adventures of Amy.

2006-10-03T16:53:00.000+01:00

My life just seems to be full of these amazing, surreal experiences of late. Like going to that exclusive underground French club in Rennes. Or getting tics to the Paolo after party. Or being on the guest list for the CD launch of CLINT EASTWOOD´S SON at one of London´s hippest and most exclusive A-list celeb venues, Chinawhite!!!!!!!!! Yes, that´s where I was last night. What else to do on a Monday eve? My goodness, it was incredible.

So this is how it happened. I had a text from Sam during the day, asking if I wanted to join him at a CD launch for a jazz musician in Picadilly. Keen to soak up as much of London as I can in my last 2 weeks, I was in. Sam warned me to dress up, as Chinawhite is pretty posh (with an annual membership fee of 700 quid or something ridiculous like that, and strictly a ´guest list only´policy). We arrived to a double metal door, with a tiny little buzzer on the LHS with Chinawhite written in about 12pt font. Tiny. You´d never even know it was there. We had our names ticked off the guest list (Sam knows someone who knows someone) and decended the stairs into one of the most beautiful and luxurious bars I have ever seen. Ushered in by a doorman who offered us a complimentary vodka cirrius (or something like that) we looked around us and all I can say is WOW!!! Completely decadent. Opium platforms and oriental furniture, velvety scatter cushions and long, low ´love beds´all set against a crimson crepe, deep red canvass, the walls draped with lush, rich hangings...it was mind blowing!

We found a seat. Looked around us. And on every table sat a silver ice bucket with a bottle of very expensive vodka chilling in it. Jugs of orange juice and cranberry juice sat nearby, along with tall glasses full of ice. Not sure if the couple on the cushion opposite had ordered the drinks, we asked - and were told no, they were free for everyone! Far out!!! So we got ourselves a drink and started chatting. The couple were reviewers from London´s biggest jazz magasine. And they were the ones that told us the musician performing tonight, Karl Eastwood, had a pretty famous father. Sam and I just looked at each other. No, it couldn´t be, could it? It was. Non other than Clint's son. Wow!

We were joined on the cushion by another couple, Leo and his girlfriend Anna. I introduced myself and started chatting to Leo. He asked me what my connection was, and what I do in the industry. "Actually I´m a high school Biology teacher" I replied...and I must say I´ve never had such a reaction as this before: "Oh my goodness!" he exclaimed "a normal person! This is amazing, fantastic! I just assumed, when you introduced yourself, that you were just another actress. But no, you´re a normal person doing a normal job!" and with that he gave me a huge hug!!! Phew. He, himself, was an actor, and his girlfriend manages celebrities for a living. Right! So they pointed out all the ultra chic, hip and fasionable socialites and celebs that were there (I had no idea who any of them were), and Leo kept laughing at my overwhelmed reaction to everything. "You know we go to so many of these dos" he said, in his posh accent "it´s simply lovely to see your genuine and fresh appreciation of all of this".

And then the music started. And out came Clint junior. And he was good. Really good. Sam and I were loving it, but had to keep pinching ourselves to believe it was real! There we were, sitting in a plush, oriental wonderland, sipping expensive vodka, eating canapes, listening to jazz performed by Clint Eastwood´s son, surrounded by London´s rich and beautiful people. A far cry from the classroom that´s for sure.

Paolo Nutini

2006-10-01T20:45:00.000+01:00

Ahhh, Paolo. Those of you who have been keeping track of what I’ve been up to over here will perhaps recall a certain day back in June when Ange, Gabriela and I went to the O2 festival in Hyde Park and saw Paolo Nutini perform for the first time. We´d been introduced to him by my Scottish mate Emma, who´s been to all his gigs and knows all the stories about him. To say we were blown away by his performance that day is a bit of an understatement! Not since the hazy Uni days of Reckoning have I gotten such a buzz out of a performance nor become such a massive fan. And from that day on we have pretty much followed Paolo’s journey from his home town of Paisley (near Glasgow) to hitting it big time in the UK music charts. It’s not just his incredible voice that has captured us, but his vivid story telling lyrics, his presence on stage, the energy and passion he puts into his music…and of course his brooding good looks might have a little to do with it! Ha ha. It’s all a definite WOW… and he’s only 19.

So we joined his mailing list and found out that he would be playing a gig in Glasgow. So off we went and booked our flights and concert tickets! We were very excited and eagerly awaited September 28th (even though we were still in June!)

Then Gabby and I were checking out his website the other day, and saw that Paolo was going to be in London on Tuesday 26th for an instore performance and signing to promote his new single 'Jenny don’t be Hasty'. Fantastic! I’d been to a previous signing in July, for his album launch, but after listening virtually non stop to his album over the last couple of months we were definately keen to see him live, so the three of us headed in for the 6pm kick off at Oxford Street´s HMV.

Apart from being surrounded by masses of pimply 14 year old girls who kept on screaming, the gig was phenomenal. Paolo played 6 songs and seemed alot more confident in his singing and stage performance than last time I saw him; he had the place rocking! We lined up for ages afterwards to get the singles signed, and when it was our turn, I told him that Gabby and I were travelling 8 hours on the overnight bus to see him perform in Glasgow on Thursday! And he was so pleased and surprised he extended his arm and shook our hands! Ha ha, awesome. Cool guy.
Paolo signing guitar @ HMV
So then Thursday came. We'd decided to abandon our flights, as the transport to and from the airport actually worked out more than the cost of a return bus trip! So we booked a cheap 8 hour bus ride from London to Glasgow, and even though we got pretty much no sleep it was worth it for the night ahead at the ABC.

Gabriela and I before the concert started

We were there with Emma, and her mates Claire, Laura and Tony. The show was sold out – had been for weeks – and the Glasgow crowd were pretty excited to see their home town boy. And the whole night was AMAZING!!! First up were Sheffield’s The Tiny Dancers in support. I saw them play at Belladrum, and they were great. This time too. But everyone was pretty much there for Paolo, and, with his biggest crowd ever, and the whole show being webcast live, did he put on a show for us or what! It was just brilliant!! He played virtually all of his songs, and during some the crowd were singing so loudly they almost drowned him out! It was just amazing. I think it was so special as well cause Gabs and I have just sharing so much Paolo together; going running to him, dancing round the kitchen to him, he even featured in a verse of the poem I wrote for Gabby’s 20th birthday last month! So to be there watching him live was just great. But part of me was really sad, just realizing that this was the last time I was going to see him for ages and ages. After following him so closely since June, suddenly I wouldn’t be able to go to his gigs, or do crazy Paolo dances. The whole thing, like my time here in London, was coming to an end. So I just soaked it up as best I could. After finishing with a truly rocking ‘Jenny don’t be Hasty’ he came back on for 3 songs in an encore, and then left. But then, just as the crowd was dispersing, he poked his head back round the stage and came back again, and said “you know we’ve not really got anything else planned, but we wanted to come back out cause we’re just having so much fun!” And the crowd loved it, especially when he played a cover of Gnarles (sp?) Barkley’s song ‘Crazy’. Wow!!! Loads better than the original. Phew!!!
Paolo doing what he does best
But then it was over (or so we thought...). Emma, Claire, Gabby and I headed to the merchandise stand, and Gabs and I bought a poster. Most of the crowd had disappeared by this stage, but we decided to stick around to see what was happening. Because just above the merchandise stand was a spiral staircase leading to the big after party! Paolo’s band members then came out from backstage, and we chatted to them for a while and got them to sign our poster. That was cool. The Tiny Dancers were also hanging around near us, so we started chatting to them, and Claire asked if they had any spare tics to the after party! Tiny Dez said “Well actually, I do have 2…but that’s no good, cause there are 4 of you” Not to worry, 2 passes is better than none! And he gave them to us. Cool! So Emma and Claire headed up to check it out, while Gabby and I stayed below and chatted to the drummer and guitarist from Paolo’s band. But then the big security dudes came over and told us that if we didn’t have tickets to the after party, we had to leave. We protested that we were just waiting for Paolo to come out and sign our posters, and that Emma and Claire were upstairs anyway…so that bought us a little more time. But not much – they got pretty serious then and said we had to leave. So one of them escorted me up to the after show so I could get Emma, then they hearded us out towards the exit. We kept trying to sweet talk him into letting us stay, but he wasn’t having any of it.

But then – I spotted Paolo across the floor, and Emma was like “wait one moment!” to the security guard!! And she sprinted over to him and said “Paolo. Remember those 2 girls who were going to catch the overnight bus up from London just to see you?” and he replied “uh, yeah” and she continued “well, they are here, and it would really make their day if you could give us 2 of these after show passes!” And he looked at his PR lady and said “can I do that?” she said yep no worries, and so there you have it!! 4 Golden Tickets to the Paolo after party!

Very exciting. My first after show party!! Mixing it with Paolo and his band, The Tiny Dancers, quite a few TV celebrities, Atlantic Record reps, and all the families and friends. And it was an open bar, too! We had a great time, especially when we met Tiny Dancer Ev. He was a lovely, down to earth guy despite his band recently fighting off offers from 14 different record companies wanting to sign them. He told us all about life on the road, how the band formed, what they hope to achieve etc. Great to get such a personal insight. We told him how we loved their music, but that when we went to buy the single after the gig they’d all been packed away. He simply told us to send him an email and he’d post us a signed copy!!! How cool is that! He then asked us if we´d be at the sold out London gig on the 12th, but alas, we didn´t have tickets. And Ev said to us “Well if you like I can put you on the guest list!!” OH MY GOODNESS!! We were speechless. Fantastic. So we exchanged mobile numbers and hopefully in a couple of weeks we´ll be rocking again to Paolo and the Tiny Dancers in London!

Gabriela and I with Tiny Dancer Ev at the after party

I probably sound like an obsessed teenage band freak when you read this. But I dunno, Paolo really is an amazing singer – there’s no doubt he’s gonna make it big time. And also, it’s something that has really symbolized my time here in London – having just the best fun, with Gabs, getting into this amazing music all from a young guy who’s telling his story. Love it.

If anyone feels inspired to check out his music, visit www.myspace.com/paolonutini

2006-09-23T18:03:00.000+01:00

Hey ho...I have finally managed to update the old blog with loads of stories and pics from the last month or so. So scroll down and check it out!

Oktoberfest 15-18 Sept

2006-09-20T15:01:00.000+01:00

It’s not often that you go to a festival that not only meets your expectations but completely blows them out of the water; especially one like Munich’s massive, hugely popular, commercial, 10,000 seater tented celebration of Bavarian culture. Is it over rated? You wonder. But then you arrive….and realize that no! The Oktoberfest is hugely popular for a reason – it’s just one of the most amazing, incredible festivals one is ever likely to go to!! Even if you don’t like drinking your beers by the litre from a stein, that, when full, is destined to give you a solid bicep workout. What a WICKED time we had. We are all now in major depression that we are back in London and not in the Hofbrau House singing ‘Ambrosie’ with thousands of others having a bloody good time.

Gabriela, Lea and I flew into Freidrichshafen on Friday night, one of Ryanair’s lovely small, random and very much out of the way airports, with a bunch of other Aussies and Kiwi’s who were also making their way to the festival. I was lucky I made it – remind me next time it’s a good idea to take my passport if I want to fly abroad! Trying to cross London in Friday afternoon rush hour to get home to pick up forgotten passport made for a very stressful few hours. Anyway, we picked up our hire car and began the 220km drive to Munich around 10pm, camping that night in a random village park type place, with houses backing onto it and cars driving past! Did our best to hide my bright yellow tent between a big tree and a hedge!

