Apple. Blackberry. Friend? Foe? Or just plain fruit?

What’s the first thing that springs to mind when I say apple, blackberry and orange. Surely it’s ‘mmm fruit salad’. Right? No? If you thought ‘two brands of smartphone and a mobile service provider’ then we need to talk.

I want to have a little chat about an alarming global pandemic. Global is probably the wrong term. Let’s call it a first world pandemic. Phone addiction. I saw a satirical piece recently, with a picture and quote saying “Tonight, my friends are all coming over to play on their phones.” I couldn’t even find the humour in it because it’s true. We’re too busy staring at the little screen we hold in our hands to have decent actual human interaction. We’ve basically created a 2^nd life. There’s our physical life and our digital life. And our digital lives seem to be taking over. No word of a lie, it really scares me. I sit around and worry about how this will all eventuate.   

There is even an official phobia relating back to our phones. Nomophobia (No-Mobile-phobia) is the fear of being out of mobile contact, causing symptoms of anxiety, panic, nausea and sweating. I’m not kidding. Admittedly, if I leave my phone at home I do feel a little naked and disconnected, and when I can’t immediately locate it in my handbag there is a slight panic. But I’m astonished that nomophobia actually exists. On the other hand I’m not surprised in the slightest.  

Every now and then I snap and try and pull in the reins on Tania Digital Myles by removing all the waste of time apps off my phone. I just did this a few days ago. Solitaire...gone. Face-in-hole…gone. Facebook…gone. After the initial shock, it’s amazing how liberating it actually feels. Instantly, you start to take more notice and interest in your non-digital surroundings.

Even after deleting a stack of apps, I still have 24 (on top of the official ones I can’t delete). But they’re mostly informational or productivity based, like JourneyPro and 1Password. There are a few dubious ones I have left, including Twitter. But I guess it’s about knowing what’s hindering the quality time with the real world that I feel like I was missing.

One day I might backtrack and reload all my apps. But for now, I’m enjoying the space my iPhone and I needed. 

Senza glutine?

August long weekend. Everyone was away. I pretty much spent that entire weekend deciding on a holiday. For some resason I was stuck for an idea. Having worked in the travel industry all my professional life it was an unnerving feeling to be completely unsure about where to go and what to do. I trawled through the internet, trying desperately to find some inspiration. #holidays for solo travellers (not like that, dirty! ALT + <--), #europe holidays females, #october europe holidays. I knew I had a week to take, and it was going to be on my own. Do I do my own thing or book a group tour? I literally got to the "Confirm booking" button on various holidays over the course of that weekend, only to have a last second "hmmm, is this the right choice?" feeling. In the end I went with a 7 night group tour of the Italian Lakes.

I'm not going to name the company I travelled with because as I work in the travel industry, I feel like I will be able to be most truthful and open about my experience by keeping the brand anonymous.

I had a transfer at 4:15am to Gatwick Airport. Luckily the pick-up was just up the road. As I walked through my complex I passed a couple coming home after a big night. I can’t lie; I did envy them, on their way to a nice warm bed. I suppose one lacks a little perspective at 4am. The transfer was long and cold. I tried to fall back asleep but my brain was too busy pondering the fact that the boy band market in the UK is already flooded and wondering if teenage girls actually have their ears open when it comes to voting for this year’s X Factor contestants.

When I arrived at Milan Malpensa Airport I was met by Dimitri, who would be our Tour leader for the week. My room wasn’t ready yet so I left my luggage and went for a walk. It was a Sunday and not a lot was going on so I just wandered up and down one little strip of shops and restaurants for a bit. Back at the hotel later my roomie arrived and funnily enough from Kenthurst. She was a couple of years older and we knew a bunch of the same people. What a small world hey! Certainly broke the ice and gave us lots to talk about. I was glad Ruth was on the tour. When we went to meet the group later that evening it became apparent we were going to be spending the week with retirees. Not that it was a problem to be honest, they were a nice bunch of people. Most of them anyway…

There was a group of 4 couples from New York who I enjoyed listening to, purely so I could practice my New York accent later on my own. John and Sharrie from New Jersey. I really liked these 2, Sharrie especially, had a few really lovely chats with her. Then there was Jack and Beryl from Durham and 2 couples from Manchester who had not met previously and I have a feeling probably continued their new found friendship post-tour. Cute. Even more cute were Guy (pronounced ghee) and his wife, a French-Canadian couple who spent the entire trip giggling with one another. He reminded me a lot of the man on the front cover of a book from my childhood, There’s a Lion up my Nose. Google it. I decided against telling Guy about this.

I’d say about a 3^rd of the passengers were Australian, all (except for one) of which were women. One couple from Perth and the rest travelling solo (aside from a mother, daughter, aunty trio). I guess it’s just because I’m not around the Australian accent a lot but I was sure everyone spoke just like Steve Irwin. A few character highlights though were Shaaaarrrleeeeene from the Centraaaaaaal Cooooaaast and Jan from Noosa. Sharlene was really lovely, a high school teacher who travels about twice a year. She was actually a very smart lady but the pace of her speech gave a different impression. She’d always come out with simple comments or just something funny in general. I actually really enjoyed spending time with her. Jan was not so much the same story. Unfortunately she put most people off-side. Very loud, bossy and outspoken. She also had this dreadful cough and would sneeze extra loud at dinner so everyone would go “ooohhh wow”. I know this because I heard her sneeze normally many other times when she wasn’t around a load of people. And she would leave her rubbish (including used tissues) on the seat in the coach every day. Rude. She often took wine to her room on her own. One night someone saw her swimming in the hotel pool late at night. It was about 15 degrees and the pool was dirty as it was off-season and cold. She also wasn’t eating pizza or pasta because she didn’t want to eat food she could get at home! Jan decided to leave a couple of days early because she was “over it”, although she was headed to Napoli on her own which I can’t imagine being less stressful than on a tour where everything is sorted.  

We had an incident on the coach one day. Some people didn’t follow the seat rotation instructions, which upset others. I didn’t care where I sat. My seat was taken so I moved, but I ended up in 3 different seats because I was then in someone else’s seat. It got very tense and I wanted to shout “People! I’m the youngest person on this coach and I’m behaving the least childish!” Dimitri was very annoyed about it and gave specific instructions for the next big drive. Jan misunderstood his instructions and ended up telling off some people who were doing nothing wrong. It seemed that the Americans were not following the rules and the Australians were getting upset. I was really embarrassed for my country. It was ridiculous.

I haven’t actually talked much about Italy itself have I. Food has become somewhat of a challenge since I went gluten free. It was possibly a good thing I can’t eat pizza and pasta because I’d have come back a couple of stone heavier! Fortunately Italy is one of the most aware countries when it comes to coeliac disease. Gluten free products are sometimes stocked in pharmacies, all children are tested and anyone with the condition gets 2 paid days off work per month to source their food. I went to Italy with possibly a higher expectation than I should have had in this regard. Although it was generally a pretty good experience. The places which had had prior knowledge were very accommodating, other places weren’t so much. I went to a restaurant in Bellagio and said “senza glutine?” as I did everywhere and they went and checked to come back and ask me if some gluten free raviolli was ok. YES YES YES! One of the men on our tour asked me if I was making up some special dietary requirement so that I’d get something better than everyone else. “Dude, we’re in Italy! Why the hell would I do that?!”. I had gelato a few times of course. I generally get 2 scoops and mix chocolate with another flavour. First time I had orange and chocolate (as jaffa ice cream is my favourite). But it was more of an orange sherbert flavour, really nice. Then I tried a traditional chocolate and mint, although it was more of a peppermint and a bit too strong for gelato. My absolute favourite (possibly that I’ve ever had) was mandarin and chocolate. Literally tasted like a mandarin. It was delicious!  

