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.

Eventless fluff

The day I don't cry in the opening scenes of The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe will be the day my heart has died. Even when I have to fast forward the planes & air shelter bits because I'm watching it with a four year old - and even the second time we've started it today - I get teary. I've changed my mind about American teen sit coms; there is way too much screaming and canned laughter. The noise leaking from the next room is like bird poo falling into my sweet cup of Narnian tea.

What comes next is pages of all the things I am finding hard. But I'm not actually going to include it, I just want everybody to know that this isn't a fairy tale girl-finds-herself-on-an-adventure story. Well maybe it is but this is the bit where she sings in a forest about how she's lost and alone and wishing she...

Ok stop now. I'm fine, really. Just still adjusting. Did I already write that before? Sometimes I wonder what I'd be doing if I'd stayed in Australia (I'm trying hard not to call it 'home'). Uni, I guess. Feeling like a coward and being bored a lot... but being with my friends. Hey, friends. I miss you all. I haven't spoken (face to face) to anyone over 11 or much under 30 since the Thursday I left Armidale (that would be you, Izzy). And I haven't eaten beef! It's all pork here. There was some Vegemite left in the cupboard from the last Aussie nanny to live here, it has been my pride and joy. (That expression sort of fits.)

I am glad I've come though, and I'm sure it's happened at the right time - last year's me couldn't have done it. If I had stayed I still would have still been living life, but England was on my mind for so long I couldn't have just forgotten about it. So long, in fact, that I fail to recall why and how it came to be there in the first place.

Well she likes rewinding it and watching the first half an hour over again, so I'm watching the train bit for the third time today and not crying. Forgive me. It doesn't count. I'm now on reserve battery so I'll just publish.

As I reach for the remote..

Today was a pretty good day. Twelve hours on is a long time... but mostly alright considering I only left the house once to chuck some old spinach on a pot plant. The kids and I are getting to know each other - it's so much more than trivia, knowing somebody. Once you begin to grasp how somebody ticks and what matters to them, and how they react to certain things, you know how to act. You know what to say. We're commencing that part of our friendship, and deep trust will be on the way soon. Lots of fun has to happen first though, and there's been a lot already. The weather's looking a little better for the rest of the week, so hopefully there are some adventurous days ahead.

Oh dear, I'm sounding so cheesy. To be honest, we all watched waaaay too much nickelodeon (that was in my spell check?!?) today. American teen sit coms seem so clean and whatever, but are deceptively and trashily (also in spell check apparently) addictive. They put those slightly sophisticated jokes in and everyone is just so glossy...

Well would you prefer I write that I'm just about to sit back to some moderately-less-rubbishy medieval-adventure-drama? I wrote in an email the other day that since I have no friends, I think I have replaced them with TV. (!$%#$%!) But that's fine, I'm trying out a nearby church this Sunday night and from what I see it's a DIVERSE congregation. We'll see.

Helloooo 1192...

Books & Blue tac

Just a quick update to say that I'm alive and pretty much over my cold, just in the occasional-sneeze-or-cough-and-ears-still-blocking-up phase. It's good. But it rained all night and it's threatening to rain again which means the kids & me are stuck indoors. It's half term holidays so there's no school - it's a shame we can't be out and about! Exploring the town!

I got out the handful of books I brought over and I put them on display on the shelf under the TV. It has made so much difference - my room feels more like a room. I cosied it up some more by moving the furniture closer to my bed and I'm beginning the decorating stage. Paper craft!! Just need to dig up the sewing machine in the attic and buy some blue tac and I'm set. I hope.

Oh it just started raining.

Almost forgot a title.

The don't have mailboxes here.

Oh and my iPhone woke up, I tried turning it on again and it said "charge me, fool!" So I did. Now it's fine. Jerk.

Church yesterday was nice, the people really are friendly. The congregation was a lot smaller, partly due to Bank Holiday Monday being today. I've got another day off to sit around on Spotify and watch Robin Hood... I was thinking I might zip into the city again but I'm not sure what I'd do, and what would be open.

Anyway here are some photos I took on Saturday. I got off at Baker Street and when I came above ground the photo on the right is the first thing I saw. It's not real! Rude! There was a building exactly like it right next door, but a man was standing on his balcony so I didn't take a photo. Then again, if you live in Central London you would probably expect that kid of thing.
So I went left to Regent's Park. It was really pretty! Huge, though. I didn't see the whole thing.

After this photo he ran almost to my feet!
But he was off before I could zoom out.

There was a 'buggy push' for a charity or something.

At least I didn't go super tacky
and take a photo with me in it.

That was the queue to get into the Sherlock Holmes museum at 221B.
Obviously, I saved that for another day.

Not sure what this building was,
but there are some buses.

Anyway they're just a few snaps. As I said before I didn't go far or see very much, but I'm here for a year. I can space it out. Being on foot is fun and not at all stressful - I never got lost. But it's tiring.

For next time I might book some tickets for Madame Tussauds (man, you should have seen THAT queue) and the zoo.

Not much more to say, really. I miss home awfully. The people at the local church are very friendly but I'm still waiting to see younger people... away for Bank Holiday Monday, I presume. They had a visiting preacher now that they are in vacancy. I went along and couldn't help thinking that I could change everything but that's pretty stupid - I have a lot to fix up myself. I don't remember why I left home but I hope one day I'll be really glad that I did.

I burnt myself on the oven rack,
but it'd be fine if you thought tiger.

Can I also just say that arranging photos in a post is like arranging sheep on a road. Don't blame me if it looks bad.

