Happy New Year!!

It's almost time for me to take off, so I just wanted to wish everyone a very Happy New Year!!

See you in 2006. Word!

So this is Christmas....

...at least for us. No pics of me I'm afraid, you'll just have to enjoy these ones of the other girlies.






These two were having a competition as to how many party hats they could fit on their heads. I'm not sure who won though.

That's all folks

So that's Christmas over and done with for another year. Hope you all had a brilliant Christmas day and Santa got you something nice!

I had a lovely Christmas day with the girls where we exchanged presents, ate too much and drank several bottles of wine between us. I'll have to post some pics capturing the Christmas hilarity.

I spoke to my family on Christmas Eve to wish them Merry Christmas NZ time. It was really nice to chat to them, they sounded like they were having a great time. I must admit they are the one thing I miss the most about NZ. (My friends back home coming second of course! And closely followed by Wendys. Mmmm....Wendys....)

Now I am back at work (Booo! Hisss!) and struggling a bit. At least there's New Years Eve still to look forward to. And then my birthday of course. One good thing about a January birthday, you don't quite get the post-holiday blues in the same way.

And now back to pretending to work. Roll on 5pm....

ETA: Ooh have just noticed I've finally made it to a half century with my posts. Woo!

Bah Humbug

Okay, well not really. It's just with less than two weeks to go, I don't feel Christmasy at all. Not a jot. And this is despite the fact that the giant Christmas tree we've put up in our living room tries desperately to persuade me otherwise. I'm not quite sure why exactly. And I dont think I'm the only one not feeling the Christmas spirit. Other people I've spoken to seem to be lacking the joy of Christmas.

I guess I'm going to have to convince myself to be get in the spirit. And nothing says Christmas quite like the Hoff.



As I said, you can't escape him.

Happy Hoffmas!

You cannot escape The Hoff

Out clubbing on Saturday night, we were presented with evidence to prove that David Hasselhoff is very rapidly permeating all aspects of our lives. We were at a cheesy retro-styled club where the DJ played the Baywatch theme, sung by the Hoff himself. Not once, but twice.

Of course we reacted by singing along at the top of our lungs. How can you not?

Therefore in tribute to the man, I present this Hoff related link.

You know you love it!

Do You Want To?

Went to see Franz Ferdinand on Friday and they were absolutely fantastic!!

I'll leave the full review to Carly as she does it so much better. Except to say that Alex Kapranos is one sexy indie rock beyotch!

A Very Royal Morning

Today I had the best celebrity sighting to beat (almost) all celebrity sightings. Who else but Prince William came to visit my workplace this morning. There are some advantages of working in finance after all.

We waited with much anticipation to his arrival and were rewarded with the briefest glimpse as he was quickly ushered through our department. I think they were trying to shield him from the awed hush and rampant staring. Our department are obviously not the epitomy of coolness. We were warned not to take photos or request autographs, but no one managed to even get close enough to slip him their phone number. Much to the disappointment of Jessica who entrusted me to the task of slipping hers. She was highly miffed that she missed chance for her title of "Princess" to be made official.

A second attempt by me to head out to lunch, just at the time Will and his entourage were to head upstairs, was thwarted by one of my co-workers so that was it for my royal sighting.

Still I got to see the future King of England. Cant complain about that.

This movie looks very cool. Transvestites, 1970s music, not to mention Wombles! How can they go wrong! And Cillian Murphy, I must say, makes a very attractive woman.


So who's going to come see it with me in January?

"It puts the lotion in the basket or it gets the hose again!"

I just realised my new design looks exactly like this guy.

Guys and Dolls

After another satisfyingly busy weekend (I finally got a haircut, woo!), I'm back to yet another slow working week. I literally haven't done any work in about two hours. I'm sure I'm going to be for a rude shock when I have to start doing proper work when I get home.

To alleviate my boredom I thought I'd write up a review of my night of Ewanspotting at Guys and Dolls a couple of weeks ago.

