It rained. And rained. And rained. So we ate. And ate. And ate. In between stomach filling epidsodes we went up the Eiffel Tower in the rain, walked the Champs Elysée in the rain and ran between coffee shops in the rain. The smartest thing we did was to buy tickets to the Musée D’Orsay from the reception at our hotel. When we arrived the line was long, long, long - I think people must have been standing in the rain for a couple of hours just to buy ticket. We were able to just walked on in at a different [View Full Entry]

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I swear the home office has some sort of control over the weather. 35 degrees at the moment! If it was like this for a few more months of the year the population of the UK would swell! I’m sure they’re just keeping the Aussies at bay. Yes, summertime is here… *sigh* …finally. Fully charged with Vitamin D and with the memories of the unavoidable gloom and desperation that accompany the months October through April relegated to the back of my mind, I have been enjoying the sun and the summer with lots of cool things: Summer hockey Greenwich Film Fest [View Full Entry]

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Farewell Woolwich. Goodbye to the walk from the station, the rubbish on the streets and the high police presence. Goodbye to the nice Indian lady in the shop who had my train ticket ready for me before I came in each day. Goodbye to evenings on the couch drinking too much red wine with Julia. Goodbye to the most quality power shower ever experienced. Hello Greenwich! Greenwich has been the area of choice for beer consumption and dining since I've been here in London due to its closeness to Woolwich, the fact it is full of nice restaurants and bars and [View Full Entry]

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Sometimes things just work out well without planning. Being in Italy for the World Cup final while Italy playing was once such time. After the debacle that saw Italy knock Australia out of the tournament (dubious refereeing, but I won’t harp) I didn’t think I’d support the Azzuri; in fact I started out the match with a distinct pro-French feeling, though this was silently acknowledged only to myself! Amalfi beach started filling up about an hour before the game started. There was a big screen at one end of the beach, green tarpaulins draped on either side in an attempt to [View Full Entry]

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Happy birthday Cathy! This was the theme of my weekend in Amalfi. Planned months ago, the 30th of Squeezy was always going to be celebrated in style. The thunder and lightning that welcomed me didn’t start the weekend as planned, nor did the one and a half hour late bus to the train station, the two cancelled trains to Salerno and the just-missed bus to Amalfi. Fifteen and a half hours later I made it. We should have picked Bangkok; it probably would have been quicker! My mood was quickly reversed when I saw Cathy and Co. (Aideen and Antonio) and [View Full Entry]

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Although I think I’m a pretty sports savvy kinda girl, since living in London I have learned two key sporting facts: 1. It is my patriotic duty as an Australian to love the Wallabies (even if I have never watched more than about four matches of rugby in my life living in Victoria). 2. The mechanics of the offside rule. Armed with a ever growing understanding of football (soccer to those at home), I have been caught up in the frenzy of the World Cup that has taken over this country as it has much of the world. It’s a bit [View Full Entry]

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If it hadn’t been apparent from my enthusing about the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC or even from the fact that I keep a travelblog (!!) then I advise you this: I am a geek. I have learned this over the years but I have come to terms with the fact that I am a dork. OBVIOUSLY a very attractive and socially hip COOL dork, but yes, a dork nonetheless. This is why I was super excited about visiting the Lisbon Oceanarium, the biggest aquarium in Europe, the second biggest in the world, a fantastic place to spend a few hours [View Full Entry]

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Manuela graciously allowed me to select somewhere for five days away as part of her fleeting European adventure. I chose Lisbon - cheap, close and most importantly WARM. Sod’s law though that the five days I chose to go away London had the most spectacular weather in a year! At least I wasn’t at work though. Cathy joined us from Dublin and the construction girls from Bovis were reunited. Lisbon is a hilly, oceanside city with a small central area which made a nice change from the sprawling city of London. Being so close to the ocean there was beautiful seafood [View Full Entry]

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Oh the bliss of the three seconds of sun that is the London summer. It is truly a fantastic place to be when the sun is out and briefly makes you forget about the dismal rest of the year. Summer Weekend #1 was truly a magnificent one: the first weekend in my new house in Greenwich, hanging out with Manuela who is visiting from Melbourne, sun, barbecues, and food, food and food. All I seemed to do all weekend was sit and eat. The weekend of gluttony began with Food Event #1 on Friday night at one of my fave pubs, [View Full Entry]

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Warning: Rant in Progress Maybe I'm a prude, maybe I'm a snob, but I still feel uncomfortable when I see someone staring at a page three lovely. For those of you not familiar with this concept, many of the tabloids in the UK provide for your reading pleasure a full page photo of a woman in just undies. Turn to page 3 of The Sun and you'll ecounter Sarah, 19, from Bristol (and her boobs), who says she thinks war is sad and that George Bush should pull out the troops. To pull up a photo on your computer like that [View Full Entry]

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