The start of Spamalot opens with the song 'Finland, Finland, Finland, thats the country for me'! with very colofully dressed people, cute little house, fur pines, etc. The narrator cuts the song to a quick close when he yells 'I said ENGLAND, not FINLAND'. The set dissapears into a depressing foggy gloom with faint lighting and rain clouds hovering. A few characters walk solemnly by in manky robes with depressing music. As far as reality goes its pretty accurate.
I realise I write more about what I do and whats happening, and maybe people like to know more about the daily life and what living here is actually like. So I thought id share my thoughts.
Coming into winter its funny to see that londoners almost have a dress code. Fair enough theres only so many coat styles on the market but still. Lace up high heel leather shoes are in fashion. Flat equestrian style boots are the staple foot diet. Tights are selling in the hundreds of thousands. All sorts of patterns. I havnt worn woolen tights since boarding school and here I am now expected to wear them daily as part of a funky (and warm) work wardrobe. so far I have resisted. The other thing i notice is most people here wear wooly hats. Baggy, knitted, wooly hats. Men all carry man bags or laptop bags, umbrella, sometimes hat, nice leather shoes.
You step down a peg into the casual wear domain and this is what you see - boys in english geezer shiny adidas tracksuits, white pull on sneakers and a ciggarette. Or Jeans, white sneakers and denim jacket and a ciggarette. Girls - jeans, puffer jacket or fitted short jacket with hard square handbag, trowled on makeup, blonde hair in pony tail, big hoop earrings, and a ciggarette. Or a kid.
One thing I've noticed, is that in such a busy densely populated city where we are queing and squeezing like sardines at every possible opportunity, is that everyone reserves a mininum of 1-2cm of personal space around them. Yes, this is even on the tube when there is no space to leave space. Your elbow to elbow, nose to nose and everyone must have there little perimeter of space. Do we go out of our way to have this by way of saving our sanity? Do we put extra effort into ignoring everyone because we are face to face with hundreds of people every day? Its the law of town vs country foke personified. The country foke are so far away from each other they grab every chance to be friendly and chat. The towny may ignore his neighbour, or may say hi once a week at the letterbox. Living in the city, woah ignoring and not touching is the top priority! (Disclaimer - this does not apply on oxford street. here, your aim is to bang into, and barge past, as many civilions as possible. go!)
But for all that, it still gives me a little buzz everytime i say to myself 'I'm in London'. And everytime you see the words Christchurch. Or Auckland. Or Albany, or Birkenhead. All these New Zealand places are english names. you just dont realise how much of an english colony we are until you realise this fact. Of course I know we are part of the commonwealth and all our english citizens came from england, ra ra ra, I'm saying its neat when your away from home to see the address 'Birkenhead, Albany, London, SW4 6PY. You think 'thats a place in Auckland! yay!' Yeah me and my little thrills. Gotta get em where you can.
The other day, I spoke to a kiwi guy on the phone. I answer the phone for my department and speak to a lot of english and welsh people. But this was the first maori sounding kiwi I've spoken too. He said something like 'orright, yeah, cheers eh, cheers, by' I smiled and felt a bit patriotic at hearing my homeland slang. see, 'cheers bro' never goes out of fashion.
The other thing about living in London is that after a few months of exploring the town and going out and seeing all the attractions, you soon turn to the reality of having a job, eating sleeping and doing housework. (If you do housework). All my friends here I speak to when you ask 'what have you been up too? just say 'working'. You think, woah, your in London! Life must be more exciting than that surely. No. Maybe for some people with good jobs yes. But for most of us its about working to pay your rent and your oyster card bill. And then eating, sleeping and drinking. Then, if a cheap deal comes in the TNT (www.tntmagazine.com) then you grab it and go on a sloshy weekend away with friends or some random place in Russia or Latvia or wherever and then you save for flights home.
The last thing that strikes me and actually strikes all the english people here too, is SAD and the darkness of winter. It starts getting dark at 4pm. By 4:30 its well dark and as good as night time. I left work early last friday, (4:30) and it was dark and the street lights were on. I thought, whats this, Im leaving work early, going out, and it feels like night time. Every day at work we all look out our grey blinds at the grey sky and watch it turning dark just after we have our afternoon coffee. We all get a bit more depressed. Which is the other major issue, is that everyone gets SAD (Seasonal affective disorder) over here. Everyone looks and acts gloomy and depressed. Everyone really looks forward to those sunny holidays with a ferocity never felt by kiwis. It puts new emphasis on 'going to work in the dark, and going home in the dark.' well, now it really is.
On the plus side, at least I can accesorise with at least 6 layers of cute knits, coats, scarves, gloves, hats, boots, tights, skirts......
Wow my english friends are really going to like me after this post. Cheers Bro? :)
Wednesday, 19 November 2008
Nanowrimo week 2/3
Hey folks :) thought i'd drop in and tell you about my snails pace progress for nanowrimo in the last couple of weeks.
After the first weekend of reaching 8000 words in the first weekend and increasing my word count by leaps all week, I got 6000 words in weekend two. At about 15, 000 words I noticed progress slow down. The main characters had been seperatly introduced. Backstories told. then you need to ramp it up a bit. you need to actually make your characters start coming of the page and doing something. You know, books usually have that exciting plot line where lots of things happen and at the end you cant remember everything that happened, but you know it was exciting? yeah. The writer has to write all that exciting stuff. And sometimes that involves late nights, coffee, sore butt, stiff back, RSS (the injury, not the content feed) and eyes popping out of your head. Isnt this fun!? *you tell yourself smiling*
anyway over the course of these 2 weeks I have managed to sprint, rest and sprint my way to 32, 100 words as of day 18. Not bad. I was two days ahead of schedule as determined by the head coach/leader of the whole thing. So Im pretty pleased.
But after racing from 17,000-31,000 words I am now stalling and the rabbit within has emerged. I need to dream up some dramatic scenes, plot twists, character revelations, lions tigers and bears, oh my!! But im only getting the tin man.