We arrived at Piccadilly Theatre with much anticipation, mostly on my part, to see Mr McGregor. Even though we were in the cheap seats, the theatre wasn't too big so we had a fairly decent view of the stage. We took our seats only to be confronted by The Worse FeMullet Ever, worn by some woman who obviously was not worried about her own appearance, or the eyesight of any poor soul in her vicinity. Once we got over our initial shock we settled down to watch the show.

The show itself was really good. Guys and Dolls isn’t one of the showier musicals but more of a character piece, so it was the charisma of the actors and their performances which were more central to our enjoyment than any elaborate dance numbers. Having subsequently seen the 1955 film version, I can’t help comparing with the West End version. Some of the performers are dead ringers for the 1955 cast, the man who played Nicely, Nicely Johnson being one of them. Jane Krakowski was brilliant and she pulled off Adelaide note perfect to Vivian Blake's original performance.

Not to spoil it for you, but Sky Masterson is practically the last character to be introduced so it seemed like I was waiting ages to finally get a glimpse of Ewan. Which was obscured by his large fedora hat. Damn those early 20th century dress codes! But I did finally get to see Ewan in (almost) all his glory. (Unfortunately, they haven’t yet found a way to work in a nude scene into Guys and Dolls. But if there were you know he’d do it.)
Now Ewan is a good actor but not so much of a singer, sorry to say. Luckily Sky’s musical numbers are fairly limited and it was mostly down to Ewan to be as charming as possible as Sky. Which he pulled off wonderfully. That Jenna Russell was one lucky woman, getting to snog Mr McGregor several times.

I do wish I’d been slightly closer or at least had rented the binoculars for a better view of Ewan. Otherwise though I had an extremely enjoyable night and now I can say I was in the same (very big) room with Ewan McGregor. Heh.

Oooohhhh....

....look what I found!!!

Don't judge me. The Wombles rocked when I was a kid.

Back in black

Aah....now that looks much more "me", don't you think?

I want that one!

As it is coming up to Christmas and because I'm extremely bored, I thought I'd share my Amazon wish list with you here. Feel free to buy me anything (or everything) on the list if you so desire.

Let's do the time warp again

Possibly because it's Official Ewan Spotting Day (tm Me) time is going very slowly this afternoon. I'm managing to get all my work done in the shortest time possible leaving me with plenty of time to be bored. In fact I seem to have slipped into that 9-5 time warp where time goes at least 200% slower than when you're not at work. It is an actual phenomena shared with many of my fellow office workers which is only alleviated after 5pm.

It seems to be effecting my colleagues as well and they have resorted to amusing themselves with renditions of 70s tv theme tunes , naked Robbie Williams (click at your own peril) and coffee runs. Who said high finance was dull?

Phew! 45 minutes and counting......

I dont know if I've noticed this just because it's Monday morning, but I seem to have been lacking in patience recently. I can't tolerate people and things that normally dont bother me.

But the good news is I get to go and see my old movie boyfriend Ewan tomorrow night! Yayayayyay!!




Ahh isnt he lovely......

Bloggin' for the weekend

Hate to sound like a sterotypical 9-5er but am sooo glad it's the weekend! I had some excellent career related news this morning and went for a massive shopping spree last night so am feeling in a pretty good mood for once.

I've finally uploaded my photos of our trip so for those of you who might want to check them out, they can be found here:

Venice

Greece

Rome

Italian Explorer

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Being there is everything

Yesterday I saw little sis off at the airport. She was flying home via our little ol' national carrier, Air NZ. And wonderful home-spun airline that they are, her flight was delayed by 5 hours. So we got to hang around firstly in the check-in queue for a good hour, then I was herded along with my sister and the other Air NZ passengers to the Marriott Heathrow where I managed to score a free glass of fine and a free meal as they thought I was also a passenger. There's nothing like the camaraderie of disgruntled, delayed airline passengers.

