Brit-curious

Colleen's Birthday

2007-09-11T09:31:00.000Z

So, after a hot tip from a friend, I booked a river cruise/lunch for Colleen and I to celebrate her birthday.

I managed to keep it all under wraps until we actually emerged at Westminster tube, a few more steps bring you down to the waterfront and the piers. It's not much of a surprise from then on :-)

Letting the peons go upstairs to gawk at the scenery in the wind and cold, we took our seats in the (fairly deserted) dining area and sat down to our lunch.

Chicken salad, wine, coffee and cake made a nice accompaniment to the banks of the Thames sliding slowly past. We didn't try to listen to the droning of the tour guide up top, as we had a return ticket, we'd listen to the tour part of the tour on the way back :-)

Journey's end was Greenwich, which I'd visited before but Colleen never had. Luckily the weather was pretty nice, and we wandered around the market and the Queen's house before heading up to the observatory.

We did the whole jumping across the prime meridian thing that everybody does there, then I had a geeky moment and tried to explain how according to WGS84 the dateline was actually some 10's of yards off in the surrounding parklands. To her credit, Colleen didn't just dump me at that point :-)

Here's me 'holding up' the ball that drops daily, to alert the river traffic in the thames exactly when midday is:

We wandered through the museum parts quite quickly, I'd seen it all before and it was rather claustrophobically crowded that day. We walked through to the second museumy bit and checked out the exhibits. Unfortunately the planetarium part was closed so we didn't get to see that. I just leant against the giant 'cone' on the outside of it and posed for some pictures :-)

We had a bit of a 'photo shoot' moment in the park, the ones of me turned out universally un-photogenic, but this one is rather lovely :-)

Back on the boat, we listened to the guided tour, which was so good we felt compelled to drop some money in the bucket (despite having already paid for the cruise!

Soon we were home, tired but happy.

Canada: Day Seven - Farewell

2007-08-10T22:21:00.000Z

My last day, so, not wanting to waste it we got up nice and early, about 7:30. Well, I did, I seem to recall that Christine needed some coffee-based cajoling!

First order of the day was Coffee (of course), then a supermarket to get all the Canadian goodies I'd promised Colleen. We managed to find most everything.

We took a quick trip to the school where Christine works, it's in a lovely setting on the hillside, with forest all around, though only a few minutes from her home.

We drove up to Horseshoe Bay for Lunch on the waterfront - it was really lovely. Had my first ever chowder, and my first ever Sangria. Both went down really well in the awesome bright sunshine, sitting on the deck of the restaurant.

After lunch we went to the nearby Point Atkinson, where there is a lighthouse and lovely walks around the wooded coastline. Although we got slightly lost, we managed to find out way in, and out again. The awesome weather meant we got we got pretty warm walking around, though it was cool under the shade of the trees.

We took our turns in posing for a final few photos:

Soon though it was time to head out to the airport. I found the sculpture there which appears on the $20 bill:

We we had a final meal and a beer, and said our goodbyes. I was really sad to go, but I'd had an amazing trip, with lots of memories and pictures to take with me. Thanks Christine!

Canada: Day Six - Back to Vancouver

2007-08-09T21:50:00.000Z

Again, we had a lot of driving to do today, to be back in Vancouver for the evening. Driving needs Calories, so before we left Jasper we went into Smitty's and I had some waffles and coffee. Good stuff. I am starting to get the hang of the way tipping works by this stage, and appreciate the service you get because of it. I still don't like the system though!

After some uneventful driving we reached the border back to British Columbia. Here's me!:

Adjusting our clocks for the new timezone, we continued onward.

Soon we arrived at Valemount, home of Christine's Great Aunt Louise. After a friendly greeting we were invited in for Gingernut cookies. I was surprised to see that Great Aunt Louise had her own Roomba, and she set it operating on the carpet for a few minutes for our amusement.

Conscious of the time constraints, we soon headed off again. Places to eat were few and far between on this stretch of road, so we had to settle on the place we found in Clearwater. The meal was average, though I got to try Poutine.

Entertainment at this meal was provided by the white trash in the next booth, who did their best to treat their children badly and be generally ignorant. The youngest child got his head conked quite badly by the mother who yanked him away from a picture he just wanted to look at. During the tears he was repeating over and over "bad mommy, bad mommy". Couldn't agree more.

Then it was just back to the driving grind, eventually we made it back to 'civilised parts'. Stopping at White Spot for dinner (burgers) we arrived back in time to watch Napoleon Dynamite (awesome) before retiring for the night.

Canada: Day Five - Lakes and Glaciers

2007-08-08T23:44:00.000Z

No wake up calls, rude or otherwise this morning. What was slightly rude though was the way the power kept going on and off while I was in the shower. Showering in an alternatly lit and pitch black bathroom is slightly disconcerting.

Breakfast was pancakes in the Y's restaurant. And of course more coffee!

We checked out of the Y and hit the road again. Our destination for tonight was Jasper, and we had a lot of driving and a lot of things to see along the way.

We got in the car took of for Moraine Lake. It was a little off our course, but according to Christine it was well worth seeing. Right she was!

It was a really beautiful spot. The quiet was occasionally piercied by the gentle 'bonk' sound of a newbie canoe paddler hitting their paddle on the side of their boat. We took a walk along the shore and got a hot drink from the shop there. Unfortunately, pressed for time again, we had to leave.

Although it was cold at the lake, it's not like it was icy, or snowing. So I was a bit unprepared (though I knew it was coming) to find .... a glacier at the side of the road.

Ok, ok, I understand the principle of glaciers and how it doesn't have to be freezing cold for one to exist a few hundred metres away. But it was still an amazing and inspiring sight.

