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Published: February 5th 2008
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Hello all, another month or so full of the excitement of life in London. January has been action packed with loads of outings with new friends and I've even managed to move onto second and third meetings with some, which in my new life makes them old friends!
The biggest news for me and a great source of happiness is that I have now moved away from my first attempt at flat sharing and hopefully home number 2 will prove to be more successful. I realised that I couldn't overlook all the deficiencies of the place, when the woman decided that yelling was the best way to communicate. Consequently, I found a place on Friday night, packed Saturday, moved Sunday and left the keys with a short note. I hated having to resort to this type of behaviour, but she is just such a nasty piece of work that I couldn't stand to even talk to her.
My new place is lovely, Jane (Aus) & Mike (UK) are really welcoming and even helped me write the note to be left with the keys. Quite a change. The best thing for me is that I can now have friends around
and start cooking again.
Socially I have been nice and active and my mobile is filling by the day - I'd have to say I've become a bit of a number tart - collecting them by the bucketful! The whirlwind of dinner, drinks and movies has continued with a few more significant events thrown in.
I celebrated my first Australia Day in London by queuing for 4 hours to get into the Temple Walkabout. Now, I'm not a big fan of queuing (or Walkabouts), but I was there with Miss Laura and her friends so I stayed. The queue was actually very social with many runs to the off-licence for beer, various establishments for food and local pubs for the dunny! Once we made it in, it was your typical aussie, slightly feral event, but the music was good! We probably spent more time in the queue than the actual pub and ended up in Soho for dinner at a very traditional ... Carribean restaurant (I'd never had it!) and was home early and sober enough to be blissfully hangover free on the Sunday.
Apart from that I've done a few meetups (meetup.com) including a photography day
where I spent a day with 80 other photographers running around East London. It was very cool - we went to the Tower Hamlet Cemetary Park, which is an old cemetary (naturally) which no longer welcomes admissions, but instead has been turned into an ecologically diverse nature park. The graves remain but the foilage has been allowed to grow over the gravestones as they are part of the landscape, not the main focus. The main focus is on trees, plants and providing a beautiful, green space in the middle of the area which is used by the local community to walk, play with the dog or just enjoy nature. There was one tree which in the lead up to Christmas, the children of the community decorate with handmade decorations as a celebration of the season to come. A few of the decorations remain and those kids are very creative! It's definately one cemetary which isn't spooky, but I don't think I'd like to be there after dark! I met a wonderful Scottish lady, Debbie with a wicked sense of humour and a kind heart and ended up with her and a spanish fellow by the name of Paco exploring the
canals of East London, something I don't think I would have done if it wasn't for this group. They are really active with events twice a month - drinks and an outing. The next one is to the London Zoo, but I think I'm out of the country that weekend (I just LOVE being able to say that!)
I had hoped to be able to share with you the colour and images of the annual clowns blessing church service, but I had to sacrifice that outing to move stuff! Instead I'll throw in some photos of more 'clowns' I have met along the way, once I get internet connected at my new place. The phone goes on this week and then those of you who are missing my dulcet tones will once again be able to have a natter. It's just been too difficult.
Other stuff for January (now it's over) - don't drink champagne, but did have a glass of Rose at the St Pancras Champagne Bar with Miss Kurdsty of Scotland trip fame, also went to visit the Terracotta Warriors Exhibition at the British Museum with Bruce & another friend of his - now definately need
Champagne Bar
Kurdsty, Hervey & Cameron to squeeze Xian in when I eventually make my way home. Apart from that it's just been about working hard and partying harder!
This weekend I'm off to Valencia with 3 girls I don't know, so that should be fun - a long Spanish weekend of paella, tapas and sangria sounds like just what the doctor ordered. So photos will have to wait til after Spain, but at least you have some words for those moments when you are bored!
Love Jane
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michael
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sangria
when you packing to leave for Spain, make sure you visit boots first. take headache tabletes and berocca too. that sangria has a wicked kick.