My first snowman

Apparently my technique was all wrong, this is something you don't learn when you live in a place where it doesn't snow.

The key is is make a snowball and then roll it along the snow so it picks up all the other snow and then slowly turns into a big ball, roll it and roll it and three balls later you have a snowman, or in our case, a George.

It seems that when there is enough snow around, the world's population of snowmen explodes, sadly George could not see the friend he had across the road due to the wall, with the oranges for eyes and a scarf round his neck. There were even snow animals around.

A bus on a train!

Well, really, a minibus on a train.

On 24 October I joined a Britbound tour to Boulogne in France with a side trip to Wimereux.

It was an early morning start, 8am meeting Regent Street, Piccadilly and a bit of a drive down to Folkestone to get on the train that takes cars, buses etc under the channel. It was quite exciting really, but was just like going on a ferry, except for the being able to leave the car deck part. Not the best for travel sickness as you're moving but there is no horizon to look at, thankfully fellow traveller Mel shared her travel sickness bands with me.

The city of Boulogne is just a little down from Calais and is the biggest port of France. There is an old town and a new town. The old town area has a chateau and cathedral and little cobbled streets. It was a Sunday, so there was no shops open and it was all a bit quiet. I like the feel of old parts of cities, stone buildings, walls and all that cuteness, sadly my camera decided to die so my photographs are limited.

We had lunch at a restaurant, of course frog's legs and snails were our entree. Since I'd earlier tried snails, I had some of the frog's legs. It all just tastes very garlicy, that's not a word, but that is just how it is.

The side trip to Wimereux was great. It is a little place, with a big beach and cute colourful houses and amazingly, some shops were open. We managed to visit every patisserie that we saw, pain au chocolat, brioche and macaroons were what I bought, others were slightly more extravagant and our guide bought us all a chocolate from a boutique chocolate shop.

On the way home we stopped off at the shop that is just before the train. I had a good amount of Euros left which I splashed out on 4 bottles of wine, it actually wasn't cheap at all really, so not too exciting. Two French wines, one from Chile and, ahem, a Villa Maria Riesling.

Forgotten Augusts

Hmm, well, sorry about the non August post, I must admit, I have been rather blog slack. So, here are some photos and I will try to find something interesting to post for the proper September blog action...

We have squirrel, Tower of London with complimentary scaffolding, Traitor's Gate and of course, not forgetting, Piccadilly Circus lights.

Swedish design delights

My flatmate and I made a long journey today, out to Ikea, which is a home furnishers dreamland and with my tendencies of liking interior design and "stuff" - I was a kid in a candy store.

It is, however, a long journey and not one that one would want to take often. First, a walk to Tulse Hill, a nearby train station, 5 mins.

A train from Tulse Hill to West Croydon, average, 22 mins.

A walk around West Croydon to find the tram stop and a side excursion in a shop to find out how much a purple wig cost, some minutes.

A tram from where we were, not sure, to Ampere Way, probably around 15 mins.

But, after all this, to approach the big yellow and blue warehouse filled with delightful things that you probably actually don't need - awesome.

First, needing to refuel for hours spent wandering around Ikea, they have their own cafe. In come the Swedish meatballs. Except, I had

fish and chips, and couldn't finish it all. I should've also had the kid's meal.

The place is a maze and has concept rooms set up to show how cool your place could look if you spent all your money on all their things and used their design service and if only...

We drooled over the kitchens, lounging chairs and outdoor type hanging chairs that looked very comfortable.

Though, not being able to settle down and "nest" as such, buying furniture, not such a good idea, but, also, knowing me, I had to buy something from Ikea. So, I bought something cute, stupid and cat-like.

It is a lamp - for kids. It glows purple, blue then red continuously. Or you can keep it on one of the colours solid. It charges up and then can work off batteries for around 4 hours.

Practically useless, not too expensive and I love it.

They have a food shop just before the exit, so before leaving we managed to buy some Swedish sweets, elderflower cordial and blueberry cordial, Swedish beer and Swedish cider, adding to our horde of stupid cat lamp, cheap fry pans (to discard some crap ones at home), tea lights and then more cheap tea lights from the bargain corner. Ikea did well out of us today.

Tourist

I spent the last four days being a tourist.

Friday: I met with a friend and starting in Covent Garden, we had a bit of a trek around London, resulting in having to put a plaster on a broken blister from my jandals (flip flops in English-speak). This trek ended at Buckingham Palace.

Saturday:

I went on a tourist bus ride. Mistakenly sitting under the cover on the top deck, which, as it was a sunny day, I thought would be cooler as it was in the shade - wrong.

I had chosen one of the hottest days of the year to sit on a vinyl bus seat in a enclosed hot space.

I did manage to half way through the tour move to the open seating, which although was in direct sunlight, had a great cooling breeze. But, as I have found out now, the UK sun is not as scary as the NZ sun, in that one would have to be very silly to get burnt. Sunscreen is still important, but the UK UV index only goes up to 7.