So we arrived in Munich pretty early on the first Saturday of the festival, and pitched our tent in the legendary Thalkirchin campgrounds. Despite being only 8am it was pretty difficult to find a spot of grass; the place was pumping! Loads of Aussies, Kiwis and South Africans, most of whom were already drinking! Awesome atmosphere. We headed into the festival around 10am, and just couldn’t believe how many people there were!
Lea and I getting into the spirit!

Or what the actual festival looked like. I’d been imagining a big park, with marquees erected here and there – kind of like the Schutzenfest in Adelaide. But this was far, far bigger than I ever expected. The beer tents were more like massive halls, some seating up to 10,000 people, and each of them decorated on the inside in their own unique way. The roof of one was painted sky blue and had puffy clouds hanging from it!
The Hacker Tent

There were 14 of these tents lining a huge bitumen walkway, like the main artery of the festival, running down the center from one end to another. And then all around them were rides and side shows and pretzel stand after German hot dog stand after pretzel stand. Kind of like the Royal Show only much much bigger. Oh yeah and nougat and curried nuts and chocolate coated fruit kebabs and squillions of gingerbread hearts you hung round your necks, yum!!!! And by 10am it was literally impossible to get a seat in any of the halls – which was kind of a problem as they only serve you beer if you are sitting down! It was awesome walking through and seeing everyone dressed up – all the Germans, and there were thousands upon thousands of them – were wearing the traditional Bavarian dress, which was fantastic to see.
Love the outfits

Eventually we managed to find a seat at the end of one table, which we shared with 4 older Germans, in time for the big parade that lead up to the ‘tapping of the keg’ that officially kicked off proceedings at 12pm. Fireworks over head and it was game on!! Woohoo! The big, strapping German bar maids then started doing the rounds, each carrying around 6 or 7 steins of beer in each hand out to the tables. Unbelievable!!
The steins arrive!
When at the Oktoberfest...

And it was just the best fun. Inside each tent were rows upon rows of long, wooden tables, and each tent had it’s own brass band which played traditional Germon folk songs and classic hits pretty much non stop all afternoon. After a couple of litres most people were standing up on the benches singing away. Being the first day most tents were jammed full and shut their doors around 2pm, so were stayed inside this one tent almost all of the afternoon. Great fun. But someone remind Lea it’s a good idea to eat something before consuming 3 litres of beer…our little surfy chick had to have a ‘sleep’ that afternoon!!!!

Sunday was the best day though. One of the best days I've ever had I reckon. We met up with Ange and spent 11 hours in the Hoffbrau house. And it was unreal! Just the best fun. This house is known as the tourist house, and it was full of all the travellers – the Aussies, Kiwis, Safas, Americans, French, Italians…we met so many people and had the most awesome time. We even ran into one of the guys from our boat race team at The Church last weekend! And Lea saw the girl she jelly wrestled with back in London! There was a giant rotating pig hanging from the roof, and if you had your undies or bras ripped off you (a very common occurrence) you had to pour your beer over them (or in one case we saw a girl just plunge her newly ripped off undies right into her stein – eughh, I wouldn’t be drinking out of that one afterwards…although hang on, I do recall having to skull from the gumboot of a Kiwi boy dressed as a sumo wrestler….hmmmm) anyway you had to drench your undies in beer and then attempt to throw it up and onto the pig! Unlucky for those in the pig pen below who got undies on their heads! (and if you miss you get 7 years of bad loving!)
The undie covered pig

Every 5 mins, or so it seemed, the brass band up on the stage played ‘ambrosie’ which was literally the drinking song, the band master stood up holding his stein high in the air, and we all stood up too and cheersed everyone on our table. Quite often we got covered in beer as people cheered over enthusiastically and the steins broke! It was one of those days you just don’t want to end. Everyone there so happy; drinking, singing, laughing, meeting new people…not a care in the world. Just having a brilliant time. It was fantastic.
Us outside the Hofbrau tent

On Monday we checked out all the other tents, some awesome decorations. Outside the Lowenbrau tent is a giant lion that roars and brings a stein to it’s mouth. Outside another is a massive ox rotating on a spit. And inside all the tents are thousands of chickens roasting on skewers, to curb the beer munchies. And all the pretzel girls walking around. We went back to the Hofbrau house for a few hours and met some cool Kiwis and Americans that we drank with before having to leave and drive back to Friedrichshafen for our 9.40pm flight back to London. Whoever’s idea it was to only stay 3 days at the Oktoberfest they should be shot!!! We could have stayed a week!! But probably good for our livers and our wallets that we didn’t. But definitely the best festival I have ever been too. We were even thinking about going back in 2 weekends time…but that might be overdoing it a little! Ha ha. Prost!!

Doing it for Australia!

2006-09-20T15:00:00.000+01:00

A couple of Sundays ago Ange and I took Lea, Gabriela and Steph to ‘The Church’. Backing up after a big night at Temple Walkie was a little tough, but we managed to make it out there by 11am or so, and once again the place was absolutely packed! Sooo much fun. Anyway, when they called out for the boat races I grabbed Lea’s hand and we raced over to the door where you have to meet, grabbing 2 other Aussie guys along the way, and hey presto there we were, the drinking team representing Australia. Woohoo!!!! There were 4 teams – the Poms, Kiwis, Aussies and Sth Africans. These big bouncer dudes tooks us backstage and gave us the low down on all the rules. We had our photos taken back stage, and then it was time for the first race.
Team Australia!

It was the Kiwis were up against the Sth Africans...and they absolutely thrashed them! Then it was our turn against the Poms. And they were 4 big Army boys, all dressed in matching polo shirts. They were taunting us, telling us we were going down, and the two Aussie guys in our team just said “you girls better know how to skull a beer!” So the bouncer lead us out and we were up there in front of hundreds and hundreds of people. We were projected onto a big screen on either side of the building as well!
Ange and Gabs in the crowd!

So it was me first, then Lea, then the 2 guys to bring us home. And the 4 big English army guys along side us. The comedian running the show was talking it up, getting all the crowd involved. It’s never easy to skull a can of warm VB. But we Aussies know how to drink and we managed to get up and win! Woohoo, we beat the poms!!!
Australia 1...England 0!!

So after a little break we had NZ in the final. Lea and I got our team off to a great start, but our last guy was rubbish and NZ beat us in the end. But it was alot of fun. The whole rest of the afternoon people came up to us and shook our hands, congratulating us on a fine effort!!!
Done by NZ in the final

The trip continues...23-31 August

2006-09-20T14:59:00.000+01:00

So after making it to Paris with Johan the truckie, Lea and I then hired a car and headed down to Dijon to pick up my mate Steph. We then drove over to Switzerland and camped in the adventure capital of Interlaken for about a week. And it was amazing! Yes it´s true - all Swiss cows really do wear cow bells!

We spent our days hiking in the Alps, bike riding, having picnics with awesome views, we climbed 890 steps to see a glacier, the 'lowest accessible glacier in Europe' Well, I guess it needed something as a claim to fame...can you see it?

We went to a traditional Swiss folk festival with yodelling, guys playing the giant long alphorns that look like big pipes, and also the cow bell band. That was loud. Made friends with 'Chocolate Charlie' in another festival and he gave us loads of free Swiss chocolate and also these amazing hot chocolate drinks with baileys...all for free!
Lea and I with 'Chocolate Charlie'!

Got to see Swiss hard rock band 'Shakra' there one night. Oh and we also saw Switzerland's entrant in the Eurovision Song Contest performing! She was only 23 but a huge hit with all the oldies, who lined up for ages afterwards for things like signed calendars and postcards of her.

One of the highlights was going paragliding on an absolutely perfect day. It was such an unreal experience...we jumped off an 800m mountain and flew for 25 mins, catching thermals up and up.
This was where we took off
The 3 of us ready for action!
Woohoo awesome!
Had the most incredible views of the alps around us, and as we came down the woman steering it took me in this series of spirals that went faster and faster....woah, talk about g-force! We also this hilarious competition in one of the rivers in Bonn. 4 guys all in fancy dress were in these dragon boat type things, and the guys at the back each had a long pole. The guys would paddle their boats furiously towards each other, and when they got close enough the guys with the poles would try and knock each other into the river! Very amusing.
River wars in Bonn

We spent a few days heading back through the Alsace and Champagne wine regions of France. Of course with Steph being a wine maker, it was pretty much obligatory that we had to try numerous samples of wine - the best fun was in the tiny ancient village of Riquekihr where we were all ended up very tiddly by 11am! Lots of baguettes and cheese before heading back to London.

Nothing like a 9am wine tasting!

Hitching to Paris - 23 August

2006-09-20T14:58:00.000+01:00

Well our decision to hitchhike to Paris could well have ended up as the worst 50 euros Lea and I never spent.
While up in Edinburgh, Celena had said to us, ever so casually, “oh yes and then I just hitched a ride to Paris and continued on my trip”. Cool, no worries! we thought to ourselves. Easy peasy. And we save ourselves lots of money. So we were up for it. On our last night at Eric´s place, we made ourselves a big ‘Paris’ sign on a piece of card, and next morning walked 2km or so out to a massive intersection where Eric assured us would be a great spot to pick up a ride with all the people heading back from St. Malo. And sure enough, after half an hour or so, we got a ride. Great, super! We bunged our packs in the trunk of this small car, and hopped in, ready for the long drive ahead. But then…after maybe 20 mins of the 400km or so, the guy stopped and said “I turn off here. You get out and get another ride.” Uhhhh? What? This wasn´t part of the plan. So we reluctantly got out of the car, picked up our packs, and looked around at our new surroundings. And we were literally stranded on a 5 lane double highway, perched on a tiny gravely verge, with massive trucks and lorries and snazzy French cars whizzing past us at the 130km/hr speed limit, with not a town in sight. Right….OK. What now? So we gingerly put up our Paris sign, and almost immediately were subject to numerous honks and the rather amused expressions of truckies as they considered these 2 girls trying to pick up a lift from vehicles travelling at 130km/hr on a freeway.
Someone pick us up...please!

Yep, we thought we were in real strife. We stuck it out for a while, but it soon became clear that no one was gonna stop for us. Well they couldn´t, really. The final straw came when we had a big honk and a severe looking Frenchman behind the wheel of an expensive campervan type thing shook his head and waved his finger at us, in a clear case of “you stupid girls, get off this road now!”
So we heaved our packs onto our backs and just started walking along the freeway, hoping to come across a more likely spot to get a ride. After 20 mins or so we reached a ‘peage’ one of the road toll ticket stops. Excellent! Loads of cars, trucks, lorries…all having to stop and pay! And it was there that we met Johan, the driver of a massive yellow DHL truck. Lovely long haired Johan agreed to take us the 5 hours to Paris. Wicked!!! So we clambered up into the truck and it was HUGE! Very cool.
Me and the truck!

So I´m there jabbering away in basic French to Johan, but noticing a distinct lack of response. It was then that I found out he was actually Dutch! Really lovely guy, and he ended up leaving his route and taking us to exactly where we needed to be – in terms of the rental car place at the airport! How nice is that. Funny how seemingly the most dire situations can end up turning out just perfectly!
Johan with Lea after he dropped us right at the airport!