Although it was possible to take tours up onto the actual glacier, on foot, or in buses like this:

we still had a lot of driving to do. We had a look around the visitor centre and took a bunch of photos. I met a bear there - my first and last for the trip:

Then we got back in the car and zoomed off for the final leg - to Jasper.

After much more driving we arrived and checked into our hotel at Jasper (was very nice). Then we went out to grab some dinner (being kinda ravenous). Dinner was a place called "Earl's", and while kinda pricy (by Canadian standards, when I converted to pounds I felt rather amused), it was *really* good. I managed to talk Christine into desert as well, and we went for a walk around town.

Again, the tax-free shopping was too enticing to Christine and she tried on a few pairs of jeans, without success.

Sadly the night ended in tragedy, with me losing at Yachtzee, three games to one.

Canada: Day Four - Mountains and Caves

2007-08-07T22:57:00.000Z

The room at the Y was pretty comfortable, considering, and we slept OK. Until the early hours of the morning when the workmen started outside. Never mind - gave us an excuse to get out and at it!

According to my GPS so far we have spent around 12 hours driving, travelling a total of 989 km. Not too bad since the speed limits are so slow here :-)

We went to the restaurant at the Y, it was pretty affordable and not too bad. Bacon, Eggs and Hashbrowns - good travelling food. We weren't travelling far from the environs of Banff today, but we had a lot to do, so we soon gulped the last of our coffee and hit the road.

We couldn't go anywhere else until we'd seen the famous Banff Springs hotel. Walking along the river past the Bow river falls, we came at the hotel from behind. Walking through the grounds we came up to the hotel proper. Although I felt a bit like an intruder, Christine walked straight in :-)

The hotel was really amazing! I think I'd like to stay there one day - and probably only for one day - that's all I could afford! Each room held new surprises, with a huge variety of decors and styles, but always with an enormous dollop of grandeur, albeit a little over the top sometimes!

Outside of the hotel I found my first mountie!

We went back to the Y for a quick coffee and recharge, then headed out for the next visit - the sulphur caves and basin. This is one of the reasons for the fame of the region - we saw a small documentary about the region (which apparently hadn't been changed since Christine had been there as a child!) which told of the explorers who found the cave and staked their claim to it.

Our tour guide for the area was the incredibly stoney Gareth the Park Ranger. He was literally ours - no one else arrived at the designated point for the tour. Very strangely however, shortly after we started there was another tour group, with many members, being led by a much more animated guide. Did they know something we didn't?

Christine took Gareth's demeanour as a personal challenge, and rose to the task admirably. By the end of the tour he'd almost smiled several times.

We saw the entrance that the two explorers found (just a hole in the ground) and later saw the caves from within. Kind of amazing to think of them risking their lives going down that small hole.

On top we saw the rich eco-system that the sulphur waters give home to. For "rich eco-system" read "pond scum" :-)

The story goes (says the gradually thawing Gareth) that several decades back a bear came down from the mountain and decided to hang in the sulphur pool for a while. Apparently the ranger in telling the story was also fond of the drink. Because of the protected status of the park, they wouldn't be able to do anything to him should that happen today. I looked around for signs of a bear (hadn't seen one on the trip yet) but I was disappointed.

Leaving behind Gareth, we made a short drive to our next stop - the foot of Sulphur mountain. We took the Gondola up the mountain, which was incredibly fast, and provided us with incredible views to boot.

At the top there was a visitors centre, but we had to walk a few hundred metres to get to the actual peak, across some very busy walkways. It was very cold and windy! At the peak there is a hut where some poor sod lived, taking measurements for a year or so.

There was also one of those things that shows you how far you are from the major cities of the world. Turns out that Vancouver and Canberra, my erstwhile home were in the same general direction. I persuaded a guy who could barely speak a word of english to take the photo of us. There wasn't much he could do about our hair though - so windy!

By the way, we didn't expect much from the machine-regurgitated hot-chocolates we are holding but they were awesome. Tons of sugar and chocolate, perfect for this climate.

We headed back to town to rest after these experiences. We booked a table for dinner later at the Old Spaghetti Factory (was very busy) and went out to do some shopping. I got an awesome Cow mug for Amy from the Cow store, and some other Banffy souveniers.

Old Spaghetti Factory was cool. Crazy busy, so we got a Martini while we waited for the table. Pasta was great, wine was good, we were all set for the finale of the evening...... Yachtzee! I'm sad to report however that there was no clear winner, the night ended one game a piece, and we went to sleep with the victor undecided.

Canada: Day Three - Lakes and Trains

2007-08-06T22:43:00.000Z

My wake up call was certainly effective - Uncle Dave stomping on the floor right above my bedroom below woke me up in an instant! Breakfast was very welcome, as was the coffee. I am really getting used to the whole filtered coffee thing. It never used to do much for me, but the ubiquitousness of it here is growing on me.

After replacing a burnt out headlamp at the service station we were on the road again. At Uncle Dave's suggestion we stopped by Revelstoke Dam. Free tour, all the way to the top of the dam itself. Unfortunately - no photos allowed. So you'll have to settle for these shots of the outside:

Stopping at a pub called 'The Taps' I had a burger and Christine had Quesadillas. I swear they spell and pronounce it differently in every part of the world.

Next up was the spiral tunnels. As a bit of a train nut, this was pretty exciting. We got really lucky and arrived just in time to see a train negotiate the spiral tunnel. The train comes out of the tunnel, lower and driving under it's own cars. Very cool :-)

I felt really sorry for the kids that came running up just as the train had left :-(

Heading off again (we had to be in Banff by nightfall) we stopped by Lake Louise. It's a really pretty spot, though pretty heavy on the tourists. There's a big hotel there, probably with appropriately big prices. The lake itself is gorgeous:

It was bloody cold on the lakefront.