They call the 30-50,000 words there home stretch. Ill be saying that when Im at 40,000+. For now i am plodding on, keeping the competition going with my fellow wrimo's on twitter (http://www.twitter.com/) and submitting myself to 'Write or die'!!!! which is a website that pits you against a certain number of words in a certain time- if you fail it plays awful music or eats your words!! NOO!
Lots of procrastination and diversion tactics are employed at this stage of the game. People are starting to look for a way out. housework? love to! party? yeah! twitter updates (what novel?) you get the idea.
But to tell you the truth im really enjoying this, I like my plot (maybe more the idea of it rather than the actual quality of the content) but its a competition and getting to the end is far more satisfying than faking a sprain and quitting half way.
After the first weekend of reaching 8000 words in the first weekend and increasing my word count by leaps all week, I got 6000 words in weekend two. At about 15, 000 words I noticed progress slow down. The main characters had been seperatly introduced. Backstories told. then you need to ramp it up a bit. you need to actually make your characters start coming of the page and doing something. You know, books usually have that exciting plot line where lots of things happen and at the end you cant remember everything that happened, but you know it was exciting? yeah. The writer has to write all that exciting stuff. And sometimes that involves late nights, coffee, sore butt, stiff back, RSS (the injury, not the content feed) and eyes popping out of your head. Isnt this fun!? *you tell yourself smiling*
anyway over the course of these 2 weeks I have managed to sprint, rest and sprint my way to 32, 100 words as of day 18. Not bad. I was two days ahead of schedule as determined by the head coach/leader of the whole thing. So Im pretty pleased.
But after racing from 17,000-31,000 words I am now stalling and the rabbit within has emerged. I need to dream up some dramatic scenes, plot twists, character revelations, lions tigers and bears, oh my!! But im only getting the tin man.
They call the 30-50,000 words there home stretch. Ill be saying that when Im at 40,000+. For now i am plodding on, keeping the competition going with my fellow wrimo's on twitter (http://www.twitter.com/) and submitting myself to 'Write or die'!!!! which is a website that pits you against a certain number of words in a certain time- if you fail it plays awful music or eats your words!! NOO!
Lots of procrastination and diversion tactics are employed at this stage of the game. People are starting to look for a way out. housework? love to! party? yeah! twitter updates (what novel?) you get the idea.
But to tell you the truth im really enjoying this, I like my plot (maybe more the idea of it rather than the actual quality of the content) but its a competition and getting to the end is far more satisfying than faking a sprain and quitting half way.
Now ive just written a blog post about 800 words long. How much further ahead would that have gotten me in my novel. Instead im submitting thesis to my blog. What'd I say about diversion tactics?
Thursday, 6 November 2008
NaNoWriMo Week #1
Well for some reason (maybe the bad weather) I have chosen to compete in a competition of friendly writing sport called National Novel Writing Month. It was started by a guy in america a few years ago with some friends and has now grown into a world wide event with 150,000 odd participants. Through their website, and following peoples twittering about their progress the whole way through, it feels like a close worldwide community of writers all churning out words albeit just for 1 month of the year.
The aim is to write like a mad man with frenzied fingers and get 50, 000 words of fiction down before the month end. It is meant to be a novel but some entrants are non fiction works or documentarys etc.
It has been a great first week so far. The first 10,000 words have been the easiest... then when I got to 12-20k the going was slightly more involved but still manageable. As everyone has been saying it gets harder when you've got to actually make your characters do something in the land called 'plot'. And reading everyones posts on the competition website everyone is slowing down at about the same point.
Day one i sat bum on couch from 12-12 and got 8700 words down. By Monday evening, day 3, I had 11,something k. Tuesday night got up to 14 and a half k. Weds night got to 15, k. Note sleep cut back by 2-3hours each night so I can fit this typing in. Starting to feel the drag of a half awake person and a heavy head. But must. keep. typing. By Friday night im at 15,700K. Sat I spent another 8 hours writing and half of sunday, total 6000 something words. So now at the end of week one I have got to 22,750 words. I was aiming for 25K... but ohwell I'm really pleased with what writing I have done so I'm giving myself sunday evening off (to write more and update my blog of course).
To write this many words in 30 days, you need to do a mininum/average of 1700 words a day. So I need to retain my word count lead and carry on the word count one upmanship because I will need some time in week 4 to relax and edit my unmasterpiece.
So here's to week 2. Cheers to all my fellow NanoWrimo participants :D
The aim is to write like a mad man with frenzied fingers and get 50, 000 words of fiction down before the month end. It is meant to be a novel but some entrants are non fiction works or documentarys etc.
It has been a great first week so far. The first 10,000 words have been the easiest... then when I got to 12-20k the going was slightly more involved but still manageable. As everyone has been saying it gets harder when you've got to actually make your characters do something in the land called 'plot'. And reading everyones posts on the competition website everyone is slowing down at about the same point.
Day one i sat bum on couch from 12-12 and got 8700 words down. By Monday evening, day 3, I had 11,something k. Tuesday night got up to 14 and a half k. Weds night got to 15, k. Note sleep cut back by 2-3hours each night so I can fit this typing in. Starting to feel the drag of a half awake person and a heavy head. But must. keep. typing. By Friday night im at 15,700K. Sat I spent another 8 hours writing and half of sunday, total 6000 something words. So now at the end of week one I have got to 22,750 words. I was aiming for 25K... but ohwell I'm really pleased with what writing I have done so I'm giving myself sunday evening off (to write more and update my blog of course).
To write this many words in 30 days, you need to do a mininum/average of 1700 words a day. So I need to retain my word count lead and carry on the word count one upmanship because I will need some time in week 4 to relax and edit my unmasterpiece.
So here's to week 2. Cheers to all my fellow NanoWrimo participants :D
Monday, 13 October 2008
London is an autumn city
I like London in Autumn much better. The skies are clear, there next to no rain, the temperature is more comfortable (ie not too cold or hot at work or on the tube) and there's leaves falling everywhere and because London is a really green city it looks beautiful. Theres more blue skies than there was in summer which means a) you have a sense of 'yay look blue skie' and b) ooo golly why is it so cold its a nice day. apparantly the clouds return in winter.