2006-08-22T06:30:00.000+01:00

We're in Rennes at the moment, NW France, and Lea and I had the funniest night on Sunday night. We headed out for a beer around 10pm with some afro French guys we'd met earlier in the day (for some reason we have been attracting loads of attention from all the French men here. They just come right on up to us and start chatting, including the very insistent security guard at the exhibition of the famous Belgian cartoon cat).
Anyway, these guys turned out to be pretty sleezy and arrogant, insisting we go back to their place to drink, and walking off in a huff when they finally got it that no meant no. Anyway while we were at the pub, still sitting with the guys, Lea and I were given 2 free 'monkey brain' shots. "A gift of the house" the barman told us. Then when the sleezy guys left, he came out with another 2 monkey brains, also on the house! Cool! And the students at the table next to us got one each too. The Colombian music was pumping, summer was in the air and the owner of the little French pub was definately in a good mood! So we were sitting there, finishing off our beers, when the barman came out again, this time with 3 shots of vodka caramel. And he sat down with us and started chatting. Awesome guy, really cool. Anyway, the night wore on and he just kept bringing out shot after shot after shot! Crazy! We then moved inside, another round of drinks, the pub owner by this stage really ticking over, we all ended up doing waltzes round the pub while the other punters looked on, laughing and clapping.
Moustaff and I dancing round his pub!

It was so much fun, Cedric, the (very cute) barman, told us that Moustaff, the owner, was excited to have foreign people in his pub, and so kept doling out the drinks, all of them on the house! Anyway, at 1am they had to close, and we thought the night was over, as Moustaff kicked everyone else out. But then he invited Lea and I back inside, with Cedric and his friend Tony, and we went to this other place about 10mins walk away. And this place is like nothing Lea or I have ever seen before. You get to the front and there are just massive doors, that are almost just part of a wall. We had no idea there was a night club behind them, no lights, no noise, no signs, no bouncer, nothing. But then they opened and we were ushered in, and found ourselves in this kind of high rolling, darkly lit underground club full of expensively dressed Frenchies.....where the entry fee was a €130 BOTTLE OF VODKA!!!!! Yep, that's right. So Moustaff goes to the bar, and buys the bottle of vodka, a bottle of pepsi, a bottle of OJ and brings them all to our table with a bucket of ice and 5 glasses.
Lea and Cedric with our 'entry fee'!!
Wow! So we ended up dancing at this club till around 4.30am, it was all kind of surreal, but definately a good time. Ran into Moustaff at the patisserie the next morning "ohhh, j'ai mal at tete" he mumbled (I have a headache!)

We're off to Dijon now to pick up Steph, and then we head into the Swiss Alps for a week or so before heading back to London next Wednesday.

36 hours and counting!

2006-08-22T06:05:00.000+01:00

Was part of one of the most incredible shows I've ever seen up at the Edinburgh Fringe. And I say 'part of' cause I was only there for a few hours, and didn't catch the beginning or end. No, this was definately was a work in motion, a continuous evolving comedy epic that was Mark Watson's aptly titled '36 hour show'. Yes, not content with the mere 24 hours of non-stop entertainment he's provided at the last 2 fringes, this year he upped the anti and went for 36. Yep, 12 midday to 12 midnight the following night, non stop Mark Watson action followed by his faithful legion of fans, who came equipped with sleeping bags, beer and food to sustain them for the duration! For if they deserted for more than 5 mins their ticket was sold to the next punter desperate to come in and be part of Fringe history.

So in his show he just had all this different stuff happening:
* one guy trying to get as far away as possible - and back - by the end of the show. He rang Mark on his mobile from Surrey, on his way down to catch a ferry to Calais in France!
* he had 3 comedians in Australia (all linked up via the internet and on speaker phone etc) who were comissioned to write an anthem about the show in just a few hours. On a live link up we watched them perform it in Melbourne, then we all had to learn it and sing it! They also had to design a flag, and then the appointed 'court artists' had to replicate the flag in Edinburgh on a giant canvas, which was then raised at dawn the following morning, and the anthem sung, as they all went out to watch the sunrise!
* he had a 'balladier', a member of the audience whose job it was to write ballads about stuff that was happening during the show
* everyone wearing green had to stand up at regular intervals and give happiness ratings out of 12
* he sold 10 mins of his show on ebay
* he played a game of blind date with members of the audience, then everyone donated money to send them on the date
* he had lots of other comedians popping in over the course of the 36 hours and doing their bit, including Aussie comedian Adam Hills and his opera singing girlfriend from La Clique

It was really quite addictive, and Lea and I had to drag ourselves out at 1am the first night, as we were almost suffering Fringe overload thanks to the 18 shows we managed to watch over the course of 3 days, thankyou Celena!!!

Love Edinburgh at Fringe time. There's just such a great buzz and energy about the place. We saw comedians, acrobats, theatre, drama, but one of the best was undoubtedly Xavier Rudd. We joined loads of other Aussies in the audience for his gig at the Corn Exchange, and he was just amazing. Emma, Lea and I were in the 2nd row, right up close, awesome! We also ran into the guys who were camping next to us at the Belladrum festival! Me, Lea and Emma with our Belladrum mates at Xavier Rudd

Also managed to check out the Ron Mueck exhibition at the Edinburgh Gallery...unbelievable!! His life like but not to scale sculptures were really quite extraordinary.
Me with ´woman in bed´

Belladrum

2006-08-21T10:53:00.000+01:00

So after approximately 7 hours back in London, enough time to scrub off the 4 day grime and wash my clothes, I left the very sensible Ange to enjoy the novelty of sleeping in a bed, and met up with Lea for the 12 hour bus trip up to Inverness. We joined hundreds punk kids, kilted 20 somethings, hippies and families for the 2 day Belladrum festival up in the Scottish highlands.
Scottish sausages!

This is the first kind of overnighter festival I've been to, where everyone camps next to the festival site and stumbles on through the gates the following morning. And I say stumbled in the very true sense of the word...for that Thursday evening and night and indeed well into the morning in the Belladrum fields was one of the craziest things I've experienced in a while! With friends Emma, Cheryl and Ross, Lea and I pitched out tent down the bottom of the field, kind of out of the way and a convenient distance from the foul smelling festival loos. Within a few hours it was tent to tent as every available space was filled.
Lea and I get into the festival spirit with our classy 'glasses' of red wine!

And then came the beers. And the music. And the whole place just took off. As we old grannies crawled into our sleeping bags around midnight, the rest of the majority teenage population were merely settling into a drinking and very loud music routine that they would continue unabated for the next 36 hours or so! Indeed, waking up the following morning around 6am the noise and music was just as loud as it had been 6 hours previously...and the festival hadn't even begun!

Over the next 2 days we saw loads of awesome bands across 5 stages. Faves included The Dingleberries (bagpipe rock; yes, only in Scotland!), The Cinematics, the celtic influenced fiddle band 3 Daft Monkeys, and Welsh rockers The Automatic. We'd met them earlier in the day at a signing session (in the absence of anything else Lea and I got them to sign our arms...ha ha felt just like a 14 year old!) and again jumping up and down in the mosh pit mud to their massive hit 'Monster'.

But the thing that really blew us away happened at the end of the festival, on the Sunday morning as everyone was leaving. And silly me for thinking that packing up your campsite would actually involve packing up. Ah no. Not for these kids. Cause you see it's far too much hassle to actually roll up your sleeping mat, stuff the sleeping back back in its cover and pack up the tent. Just as it appears too much hassle to put those cool canvas folding chairs, complete with the beer holder section in the arm, back in their case. And why bother packing up left over food and beer, or BBQs, or tables, or gumboots, clothes or ANYTHING when you can just leave it all lying there and save yourself the hassle of carting it back the 200m to your car! Especially when you can pick up another 'complete camping kit' from Tescos for £19.99. It was unbelievble. Lea and I took a walk round the campsite and I swear there was enough stuff simply left there to shelter, feed and clothe the entire homeless population of Scotland, or to make rich any entrepreneurial type who took the time to collect up the (no less than) 60 tents, sleeping bags and the like, clean them up and sell them on ebay.
One of the abandoned campsites at Belladrum

It was disgusting, really. Both in the sheer laziness of the kids who would rather leave someone else to clean up their mess, and in their attitude toward a throw away society.
Anyway, as advocates of the 'reuse' component of 'reduce, reuse, recycle' Lea and I spent a fascinating hour rummaging around and collected all sorts of goodies which we hauled back to Edinburgh. Including a dozen beers, a blow up air mattress, 2 sleeping mats and loads of unopened packets of chips and stuff!!

Slovenia, Croatia and Sarajevo

2006-08-21T09:08:00.000+01:00

So after our 5 days in Bordeaux, Ange and I checked back into Peckham Rye for a night before flying to Ljubljana for a 2 week trip round Slovenia and Croatia.

We spent our first 5 days up in the Julian Alps, along the Slovenian-Italian border, amongst some of the most breaktaking mountains I have ever seen. As part of the 'Adrenaline-Chek' multi-adventure package we signed up for we stayed in an ecocamp (minimal impact, all building materials sourced from the local area, no electricity - we got given head lamps upon checking to our tent!) over the other side of the famous 1600m Vrsic Pass and it's 50 hairpin turns. And it was brilliant. Run by 25 year old best friends Matic and Simon, they took us hiking, mountain biking, white water rafting and canyoning - what a buzz!

Ange and I ready for white water rafting

Canyoning was the best, we worked our way down about 7km of river with swims, slides and jumps. One slide dropped us 7m down into a pitch black cave, but the highlight was the almost vertical 12m drop at the end, the one we'd all said "yeah no way" to at the beginning of the day, when Simon pointed it out and told us that was the last element of the canyoning. This was the only slide where the guys wouldn't guarantee our safety. And I must admit I was pretty nervous, but it was 3-2-1 GO as Simon let me drop, and WOOHOO!!! Huge buzz!
Our Canyoning group, with part of the final 12m slide in the background!

Night times were spent round the camp fire with other backpackers, drumming sessions, BBQs and of course a few good Slovenian ales. It was so peaceful up there, and so pure. All our drinking water came straight from the river running through the campsite; the Julian Alps is one of the last remaining places in Europe where you can drink directly from the rivers.
Ange takes the plunge, the glacial melt water was ice cold!

We spent a couple of unexpected hours in this cafe half way down the Vrisic Pass. Our bus driver announced "they´ve closed the road for 2 hours because of an important meeting between Russian and Slovenian politicians" so there was nothing for it but to drink hot chocolate and look out over the mountains!

We also spent time in the mountain towns of Bled and Bohinj, famous for their glacial lakes, the turquoise water so clear you can see to a depth of at least 10 metres. In Bled there's a small island in the middle of the lake with a beautiful church on it. We rowed out there one day. And from Bohinj we took a cable car then a little chairlift thing up to around 1700m, and the views over the Alps were stunning. We got to see Slovenias highest peak, Mt. Triglav. And we also saw 3 French men run off the side of the mountain! With their paragliding equipment - something I would love to try I reckon. One day we hired bikes and rode to the gorgeous village of Studor, famous for its hayracks and its cheese.
Fairytale Slovenian villages

Headed then to the capital Ljubljana. I didn't really enjoy it - a bit dreary and drab. Not sure if that was due to the rain that had settled in, or whether I'd been spoilt by the mountains. But by chance it was the first day of the TRN Summer Festival, so we got to see the brass band opening in the town square, and an African song-dance spectacular for free. Both excellent. And Ljubljana was the only place in 2 weeks we slept in a bed! Other nights were in our tent, on the beach and in one case on the banks of Lake Bled with our packs stashed under a park bench!!!