One thing that I think people forget when they travel is that you’re not going to the same place you’re from so it’s going to be different. Embrace it. Don’t expect them to change for you. I always try and speak as much of the local language as possible. Ok, I have studied languages and really enjoy this element of travel more than most people. However, it is also the polite thing to do. I think English speakers often take the fact they speak English for granted and expect that wherever they go, regardless of the native language, the people will also speak English. I had the unfortunate experience on the train home after this holiday to get stuck in a conversation with the Vice President of the Industrial Court of Trinidad & Tobago who was visiting London for a few days. It was unfortunate because he reeked of booze, kept hitting on me and then made one of the most ignorant comments I ever heard. He had also been to Italy but didn’t like it because they wouldn’t accept USD or Pounds, and they didn’t want to speak English. I actually told him they shouldn’t have to.

I really loved exploring the magical Italian Lakes region. On the 1^st day the weather was proper awful. We visited a town called Sirmione, which I had been told by a colleague was lovely. It was very pretty, regardless of the torrential rain. Luckily the rest of the week was dry and often sunny. I imagine Sirmione was almost as nice as my favourite place, a town (also on Lake Garda) called Malcesine. I climbed to the top of the castle which had the most magnificent views. Jan from Noosa likened it to Noosa. Now, I’ve never been to Noosa, but I can be almost certain that Malcesine is nothing at all like Noosa. The other highlight of the tour for me was Villa Carlotta, a villa on Lake Como with amazing gardens. I also saw George Clooney’s and Richard Branson’s villas on Lake Como. Isola Bella was a small Island on Lake Maggiore with a gorgeous palace and gardens, owned and still resided by (at times) the Borromeo family. Other places visited (about which I have nothing interesting to say and am only writing it for my own recollection) include Riva del Garda, Verona, Bellagio, Isola Madre, Isola Pescatori and Stresa.

My only issue with the tour I was on was our tour leader. Everything else was great. Some people complained about the location of the hotels and other such things. But you get what you pay for and this wasn’t an overly expensive tour. Other passengers had travelled with this company before and had the complete opposite experience when it came to tour leaders. I guess it was just an individual issue so it hasn't put me off. It was his last tour before going into the off-season and therefore 5 months of holiday. He was well and truly over it and already in holiday mode. There were no maps for us, he provided us with minimal information and he really just didn’t give a damn. He was also obsessed with women, a bit sleazy. One evening he was trying to get me and Ruth to go out clubbing and told us we were boring when we said no. The first thing I thought of was Brit Lapthorne. Most Aussies have probably heard that name. She was an Aussie girl, travelling on her own in Croatia, went out clubbing and was never seen alive again. I'm not saying that it’s the only reason I didn't go and that that’s what would have happened to me if I had. But I’d like to think I'm a cautious traveller so I'm definitely not going "out-out" in a foreign country with someone I don’t know, particularly like, or trust. He was always going on about his tips too (which I know a lot of people didn't give a lot in) and on the tour sheet on the last evening he listed a couple of details and then wrote “end of my service!!!” to try and reiterate that the planning he had done for our transfers for the next day were out of the kindness of his heart. Pfffff!

I don’t really have an in summary statement to close off this post. It was a great week, I took lots of nice photos, met some great people and saw magnificent countryside. Highly recommended. 

Social Media: Facebook Part 2

As you would have seen by part 1, I get pretty passionate about the way people should and shouldn't use Facebook. Here we go with part 2, continuing with more do’s and don’ts (ok, don’ts).

Work – People need to be more wary about commenting about their job/employer. I never post comments about my job, unless I have something positive to say. First of all, if it’s that bad, do something about it. But most of all, you are putting information out there that may get you into a lot of trouble so be careful. As well as this, you just never know who might stumble across photos of what you got up to on Saturday night… again, be careful!

Facebook fishing – Yep, it’s a term, and it refers to writing a mysterious or ’woe is me’ status alluding to the fact you may share if someone comments with ‘what’s up hun?’. I can categorically guarantee you that I will never take the bait. “OMG I’m so excited about the news I just heard!”, “Why do people have to be so horrible?”, “ :( ”…. I get just as fired up when I see people fall prey with the likes of “are you ok?”, “what happened?!” and “call me”. I was discussing this recently with a friend and she reminded me of another type of Facebook fishing, fishing for compliments. She is Facebook friends with an old school mate who posted a photo of a letter one of her students gave her saying how amazing she was. I also had a friend who posted an album of her new breasts! And of course the comments followed “OMG you look amazing”. Have we developed a heightened sense of self-worth? Alternatively, is it making us more insecure when we don’t get the notifications we wanted?  

Game requests – I'm not going to lie, I do feel a little special when I see that little red icon notifying me that someone has connected in some way. Unfortunately, sometimes that little red icon means that *name wants to send me a goat from Farmville or is inviting me to play Bubble Safari! I don’t care about your virtual farm, café or similar. Play your game and keep me out of it!

Responding to status with a completely unrelated comment – You've just written something profound, entertaining, controversial and someone comments “hey hun, looking forward to seeing you on Saturday?”. Imagine if that conversation happened in person “what do you think about global warming?” “Saturday is going to be well awesome!”. Sorry, what just happened there?  

Play-by-play – Facebook shouldn't interrupt life as it happens. Tell me about it later, put your phone away so you can experience the moment thoroughly and enjoy it! What you chose for entrée, main and dessert as you chose it isn't necessary. Also, how do you think your companions feel? You obviously think it’s quality time worth telling about, so why disrespect the people you’re sharing it with by giving your attention to the possibility of that little red icon? Is the icon more important than the activity? Or maybe it’s not quality time, you've just become addicted to your online life and have let it take priority over your real one.

Stop boring everybody! - So you've got nothing interesting to say, you're bored, you're doing something we all regularly do (e.g. heading to bed, going for a shower, “hi ho hi ho, it’s off to work I go”). If you’re bored, why bore the rest of us? This particular one really concerns me because it indicates the addiction thing again.

Right, final topic. The one which fires me up the most. The, without a doubt most irritating thing on Facebook, in my opinion...

Too much information! And it’s one demographic who seems to be the worst offenders. Mothers of babies or young children. You might ponder that I'm just bitter that I'm not part of this demographic. Not true. I love babies and children, how couldn't I with the 2 nephews and 3 nieces I have? What I do have a problem with is the content that is being shared. I'm probably biased but my sister proves that it’s possible to have children and an interesting Facebook page that doesn't push the boundaries of appropriateness. I kid you not the following have appeared on my news feed:
• Photos of yourself in your underwear, displaying your growing tummy
• “Peppermint tea! Who’d have thought it would interfere with my milk supply!”
• “*Name, I know sleeping with my nipple in your mouth must be nice, but it’s not working for me”
• “How cute is boobing *name” including photographic evidence
• “Tired… kid had 21 boobs last night”
• “*Name has woken up with a dry nappy 4 nights in a row and asked me tonight if he can not wear one… I’ll be getting him up for wees before I head to bed…” – this actually continued on a further few sentences
• “What an explosion! Poop up to *name’s arms! Fun!”
• Photographic evidence of a nappy changing accident on a pair of trousers
• “So proud! *Name did his first wee on the big toilet… “ – continued with an essay of exactly what happened
• Photos of a newborn fresh into the world with all the grossness still all over it
And finally…
• “Got sprayed with amniotic fluid” – INCLUDING PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE! I KID YOU NOT!

Just because a young person is involved, it doesn't make it acceptable to share the above, or anything similar! One day I'm going to snap and photograph myself in the bathroom, post it and write “Look, I'm on the loo! Aren't I cute?!” I don’t think my targets would get it. I think this blog has bought me some time before I do eventually snap and stick up for the rest of us Facebook etiquette abiding citizens. To be honest, it’s more than likely I’ll just hide you. My ‘people you've hidden’ list is actually predominantly over-sharing mothers.
Seems we have a problem with filters. I had surgery recently to remove a little benign thing and definitely lost a little dignity. I couldn't tell you how many people have seen me with my shirt off! IN A CLINIC! The key is dropping your dignity off at the door and picking it back up when you leave. Yes, it is possible.