What ive done this month... hmmm
9th Oct, I went to a lolcats meetup which was great fun at the 02 centre in greenwich. LOLCATS is a website upon which the owners and mere folk such as ourselves place photos of cats, dogs and politicians and everyone proceeds to plaster them with funny comments. YES its actually really funny. And YES I went to a meetup to meet the other people that enjoy these photos as much as I do. There was a crowd of about 100-150 and it was free drinks all night. Everyone ordered cheezburgers (it was an american steak bar) and the waiters had no idea why everyone was ordering cheezburgers! we had a laugh at their expense. It was great fun to meet new people and talk about geeky stuff and jokes like 'its ok, we're from the internet!'. I felt like I was at a star wars convention or an iPhone launch party, such were the numbers of iphones popping out taking photos (or in my case updating our twitter status and watching diggnation as the night went on. yeah, someone did point out to me that updating my twitter, on my iphone, while at a geeky website meetup, was pretty nerdy) Anyway we all swapped facebook/twitter/blog details and parted as happier geeks with a few more friends than before.
On the 11th/12th I went to a friends party then the next day a bunch of us went to the church. 'The Church' is the home of getting boozed in 4hours flat on a sunday with other kiwis and aussies and saffas. Most of the people going to the church get dressed up in all manner of obsurd ways and run yelling up the street to get in line. 12pm, doors open, let the drunken revellry begin. For £7 you get a drink token which gets you 3 beer cans in a plastic bag. The boys down 9/10 cans each in the 4hours and there is a big pile of crushed cans at our feet and ripped plastic bags everywhere. I will not tell you, dear reader, what else goes on at the church it will hurt your eyes. Anyway we all leave in a calm and orderly fashion and proceed quietly to the nearest tube station *ahhhhh NO* everyone spills out onto the street and hoards of us head to the underground in as noisy manner as possible and go to the walkabout (chain of aussie/kiwi/saffa pubs in london) to continue our drinking. The whole tube platform was full of us all yelling that chant people start up at rugby games and when the tube came we all piled on - the carriage behind us were actually making the train carriage bounce up and down, such was their enthusiastic singing and jumping!
Might I point out I had a cold this week and only had two beers. Hence i observed this whole charade in such a bemused fashion.
Next week, went out with a friend for dinner monday 13th, then went out with workmates on weds 15th to dinner and a comedy where this guy called Mitch Benn and his two band mates sing parody songs that are his jokes.. very clever actually.
Then the next night I go round to a friends for dinner and spend the whole night laughing cos her friends a comedian.
The following weds 23rd I go see Spamalot (monty python musical) for the second time with a friend and we have dinner and a drink and a good laugh.
Then this sat 25th we all went to our friends halloween party - they'd decorated the house and everyone dressed up and we had a really good night. I went as a spider queen - got some costume acessories from Camden and worked with what I had.
Other than these few things, Ive not been up too much... cooked dinner for my flatmates last week, cajun chicken with vegies (excellent) and berry pie (needs some work) and made two batches of cookies both of which didnt end up as perfect as id hoped cos I forgot they are meant to be soft and crumbly when they come out of the oven - so i rather overcooked them a little.
At home, weve got the heaters on nearly every night and we all huddle under duvets and watch a movie a night... we have a dvd player that has a little usb stick so we can take files straight from pc and play them on tv. weve seen a fair few movies now!!
Work is still really good, im now also a PA for the new head of branding and communications aswell as being administrator and helping other comms managers with events and other campaigns. The company stays open over xmas so I might just do a short 3-5 days in scotland over xmas and work the other days that I can.
anyways remember you can comment on my blog posts and i always enjoy getting emails from everyone.
What ive done this month... hmmm
9th Oct, I went to a lolcats meetup which was great fun at the 02 centre in greenwich. LOLCATS is a website upon which the owners and mere folk such as ourselves place photos of cats, dogs and politicians and everyone proceeds to plaster them with funny comments. YES its actually really funny. And YES I went to a meetup to meet the other people that enjoy these photos as much as I do. There was a crowd of about 100-150 and it was free drinks all night. Everyone ordered cheezburgers (it was an american steak bar) and the waiters had no idea why everyone was ordering cheezburgers! we had a laugh at their expense. It was great fun to meet new people and talk about geeky stuff and jokes like 'its ok, we're from the internet!'. I felt like I was at a star wars convention or an iPhone launch party, such were the numbers of iphones popping out taking photos (or in my case updating our twitter status and watching diggnation as the night went on. yeah, someone did point out to me that updating my twitter, on my iphone, while at a geeky website meetup, was pretty nerdy) Anyway we all swapped facebook/twitter/blog details and parted as happier geeks with a few more friends than before.
On the 11th/12th I went to a friends party then the next day a bunch of us went to the church. 'The Church' is the home of getting boozed in 4hours flat on a sunday with other kiwis and aussies and saffas. Most of the people going to the church get dressed up in all manner of obsurd ways and run yelling up the street to get in line. 12pm, doors open, let the drunken revellry begin. For £7 you get a drink token which gets you 3 beer cans in a plastic bag. The boys down 9/10 cans each in the 4hours and there is a big pile of crushed cans at our feet and ripped plastic bags everywhere. I will not tell you, dear reader, what else goes on at the church it will hurt your eyes. Anyway we all leave in a calm and orderly fashion and proceed quietly to the nearest tube station *ahhhhh NO* everyone spills out onto the street and hoards of us head to the underground in as noisy manner as possible and go to the walkabout (chain of aussie/kiwi/saffa pubs in london) to continue our drinking. The whole tube platform was full of us all yelling that chant people start up at rugby games and when the tube came we all piled on - the carriage behind us were actually making the train carriage bounce up and down, such was their enthusiastic singing and jumping!
Might I point out I had a cold this week and only had two beers. Hence i observed this whole charade in such a bemused fashion.
Next week, went out with a friend for dinner monday 13th, then went out with workmates on weds 15th to dinner and a comedy where this guy called Mitch Benn and his two band mates sing parody songs that are his jokes.. very clever actually.
Then the next night I go round to a friends for dinner and spend the whole night laughing cos her friends a comedian.
The following weds 23rd I go see Spamalot (monty python musical) for the second time with a friend and we have dinner and a drink and a good laugh.