Monopoly names

When I went into the village post office this morning to top up my Oyster card (it's like a travel credit card for the tube and buses and stuff), I said "Can I put twenty dollars on please?" The guys laughed at me. "Oh psshf I meant pounds!" And on the way home I gave the lady at the supermarket two pennies instead of two 2 pence pieces (which are the same colour but bigger), I somehow got mixed up thinking they were Australian dollar coins and smaller meant more. It'll be good to have a debit card soon.
The tube was fun, it was actually above ground most of the way. I got out at Baker Street and then just meandered. I had no plan - just some cash and some snacks and my good old brown boots.

But you know what, London is just another city with tall buildings that are older than Sydney, buses that are redder and streets that are famouser (Marylebone etc.). I didn't explore very far today but it was still exciting to wander around for a few hours. I was going to get back on the tube to see some more famous sights but when I pulled out my phone to look at the map of the underground it was dead, and not battery dead but seemingly unrevivably dead. I was getting tired anyway so I went home again.

My phone still won't do anything so unfortunately I can't post any photos (not that I took heaps). I don't really feel like writing about it all right now, but I don't really need to say much more. While I was walking around I was thinking "What should I do so that I can blog about it?" - but really I should just enjoy it for myself and have more fun exploring than bragging.
I just watched Into The Wild. Though I'm not that guy, I definitely I prefer a park or garden to an old church or famous pedestrian crossing (no I didn't see Abbey Road). I'll go into the city again for sure - I only saw a tiny bit today - but what I really, really want to do is roam the country side. All the way up to Scotland and across to Ireland. And I have to go Yorkshire!

I saw a squirrel

Hmm, so that last post was a bit mental. I didn't reread and edit it like I should have, so that's just raw produce from the thinking factory. Here's some more...

Well I've been meandering along wishing I had a buddy my own age. When I step out of the house I see parents, kids and old people. Sometimes, when a girl under thirty without a pram walks by, I want to grab her by the shoulders and say: "You DO exist in this town!" Or a man who isn't grey haired or slouching passes me on the path I think to myself "So it's not a soccer-mum-bmw-retirement-home-bus-stop pocket of the world after all! NB: That is a grotesque generalisation of my image of my village so far.

A quaint bin

When I was stepping out of the post office today after these thoughts had been eeling through my head for a while, I saw a girl who I'd seen before going through the nursery at pick up time. She was early twenties, tall, really pretty, and snippets that I'd heard of her accent sounded European. She was jogging along and stepped beside me to say hello. (Man, if I was a guy you would read this paragraph so differently!) Anyway we're two somewhat alienised Au Pairs and I don't know why God would want to do good things for me but there you go. I wanted a friend and here's a really nice Italian girl who is here till September. I saw another squirrel today and the sun even came out this morning - for a bit. Though it hardly climbed above 8 degrees all day and rained at lunch, time I'm not losing hope. When the "get on a plane and go home" thought comes along, which it does occasionally, it's always snuffled with "you would regret that forever, but this is going to be really good for you in pleasant and unpleasant ways." (The funny thing about a thought, though, is that when you think it you don't have to construct it into a sentence, and so I read that and think it's part of some lame scientist-villain's monologue and now I'm hearing his annoying nasal voice and imagining I'm strapped to a dentist chair. Cool. Any suggestions for a better word than "pleasant" would be welcome.)

At Heathrow Airport after I got off the plane, there's a lot of walking to do and I passed a toilet block but I went into the one just before the UK border (the bit where you line up and show your passport). To look "my best" for my new host family I was about to meet, I redid my hair and brushed my teeth, I put some deodorant on and then looked in the mirror and said something like "OK. Let's go live the rest of my life!"
I think (hopefully) I'm understanding and gaining the overlapping distinction between needing your family and loving your family. I have needed my family for perhaps more than I even realise now, but with them so far away and tricky to talk to it makes you do stuff on your own. What I mean is, I'm doing that last bit of growing up. I think. I always worry that there's so much I don't know about being older... Oh wait, that's not something to worry about, really, is it. If I knew everything I'd be dead or wish I was.

Enough philosophy!
OK, to be honest, I'm sort of scared that all this "I'm cool with it" business and 'coping well' is a facade, and really deep down everything is an imminent explosion of panic, sadness, insecurity and, well, not being well. It's hard to know. But maybe I am just big enough to handle it - most of it - with what I've got. I guess I've come at the right time.

Now really, onto lighter things!
Here's a photo of the view from my window...

It was a really sunny day that day. The buildings look kind of boring in this picture, but really they're lovely. Mostly unique, too. I love the ones with wisteria growing around the windows. The whole street is lined with blossom trees and there's a classic red post box opposite our house. Not that we don't have them in Australia, but it gives it that touch, you know? It's a very wealthy area. I'm enough of an outsider being Aussie, but my oh my, I can just imagine the looks I'd get driving Theodore (my '98 camry) around with his usual dust coat. I'm even thinking about buying a hair straightener!?! Oh dear.

The music taste of Little Man (not that I ever call him that, he's nearly 10, but for want of a better code name I'll stick to it) is 1960 - 1990 rock, mostly, so we like to talk about U2 and The Rolling Stones, and he also loves The Police and ACDC. That Gotye song is a favourite as well, and I've heard it on the radio 3 times now. He plays a bit of guitar and piano and is happiest when he's being helpful - but sometimes a little over enthusiastic with peeling carrot!

Shaun Tan dandelion bud

There was something else I wanted to say but I can't remember what, so I'll finish with some more pictures. Yes, I like flowers and trees and quirky village stuff - if you want Big Ben you can google it. Daisies grow in the sunny parts but bluebells grow everywhere, wild all along the river. The other day Little Miss and I went for a walk. It's shady and lush and a little purple or white bunch of bluebells is so enchanting. If fairies weren't thought of yet, you'd certainly envisage them (or yourself as one) in this place.

Me and Little Miss