At this point I took a picture of Christine with a funny look on her face. I have been sworn not to show it (on pain of much torture, followed by death), but its nice to know I have some ammunition should the need ever arise :-)

After a bit more driving and experimenting with our respective music choices we were at Banff! We had enough time to check into the hostel and take a bit of a look around. We bought a parks permit and checked out the liquor stores (cheaper liquor in Alberta :-) before grabbing some dinner (Pad Thai) to eat on the river.

We tried to watch a movie on the laptop but it wasn't very cooperative, so sleep time it was.

Canada: Day Two - Road Trip Begins

2007-08-05T11:00:00.000Z

We were up bright and early (well, I was, Christine not so much, at least until coffee was proffered. We'd packed mostly the night before, so we pretty much just up and left.

Stopping briefly at Safeway for a few supplies (like GPS batteries), we hit the road for real!

Soon we were outside of the city and on our way to the first stop, 'Hope'. Nothing more than a pitstop though, lunchtime at subway. After receiving some fairly bogus advice from a fellow driver, we were on the road again - on the wrong side of the road!

Yes, it was my turn to drive now, and while it was weird at first, I quickly remembered the little tricks. Like driving on the right. And checking what's coming when you do a left turn.

The next stop - our first real tourist stop - was Hell's Gate. After getting a really ordinary park (hey, my first park in Canada) and walking a couple of hundred yards we were at the entrance. The ride down to Hell's Gate in the airtram gave us a nice view of the rather scary swirling waters below.

At the bottom you can walk around and check out various historical displays. We grabbed a cup of coffee, which we didn't even end up getting charged for (the waitress was impressed we were willing to share our table since it was so busy).

There is a special bypass for the Salmon heading back upstream. After a rockslide caused during the building of the railway, the salmon could no longer get past the vortex, and their numbers starting dropping dramatically. So a little cheat route was added for them :-)

Pressed for time, we airtrammed back up to the top and took off.

A few more hours later we were at Christines Uncle Earl's place in Salmon's Arm. A little overwhelming with lots of family I didn't know. We sat down for dinner (just us, we were a little late and missed the main event).

With the sun going down we we followed Uncle Dave back to his place nearby, where we were spending the night. Sleep time - a big day on the road.

Canada: Day One - Vancouver Sightseeing

2007-08-04T23:14:00.000Z

11:30pm

So it's been a busy first full day in Canada. Today was devoted to seeing the sights of Vancouver.

First up we drove down to Stanley park. Despite the devestation of the recent windstorms, the park is really pretty, there's a lot to see and do in there.

We saw some totem poles. I couldn't really get as close as I would have liked for photos though. There was the famous hollow tree (hollow enough to drive a car into!) and a bit of the aquarium. We saw manatee's and seals having a swim about.

Next up we headed to Granville island and after our 'rockstar carpark' we grabbed some lunch. Not too traditional Canadian - lamb Yiros! Was good eating out in the hot sun, watching the harbour.

Since Christine had some tickets, we caught the putt-putt boat (the False Creek ferry) to Yaletown. We looked at an open house, around $900 000 Canadian gets you a pretty nice townhouse. The same money might buy a pretty nasty box in London.

Heading back to fetch the car from Granville we found the park was not so hot - the windshield was covered in bird poop. Ignoring it we headed for Capilano dam.

Stopping at the fish hatchery, I got to see the famous phenomenon of salmon leaping upstream. It's set up in a neat glass-panelled viewing platform with the 'waterfalls' visible. A fish would make the attempt every minute or so, most often ending in failure. Just can't work out how this evolved into them.

Next up we headed to Lynn canyon. Outside the entrance were dotted warning signs, showing the multitude of ways you can die in the water. Apart from the usual (can't swim, diving into submerged rocks etc) there more interesting ways, like being swept into underwater depressions, where the force of the water pins you there. As an added incentive to take heed, a neat list showed how many, and when the various fatality types had occurred.

Ignoring all this (we weren't planning on swimming), we headed canyonward. We crossed a rather scary suspension bridge, we headed down to the calmer waters, where some kids were diving into the water.

Disappointed with the lack of injury, we left.

Driving further up, we ended up at the top of Cypress mountain, at the lookout. Took a few snaps of the beautiful city, and the amazing variety of ships in the harbour.

It was getting late, and we had a date with Christine's parents, and a heap of sushi. We ordered the sushi for pickup, waited a while for it to be ready, then headed to Christine's folks' place, remembering to pickup the sushi only a little bit late :-)

Christine's parents' place was lovely, an award-winning garden (no, really award winning). The sushi was really nice, and the fireworks were fabulous, though quite far away.

Later on Christine showed me the photo album she made from her Australia trip all those years ago, and boy, was I a dork back then!

Eventually headed home and got some sleep. We'd sworn to make an early start in the morning.

Canada: Departure part III

2007-08-04T06:30:00.000Z

6:30am

Just got up, walked to the window and an enourmous cruise liner just happened to be sailing past on the ocean, heading under the bridge.

Needless to say, the view from Christine's apartment is awesome!

But to recount the last 12 hours...

Got through passport control eventually. Realised I wasn't really making myself look too good with the truth:

"Why are you here?"

"To visit a friend"

"Male or female?"

"Female"

"How do you know her?"

"Penpal from way back, about 12 years"

"Have you ever met her?"

"Umm once, about 7 years ago in Australia"

"WHY are you only staying 8 days??"

(and so on)

Baggage took an age to come through. When I evnetually got out, Christine had been waiting for quite a while, but at least she waited :-)

We drove out into Vancouver and picked up her friend Martha and went to dinner, in Gastown.

