Overcast Day

You know those dreary days...
It's probably a bad idea to blog right now, but I'm bored.


I stayed up late last night finishing an assignment. I am very much a last minute person. I'm glad I'm doing uni, and I enjoy the readings when they're not a chore. I love writing but I not when it's on somebody else's words.
"Do you want to be a teacher?" I ask myself. "Yes." "Then you simply have to do this."
".........OK."


I'm almost at the end of Week 5 of 6 here in the office. The weeks themselves flew by, but the daaays draaaaaaag like stringy cheese on pizza in a bad way. There's horizontal rain outside. Lovely. I like the walk to the station in the evenings (it will clear up, yes it will) (oh that was thunder, oh dear) and even the tube ride is fun. It's great for people watching - guessing the job, the relationship status, the contentment in life... Maybe that last one is a bit weird. I love changing platforms without even thinking - like a pro - and watching London out the train window as the sun sets for the day. A few days ago I saw a builder man walking along the scaffolding several stories high, and I wooshed past with Paul Kelly in my ear. It was beautiful. It's a part of my London adventure that's once-in-a-lifetime type moment.


Still lovin' mah church. It's my family and my whole life over here. At the moment I'm finding it really hard to know I'm going to have to leave. Am I? Yes. I want to be at home too. It's hard. I'm homesick though I don't want to be yet, but of course I am because I miss my family and friends and sometimes I wonder if Australia is even any different to the UK.. are we even a nation of our own? And then I see a photo with a gum tree or I think about the days I used to go barefoot outside and hang with people who are capable of making fart jokes and I know I'll never be British. I feel kinda cooped up in the city. There's no where you can be where no one can see you. No rivers or paddocks (fields) or backyards out of earshot of anybody. I need to get out more...


See this is why I only write when I feel like it. Don't be disappointed when my posts are few and far between - the days I didn't write are the days I would have liked to have a right old moan about life. You've dodged yourself many bullets. Either that or I was too busy having a nice time to bother with condensing it into words.

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.

Productivity

Well it's been a laid back week where I haven't accomplished very much. I've finished several pages of my colouring book (a well-invested pound), watched Firefly (love it 100%), had a long overdue Skype date with the beautiful Sarah, had dinner with some friends from church, had lunch with a friend from church, knocked over some Monopoly places (Fleet Street, The Strand, etc), rediscovered some old classics on Spotify, and in a couple of hours hopefully my tooth will be fixed! They hadn't actually booked me in on Wednesday (grr) so they made an appointment for this morning. Kind of a bummer, because I was planning to go to Oxford for the day. Ah well. I'll do some cleaning and stuff. Maybe rent Serenity...

Am I wasting this time? See for me, a holiday is about relaxing. Am I missing out if I don't travel because I'd be forcing myself to? I like wandering around London but after a couple of hours I just get tired and want to go home. Of course I want to explore the countryside but I've never done anything like that before - not on my own - and it's hard to know where to start. And would I be doing it because people think I should? Because they'd think I was lazy if I didn't? Isn't it OK to just live life boringly sometimes? I'm an introvert. I like having time to myself. I like sitting in my room sharpening pencils listening to 90s pop not worrying about where I have to be or what I'll eat. I don't mind missing out on another bunch of nice old buildings and a big castle if it means I can get to know my new church family just a little bit better. So rolling hillsides can wait until next week.

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.

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!

Getting There

I'm here, I'm in London, I'm safe. I live on the sweetest little road and it's Spring here so everything is in blossom. It's 5:39am but the sun is up and my body clock is still refiguring. There's a lot to write about but I'm still jet lagged so I'll just take it one bit at a time.

On Thursday I drove down to my grandparents house on the Central Coast. I stayed the night there and the next day we went into Sydney and they spoiled me rotten, of course. I had a great time doing all the touristy things, but it did feel a bit odd. Even though I kept checking my passport was still in my bag I kept forgetting I was leaving for England the next day. We walked from the Sydney Opera House (I'm going to miss seeing the Harbour Bridge. And the Southern Cross) through the Botanic Gardens where we had lunch. It was a beautiful day and I love Sydney. Every third person was going for a jog. We then went to the QVB. I love that clock.

