There's still so much to see

This list on Buzzfeed is a brilliant collection of beautiful places in England and Wales that make great day trips from London.

Cafe Culture

It's so nice to be back in a city with a good cafe culture! There are cafes everywhere here in Edinburgh - I guess it reflects the more relaxed nature of the city.

End of the London Living

So it’s come around fast but after about 9 months in London it’s time to move on and check out the rest of the UK. I know I could just stay in London and use it as a base for travelling around, considering I have the security of a good job and accommodation, not to mention a great bunch of new friends…but as my visa is for just two years I think I’ll see and experience a whole lot more by moving on. I don’t want to end up having to cram the whole of England or Scotland for example into a couple of weekend getaways when I can get work off; I think I’ll see things a lot more in depth by living and working in a couple of different cities and areas longer term.

I’ll be finishing up at my job here at the end of March before heading out to start Help Exchanging for a couple of months, while the weather warms up over spring. I know no-one knows what Help Exchanging is – if you’ve heard of World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOFing) it’s pretty much the same as that. Basically it’s helping people out with odd jobs for a few hours a day, for about 2 or 3 weeks at a time or more. In return you get food and board. Generally the hosts you stay with are on small (organic or not) farms, lifestyle blocks and ‘small holdings,’ though there are quite a few B&Bs, hostels, guest houses and plain homestays (plus a few hippie communes and ‘alternative lifestylers’ haha).  You can help with all sorts of stuff, from cleaning, cooking and housekeeping to mowing lawns, weeding, feeding/cleaning animals, and painting fences. Any projects the people have on the go that they need a hand with really.

I’m very excited about starting these help exchanges, as I think it’s a great way to see little pockets of the countryside that you would never see otherwise, and forces you to go out and see these places rather than just stay in the cities. Plus it’s a different way to meet loads of people. The first exchange I’m doing when I leave London will be in North Devon, which is a massive, mainly farming region kind of in the South West of England. I’ll be there for a couple of weeks before heading to the south more to the apparently stunning Cornwall coast, helping out in a B&B there. I basically hope to work my way up to Scotland for the summer,  and find a job and live there for a few months.

I’ll definitely miss London, it’s been fantastic!! And I’ll be coming back at some point, especially to catch up with friends here. It feels very strange to be leaving…but can’t wait for whatever’s next!

http://www.helpex.net/

Wicked 'Wicked'

I've just been to my first West End theatre show. I've been wanting to see Wicked for years...definitely worth the wait! It was such a great show. A brilliant feeling to be sitting in a beautiful old theatre, cocktail in hand, watching a multi award winning show. I haven't read the book that it's based on but it was really cool to see how the story is cleverly twisted around the original Wizard of Oz story. Basically it was about how Elpheba the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch went through university together, and that Elpheba wasn't really wicked at all, it was just the public's perception. There were things like the creation of the flying monkeys and how a man was saved from being killed by getting turned into the scarecrow. The tin man and the lion made an appearance too, with Dorothy's story kind of like a sideline, it was always like she had just left the scene. The singing was brilliant, especially from the two lead women playing the witches. As this is a proper long running show there were absolutely amazing sets and costumes. It had a kind of steampunky feel to it with loads of big cogs and a mixture of metal and old wooden decorative pieces and it all fitted it perfectly! There were things like trap doors and grooves in the stage for all the set pieces to move around with, and a great big metal dragon at the top of the stage that lit up, moved and blew smoke at the dramatic bits.

Check out the Wicked trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATW9soLqD5w

I can't wait for the new movie, Oz The Great and Powerful, to come out (http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=5NdeuYgRoTI&feature=endscreen). They all tie in together a little bit even though they aren't really related at all so it'll be fun to go back to the land of Oz again!

Past the 6 month mark

I've now been in the UK for over 6 months - woohoo!! A milestone for me as this is the longest time I've been away from home in one go. Definitely no plans on coming home just yet though - I fully intend to use those two precious Working Holiday Visa years to their max. It's a reminder of how fast time flies though - only 18 months left!

After a very mild few weeks after Christmas the weather has now woken up and realised that it wasn't really cold enough for Winter - so the last week has been pretty freezing, with a couple of snowy days thrown in for good measure. It's been quite weird for me as I think I'm still clinging onto the Autumn...time has flown by so fast that I haven't caught up with it yet. It still feels like November or something.