Sunday:

I had a day of not being a tourist and lazed around at home.

Monday:

I went to Saint Paul's Cathedral. I got an audio guide and sat and listened and walked around the cathedral. I walked up the 500 something stairs (all up that is) to first, the whispering gallery - I had no one to whisper to me from across the gap and had to make do with the other tourist's whispers.

Then the outside galleries where I took some pictures for proof that I went there as no photos are allowed inside the cathedral.

Mind Your Own Business

So, I guess it is totally understandable when your front window is level with the footpath and people will be peering into your house all day, you may want to have some curtains, to close, when you are actually there. It seems the English take this a bit further, to totally foil my crytoscopophilic tendencies, by having an array of peeking blocking curtains, blinds and what-nots shielding their precious interior decorating and stuff.

Even on the roads less traveled, it is highly probable that the front windows will be shielded from prying eyes.

The phrase, "my house is my castle", or whatever the real wording, has real meaning in England and I guess curtains/blinds are the last defence, since there are no longer protecting walls, save fences, or moats, portcullis or people to shoot arrows and dump hot oil on your head before you can ring the doorbell.

I might have to try windows on the continent - stay tuned.

Day to Day

So, nothing much exciting has happened over the last couple of weeks, but as I should be writing more here, I will document some day to day dribble, drivel. I am working currently at the ISTD with dance exam administration as a temp. It is nice getting up and going to work in the morning and getting some money to be able to spend on my rent and food and transport.

I have been enjoying making food and eating it with my flatmates, with meat from Italy, my best ever yummy potatoes and tiramisu.

On Friday I went to Hospitality at Matter at the O2. The O2 is a large circus tent filled with

restaurants, clubs and bars. It is a venue for events and is massive. Not only did we have to be searched to enter the O2 but also to enter the club. I understand the reasons, but a huge

change from little ol' NZ.

On the other hand, our neighbourhood cats are actually quite mean. They are outside cats, owned by our neighbour, and will do anything for food, except be pet. Not much use, cats, that are uncuddleable.

Volunteering at Bexley

This week I have been volunteering at the Bexley Heritage Trust, working at Hall Place and the museum's collection store, helping out with a collection location audit. So far we have mostly done costume accessories, with a range of interesting dolls hats - made in the 20th century for some exhibition, so not really collection pieces, jewellery, shoes, an actual proper tophat and other bits and bobs. We also have worked on some boxes of radio equipment with some interesting objects inside, an electrophorus, solar windmill and a small thermometer combined with a compass.

Each day I take a train from Tulse Hill to London Bridge and then another train out to Bexley. It is about a 15 minute walk from the train station with an overbridge over a motorway. But Hall Place is quite lovely and when you

finally see it after all that road it is quite a relief. The house and museum are free - so when you are ever down this way, best drop by for a visit.

I have been working with the collection management system Modes, another to add to the collection of collection management systems that I can now use.

Hopefully this volunteering will be another push into me getting some fabulous London museum job, hopefully soon.

On another note, the weather has been amazing, beautiful and sunny most days, albeit a little chilly. At one stage, due to the volcano, the sky was even clear of vapour trails, so it was just a large blue dome over London. I don't think that happens very often.

Last day tomorrow, but if I can, with my future job etc, fit in a day to help with the cataloguing then I will. Situation dependent. Lovely people so would be great to stay around for a while even if it is a mission on the train.

Neighbourhood cats

On Saturday I moved into my new flat. It is a big semi-detached terraced house with three and a bit floors, creaky stairs and floorboards, central heating that only is on for an hour in the morning and an hour at night, decent sized lounge, separate dining room, huge bathroom with bath and shower and toilet, separate shower, and another separate bath and toilet. There is an outside area and a lovely brown coloured 70s kitchen and even a laundry room - I am one for my washing machine not being connected to my kitchen plumbing. My windows rattle and I am right above the boiler so I get some interesting noises. There is a train line right outside but the trains are quite quiet anyway.

I am living with three English folk, two guys and a girl, one Italian guy and a Swedish girl. Quite a mix of people and ages, but thankfully, no students!

When I moved in, I met my first neighbourhood cat. I saw this one perched up on the neighbours roof. As much as I called to it, it ignored me even more. So I went to get my camera so I could take a picture, because it was going to be quite a good picture of a London cat. I came downstairs and sitting on the brick wall of our garden was another, a normal looking tabby cat. So, I had a chance to have a cat cuddle.

Went up to it, said puss a couple of times and then tried to pat it. This cat was going to have

none of this and hissed at me and then batted me with its paw. I decided that this was not the cat for a cat cuddle today. I told my flatmate that the cat had batted me, and not believing me,

as apparently this particular one can be petted, went out to check it out himself, exactly same result, cat hiss then bat. But he stayed around for a couple more hisses and bats and then complained that the cat got him.