Afterward, we went through one of the poorest areas (with the doors locked); I guess it'll make everything else from now on look that much better. We didn't get to see anyone shooting up, so we left.

Christine's apartment is amazing - the residential areas here are nice. Lots of big apartment tower blocks, but unlike London they aren't all horrifically ugly.

Her's is on the 1st floor, quite sizeable, lovely views. I miss having 'stuff'. I forgot how much we give up to go live in London.

Had a drink and a chat, then went to bed.

Didn't sleep too badly, considering jetlag, but woke up very early.

Today will be sightseeing, then fireworks tonight (The HSBC Celebration of Light). Tomorrow we head off on the epic road trip!

Canada: Departure part II

2007-08-03T20:35:00.000Z

3:00pm

"Blades of Glory" was not as terrible as I suspected.

I would like to know why everyone gets up for the toilet as soon as the credits roll. Don't they know that there will be huge queues? I guess the queues are there because they don't think. I've had my fill of queues today so I'll wait a little while.

The scenery outside is fucking gorgeous.

3:11pm

The fourth movie is on, this is good, it means my journey is 3/4 over. Unfortunately it's "Little Miss Sunshine" which is a great movie that I've seen already, in fact, last time I was on a jet from London heading thousands of miles west.

The guy in the aisle seat next to me has gone to sleep. So that's why they queue for the toilet. Two apple juices, one cofee (white, no sugar) and one cup of water all patiently await removal from my bladder.

4:30pm

Kids are such a blessing. The ones behind me kicked the seat backs so much the guy next to me woke up (and told them off) so I was able to go to the toilet.

Feeling much better.

About an hour and a half left. Just got served a mystery snack box, contained a chicken wrap, chocolate bar and a coffee cup. Feel better after coffee.

Getting a bit exciting!

Can't beleive I've written so much either. Would make a good blog entry but I'm not sure I can be arsed transcribing it (guess I could).

Outside is all fluffy clouds now. Pretty!

5:20pm

Cabin crew are cleaning up. It's nearly over!

Feeling decidely tired and angry at the sunlight outside. Hope I cope better with jetlag this time.

The screens now are showing a "Greatest Hits of Canada" thing now, complete with appropriate music.

Ooh, captain just throttled back the engines. Here we go!

6:20pm

This airport is disturbingly clean and pretty. I mean; waterfalls and trees?

Canada: Departure part I

2007-08-03T12:30:00.000Z

12:30pm

On the Gatwick train. Exciting, never really travelled alone, even when I left Adelaide I had Heidi to see me off. Changed at Clapham Junction from Putney. Classic busy English train station.

It's a nice change from the Piccadilly line to Heathrow! Sad to leave Colleen, but excited about my trip. Hope the flight is comfortable, I have brough plenty of books this time. And of course ipod and Nintendo DS :-)

1:00pm

Queues at Gatwick suck. A reporter is interviewing people behind me about them. Lots of news at the moment about how bad the airports are.

Must admit though, at least here there are lots of friendly people in yellow tee-shirts that make sure you are in the right queue and passing out the 100ml bags.

2:30pm

After grabbing a mars bar I was able to survive the security line. Happy to have lost the awful woman and her family from the check-in line (almost laughed out loud when she shouted at somebody for queue jumping and her teenage daughter had to tell her it was a premium economy passenger). Just ate a very average baguette but nice apple juice, off to find a toilet, then my gate.

3:00pm

When you have checked in, have your boarding pass, wandering through the duty-free shops, it's still a little unreal. However when you arrive at your gate, you see your flight number and VANCOUVER up there in big digital letters, it's suddenly very very real! Very warm here, but I just have 30 minutes or so to wait.

5:00pm

Plane is slightly primitive, no personal video screens. Oh well. After I'd presented my boarding pass and was walking down the aerobridge, they called me back!! Not sure why, but my seat got changed. I'm now sitting in an exit row window seat. Probably a lot better than where I was - there is loads of leg room.

Shrek is on the cabin video screen - not sure I want to see that again! Hehe, Amy would have been ticked :-)

12:00pm - (Vancouver Time!)

I figured I may as well set my clock backward to BC time. Given they are showing 4 movies, and the second one is nearly over we must be something approaching halfway. Don't know what the movie is, some sort of "Teacher does good for gang violence cycle teens". There is a toddler a few seats to my left, but she's been pretty quiet.

The obligatory gay male hostie just asked her if she likes "the Little Mermaid".

I also have kids behind and in front of me, but they've been good as gold.

Saw a few pretty mountains peeking through the lower clouds before, but nothing but white now.

We must be past the east coast of Canada by now, I should get ready to wave to Colleen's folks. But maybe not, thanks to Mercator. I mean we fly over Iceland and Greenland. I wonder how many people ask why they don't fly straight :-)

Oh, there is a lovely cool breeze at my feet, which is, as far as I can tell, atmostphere from outside leaking in through my emergency door seal. I'm sure it's meant to do that.

12:30pm

Oh. What I took to be a lower layer of cloud actually appears to be frozen tundrea. Don't I feel like an idiot? Took some photos for later perusal but my window glass is quite bad.

1:00pm

According to the map we are over the water, past Greenland. I think it's called Davis Strait. I was roughly right about the east coast, but way more north than I thought. It's going to have to be a big ass wave.

We are approaching Baffin island (which looks bloody huge), about 5 hours to go. The toddler is crying like a bastard, but also very sleepy. I'm optimistic. "Godhavn" and "Godthab" - good Greenlandish names. I want to visit "Goose". I wonder if they call people "Goose" there, as Colleen is wont to do when I am foolish.