And then we headed down towards Croatia. We were planning on catching the ovenight ferry from Rijeka, which involved 3 trains from Ljubljana, one of which deposited us for 2 hours at the non-descript border town of Ilirska Bistrika, which was literally so drab that it's claim to fame was the postcarded Old People's Home! Arriving into Rijeka we discovered that the ferries only ran twice a week, contrary to the daily service promised by the Lonely Planet, so we were then faced with an 8.5hr overnight trip in a cramped bus, with no ventilation, the temp at least 34 degrees and with nothing but episodes of Friends - in Croatian - to keep us entertained!!

So it was a huge relief to arrive in Split and get on the 5am ferry out to Hvar Island, the cool breeze and the sunrise all pinky and soft melting away the stress of the bus ride. Hvar town is a pretty swanky upmarket sort of spot, with it's harbour full of yachts more expensive than the average persons house, and tourist central with a very ritzy 'south coast of France' type feel, all the bronzed mediterranean woman draped in their expensive beach wear and dripping with jewellry. We bussed it out to an earthy campsite, and after finding out it cost as much again to actually pitch our tent as it did for us to stay there, we decided to sleep on the beach.
Spent the day on nearby Jeronimo Island, which, according to everyone we spoke to, was beautiful. Ange and I were imagining glorious white sandy beaches and the like, but upon doing a circuit of the entire island we found nothing but jagged rocks and lots of naked people. Yes, we'd stumbled on the nudist island, and were stuck there for 6 hours, on the rocks, till the next boat came to take us back to Hvar!
Local Croatian women work on their embroidery

Only stayed the one night, caught the ferry the following afternoon to Korcula Island, a couple of hours south of Hvar, where we set up camp in the beautiful little fishing village of Lumbarda, on the east coast. It was just magic, and in total contrast to Hvar. We jumped on the local bus and arrived into this tiny village right on the coast, with barely a tourist in site, just all the local villagers going about their daily lives - making wine, fishing and preserving olives. The night we arrived, Friday night, was 'Fisherman's Night' in the main square of town, and there were all these little stalls set up with families selling their various seafood dishes - BBQ'd squid, calamari, fish stew etc, very tasty. The island is covered in vineyards, and is famous for its Krk wine, which we got to sample quite a bit of..as well as their home made brandy in all sorts of flavours, including chocolate and carrot???!! Odd, and very strong! Fire breathing stuff. Was lovely to immerse ourselves in amongst the locals, under the fairylights on a warm balmy evening by the sea, listening to Croatian folk music.

We had some pretty funny experiences on the island. Decided to book in for a 1/2 day glass bottomed kayaking trip with a local guide. Right from the start we were dubious about the price (300 kunas, which is £30/$70), but apparently it included a visit to an ancient monastory and a fish picnic with unlimited wine, so that swayed us! Anyway, we arrived at the beach and met our guide, and the 5 other people on the trip....and those dubious feelings just got worse as soon as the guide started talking. This is along the lines of what he said:
"So I think we will be using the single paddles, as they are easier than the double ones. And we will paddle out to that island over there (which was about 200m away) and we will paddle around, and you can look through your glass bottoms to see some fish, but you may not be able to see any fish because of the weather and the traffic (????) And then we will paddle to that island over there, where there is a monastory. But it may not be open. If it is not open, we will paddle back to the other island and I will tell you a story about it (dubious feelings very strong at this stage). And then you have free time for one hour to swim, while I prepare lunch (and he indicated his small esky nearby. Certain the esky did not contain a seafood lunch and unlimited wine for all 8 of us, and with the dubious feelings at an all time high, we decided to can it and see if we could get our money back! So as the guide was talking about how to handle the ripples when a ferry comes past, I did a runner! Back to the tourist office to try and get a refund. Ange was left to explain to the guide, and it was classic! On the spot she made up a story about me being scared I was going to fall out of the canoe from the ferry waves, and that we didn't want to go any more. And he was like "no, no no! If you fall out I give you money back!" and the other old people on the trip were like "oh, the poor dear, scared of the waves". If only they knew what I do in the Aussie summer!!!! Ha ha. Needless to say we got our money back and spent the day lying on the beach!

Another funny story involved a bakery. We went to try and find the 'hamburgers of yumminess' we discovered on Fishermans Night - basically a hollowed out scone filled with a sweet, nutty mixture that the islanders seem to love. We disturbed the woman from her seafood risotto lunch, which she was eating on the bakery balcony. Saw the hamburgers of yumminess sitting there in her display, and so we asked for one...and she said "no". What? So we tried again...and same answer! "No....no fresh" or something like that. There was this whole display with at least 100 different pastries out, and she wouldn't sell us anything! Found out later that they were over a year old and she wasn't making them any more, but just kept them on display! Ha ha.
On our last night in Lumbarda we went to a tiny church in the middle of some vineyards that we'd discovered on a run. They were having an evening service type thing. There were 4 wooden pews set up at the top of the steps, and Ange and I were among only 6 people there! A violinist, guitarist, and local Croatian people telling stories and giving readings as the moon shone out over the landscape. While we couldn't understand anything, it was beautiful.
Fishing boats at sunset, Lumbarda

So then it was back to the mainland, where we headed all the way south to the medieval, walled city of Dubrovnik. Totally car free inside the walls, it's beautiful; the main streets are made of marble! I got ambushed by hundreds of pigeons in one of the main squares when somone threw corn down, but the highlight was walking the 2km circuit on top of the walls. Ange´s highlight: finding her longed for 'hamburgers of yumminess'!!

We only had one day in Dubrovnik, catching the 10pm bus to Sarajevo that night, the first of 3 overnight bus rides for me. Ange got chatting to an Aussie guy from Woolongong who was heading to Kosovo to shoot a cow with a bazuka! Weird. So we arrived in Sarajevo at 4.30am to cold morning drizzle. Hung out at the bus station till it grew light with bazuka guy and Tom from England. Then spent the day in the war torn city. The evidence of war is still so fresh...buildings full of bullet holes, parts of churches blasted away, 'sarajevo roses' (where shells have blasted away the pavement in the shape of a rose, coloured in red to represent blood shed) all over the place.
A 'sarajevo rose'

We went on the hostel tour and walked a section of the 800m underground tunnel, connecting the city to the outside, which for 4 years was the only route into and out of the city whilst it was under seige by the Serbians. All food, weapons etc had to be brought in through this 1.6m high/1m wide tunnel, to feed the entire city population who, in the worst times, had to survive on 300g of food a day. Pretty full on.
But the old town of Sarajevo was amazing, and the 4 of us spent hours wandering the little narrow streets, mixing with the locals (thankfully hardly any tourists) and trying out all their interesting foods.

We also checked out the Sarajevo brewery and had a couple of their famousish dark ales. Not quite Coopers standard but still very tasty!
Ange in the Sarajevo Brewery

Then it was back to the bus station...an overnighter to Zagreb...don't ask me why it takes 3 guys at 3 separate times to do the passport check thing, but hey, we got our stamp and it was back into Croatia for a few hours before home to London!

Brilliant trip.

2006-08-20T08:00:00.000+01:00

So after surviving the bull headbutting experience, we had to wonder what else these Frenchies had in store for us. Naked French rowers...enormous burning sand dunes......?? Well, yes actually!

One night we went to a pool party at Lacanau, a surprise birthday party for the wife of one of Damien's rowing friends. And it was all very lovely, a beautiful house in the woods, lots of tasty food and drink, cool music and a few games of boules to keep people entertained. But then, as the night wore on and the drinks flowed more freely, the entertainment really started to begin! The guys, these elite French rowers including world championship medallists, pretty much got naked. Of couse Ange and I were most distressed by this, and definately did not watch as they danced around the pool and built naked human pool pyramids and the like!

And then came the burning sand. Elodie took us to the biggest sand dune in Europe, the Dune of Pyla, which is 3km long and 117m high. Kind of Sahara desert like, but wedged between the ocean and the forest. And so we climbed it, and it is stunning....but it was 39 degrees that day and the sand was soooo hot it literally burnt our feet! We had to do these giant, slow mo running steps on the way down, interspersed with butts-on-towels-feet-in-air to have a break. And then climbing back up was agony! Sinking ankle deep into burning sand, it took us an age. We kind of had to shuffle up centimetres at a time, both feet on our towels. Have never felt sand so hot. The icecream at the bottom was definately deserved :-)

Not content with our sand dune work out, Ange and I then thought we'd better tune up our rowing muscles and we went out in a double skull on the Bordeaux Lake, where Damien trains. Having not rowed the small, unstable river boats for a number of years, we were happy to stay afloat and even managed to row around 3km! Then we checked out the clubrooms, and saw this awesome indoor training rowing pool thing - check out the pics, anyone ever seen anything like this before?

Whilst in Bordeaux we also went horseriding, checked out the famous wine regions of St. Emilion and the Medoc, and soaked up some rays at Soulac sur mer, a cute little summer beachy town.

Overall it was a brilliant trip. Thanks Damien and Elodie, you looked after us superbly and we had an awesome time xx

2006-07-23T11:14:00.000+01:00

On our first night in Bordeaux we were just finishing off a leisurely dinner with Damien and Elodie, thinking about a relaxing night ahead, good conversation, a glass of wine perhaps, when suddenly Elodie started packing up the dishes all around us and Damien exclaimed “Hurry up! We must go. We’re late!” Late? Ange and I thought…late for what? But they wouldn’t say. “Quickly, grab your things and come.” “Does it matter what we’re wearing, and that we smell?” asked Ange, cause it was 36 degrees and neither of us had showered or changed since our flight. “Not at all” replied Damien, and in fact it’s better if you do smell!” Intriguing. So we headed off, and drove out of the town, through the forest, and past the acres upon acres of cornfields, where a magnificent blazing red sun was making its way slowly down towards the horizon. The only thing we could think of was that they were taking us to the beach to watch the sun set…but that moment came and went so clearly that wasn’t it. We drove on and on. “Do you have any idea?” Elodie asked. Us: not a clue! “We are going to play with animals” she stated…but that was all. And in fact, even if she had explained further I don’t think Ange and I would have had any comprehension of what we were about to witness and take part in! One of the most hilarious things we have ever seen.
So we arrived in the small village of Ares and made our way towards a rectangular arena set up in the town centre, which was surrounded by stands full of people. As we got our tickets, the first thing we saw was a host of grown men, many of them topless, suddenly sprinting towards the centre of the arena where, amidst roars and cheers from the crowd, they dived into this giant, brightly coloured circular paddling pool in the hope of claiming a coloured ball. What the…? So we found seats and then proceeded to watch those men who’d got a ball play a game of soccer, with a giant inflatable ball, in the arena (with of course the paddling pool as its centre piece)…..with a bull!!!!! Yep. A team at either end, with 2 barrels set up as goal posts, the paddling pool, the thigh high bouncey ball…..and a bull. Hilarious! The men were running furiously, kicking their ball along, through the paddling pool, trying to score their goals and all the while trying to avoid the massive charging bull that kept coming at them! Whenever it would charge the guys had to sprint to the edges of the arena and clamber up the wire fencing! The second game involved another paddling pool dive with the next host of wannabe participants, and this time the teams had to lure the bull through the barrels at either end in order to score a point. And then there was the sack race through the pool with the guys dodging the bull.
The guys get ready for the sack race...

Through the paddling pool...

This guy didn't come off quite so well!