As one of my colleagues says, if you wouldn't say or show it to my face, then think again if it’s actually worth it and more importantly appropriate.

Well, this has been a good therapy session for me. Thanks for lending a listening ear (or eye). I don’t think this is going to make much of a difference though. I really think it’s going to be up to that celebrity team I mentioned in part 1. If anything, I've probably pointed out things you hadn't noticed that will now annoy you. Whoops! :)

Social Media: Facebook Part 1

This blog (ok, rant) has been a long time coming. Just ask Jackie Blue, Jenny Ransley or Haylo Watts. I often write comments that are probably a little too rude or controversial for actual Facebook in the form of a text message to them, accompanied by a screen shot of the offending Facebooker’s post. And my thoughts are so chunky I’ve had to split my guide (ok, rant) into two parts! In this world where digital socialising is just part of every-day life, I feel like we need more than unwritten vague ideas about how to behave. There needs to be an official ‘Rules of Facebook etiquette' book. And it should be policed! Happy to volunteer for that role. It should be written and published by a collection of people representing a range of demographics; people who will give it the most exposure. I’m going to suggest an epic team including Lady Gaga, Oprah Winfrey, One Direction, Megan Fox and Barrack Obama. Actually I should probably throw Mitt Romney into that mix to get all of America on-side. In the meantime I’m going to get started. Apologies if you find you are one of the offenders in my rant. Actually, let’s be honest, I’m not sorry at all.

The MOST IMPORTANT RULE for Facebook is, it’s not supposed to replace actual human interaction! It’s a way to share life experiences, it’s not life itself! When your Facebook life is more active than your actual life, it’s time to sit back and reassess. So go and get a life! Literally! Then tell me about it.    

Tagging – I don’t like being tagged in photos I’m not in. Tag me in a comment if you want to bring my attention to it but not the photo itself. This is just me being anal and correct but the ‘photos of me’ folder is called that for a reason. I’d rather keep it that way. I will untag myself. This does open up the little can of worms that is children. I can understand why some people may want to be tagged in photos of their children. I think in this case, it’s up to the individual. Obviously, not something I have to think about at this point in time.

Weather – “rain rain go away, come again another day”, “spring has sprung”, “hello summer” … Not only are these comments unoriginal and boring, but everyone else knows what Mother Nature is up to! Funnily enough, we’re in it too! Weird huh?!

Politics – Personally, I don’t think social networking sites are the best forum for political discussions. In fact, there are few social settings where I find it an appropriate topic of conversation. If you are going to get into debates though, please be respectful. Likewise, extreme religious views should be reserved for less public domains. After Bin Laden's death, I was disgusted by the comments that appeared on my news feed by people who officially fall under the same "religious" banner as me. But then I guess if your views are extreme, where you communicate them is probably not your priority.    

Grammar - Having studied languages, I’m really anal about getting it right. Not that I am error-free. I definitely make mistakes, usually typos. But it’s not typos I’m referring to. I could write a whole post about grammar alone but I think possibly Andy (my brother who has also studied linguistics) would be the only person to be fascinated by every word and use of punctuation. Instead, I’m going to highlight the three most common errors:

• Changing your status mid-sentence from 3rd to 1st person. First of all, Facebook dropped the ‘is’ after your name years ago so there should be no more 3rd person speak at all. If you must do it, please please please keep it in 3rd person. There’s nothing more annoying than reading “*name is enjoying the lasagna my mum cooked for me”. Technically, that post means Facebook’s mum cooked Facebook a lasagna and *name is enjoying watching Facebook eat said lasagna. Ok, there are definitely more annoying things, but it does annoy me more than is probably necessary. 
• Then vs than. Completely different words. Poor ol’ ‘than’ tends to be the victim, ‘then’ too often being an incorrect choice. Are you comparing one thing to another? It’s thAn! It’s so much hotter today thAn yesterday. Actually don’t write that, remember what I said about the weather? 
• Your vs you're. You hope my well is what?! I don’t get why so many get it wrong. You’re is a shortened version of YOU ARE; your refers to something belonging to the person you’re (you are) speaking to. 

Lovey-dovey business – Right, you’ve got a boyfriend/girlfriend/husband… happy for you. But please, leave the ‘get me a bucket’ stuff private. Your "baby" did not just graduate and sorry to tell you, nobody else wants to see you write love messages on each other’s wall. I especially hate it when people write messages to their ‘schnookums’ saying something that they would obviously have said in person, but put it on Facebook so that everyone else can see them saying it. e.g. "happy anniversary to my gorgeous baby *name… you are the love of my life and ...". Get a room! And don't post from it!

That’s literally only half of what I have to say… I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did letting it all out. I feel so much better now. I’d love to hear any thoughts about your Facebook experiences. What you love; what you hate etc. Stay tuned for part two, coming soon!

Social Media: Twitter

Right, the next three blogposts are going to branch off the travels and UK life. I've been thinking about this for a while so I'm writing about my thoughts on Social Media, mainly Facebook and Twitter. Basically it's going to be a massive rant about the things that absolutely drive me bonkers when it comes to online networking.

TWITTER
Turns out I do have a lot to say about Twitter. I was going to tack it onto the end of my Facebook rant but then it seemed that I had more to let out than I realised. I haven’t been tweeting for very long so I'm no expert. Twitter confuses most first time users. First and most important rule – it’s not supposed to be a replacement for Facebook. Facebook is about connecting and staying in touch with friends. Twitter is a globally open commentary of what’s going on in the/your world.
News breaks first on Twitter. Literally. If you hear a rumour of breaking news, chances are, a lot of people are already tweeting about it. I once saw a massive queue in South Kensington. It stretched around a few blocks! I was on a bus and couldn't ask anyone so I searched South Kensington on Twitter. Unsurprisingly, French nationalists lining up to vote at the embassy were tweeting.
All of my tweets will generally be to someone or contain a hashtag i.e. a way for people to search for tweets that have a common topic, to begin a conversation (e.g. #thingsthatconfuseme), or relate to an on trend topic (e.g. the Closing Ceremony). If I follow you on Twitter and we’re friends on FB I’ll unfollow if you use them the same way. Actually the best example of using Twitter like Facebook is, I'm sorry to say, one of my favourite musicians. She has sometimes even done what should never have been made possible and linked the two so the same thing appears on each.
Yes, I follow celebrities. I don’t do it to see what perfume I should be wearing (not that I wear it, it makes me sneeze, bad example). They’re people I think either have something interesting to say; I want to keep track of in terms of what they’re doing in their career e.g. gigs, albums etc. or they're simply entertaining. The people I follow generally fall into one of the following categories:

• Comedians – Example: @adamhillscomedy - "Thanks to all who came to the recording of Mess Around tonight. It was the most fun pilot I've ever had #sentencethatsoundsweirdoutofcontext"  
• Musicians – Example: @coldplay - "You can now pre-order the upcoming #ColdplayLive2012 concert film / live album from Amazon at http://smarturl.it/coldplaylive2012 … A"
• Friends - Example: @HayloWatts - "@LiberalAus I would love to see positive news about the positive reasons to vote Liberal rather than Labor bashing - thank you!! :)"
• Travel industry & colleagues: @red_carnation - "It's Skabenga's birthday soon at the @OysterBox. As with all luxury cats he's having a party! #PresentsExpected"
• Pure entertainment: A few parody royals, an anti-joke-cat and the Big Ben who just tweets BONG. One of my favourites has still got to be @Charles_HRH - "Greek Prime Minister on the phone. Wants to know if one can "lend him a tenner". #sodoff"

So, that's about all I have to say about Twitter. Stay tuned for the next two posts... Facebook!

