Tramgirl in Transit

Sharna is the new graduate

2005-12-23T13:03:00.000+11:00

Sharna recently graduated from RMIT, her three years of service are over and now she can head out into the big wide world and get a real job! Except she is buggering off back to Switzerland and plans on traipsing around Europe cos she doesn't quite know what she wants to do yet. So to celebrate this milestone Mum, Dad and I recently went along to Telstra Dome to watch Sharna (and thousands of others) be the Graduating class of 2005.

Although it is a massive event it does run quite quickly and smoothly considering the logistics involved! We piked out early (after Sharna had received her piece of important paper!) took some obligatory photos and then headed for dinner to celebrate over a glass of champagne.

Congratulations Sharn, well done on putting in a great effort over the past three years! Its all been worth it!

Boozey bus trip

2005-12-23T12:55:00.000+11:00

In January Luke and Katie are getting married, so cos Christmas/New Year get in the way Katie's hens was held a couple of weeks ago, it was an afternoon/evening of visiting country pubs around Ballarat, on a bus! About 35 of us met the bus in Ballarat, accessorised with our feathers and pearls, and we headed out of town into the sticks, first stop Hepburn Springs followed by Daylesford, Swiss Mountain, Dean and finally Creswick before being back in Ballarat 10pm. A perfect time to continue on at the various well-known establishment's in town. It was a great day and everything got better as the day wore on (who knows why?!) and by the time we got to Creswick Katie and her mum were up dancing on the bar singing along Karaoke style to the music we'd picked!

A fun night was had by all and I imagine the next day was worse for some!

Christmas parties galore

2005-12-23T12:41:00.000+11:00

Well 'tis the season and all that, in the past few weeks I've been to 7 different christmas functions, 6 of them work related in some form or other and one for bookcrossing. The other night I had dinner at my grandparents and they were all set to order take-out as a special treat but I said all I wanted was home cooked vegies...I was craving them after eating out so much (cos on top of the functions I've also been catching up with various friends so add at least another 3-4 meals out to the list!) recently all I wanted was some vitamins, with water and a cup of tea. No champagne, wine or other alcoholic beverage!

Ahhh, but you gotta love Christmas and everything it entails...looking forward to lunch on Sunday! :)

FuShMuSh Car Rally 2005

2005-11-15T12:28:00.000+11:00

Well the whole reason for my trip to Sydney was to particpate in the FuShMuSh Car Rally of 2005, an annual event that this year was organised by Jess and Andrew and various helpers. I was lucky enough to be invited to join team Desperate Housewives and Alison, Sarah, Sue and myself made our way from McDonalds somewhere in Sydney (can you tell I'm from out of town!?) south along the coast and ended up arriving in Kiama in 4th place. It was a great day consisting of various tasks, challenges and a lot of fun! As I'm the last of my team to write about it I'll let you read the the others take on things, and see the photos of us all dressed up, just click on the girls links above to check it all out.

Girls day out...in Sydney!

2005-11-15T12:13:00.000+11:00

A few weeks back in October I flew up to Sydney for the weekend to attend the FuShMuSh car rally of 2005 (next post), as my cheap flights got me into Sydney early on the Friday morning Jess took the day of work so we could play! We had brunch at bitton, watched dvd's, did a spot of shopping, got a pedicure, had yummy gelati in Balmain and a delicious dinner at The Australian Heritage Hotel in the Rocks. Before we headed home for an early night in preparation of the car rally the next day!

Thanks Jess for a lovely day of fun in Sydney, you are such a good hostess!! :)

Nicole is here!!

2005-11-15T11:52:00.000+11:00

My friend Nicole arrived from the USA on October 2nd to start her new life here in Australia, we met when I (and Tash) was in first year at Melbourne University and living at Medley Hall, she was out from the States doing a study abroad year. We kept in contact after that year and I've visited her twice in San Francisco as well as catching up with her when she made it back to Australia every couple of years.

She stayed with Ruth and I for a couple of weeks while getting herself sorted and finding somewhere to live but she is out in the big world of Brunswick now, looking for work as a teacher and basically living carefree until that happens.

Join me in welcoming her to Australia and check out what she is up to here.

The art of shopping

2005-09-26T11:46:00.000+10:00

After the excitement of the AFL Grand Final on Saturday I spent Sunday much more leisurely by going to the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) and seeing the Dutch Masters exhibition. I went because I was interested (obviously!) and I particularly wanted to see the fernery painting (as I had read Girl with a Pearl Earring) and also as I got a free ticket courtesy of Ruth's family so not one to waste an opportunity...

The gallery was packed out! This is the last week of the exhibition so that may be why but I felt like I was lining up/waiting my turn to see some of the art works, due to this I actually rushed it a bit and only stopped and really looked at particular pieces that caught my eye.

Afterwards I went for a bit of stroll through Myer and using Sharna's staff discount card bought myself some new sunnies and a pair of pants! Then I wandered on through Melbourne Central to check out what stores are in there now, since Daimaru closed down its been a bit hodge-podgey in there but after a lot of construction it is great in there now! Specialty shops, big homewares stores and Hoyts cinema...I'll know where to do my Christmas shopping now.

The last Saturday in September

2005-09-25T22:03:00.000+10:00

Yesterday was the 2005 AFL Grand Final, I was lucky enough to have tickets (for the 3rd year in a row!) courtesy of my Uncle Brad so my cousin Jane and I headed off to the MCG to see what turned out to be a very good, close game. Our seats were in the top tier of the Great Sourthern Stand but at the front so we had a good birds eye view of the entire game, the pre-match entertainment was in the news all week (due to Delta-gate! - 2 articles from The Age) but it all seemed to go off without a hitch; Delta Goodrem, Michael Buble, Silvie Paladino, Dame Edna Everage and a few choirs before the RAAF Roulettes flew over and the National Anthem was sung.

The game was low scoring but hard fought and it was edge of the seat stuff in the final minutes, but the winner is...Sydney!!
I wasn't really barracking for a particular team but it was good to see Sydney win considering their origin as South Melbourne and the ties in Victoria.

Dad, Brad and I finished the day off with a couple of drinks at the Westin, all in all a good way to spend the last saturday in September!

Somewhere over the rainbow...

2005-09-25T21:40:00.000+10:00

Taken from my backyard, after some recent spring showers!

A relative weekend

2005-08-30T20:17:00.000+10:00

This past weekend was spent mostly with family, it was my cousin Hamish's 21st party on Saturday night and as Ruth is away on holidays Mum & Dad stayed at my place. The party was good, my cousin Lachlan (Hamish's younger brother) and his band played, I got to catch up with various cousins and other people there and drink free champagne!

Sunday arvo was spent at the MCG watching the Essendon v Melbourne game with other cousins in what was the last round of the AFL home & away season, unfortunately Essendon didn't win (although it was a good game, quite close in the end) it was still good to spend time in the lovely Melbourne weather (it was 23C!!) with family and catch up with what everyone is up to.

I forgot to mention

2005-08-30T20:10:00.000+10:00

I got a promotion at work!! It is only a temporary 4 month maternity leave position but it's a promotion that means I get paid more (always a bonus!) but also an opportunity to move up a level and learn how to do new things and have more responsibility. It will look good on my resume for when I start to think about moving on from my current position, probably in about March/April 2006 is the current plan.

I started yesterday and at the moment I'm being the 'old me' and the 'new me' as they haven't replaced the 'old me' yet, hopefully we'll interview very soon and get someone into the position so that I don't go crazy.

What I've been up to...

2005-08-30T19:30:00.000+10:00

Ok, I've had more than one person remind me lately that I haven't updated my blog in a while, after discussing it with Jess yesterday I think its because I like to post in order of events happening, sometimes I get in trouble when I back-date on posts. As its been about 7 weeks since I last posted I thought I'd do a quick wrapup on what I've been up to and hopefully I will more diligent about posting in the future, on a regular basis!!

~ I recovered from my horseriding incident (after 6 Osteopath appts!)
~ I bought myself a new laptop (so that I can blog at home whenever I want :))
~ Caught up with Tash while she was home for her sisters 21st
~ Spent a weekend in Portarlington with my parents, grandparents and one of my sisters
~ Did a CAE walking tour of the Melbourne arcades & laneways
~ I've been to 2 bookcrossing meetups, 1 at 3 Degrees and the other much closer to home at Bridie O'Reillys
~ Celebrated my Pop's 91st birthday by having dinner with the whole family (inc. Rhys & Rachel who came down from Leeton) at Cafe Italia in Carlton
~ Helped Sharna move house again!! Hopefully the last time for a while...but at least now she is happy living with friends that she actually knows.

and lastly....I've been sick, a lot!! I've had tonsilitis, an ear infection, a couple of head colds (which seem to be particularly bad this year, EVERYONE in my family has had some form of a cold and they seem to be particularly good at sticking around). I'm hanging out for Spring to start and beautiful weather and no illness to prevail.

So there you go...quite a busy 7 weeks which also included various dinners with friends, drinks after work and shopping!

Interesting blog article from The Age

2005-07-22T23:26:00.000+10:00

It seems you can make money out of this caper...interesting, very interesting!!