And then 6 girls got inside 6 barrels, and the guys had to run back and forth from the pool delivering them bucket loads of water, in buckets full of holes, which the girls then had to transfer into smaller containers, while of course the bull was doing its rounds through the arena. It reminded us a little of “It’s a knockout”! And so it went on…game after hilarious game. One of the funniest was the donkey ride, where the successful ball catchers had to run up, jump bareback onto a donkey, and make it run 3 times round the paddling pool. One guy was on backwards and just belting its rump, another was wrapped around its neck and hanging on for dear life! The girls also got to do this game, but Ange and I weren’t quite ready for it I don’t think! Another game involved 6 guys trying to lure the bull through giant hoops held by 6 girls in their barrels, and another had 2 pairs of guys each hanging onto a rope attached to a giant swinging T-bar, and whenever the bull charged at one of the men, the other one had to pull down hard on his rope thus hoisting the other one high up into the air and over the head of the bull!!

And there was a game for the kids too, with a baby bull (that was still something I wouldn’t want to cross paths with, horns and all) but never the less hoards of kids, encouraged by their parents, clambered into the arena and had to try and remove a bonnet from the bulls head. Quite a number of them got charged at and knocked over by the bull, but they all just picked themselves up and kept going!
It was so refreshing to see such a fun, family night out, with good, clean, un-alcohol related entertainment, that the whole town got involved in. And also to see an event with a bit of daring and courage and danger, that wasn’t wrapped up in the red tape of safety and insurance and “I’m gonna sue you for this” conscious America or Australia.
So then it came to the last event of the night. And this was a free for all. Elodie grabbed my hand and said “let’s go!” So we climbed the fence and joined maybe 30 others in standing in a boy-girl-boy-girl circle on the edge of the paddling pool, hundreds of people watching us. The commentator was giving the instructions, in French of course, which Elodie had to translate. And then we were ready. The gate opened and out came a bull with the most massive span of horns I think I have ever seen! Luckily they were taped up so couldn’t do too much damage, but I was still pretty nervous as it sauntered slowly towards us. It circled the pool, watching us, us watching him, and then suddenly it gave one of the guys a big head butt and sent him sprawling into the paddling pool! That was it for him, he was out. The bull then continued its circle, and picked out its next victim…and in she went! Hilarious! It has obviously played this game before, it knew exactly what to do, picking out people one by one and head butting them into the pool. Then there were maybe 10 of us left. And the commentator made us start walking around in a circle. I was at the head of the line, the bull was targeting the people at the back. “Good…that’s good” I thought, don’t come near me! But then it stopped. And waited for me. But I didn’t want to walk right on over to it at all, it was huge and big and black and those horns weremassive! And I was standing on the edge of a paddling pool in the middle of an arena surrounded by loads of French people who all knew a lot more about what was going on than I did! So I turned around and made the line walk the other way!!! But apparently that was a no go, and the commentator was calling out to me to turn back and move forward…but the bull was right there!

I'm not going anywhere near you, mate!

I stopped…and waited…hoping it would move, and the commentator is going on and on at me in French “mademoiselle, advance, tu advance” but of course I didn’t really get it, not particularly focussing on translation while faced with the bull and horns dilemma in front of me. But then the guy behind me gave me a push and I had to move…and the bull was eyeing me up and I was eyeing him up, I drew closer, he wasn’t moving, I couldn’t turn around…then suddenly he came for me, lowered his head, wrapped his horns round my butt and tossed me into the pool! So funny…wet and laughing I then climbed back over the fence to join the others.

I make a hasty retreat!

What a crazy funny French night out, we loved it.

More famous people...

2006-07-18T10:33:00.000+01:00

Well don't know if Stuart from Neighbours really cuts it, but hey, Big Brother cum Neighbours cum West End Theatre star is not a bad path really! We saw him at Toast Australia on Sunday and duly had our photo taken...he's not as hot in real life. Must be something to do with all that
TV make up! Anyway he's over here starring in 'The Vegemite Tales' playing at Leicester Square, a play all about Aussies living in London. Went to see it last year, it's cool.
Toast was fun. Not as big as last year, but still a great day out. Was hosted by Roy and HG who were hilarious as always, and they provided the commentary for the celebrity football (soccer) match which starred not only Stuart and Connor from Neighbours, but also David Campese. So funny, all the other players were totally getting into the spirit of the game, sending each other up, replicating Zidane's headbutting, doing the 'hollywood' rolls and 'oh my leg must be broken' after getting tripped, but Campo was as competitive as ever and was just a machine on the pitch. Here's all the players after the game.

Ange and I then partook in a couple of tutored wine tastings, indulged in some yummy Aussie cuisine, entered all the travel competitions, ran into people we knew, ate icecream and then lay back on the lawns and watched Paul Kelly perform. Ange also had a go at 'bundy cricket', boaties will no doubt recognise her 'tongue of concentration' ha ha, good fun!

Work and play

2006-07-11T18:21:00.000+01:00

Well I've finished up my teaching position at St. Catharine's. And it was interesting to see the reactions of my classes when I told them I was leaving. My Year 7s were so upset, and started a petition to 'keep Miss Slocombe' which they delivered with 60 signatures to the Head of Science! My nightmare Year 8 class didn't seem to care one way or the other, and some of my Year 9's cheered! Ha ha, they were the ones I'd come down pretty hard on for their total laziness and rudeness. But then one of them said "you're not half bad...and that's a compliment". So overall I think I did a reasonable job there. But no wonder those kids end up the way they are, there's absolutely no stability for them in the classroom - with 3 teachers in only 2 months. Crazy. Anyway, since then I've been back doing the rounds of daily supply. I've just been doing Primary Schools, and it's been hilarious!!! I've had everything from dealing with a teary, distraught Nana (yes, that's her real name) cause Nadine isn't her friend anymore, to attemping to teach handwriting (anyone who has seen my handwriting must realise what a ridiculous notion that must be) to being massaged by 8 year old Abukar in the 20 minute massage-to-music session which the Year 4's in one school do after recess every day. I have read aloud countless Roald Dahl poems, played Charades and Hangman, and taught one group words like 'dunny', 'bonza', 'fair dinkum', 'you silly old galah' and the words to 'Give me a home among the gum trees' cause they were doing a literacy piece on Australia!

So what else has been going on. Celebrated Canada Day in Covent Gardens with Ange, Matt and some of Matt's friends...Lea, Gabriella and I scored another free concert in Hyde Park, which was headlined by 60's rockers 'The Who', as well as Razorlight, The Zutons and Ocean Colour Scene (another MEP band from Emma)...got extremely excited when I received a signed copy of Paolo Nutini's new single 'Last Request' personally addressed 'To Amy...Love Paolo' (thanks Emma!) - Gabs and I are just a little bit crazy about this guy, so much so that we're flying to Glasgow in September to catch one of his gigs! Caught up with my cousin Jess and her boyfriend Wez for birthday party dinner and drinks on their balcony...had a housemates dinner party...and got up early on Saturday morning to watch the first tri-nations game at the Temple Walkabout with James, Sam, Gabriella and Nicoline. The pub was absolutely chockers by the 8.30am kickoff, and the majority NZ crowd were all pretty happy with the result. Sat arvo Gabs, Nic and I headed out to Camden markets, I spent Sat night with other counsins Yvette and Gordon, followed by family BBQ on Sunday! So it's all been happening! Here are some pics...

This is Gabriela and I with my signed copy of Paolo's new single!

Jess and I on her balcony for Wez's birthday drinks

Nothing like rugby and beer in a crowded pub at 8.30am on a Saturday! James and Sam soaking up the atmosphere.

This weekend is the 'Toast' Festival in Regents Park. It's Toast New Zealand on Saturday, and Toast Australia on Sunday. Wez is working there so Jess, Ange and I have got free tics for Sunday's event, which is awesome (they're £35 otherwise). It's basically a showcase of all things Australian, with lots of Aussie beer, wine and food on offer, as well as good old Aussie entertainment and sporting stars in the form of Roy and HG, David Campese, Paul Kelly and others. Should be a good time.

And then it's not long till Ange and I head off on our summer holidays. We fly next Thursday to Bordeaux, to stay with our French boatie friends Damien and Elodie, then back to London for a night before 2 weeks backpacking around Croatia and Slovenia. Awesome. I then come back to London for about 7 hours before jumping on a bus with Lea for a 12 hour trip up to Inverness, northern Scotland, for the 2 day Belladrum Festival, which we're going to with Emma. That should be fantastic. Then it's down to Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival, where we'll hopefully be staying with Celena, who's working there again. Catching Xavier Rudd and Michael Franti in Edinburgh before we board our 0.01p flight (yes, that's 0.01p!!) to Paris!!! A few days on the Brittany coast with my French mate Eric before venturing off into Eastern Europe again, possibly around Bosnia. Can't wait, should be fantastic.

Then there'll only be 6 or so weeks left before we head back to Aus! The time has flown by sooooo quickly, but I'm loving every moment.

England v Europe

2006-06-30T08:37:00.000+01:00

I went out with Gabriella on Tuesday night to support Spain in their world cup football match against France. Now I’ve watched a lot of football lately, and a lot of it in the company of England supporters. And I have to say that although they are neighbours, there seems to be a world of difference between England fans and their European counterparts. A lot of the England fans just get so aggressive, swearing and hurling abuse at their own players, the refs, the commentators – anyone they feel like really. They can be so negative and so rude it’s really not fun to be round them when the game is on. This is in total contrast to our experience on Tuesday night. The pub was packed with both French and Spanish, but they were so good natured, cheering on their teams whole heartedly, and supporting their players, not abusing them for missing a free kick or whatever. There was no aggression or negativity, it was just one big party! And then when Spain lost, the Spanish fans applauded the efforts of the French, and stuck around at the pub afterwards to have a dance with them all!
I know this is a generalisation - there are certainly some mild mannered England fans out there as well as some agro Europeans. But on the whole the attitude of the Europeans - which is something I've also noticed alot in my travels through Europe - tends to be so much more happy, positive and embracing, with them living and loving life to the fullest. They are definatley 'glass half full' type people!

A tour around my neighbourhood...

2006-06-27T11:05:00.000+01:00

Thought I'd give you all a little showcase of my home town of Peckham Rye.
This first pic is of our house at 82 Clayton Road, where I live with Ange, Gabriella, Nicoline and Laura. It's cool living on the corner, behind that brown fence is a very large (by London standards) yard, and I have harvested my first snow peas, strawberries, spring onions, basil, chives and coriander from my little veggie/herb terracotta pot patch. Ange and I share a massive room on the 1st floor, those 2 windows you see facing the street are our bedroom windows. It's a fantastic house, and I absolutely love Gabriella and Nicoline, they are super housemates. It's cool that we get on so well and do stuff together because Ange is away quite a bit.

This next pic is of my friend Mahmut, who I pass every morning and every evening on the way to and from the train station. He doesn't speak much English, but it's pretty cool having our hellos and little chats every day.
I met him on my first day in Peckham. I was waiting for Ange, and went to buy a banana cause I was hungry. Then I just said "Hi, I'm Amy, I've just moved here...and how do you cook that?" pointing at one of his weird veggies. We've been friends ever since! He usually gives me a banana or a tangerine each afternoon. There are 4 brothers working this little grocery shop, from 7am to 10pm, 7 days a week.

So this is the Peckham Rye High Street. The famous red buses trawl up and down all day, and the street has such a social, community, village type feel to it. I do all my fruit and veggie shopping in the little shops like the one below. I've not yet been tempted to buy the fish, however, which sits out on the street side tables in the open air all day long!

