring and then there's still several hours of duties including cooking, bath routine and washing. At home mums are champions - CHAMPIONS. Don't ever underestimate what they do, because I have a portion of the workload and I'm going to bed at 8 tonight. Sheesh.

I feel like such a dag because I'm wearing a sleep mask. That's how desperate I am for sleep. (Why am I blogging? Don't know. I felt like it. Bedtime is a process.) I tried it for the first time last night and though I got to sleep OK, I woke up and it wasn't on my head anymore. Sneaky me. At least it did half the job. Oh and it's not over my eyes at the moment...

I'm sorry, this is not material that is world wide web worthy. I come from a family of over-sharers. (Can't wait to Skype you guys tomorrow morning! Which is tonight for you but anyway.)

Good
night.

We could all use the fresh air

People have been asking about the church I visited last Sunday night, and since there's nothing else to write about really, I thought I'd better oblige and expand on "yes."

Finding it was easy enough, but even though it was only a 6 minute tube ride, altogether it took 50 minutes to get there what with walking to the station and from the station to the church. Half an hour to get home. The weather is splendid now though and the sun goes to bed so late (not dark at 10pm!! It's killing me, I wake up at 4am instead of 5am now and doze shallowly till I get up), so anyway it's really nice outside in the evening.

It had tapestries, yes, but it's a much newer building and so people aren't there for the big old organ (there was none, but a drum kit). I was welcomed really genuinely (it makes a WORLD of difference if someone greets you kindly and someone comes and sits with you and is friendly and helpful. Seriously). The teaching was good and there were lots of songs. I didn't know any of them but I recognised the authors - you know, the 1970s crowd like Keith Getty and then some Stuart Townend.
After the service the welcoming continued (another important thing); it was almost as if they weren't letting me out the door till I'd met half a dozen people and declined the invitation to the young-people's-kick-on... twice. I liked it. I'm going back.

OK... the last time I watched Narnia I teared up, it was the fourth time this week. This time though the voices are grinding on my nerves so before I let it affect what goes into this post (too late?) I'm going to finish by saying that today I was outside in the sun with a T-shirt and was sweaty! Second summer this year, bring it on!!!

When I'm me, I'm punning.

It actually feels like summer. I had no sleeves outside at 6:30pm and sweated in my boots. It is looking up my friends! I tried elderflower cordial the other day, my host mum bought it because it's a very British thing, and it's yummy. I made a roast vegetable lasagna this week which actually worked! And then I made bolognese the next day and ate beef. Not that I'm a big meet head at all, but I don't remember the last time I ate pork in Australia. After burning myself on the oven I peeled a fair piece of skin off of my thumb, it bled a lot. But I'm not letting that bruise my cooking esteem. (Haha, steam.)

Just an aside: so far I gather that British people think Australia is this huge, glorious expanse of relaxed holiday park where the roads are straight and smooth, and people loll about all day by the pool digesting their barbeque lunch before they head to the beach. We all love cricket and rugby (?) and every day is hot and lovely and people live in Sydney, Perth, Adelaide and um... Queensland. When I'm describing where I'm from I don't bother saying halfway between Sydney and Brisbane like I would to a naive Aussie, I shape my fingers to a rough outline of Australia and point "somewhere around there." "Six hours north of Sydney" is the other one. I'm sure not everyone is that uninformed but it's fun to generalise, right?

And I visited the FIEC church nearby this night and... Yes. I think yes. Much I could write but that is all for now.

The British Museum - love the black security guard's face. Oops.

I changed my mind - here are some photos of the last few days.

Armidalesque clouds I feel

Books in the BM library. Loved it.
(Don't look closely at the reflection..)

3500ish year old dead guy in his grave. Wow.
(Sorry about the reflection)

V&A - no photos of stuff inside. Go there.

Elephants!! BM shop.

Filling up with old treasure

'Tis the first day of summer. Not shorts weather yet though.

I still like the tube, but I don't particularly enjoy busy stations or awkward standing. A lot more of it is above ground than I expected - I guess as you get further out there was more space to build, or it was built with the suburbs? I don't know. It's 150 years old - can you believe that?! 

Yesterday Little Man (was that the name?) and I went to the British Museum. It was big, and really busy. And there were so many mummies! Wow! I didn't realise so much of that stuff had been dug up and bought. We wizzed around quite quickly actually, but I'm glad we went. It's a lovely old building... And there was an old library - King George's maybe? not sure - which I loved. Heaps of old books and miscellaneous and intriguing artifacts.

Today I took the tube to South Kensington and had me a visit to the V&A: Victoria and Albert museum. I just loved it! It was much more my thing. I love museums and art galleries with beautiful things, you know. Not trains or dinosaurs so much as sculptures and relics. In my kind of museum, like the V&A, you forget that you're tired and footsore and your back aches, and when the room is quiet you forget where you are or that people might be watching and you're on a different plane of awareness. It's tranquil. It's soul cleansing & replenishing somehow.

There really was some incredibly old and beautiful stuff in there. I just finished watching series 2 of Robin Hood this morning, and then I went and saw all this medieval paraphernalia. And old bibles! As well as Romanesque statues and Victorian household stuff (I think), and old ironwork and silver stuff and glass windows, and parts of old buildings. Oh that doesn't sound like much, but you should have seen Trajan's column and the stuff around it. And the wood carvings! And the teeny little marble engravings with the story of Jesus' life. It really was fantastic. Everything was well displayed and there were hands-on activities and old stuff you were allowed to touch. A replica gauntlet and medieval tunics to try on! I only took a photo of the outside of the building and there's not really much point uploading it. There were way too many tiny, intricate, extravagant, enormous, amazing, precious and pretty things to even think about which ones deserved a chunk of memory in my phone.

I might go back there one day.