Living high on the blog - Blogon - Reviews - Technology - theage.com.au

Introducing Mr & Mrs Sexton

2005-07-15T11:53:00.000+10:00

Last Saturday Karissa and Paul got married at Sovereign Hill in Ballarat. It was a lovely to-do, quite un-traditional in a lot of ways but everyone looked good and had a heap of fun! The ceremony was held in the Victoria Theatre and the reception in the Bakery, it was a late wedding 5:45pm ceremony because you have to wait for the park to close before things can proceed. It was quite a nice setting and I liked the fact that there wasn't a heap of waiting around in between the two parts, just enough time for a couple of glasses of champers...always a necessity to start the evening off!

Karissa looked lovely in a semi-fitted v neck gown with bodice beading, she was accompanied by Donna in a lovely dusty pink dress and her brother, Paul was attended by his two brothers, Luke and Joel. Very much a family affair (Donna is Paul's sister and Karissa is a friend of hers from high school - Paul and Karissa actually 'got together' at Donna & Brenton's wedding in 2002).

The evening was spent mostly on the dance floor, breaks taken only for more consumption of champagne or if there was a really bad song (which happened rarely, not a bad dj!). I took some pain killers (and the champagne helped) so that I could keep up with everyone, and my back/hip area held up pretty well, it was only once we stopped at about 12:30pm and were leaving the venue that I was starting to feel the affects of so much boogeying.

Congratulations Paul & Karissa Sexton!! Best wishes in your lives together.

Biting the dust...literally!!

2005-07-08T16:03:00.000+10:00

As mentioned in the previous post, while horseriding in Airey's Inlet on the weekend I came a cropper from my horse! I wasn't seriously injured (as in no broken bones or blood) but I have a serious bruise on my left shoulder, which is not going to match my outfit for Karissa & Paul's wedding this weekend, and a very sore left hip/lower back area. I didn't move very far on Monday or Tuesday but by Wednesday I could hobble back to work and Wednesday night I saw my Osteopath which was a great relief! I'm no longer in pain but my lower back is still very stiff and I don't have complete movement back...lucky I have Monday off to recover from wearing heels to the wedding and no doubt dancing a lot (I'm going to stock up on pain killers before hand!).

Another one bites the dust...

2005-07-08T15:44:00.000+10:00

This past weekend was Karissa's hen's weekend, the 3rd bride among our core group of 7. So it was once again time to head away and get up to secret women's business, we don't just do one night, we make a weekend of it! This time as Donna is the bridemaid it was up to her to organise and she arranged for us to rent a house in Ocean Grove, there were 7 of us (minus Kristie, plus Katie) and Amali (Katie's 6 month old daughter) who arrived on Friday night, thankful that the work week was over and revelling in the fact that we got to catch up and have a 'girls weekend'!

Friday: After exploring the amazingly gorgeous house (5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and a wall of glass that overlooked the ocean!) we headed out to dinner at The Dunes for a scrumptious meal accompanied by champagne and numerous bottles of wine. We then topped the evening off with a spa back at the house.

Saturday: A little sleep in and then it was all systems go, passing Amali about, getting the house ready for afternoon tea, going for beach walks. About 20 people arrived at 1pm to have lunch with us, Karissa's mums, her step sisters, various soon-to-be in-laws and we spent the afternoon quite casually sitting around, catching up, chatting etc. Saturday night it was just us girls again, with Karissa's mums, Nana Nola (Donna's mum and Amali's grandmother) and Nana Mary (Donna's nan) for an at home dinner of lasagne (3 varieties!!), salad and garlic bread followed by cocktails.

Sunday: Up a bit earlier to have a cooked breakfast and then head over to Airey's Inlet for a 2 1/2 hour bush/beach ride. All of us had varying levels of riding experience but no one had ridden in a couple of years, we were anticipating a lot of sore bums at the completion of the ride...my whole body was a whole lot sorer than everyone elses it turns out!!

The ride was great, I actually quite enjoyed being back in the saddle again (for those that don't know I owned a horse while growing up) and it was great to ride on the beach etc. Unfortunately about 30mins from home I took a tumble (not mine or the horses fault, an accident) so was a little worse for wear upon our arrival back at Ocean Grove for a late lunch before we all headed off back to either Melbourne or Ballarat with cries off "see you next week at the wedding".

It was great to spend time with the girls, now as we live in various parts of Australia (Ballarat, Melbourne and QLD) we don't get to catch up unless for a special occasion so it was good to rest, relax and spend 3 days gossiping on various topics.

Bookcrossing in Brisbane

2005-06-28T14:51:00.000+10:00

On the weekend I got to hang with a whole lot of other Bxer's (story attached, check out the July 3rd post on Jess' blog for the details!) in Brisbane at the second Australian Bookcrossing Convention. It was three days filled with a lot of books, some wild releasing, catching up with old friends, making new ones and just overall a lot of fun!!

Day 1: I arrived in Brisbane late on Friday afternoon and headed straight to the Palace Backpackers (where Jess and I shared a room) and meet Jess, we headed out for a quick stroll about central Brisbane and then were back in time to meet up with everyone else to head out to the Welcome Drinks at Growcom in the Valley. It was a lot of fun meeting people and being able to put faces to names (or screen names in this case!) and exclaiming everytime you met someone you emailed frequently or sent books to. Jess and I of course hung with the cool kids and talked about a lot of other things apart from books; current TV shows, movies, food etc.

Day 2: Saturday, Jess and I started early (although it felt like we'd been up all night what with those 'real' backpackers roaming the corridors until all hours!) and headed out the Valley once again to meet up with Emma (Felicia-Fairy, our new bestest friend!) for breakfast and to peruse the Brunswick St markets, from there we headed back in to the city and met up with all the other bookcrossers at King George Square. While waiting here I realeased my first ever book into the wild, and some people came up and took it and started talking about Bookcrossing, highly exciting!! Anyway, from here the bookcrossers set out across town releasing books on the way and eventually meeting at the Energex Arbour at Southbank from were we started out for the flashmob. [flash mob v: A large group of people who gather in a predetermined location, perform some brief action, and then quickly disperse (Thanks Jess!)] We strolled along underneath the arbour following our Nessy, the convention leader, and eventually when she stopped and dropped her book on the grass we all did so to until there was a long line of books and no people anymore. We all got to sit in the open eating area across the way and watch excitedly as strangers came and picked up our books and took them away (hopefully to journal that they'd found them!).

Emma, Jess and I then headed off to spend our 'free' afternoon catching up with Emma's sister and some friends at the Gay Pride festival which was taking over Brisbane at the same time as us bookcrossers. Jess and I stayed long enough to eat (which we seemed to do a lot of, we put it down to being on holidays!) then headed back to our digs to rest before the Trivia Night.

Trivia Night: Lets just say we went in swinging but got KO'ed towards the end of the fight! We started off well and at some stage we were in front (we blitzed the music rounds) but it turns out there were a lot of book related questions (why??) and we aren't as knowledgeable as we thought. We were hanging for the gossip questions but they never came... :(

Day 3: Once again I headed out early, this time to have breakfast with Rachel (a friend from Library school who has since relocated to Brisbane with her fiance) and get to see her house and the area she lives in. It was great catching up with her since it's probably been about 5-6 months since we last saw each other, a few hours of non-stop talking and catching up and then I returned to the bookcrossing folds to finish off the convention with a yum-cha lunch (did I mention I'd just had a big yummy b'fast of ricotta pancakes...). Yum-cha is always good and this time was no exception, except that the food didn't stop coming, instead we just had to admit defeat and leave plates of food spinning around on the lazy susan and feel guilty with our over-indulging!

Then it was time for good-byes, a lot of "see you next year in ??" (looking like it will be either Adelaide or Canberra) before heading back to the Palace to grab my bags and head out to the airport to return to Melbourne.

My stats for the weekend are:

Books Released ~ 12
Books Caught = 2

I also came home with less books than I took so that is a bonus as well!

My name in print

2005-06-21T21:22:00.000+10:00

I know I have yet to update on what I've been up to in the 6 weeks since I got back from my trip...people keep reminding me don't worry!! But I thought I'd post this today while I remembered.

A few weeks back I was interviewed by someone from The Age about meetup groups and internet social groups, because I'm the organiser of the Melbourne Bookcrossing meetup group, I didn't know if anything I said would be included in the article but then last week we had a photographer from The Age come along to our monthly meetup and take a heap of photos. We were all thinking, this is good bookcrossing publicity!

But alas it was not too be, our photo that is, my name made it into the article and they briefly mention bookcrossing so that is better than nothing. If you want to read the article it was published in yesterdays paper (Monday 20th June) on page 4 of the Metro section or can you read it online here, you may need a fairfax log in though.

American English

2005-05-31T14:51:00.000+10:00

When I lived and worked in the USA back in 1999/2000 I didn't acquire an accent but I did pick up some words which I still use today (and get ribbed about constantly!). So after I saw this quiz on Cat's livejournal I though I'd see what kind of American English I speak, and the answer is:

Your Linguistic Profile:

45% General American English

40% Yankee

10% Dixie

5% Upper Midwestern

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

So there you go, feel free to take the test for yourself and let me know if you are more American than I!

ps. I promise to update soon on what I've been up to since getting back from my trip...just been busy!