The next pic is of the Peckham Rye Farmers Market, at the end of the High Street, about 2 mins walk from home. This is on every Sunday morning, and is mostly an organic, locally grown produce market. Lots of cheeses, breads, fresh fish, veggies, cakes etc. My favourite stall is run by a couple from Barbados. They are really cool, and make fantastic homemade vegetable fritters, creole style, and also the most delicious vegan fruit breads, with big chunky free samples!

And lastly, our local, the Clayton Arms. This is where I watched Australia's ill fated world cup match against Italy, with a Moroccan man called Saeed. He's one of the Clayton Arms 'family'. This place really is the quintessential English pub, where everyone knows everyone. Saeed goes there every single day after work. By the end of the game, I knew not only his life story, but also that of Jo behind the bar! I've been back a few times since with Gabriella, and Saeed always insists on buying us a drink.

So there you go, my English home!

Summer Festivals

2006-06-27T10:09:00.000+01:00

I love the summer festival scene in London. So many great bands playing on our doorsteps, it’s awesome. So on Saturday Gabriella, Ange and I headed to the 02 Wireless Festival in Hyde Park. It’s a 5 day festival, and we caught Day 4 which was headlined by James Blunt, Beth Orton, The Eels and Adelaide’s own Ben Lee! And there was also this little known boy from Glasgow called Paolo Nutini. Now I’d heard of him from my Scottish ‘MEP Rep’ friend Emma, who sent me his album. (In August of last year Emma and I set up the MEP – a Music Exchange Program where, realising that there are so many great artists and bands from each others home countries that we’d probably never get the chance to hear, we send each other 2 CDs a month.) So I was dead keen to see him, and he was absolutely brilliant – one of the best acts all day.

Paolo Nutini

I sent Emma a text saying “guess what, currently standing 10m away from Paolo Nutini!” cause she’s a huge fan…..and guess where she was??? Up in Leeds for a Missy Higgins gig!! So funny, cause I’d sent her Missy’s album as part of the MEP. So there we both were, Aussie Amy watching Paolo from Glasgow, and Glaswegian Emma watching Missy from Australia! MEP rocks.

And another great thing I love about this country is the people you meet. Before we headed in to the festival on Saturday, Ange, Gabriella and I were having a picnic, and we started chatting to this couple who were next to us. Turns out they’re from Slovenia – such a coincidence, cause Ange and I had just booked summer holiday flights to Slovenia that morning!! Anna and Igor are lovely, and we ended up spending the whole day with them, and they’ve invited us to come and stay with them in August when we head over there. Awesome.

Anna, Igor, Gabriella, me and Ange

Some crazy festival creations!

Sunday morning I headed over to Camden Markets to catch up with Amy B and Deb, friends from Adelaide. Always think of The Waifs song ‘London Still’ when I go there…. “caught the tube over to Camden to wander around, bought some funky records with that old motown sound”. Great spot, and with it’s usual assortment of weird and wonderful characters, people watching is one very valid past time!

Saturday afternoon I met up with Lea, and we headed into Leicester Square to watch the England-Equador game. While there got a text from Gabriella, who was flyering at the O2 festival, saying she could get us in for free. Wicked! So Lea and I jumped on a tube and headed back over to Hyde Park, and spent the rest of the afternoon and the evening bopping to the likes of the Mystery Jets (fantastic), Goldfrappe and 80’s electronica group Depeche Mode. And we got 10 free snickers from the Snickers promotion dudes!! There’s another big festival next weekend “Hyde Park Calling”, with the The Who, Texas, Suzanne Vega, Roger Waters (no idea who he is but he’s a big name), Primal Scream etc. Fun!

Lea, Gabriella and I after Depeche Mode

School and soccer

2006-06-23T15:33:00.000+01:00

Isn’t it strange how so much can change in such a short space of time. This week has been absolutely fantastic with the kids. I really feel as if I’m getting somewhere with them, like I’ve gotten over the hurdle of the first 2 weeks, with them trying it on and pushing the boundaries. I’ve now pretty much got them sorted, and we’ve had some fantastic lessons. And yet – I’m leaving, and after next week they’ll have another new teacher to get used to. No wonder these kids struggle, staff turnover is just so high, there’s absolutely no continuity. And as such, when ever a new teacher comes in, the kids never know how long they’ll be around for, and so have trouble developing the kind of respect and trust that is needed in a teacher-student relationship. So after next week it looks as if I’ll be back doing Spanish covers and primary school literacy! Ha ha….the life of a London supply teacher.

What a game last night!! Saw Aussie v Croatia at Waxy’s in Leicester Square with my mate Matt, who I met at a backpackers hostel in Rome a couple of years ago. We’d planned on going to the Temple Walkabout…but it was a full house – one out, one in. And no one was going anywhere! But the atmosphere at Ruby’s was still pretty good – big screen and good beer got everyone in the mood. Plus one of the most exciting games of soccer I think I’ve ever seen! What a ripper. Bet the Aussie papers are full of it today....bring on Italy!

Weekends are my sanctuary!

2006-06-20T08:21:00.000+01:00

Well it’s been a tough couple of weeks at St Caths. I don’t think I’ve ever come across a more openly rude, insolent, argumentative and confrontational group of girls in all my life! Especially this group of six girls in Year 10. They will enter the classroom with absolutely no intentions of doing work. They will sit in their little group, some with their backs to me, and continue of their conversations irrespective of anything I say, as if I’m just oblivious. If I do manage to get their attention, they will give me this horrible ‘if looks could kill’ stare, with a ‘how dare you interrupt our conversation’ type attitude. One of the Year 10 girls said to me “just get out of my face, I don’t want to look at you.” Far out. So it’s been interesting to say the least! But found out yesterday they only need me for 2 more weeks. The deputy head came up to my lab yesterday, to speak to me about something else, and then, offhandedly said, “oh by the way your last day with us is next Friday.” Ah, the life of a supply teacher!

So my weekends are my sanctuary. And last weekend was another ripper! I went to the Foo Fighters concert at Hyde Park with my 2 housemates Gabby and Nic, and also Sam. And 2 Welsh guys who we met while having a picnic in the park before hand. Reece and Craig – they were very cool.

With Nic and Gabby at the concert

Sam, me, Craig and Reece

And the concert was awesome! I’m not really a Foo Fighters fan; I didn’t know that the lead singer was the drummer from Nirvana, nor did I have any idea of their songs. But Sam assured me I’d recognise them when they came on, and he was right. And the guys rocked!!! Open air concert, Hyde Park 80,000 people, a glorious summers afternoon….couldn’t get any better. Except for the fact that I managed to kill my mobile phone when I accidentally dropped it in Sam’s pint of beer. Oops! Oh and yeah – they played a tribute song to Freddie Mercury, and as a total surprise the guitarist and the drummer from Queen came out on stage and played it with them! So that was cool.

80,000 fans in Hyde Park!

On Sunday it was Australia v Brazil, World Cup football. Me, Gabby, Nic, Lea and James went to watch it at The Walkabout in Shepherd’s Bush. Which had been packed since it opened that day….full of zinc creamed, flag bearing, green and gold wearing patriotic aussies in full voice. Amazing atmosphere, they played all the classic aussie hits in the lead up to kick off, everyone belting out Holy Grail, Downunder, Midnight Oil, Screaming Jets etc. And then the game itself was full of ‘Aussie aussie aussie! Oi oi oi!’ yelled out in unison by the whole pub. Pity about result, but we all had a wicked time.

Waiting for the tube to get home.....

And #1 on my list of famous people I have seen since I’ve been here: John Clease! We saw him as we were heading home, he was walking across the road to Marks and Spencers!

Ange gets home from New York today. Looking forward to seeing her. It feels like she’s been gone for ages. We’re going to start planning our summer holidays – first stop Bordeaux, France, to stay with our French boatie mates Damien and Elodie, and then hopefully some backpacking through Croatia and Slovenia. Should be super.

St. Catherine's

2006-06-08T15:16:00.000+01:00

I have accepted a 7 week teaching post at St. Catherine’s Catholic School for Girls. It’s in the south eastern London suburb of Bexley Heath, and is a Yr 7-11 media arts focussed college. I went in one day before the half term break, to have a semi interview type thing, where they observed me teaching a lesson. All seemed fine. Nice girls, a supportive and friendly staff, and generally a fairly clean school. Will be nice to have a bit of a routine, I thought to myself, and be able to teach in my subject area rather than Spanish and Maths and PE.

So I went in for my first day. And I have never known such disorganisation, nor been subject to such a complete lack of acknowledgement for who I was (their new science teacher, in case they’d forgotten?!) At the front desk I was given my timetable, and shown to my lab. And then…I was just left there! What was I teaching? Who was I teaching? Where were the resources? How did I turn the interactive white board on?????? What was the school’s behaviour management policy? Arghhh! Luckily the guy who I was replacing (he’d only found out that morning he was now a maths teacher) rocked up, and gave me a 5 minute run down. But 5 mins is not a lot….and then the first of my 6 classes arrived. Cripes! “OK, what have you been doing?” I ask. “Electrical circuits” they reply. I see ammeters and bulbs and batteries and the like on the back bench. OK. We can work with this. Thankfully the lab technician came to my rescue and told me where they were up to, so I managed to get myself through with no major dramas. But then it was Year 9 Cloning, and Year 8 Microbes, Year 10 Hydrocarbons, then more Year 7 Electricity. Phew! Then the day was over. I hadn’t left my lab (trying to find resources and text books and work out what I was teaching next) nor had anyone come to see me! Not one of the other members of the Science Department (which is totally fractured from what I can gather). At 4pm the place was empty.

On my second day I went to see the Head of Science to ask what the next units of work were, so I could start planning. “Planning?” he said. “We don’t plan. Just wing it. We pretty much give up after Easter”. I KID YOU NOT. “We’re leaving at the end of July” he went on, laughing with another staff member “so we don’t really care any more.” I couldn’t believe it. If that’s the attitude of their Head, no wonder the kids themselves don’t really care either.

So I have 6 classes. 3 are nice, and 3 are pretty challenging. I am teaching 25 periods a week. No one has introduced me to the Headmaster. I’ve not been given any info on the way the school works – meetings, pigeon holes, communication etc. I have simply been left completely alone in my lab, with 180 girls a day! Ah well, nothing like a baptism of fire!!!

How Lea and I ended up in a 5 star hotel with 80 fit men!

2006-06-08T14:27:00.000+01:00

On Sunday Lea and I had planned to make the most of the fab weather and go to Green Park for a picnic, followed by jelly wrestling at The Fest pub in Parson’s Green. How things can change! We ended up in a 5 star hotel near Heathrow airport with 8 international rugby teams!

It was the final of the London 7’s at Twickenham, the last leg of the IRB 7’s circuit. Henry, my Samoan mate from Leicester, sent me a message saying they were at Twickers, and did we want to join them. Yeah cool, awesome! So Lea and I rocked up, someone gave us free tickets (bonus!) and we headed in. Great atmosphere, we were sitting with Henry and Alex, and were surrounded by heaps of other Islanders who were all singing and dancing and cheering. Except when Australia played – Lea and I couldn’t believe it, the entire stadium was booing! What was that about???? Kind of embarrassing for the Aussies as well, they lost to Kenya and also Russia, not known for their rugby prowess by any stretch of the imagination.

Anyway, we had heaps of fun watching the games, Samoa made the final but lost to Fiji. Henry then said did we want to head back to the hotel and have a few drinks with the Samoan team??? Um… yes please!! So we headed off, and there we found ourselves sitting in this deluxe suite with the entire Samoan squad, plus all their coaching and management staff!