I have seen another white and ginger cat around but haven't met it yet. So there may still be hope for the neighbourhood cats.

Through the glass cases

So, today I took the longest bus ride in the world. I wanted to take a new bus route and was keen to find out how long it took to get to Clapham and what it looked like over that way. Not the best idea, not only was the bus ride about 2 hours but the bus driver decided to stop halfway through the route and made all the passengers get off. I, with everyone else, got off and had to wait for the next bus.

Now, by this time I also needed to go to the loo so every little minute of waiting around was making it worse. (Bonus though, the first bus's Oyster reader was broken so I didn't actually pay anything).

By the time the bus got to the destination, I really needed to go. I was meant to be going to the V&A but the Natural History Museum was closer, therefore their toilets were closer. So I went there first.

I also watched a tv programme last night on the Natural History Museum, so it was on the brain.

It is inside an amazing building, didn't get photo of outside, needed loo.

But lots of the inside and of the exhibits.

Sadly, T-Rex and the big mammals, blue whale etc were out of action. I would like to go back when the exhibits are open again.

Didn't understand what the Darwin centre was about down the end and didn't feel like finding out, maybe another time.

I really enjoyed the small animal areas and found where all the cats are hiding out in London... well, maybe not quite.

And then there was this...

Hmmmmmmm.

The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) was amazing, I will have to go back and check out the galleries I didn't get to and possibly even pay to see the special exhibitions. I was, however,

extremely disappointed in the shop. All the affordable stuff was just crap. There wasn't even anything that interesting. For such a great design museum, very disappointing shop.

Again, there was a lot going on in the museum, which is great to see that things are going on and not static, but lots of things weren't there, like the wedding dresses in the fashion area, I think I saw one out of the four.

Great day out, even for the 2 hour bus ride, the rain and the missing exhibits. I would like to go with someone else so could discuss things - another adventure, another time.

Foxes and Squirrels

I came home on Saturday morning, bright and early at 5am after a night out and came around the corner of our building and there were two foxes. Now, having never seen foxes except in zoos and tv etc this was highly surprising. I just never thought I would see a fox in suburban London. Sadly I wasn't quick enough to get a photo, but it was very cool.

On Monday I went out with my Finnish flatmate and there was a squirrel just happily doing its thing. I did get a photo of that. New favourite thing, squirrels.

We met up with her friend also from Finland at her friend's flat. I liked the little courtyard. It isn't quite crytoscopophilia, but it is pretty close. The front window is made up of those glass bricks so it wouldn't be possible for a good peek in anyway. It is peeking out instead.

Our mission for the day was to walk around Hyde Park. We walked to the lake and around, bought coffee, pain au chocolate and icecream, something each, not all for one.

It was decided that the Princess Diana children's park had unfair opening hours for those without children and took some photos around the place. Mission accomplished. We also went up to Portobello Road and looked at a few shops.

Had lunch in a pub and drank too much red wine. It was a good day out.

It has been a week since I left New Zealand

I have seen two cats. One in the window of a shop along Camberwell Church Street. I've passed this shop twice and seen this cat with a huge urge to stop and greet the cat and have a cuddle but it is in a shop, which I think is an electronics shop or something, I haven't actually had a good look at what the shop is. The other cat was while I was on a walk down through to the Brockwell Lido and Brixton. It was running away as it was so stopping and calling puss would have seemed a bit over enthusiastic, especially since there were people walking behind me.

There aren't many cats down this way in London, or they are all inside cuddled up to the central heating.

On the other note of

being crytoscopophiliac - people don't seem to want others to look into their houses and

windows often have those gauzy

curtains. I guess when your front window is street level, privacy is desired.

There were a couple of nice places that I could see into. Taking photos is probably not so easy but I may try in the weeks to come. Also any London cats.

On a note not including cats or looking through people's windows, I am sta

ying in Camberwell in a sublet for a month.

Everyone is saying that the weather is colder than usual. Typical.

I have eaten all but one of my Whittaker's slabs.

On Monday I took a train out to Dover. I went down to Denmark Hill train station, paid £35 ish for a return. Went via London Bridge, had to interchange there. The train to Dover was late. At Ashford International the train split in half with some carriages going one way and the other carrying onto Dover.

Dover was cold and drab and not very interesting. The castle is very dramatic perched on its hill and sadly I didn't actually get a photo of it from the bottom. I did get one leaving on the train. Not very exciting.

I went for an interview, the interview was alright. I was able to have a look around the castle and as there was a strike on (for a good reason and I fully support their cause) so the fires that usually

warm the great keep were not lit and it was quite chilly. I ended up talking to some interpreters, one of whom was able to pinpoint my accent to Wellington - not sure about that one, that could have been a wild guess, and got invited back to the staff room for tea. A nice social excursion in the sad little town of Dover.