Happy Mother's Day

2005-05-09T16:45:00.000+10:00

Yesterday was Mother's Day here in Australia so after I awoke from my first night back in my own bed (it was everything I dreamed!) and unpacked and started on my washing it was over to my Uncle & Aunty's for lunch. Normally we spend these kind of days with Dad's family as his parents (my grandparents) are still living, they are small gatherings as we are the only grandchildren. But the rellos on mums side all seemed to be in Melbourne so we did lunch in the lovely Melbourne Autumn weather. It was brilliant, like a family reunion except that Rhys wasn't able to come down and Janeo is still in Philadelphia until mid-June.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY MUM AND NAN, Love ya!

I'm home!

2005-05-09T12:27:00.000+10:00

It's now Monday, I got home Saturday evening at about 7:30pm after some long, but uneventful, flying from London to Melbourne. Let me start by saying I didn't get a row to myself :(, from London - Singapore I had an empty seat next to me and got a little sleep but there was quite a bit of turbulence plus Singapore Airlines has on demand movies so I watched 50 First Dates, Bride & Prejudice and Meet the Fockers. All good easy to watch plane movies! My 2 1/2 hour stopover in Singapore included purchasing the duty free alcohol, checking my email for free and having a 20 minute massage. Probably other stuff as well cos that doesn't sound like 2 1/2 hours worth but I managed to fill in the time somehow. Once on the plane leaving Singapore I got my hopes up that I had an empty row as no one came and sat next to me, but alas at the last minute a lady with a 2-year-old boy sat down! I though to myself, "Great! A kid for 7 1/2 hours!" Now I love kids but that close for that long in a plane...Lucky for him he was good! He slept a lot and then we became friends and read some books, did some drawing and played cars, by the end of the flight his mother was marvelling over the fact that he was sitting in the lap of a complete stranger and chatting away quite happily. I have a gift obviously! :)

So Sat night after I was picked up by my lovely family, and a very embarrassing Sharna & Emma who when I came out of the big doors proceeded to jump up and down and get all excited and ran to the end of the barrier to meet me! Remember they are 21 and 18 years old!! We headed over to Nan & Pops so I could distribute gifts, number 1 priority it seems, have a cup of tea and display my photos on the TV.

I slept well Saturday night and Sunday was Mother's Day (another post), today I have an RDO so I've had a sleep in and I'm about to head to the Osteopath in the hope that he can put all the sore bits back where they belong!

Museums, Art Galleries & Shopping!

2005-05-05T19:05:00.000+10:00

For the last two days I've been solo exploring in London, this is because Tash headed off back to work as well yesterday. So after I got her bundled off to the station I headed on into London and looked around at stuff that hadn't yet been crossed off my list! Starting with The British Library, I had a poke around in the public access areas and looked at the current exhibition, we sometimes use their document supply service at work so it was interesting being there. I then went to nearby Kings Cross station and saw Platform 9 3/4 (again with the Harry Potter movies) before catching the tube down to South Kensington to go the V&A (Victoria & Albert Musuem). I spent a couple of hours there perusing various artifacts and works of art and checking out the gorgeous dresses which belonged to Queen Maud of Norway in the 'Style & Splendour' exhibit. I then headed up the road to Harrods, this was like being in another museum - looking but not touching all the lovely items for sale, but out of my holiday budget - I did buy up big in the scrumptious food hall, yummy fresh pasta with pesto and cheese sauce for dinner with olives, soft french cheese and prosciutto to start!

Today I've been to the National Gallery - in Trafalgar Square, still with scaffolding! - and looked at a lot of art including Van Gogh's Sunflowers, Rembrant's self-portrait, work by Cezanne, Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci and Vermeer (who painted the The Girl with the Pearl Earring which the book of the same name by Tracy Chevalier is based on). After this I had planned to go to the Tate Gallery of Modern Art, but the sun was shining (after two days of misty rain showers and grey clouds) so instead I went to a little market just near the National Gallery and bought some 2nd hand books (more packing) and a couple of pashminas (getting cold back in Melbourne) before heading up to Oxford st to have a wander around.

Currently Nat is looking for somewhere 'special' for dinner, maybe Jamie Oliver's Fifteen restaurant but it looks like they are booked out. Tonight is my last night in London, and the last of my whole trip, tomorrow I head to Heathrow to catch the last of two planes home to Melbourne. I'll be sure to let you know if I get my wish of a row to myself - or an upgrade, I'm not fussy!

Oxford - History, Literature and Gargoyles

2005-05-03T22:10:00.000+10:00

Today Nat headed back to work so Tash and I decided on Oxford as our out of London day trip destination, a good choice it ended up being as we had a delightful day wandering around this quaint University town and learning about its history. We caught the train down and got to Oxford around Midday, upon walking into town we discovered 'Oxford Story' a little ride through Oxford's 900 year history (how the University came to be) and the many famous people who have resided here. It was a good way to start our time here as it introduced us to things we'd been unaware of, the literary history - Alice in Wonderland was based around Oxford - and scientific history - discovery of Haley's Comet.

Afterwards we continued on around town and walked past several colleges (39 in all) before arriving at the Bodleian Library, the main library for the University. It is an amazing old building, very interesting architecture, which has an even more interesting history, 3 different architects, money, no money and finally a bequest from someone who promised to finish it himself. The Divinity School (the room below the Duke Humfrey Library) was used as Hogwarts Hospital in the Harry Potter movie!

After gazing around the library we continued on to have lunch at the Eagle & Child - the Pub where C.S. Lewis and JRR Tolkein used to meet with mates to discuss Narnia, Middle Earth and other ideas! Once we had soaked in the literary greatness (and partaken of lunch) we strolled around town looking at the architecture and wondering over the significance of the gargoyles which appear on many of the colleges, so many interesting and odd little faces! Tash was quite taken with them - check out the last picture.

We finished the day off by having a drink at the Turf Tavern, it was here that Bob Hawke entered the Guinness Book of Records (1963) by sculling a yard glass of ale in 11 seconds! A worthy Prime Minister indeed!

I've been to London to visit the Queen!

2005-05-02T21:05:00.000+10:00

So today it was an earlier start as we wanted to see the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, this happens at 11:30am and we warned to get there earlier to get a good posie. Unfortunately I'm not sure we got the best spot, we thought it was until we realised all the action happens inside the gates (no one is allowed in there) but we weren't close enough to see through the fence so we had to make do with them arriving and leaving. Still impressive but just not as spectacular I imagine, oh well maybe next time! Afterwards we strolled up The Mall, alongside St James Park, under Admiralty Arch and arrived at Trafalgar Square, they were setting up for something (lots of scaffolding) outside of the National Gallery so we continued on up to Piccadilly Circus and found a pub in which to eat some very yummy lunch and partake of a cold beer.

After lunch we headed down towards Hyde Park and had a nice stroll around The Serpentine (the lake in the middle of the park) and watched everyone boating and paddling. It is a bank holiday (public holiday) here in England today, add to that another day of beautiful weather and people have come out of the woodwork! We went and looked at the Peter Pan statue - not as good as expected - before heading on down to Kensington Palace, this was a decent trek seeing we walked from one end of the park to the other! We had a peek in at the gorgeous English garden and the State rooms. By this time we'd walked enough and overloaded ourselves on English Royalty so it was off to join friends of Nat's picnicking at Clapham Common, we picked up an ice-cream each and joined Caitlin (another ex-pat Aussie bookcrosser) & Jack and Kimberly & John for a glass of wine on the grass in the fading sunlight.

Real live Monopoly

2005-05-01T22:32:00.000+10:00

So today Tash, Nat and I have wandered all over London! I'm now thoroughly exhausted but enjoyed seeing all the buildings, streets and places you see in movies and read about in books, and play on Monopoly. It is a bit freaky really to have it all come to life!

So anyway, got to London yesterday (via Munich, only just as we left Zurich 40 mins late! Luckily they priority labelled my luggage!) and Nat was waiting to meet me as she had arrived only an hour earlier from Istanbul, so we headed to her place to await the arrival of Tash (different flight than Nat). Unfortunately Tash was late cos she missed her connecting flight in Rome, so we went out to dinner to fill in time...very yummy Thai just near Nat's in Clapham Junction, Tash finally arrived around midnight so it was straight to bed for all us weary travellers.

Cos we were so tired it was a late start to today, but we headed into London in the early afternoon and got to experience the amazing, and rare I've heard, English sunshine. In fact it was quite warm, and very summery! We arrived at Westminster and saw Big Ben and Westmister Abbey, we then strolled alongside the Thames looking at various sights - London Eye, old buildings, boats etc. - before arriving at the Queen Mary and deciding it was time for lunch and some Pimms & lemonade. Fully refreshed we continued our river walk, with a slight detour to see St Paul's Cathedral, and crossed at the Millennium Bridge arriving in front of the Tate museum (saved for later in the week) and then around to Shakespeare's Globe, unfortunately it was closed for the day so we had to make do with peeking in any open doors we could find.