Lea and I get to know the Samoan boys...

It was wicked. Lea and I were the only 2 women there, we watched and listened as they did their prayers of thanks, and then they all started singing, which was fantastic. It was funny, Lea was like "Oh my god, I have been surrounded by so much muscle in my entire life!" And it was true. So we hung out and partied with them for a few hours, then went down into the lobby and found all the players from the Aussie, New Zealand, Fijian, South African, Canadian, German and Italian teams there as well! It was so cool to meet them all, and have a drink and a laugh with them. The party kicked on all night and suddenly it was morning. Chilled out with Henry and Alex and some of the players for most of Monday, then eventually made it home sometime on Monday night! Awesome 24 hours, what a buzz!

Henry, me, Alex and Lea at the hotel

When in Rome...

2006-06-08T14:09:00.000+01:00

Usually I try to live by this motto. Especially when travelling. I love immersing myself in the culture of the particular country I’m visiting, and doing as the locals do – eating what they eat, drinking what they drink, and going where they like to go. And it has all been very well up until now…until the Spanish Bull Fight. What on earth possessed me – a greeny vegetarian animal lover – to join the others for this event I do not know. Well, yes, I do actually. It’s that whole ‘When in Rome’ thing. You go to Spain, and you go see a Bull Fight, cause that’s what the Spanish do, right? Yeah. And I must admit part of me was kind of excited when I got there, the atmosphere was electric, Madrid’s bull ring was just like the colloseum, the colour and the vibrancy of the crowd, the amazing costumes worn by the matadors.

Plaza de Tores - The Bull Ring in Madrid

And it was quite exciting too when the bull came out. This magnificent beast, so sleek and powerful, charging at the fluttering bright pink fabrics. But then it all started to get really gross. And I can’t believe this is actually a sport that people enjoy watching. The poor bull had absolutely no chance whatsoever. I’m not going to into the gory details, partly because I can’t bear thinking about it and partly because I lasted only 4.5 mins of the 2 hour event. But it was horrid. Never again!

Before it all went pear shaped...

The rest of my holiday to Madrid was cool. Didn’t see Victoria Beckham wandering through the boutiques, nor did I bump into David while at Real Madrid stadium. But we did manage to check out all the cool sites, buildings, parks, basilicas, palaces etc and quenched our thirst with suitable amounts of sangria!!

Dan, Anushka and I make friends with Sangria

The one thing I love about European countries like this is just how laid back everyone is. So totally different to the UK…we were out one night having dinner in the big piazza, and there was music and dancing on the streets, everyone was just so happy. And their clothes are different too. Whereas here in England it’s white black grey, over there it’s yellow, orange, pink and blue, invariably all together! We saw one businessman – seriously – wearing green pants, a light blue shirt, an orange tie and a black jacket!

Rugby and The Church - what a weekend!!!

2006-05-29T11:10:00.000+01:00

Have just had an awesome weekend. So fun! All began on Saturday morning, when I headed over to Putney Bridge to watch the Super 14 final with Kiwi Sam, who I met last weekend when we were drinking the £50 bar tab that Lea won jelly wrestling at The Fest in Fulham. An 8.30 am kick off and the pub was already packed with Kiwis drinking pints. Pity bout the game - totally fogged out, but a great atmosphere in the pub anyway.

Then in the afternoon Sam and I met up with Ange and Kathryn Essex (who I stayed with before moving to Peckham) and we headed to Twickenham to watch the final of the Guiness Premiership. Kath had got us free tickets and we were in the prime location - right on the half way line, about 30 rows back, it was super!

The final was virtually a sell out, so a fantastic atmosphere, and even more exciting cause it was Leicester v Sale and my mate Alesana Tuilagi was starting on the wing for Leicester. Unfortuately Sale ended up winning, but afterwards we went down to catch up with Alex, and also his brothers Henry, Freddie and Vavae (all Leicester players) and the family. Both Henry and Alex are big stars in the Premiership, and we were standing there chatting away to them and every second person would stop and ask for an autograph or to have their photo taken with them!

Kath had also managed to get us free tickets to the Guiness Premier Rugby after party, so Ange, Sam, Kath, Vavae, and I went along. It was wicked! Free guiness all night, lots of yummy food and a fantastic band, we danced the night away.

Vavae, Paul, Sam, Ange and I at Premier Rugby after party

Then yesterday, Sunday, it was time to go to The Church. No, not in the religious sense, in fact far from it! But similar I guess in that it's a bit of a pilgrimage for the southern hemisphere types....so picture this. Ange, Sam and I were on the tube to Kentish Town at around 10am, and it was absolutely packed with mostly Aussies and Kiwis, who'd already been drinking, and were dressed up or wearing wigs or had inflatable crocodiles etc with them. Almost everyone on the tube was going to The Church. It's an old theatre, and every Sunday from 12-4pm it turns into the biggest drink fest party place ever! We met up with James Matters there, and also Shawn (teaching buddy) and some of his mates. Everyone gets there early to line up, and everyone has their beers or their wine or their vodka girly drinks etc with them. We were in the line for a couple of hours and it was just hilarious! People singing, laughing, playing drinking games...and we bought our drink tickets from the mobile bouncer dudes outside (£7 for 3 drinks of your choice).

The line up at The Church - Ange, me, James and Sam

Then when we got in...and oh my goodness! It was insane! Firstly it was dark inside, just like in a pub or nightclub at night, and the dance floor was literally jam packed already. This is at about 12.15 in the afternoon! We exchanged our drink tics for beer, and they gave us 3 cans in a plastic bag - so we did what everyone else does and tied it to our belts.
Found a spot on the dance floor and pretty much stayed there drinking and dancing for the next 4 hours! They had a video camera and people were projected up on the big screen, they had comedians and a live band, 2 strippers (but they were pretty gross) and then international boat races between like the Americans and the Aussies, or the Kiwis and the South Africans. It was so much fun. We met heaps of people, including a guy wearing an Australian Surf Rowers League t-shirt, turns out he rows boats for Freshwater and knows Jules and Naomi (boaties will know who I mean!)

So at 4pm the whole thing shuts down, and then we head outside and of course it's bright daylight - that is very weird. Everyone then headed to the walkabout or some other pub, the tubes were packed, everyone drunk and singing....Shawn, Ange, Sam, James and I ended up in Covent Gardens where Sam knew the barman of some pub, who gave us cheap drinks and shots....oooh, big weekend! But great fun.

This afternoon I'm off to Madrid for 5 days! Yeehaa!

Little Adelaide...little London

2006-05-24T17:10:00.000+01:00

On Monday night Ange and I went to a 'Reception for South Australia' at Australia House, hosted by SA's premier Mike Rann. The promise of free Coopers, Barossa Shiraz, Annie's Lane Reisling and Villi's pies attracted a pretty large crowd; all of us had to be South Australian in origin. We all got to meet Mike Rann and shake his hand on the way in.

And you know how we always joke in Adelaide about how everyone knows everyone, the whole 1 degree of separation thing? Well, how about this. During the 2 hours I was there, I ran into:
a) a girl I went to school with at Trinity College (Kate H)
b) my sisters ex-boyfriend (Andrew P)
c) a guy I used to row with at the Uni boat club (Ewan), and
d) 2 guys I lived with at Lincoln College!! (Tex and Maisy)

It was just insane. Same for Ange as well. She knew about 6 or 7 people there. Little Adelaide....Little London.
Anyway, Mike Rann spoke for 15 mins or so on SA's achievements over the past year, mining growth, Fringe festival going yearly etc, and then, when it was all over, he joined us for a pint at the Temple Walkabout!

The big three-zero: 19 May

2006-05-24T16:47:00.000+01:00

One of the best things about leaving Adelaide in April - 2 excuses to celebrate my 30th birthday! So there was the big ho down heel and toe cowboy bash before I left town, and then I got to do it all again on the day of my actual birthday, Friday 19th May 2006. Not the heel and toeing of course...though there might have been a bit of that going on behind the pink velvet bordered fake leapord skin doors that housed the night club we ended up at....but more of that later!

The persistent London rain put and end to my plans of a gourmet picnic on Clapham Common, so we went out to Nandos Mexican Restuarant at Clapham Junction instead. So, who came along. There were my cousins Gordon, Jess and Chloe, plus Wes (boyfriend of Jess), Ollie Carr (rugby club), Ange, Lea (surf club) and Andy, Shawn, Dan, Anushka, Claire and Brenda (Gable Hall School teacher buddies from when I was teaching there last year).

Me with my cousins Jess, Gordon and Chloe

We had an awesome night...yummy dinner and drinks, followed by a few pints at the nearby Slug and Lettuce, followed by about 4 hours non stop dancing at 'The Grand', the pink velvet-fake leapord print door place.

Ange and Lea get up close and personal with the leapord print!

Now we'd been knocked back from this other place earlier, cause they bumped their entry fee up from £5 to £8, so we headed down the road a bit and bingo! This place was ultimate cheese. It was so much fun! They played all the hits, from Bon Jovi (you would have loved it Jules....ha ha!) to Madonna to Belinda Carlisle to Tainted Love. An absolute winner. And then Gordon requested Down Under, and they played it and announced my birthday, then suddenly we were surrounded by all these other Aussies who danced with my blow up kangaroo that Jess & Chloe gave me! It was soooo much fun.

With the Gable Hall folk...

We stumbled home to Peckham Rye around 4am I think, and then had the birthday cake that Ange got me, complete with candles! But the worst thing about a London summer is that it starts getting light at around 4.30am...so none of us had much sleep. But it was fab.

Oh - and guess what????? Next Monday we're off to Madrid for 5 days!! Woohoo! It's half term, and we managed to find a super cheap lastminute.com deal to Madrid, staying in a 4 star hotel! There's 8 of us going, me plus 7 of my Gable Hall teaching buddies. Can't wait - sunshine, sangria, sombreros (or is that Mexico?) anyway, can't wait!

Supply Teaching - everything but Biology!!!

2006-05-23T17:10:00.000+01:00

I'm registered with 2 teaching agencies, who are finding me work at the moment on a daily basis. My first days teaching was on Wednesday17th May. And I was called up to take a Year 6 class for the day. Now I'm not primary trained at all, but that doesn't seem to really matter here, and I was responsible for a class of 30 kids all day, 28 were of African origin.

No work had been left for me, as this was a last minute job, so I pretty much had to use my own initiative to keep these kids entertained for the day, vaguely along the lines of literacy and numeracy. Managed quite well, until the end of the day, with about 30 mins to go, when they just started going a bit bunta. So in order to channel this energy, and seeing as they loved showing off, I thought why not get them to get up in front of the class and do some performances. Should be fine - this comes under drama, right?

So I go first, and I sing good old Waltzing Matilda for the little dears. A safe, old Aussie sing song. Of course none of them had ever heard it, but they clapped along and it was all very nice. And then these 3 girls went next. And oh my goodness they oozed more sex, at 10 years old, than Beyonce, JLo and Kylie combined!! I couldn't believe my eyes! They did this choreographed dance routine to some current sexy pop song that I'd never heard of...I reckon they must have copied the moves from their equivalent of video hits or something. I didn't quite know where to look!! It was all gyrating hips and thrusting bosem and bedroom eyes from under their long lashes. My goodness.