Then this sat 25th we all went to our friends halloween party - they'd decorated the house and everyone dressed up and we had a really good night. I went as a spider queen - got some costume acessories from Camden and worked with what I had.
Other than these few things, Ive not been up too much... cooked dinner for my flatmates last week, cajun chicken with vegies (excellent) and berry pie (needs some work) and made two batches of cookies both of which didnt end up as perfect as id hoped cos I forgot they are meant to be soft and crumbly when they come out of the oven - so i rather overcooked them a little.
At home, weve got the heaters on nearly every night and we all huddle under duvets and watch a movie a night... we have a dvd player that has a little usb stick so we can take files straight from pc and play them on tv. weve seen a fair few movies now!!
Work is still really good, im now also a PA for the new head of branding and communications aswell as being administrator and helping other comms managers with events and other campaigns. The company stays open over xmas so I might just do a short 3-5 days in scotland over xmas and work the other days that I can.
anyways remember you can comment on my blog posts and i always enjoy getting emails from everyone.
Sunday, 5 October 2008
Updating you
Last weekend I went for a weekend course at Arthur Findlay college in Stanstead. Gorgeous weekend enjoying the sun and nature and watching the horses in the paddock next door. The sun was out so caught a few beams which was lovely. Relaxing break out of the city to save my sanity and came back refreshed.
Working hard at the moment, its really good being busy and learning more. Really enjoy job variety so its great. Im never sitting still for long (unless im creating posters in photoshop or editing a swedish website that ive been working on for weeks, then it takes me all day to spell out words like ventigulingsing hogprofil z-och c-balk. But i like web editing and photoshop work so i dont mind :)
Tip to myself - get to work by 8:30 so I dont have to endure being squashed in the tube with peoples arms and breifcases pushing into me on all sides and peoples arms going right infront of your face. If you get on the tube around 7:45, you have room to read the paper or maybe even sit down :0 bonus.
The free papers in london are great, and thankfully we've moved on from amy winehouses adventures and are now focussing on the credit crunch and hearing blow by blow reports on the state of the economy around the world.
This weekend, well yesterday I did a one day course in NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) at the City Lit Uni (its a uni devoted to adult learning and has an amazing range of courses) it was really interesting. It was good to recap some of the material that I have done with previous life coach and personal development courses. Plan to go on and do the NLP practitioner and life coaching courses.
Today the weather is miserable and so me and my flatmates are all cooped up inside listening to music, the guys are getting their DIY on and building some shelves while us girls stand by and critique their work :P
What i'm most excited about though is the fact that Russell Peters (comedian) and Russell Brand are both doing shows in London next Feb! I am soooo going. Just have to find someone else to go with. (Anyone?)
Working hard at the moment, its really good being busy and learning more. Really enjoy job variety so its great. Im never sitting still for long (unless im creating posters in photoshop or editing a swedish website that ive been working on for weeks, then it takes me all day to spell out words like ventigulingsing hogprofil z-och c-balk. But i like web editing and photoshop work so i dont mind :)
Tip to myself - get to work by 8:30 so I dont have to endure being squashed in the tube with peoples arms and breifcases pushing into me on all sides and peoples arms going right infront of your face. If you get on the tube around 7:45, you have room to read the paper or maybe even sit down :0 bonus.
The free papers in london are great, and thankfully we've moved on from amy winehouses adventures and are now focussing on the credit crunch and hearing blow by blow reports on the state of the economy around the world.
This weekend, well yesterday I did a one day course in NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) at the City Lit Uni (its a uni devoted to adult learning and has an amazing range of courses) it was really interesting. It was good to recap some of the material that I have done with previous life coach and personal development courses. Plan to go on and do the NLP practitioner and life coaching courses.
Today the weather is miserable and so me and my flatmates are all cooped up inside listening to music, the guys are getting their DIY on and building some shelves while us girls stand by and critique their work :P
What i'm most excited about though is the fact that Russell Peters (comedian) and Russell Brand are both doing shows in London next Feb! I am soooo going. Just have to find someone else to go with. (Anyone?)
Friday, 12 September 2008
things I miss and things I like
Things I miss!!
- the sun in general
- beaches
- pies
- scenery
- the sea
- actual weather (not just perpetual cloud)
- people that understand what vowels your pronouncing
- shops and banks that actually upgrade their counters every year. my bank has 50 year old marks in their wooden counters and tartan carpet.
- customer serivce! (instead of constantly improving customer service techniques these guys are in an effort to be the grumpiest and most uncaring)
- eftpos
- fresh fruit and vegatables
- farmbake cookies
- decent nz meat
- decent tv shows
- big modern supermarkets- here they are all like little 4 squares with archaic range of products and store layout
- westfield malls
- glassons and max
- not hearing anything about any other country except britain
- modern anything - buildings, carpet, concrete, any operating process.
OK now things I like about the UK:
- the tubes and trains and buses - the range and frequency of these services means that means 8million people can go anywhere at anytime, every minute and that is cool
- the way the city is built around advising you what tube or bus to take to an event, to work, to see your friends, to that restaurant - and no information about driving or parking.
- the proximity to europe and more countries in general
- theatres
- more shops, and way more funky and exciting range
- 24/7 'off licences' that sell anything you could need from your breakfast to your alchahol.
- how cheap everything is.
- a cosy pub and a stodgy feed on a freezing cold day
- countless pubs, nightclubs, restaurants, etc
- multiple happening areas of town that buzz with activity every night of the week
- the way theres books and magazines devoted to listings of whats happening in town every night - and there's a lot.
- more of everything- more niche industry magazines, more options, more stores, more companys than you can poke a big phone book at..
Things I find interesting:
- the feeling that everything is so old that processes and mind sets and buildings progress is generally slower than the fast changing, cutting edge, modern, NZ way of being.
- guys go shopping. by themselves, and willingly. and their clothes are as funky as the girls. and they're not gay.
- its still very much a cash society. every day people can be seen stopping at a 'hole in the wall'. many shops do not even have a card terminal. no-one pays by card here. feels like your constantly handing over cash left right and centre.