But you want to hear about London!
Well on Friday night I stayed over at my Uncle & Aunty's house (we went to the Via Napoli restaurant in Lane Cove - fantastic place) and watched Mythbusters with my cousins. I got up at 2am to get to the airport by 3 and my Uncle very kindly drove me there. (Thanks Doug!!) The airport opened a few minutes after we got there so the queue was very short. There was only one cafe open. After customs though I had a Chai latte at Maccas and eventually made my way to the gate. I thought I'd use the loo before I boarded but I left my laptop in there... DUH idiot. It's OK I remembered it in time and it has stayed with me ever since.

Then I was on the plane and not one bit did I feel like sleeping. I watched Wreck-it Ralph (loved it), The Hobbit, some New Girl (yes Charlotte I know but I still don't want to watch anymore), Tangled, Hotel Transylvania, started Frankenweenie but it didn't grab me so I tried The Impossible - and that was a dumb idea. If you're leaving your family who you love immensely don't watch a movie about a family who is separated by the 2004 tsunami. I cried and it was a little embarrassing.

Dubai was terrific. I'll just paste here what I wrote to my Dad last night - Dubai airport was huge!!! I had to descend a zillion stairs to get to my gate and then CATCH A TRAIN to the A gates!! English signs everywhere of course. There were massive wall fountains and so many staff just standing around waiting for someone to ask them for help. I liked it, but I was literally sitting down for 2 minutes then boarding. Apparently I was on the biggest plane there is - A380. I could see out the window coming into Dubai and the houses were that lovely mix of creams and tans and all rectangular with flat roofs. As you got closer to the river there were more trees and nicer houses, then there was the city and the massive sky scraper. It was 32 degrees outside. I hope I stop over there again.

The next flight wasn't as long and I was next to a nice old couple. We were in the last row on the plane (88) which was kind of groovy because we got served stuff first and the toilet was just behind. I was on a window seat which meant I could watch the coastline of Saudi Arabia (I think?) and could see London when we'd descended. I managed to sleep for probably about 90 minutes all up.
I just ate a chocolate at 6:15am! There were no dramas at all at the airport. Once you know where to go and what you need to present it's all very simple. I went straight through the border no problems and found my bag. I'm not half as intimidated by airports anymore!

I'm all blogged out so I'll leave the rest for later today..

Flight booked!

On Monday afternoon I was sewing up my Avengers pyjama pants when my mum came running back from the mailbox with a parcel in hand -

My visa had arrived.

The last few days have been back and forth with my flight agency and in and out with boxes of recycling from my room (it's embarrassing, you know, I kept every single exercise book from school. Still couldn't throw out primary school ones and for some reason any of my english books. Except from the HSC).

But finally a flight is sorted as well.

I'm departing on Saturday morning, but I want to be safe so I'm heading south tomorrow afternoon and staying with family both nights. I've said so many goodbyes now but I know there are people I've missed. If that's you, I'm sorry I couldn't say goodbye in person but I'm not intending to be gone forever. I'll be back at least to visit within a year.

First Happenings

Dear family and friends,
Yes, it's happening, I'm finally going to the United Kingdom. I've got a placement with a lovely family in London and will stay there for at least one year, but my visa will last two so it could be a while before I'm barefoot under the Hills Hoist again.

My goodness, it's so effortless to type yet such a huge life event (excuse the Facebookism)! Ah, there we go, mentioning it in the first post. I'm afraid I won't be using it again while I'm away, so everything I do (!!) will be updated here. Of course I will have email and Skype, and Viber if you're super savvy, and would love to receive any kind of messages and news from home... "Hi Jess, we watched Downton Abbey today and thought of you." Admittedly, that would be slightly tacky but still sweet.

It's hard to say exactly when I'll be leaving; I'm hoping for late April / early May. Stay tuned..
I hope I can get a chance to say my proper goodbyes, but if not - don't lose touch!

Thanks for reading.
Jess