We continued along towards the Tower Bridge only to walk past a public photography exhibition called 'Earth from the Air' truly inspirational to see so many places from a different perspective, I think we all were wishing we could go to some, if not all, of the places portrayed.

So we got to the Tower Bridge and walked over the Thames to see the Tower of London before heading on up to Covent Garden for a beer and a rest. Day one in London is now over.

History....way before Australia was born!

2005-04-30T09:07:00.000+10:00

So yesterday morning I was up early so that Simon and I could get done everything on our itinerary! We headed down the freeway to St Gallen to visit a very old monastery which has the oldest library in Switzerland, Stiftsbibliothek has items dating from way before Australia was discovered (my catchline while in Switzerland has been, well that is before Australia, we are such a young country!) it is an amazing building and you have to wear these extra big slipper things - to protect the floor - and no photos, don't they know I'm blogging! They have really old bibles, illuminated texts and an Egyptian mummy!

From here it was up to Stein-am-Rhein, to get there we drove alongside the German border (not into Germany though). This is a cute little historical town which is very touristy due to the paintings on the buildings - very old - so we ate lunch had a stroll around town and along the Rhein river before heading off to our next destination.

Rheinfall, the largest waterfall in Europe (Susanne warned me it was nothing compared to Niagara Falls), it was of course a lot of water going very fast and even if it wasn't as spectacular as other falls it was still good. I was impressed! Then it was off to Schaffhausen to see another old building (don't know what it was called, oops!) and have a stroll around before meeting Susanne and Lorenz at the station.

We then headed to Osterfingen to have dinner with the friends they'd cycled through France with, they had just moved from Schaffhausen to Osterfingen, so we ate a restaurant called Bad Osterfingen (it was actually really good), it was established in 1472 - before Australia! - as a guest house and bathing house. Now its just a restaurant and a winery, very good wine as well. It was interesting being a part of a conversation where I didn't speak the language, they would speak in Swiss German and then someone would be nominated to translate it for me, and then later we spoke in English and they translated to Swiss German to make sure they got everything I said! I would love to have been able to converse in Swiss German, maybe I'll have to move to Switzerland so I can learn! :)

So today my time in Switzerland ends :( in a couple of hours - after packing! - I head to the airport and continue on with my journey to England, more specifically London.

Swiss mountain climbing

2005-04-29T08:30:00.000+10:00

So yesterday started slowly, I got to have a sleep in then fiddle around online while waiting for Susanne to come home so we could head into Zurich, her for a singing lesson and me for a spot of solo shopping. I strolled through a couple of the department stores, Globus and MMM before once again hitting the bahnhofstrasse and looking at the lovely shops and drooling at the windows. I also headed into the Sprungli shop and just stared at the dispays of truffles, chocolate balls, pastries and all things chocolate! I met up again with Susanne at Lake Zurich and squinted throught the haze to make out the alps in the distance, we strolled alongside the lake and found somewhere for an afternoon refreshment before catching the train back to Bonstetten.

Last night we went up the Zurich 'house mountain' (each town has a local mountain which in winter when its cloudy in town, but sunny on top of the mountain, they go up and get some nice weather!) which is called the Uetliberg. But you can't drive to the top without a permit, there is a train but we didn't catch that, we drove to the town closet to the top and then walked up. 40 minutes up! At the top we got to listen to some Swiss Alp horn players, it was very interesting the guys were all dressed in local costume. We ate a scrumptious dinner at the Uto Kulm before climbing the tower to get an even better view than was already available, being on top of a mountain and all! Then it was time to climb down the mountain, in the dark, quite lovely actually after a rather large three course dinner and wine to take a walk and listen to the night around us.

Bears in Bern

2005-04-27T19:56:00.000+10:00

The Swiss capital is Bern, although its not the biggest city (Zurich gets that title) it is the most centrally located and I think that is why it was picked, way back when, as the capital city. Simon and I trained it down to Bern to take a stroll around this delightful city and see what it had to offer, a great deal it turned out. We started out by doing a tour of the parliament building and it was very interesting hearing the history of Switzerland, how it came to be back in 1291 (500 years before Australia!) how the government works (sounds better than Australia) and some information on the building itself and all the wonderful aspects of it. Unfortunately you weren't allowed to take photos of the building inside, you'll have to check out the website! After the tour we strolled to the edge of town to see the bear pit, you see the bear is the Bern animal (its on their flag) and since I don't know when there has been a pit in town where they have displayed real living bears. Supposedly it is a bit more humane now (they aren't chained up anymore) and there are 3 bears in a circular kinda zoo enclosure that you look into from the top. Bern is a lot like Zurich, old streets, houses jampacked close together and a lot of history, what I liked about their main streets are the shops are under a covered archway so you can walk along under cover but still see out into the street. Very handy considering it rained most of the day while we were there! We also got to look at Einsteins house, seems that he studied in Zurich and then worked in Bern while he was working on his theory of relativity, before then heading to the US where he finished his life and work.

Tonight Susanne is taking me into Zurich for a drink at the Jules Verne Panorama bar (more views) and then a stroll around looking at more sights.

Snow in Switzerland!

2005-04-26T22:36:00.000+10:00

So today after a late start (I wandered down stairs about lunchtime - jetlag) and got to meet Sharna's host parents, Susanne & Lorenz, who'd just arrived home from cycling around Toulouse in France. Simon and I headed off down south of Zurich to Mt. Rigi 'Queen of the Mountains' (she is the only female mountain in Switzerland, all the others are male) to take in the views and see some snow! The little excursion took longer than it should have for 2 reasons, firstly Susanne and Lorenz had told us (or rather Simon, in Swiss German) to go a village then get an aerial cable car followed by a train to the top. Simon stopped at the first cable car and we went halfway up the mountain and got out to find no train! We figured we'd go for a little stroll and see if we could find it, after walking for 30 mins we found a sign that said 2 hours to the top...mmm, not likely! Back down the cable car and then around the mountain a bit further we found the town of Vitznau, this is where the train started from so we decided to catch it straight up to the top, this was an amazing ride, a lot of the time we went straight up the mountain, great views! Once at the Rigi Kulm station we finished the last 100 hundred metres to the top on foot and we had scaled the mountain, and I was standing in snow! Real white, cold snow!! I took a couple of photos, on a really clear day you are meant to be able to see France and Germany, I just saw a lot of mountains, very nice mountains but no other countries. We then strolled back to the station only to discover we'd just missed the last train down for 2 hours!! Lucky there is a restaurant up top so we stocked up on food and sat at a window table just admiring the mountain top view...we then caught the train back down and made it home by 9pm! Dinner was waiting for us on the table and I got to experience a typical Swiss meal. Salad followed by Rosti (hashbrowns) and some special sausage (Sharn help me out with the name) and then chocolate (lindt of course!) and tea for dessert, I could get used to these Swiss meals.

Zurich, Switzerland!

2005-04-25T19:41:00.000+10:00

I'm now in Switzerland!! Yay for me!! I left Janeo in Philadelphia on Sunday arvo and flew Lufthansa arriving here on Anzac Day, not as patriotic a day as Tash and Nat had in Gallipoli but I thought about the occasion and hopefully that is enough. So anyway the flight over was not too bad, I got an empty seat next to me so I could kinda spread out, plus 7 hours is not that long compared to what I've already done and still have coming up! It was weird though being on an airline where English wasn't the first language, everything was spoken in German but they spoke English to me after I looked at them blankly in response to their German question...shoulda travelled with Sharna.

So I was picked up at the airport by Sharna's host brother Simon (her parents aren't back until tomorrow) and taken to Bonstetten, the village they live in outside of Zurich. I was determined not to nap so after showering we headed into Zurich on the train to have a look around. First we headed into the old part of town and walked around the cobbled streets and looked at the houses which are built right close together, no gaps! We then climbed up to the top of the Grossmunster church to get a 360 view of the town, nothing is allowed to be (or rather wasn't) built higher than the various churches in town so you can see for quite a distance. We then headed off to stroll along the bahnhofstrasse (station street I think) and look at the lovely shops, this is like 5th Ave in New York, all the big name stores and the all important Swiss banks! We stopped for afternoon tea at Sprungli cafe (a lindt store!) and then my eyes glazed over after looking in the store...mmm, chocolate.

We then caught the bus back to Bonstetten and now here I am, really tired and ready for bed after a cup of tea and snack. I think I really like Switzerland and look forward to seeing more in my 5 days here!