- tv adverts. british use cosy, pretty, warm feeling ads with cartoon characters or kids. no funky bravia adds for these guys.
- the labelling on packaging. our dishcloth is more than just a sponge - its an aerated lineament surface buffer scrub. really.
- the sun in general
- beaches
- pies
- scenery
- the sea
- actual weather (not just perpetual cloud)
- people that understand what vowels your pronouncing
- shops and banks that actually upgrade their counters every year. my bank has 50 year old marks in their wooden counters and tartan carpet.
- customer serivce! (instead of constantly improving customer service techniques these guys are in an effort to be the grumpiest and most uncaring)
- eftpos
- fresh fruit and vegatables
- farmbake cookies
- decent nz meat
- decent tv shows
- big modern supermarkets- here they are all like little 4 squares with archaic range of products and store layout
- westfield malls
- glassons and max
- not hearing anything about any other country except britain
- modern anything - buildings, carpet, concrete, any operating process.
OK now things I like about the UK:
- the tubes and trains and buses - the range and frequency of these services means that means 8million people can go anywhere at anytime, every minute and that is cool
- the way the city is built around advising you what tube or bus to take to an event, to work, to see your friends, to that restaurant - and no information about driving or parking.
- the proximity to europe and more countries in general
- theatres
- more shops, and way more funky and exciting range
- 24/7 'off licences' that sell anything you could need from your breakfast to your alchahol.
- how cheap everything is.
- a cosy pub and a stodgy feed on a freezing cold day
- countless pubs, nightclubs, restaurants, etc
- multiple happening areas of town that buzz with activity every night of the week
- the way theres books and magazines devoted to listings of whats happening in town every night - and there's a lot.
- more of everything- more niche industry magazines, more options, more stores, more companys than you can poke a big phone book at..
Things I find interesting:
- the feeling that everything is so old that processes and mind sets and buildings progress is generally slower than the fast changing, cutting edge, modern, NZ way of being.
- guys go shopping. by themselves, and willingly. and their clothes are as funky as the girls. and they're not gay.
- its still very much a cash society. every day people can be seen stopping at a 'hole in the wall'. many shops do not even have a card terminal. no-one pays by card here. feels like your constantly handing over cash left right and centre.
- tv adverts. british use cosy, pretty, warm feeling ads with cartoon characters or kids. no funky bravia adds for these guys.
- the labelling on packaging. our dishcloth is more than just a sponge - its an aerated lineament surface buffer scrub. really.
whuss bin happenin bro
well what a busy couple of weeks... im waiting for the weekend to come around so i can go to bed :0
Last week I was helping organise a company event for this week so working 8:30-6:30 every day madly organising things...
on the weekend i had to go to the laundromat again cos our washing machine has been broken for a couple of weeks. (Ed - its fixed now).
We had a big party on sat night for a friends birthday, they'd decked out their house with a strobe light, flashing disco lights, smoke machine, plastic gladiator fighting sticks, and a shisha tent out the back. their flatmate is a dj so he was providing us with awsome tunes all night. it was a great night! see my photos on facebook.
so its monday again, that came around too fast. Get into work with the rest of the organising team at 7:30 and setup. It was held on the 29th floor of our office building in a venue with views out over London in 3 directions...
Monday night I go with a friend to see Spamalot, the Monty Python theatre show at the Palace theatre in Leicester Square. Its a gorgeous old theartre with wood panelling walls, mirrors with curly gold borders, every surface of the theartre is covered in decorative design.
The show itself is absolutely fantastic!! We laughed through virtually the whole show, the actors were full of enthusiasm and very professional.. the costumes and set design and set changes were really well done. I would have paid £20 - the ticket was only £10. well worth it.
Tuesday night i went round to dinner with some family freinds .. was a really nice evening and had a sumptuous chicken risotto- the best food ive had since i left home :D
weds night i actually got home at a reasonable hour for the first time this week.
thursday night me and our posse of friends went to see the feelers at a kiwi/aussie pub in the antipodean quarter of london (shepherds bush eouw) where the whole pub is full of kiwi and aussie accents and they sell pies!!! (yay for the pies!) oh yeah the band was pretty good too. :P
and finally, its friday. :D
ps the title is spelt wrong purpously to represent the accent on letters that british people hear when we kiwis speak. yes becomes yiss. desk becomes disk. you get my drift.
Last week I was helping organise a company event for this week so working 8:30-6:30 every day madly organising things...
on the weekend i had to go to the laundromat again cos our washing machine has been broken for a couple of weeks. (Ed - its fixed now).
We had a big party on sat night for a friends birthday, they'd decked out their house with a strobe light, flashing disco lights, smoke machine, plastic gladiator fighting sticks, and a shisha tent out the back. their flatmate is a dj so he was providing us with awsome tunes all night. it was a great night! see my photos on facebook.
so its monday again, that came around too fast. Get into work with the rest of the organising team at 7:30 and setup. It was held on the 29th floor of our office building in a venue with views out over London in 3 directions...
Monday night I go with a friend to see Spamalot, the Monty Python theatre show at the Palace theatre in Leicester Square. Its a gorgeous old theartre with wood panelling walls, mirrors with curly gold borders, every surface of the theartre is covered in decorative design.
The show itself is absolutely fantastic!! We laughed through virtually the whole show, the actors were full of enthusiasm and very professional.. the costumes and set design and set changes were really well done. I would have paid £20 - the ticket was only £10. well worth it.
Tuesday night i went round to dinner with some family freinds .. was a really nice evening and had a sumptuous chicken risotto- the best food ive had since i left home :D
weds night i actually got home at a reasonable hour for the first time this week.
thursday night me and our posse of friends went to see the feelers at a kiwi/aussie pub in the antipodean quarter of london (shepherds bush eouw) where the whole pub is full of kiwi and aussie accents and they sell pies!!! (yay for the pies!) oh yeah the band was pretty good too. :P
and finally, its friday. :D
ps the title is spelt wrong purpously to represent the accent on letters that british people hear when we kiwis speak. yes becomes yiss. desk becomes disk. you get my drift.
Monday, 1 September 2008
Nike 10km Run 31st Aug
Wow, I did it- my first 10km run!!