I overheard someone talking about snow in London and saying 'It's just snow...what; as it's London snow is it supposed to be more sophisticated or something??' True hehe, it is just snow, the same as anywhere else. But I don't think anyone can deny that little jolt of excitement and wonder of your five year old self when you see that it's snowing - especially in a new place. What I love most about snow is looking out at night when it's stopped snowing, and everything has that amazing calm, stillness and quietness. Beautiful anytime. Yay snow!! :)

So with the start of the new year comes the fun job of finding and writing in a new diary (no sarcasm here, I really enjoy this haha). Stationery shopping is always fun anyway, but buying a new diary has that extra element of having to find the right one - one that fits you so you will actually use it. Then when you've found the perfect one you can sit back with a cuppa and, with the weird excitement of writing on a brand new page, transfer any important stuff like birthdays over from old to new. What I most like about this process is taking the chance to read through all the stuff you've done in the previous year, and basically reliving the memory at every entry. This year I got a massive buzz after reading things like 'three months to go,' 'one week to go!!!' and 'arrive in London!!!!!!!' The beginning of an experience of a life time...I was so suprised at how much I crammed into those first few months. Of course it helped that it was summer so it was easy to be out late just going and doing stuff (compared to now when I sometimes feel like I haven't been doing much at all - but that's normal for winter). Anyway, just made me think about the coming year and all the sights and shows and people and memories to come.

Here's to having a packed diary to read next January!! 

“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.”

Oscar Wilde

London in a day

Okay, yea yea, I know I'm crap at keeping this up to date..Sorry...Have tried over the years to get better at this sort of thing, but, well it's not going to happen haha. Anyway I've now been in England for over 4 months! Time has gone super fast, especially in the last couple of months. I think it's because I'm settled in, have new routines and a great bunch of friends. One part of why I love to travel is that when you first move somewhere completely new, every day feels extra long and jam packed with exciting stuff. After awhile time gets back to it's normal crazy pace, and while there is still plenty of exciting stuff going on you've got to make sure you take notice of it, get in amongst things and make the most of everything before you wake up and realise life has gone on without you.

I now feel that if someone had only one day to experience London I would be able to show them around some simply awesome places and experiences that would show London off. My ideal day of really seeing London would probably start with a morning walk along the Thames by southbank, under the London Eye observation wheel and across Westminster Bridge to have a look at the parliment buildings and the area around Westminster Abbey. Yes this probably the most tourist hyped part of the city but it is definitely worth a look on a sunny day. This area is also gorgeous in twilight when it's all lit up. I haven't been on the London Eye yet, I don't know if I can be bothered to get around to it. Like most of the tourist destinations here it's very overpriced, and weirdly I think it's a nicer view to stand underneath the wheel and look across the river. Maybe some day I'll go on it if I find a good discount voucher haha.

Big Ben tower

London Eye

Night view

We would then walk down the river to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. If you are going to spend some money on a tourist attraction the Tower is the best one I've been to yet - super interesting, especially if you join up with the free tours given by the Yeoman Warders (actual guards). There is also the beautiful St. Paul's cathedral. Definitely one of these two attractions anyway.

Queen's Guards in the Tower of London

Tower Bridge from inside Tower of London

St. Paul's

After a few hours checking these out it'd be time for a late lunch over the river in Borough Markets, a massive gourmet food market ...

...Then tube to any of the big parks like Hyde Park or Regent's park for a wander...

I love Camden town and markets so the day would be finished off walking through the massive, famous market area before going around the many pubs in the area for drinks. Camden is one of the main spots for partying and is great any night of the week

If it's a nice night the view from Primrose Hill is stunning - right across London, and only a short walk from Camden so this would be the last stop.

Borrowed from the net as my pics didn't turn out haha

So there you have my take on the real London, condensed down to what would be one long but awesome day. It's a bit different to what a tour guide would say but for me these are places and areas that I have mostly been back to many times now as they've been so amazing. They really mean 'London' to me. The city is so massive and so full of great things it is hard to narrow things down. It is also made up of loads of little communities, like Camden, from when it used to just be a bunch of villages back in the day, so I think it is best seen by just picking an area an wandering around with not much purpose but to simply see it all.

Random observations of Englishness

A little collection of some random different/interesting things I've noticed here so far...