New York, New York

2005-04-22T22:37:00.000+10:00

Well the last two days I have been in New York City, and having a lot of fun!! I love NY, there is always so much happening, so much to see and do and it is just so vibrant! But let me start at the beginning. I left Philly yesterday with Mel (a friend of Jane's) who was going to help me navigate the trains, I had planned to take the Amtrak but it's expensive and there are other options (that is why it is great to stay with people in the know). You can take 3 trains and it costs 1/3 of the other option! So Mel and I got to NY at about 12:30pm and parted ways, she continued on to a friends place in Brooklyn and I headed to my hotel, Edison Hotel, which was in a brilliant location! Half a block from Times Square and right in the heart of Broadway, so worth it to be right in the centre of the action. After checking in I headed out to explore the city and line up for a cheap Broadway ticket at the TKTS booth in Times Sq, first I headed to the New York Public Library (of course!) this is a gorgeous building that holds a lot of very important and priceless items, I wandered around looking at the Before Victoria exhibition and the library in general before heading upstairs and accessing their free internet! Very handy resource to know about!! I then wandered back to Times Sq and bought a ticket to see La Cage Aux Folles (The Birdcage movie was based upon this musical/book) at 50% off, then it was back to the hotel to have a rest and get changed before heading out to dinner. Upon recommendation from the concierge I went to a little Italian place, Southside Cafe, up the street and had a yummy salad and delicious gnocchi for dinner, accompanied by my book (I think that they thought it weird that I was by myself!) then I headed to the Theatre to see the show. This musical was brilliant, it was really funny, there was a lot of dancing and singing, men in tights and sequins and just a lot of laughs. The theatre was nearly full and it was just a great atmosphere!

Today I got up nice and early (early for vacation!) so that I could see as much as possible before heading back to Philly, so I headed out and saw Rockefeller Centre, Radio City Music Hall, strolled along 5th Avenue and drooled at all the lovely shops, Saks, Versace, Tiffany etc. and shopped at the cheaper stores like Gap. I then walked all the way up to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (much farther than I thought but you know, lots of nice things to look at!), the external part of the building is under construction which was annoying as its also a lovely building. Anyway there are a lot of lovely pieces of art to look at on the inside as well as the inside of the building itself. After lunch overlooking central park I strolled through the park and looked at the pretty trees and the people going about their business. I then bused it back to my hotel to check out and grab my bag. I then caught the Subway downtown to Union Square so that I could go to the Strand bookstore and peruse the 18 miles of books available!! After restraining myself on a number of possible purchases I caught the subway back uptown to Penn Station and started the journey back to Philly.

There was so much more I could have (and had planned to see/do) but unfortunately time didn't permit so I'll have to do everything else next time! Now I'm back in Philadelphia for the weekend before heading to Zurich on Sunday, yippee!!

Janeo & Philly!

2005-04-19T21:47:00.000+10:00

So Tuesday it was time for another plane ride, this time much shorter than expected! From Nashville to Philadelphia on an express flight it took just under 2 hours, not bad really! So Philly airport is good because they have a train system that includes a stop at the airport (all you sydneysiders don't say anything!), following Janeo's (my cousin who I'm staying with) instructions I jumped on an R1 train, changed in the city and got an R5 train to where she lives and works in Ardmore. Jane is over here doing a work placement job experience thingy as part of her University degree, as of June 15th she finishes up her 18 months here and heads back home to Australia. So I got to Jane's work and she walked me around the corner to her place, it's a block of apartments owned by her boss, and as convenient as they are let me just say I could never live here! It's falling down and a little grotty, but I guess it serves its purpose. So Tuesday night we went up to Felicia's, a little pizzeria, for dinner and some beers. We got to sit outside as the weather was amazingly warm!

Today I went into Philadelphia and explored, it turns out Philly is the birthplace of all things American, the Government first sat here (before having Washington DC as the capitol), the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence were both written and signed here. So I saw a lot of historical stuff, Franklin Court; the area where Benjamin Franklin lived, worked and invented stuff, The Bourse; the first stock exchange, Independance Hall and the Liberty Bell. It was all very interesting learning about the start of a nation that is now the world's most powerful country, I just presumed that it all happened down in Washington DC. Probably what everyone thinks about Australia and Canberra!

After all that history I went for something a little lighter, the Reading Markets...on certain days of the week the Amish come into town and sell their wares. So I wandered around looking at all the yummy fresh food and ate some cookie dough ice-cream, do you think I'm addicted? ;)

As it was again stinking hot when I got back to Janeo's we all sat outside drinking vodka and relaxing in the late afternoon sun! Don't ya love vacation!! Tomorrow I head up to New York City for a brief visit, I hope I have time to see everything on my list.

The same but different.

2005-04-18T18:03:00.000+10:00

This is a wrap up of my time in Nashville, it's now Monday night and tomorrow I leave here on the next part of my journey! So let me recap about what I've been up to here. Saturday night Julie, Brian & the kids came over for dinner, it was great to see them again and the boys are so grown up now but they still kinda look the same as they did 5 years ago, just taller!! Also they have a little sister, Sarah Francis is a cutie and a real little girl, it was great recaping stories with everyone there, if only Donna and Bronwyn could have been there as well it would have been brilliant. Maybe next time!

On Sunday I accompanied Mark, Evelyn and Elizabeth on their weekly golf lesson and the coach gave me a few tips as well, for someone who hasn't ever really picked up a golf stick it was a bit of an eye-opener. Much harder than it looks on the telly!! After that we headed over to a little 9 hole par 3 golf course and had a round, no scores just a lot of 'whacking'! Sunday night it was off downtown to dinner at The Melting Pot a fondue restaurant that was brilliant, a whole restaurant just with fondue. We had two cheese fondues to start, chedder and swiss, followed by salad, then main course fondue, which was yummy we got to cook pork, chicken, tuna, prawns and steak in the fondue along with vegies! Amazing, I always just thought of fondue as chocolate sauce for dipping yummy things in! After dinner we then got the chocolate fondue for dessert, with all kinds of yummy dipping bits, fruit, marshmallows, brownies and cheesecake for Elizabeth. The whole meal she is sitting there going "cheesecake, is my cheesecake ready yet?" so cute, but a tad annoying by the end!

On Monday the girls were back in school so Sarah and I went exploring at Vanderbilt so find the library at the new children's hospital, curiousity and all. Unfortunatly they don't have a library, they do have an amazing familly resource centre which we don't have at work but not quite comparable. We then headed on to Hillsboro Village, a funky little strip where us girls used to hang out a lot...cos of fido's! Sarah and I strolled through the shops and had lunch before picking Elizabeth up from school.

Basically that brings to an end my time in Nashville, we had dinner at home and then I had a nightcap with Mark and Sarah before bed. It was great being back in Nashville and seeing them again, especially the girls, I spent a lot of time with Elizabeth getting to know her as a 7-year-old, I hope its not another 5 years until I see them all again! It was slightly weird because I so could have just slotted back in, driven kids around, helped with homework, had authority over the children, but I didn't. I was there as a guest, wasn't allowed to lift a finger and just generally relaxed, as I said very different.

Back to Nashville!

2005-04-16T16:41:00.000+10:00

Well here I am in Nashville, TN. Most of you would know that from June 1999- June 2000 I lived in Nashville as an Au Pair for the Anderson family, there are 3 girls who when I was here were 9, 7 & 2 years old. Now (nearly 5 years later) they are 14, 12 & 7 years old...so grown up!! Especially the youngest one, it is a big difference between 2 and 7 years!

So I arrived on Thursday evening after a day of flying, it started quite early cos I had to be at the Marin Airporter by 6:30am, got to the airport and after checking in had my first experience of going through US airport security (since 9/11). They were pretty good, I had to take off my shoes, belt, jacket and bangles but there were no problems and the line was moving quite swiftly. I had breakfast (it seems no one serves free food on domestic flights anymore!), and then got on the plane to Chicago (Sal - you'll be pleased to know that this United flight had individual screens). Watched a movie, read some and then we were there, got off and got another flight to Nashville on a tiny plane, only 4 seats across and one stewardess! They made really good time and we landed 30 minutes early!! Unfortunately we had left slightly early from Chicago so my suitcase didn't make it to the plane in time :( but it was scheduled to arrive on the following flight and would be couriered to the house sometime that night (which it did without any problems!). Sarah and the girls picked me up and brought me home then we headed out to dinner at Mojo's grill, it is weird being back here in Nashville and remembering my way around and the places I used to go (either with the girls or with Donna & Bronwyn and other au pairs).

On Friday Elizabeth had school but the other 2 girls didn't so we headed off down to Williamson County, we went through Leiper's Fork, along a section of Natchez Trace and then to Downtown Franklin for lunch at Dumplings followed by dessert from Ben & Jerry's! Last night we went out to the Bluebird Cafe which is a small club that a lot of singer/songwriters perfom at, it's a Nashville institution! It was really good, there were 4 guys sitting in a circle and the audience surrounded them, they took it in turns to play songs they'd written. Some were 'real' songs (which had been picked up and we would know) others were 'made up' (songs that had never been released).

Today, Saturday, we headed into Downtown Nashville and went to the Frist Center for the Visual Arts and saw two great, and very different, exhibitions. The first was the American Anthem which is a touring exhibition and it was all about the development of art, quilting and furniture in America since the 1800's through to the 1980's. There were a lot of interesting and unique pieces. The second exhibition was 'Manuel - Star Spangled Couture' and this was brilliant! Manuel is a western/country clothes designer (think tassles, fringe, intricate needlework and rhinestones) and he has made a

"series of 50 colorfully decorated jackets, one for each state, that contain images that reflect the state’s character and history."

