Smattering

It's almost Christmas and it is not snowing, but absolutely miserably grey and windy and wet.

I haven't been writing because I don't feel that much has happened, but actually I know that my mind never stays the same for a day and I'm always examining myself and trying to figure out why I feel the way I do. Perhaps I should make myself write every day. A new years resolution? But I'll start early while I have the yes-let's-do-it. Don't worry, I won't publish anything I don't feel is worthy.

I had a lovely few days with my Aussie friend. We went to Camden Town (markets) on Saturday and then the Natural History Museum which is stuffed with taxidermy animals (pun intended). Birds! I love birds. Over lunch we had a good old d&m about life and God, and that was great. She came to church in the morning and the carols service at night. And now it's my turn to have a quick trip to Paris! One day...!

I didn't get that interview for the job I really wanted. I'm actually not as disappointed as I might have been. I wasn't very confident in the first place so I guess it's no surprise and so easy to bear... That sounds a bit despairing. Yes I really want to be a teachers assistant before I can be a real teacher, but maybe I just have to get something else in the mean time like live-out nannying or... McDonalds. Please, no. Not maccas.
The next thing I have to do is enroll myself back in university and change my course to Primary Ed.

...

Half an hour ago I opened a new tab to figure out student loans and HECS and distance study and all that kind of thing, and I'm still at it, so this is me signing off. Till tomorrow.

Pretending to be a Local Londoner

At the end of Year 12 I went on Younglife Study Camp, and met a girl called Lucy; since then we have kept up as pen pals. She is living in France at the moment and has just begun a tour of Europe - starting in London. Yesterday I met her at Kings Cross and took her on a tour! (because I am such a knowledgeable guide.) We were quite lucky to be in the right places at some points of time in the day (pun definitely intended - see below).

Trafalgar Square but not the main bit

Horse Guards Parade

Contact! That's my knee he's on.

But I had no food so he lost interest.

Going past Buckingham Palace

The Serpentine - I think

Houses of Parliament

Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey

Tower of London

Overlooking London from the Royal Observatory in Greenwich

Greenwich Meridian Line - Longitude 0 degrees

One foot in the East & West!

Sight Sighting

One Saturday a while ago (before Edinburgh) I had to get out of the house so I walked to the tube station and got on a train and then thought, 'hmm where will I go?' I hopped around a bit and got off at Picadilly Circus (I think) and went for a good old fashioned stroll, following crowds or tall monuments or familiar street names. This was a place something to do with horses.

Oops, got their family snap

I walked through some nice gardens, and a body of water which may have been a big pond. I also went to Buckingham Palace, which is actually as brown as the picture and almost as boring. I didn't take many photos of the surroundings which are big and important looking. Lots of people there. Unfortunately the little easel with Prince George's arrival announcement wasn't there anymore. Then I sat in Green Park for a bit until a wasp wouldn't go away. I started walking again, and ended up on Wimpole Street and thought, 'that sounds familiar!' So I whipped out my smart phone and googled 'wimpole street in popular culture' and eventually found that 21A was Henry Higgins' address in My Fair Lady (possibly Pygmalion). There you go! So I walked towards it but had gone too far by the time I realised, and it had started raining so I sought the nearest tube station. Then I saw a very fancy looking horse and cart going down the street, and the drivers were wearing old fashioned suits. For real. It was cool.

This was somewhere near Shepherd's Bush I think.
I was on a bus and it looked cooler before those seconds of getting my phone out.
Anyhow it's the London you don't see. But you do.