The West End

The West End is one of my favourite things about London so I thought it might be nice to do a bit of a review of the plays/musicals/shows I've been to see.

Potted Potter: A parody, condensing all seven Harry Potter books into 70 minutes. Ok, it was good and funny, although a little on the children's entertainment side for me. 6.5/10

Thriller: A concert to celebrate the undisputed King of Pop, Michael Jackson. It was good, not brilliant but definitely enjoyable. There was a little black boy about 3 years old sitting on his dad's knee and absolutely loving it! He was busting out some amazing moves and I found myself watching him as much as the show. 7/10

Much ado about nothing: Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy by William Shakespeare about two pairs of lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, and Claudio and Hero. I saw this at the Shakespeare Globe with Ally and her mum Carmel. We had done a tour of the Globe and then decided to stay and watch a show that afternoon. It cost us just £5 to be 'standlings' (patrons who stand around the stage. A really good atmosphere, funny, good acting, my first Shakespeare play. Also featured the butler from Fresh Prince of Bel Air. 8/10

Million Dollar Quartet: One night with Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis. Got a free ticket from work and took Ally. Absolutely brilliant! My Dad isn't a huge theatre goer and this was 'the one' for him. Unfortunately the season was over when he was here. The music was fantastic, the actors amazing, a really great story. 9.5/10

Wicked: The untold story of the Witches of Oz. Another freebie from work and this time I took Tracey Mayo. I have seen Wicked before in Sydney and enjoyed it there. I had forgotten a lot of the story so it was almost like watching for the first time again. It was fabulous. Elphaba was phenomenal. I have actually never heard an audience reaction at the end quite like this one, so much so that I nearly cried. 8.5/10

The Nutcracker: A two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. My first ever ballet! It was quite good, the lead ballerina fell smack on her face throughout the performance and did it so gracefully it almost looked intentional. There was one ballerina who was quite out of time. 7.5/10

The Mousetrap: This murder mystery play, written by Agatha Christie is the world's longest running show of any kind. I saw this with Jackie and Jenny. We all really enjoyed it, trying to figure out whodunit. At interval I was clueless. During act two I had theories going mental throughout my brain. My heart was even racing at one point. 8/10

The 39 Steps: Originally a novel, it follows Richard Hannay, an all-action hero with a stiff upper lip and a miraculous knack for getting himself out of sticky situations. I booked this as a last minute thing on a Friday afternoon for that evening as I didn't have any plans. It was a bargain £12.50 and totally worth it. Really funny, great acting, good story. 8/10

Les Miserables: An 1862 French novel by Victor Hugo, following ex-convict Jean Valjean trying to escape his past during the French revolution. Les Mis is without question my favourite musical and was before I saw it this time. I went with Ally & Matt who had not seen it, nor knew anything about it so it was great. As expected, I absolutely loved it. My only complaint was that young Cosette was quite awful. 9.5/10

Cirque du Soleil "Totem": A fascinating journey into the evolution of mankind. I saw this at Royal Albert Hall with Jackie, Jenny, Ally & Matt. It was brilliant & mesmerising. Often thinking "they're surely not going to... wow" My mouth wa's hanging open for a good portion of the show. 9.5/10

One Man two Guvnors: a play by Richard Bean, and is an English adaptation of Servant of Two Masters (Italian: Arlecchino servitore di due padroni). I saw this play with Charlie and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was originally played by James Cordon, however he had taken the show to New York and there was a new lead man. This didn't detract from the play whatsoever. It was laugh out loud funny. 9/10

Jersey Boys: a documentary-style musical, based on one of the most successful 1960s rock 'n roll groups, Frankie Valli and the The Four Seasons. I saw this with Heather & Gary when they were visiting. Lots of familiar songs & fun. 7.5/10

All New People: All New People is a 2011 play by Zach Braff set on Long Beach Island and centres on Charlie, a 35-year-old from Braff's home state of New Jersey. Zach Braff is from the popular American sitcom Scrubs. I think the story was a little weak, the acting standard, and just a bit average all round. 5/10

What the Butler saw: revolves around a Dr. Prentice, a psychiatrist attempting to seduce his attractive prospective secretary, Geraldine Barclay. Absolute bargain for £12! Mum, Dad, Ann and I all loved. It was hilarious, fast-paced & inappropriate. 8.5/10

Complete World of Sports: This play by The Reduced Shakespeare Company's condenses "every" sport into a 90 minute play. To be completely honest, I found this play un-funny, try-hard and plain annoying. The humour is just gags really and just a bit too simple. Sad to say a big West End disappointment. 3/10

*I just remembered something else about the Complete World of Sports play. There was a part in the play where one of the guys collapses. The whole place goes dead silent and enough time passes for everyone to think OMG something's really wrong here. But no, it was actually part of the play. It really freaked me out, didn't fit into the light-hearted comedy element that the play was meant to be so I'm deducting another half mark. Also, I think I also didn't enjoy it because the style of humour was very American ie. gags and one-liners. I personally prefer British humour and found the jokes really predictable and not clever. So I'm deducting another half mark just coz I realised I was too generous. 2/10

Matilda: (March 2013) It's been a while since I saw a show. I've been wanting to see Matilda for AGES as I had heard it was brilliant. At the 2012 Olivier Awards (The UK equivalent of the Tony's in the US, as in the theatre awards) Matilda, a story originally written by Roald Dahl took home seven awards including Best New Musical, Best Actor and Best Actress (or in this case Actresses, as the role of Matilda is shared by four girls). The music and lyrics were written by Tim Minchin which I think given his style, is the perfect marriage of style and talent to the works of Dahl like Johnny Depp is to Tim Burton. The show appeals to all ages and there were lots of younger patrons, who absolutely loved it. Matilda, played by Sophia Kiely on the night was fantastic and I just about cried when she came out to take a bow. 8.5/10

The Book of Mormon: (August 2013) One final visit to the West End before heading back to Australia. Talk about going out with a bang! I went and saw The Book of Mormon. Ended up having to settle for a Wednesday matinee due to it's continued popularity and minimal ticket availability since it opened. However as a lady of leisure (for now), a Wednesday matinee is just a convenient as a Friday night. The Book of Mormon was written by the producers of South Park and their style is evident throughout. So, if you're the kind that finds South Park offensive then I would advise against seeing this show. If not then DEFINITELY GO AND SEE IT! I thought it was absolutely hilarious and have seen nothing else like it in theatre. It follows the story of two young Mormons who go on a conversion mission to a small village in Uganda. It takes the piss right out of the Mormon church and I think the church itself has made the right decision to go with the 'any publicity is good publicity' approach instead of fighting against the huge success the show has seen. For the fourth time over the last two years I am awarding a score of 9.5/10.

So it's a four way tie for 1st place, going to Les Miserables, Million Dollar Quartet, Cirque du Soleil "Totem" and The Book of Mormon. 

The rest of March

A few football games - throughout the rest of March I watched Chelsea play Birmingham (FA CUP rematch after drawing); Napoli (Champions League - watched at Ally & Matt's, squealed and jumped as we made it through to the next round. I had decided not to go and it ended up being one of the club's most exciting games ever, d'oh); Man City (a league match which we lost, watched at the pub with Ally, Matt & Brendan who was in town); Spurs (boring match, 1-1 draw, went to the game with Charlie); Benfica (1st game of the quarters, I actually can't remember if I watched it, no idea). Oh, I also went to Three Kings pub with my housemate Cat to cheer on Wales in the 6 nations rugby, pretty fun coz the pub was full of Welsh people.
Theatre etc. - Shame (movie) - pretty confronting and depressing, good acting but not sure I liked it; Michael McIntyre - Work in Progress show with Carina at The Leicester Square Theatre, a show where he tested out his new stuff for his upcoming tour... so funny!; One Man Two Guv'nor's - a show on the West End which I saw with Charlie, so funny, highly recommended; All New People - a play with Zach Braff (guy from Scrubs), written by him. Good acting although the story was a little weak I thought; 39 Steps - last minute decision on a Friday evening as I had no plans and tickets were only £12.50. So worth it, very funny; Project X - absolutely ridiculous!
What else I got up to - Went for a walk around St. James's Park one Saturday afternoon which was lovely, found a few of the Fabergé eggs; Kew Gardens - went there with Tim on a sunny day, very pretty place; Went out to East London for Tim's birthday; Staff Appreciation Party - held at the London Hilton Hotel, we all got dolled up and had a great night; Team night - we all went out as we had Adré from our South Africa office in town.
Hmmm... I guess I got up to a lot of stuff in March...