They were each very individual and unique and it was quite amazing to see the amount of work which had gone into each one, he made the jackets over a period of 10 years as a tribute to America and each of the 50 states.

Tonight Julie & Brian and the kids are coming over for dinner (Donna's host family) so it will be great to see them and see the boys all grown up! They were 3 & 1 when I was here!!

We're all going to...San Francisco

2005-04-13T20:42:00.000+10:00

Well it's now Wednesday night and my time in San Francisco (and California) is nearly over!! Tomorrow I have to get up extra early to catch the bus to the airport and then get my flight to Nashville, the third stop of my trip!

So I left Sal's place yesterday and made my way up to Nicole's via 3 different train networks! The light rail from Sal's place to the Caltrain, the Caltrain from San Jose to the outskirts of San Francisco and then a BART train from there to the East Bay (Richmond) where Nicole met me and we drove the final 20 mins to her house in San Rafael. That sounds like an ordeal but all up it only took about 3 hours with changeovers and best of all it cost less than $10 to do it all! A one-way trip to Bendigo on V/Line costs about $25!!

So anyway, Nicole and I ate out last night at a Mexican place called Chevy's, I had a yummy enchilada and a taco with some beans and rice, gotta love real Mexican food like they do here (since the American's took the land that is California off the Mexicans!).

Today Nicole and I ferried across the bay from Larkspur to the city, we then strolled around San Francisco looking at public art, various sites and shopping. All the time Nicole kept up a running commentary of San Francisco facts...very interesting! She is a great tour guide and knows San Francisco well. We then ferried back across the bay so I could take the necessary photos of the city and the Golden Gate Bridge. Then out again for dinner tonight, this time to a burger/brewery place called Brokendrum in downtown San Rafael. Now I think it's time for an early bed as I have to be up at about 5:30am tomorrow morning!

PS. Photos won't be uploaded until maybe London (I think I can do it on Nat's pc!) or until I get home so you'll all have to check back then when I've slotted them into the relevant posts!

Errands, U2 and being a tourist...

2005-04-11T18:22:00.000+10:00

Well the last two days have been full of bits and bobs, yesterday (Sunday) Sal I had headed out after breakfast to run a couple of errands. Sal had her carwashed, we shopped at CompUSA and lunched in San Pedro Square in downtown San Jose at a place called Tied House, we sat outside and had a beer and ate a yummy lunch of taco salad and fish & chips. That afternoon we relaxed and watched 'Shall We Dance' on DVD before getting ready to go to drinks at the Britannia Arms followed by the U2 concert at the HP Pavilion here in San Jose. Drinks was very international with us Aussies, plus an English girl, a couple of Irish and also an American (all other girls who Sally works with).

The U2 concert was great!! Our seats were pretty high up in the pavilion but a great view still, they played some new songs but also a lot of old stuff which was good as that is mostly what I know. Bono made a lot of references to current events (the Pope, Iraq and less obviously to the American government) and said that for things to happen it is up to us, the current generation, to contact people in power and get them working for us. Toward the end he got a girl up on stage and she danced around while Bono sang 'Mysterious Ways', I must commend her that she danced and waltzed around on stage, if ever I was in that situation I think I would have frozen!

Today I've had my first day at playing tourist by myself, Sal was working so I caught the Light Rail into Downtown and went to The Tech museum. I would have liked to have gone to the San Jose Museum of Art or the Peralta Adobe & Fallon Houses, unfortunately they aren't open on Mondays, a bit frustrating but I survived. The Tech museum was very interesting and since I'm in the Capital of the Silicon Valley a very appropriate way to spend the afternoon!

Tomorrow I head up to San Francisco to visit with Nicole.

All things American

2005-04-09T21:43:00.000+10:00

So its the end of Day 1, today after a sleepin Sally and I headed down to the Gilroy Factory Outlets for a bit of retail therapy. They are of course massive (like everything here), 4 different sections with loads of different stores, I bought some new sunnies & a polo top, very restrained considering I could have bought a whole lot more!!

I have ticked a few boxes as far as American food goes; I had Root beer with my lunch, currently I'm eating Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice-cream (yuuummmm!) and I bought some Double Stuf Oreos to eat later with my cup of tea! All good and healthy for me of course.

Thanks to the AFL I'm also listening to the Essendon v Hawthorn game live online and I'm about to have a little chat with Tash about it, sounds like shocking weather in Melbourne so go Bombers!

The start of my journey...

2005-04-09T20:15:00.000+10:00

Well to start with I'll let you know that I'm here save and sound in San Jose, CA (which is in the Silicon Valley) with Sally! I survived a lovely long day of airplanes and airports, read on to hear all about it...

Awoke at 5:30am on Friday morning (8th April), showered, finished packing and was at the airport by 7am (thanks Mum & Sharna for dropping me). 7:45am Virgin Blue flight to Sydney, arrived at 9:10am, picked up my bags and headed over to the international terminal to check in at United for my flight to San Francisco. They didn't open until 10:45am so I used that time to eat some breakfast, when checked in and aksed them to hold a seat beside me if possible I was promptly told the flight was fully booked (that ended my dream of a whole row to myself!). The flight was indeed extremely full but I survived by listening to my ipod, reading, doing the puzzle book Ruth gave me and napping occasionally! I didn't sleep much and when I did finally fall asleep I woke up with a cramp in my hip that didn't go away. I tried to remember to get up every couple of hours and have a wander and stretch so I didn't get DVT or muscle soreness.

Arrived at San Francisco slightly late because there was a queue of planes waiting to land (you can listen to the air traffic controllers on the seat headsets and I heard them say we were low on fuel and a full plane so I think they prioritised us!) No problems going through immigration and customs and once I was out the other side Sally was waiting to pick me up and whisk me down the highway to San Jose.

Got here about 12:30pm (still on friday, that is an hour before I left Sydney), Sally lives in a gated complex of very cute blue houses, it's very nice 1 bedroom place which she has. She went into work for a couple of hours and I had a short nap (only 45 mins) and pottered online and had a lovely shower!

Last night we went out to dinner at a place called The Cheesecake Factory which is a normal restaurant which also makes a lot of cheesecakes! I reacquainted myself with American Mash & Green Peas, hugh servings and attentive customer service (lots of ma'am)! I was in bed by 9:30pm while Sally listened to the footy (Carlton v Collingwood) online, I slept right through until 10am this morning...amazing!! I wish I could sleep that well normally, I should take more international flights I think, yeah right.

I think I'm on track with my body clock, I set my watch to San Jose time as soon as we took off from Sydney so that when ever I checked it I could acclimatise myself with what the time was here and I didn't have a big nap (like Nat did the other day when she got back to London) and I've eaten meals at normal times. So all in all pretty good, I feel a bit tired today but nothing excessive! Hope it is this easy on the way home from London as I only have 2 days before I start back at work.

Keeping in touch

2005-04-04T13:42:00.000+10:00

While I'm travelling I'll still be contactable, you can email me, leave me a comment here on my blog and I'll read it or you can SMS me on my moblie. Email and blog comments are pretty self-explanatory so I thought I'd tell you about texting.

When YOU text ME it's just the same as if I was still in Australia, you get charged the same rate and you don't have to alter my number in anyway even though I'm going to be in different countries.

When I text YOU it's slightly different but you don't have to worry about that!

Please DON'T call me on my mobile, especially when I'm in the USA, this is because you will just get charged the normal call rates you normally would for calling a mobile. I get charged for the international bit above that rate, and in the US if I recieve a call I also get charged by the carrier I happen to be using! You see they charge you to recieve as well as make calls!!!!! How dodgy!!

Finally, and most importantly, time differences! You can double check here on the Whitepages World Time, you just need to type in where you are and where I am and it will tell you the differences in hours.

Here is a little guide:

Australian EST = USA
~ 17 hours AHEAD of San Jose & San Francisco, 15 hours AHEAD of Nashville & 14 hours AHEAD of Philadelphia.

AEST = Switzerland
~ 8 hours AHEAD of Zurich

AEST = England
~ 9 hours AHEAD of London

This time next week...

2005-04-01T13:45:00.000+10:00

I will be on a very big plane about to take off from Sydney airport on my way to San Francisco!!

I have hinted here but not really mentioned that I'm about to take 4 weeks leave and do a brief tour of 3 countries visiting various friends and family members who have scattered themselves around.

My itinerary will be posted permanantly in the right hand side bar so that you can check where I'm at while I'm away!

Briefly my trip will include San Jose (Sally), San Francisco (Nicole), Nashville (Anderson family), Philadelphia (Jane), Zurich - Switzerland (Sharna's host family) and finally London - England (Tash & Nat).

The little dots are the markers of where I'm going!

Happy Easter

2005-03-30T11:33:00.000+10:00

This Easter was a bit odd for me, not odd in that something happened, just odd in that it didn't feel like Easter! I didn't buy eggs for anyone, I didn't go home to my parents ('cos they were in Melbourne), I didn't really do much of anything! Easter of course means that most places are shut on Good Friday (as discovered by Sarah & Duncan) and Easter Sunday so that means not much to do. Plus I'd had an extremely busy weekend previously what with going to Sydney, Catriona getting blitzed, Jess' wedding and then back to Bendigo for a school reunion. So this weekend I did nothing, apart from domestic stuff, and then had the family over for a bbq lunch on Easter Sunday, the weather was lovely and we got to sit outside and eat, drink and be merry! So really it was a great weekend overall.