• I don't think it's compulsory to wear bike helmets here so given the massive level of traffic it's always quite weird to see people cruising along helmet-free as if they are on a country back road, weaving in and out between the huge buses
• Because of the way London has evolved - from loads of little villages - a lot of streets are tiny, narrow and winding. The hardest thing to get used to (especially coming from Christchurch and having lived in Vancouver) is that there is no convenient grid system - at all. If I'm walking around exploring I often turn down a random street and automatically think 'I'll just take the next corner to come back onto the original street.' But no! Dead ends or random curves that lead away from where you want to go. So very easy to get disorientated or spend extra hours just trying to get back to where you started haha. All part of the charm of London...luckily in the centre there is never a shortage of tube stations to get back home with ;)
• Perhaps because of the level of traffic again, the majority of intersections -big and small- have the words 'look right' and 'look left' on the edge of the road for pedestrians (photo coming soon). I now have the impression that London is full of jaywalking idiots. I do see the point in having this though - except when on seriously busy main roads, Londoners never stop for cars when crossing a road. They hardly break their step at in intersection, they are so hurried and shut off to what's around them
• I live near a busy intersection so sometimes I hear an extremely annoying little recorded voice coming from the larger trucks waiting at the lights. It goes: Caution, truck is turning left. Zzzt zzt zzt. Caution, truck is turning left. Zzzzt zzzt zzzt.' Over and over again. Grrr.
• I bought a little potted sunflower to brighten up my room for a few weeks. Nothing unusual about this except that I bought it from a 24 hour florist. Why does a florist need to be open for 24hours? And it wasn't even in a very busy area!
• There is definitely a big lack of care for the environment, at least in London. It's very hard to recycle - there just isn't the facilities. Sometimes you see a few skips grouped together on the street with a 'recycling station' sign. Do you remember those plastic rings that went around 6 packs of beer? Weren't they banned in NZ a decade ago? Yea England didn't get that message...
• Also on alcohol, it is extremely accessible and cheap. When you really want a single bottle of beer/cider or a 4 pack of anything go to the fridges at your local mini express supermarket (Tescos or Sainsbury's). Spirits are behind the counter. When they are closed, just head to the nearest off-license, basically a dairy open 24 hours.
• The sirens of the emergency vehicles are ear piercingly loud. Like, you don't want to be just walking along the road when an ambulance comes up and gets stuck at the lights. Wince.
• The '@' symbol on computer keyboards is in a different place so I have to be careful when typing my email address. The '£' sign is where @ should be on top of the 3, and @ is above '
• Many of the cafe/ready to eat food chains like Starbucks have two sets of prices - one for eat in and one for take away. Everywhere here is geared towards ready to eat, on the run food, so they actively encourage you to take your food away so they don't have the hassle of cleaning your one plate and one fork. This wouldn't annoy me so much if the price differences weren't so crazy. Sometimes it's nearly a pound difference if you want to eat in! For the exact same food!! :( More on cafe culture (or lack of) in a future post.
• To finish, did you know that years of actual hard work could have been avoided?

Elbow Grease: the only cleaner you'll ever need

"Stubborn deposits may require further applications"

• And lastly, here is a picture of an electric smart car getting charged on the side of the road. Enough said.

Better late than never....Bloody typical me

Wow! The first post! Bet you didn't actually think I was going to get around to this sooner...

A blog of my travels and experiences, beginning here in London, England, is still something I want to do, not just for myself but all you friends out there. I'm fortunate to have so many people to call a friend, but this also means it makes it hard for me to keep in touch with everyone! So I'm aiming to keep this reasonably up to date and full of random bits and pieces as my way of being in contact of everyone. If only I can beat down my old nemesis, procrastination... ;)

"The two rules of procrastination:  1) Do it today.  2) Tomorrow will be today tomorrow."
~Author Unknown

Yesterday was the last day of the 2012 Olympics, and since I was working all day (seriously, all day) it was quite surreal. I work/live on the edge of the central city in the north west, with the Olympics mainly based in the East so I've kind of missed the busyness and hype of it all. On the screens at work I saw bits of the marathon with the thousands of people lining the streets and up around Buckingham Palace, but the pub was completely dead so didn't feel like a big deal at all. I have to pinch myself sometimes to remember I'm actually in London, where this is all going on live. Thankfully over the past two weeks the pub has been pretty busy because of the Games, as it is a main meeting point for people going to see the football (i.e. soccer ;) ) at Wembly Stadium. I might have missed all the hype completely if it hadn't been for the sometimes frantically busy periods before a Wembly game. People also came to watch in the evenings, after work etc presumably. It has been a pretty good vibe though, everyone's gotten really into it. It's been very cool to be a part of that. I think I'll look up the tickets for the Paralympics and see if I can go see some of that.

My favourite part of the bits of closing ceremony I saw would definitely be the miniature London landmarks at the start, with Big Ben, the London Eye and the Gherkin building, then the stage in general as a Union Jack flag was really cool and worked really well for the whole show. It was great to sing along to all the hits with all of the pub. It was such a weird mash up of songs though, I think some didn't really mesh with the others. Great to hear at least one part of Oasis though!

Just a reasonably short post for starters....until next time!! :D