Liverpoo-el

Friday 2nd - Sunday 4th April: ROAD TRIP! After work I met up with Ally & Matt for our road trip up to Liverpool. I'm so blown away by the diversity in accents across such a small geographical area (as in the UK). The Scouse accent is so unique. A Scouser would actually say they are from "Liver-poo-el". Officially, someone from Liverpool is a Liverpudlian, however they are also known as Scousers. Why are they called Scousers? The word "scouse" is a shortened form of "lobscouse", a word for a meat stew commonly eaten by sailors in the 19th century and people who ate "scouse" became known as "scousers".
We had a pretty uneventful drive up and were all so tired that we just went to bed when we arrived. I woke up the next morning to a text message from Mum saying that baby Rose Charlotte Myles had been born! Aunty again, my 3rd niece! So chuffed! The weather was pretty miserable but I had a nice big smile on my face. We headed into town and spent a bit of time around the Merseyside docks where I went to the Beatles museum and Ally & Matt went to the Poverty Museum. There was a lot of really loud music and commotion nearby and I later discovered that X-Factor auditions were being held that day in Liverpool. Explained the craziness in the city centre. Although I think the general appearance of the locals would not have changed much from any other regular weekend. Among the fashion trends in Liverpool, the girls are known to (and I did see all of this) - go out with rollers in their hair, wear 6 pairs of false eyelashes stacked on top of each other, lather fake tan on as if they're auditioning for the role of an Oompa Loompa, and create what is now known as a 'scousebrow'... google it. I actually found all of this rather sad, the fact that women in this area (and many other areas in the UK, such as Essex) feel that they need to become so incredibly fake to look good. And the saddest part is they look like absolute clowns! I saw some girls as young as 10 dressed this way and it really upset me.
Not surprisingly, the kind of main reason for the trip was for football... Matt and I were going to see Liverpool vs Arsenal. The Liverpool fans really need anger management treatment! I don't mind Liverpool so it was pretty spine tingling being at Anfield while the fans sang "You'll Never Walk Alone". Arsenal ended up winning, although it was nice to see captain Stevie G come out with the Carling Cup, won the week before. Back in the city centre we met up with Ally again and for dinner we treated ourselves to a feast at Jamie's Italian, a chain of Italian restaurants opened by Jamie Oliver. Amazing! Absolutely loved it! Worth the hour wait for the table. It was so fresh and had such a nice raw style.
On Sunday we headed back to London via Chester, which is a pretty little medieval town. We also stopped at Warwick Castle. It was good, although we were really underdressed for the weather as it was freezing and raining. My favourite part of Warwick Castle was the peacock garden.

Legends from the past

Saturday 25th February - There was a Legends signing at Stamford Bridge so I went along and met a couple of players from Dad's era, John Hollins and John Dempsey. I also met a player from the 50's named Frank Blunstone. They were very interested in my story about following in my Dad's footsteps, both in terms of living in London and following CFC. Since it was such a nice day, I met Ally and Matt and Natalie and we went to Hyde Park for a picnic with a little anti-pasto platter... thus beginning my downfall of obsession with all things anti-pasto. It was only 12 degrees but it felt so lovely! Later that evening I met up with a friend John as I'd purchsed some tickets to the football for him.

Sunday 26th February - Carling Cup Final! Liverpool vs Cardiff City. I'm not sure what I did in the morning but I headed to The Famous Three Kings in West Kensington to wactch the match with Ally, Matt & Tim. It was very exciting, especially being a Liverpool FC loyal pub, and especially when they won in a penalty shootout. Following the game I headed to the Tottenham Court Road area where I had dinner with Carina and Amy at a nice little Japanese restaurant.

Monday 27th February - I worked from home and too be honest didn't find it that productive as I was having a lot of technical difficulties.

Tuesday 28th February - One of my "must do" days arrived! I was off to see Les Miserables, my favourite musical, with Ally & Matt. It was brilliant! I did have a couple of points... 1. Young Cosette was absolutely diabolical; 2. In Castle on a Cloud she completely skipped an entire verse; 3. There was a Spanish family talking all the way through the show whuch, I might add, happened during the Lion King in New York! But otherwise I loved it!

Wednesday 29th February - The day when it's appropriate for women to propose to men... WHO SAYS?! Quite frankly I think it's one of the stupidest traditions I've ever heard of. Ladies, if he's not asking, he's not ready, not interested, or has something planned! Don't ruin a man's ultilmate chance at romance! I think it makes women look desperate and it's embarrassing for a man to be proposed to, takes a little of their dignity away. Anyway, that's my little rant about it. It was all over the radio and I got so frustrated with it! For dinner I met up with Tina, Pedro and Graham (3 of my previous houemates). We had Spanish tapas in Leicester Square, it was really nice!

Thursday 30th - Funny I should get to today today (it's now 28th April)... I went bowling with Charlie, who has now seemingly disappeared from the face of the earth. Not sure what happened there.

A few slices of pizza

Wednesday 15th February - I woke up for work still feeling quite odd and basically confused. I stayed fairly quiet at work that day, teary at times. In some way the timing of the situation was, for want of a better word, a blessing. Bek was at the end of her trip and was back in London for one night only before flying home. We, including Ally, just spent the evening together chatting and reminiscing before Bek and I headed back to my place.

Thursday 16th February - Well, there's nothing in my Google calendar so I guess I had a quiet night in.

Friday 17th February - After work I decided to head to Selfridges to spend my voucher I had received for my birthday. The place was so overwhelmingly large and just too much for me. I eventually found a Cath Kidston store inside where I spent my voucher and then some on a bunch of lovely things.

Saturday 18th February - I had a really lovely day with my friend Nikki, a friend from Contiki back home, who is now working for Contiki here. We went to see Chelsea Vs Birmingham FA Cup match where disappointedly we drew 1-1, a very poor result against this second grade team. After the game we browsed a few shops and went for a pizza. Then we decided to head into the city and see a show, why not?! There wasn't a lot of option let so we ended up at a comedy club where the only seats left were at the front! There's a reason why, you get absolutely slaughtered by the comedian. Poor Nikki was the main victim, but she's a good sport and took it well and we had a really good night.

Sunday 19th Febraury - I decided to make this day a bit of a memorial and reflection day, given the events of the last few weeks. Ally and I went to St. Paul's Cathedral for the morning church service. It was very proper but really good.

Monday 20th February - Over the next couple of days I worked from home to try and work solidly on our web project. Not sure what I got up to on the Wednesday, I guess a quiet night in.

Thursday 23rd February - In the evening I went to see the Artist and have some pizza with Charlie. It was really good and a well deserved winner of the best picture Academy Award.

Friday 24th February - I worked from home again as I had gotten up early to attend BJ's memorial service via the web. The world of technology! It was a lovely service.