Pong

This post is a top up on gooey feely and boring life stuff. The weather is just lovely - it's been 26, though locals say "Oh my gosh it's 30 degrees outside. Sooo hot. Ugh, the heat!" I've burnt myself in the kitchen five times since moving here: twice today being hot oil on my foot and an oven tray on my wrist. Last week was an oven tray to the forearm. Maybe it's because I'm spending more time properly cooking than I ever have... surely that's not true? Anyway I've finished Drop Dead Diva and moved onto Torchwood. Geez it's graphic sometimes. Much rougher than Doctor Who. I know that I'm using TV as a wind down, but I don't think that's such a bad thing. Apart from the two hours off in the morning while Little Miss is at nursery it's a long day. I think I'll be joining an evening bible study this week. Today was good, mostly. I skyped my family. Man I miss you guys. Sometimes (and I've probably written this before) I wonder why I left behind the best five people in the world, as well as a great town with a great church full of really great people who are dear friends, a good job, a good car, a slightly less than OK university (hmm anyway) to come here where I don't know anybody. I didn't even know that the plural of pennies is pence and that there are one hundred in a pound when I arrived. I think half of my feeling-alien-ness comes from growing up in the country and now living in a wealthy part of London. But it's beautiful, and I really like my new church. On Thursday I'll have been here for two months - WOW! That second month whizzed by like a four year old girl on a scooter (you'd be surprised! It's a good thing I can run in my new flip flops!).

And here endeth the reel. I have the windows open because it's hot and I'm on the third floor, but something outside reeks so it's time I put my face in the pillow. In, not on.

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.

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!

Elevators and Motorway Exits

Well in order to get the working holiday visa, one must get their fingerprints scanned at a British consulate before the application is sent off. So on Friday night I was informed that my appointment was at 10:30 on Monday morning at 9/100 Eagle St Brisbane etc. That's fine, I thought, I'll drive up on Sunday and stay the night at my aunty's house. She wasn't going to be there but her housemate was happy for me to stay.
But golly it was a bit stressful. I don't have the best sense of direction and it's hard navigating on your own with just a few print outs from google maps...

I caught up with a friend in Ipswich which was nice; I ended up staying for church with him as well. It was a young, groovy, Presbyterian service which meant a youth band and much use of the word 'connect.'
After that I headed up to my aunty's house, which is not in the centre of the city where I ended up. I actually drove past Eagle St which was a bit ironic, but after a phone call I was on the right track and soon having a glass of milk and calling Mum to tell her I'd made it. Then I went to bed.. Gosh Queensland is warm.

The next day I bustled into the city again in my dusty camry (can I say, he did 800kms on 60L of petrol on this trip. I will miss him when I go!). I almost went through a toll tunnel (tunnel!?! I want to go over the river!) but the signs are pretty good and I knew what to follow. The next problem, after crossing the Story Bridge, was finding a park. That's funny, I accidentally typed 'funding' and that would be relevant too - the place I found cost $46 for an hour and fifteen minutes.

Finding the British consulate was simple. I arrived early and was called straight away. I sat down in the interview room in front of a glass panel and handed over my forms and passport. The guy looked up and said 'My granddaughter in the UK is Jessica Hunt, when I read this I was like "hmm?" and had to think.' Then I got my fingerprints scanned on this spacey little machine that looked like a docket printer mixed with an alien x-ray machine (being alien because the scanning area was clear green). My photo was taken then I was back in the elevator (I hate elevators) and back onto the street to find my...

Oh flip. My car. I hadn't taken any notice of the street the car park was on. If you've been to the centre of Brisbane you'll know that car parks are small and tucked away under skyscrapers or on little lane ways. I remembered vaguely the name of it but it literally took me forty five minutes of walking up and down and across streets to find it again. By then I was almost at the point of asking somebody but every second person was an all-important looking businessman or businesswoman and every other person had an ipod or a hurried expression. Strangers don't come across as very friendly in the city.

Then it was back onto the motorways following signs out of there. Thank goodness! The drive home wasn't very fun; I had a headache and was still diluting stressyness through my system. I finished listening to The Outsiders on audio (it's one of my favourite books) and that was nice, but Mum said when I got home that I as white as a sheet. I certainly felt awful.

I'm much better today. I've sent my application off to the British High Commission and I thought that would alleviate more stress than it has, but I'll still have to wait two or more weeks to know if I have a visa! Eek. Let's all hope and pray that the exchange rate doesn't budge and my bank statement will still meet the mark. Don't ask me what happens if it gets refused, I don't know and hopefully I won't have to.

Now I'll keep on going with sorting and packing my things! And crafty stuff, and people time, and doing all I can to make sure the garden stays alive while I'm away. Right now I think I might henna my hands...