Optimism on toddlers ability to sleep soon is waning quickly.

It's totally wacky how everything is in French and English. I love it. The hostie even asked me if I spoke French or English when giving me the exit row briefing.

Still feeling kind of wakeful and perky. London time is about 9:30pm, so I guess I will start to feel it soon.

Here, over the ocean (if the map is right) I actually believe I can see icebergs. I thought at first they were just clouds, but I think they must have been Titanic-bane.

Kid in front of me just lost his pillow behind. I gave it back. I wish he'd repay me by stopping bouncing on the fucking seatback.

No I'm not getting grumpy.

Toddler is... asleep.

Rome!

2007-07-23T13:48:00.001Z

Well, it's been a long time since my last blog. Sorry folks. It's been a busy couple of months.

In late June, Emily and Mum came to stay with me for a few weeks, which
was completely awesome.

Taking advantage of the short distance, we took a trip to Rome while they were here. Just for a long weekend, but I really enjoyed it, and I think they did too. Some photos from the trip are here:

You can see a bunch more here.

In Rome we ate a lot of ice cream, pizza and pasta. Cliches I know, but it was bloody hot so the ice cream was more about survival than anything.

I was a little surprised at the amount of grafitti around the place in Rome, but when we got closer to the 'touristy' bits, it wasn't so bad. Truly amazing architecture and ruins.

Emily's year-and-a-bit of learning Italian proved handy, especially in communications with our hotel's staff, whose English was not great. Her ability to go downstairs and obtain a fan for us might have been instrumental in saving our lives (ok, an exageration, but it sure felt like it at the time!)

We did a *lot* of walking, despite the heat. The only transport we took, apart from the train to and from the airport was the tour bus for one day, which took us to all the popular sights.

The lines at checkin and security in Rome airport were a nightmare, but eventually we made it back to British soil, safe and sound.

California

2007-05-21T02:24:00.000Z

Here I am in Southern California, eating a Hershey bar.

Don't get me wrong though! It's not all Hershey Bars! No, it's also cheap clothes and books, waffles for breakfast every day, and driving on the wrong side of the road. It's expensed meals 3 times a day, a very funky office to visit and cool people to meet.

It's funky power adaptors, strange accents and only one stereotypical loud obnoxious annoying american.

It's foods with strange names, astonishingly friendly serving and retail staff, looking left instead of right when you cross the road.

It's a Yard of Beer :-)

It's a hotel bed so big, when I lie on it sideways, no part of my body protrudes over the edge.

It's also jetlag, a strange timezone and wanting to go home. But just a little of those.

California.

Living in London

2007-05-08T21:17:00.000Z

I live in London
The houses, nestled, eggs in a carton.
Claustrophobic? Cosy?
Windows - my view is my neighbour.
And vice versa.
Today I saw him.
He looked up.
Our eyes locked.
I hope I didn't spoil his aim.

Le Job

2007-04-22T16:14:00.000Z

Well I guess I have been remiss and not told y'all about my new job.

I'm not sure there's too much to tell. I'm sure none of you want to hear the nitty gritty of what a perl programming job actually entails. So instead I better tell you a bit about the workplace.

I'm sure you want to know what it's like to work for Yahoo!

Well the first thing I noticed is that everyone is smart. There just doesn't seem to be the deadwood around that you see in so many workplaces. The actual interviewing and selection process is pretty rigorous, and it shows. Everyone is enthused about what they are doing which is also good.

The people are friendly, and the workplace is nice and relaxed. Open plan office, people don't have private offices, even the managers.

Unfortunately, due to certain circumstances I don't yet have a desk. So I'm kind of hot desking it for now. Which is fine, but it will be nice to get my own space :-)

The free soft drink machines are neat, though I find myself either avoiding them or getting the orange juice (yes, orange juice in a can - how weird is that?). I've lost plenty of weight since I got here, no need to put it back on via coke!

Upstairs is a table tennis table, foosball table and an 8-ball table. Pretty cool.

The people seem really nice, though I need to go out and socialise with them a bit on a friday night to really get to know them. So far I've been too poor to do so. But I get paid this week (finally!) so maybe this friday will be a bit different :-)

Number 24

2007-04-03T12:49:00.001Z

Oops!

To be fair, apart from them always taking off like a rocket after bus stops, the bus drivers here seem pretty good. They must have the patience of saints, what with the traffic and the ridiculous things the other road users tend to do. Don't get me started on those mopeds.

Don't the tourists know that I'm a tourist?

2007-04-02T13:11:00.001Z

Yet another tourist asked me directions today, but this time, I was actually able to assist them.

Ok, ok, Leicester Square is the tube stop I get off at *every day* but it still made me proud to point them the right way :-)

First Housewarming 2007

2007-03-19T11:49:00.000Z

"First" because this is only a 6 month lease, and there may well be another one this year :-)

Lots of nice people there, mostly friends of Amy, since I haven't been here long enough to get my own! But Rebecca, Gemma and Gemma's friend Holly also came along, it was a perfect sized gathering for our little place.

Some people shots, Gemma, me and Amy:

Kris, Cheryl, Amy and Marcus:

Mike, Amy and Gareth:

Ellie bought us a housewarming gift of twister, so of course that had to come out too:

All in all a very good night :-)

The new digs!

2007-03-12T19:12:00.000Z

Here's some pictures of the new place, which after some money tribulations (thanks ANZ for NOTHING) we eventually moved into:

Job seeking

2007-03-09T18:17:00.000Z

I spent a lot of time job seeking.

What this actually means is waiting for the employers you've been interviewed by to call you back and give you the offer you suspect is in the works, while fending off rabid recruiters.