Last night my flatmates and myself all did the Nike Human Race ('London against the world') from Wembly stadium.
We have been running regularly for a while but really only trained seriously in the last week, (not ideal) but we'd got up to running 7-8kms OK so we were fairly sure we could acheieve the last 2km's on the day.
We file into the stadium with a fellow army of people all wearing the red event tshirts. Pendulum and Moby put on a concert while everything got setup and people got ready. Then wave 1 set off.. then wave 2.. then wave 3 (thats us!) head onto the stadium to warm up then we're off! We follow a curvy course around the carpark and the neighbouring streets and then back into the stadium grounds. There were stewards and supporters encouraging us all along the way which was neat.
We did, infact, all do really well :D my fit-as flatmates got there 51-52min mark, my roommate got 1:02 and I got 1:12. I jogged along comfortably the whole way then sprinted to the finish yelling with my arm up waving at the spectators who were all yelling at us 'go! every second counts! come on london!'.
We got another free tshirt at the end which everyone put on for warmth (yee-ah two free tshirts! awesome) and there was a white army of tshirts on the return tube journey instead of the army of red that was arriving just a couple of hours ago. It was quite funny.. and some strangers on the tube came up to us and said 'what is happening? why is the whole city wearing the same tshirt?' you had to laugh.
Apparantly about 40,000 people took part in this awesome event - and a real mix of people took part, from the olymics Paula Radcliffe (she zoomed past in a flash and people in her wake were left gasping 'was that paula radcliffe? yeah it was!) and there were some army boys in their army gear and packs. Only a few people walked but mostly everyone pushed themselves the whole way.
Overall it was an exciting, fun, well organised event and mass run for charity.
Last night my flatmates and myself all did the Nike Human Race ('London against the world') from Wembly stadium.
We have been running regularly for a while but really only trained seriously in the last week, (not ideal) but we'd got up to running 7-8kms OK so we were fairly sure we could acheieve the last 2km's on the day.
We file into the stadium with a fellow army of people all wearing the red event tshirts. Pendulum and Moby put on a concert while everything got setup and people got ready. Then wave 1 set off.. then wave 2.. then wave 3 (thats us!) head onto the stadium to warm up then we're off! We follow a curvy course around the carpark and the neighbouring streets and then back into the stadium grounds. There were stewards and supporters encouraging us all along the way which was neat.
We did, infact, all do really well :D my fit-as flatmates got there 51-52min mark, my roommate got 1:02 and I got 1:12. I jogged along comfortably the whole way then sprinted to the finish yelling with my arm up waving at the spectators who were all yelling at us 'go! every second counts! come on london!'.
We got another free tshirt at the end which everyone put on for warmth (yee-ah two free tshirts! awesome) and there was a white army of tshirts on the return tube journey instead of the army of red that was arriving just a couple of hours ago. It was quite funny.. and some strangers on the tube came up to us and said 'what is happening? why is the whole city wearing the same tshirt?' you had to laugh.
Apparantly about 40,000 people took part in this awesome event - and a real mix of people took part, from the olymics Paula Radcliffe (she zoomed past in a flash and people in her wake were left gasping 'was that paula radcliffe? yeah it was!) and there were some army boys in their army gear and packs. Only a few people walked but mostly everyone pushed themselves the whole way.
Overall it was an exciting, fun, well organised event and mass run for charity.
Monday, 11 August 2008
Egypt 2-10 Aug 08
I'm back! In case you didn't know, Ive just spent one amazing week in Egypt - I've only waited 20years to do it - and now I've done it.
The trip was with Travel Talk, they were great, had a good itinerary and great tour guide. The other people on the tour were all really neat too - makes the trip that much better when your hanging out with good people.
The trip started in Cairo, Sat 2nd Aug (40 degrees) where we stayed at the Cataract Resort. we saw a lot the first day - the Giza pyramids, sphinx, tombs and the step pyramid of Sakarra. They are all really amazing and actually it's almost too much to take in - here you are standing in front of these 4000yr old colossal monuments that you've waited all your life to see... quite surreal.
There are vendors by the dozen at all the tourist sites. They wait in the shade then swarm to you with their souvenirs when you arrive, and get right in your face... some virtually drag you to their camel for a ride, others ask outright for 'baksheesh' (tip).
Tonight we catch the overnight train to Aswan. Its a huge tank of a train that goes fairly slow and steady pace.. seats pretty comfy, we are seated in cabins of 6, all our bags piled on the floor. we try and get some sleep during the 16hour trip. (tip - always take your own toilet tissue. and use the bathroom before 2am and after 10am.)
Next day we arrive safely in Aswan... (45degrees).. the city is right on the Nile and is cleaner and prettier and has a more laid back quieter feel to it. we are staying at Hotel Basma that has amazing views over the whole city and the Nile. we have 2 nights here and we make the most of the pool :)
The first day we visit the Aswan Dam and the High Dam, under which is a whole Nubian city and ancient temples. A few were saved by UNESCO (including Abu Simbel) Apparently all the crocodiles are behind the dam.. we'll believe you..
Then we visit the Philae temple, which is a really neat site on an island, 10min boat ride from shore. (quite a romantic story with this temple, about the goddess of magic who was waiting for her husband but he got killed. when she found out she turned herself into a bird and flew all over Egypt looking for him then gave him the magic kiss of life) Again this temple was moved from a smaller island not far away and they found a bigger island, extended it and rebuilt the temple on there.
This evening we go to a traditional Nubian dinner in a real Nubian village. we catch a motorboat up the river Nile and have a sumptuous dinner in a real Nubian house that has a straw roof and walls painted with pictures of camels. we get to meet their pet crocodiles and then get some traditional Nubian singing and music on the boat on the way home, we are all up singing and clapping on a little motorboat in the middle of the river Nile!