Belinda "BJ" Allder

Belinda "BJ" Allder

4th May 1978 - 15th February 2012

I met BJ a long time ago. She was a good high school friend of my brother Andy and invited him to what became our local church. My sister Belinda began attending the youth group and church and I always went along and sat in the back seat of the car whenever my parents took them. They said when I was older I would be allowed to attend. When I was about 14 I started going to the youth group and then church a while later. BJ soon after began a discipleship group for myself and a few other girls and taught me a lot about what I now know about God and the bible. She was a great teacher but also cared about nurturing our relationship and the relationships we were developing with God. In 2001 BJ & Mel moved to the UK and upon their return BJ moved to Thailand to work as a missionary in a school in Northern Thailand. She came home a few times for visits and a number of people went to see her in Thailand. In late 2008 BJ came home for a visit and it was during that time that she discovered she had cancer in her liver. Being a secondary cancer, more tests were done and the primary cancer was eventually discovered in her bowel. Over approximately 2 years she uinderwent treatment, winning little battles along the way. If she was truly terrified or weak, she did not let it show. In late 2011 her cancer progressed quite quickly and early this year the decision was made to cease treatment and send her home to enjoy her final weeks with family and friends.

On the evening of 14th Feb as I sat and ate pancakes with my housemates, I received a text from Jackie letting me know BJ had passed away. It was unlike any moment I had experienced. I don't know what it was but I read the message, put my phone down and continued eating my pancakes. The closest thing I can describe the feeling as is blank! I had a couple of tears but it really unnerved me that I was feeling completely empty of emotion. I think it was a mixture of a number of things - shock; relief knowing she was no longer in pain; immense sadness; and pure peace, knowing that she was so confident in her faith and what was in store for her after life. Also, being in a completely removed environment from the situation made it unreal in a way.

I'm really grateful for the impact BJ had on mine and many others' lives. The light she shone was incredible. She will be sadly missed and always appreciated.

Sensory Overload

Friday 10th February - Got to the end of a shortish week and didn't have plans for the evening so I decided to go and see The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, yep on my own. I wonder what percentage of people are comfortable going to the movies alone because I know some people would never dream of it. I actually had not been to the movies once since I had arrived in London. It was really good! I did struggle slightly to keep up with who was who but to be honest that's not uncommon :) It is a pretty disturbing film but well worth a watch! Had a chat to the guy next to me, who was also there by himself and continued chattong back to the train station so that was nice.

Saturday 11th February - Such a mega day! Finally got to the Museum of Natural History to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition! I usually go back home in January with my parents so I was really pleased to see it on here. I like to choose a favourite, was so hard to pick so I ended up with 1 favourite, 2 runners up and about 8 or 9 highly commended HA! I also went up to the Vault and checked out the precious gemstones in the museum, so pretty! The whole experience just made my eyes so happy! After my culture fix, I headed to The Famous Three Kings pub for a different kind of culture, in the form of a green field, 22 men and a round object... football! Man Utd vs Liverpool, followed by Chelsea vs Everton. Chelsea were playing so horendously bad that when the score hit 2-0 I couldn't stay, it was too frustrating watching football suicide! That evening I got another fix in the form of a delicious juicy piece of steak! My housemate Romena works at the Argentinean Steakhouse up the road so I went along with a group of friends to check it out. Beef isn't the best here so I was completely in heaven to get a good piece of rib eye. Everyone seemed to be in heaven actually.

Sunday 12th February - Was supposed to go to Kew Gardens with Tim however it was raining and pretty miserable so we went for some sushi and to see a movie (yep, after 6 months I went twice in one weekend). This time the movie was Young Adult starring Charlize Theron. It is Tim liked it but I can't say I felt the same, I found it too depressing.

Tuesday 14th February - Valentine's Day, best one I've had I reckon! It was the season premiere of My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding Season 2 and my house was excited. We had a huge spread of pancakes, which has become quite the tradition every 2nd night or so :-/ The show never fails to leave me with my jaw hanging wide open - from pineapple & palm tree dresses to big "sticky outy" communion dresses. My favourite quote of the night was when a little girl took her first communion and afterwards declared, in her strong Irish accent "I got Jesus in me mouth!". We also came up with the idea to have a big fat gypy houseparty and since then we've been thinking of the most outrageous and wonderful plans for the event. I think I might wear battery operated fairy lights covered with feathers. We also gave each other gypsy names. Basically it's mary + your name or if it doesn't sound right, your name + doll. Guys are just Paddy o'last name. Then we decided to make signs for our bedroom doors and by the end of the night we had craft supplies everywhere and 6 masterpieces.



Keep calm and carry on

I don't really want to go too much into it but I wasn't doing so well at the end of January / beginning of February. I went out for my birthday on Saturday 27th with some friends. As I mentioned in my last post, I wasn't entirely chirpy so I wasn't really in party-mode. Over the next week I had some really bad anxiety and panic episodes, and feeling really low. The hard thing I find about anxiety and feeling low is that when you're not in that state it's very easy to get complacent as you feel normal and no need to do healthy mind exercises and such. The problem comes though when something throws you into that place and you have no idea what the hell to do about it. Even after realising this, it's hard to change. Over the course of the week I slept a lot, worked solidly and tried to stay calm.

Saturday 4th February - I had the perfect evening to conclude the week. I went down to Bromley to visit the Mayo family. They were going out to mark the 1st anniversary of their time in the UK. The kids were excited to see me which was lovely, although Caitlyn seemed to be expecting someone else when I walked in as she was very confused. But it didn't take long before she was telling me she loved me and I was her best friend. We went to a Thai restaurant and had a lovely dinner, followed by dessert back at their place. The much anticipated snow arrived at 7pm (just 1hr off the forecast). We were at the restaurant at the time so it was very exciting and Chris took the kids outside to check it out. On my way back I checked my phone and it was -1 / feels like -7 and I kid you not there was a bunch of girls on the platform in hot-pants and mini-skirts and massive wedge heels. Yes, sometimes fashion comes at a cost, but not at the risk or getting hypothermia surely! Also, they didn't even look good!

Sunday 5th February - The snow had really set in overnight so Matt and I headed to Hyde Park to take some wintry photos. There was a cold snap all over Europe; Ally was in Munich with Bek, enduring and unbelievable -25! Amazing that that was the only really cold snap there's been, and it was so extreme! We had lunch at a pub and then headed to The Three Kings for the Chelsea vs. Man Utd match... which unfortunately ended in a 3-3 draw after Chelsea held a solid lead! Another disappointing result! Went to bed feeling pretty normal...

Monday 6th February - Woke up and my stomach was absolutely churning! It wasn't long before it was clear I had picked up a bout of foot poisoning! It was awful, fever, the works! On top of this, my loo was out of order, so I had to literally crawl from the 3rd floor down to the ground floor numerous times throughout the day! I usually get pretty emotional when I'm sick so an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition was all I needed to turn the water-works on haha!

The next day I was still unwell and worked from home. I kept the rest of the week pretty relaxed and didn't get up to much.



FAIL II

When we got back to London, Bek, Ally, Matt and I found a nice Thai restaurant just around the corner from my place.

Monday 23rd January 2012 - Back at work, we went to The Horse and Groom for lunch for mine and Karina's birthdays and we were both given a Selfridges voucher. That night I met Ally, Bek & Matt at Café Rouge for dinner. We were done fairly early so I decided I should go back to the old place and get the last of my things. I decided to carry the following all in one go to save doing any further trips: clothes, rug, lamps, full length mirror! I carried it all up the road and waited for the bus, which didn't seem to want to come. So I flagged a cab and made my way to my new place. When I got there I realised I had left my keys (to both places) on the bed at the old place! My housemate Romena let me in, however I had locked my bedroom door! So I had to make my way back to the old place and hope someone would hear me knocking! I was already not bothered to make the 1st trip and then I had to go back! Basically the definition of annoying!

Tuesday 24th January 2012 - Ally, Matt & Bek came over for dinner and we ordered in pizza and Bek stayed over.