After putting my CV online on three different job sites, I received no less than 3 cold calls every single weekday. This is heartening for the first couple of days, then it's just annoying.

After my interview at Yahoo!, I had a couple more interviews at various places.

In the end I had two offers, and they were both very very good. In the end I had to pick one, and Yahoo! was it. I was pretty sad to turn down the other mob though, they were a great bunch, a lot like Internode, and obviously going places. The recruiter called me back and told me the company was 'gutted', and would I come out for a drink with them? I decided to in the end, though I didn't expect to change my mind. It didn't make it any easier, but in the end I stuck to my guns.

If things don't work out at Yahoo! at least I will know I was wanted by 'other company', and perhaps they would extend their offer again. I have no expectations at all in that regard of course.

So now I have the paperwork for starting at Yahoo!, I begin next tuesday. To tell the truth it'll be nice to start work again, apart from getting paid :-) it'll be nice to have a purpose again. There's only so much sightseeing that's fun by yourself, with no money.

Pancakes and Tate Modern

2007-03-04T18:00:00.000Z

Sunday morning was pancake morning!

Amy and I made pancakes for breakfast (so hungry by the time I got there!), and after injesting twice the legal limit of maple syrup we set off for ... places.

One of them was the Tate Modern. Lots of good stuff there, like some Dali, Pollock and more. The laughing small men were a bit disturbing.

The main entry hall is huge:

And the slides are very cool, free but it was way too busy for us to get a go:

Also saw St Pauls, but it was a bit too rainy for outdoor photography. Negotiating the slippery millenium bridge was an art in itself :-)

Greenwich

2007-03-03T18:29:00.000Z

Trotted off to Greenwich to see the famous meridian, and a few of the other pieces of interestingness around, like the Queens House (not Liz, older Queen, you wouldn't know her).

While climbing up towards the meridian and the observatory, the view is quite spectacular:

Unfortunately we got there about 5 minutes too late to get into the actual meridian marker! Luckily, GPS in hand I was able to deduce that the marker is a fraud! Well not really, it's all about mapping coordinate systems. At any rate, I walked about 100 metres east and had my own little private moment with the WGS82 longitude zero meridian.

A nice walk around the surrounding park, we saw some deer (in an enclosure) and many squirrels. Confusing signs pointed us at non-existent roman ruins. Eventually the sun went down and we got back on the (driverless!) DLR train and went home.

First days

2007-02-28T17:58:00.000Z

The next few days were also equally eventful.

Amy and I decided the place we looked at on wednesday was perfect (expensive, but the same price as some real dives in the same area), and we signed up for (what would become) a fairly torturous process. Putting down about £400 to take the flat off the market and pay for background checks and so on, we were committed (to at least losing £400 :-)

On Friday I went for my interview at Yahoo! (I had already had a phone interview from Australia). I enjoyed the interview, feeling that they were thoroughly testing me, and if I got through I would be suited for the job. If not, then, well I wasn't.

On the weekend I did a *lot* of walking around London with Amy, who knows her way around admirably, especially since she hasn't been here all that long. I was suitably impressed. We visited her favourite coffee shop, walked around Kensington Gardens and the British Science Museum.

Arrival

2007-02-23T12:36:00.000Z

I arrived at Heathrow on time at around 5:30am, wednesday. Immigration was uneventful, if nerve wracking. Although I'd been told by Nick that I could take the UK citizen line, I erred on the side of caution and went through the visa line. For some reason every counter official was dressed in a shirt and tie, except mine, he had a full on police style uniform. He greeted me in a friendly enough fashion though, 'aright then?'.

He inspected my passport, asked me a few questions, and through I went. Before going through he told me I could indeed use the other line, and he pointed it out to me. There was about 300 people in it, as opposed to my visa line which had about 3. I told him I would certainly do that next time.

Then I waited for my baggage. Things seemed to be progressing quite well at this stage, as it appeared that it was the first flight of the morning, and they terminal was deserted apart from my fellow Koala Lumpy travellers.

Then - disaster.

Some old guy somehow injured himself quite badly on the baggage carousel, enough to need the emergency stop button to be pressed. I have no idea what he did, or how he did it. But that put a spanner in the works for about 20 minutes. Then the baggage started up again (the guy was being treated on the floor as the baggage flowed past him) and eventually my bag came. I checked my paranoia tamper tag things (I have no idea what I would have done if they had been tampered with) and loaded up my trolley.

Customs time - anything to declare? Nope, I went through the 'nothing to declare' lane, though I was slightly nervous about the chocolates and vegemite I was carrying. Didn't matter though - not a single customs official was there.

Then I met Amy, which was weird but only for a second. I've chatted to her a lot, but not seen her really for years. We had a coffee at the airport. The first song I heard in the UK was "A B C" by the Jackson Five. How auspicious.

Then the TUBE. The Tube is very very cool. I'm going to feel weird about coming back to trains that only come every hour or worse. You just walk on the platform - and a train is there. If by chance a train isn't there you have to wait at most 2-3 minutes. People complain about various aspects of the underground, but I think it's pretty good. Not (relatively speaking) all that expensive either - I bought a £30 oyster travel card, which lets me do unlimited travel in zones 1 & 2 for a week. I must have taken dozens of tube rides already, and I'm only halfway through the week. Also gets me on the buses for free.

Amy got off at Piccadilly Circus to go to work, and I was left alone with my bags to travel the few more stops northward to Finsbury Park.

Getting off there I was officially in London! Once figuring out where to 'touch out' my oyster card (the underground lady must have noticed how confused I looked, and gave me some advice :-) I got to the outside world, and gave Bec a call. She was still not out of bed, so told me which bus to catch and where to get off at.