10 years on...

2005-03-28T15:43:00.000+10:00

After flying back to Melbourne from Sydney I then got into the car and headed up the highway to Bendigo, you see my busy weekend the other week had a final chapter to it, my 10 year reunion from high school...shock, horror, gasp - surely it hasn't been that long! This reunion wasn't for the school where I finished my schooling and graduated from year 12, this was the high school where I had started and gone through until year 9 at. I only have contact with two people from those school days, Sally who is now living in San Jose CA and Tania who still lives in Bendigo. Obviously Sally didn't attend so Tania and I did a "I'll go if you go" pact and rocked up together! Of the ~40 people who attended the school in my year level (not all of whom I knew, especially as I left at year 9) about 17 turned up and it was kinda odd seeing people who still basically looked the same, just all grown up! It was interesting hearing what people were up to, what they'd done, who was married, had kids, travelled etc. I didn't reconnect with anyone and I'll still only have contact with Sally and Tania but some of my curiosity has been sated.

Congratulations Jess & Andrew

2005-03-26T15:19:00.000+11:00

On Friday 18th March 2005 Jess & Andrew got married at the botanical gardens in Sydney, it was a beautiful ceremony (just not beautiful weather) in a gorgeous setting! After the ceremony drinks & nibbles were consumed before the bridal party disappeared for photos, some of us headed down to the Opera Bar for a quick drink before heading back to the gardens for the reception. It was my first time at a cocktail reception and it was a lot of fun, there was more than enough food and drink constantly circulating and the band seemed to play most of the night which meant a lot of dancing ensued (oh my poor sore feet!). Some photos below (sorry Nat you seemed to cut out of the bridal party shots when I collaged them in Picasa!).

Catriona's been blitzed!

2005-03-22T16:53:00.000+11:00

After last week being busy you would think I’d take a break, not likely! This weekend was once again busy…lucky its Easter coming up and I have no plans. MMMmmm, sleep!!

So anyway, flew up to Sydney after work on Thursday so that I could attend Jess & Andrew’s wedding on the Friday. I was staying with Catriona at the house where she is currently house-sitting, she was meant to pick me up from the airport but sms’ed me that “something has come up, jump in a cab and get to this address”. So I do as I’m told, get to the house (after the cabbie checks the Sydways twice!) and someone else pays for my cab, Catriona greets me with “I’ve been blitzed! Backyard Blitz are here!”. I’m thinking “righto, whatever” (long day starting with 6am gym) and it was true…Jamie and all the crew had been at Catriona’s since Tuesday working on her and 3 neighbours courtyards!! They used her place as a base so we didn’t get to bed until 1am, after they’d packed up all their gear and cleared out.

Tune into Channel 9 on Sunday April 3rd and check it all out for yourself!!

Week in Review

2005-03-16T16:24:00.000+11:00

I know I haven’t updated in a while, mainly because I’ve been so busy at work, and home, and haven’t had a chance to sit in front a computer and do non-work tasks. So I’m doing a week in review for the past very busy week.

Monday 7th March: Sally was home from America for a brief two week visit (so she could be a bridesmaid, isn’t she a good friend?!) so Erica, Sally and myself met up for dinner in Lygon st at Papa Gino’s. A yummy, very large, pizza was shared by Sally and myself and Erica had an omlette with chips and salad. This was followed by a viewing of Desperate Housewives including some Vienetta (thanks to Judith, Sal’s mum).

Tuesday 8th March: Off to the Melbourne Bookcrossing March meetup, we had a decent turn out this month, about 10 people including two new members so that was great! We also found out that one of the bar staff had picked up some books which were left behind after January meetup and both she and her mum read and enjoyed the books, that is great news. We were all very excited when we left!

Wednesday 9th March: Tonight was my one night at home but it also included a trip out to Vermont to visit my Osteopath, Rachel is currently on maternity leave so I had to see a new guy. It was weird seeing someone new as I’m so used to Rachel and the way that she does things, this time it was very different, he worked in a different order and used different techniques than Rachel. But I walked out feeling loose and sore and by the next day I felt great! Wednesday night was also when Rachel, from Uni, arrived at my house for her stay on the futon (she was in town to finish off at TaxMatrix, yay for Rachel!).

Thursday 10th March: Tonight the four librarians got to do dinner, for the first time since we finished Uni back in November 2003!! What with Kat being in England and Caroline overseas and Rachel in Brisbane it sure is hard to get together. But with Kat back, with her fiancé Matt, and working at The Age, Caroline back and working at the Eye & Ear hospital and Rachel still in Brisbane and about to change jobs, we wandered down Sydney road and went to a place called Warwick Thai, it was recommended by Ruth and she also gave strict instructions on what to order and how much! We heeded her advice and ordered the Pad Thai Chicken and the Original Victoria Butterflies, we also ordered Pak Num Satay (stir fry vegies with peanut sauce) and because they have a minimum order per person we had to order tofu salad as well. That was 3 dishes plus entrée, when Ruth had told us to only order two dishes as they were so big!! So we ate our fill and then walked out with 3 take-out containers full of leftovers, yummm, lunch for the next day!

Friday 11th March: Today I rushed home from work so that I could get over to Pascoe Vale and pick up Donna and then we headed up the highway to Ballarat, we were going to a Vivienne’s Collection clothes party at Nola’s place. It was also my first time to meet the newest Sexton, Amali Kate!! So the clothes party was good, as always lots of nice stuff but with very expensive price tags…not possible when I’ve just spent A LOT of money on an overseas trip!

The Weekend: Donna and I did what we do best, spent the day together shopping (buying stuff for me for traveling!) and talking and playing with babies! I ended up staying in Ballarat til Sunday so that I could go to Amali’s baptism.

Overall a very busy week, lucky it was Labor Day on Monday so I could lay around and do nothing, and go to Nan & Pop’s for Pork Roast lunch…yummmm!!

The Dogs

2005-03-03T16:36:00.000+11:00

My sister's dogs who live with Mum & Dad, easy to see who is in charge in this house!! Humans are relagated to the other chairs (at right angles to the TV) or the floor! Sebby (Sharna's dog) is up top and Chloe (Emma's dog) is down the bottom.

Sydney Rd Street Festival

2005-03-02T13:09:00.000+11:00

On Sunday Ruth and I ventured down the end of our street and joined the crowds strolling up and down a closed off Sydney Rd (Brunswick, VIC) at the annual Street Party. It is an opportunity for the public to find out what stores are actually in the few blocks between Union and Victoria streets as they put stalls out in the street with food, wares and items to browse/buy. Ruth and I headed out at lunchtime so we could partake of various offerings; satay, spring rolls, some weird donut thing, some other weird pastry thing...all very yummy and delicious! We were joined by Donna and Brenton just in time for an afternoon beverage at a new found discovery The Brunswick Green, we were lucky enough to snag a couple of comfy chairs in the sun and have a chat before the very LOUD, but good, music started up! After that it was a matter of talking during breaks between songs!

After making sure we'd seen everything on offer we headed home for an ice-cream sundae in the backyard sunshine and perused our purchases! For me that included a faux fur stole to wear to an upcoming wedding, a pair of fisherman's pants and an earring/jewelry container for when I travel in April.

Getting ready for Nashville...

2005-03-01T12:17:00.000+11:00

After my busy couple of days in the country I returned to Melbourne so that I could go to the Keith Urban concert at the Palais with Rachel (my brother's girlfriend), Di, Brendan and a few others, so effectively it was a very 'country' weekend all round! I can hear most of you out there going "Keith Urban??"and shrugging your shoulders. Well I wasn't quite that clueless but I didn't know any of his music, I went along because they had a spare ticket and because it gave me a chance to catch up with them all. So background : Keith Urban is a Queensland boy, he grew up in the country and dabbled in the country music scene here and then did what every other country singer does and headed over to Nashville, Tennessee (the home of country music). Took a bit of work but finally he hit pay dirt!! He is massive over there, winning numerous awards and sitting in the charts for weeks on end.

So I went along thinking, this is ok I can get through this...and came out reformed! For staters, he is not bad to look at! Second, he can sing! Third, it's not country and western drawl sing-me-a-love song type music...its rocking, have fun country which you can dance and sing along to!

After the concert we headed back to Di's parents (they have a place in the same building as her) for a very late dinner, a couple of drinks and some nice background music! All in all, not a bad night and I'm definitely going to buy a Keith cd sometime soon!

You can't [always] take a girl out of the country...

2005-02-28T16:30:00.000+11:00

Ok, you know the saying:

"You can take the girl/boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl/boy"

Well sometimes I go back to the country to get things done cheaper/better/ or whatever than in the city.