Wednesday 25th January 2012 - Another regular day at work. Met up with Charlie again for a meal and to go to a comedy club which was nice. The first performer was a chick I've seen on various comedy TV shows. She was sitting near us and as she was waiting to go on she was having the biggest treasure hunt right up her schnoz! It was so gross! There were 3 acts and the host, only the host and the 3rd comedian were funny.

Thursday 26th January 2012 - Australia Day! Probably the least it's ever felt like Australia Day! It was cold and wet and quite wintry. My office did get into it though and I managed to keep an Aussie playlist going all day - abouth 80 or so songs! Still, being in the office on Australia Day felt extremely wrong! In the evening Ally, Matt, Tim and I attempted to go to a Walkabout however the line was about 200m long and we weren't so much in the mood, so we went to Café Rouge (again) for some dinner before going home.

Friday 27th January 2012 - I must admit I was starting to feel not so great (obviously a very sad event had just occurred) and I think I was trying to just feel ok. I finally had a night at home with no plans and did absolutely nothing!

Wintry Birthdays

Friday 20th January - Ally's Birthday. I took off as I wasn't feeling much up to anything. I had puffy eyes and was very drained and emotional. I spent the day getting some things from my old place and keeping myself busy. In the afternoon I met the girls at Hammersmith station and we made our way out to Heathrow to meet up with Matt & Bek and pick up our cars for the weekend. Ally & I wanted to do something really different as we were going to be celebrating our birthdays in winter for once! So we booked a log cabin in the Forest of Dean. I guess I wasn't the best company given the news from home, however it was such a blessing for me to have some of my closest friends there. I didn't have to try and force happiness, there was no pressure to snap out of it, if I wanted to be quiet I could, sad I could, talk I could. And Matt is such a goose that he has this natural ability to cheer you up and make you smile. It was a really lovely weekend. On the Friday night we arrived fairly late. And we only had 1 towel. I had arranged towels for £10, but it was actually £10 per person, hence only having 1. When the girl explained to me, I said WHOH right in her face haha!

Saturday 21st January - The next morning we had an easy start and then went for a really lovely walk in the forest. We had lunch at a pretty seedy pub, the food wasn't that great to be honest. That night Matt cooked us crêpes and they were amazing! We also played some Scrabble and just relaxed. I'd forgotten my swimmers but some of the guys used the hot tub.

Sunday 22nd January - My birthday. Went to Wales for my birthday! We went for a lovely drive around the countryside and found the ruins of Raglan Castle. Jen & Bek bought foam swords from the gift shop before going in and it did actually make the experience a lot more enjoyable. Wales was very pretty. In the afternoon we ended up in Cardiff and enjoyed a Sunday Roast lunch. Then we headed back to London where we had to farewell Jackie and Jenny who were heading home the next day. Given the circumstance of Nan having just passed away my friends did a brilliant job of giving me a lovely birthday!

1st time all of us together since December 2010

Bek, Jen, Ally, Jackie, Matt, Me

Valerie Mary Myles (nee Sumner)

On Thurday evening (18th January in London), I went out with a nice guy I had met called Charlie. We had dinner and some good chats. When I left to go home I had a missed call from my Dad. I pretty much knew what it would be as we usually text or Skype so a missed call was out of the ordinary. When I got to Hammersmith Dad called me back to let me know my Nanna (his mother) had passed away overnight. I was walking down Fulham Palace Road with a flood of tears streaming out and mascara all down my face a I talked to my parents. It was very sad indeed. At the end of the day it was for the best as she was very weak and frail and just wanted to go and "be with God and hold Adam's hand". I was thankful that this sad news was pre-empted by a really nice evening.

We were always very close. There were many times I'd give her a call to have a chat. She'd tell me this story and that and I was always fascinated with her history and travels. I have so many fond memories! Sure, she was one for saying exactly what was in her mind, such as telling me I was fat and questioning the paternity of my nieces, but she had a heart of gold and absolutely loved her 3 children, 8 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren. I loved going to see her at her place in Cronulla, we'd sit and chat as we watched the people down on the beach. She would wake up every day and say "thank you God for my place and for my family". It is very sad that I have been unable to be with my Nanna over the last 6 months and family at this time. My parents were so kind and selfless in caring for her, especially in her last few years as her dementia worsened. I know she is very grateful for that. It is a comfort however, knowing that my travel stories would lift her spirits and she was nothing but proud of and happy for me. I will certainly miss my Nan and will cherish the 30 years of memories we have.

Valerie Mary Myles (nee Sumner)

28th January 1923 - 19th January 2012

Cirque & Soufflé

After a great little chat with Heather on Skype I feel ready to blog about the 2nd half of January.

Monday 16th January & Tuesday 17th January - I don't really have any record of what I got up to. Although thinking back I think I had a coupled of quiet nights in as I was having a bit of trouble with my asthma. Went to the doctor on one of the mornings and got a script and just went home to pack up my room in the evenings. The weather had cooled down a lot so I think that might have been the cause. Plus I was feeling slightly under the weather although a cold never eventuated which was good. It's been really weird - (knock on wood) I've been surrounded by sickies in the office and I've been cold free since my weekend in Norway!

Wednesday 18th January - Cirque du Soleil - Totem! A-MAZE-ING! You know when someone does something amazing and the crowd woops and cheers and claps uproariously. Well, it was far beyond that for me that I sat there with my jaw just hanging in awe! Absolutely brilliant! AND... it was at the Royal Albert Hall! I can't think of a better place for it, or show for my first Royal Albert Hall experience. Before the show we had dinner at Café Rouge. I had this goats cheese soufflé which was almost as good as the show! That night, there was no leftovers for Matt to enjoy. We have reached the point in our friendship where there is no longer in verbal agreement required before he starts to dig in, of course as long as it's obvious I'm done!

SW6 6NE

I've discovered this awesome thing called Google Calendar! So handy, I'll never again forget what I'm doing or did! It has been a challenging year so far. January was definitely full of fun, not stopping, and sadness.
My first week back at work was pretty low key. I went to the hairdresser that week and didn't get up to too much. I think I spent a bit of time looking up houses for moving and just getting back into the swing of things. On the Saturday I went and looked at a lovely place (spoiler alert: I'm sitting on my bed in it now). That evening I hit Camden with Tim, Carina and Amy which was loads of fun. Once again, there was a night bus pulling up as I left Koko, such luck! Such a fun night! The next day I just chilled out and watched Man City vs Man U in the FA Cup. On the Monday I caught up with Ally & Matt at The Swan. It'd had been about a month since I'd seen them! I have a feeling I was back there on the Tuesday but I can't remember, maybe Jenny came...? Jenny, if you're reading this, did you?

Tuesday 10th January - I'm went home and continued packing my stuff for my upcoming move. That week I had been having a bit of asthma as the weather had cooled down a lot. I was possibly going to do out with the girls and Habib & Alex who were in London at the time, however I thought I'd best stay in due to the cold and my lack of oxygen. I went down to the walk-in medical centre before work one day as I needed a script for ventolin. I was very impressed with the service I received. I literally walked in!

Wednesday 11th January - Jackie, Jenny and I met after work and saw a show! Shows are basically my favourite thing ... ever! This time we were seeing a play, called The Mousetrap. It is an Agatha Christie murder mystery and has been on the West End for 60 years. At the end they ask you keep the whodunit a secret. And people just do. Otherwise the show wouldn't have kept going for this long. In the first half I had zero theories. But as soon as the 2nd half began, all these ideas and possibilities came to mind. It was a really great show.

Thursday 12th January - I'm thinking I went home and packed more stuff. I don't have any record of doing anything else.

Friday 13th - Bek flew in from Uppsala. Ally was going out for her birthday to Koko, however by the time Bek got in, we were both so tired and it was so late that we didn't get there.