Eventually we met up on her street, and I dumped off my stuff. Had some vegemite toast for second breakfast (first was at 3am or something ridiculous like that on the plane) and a cup of coffee.

I knew I'd need to stay up if I wanted to get jet lag out of the way, so despite feeling pretty crap I soldiered on. Bec, her friend Gemma and I all caught the bus into town to do some sightseeing. First stop was lunch though, and it was this:

Yum!

Prices seem quite good until you realise they are in pounds :-(

Then for some walking and some scenery:

As you can see the weather was bloody wonderful.

At about 5:30 I met Amy again, we were on our way to do House Hunting (yes, on my first day). Amy had already done a bunch of legwork in the previous weeks, so we had some places to check out. One of them was really nice, and although expensive (it's an expensive area, Fulham), I would rather that than be living here in Finsbury park (there was a shooting in the tube station here last month!).

Went home and collapsed about 10pm.

Kuala Lumpur

2007-02-20T12:31:00.000Z

Hi from Kuala Lumpur! And hooray for free unrestricted WIFI!

Feels pretty damn weird to be about 6000 k's from home.

The flight was great, no problem at all. Of course the next bit is longer. I'm hoping I can sleep through it though - which would bring my nicely into line with the london timezone. Starting to feel tired.... good timing... it'll just be like a 30 hour day, then no jet lag. Got it body? :-)

Oh and Awesome landing, those MA pilots are real pros :-)

Oh and thanks Adelaide, for letting me spend two hot dry weeks there, and giving me a few minutes of rain while I'm in the damn jet waiting to take off.

I'm going to go walk around this consumer shopping house of horrors and snap some photos.

ok I lied

2007-02-20T04:21:00.000Z

I'm in the departure lounge, gate 18. About 30 minutes until I board. Very nervous, excited, scared. Pretty much the gamut of emotions.

Check in was nerve wracking but smooth. No problems at check in (bag was 18kg), went through security, minor scare, my bag came through, but then he picked it up and passed it back over for another run. What the?? Second time through it was approved.

Left Heidi at the immigration entrance (Thanks so much Heidi!) and came through customs. A whole new world - why do they have to spring these things on us n00b travellers. It was smooth as though, straight through into the amazing delights of the duty free shop.

Ignoring that crap I came out, found a seat and here I am.

In 25 hours I will be in London.

Fark!

this will be my last post.....

2007-02-19T06:46:00.000Z

.... in australia.

I'm nearly ready.

I've some cash, a passport, someone to meet me, clothes washed (wet on the line, lucky it's 30 degrees), a plane ticket.....

have I forgotten anything?

Spent the weekend with my family, now everyone is 'up to date' on my little life story, and I can lift that weight from my shoulders. Phew!

Spent some time with my niece Jazmin, who is awesomely cute, even though it takes her about 2 hours to warm up enough to talk to me, even on consecutive days. Comes of spending the last 12 months in Canberra I guess :-/

Yesterday I went to Daisy and Henry's, it was really great to catch up to them. Something I didn't think of is that the friends of Anna who have also become my friends over time might not actually know how to tread. Sobering. So it was really good to spend the day with them, see the girls doing their gym, and catch up with their school accomplishments (which are considerable!), and have some great discussions.

Then she dropped me off at Heidi's house, and we had a great BBQ dinner (more awesome mexican) and white wine, with her friends Dave and Michelle, Heidi and Annalisa, and Kate.

A nice sleepin this morning, lunch with the work boys, coffee with Kirstie, and now I'm mentally preparing myself for the fact that in less than 24 hours I will be on a jet plane.

Brisbane!

2007-02-13T06:53:00.000Z

On the spur of the moment, Nick convinced me to come to Brisbane with him. So I did.

Needless to say I had a completely awesome time and as usual Nick was completely right that it was the best thing to do.

First up, from the airport we drove around looking for a couple of specific bottles of wine from specific bottleshops. I took many photos of buildings.

Later (much, much later) it was time for Spinach and Fetta pie. Yum! I am instant convert. Possibly my enjoyment was so extreme because I took pains to commune with the spinach before eating it.

The next day we got up 'early' and drove to Toogoom, where we stayed at Ash's Mums beach property. The water was deliciously warm and we just lazed in it for a while. We left footprints!

We drove up to Bundaberg (or near it) and saw baby turtles hatching! Due to not wanting to blind the little turtles, flash photography was verboten, and my photographs were all blurry. So none of them are here. But you may take my word for it that it was completely awesome :-)

Goodbye Work

2007-02-08T06:49:00.000Z

Here is the thing I will miss most about work:

Kidding! I will miss all the good people, but I'm kinda of looking forward to having a bit of a break. I haven't had a break between jobs for about 10 years. It's always been 'finish Friday, start new job Monday'.

After work various cool Internode people came out and had a drink with me, but I went home early. Kind of an anti-climax? Was I expecting fireworks? Not sure, but I guess I'm just ready for Phase Two of my life.

Arriving in Adelaide

2007-02-07T01:20:00.001Z

So here I am in Adelaide. Feels good to be here, feels even better to only have 3 days of work, then a couple of weeks of freedom!

On Sunday when I arrived, Heidi picked me up from the airport, and as is now our ritual, we hit the local Centro for the gathering of the condiments.

Shopping bags and my pack in arm, we arrived at my excellent home for the next 2 weeks - Heidi's House.

Dinner and entertainment for the evening consisted of:

Mexican food on the BBQ
Excellent people (Claire, Aaron, Amelia, Amy, Matt, Heidi and Meee)
Excellent chat (some of it about the 'olden days')
Margheritas

This was of course all excellent stuff.

Goodbye Canberra

2007-02-03T09:32:00.001Z

My Life
Originally uploaded by tardisx.