Since then I have had a couple of days in a high school, teaching Year 8 design technology, Year 9 tennis, Year 8 rounders and Year 10 RE. And one day with 30 Year 3 kids. 26 Nigerians, 3 Ghanans and one little British girl. Now when they called me up I thought Year 3, cool, should be easy. Primary school kids, little 6 and 7 year olds, no worries. But I don't think I've had a tougher days teaching EVER. They were absolute monsters, and trying to keep them under control for the entire day left me absolutely exhausted!

So in 4 days work, I've taught pretty much everything and everyone I'm not qualified or trained to teach! And not once in my own subject area. Guess that's London schools though...and with such a teacher shortage they'll just get you out anywhere they can.

Peckham Rye: 15 May

2006-05-23T16:53:00.000+01:00

So today was the day we moved into our new home. Peckham Rye. We'd been getting pretty dubious reactions when telling people our new address...it's had a pretty chequered past by all accounts, but we were determined not to let that bother us, and moved in with gutso.

We're in a fab house, sharing a massive upstairs room with 2 double beds. The house not only has a kitchen bigger than 1 square metre, but a dining room AND a lounge room AND a large garden area!!! A total rarity in London, where landlords tend to rent out all available rooms for extra ££. So it's big, and it's communal, and I love it.

We have 3 house mates. Gabriel, Gabriella (what are the chances!) and Laura. Gabriel is an English Antropology student, a kind of greeny-slightly alternative-vegetarian with an awesome music selection. We get on great. Gabriella is a Spanish journalism student who's totally lively, outgoing, sporty and a recycling guru. So we've also hit it off! Don't know anything about Laura as she lives in her bedroom and only comes out to pee, pretty much!

Peckham Rye is such a fascinating area. It's described as 'afro caribbean' and we're very much in the minority, with less than 1 in 10 people white. Literally every second store on the high street is some sort of fruit/veggie/fish/meat store, with Nigerian, Ghanan, Sierra Leone etc affiliations.
They sell cassava, yam, sweet potato, 'cows foot' (which is just as it sounds - a cow's foot, attached to it's bloody, fleshy leg), pigs trotters, whole goats, racks upon racks of dried fish and all sorts of other stuff I've never seen before. So interesting. Other stores have names like the 'Afro Hair and Beauty Superstore', 'Bims Afro Food Shop', 'Afro Nigerian Food Store' and 'Juliet's Afro Superstore'. But there's pretty much everything we need on the High Street, which is always lively, vibrant and colourful, and with African or Caribbean tunes pumping out from their gheto blasters.

One of the afro shops on the high street...note the whole chickens hanging down, and the special offers - Big Cow Foot for only £1.49!!

I've made friends with the African guy who works at the stall near the train station. While waiting for Ange on that first day, I went up and introduced myself saying I was new in the area, and asked him what some of his weird veggies were, now every time I walk past he gives me this big grin and a wave.

It's so refreshing moving somewhere completely new and establishing yourself in a community where you know absolutely no one, and no one knows you. But being 2 Australian girls, we kind of stand out here!

So within 5 mins walk from our house we have the train station, the gym, the library, the supermarket, the High Street, and the cinema, where it's only £3.99 per movie. Bargain! I'm so loving exploring the area.

Rugby Tour to Amsterdam: 12-14 May

2006-05-23T16:42:00.000+01:00

What better after arriving back in the country than to go on the end of season rugby tour to Amsterdam with a bunch of Essex girls!! Played with these guys last year, and we headed off for 3 days of fun and frivolity in Holland's capital. Though the rugby definately came 2nd (or was it 3rd, 4th or 5th?) in the girls' priorities for the weekend!

Having been to A'dam before, I pretty much knew what to expect, but it was so funny seeing the looks on some of the girls' faces as we headed into the red light district on our first night! Ha ha...
Though I have to say, being on that tour, I can fully understand why the Brits get such a bad reputation in Europe. The girls on my team had been drinking for about 48 hours straight (we got picked up from our rugby club at 2am for a 4am Gatwick check in). One of the girls was so drunk she left her bag, complete with passport on the plane. Anyway, I won't go into details, but certain events of that day and of the rest of the trip left me in no doubt as to why the Brits get the wrap they do. However, we did have a load of fun together, canal cruise in the sunshine with 42 bottles of Heineken (at the bargain price of 12 euros!) and playing dares all afternoon at a canal side pub in the red light district.

Sue, Anitra, Irish and I on the canal cruise!

I made the most of my time there - met up with my friend Hanna, who I met while travelling in Scotland last year, and while the rest of the team were sleeping off their hangovers she took me on a walking tour of the city and all it's markets, back streets and courtyards.

That afternoon was the rugby game. I didn't play, having not played for a year now, and judging by the state of the rest of the girls I bet they wish they didn't have to either!! Needless to say they were thrashed - but took some solace from the fact that their opposition contained 3 Dutch internationals!!!

All in all a pretty good trip.

First few days in London...

2006-05-23T16:20:00.000+01:00

Arrived back in the ol' blighty in the early hours of Monday 1st May. My rugby mate Clare picked me up, and I stayed with her that first night. Being a bank holiday in the UK, Ollie Carr (another rugby mate), Ange and Ange's mate Em (all from Adelaide) came down and we spent the day together. Which was awesome! Checked out the Queen's house, Windor Castle, and also Eton College where we got our pic taken with a tuxedo-wearing school master. I thought there must have been a ball or something on that day....but no, that's just normal dress. Confirmed when we saw all the boys sauntering along in their tops and tails. Very posh.

Ange and I spent the next couple of days trawling all over London in search of somewhere to live. We checked out 4 or 5 places, some in dingy apartments high up in seedy housing estates, others so tiny you could hardly move. Eventually we came across this place in Peckham Rye, which was absolutely perfect! So we signed up then and there and moved in on May 15th. More about that later.

In the mean time, I shifted base camp to Sunbury-on-Thames, where I stayed with my friend Kathryn, and her partner Rosie. This was absolutely fantastic. And I couldn't believe the coincidences with Rosie. a) She's a rugby girl - actually, she's managing director of England women's rugby, and works at Twickenham. b) She's been a boatie c) She was in - IN - the Man From Snowy River!!!! Anyone who knows me will realise what that means!!!! So riding, rowing and rugby, just like me!

In fact, Rosie got me a couple of days work at Twickenham, which was awesome. I got to meet the England women's coach and all their staff (they have 20 full time employees devoted to women's rugby). One of my tasks was to type up the 4 year development plan for the women's game. It's incredible. So so different to Aus. They are pumping major money and development into girls at the U14 level, for example. While there I went out to watch a world cup trial match. They have the 'elite 44' and played them off in two teams against each other. The England women are probably 2nd favourites behind NZ to win the upcoming world cup in Canada in Aug/Sep. So that was really cool.

Before moving into my new home and starting work, I popped down to Barnstaple in North Devon, SW England, to visit my Nana and some other relatives. This was great, and as usual we indulged in some west country delicacies, love the deserts at The Boat House at Instow :-)

Welcome to 'The Adventures of Amy'

2006-05-23T15:29:00.000+01:00

Well I've finally gotten around to starting up this whole blog thing. I am currently sitting in a seedy internet cafe doubling as a cheap 2nd hand mobile phone selling store, with African music blasting out over the scratchy radio, in my new home town of Peckham Rye, South London. For once the sun is shining outside, and the High Street is packed with the afro-caribbean folk who make up my community here. I have been in London for just over 3 weeks now, and thought it's probably about time to give you all an update on what's been happening since leaving Adelaide on April 27. I'll put up a few 'catch up' posts detailing my adventures so far, then will aim to keep this somewhat up to date! So here we go...

Sweet and Savoury Singapore: April 27-29

2006-04-30T15:46:00.000+01:00

For many people, the city of Singapore tends to be one of those 'transit towns', places where your Qantas flight stops off to refuel, where you either don't bother to get off the plane, or just spend a night or two to break up the long haul 22 hour flight from one hemisphere to the next. How many people actually stop off and explore the city I wonder? I did...and I loved it.

My previous memories of Singapore were not good. I swear I had nightmares for ages after visiting this horrible museum which depicted people being sliced in half lengthways, great wedges of iron being driven down through their skulls and chopping them fairly in two. All of 7 years old at the time, I was not left with the best impressions of the country.

But this time it was different. Helped mostly by my awesome hosts, Berni and Yvonne. We played rugby together at Adelaide Uni. Being born and bread in S'pore (the Singaporeans abbreviate EVERYTHING so I may as well jump on that band wagon :-> ) they gave me the ins and outs of the city from the local perspective. And it was super.

Firstly, the thing you notice about S'pore is it's upmost cleanliness. Everything is spic and span. Did you know chewing gum is actually illegal in this city, because of the mess it creates on the pavements when people spit it out?? And, this made me laugh so much I had to take a photo of it - at the entrance to this shopping centre there was a little stand with free plastic umbrella coverings, which you place over your wet, folded up umbrella, to stop any drips getting on the shopping centre floor! Hah!!! You can also get fined $500 for spitting. So yes, it was very clean.

The wet umbrella stand!

And being an Asian country, you can't go past the food. We went Little India, Chinatown, the local Hawkers Markets and the food courts (food is a great passion for the S'pores, and it's soooo cheap). Berns and Von got me to try all these weird and wonderful foods....green slimy chewy sago balls, Indonesion bamboo cakes which were brown sugar wrapped in flour and coconut and steamed inside bamboo, and 'carrot cake' which was actually shredded raddish mixed with flour and potato and scrambled egg. I managed to bypass the pigs trotters and chickens feet, but one food above all others, takes the cake. Funny that, cause it is a desert. So picture this. A bowl. In the bottom of the bowl are kidney beans (yeah, I know. Desert? Kidney beans?) and cubes of jelly. On top of the kidney beans sat a huge pyramid of shaved ice, which was covered in 3 flavours of sweet syrup. And then on top of that was a piled a can of creamed corn! They called it 'ice kachang' and they love it. I couldn't quite get the whole sweet and savoury combo thing happening, but I'm glad for the experience.

Ice Kachang!

Another experience was our chinese massage. The 3 of us decided to give it a go, and we went up stairs into this room where various people were laying back in comfy chairs being worked over by chinese masseurs. We took our seat and were each assigned a masseuse, and they began. Suddenly, without warning, after a lovely warm wet towel was wiped over our travel weary tooties, each of our toes were pulled sharply till they cracked!! Our legs were then punched and pummeled, our feet slapped, the guys ignoring our winces and ow's. So we settle into the hour long massage, and it got better after that. We were in this lovely calm room, with lavendar incence burning, and soothing music on in the background, the men expertly working over our legs and feet in their traditional style. Eyes closed, it was quite relaxing until the blast of their mobiles shatters the feng shui serenity of the room, as they each answer their calls. We're not just talking one or two, but maybe 15 or 20 in the duration of our massage. They are all free lance masseurs, and after they were done with us they would head out to some other place in chinatown to do it all again to some other unsuspecting tourist!!

It was funny how completely places like Little India and Chinatown exist in their own cultures, inside Singapore. You could easily believe you were there, in India, or in China. Little India was full - and I mean full of gold mongers. I have never seen so much gold jewellry in all my life!They love it. It's a symbol of wealth and prosperity and they drown themselves in it.

While in Singapore we also checked out the famous and beautiful zoo, went to a hilarious comedy rock act that Von got us tickets for (she works in theatre) and I also attended Berni's rugby clubs 50th Anniversary Dinner, which was a great experience. Thanks Berns and Von for a great time :-)

Dinner on my last night with Berni and Von - yummy noodles off banana leaf plates!