Saturday 14th - Breakfast at Mirabel Cafe near the Berg's. It was Me, Bek, Jen, Ally, Matt! All in one place! Breakfast was great! I then had to go and pick up the keys to my new place so I headed off while Bek made her way to Gatwick to fly to Ireland. Later on I met up with the others at The Tower of London where we enjoyed being tourists. We were so tired that night, we just went back to my place and hung out in the lounge room chatting.

Sunday 15th - Ally & Matt arrived at 10am and the 4 of us carted a whole stack of my stuff over to my new place. Not exactly happy I was forced to sign a lease up for a place that clearly wasn't quite finished. I can't believe 4 of us were loaded with stuff and we still didn't move it all over! Where did all this stuff come from? Afterwards we headed to Camden and explored the markets for the day. I loved Camden Markets! Definitely want to take my parents there when they come! We also went to Amy Winehouse's regular pub for a drink, where there is a load of graffiti on the bathroom walls by grieving fans. We were supposed to go to Curtains Up for pub quiz but Jen and I headed there early and were unable to find a table so we headed to my old place, grabbed some more stuff and then (OH YEAH) went to The Swan for dinner with Ally & Matt. No need to clarify earlier question!
Halfway through January! I'm almost caught up... stay tuned... I don't have the energy for January part 2 just now.

My new place!

My Christmas Holidays - Part 3

NUREMBERG
We caught a train back to Munich and then on to Nuremberg. Really cool city with loads of medieval and modern history. Nuremberg is where Hitler held a big rally. When we got there we discovered that our hotel was not as close to the town centre as we'd thought. At the Hauptbahnhof (central rail station), or as Jackie liked to call it, the hoppity-boppity, we had some Subway for lunch. Somehow the conversation got onto to how kids compare their height by drawing a line in the air. I made some comment about how silly it was, as I demonstrated it quite expressively, then realised my demonstration looked much like i was heiling a certain Fürer. I instantly pulled my arm in embarrassed and we colapsed with laughter. I seriously haven't laughed that hard in ages!
The next day we had a day tour exploring the sites of WWII importance. Our tour guide was once again awesome, really knowledgeable and passionate. We couldn't remember his name so we just decided it would be Leonard. He was gay and lived in Munich and the girls decided that Stefan (Dachau tour guide) was his partner. I objected white strongly. On a bus that day I had a massive conversation in German with an old lady and it was really nice. That night we ate a pub and I had the best sausages and potato salad! I cleaned the plate completely!

BAMBERG
Another train trip and we arrived in Bamberg. Just for a night. We caught a cab to the hotel and the cabbie definitely took us for a ride. Very annoying. We were so tired. We walked around the city and went to see the Residence which was pretty for a while and then got incredibly boring when the tour, which was in 100% German went on too long. For dinner we ate at the hotel.

BERLIN
Wow, I don't know if I have the energy to write about Berlin. Such an incredible city. Definitely a favourite. So much history. We went to the Christmas markets that evening and then back to the hotel where we ate some takeaway Italian and watched a movie about Hitler (in German).
The next day was New Year's Eve so I was already apprehensive but trying not to think about it. I prefer to ignore but you can't unfortunately. Anyway, we went for a Berlin walking tour. Our tour guide was the absolute best of all. He was an Irish guy named Finn who had a PHD and studied history. He knew absolutely everything and did very well considering the size of his group. It was absolutely brilliant. If you read this and I haven't told you, ask me to tell you the Lenin story. There was also a man on our tour who was the most snap-happy person I have ever met. Even on the train he was taking burst photography out the window as Finn spoke, but there wasn't even anything interesting out there. He walked around all day just pressing the shoot button, not always looking at the view finder. He even photographed the guys setting up the NYE sound & lighting rig! I reckon he'd have had a couple of thousand photos at the end of the day and going through them later would have nad no clue what they all were as he couldn't have been listening, and he would probably have had to delete about 97% of them. I guess that leaves 60 photos which is pretty reasonable. But I'd prefer to take 60 good photos and listen and take it all in the rest of the time.
From about 4pm, the fireworks started. And what I mean is, heavy-duty fireworks are readily available everywhere. People let them off all over the place. Apparently they sometimes throw them into trains as the doors close. Berlin on NYE sounds like a warzone. It's nuts! We went back to the Christmas markets for their NYE party but it was a bit lame and lots of oldies. So we headed to wards the Brandenburg Gate. Berlin on NYE is supposed to be awesome. I admit, I hate NYE so I'm not the best judge. We got cramped in with minimal views of the Gate, I had Bradley Cooper's stunt-double pashing his woman next to me, some annoying tourists yelling and being obnoxious, Gene Simmons' look-alike blowing cancer in my face and a creepy old guy who groped me & Jenny. As soon as midnight hit I was outa there, so over it and annoyed and struggling to breathe with all the smoke from the fireworks.
Next day, I was on my way back to London. It was on this journey that I decided that (crying) babies on flights can only be described as nothing but dementors who suck all happiness out of everyone around them until they take your soul. I had a dementor in front of and one behind me. Me & the 2 guys in my row literally had our heads in our hands about to join in the exhibition of vocal chords! When we got to London there was no gate for us so they brought buses to the plane, but the company operating the stairs to get us off didn't turn up so we were on the plane waiting for half an hour while little Dementor #1 proceeded to giggle and look all sweet in her Burberry jumpsuit. Too late sweetheart! Anyway, after geting inside the terminal I then had to wait in an enormous line for non UK/EUR passport holders which was being manned by 2 people. This was while 8 people sat twiddling their thumbs up at the UK/EUR section! Madness! Anyway, finally got home and all that, had the next day off (public holiday) and went to the hairdresser and did my washing and got ready for my return to work the following day.

New Years Eve in Berlin

My Christmas Holidays - Part 2

Before I start, I'm very excited to have my 1st subscriber. Good one Andy! Although I know Mum has been looking, she may have given up checking by now since I have been so inconsistent. If anyone else is reading, let me know.

SALZBURG

We caught a train to Salzburg and had our own little compartment, much like those in the Hogwarts Express. It was very cool! Something else which was cool, was going through Rosenheim, the town I lived in for 3 weeks when I did an exchange program for German at school. Tell you what wasn't cool, the lack of snow! When I was there in 1999 (whoa!) it was snowing loads and was way colder. Oh well, the whole of Europe seemed to be having a mild winter. 

The Christmas markets were closed and pretty much finished for the season when we arrived so that was a little disappointing. But it was Christmas Eve so we tried to keep the spirits high, despite the lack of Christmas dinner plans. Christmas Eve is THE night in Europe. We just wandered and came across the Best Western which had space available for us for their banquet. I loved it! My favourite dish I think was the chestnut soup. The man at the hotel also recommended we go to the church up the road for the Christmas service after dinner. It was ok for a bit but, standing, in the cold, not understanding got the better of us. I tell you what really cheesed me off though! This woman walked up with her own little chair and plonked it in front of me. Fine. But then she stood up the whole time with her head like right in front of my face. Not fine. I think I may have been starting to get a bit on the cranky side as I was away from home for the first time at Christmas. I did get to Skype the Byrnes' on their Christmas morning though so that was nice. 

Christmas morning we woke up and had a sleigh ride booked. We looked out the window to no snow and were worried about how it would be possible. Anyway, we didn't realise they'd be taking us right up into the Alps. I did get a little cranky though because the confirmation said 2hrs so I was expecting to be back in time to Skype the big family do back home. But we were told we wouldn't be returning until 5:30pm. I must admit it was a mixed feelings day. It was great and I am so lucky to have the chance to do something so cool, but I was pretty sad too. The hotel were showing The Sound of Music in the communal area and you couldn't get a seat! A great starter for the next day.   

Boxing Day was awesome. We did the Sound of Music Tour. Basically, brilliant if you love the movie. Also, when we got back we had cake at the Sacher Hotel and the Christmas markets were open! YAY! Found a load of cool things and had a great evening.    

Well, that ends the Austrian leg.

"I have confidence" - The Sound of Music Tour