We now head south on the tour bus to Luxor, where we stayed at the Sheraton report. The temperature is around 48degrees. We praise the air conditioning every time we get on the bus.. The next day we wake up and are out the door by 4am to take a 3hour bus trip out to see Abu Simbel, the amazing temple with 4 huge statues at the front. It was moved up, and backwards, from the rising High Dam to save it. Its an impressive huge temple carved into a hill with lots of big offering rooms and huge columns. Its very hot here, we all shelter under the tree after an hour. I sleep all the way there and back on the bus. While the others all go off to their felucca cruise we have a half day to relax by the pool and take in a short felucca ride on the river. except it was too windy to sail so we got another motorboat ride! still really nice on the river though.
For our second day in Luxor we see the Karnak Temple and the Luxor Temple.
Karnak Temple is set on 64acres, and its has multiple temples and obelisks on it where Pharaoh's and leaders built over top of each other and pulled down each others stuff in order to be the most powerful & prominent.
Luxor temple has intact, huge statues at the front, and the road of sphinxes leading between this temple and Karnak temple. it also has roman painting of the last supper on one wall.
The next day when everyone has returned, we make an early start on the bus to see the Valley of the Kings and Hatchepsut Temple... we stop and have a donkey ride first (a few of us don't) then drive up to the ultra hot valley to explore some tombs!! we catch a golf cart train up the hill and have some time to explore 3 tombs - there are 64 tombs in this valley, some closed for maintenance, some still undiscovered. we go in king Ramses 2 and a couple of others. very impressive - the walls and ceilings are still covered with the original paint .. the sarcophagus lies in the chamber of each tomb. there are steep ramps/steps into each tomb and its stifling hot - its cooler outside, and its 48degrees! we head back down the hill with some vendors that are running and jumping onto our train, fleeing from armed gun men out to get them as selling is not allowed...
we then see Hatchepsut temple which is the queen (daughter of ....two VIP) and since a woman couldn't really rule the country she always depicted herself as a man. so Egypt thought she was a king.
we head back to Luxor to relax and say a sad farewell to all our new friends - some are off to Jordan, Dahab, and other places and a group of us are heading back to Cairo. we again catch the overnight train however the seats are comfier and its only an 8hour journey. In Cairo its noticeably cooler but humid.. we are back at the Cataract resort for the last day - we do a tour round the city to see the Coptic church and some original Egyptian markets... they are an experience. rubbish, stray cats.. dirt roads.. we got lost down little alleys with pita bread shops and the locals pointed to the way out for us :)
Tonight we get to see the pyramids again - this time for the sound and light show :) we are greeted by bag pipe playing men dressed as Egyptians (we don't know where they got this strange combination) then the pyramids lit up and powerful orchestra type music started and the sphinx told us the story of the pyramids and their kings....
A few moments on the tour that I will remember was going into the towns and talking to the friendly locals (who just wanted to practice their English).. going to the bustling, loud markets in each city where every one of us girls got at least one 'compliment' or 'marriage proposal' or even an offer to buy us. (how generous) The rides on the motorboats, and Nubian kids showing off in front of our cameras while swimming in the Nile. and eating some good food at local restaurants around town... and the feeling of staying in hotel resorts with huge pools and knowing an Egyptian would need to save a few months salary just to stay for one night. and not forgetting the plethora of donkeys everywhere towing carts of junk or grass or their owners..seeing the slums of thousands of mud brick houses and then the straw huts in the fields where the farmers live during harvest season.
Now back in London and feeling absolutely relaxed, tanned, happy, and reflecting on this amazing trip. The first thing I notice is the smell - gone is the shisha pipe smell that permeates everything. now is the damp brick and concrete smell.. ah at least everything is in English and no-one is accosting me on the street to come look at his shop!
The trip was with Travel Talk, they were great, had a good itinerary and great tour guide. The other people on the tour were all really neat too - makes the trip that much better when your hanging out with good people.
The trip started in Cairo, Sat 2nd Aug (40 degrees) where we stayed at the Cataract Resort. we saw a lot the first day - the Giza pyramids, sphinx, tombs and the step pyramid of Sakarra. They are all really amazing and actually it's almost too much to take in - here you are standing in front of these 4000yr old colossal monuments that you've waited all your life to see... quite surreal.
There are vendors by the dozen at all the tourist sites. They wait in the shade then swarm to you with their souvenirs when you arrive, and get right in your face... some virtually drag you to their camel for a ride, others ask outright for 'baksheesh' (tip).
Tonight we catch the overnight train to Aswan. Its a huge tank of a train that goes fairly slow and steady pace.. seats pretty comfy, we are seated in cabins of 6, all our bags piled on the floor. we try and get some sleep during the 16hour trip. (tip - always take your own toilet tissue. and use the bathroom before 2am and after 10am.)
Next day we arrive safely in Aswan... (45degrees).. the city is right on the Nile and is cleaner and prettier and has a more laid back quieter feel to it. we are staying at Hotel Basma that has amazing views over the whole city and the Nile. we have 2 nights here and we make the most of the pool :)
The first day we visit the Aswan Dam and the High Dam, under which is a whole Nubian city and ancient temples. A few were saved by UNESCO (including Abu Simbel) Apparently all the crocodiles are behind the dam.. we'll believe you..
Then we visit the Philae temple, which is a really neat site on an island, 10min boat ride from shore. (quite a romantic story with this temple, about the goddess of magic who was waiting for her husband but he got killed. when she found out she turned herself into a bird and flew all over Egypt looking for him then gave him the magic kiss of life) Again this temple was moved from a smaller island not far away and they found a bigger island, extended it and rebuilt the temple on there.
This evening we go to a traditional Nubian dinner in a real Nubian village. we catch a motorboat up the river Nile and have a sumptuous dinner in a real Nubian house that has a straw roof and walls painted with pictures of camels. we get to meet their pet crocodiles and then get some traditional Nubian singing and music on the boat on the way home, we are all up singing and clapping on a little motorboat in the middle of the river Nile!
We now head south on the tour bus to Luxor, where we stayed at the Sheraton report. The temperature is around 48degrees. We praise the air conditioning every time we get on the bus.. The next day we wake up and are out the door by 4am to take a 3hour bus trip out to see Abu Simbel, the amazing temple with 4 huge statues at the front. It was moved up, and backwards, from the rising High Dam to save it. Its an impressive huge temple carved into a hill with lots of big offering rooms and huge columns. Its very hot here, we all shelter under the tree after an hour. I sleep all the way there and back on the bus. While the others all go off to their felucca cruise we have a half day to relax by the pool and take in a short felucca ride on the river. except it was too windy to sail so we got another motorboat ride! still really nice on the river though.