I had an ADO last Friday so I trundled up the highway to Bendigo to get my car serviced and my hair done, now I can hear people say "you did what?! Surely it's no cheaper?!" Well it may not be but it's what I've always done since leaving home way back when to go to University, I know my mechanic, he's always done a good job and his prices are perfectly reasonable (don't know Melbourne prices but good mechanic whom you trust are hard to find!). My hairdresser I've been going to since High School! I really love his cuts and my colourist there is pretty good to, and let me say they are cheaper than the place near me in Melbourne, I went there a couple of times last year and it cost $150 for foils, cut, style. Same thing in Bendigo costs me $99!!!

So I had a perfectly lovely, albeit brief, visit home, Mum cooked a roast dinner for when I arrived home on Thursday evening, Dad delivered my car to the mechanic on Friday morning so I could sleep in, I shopped and relaxed. Went out to dinner at the Axedale Pub with the regular crew on Friday night for dinner and then headed back to Melbourne on Saturday with the rest of the weekend still in front of me to complete!

Sometimes you just can't beat the country!!

Sunday night movie

2005-02-22T17:10:00.000+11:00

After the tupperware party on Sunday I quickly dropped Mum off at Nan & Pop's and headed on into the city to meet up with Tania. Tania and Luke were down in Melbourne for a bit of shopping and so Luke could attend the football, I agreed to go play with Tania so she wouldn't get lonely :). Tania and I have a tendency to do movie and either lunch or dinner when we catch up (normally when I'm home in Bendigo) so this time was no exception. Especially as it was a Sunday and the various television channels have taken away the Sunday night movie tradition and replaced it with a variety of crime shows and maybe a late movie (I can't stay up til midnight when I have to work on Monday!). I picked Tania up from her hotel and we shuttled over to Crown Casino, not for the gambling but for the movies and a quick bit beforehand. We settled on The Pub at Crown for dinner as its right near the cinema and because they do big meals for reasonable prices, also the food is pretty good. I had the Beer battered fish & chips and convinced Tania to partake of her first 'parma' (who knows what she normally eats at pubs!). We both enjoyed (and couldn't finish) our rather large meals and then headed upstairs to the cinema to watch Splanglish the new Adam Sandler movie, it is a serious Sandler movie (no gross humor) which is what I prefer. It would be classified as a romantic comedy I guess, a few laughs, nearly some tears but overall a good feeling upon leaving the cinema. To quote Tania:

"yeah not bad! was interesting to see Adam Sandler in that kinda role but i liked it"

So there you go, a Sunday evening very well spent and home in time for bed!

Tupperware, Tupperware everywhere....

2005-02-22T16:09:00.000+11:00

On Sunday Donna hosted a Tupperware party so that Kerry could present her very first party among friends (she has just started selling Tupperware so good luck with it Kerry!). When you go to a tupperware party you of course bake (what all good housewives - or just good people in my case - do) so I spent Sunday morning baking chocolate cheesecake slice. Really easy and really really good for you :) (it is in the plastic container in the picture). Then off to the Tupperware party where 6 other guests and myself were regaled on the delights of Tupperware and all it has to offer, there is actually a lot of new 'trendy' tupperware now available and if I wasn't going overseas soon my cupboards could be very ordered and matching! Here is Kerry displaying her wares...and also a picture of only some of the items that were on offer for afternoon tea (not pictured are the California rolls Brenton made before disappearing (such a good husband) and the scones with jam and cream which Donna made!)! I was very full and content before I trundled off to meet Tania in the city (future post coming soon!).

Entertaining the Interstaters...

2005-02-16T16:42:00.000+11:00

On Tuesday Jess was back in town (gotta love paid for travel, even if you do have to work!) so we did dinner and were joined by her brother Paddy who was on his first trip to Melbourne. Jess wanted somewhere ‘touristy’ for Paddy’s sake so off to Federation Square we ventured to eat dinner at Chocolate Buddha (who have a very cool website - worth checking out!). A very yummy dinner was had by all and after finishing and realising they don’t actually have any chocolate on the menu (sacrilegious) we headed off to Max Brenner, at QV, to satisfy our chocolate cravings. Here we had a very yummy hot chocolate called a Suckao where you have what looks like an oil burner which is filled with hot milk and you put your chocolate buds in and melt them over the flame…mmmmmmmm, nice! It’s good because you can regulate the chocolate flavour by putting a little, or a lot, of chocolate in to be melted. Finally we finished the evening with a drink at Chloe’s Bar which is at Young & Jackson’s Pub on the corner of Swanston & Flinders sts.

I hope the interstaters enjoyed themselves on this tour through some Melbourne icons, I certainly had fun dining/drinking with them and look forward to the next time Jess is back in Melbourne.

a brief history...

2005-02-11T21:42:00.000+11:00

Last night Ruth, Danny, Cathy, Beccy and I went and saw The Waifs play at the hifi Bar & Ballroom in Swanston st. The idea was hatched while Ruth and I were in Perth last year and saw that they had a new album coming out, after checking out their website we saw tour dates were going to be announced and were hanging out for them to come to Melbourne. I have to confess that I wasn't a huge fan, Ruth owns a couple of their albums and so I had heard their music and the couple of songs which had been quite popular on the radio, but after seeing them live last night I must say that I'm definitely a fan now, I bought a cd and a t-shirt! They sung a mix of songs, both boppy and sing along songs (Take It In) and slow thoughtful songs (Papa), they were also really good as they easily interacted with the audience, chatting in between songs both to each other and the crowd. They also looked like they were having so much fun and really enjoying themselves, which made us enjoy it even more!!

I must say though, I'm getting too old to be standing around (or I'm just too broken) listening to bands, my back and hip were cramped and very stiff by the time we finished up there and then walked back to Danny's car (half way across the city!!! Thanks though for driving Danny, much appreciated!). Also the late night, especially on a school night, I didn't get to bed until 1am!! Then the alarm went off just before 7am!! Lucky its Friday and I have a quiet and relaxing weekend planned...mmm, bed and a Saturday morning sleep in.

27 = mid-twenties!

2005-02-10T13:55:00.000+11:00

It was Donna's birthday yesterday so a few of us headed out to dinner for Teppanyaki at Yamagata in Doncaster East. Only two of our group had experienced this Japanese cuisine before so it was an interesting, funny and very messy night!! For $39 each we did the Kyoto Banquet which got us prawns, chicken, steak and fried rice, cooked right in front of us by our own personal chef. It was really interesting watching the chef do everything right there in front of you, for example he put the whole prawns on the hotplate and then proceeded to de-head, shell and de-vein each one, discarding the 'bits' down a special trash hole and cooking the prawns while adding various spices and sauces! I think every home should have one!

Donna also got into the spirit, part of the fun of Teppanyaki is having your food thrown at you, in our case raw eggs which we were meant to catch in little bowls, because it was Donna's birthday she got to do two at once!! Very skilled, except she only managed to catch 1/2 an egg! As I said, very messy...you think they would put plastic sheeting on the floor!

So join me in saying Happy Birthday to Donna and wishing her many more years as a member of the mid-twenties club, I hear that it lasts until your early-thirties!! ;)

Bookcrossing.com

2005-02-09T10:21:00.000+11:00

I was introduced to bookcrossing through Tash nearly 2 years ago, I was a little slow to start off with but now I'm right into it and I am actually the organiser or the Melbourne Bookcrossing Meetup Group (a role Tash passed on to me when she left on her big adventure o/s recently).

So what is bookcrossing I hear you most of you ask? According to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary "bookcrossing n. the practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise. " It is a unique and interesting concept that has taken off all of the world, currently there are 328,097 members worldwide and 1,736,983 books in the wild! At the moment I have only released 2 books but one day I'm sure I'll take the plunge and start taking chances and leaving books all over the place for unsuspecting members of the public to find and hopefully enjoy! I tend to be more involved with the bookrings and bookrays, where instead of wild releasing you let people know via the forum that the book is available to be read, you take names of interested people and then the book starts a journey all around the world, because each book is given a unique number people journal their thoughts/opinions on the book and others can read all about it.

As mentioned I'm also involved locally with the meetup group, each month Melbourne Bookcrossers meet and discuss a myriad of topics; bookcrossing, books, films, tv, etc. while eating yummy food and downing a few beverages!

Which brings me to where I was last night (Tuesday), there is always a long way round to the topic at hand it seems! I was at 3Degrees at QV with 10 other people, mostly regulars whom it is great to catch up with and indulge your bookcrossing passion, because basically people who don't know about it find it very hard to understand. Or they do know and they think its weird (like little sisters)! So anyway, that is me and my book obsession...I have made a lot of new friends through bookcrossing and I'm actually off to a wedding in Sydney next month! Hey Jess!! So if your bookshelves are getting heavy feel free to check out bookcrossing and let your books have an adventure!

In the beginning...

2005-02-08T14:26:00.000+11:00

After much coercion from blogging friends I have decided to start my own blog, what I will write about and how frequently I will write remains to be seen! But to be anyone these days it seems you have to publish your thoughts on the internet and let them fly away for others all over the world to read...please be gentle with my thoughts!

Anyway, for those of you that are reading this enjoy...I promise to let you know all the exciting adventures I get up to in my day-to-day transits through life :)