It's been fun! Actually no, it hasn't.

I'm all packed and ready to leave though. I'll be in Adelaide the next couple of weeks, then off I go.

It's a pretty weird feeling to be able to put your whole life into 3 bags.

I have to stop living like this

2007-01-30T14:23:00.000Z

Because of doing job applications and calling recruiters and the like on London time, I'm almost living on London time now. This is... bad when you are still trying to do a 9-5 job on Australia time. I had a cup of coffee about 11pm so I could finish a practical test for one of the positions I'm going for. Now it's 1:30am and I'm really tired but just not sleeping.

With any luck this will lessen my jetlag. I'm thinking that's a dream though.

Minor delay

2007-01-23T02:42:00.000Z

For ... interesting reasons I've had to delay my departure a little, about 10 days.

I will spend this time well, bumming around Adelaide being unemployed and doing as much visiting as I can :-)

Prelude

2007-01-17T05:19:00.000Z

The view as we takeoff is spectacular - the best ever. Maybe it's because of my mood, or maybe it just is beautiful. I don't remember flying out at this time of day, or maybe I just never really looked before.

The beaches look stunning in the 6:30pm sunlight. The water is even more so - bursting through the low level clouds and peering through them to the sparkling glassy surface is mesmerising. I'm quite sorry to leave the water behind and head inland.

The astonishing beauty and my own feelings make me take out my laptop and start typing. I've never done this on a flight before. I was afraid to waste a moment, that once my feet were back on the ground I would (as I do so often) put my thoughts aside without recording them until they fade.

I don't know what I will do with this text, but the lump in my throat tells me I should do something more than leave them for dementia to claim.

My heart is alterately heavy, elated and, well, shitscared. I have had a ball on this trip, staying with Marty in the city was wonderful, he looked after me well and it was ridiculously easy to visit people and travel around the city. I ate very well - too well, and both my waistline and my pocket will appreciate returning home.

Heavy, leaving behind Kate in the departure lounge as I boarded my flight. I'm amazingly glad to have got to know her a bit better during this trip. It's so much fun to find such startling hidden depths in a person that you never knew were there. And humbling. Must stop judging the books by the cover. Or more accurately, stop reading chapters 1-3 and thinking I know it all.

And as I watch the beaches recede I realise that in less than ONE MONTH I will be doing exactly the same thing, except on a malaysian airlines 747, bound for Kuala Lumpar, completely alone, on my way to another country, another life.

Temporary as I know it will be, that stay will be an amazing journey, I might be miserable, happy, something in between, but whatever it is, it will always be unforgettable.

I've so much to do! Once I had my tickets and Right of Abode sorted I got a little complacent. Suddenly it's upon me. My goal is to submit my resume to at least one potential employer tonight. Better a slightly rough resume is out there than I sit on it any longer!

I'm a bit of a scaredy cat. I'm not brave. Once I found out that I would be going it alone, I could picture myself in Heathrow, not knowing what the hell to do with myself. And I hate asking people for help. I think they are helping me because they are being polite, rather than genuinely being pleased to help me. Madness lies that way. Sometimes you need help.

I don't know Amy very well, I probably spoke to her no more or no less than any other fellow employee, back in "the days" when Internode was small and cosy. I've come to know her a bit better, via IM, however asking for help was still a hard thing for me to do. But I'm glad I did. Seeing her smiling face at the airport will make it all worthwhile.

Separating with Anna couldn't have come at a better or a worse time, if indeed you can consider the dissolution of such a long term commitment at any time to be better or worse than another. The full impact on our lives will not be measurable until things return to normal - which for me will now be quite some time.

Coming to Adelaide has given me a small taste of being apart from my children, and it's going to be a hard thing to deal with. Emily coming to visit me in the UK later in the year will make an enourmous difference, but the thought of coming home and finding Felix grown saddens me almost to the point of tears at the moment. I need to avoid this topic right now or my fellow passengers will be seeing a grown man cry.

Heidi's dinner for me was probably one of the nicest things that has been done for me ever. Leaving for the US the next day the last thing she needed was to organise a BBQ, but she did, and it was completely awesome. I know her not-so-ulterior motive was to set me up with one of her many amazing friends, but really, this is just more coolness than motive :-) I'm completely not ready for anything like this, despite what Mr. Brain sometimes thinks, but I'm still pretty much emotionally retarded, and I think being alone for a while is probably exactly what I need.

Seeing Anna and my mutual friends Michael and Illectra was slightly odd, at first. Last time we visited, post-breakup, we were both there, and, well, it was tense. Well I thought it was tense anyway.

This time I found things much more comfortable. It's good to realise that being apart from Anna doesn't mean that I have to separate from other people too, not if I don't want to. And the look of glee on Illectra's face when she realised she had a new potential man to match her single friends with again was priceless.

Dragging Kirstie along to that was also wonderful. Thick and thin she's been with me, and lucky perhaps for both of us, we were never both thick or both thin at the same time. Sam is very lucky and I'm sure he knows it.

Seeing my family was difficult, as some of them don't yet know "the news". I can't wait much longer, but I might have to be a chicken and do it over the phone. I'll do it one way or another before I leave.

I feel strange about the fact that Nick won't be on the flight with me in 4 weeks. Doing that journey with him was going to be very exciting. I'm sure he expected me to be angry, or sad, or maybe disappointed when he told me. I've never heard so many lead-in sentences and attempts to put positive spin on the upcoming 'bad news'. Nick, you can be so transparent sometimes. But not very often.

I was none of those things. Knowing that Nick was willing to give up a journey with me, with his ticket already bought and plans already drawn, must have meant he was experiencing something special. And he is. So I'm completely happy for him.