For our second day in Luxor we see the Karnak Temple and the Luxor Temple.
Karnak Temple is set on 64acres, and its has multiple temples and obelisks on it where Pharaoh's and leaders built over top of each other and pulled down each others stuff in order to be the most powerful & prominent.
Luxor temple has intact, huge statues at the front, and the road of sphinxes leading between this temple and Karnak temple. it also has roman painting of the last supper on one wall.
The next day when everyone has returned, we make an early start on the bus to see the Valley of the Kings and Hatchepsut Temple... we stop and have a donkey ride first (a few of us don't) then drive up to the ultra hot valley to explore some tombs!! we catch a golf cart train up the hill and have some time to explore 3 tombs - there are 64 tombs in this valley, some closed for maintenance, some still undiscovered. we go in king Ramses 2 and a couple of others. very impressive - the walls and ceilings are still covered with the original paint .. the sarcophagus lies in the chamber of each tomb. there are steep ramps/steps into each tomb and its stifling hot - its cooler outside, and its 48degrees! we head back down the hill with some vendors that are running and jumping onto our train, fleeing from armed gun men out to get them as selling is not allowed...
we then see Hatchepsut temple which is the queen (daughter of ....two VIP) and since a woman couldn't really rule the country she always depicted herself as a man. so Egypt thought she was a king.
we head back to Luxor to relax and say a sad farewell to all our new friends - some are off to Jordan, Dahab, and other places and a group of us are heading back to Cairo. we again catch the overnight train however the seats are comfier and its only an 8hour journey. In Cairo its noticeably cooler but humid.. we are back at the Cataract resort for the last day - we do a tour round the city to see the Coptic church and some original Egyptian markets... they are an experience. rubbish, stray cats.. dirt roads.. we got lost down little alleys with pita bread shops and the locals pointed to the way out for us :)
Tonight we get to see the pyramids again - this time for the sound and light show :) we are greeted by bag pipe playing men dressed as Egyptians (we don't know where they got this strange combination) then the pyramids lit up and powerful orchestra type music started and the sphinx told us the story of the pyramids and their kings....
A few moments on the tour that I will remember was going into the towns and talking to the friendly locals (who just wanted to practice their English).. going to the bustling, loud markets in each city where every one of us girls got at least one 'compliment' or 'marriage proposal' or even an offer to buy us. (how generous) The rides on the motorboats, and Nubian kids showing off in front of our cameras while swimming in the Nile. and eating some good food at local restaurants around town... and the feeling of staying in hotel resorts with huge pools and knowing an Egyptian would need to save a few months salary just to stay for one night. and not forgetting the plethora of donkeys everywhere towing carts of junk or grass or their owners..seeing the slums of thousands of mud brick houses and then the straw huts in the fields where the farmers live during harvest season.
Now back in London and feeling absolutely relaxed, tanned, happy, and reflecting on this amazing trip. The first thing I notice is the smell - gone is the shisha pipe smell that permeates everything. now is the damp brick and concrete smell.. ah at least everything is in English and no-one is accosting me on the street to come look at his shop!
Tuesday, 22 July 2008
Little Venice 19th July
Once again its the weekend and I'm keen to get out there and explore somewhere new. I head off to Maida Vale in west London to see 'Little Venice' with the London Walks company. Theres a group of at least 20 people gathered, and off we go our pack of sheep behind the tour guide. We stop at lots of spots along the 2hour walk where they explain the history of a house or a certain spot. We walked down the road where Kate Moss lives and where the guy out of Pink Floyd sold his house to Diana Spencers brother for 8mill and gave 4mill away to 'Shelter' the charity. We walked along the canal and got shown the spot where Richard Branson once lived in a long boat on the canal with a girlfriend and where he ran his Virgin Records business from. One night a drunken mate flooded his boat so that was the end of that! We walked up tow paths where people used to cover the horses hooves in sacking and try sneak past the toll-masters house without success. its really just a semi-rich leafy suburb with a canal running through the middle that has long boats on it with flower pots on them. Very cute though.
Saturday night, myself and my flatmates went round to a friends place for a 'quiet' BBQ, everyone was there and we ended up going home about 2am after a mixture of home-made snakebites and punch and a variety of other drinks were made and consumed..
Spent sunday on the couch with my roommate watching outrageous fortune... another NZ-tv show-omnibus.. eeeexcellennnnt. The show is so much cooler now I am not in new zealand - I think its the same patriotic instinct that make you miss pies as soon as you leave home. Crazy.
The thing I see every day and really dont get is people who run for a tube and then leap through the closing doors - sometimes getting jammed- getting on just before the train pulls away. omg, why do this!? In any one tube station there is always another train 1-3 minutes behind it - even if your late, 1min is not worth running for. I always wait and get a seat on the next train - which is usually much emptier, and full of the calm people who waited instead of crushing onto the first train full of busy people and no breathing space. *Thankyou, come hear my full rant at Speakers Corner on Sat morning!*
Saturday night, myself and my flatmates went round to a friends place for a 'quiet' BBQ, everyone was there and we ended up going home about 2am after a mixture of home-made snakebites and punch and a variety of other drinks were made and consumed..
Spent sunday on the couch with my roommate watching outrageous fortune... another NZ-tv show-omnibus.. eeeexcellennnnt. The show is so much cooler now I am not in new zealand - I think its the same patriotic instinct that make you miss pies as soon as you leave home. Crazy.
The thing I see every day and really dont get is people who run for a tube and then leap through the closing doors - sometimes getting jammed- getting on just before the train pulls away. omg, why do this!? In any one tube station there is always another train 1-3 minutes behind it - even if your late, 1min is not worth running for. I always wait and get a seat on the next train - which is usually much emptier, and full of the calm people who waited instead of crushing onto the first train full of busy people and no breathing space. *Thankyou, come hear my full rant at Speakers Corner on Sat morning!*
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