Luckily I managed to slip away before I was ushered into the line for the Departure lounge where I probably would have got a bollocking for not having a) my passport on me or b) a valid airline ticket.

It was a very bizarre experience though. I don't think I've been around that many kiwi accents for a very long time. It was weird....
How am I going to handle it when I get home?

Checkin' In

Things have been "interesting" of late. Still busy with my little sis here but I'm sure that will change soon. I'm not exactly feeling entirely wonderful but I'm sure things will get better after a while. To be honest I'm pretty disappointed how things are panning out, but I guess you cant always help these things.

Ain't life grand.....

Party central

We had the house party on Saturday which seems to have been a success, judging by the carnage the next morning. The flat was packed with people and it was a really nice international mix and everyone got on really well. There were even a few hook-ups which me and the flatties were quite chuffed with. Although I did feel in the middle of some weird alternative world at one point; surrounded by couples making out. They know who they are!!

We even have a new flat name, The Zoffanies, which we are going to use when we eventually form our all girl band. (I might have to learn to sing first)

The only downer was that I wasn't quite in the right frame of mind to enjoy the party myself. A few issues cropped up that I had to deal with so I wasn't able to loosen up and enjoy myself properly. (I.e. I wasn't drunk enough) Which is a bit of a shame but at least everyone else had a good time.

The memories....

Remember a couple of years back when I was so bored at my job I came up with this excellent website?

Who can forget the many hours of laughter inspired by that bastion on New Zealand acting talent, Craig Parker.

I wish I had much more time and photoshop so I could have continued with Craig's journeys around the world. Maybe one day....

I've just been amusing myself with reading this recap of the classic Melrose Place episode where Kimberly rips off her wig. I forgot how brilliantly trashy this show was.

He turns on the lights and illuminates...KIMBERLY. "Nice to see you again, Michael," she sort of smilingly hisses. He is stunned. As you would be, if the woman you loved whom you thought you accidentally killed in a drunk-driving accident turned up in your living room and acted like she'd been at a spa for the weekend. "Kim? Um? Is...? Um...it's really you?" he stammers. "Maybe. OR MAYBE YOU'RE GOING CRAZY," Kimberly laughs. That is so awesome. I'm going to start saying that to people when they ask me things at the office.

The best thing about Desperate Housewives, I think, is that it's practically a Melrose Place reunion what with Kimberly aka Bree and Gay Matt (seriously cannot see him as a hetrosexual husband with kids). I'm always waiting for Bree to finally loose it and rip off her wig.

I change my colour like I change my....

Felt like going a bit girlier today. This one is going to stay.

I swear.

Redesign!!

Like the new look? Felt like a change and found this on a free blogger template site. Look at all the purdy colours.....

Back on track

Please excuse my moment of miserable self indulgence last week. Am feeling much better so none of you need worry. I think I was overindulging a little on the pub visits last week, so I will seriously be doing some detox this week.

Well until our little knees-up on Saturday. Other than that I'm completely off the piss. Honest.....

Life sucks, then you die

I think John Lennon was right. Don't make plans, cause fate will always prove you wrong. When things seem to be coming together for you, it's got to be too good to be true. It's only so long until something falls apart....

Sorry folks, move along nothing to see here.....

Ever seen a trailer for a really crap movie and wondered where the hell did they get that idea?

Apparently those are the good ideas.

Query Letters I Love... has the rejected ones.

My favourite is the crazed vampire terrorizing helpless airplane passengers. If they're not careful Anne Rice might steal that and give us the hapless vampire's perpective for her next novel.

For those of you not up with the screenplay lingo, query letters are effectively one to 2 paragraph summaries of the script designed to capture the essence of the movie. Or in this case the twisted psyche of wannabe scriptwriters.

I never realised how much time I waste emailing people at work, until there were no emails in my inbox this morning. What's a girl supposed to do?

These past couple of weeks since I moved in have been crazy busy. There's been so much on. Friday night I watched some of my old workmates (see below) doing dragonboating on the Thames. Saturday it was Tammy's birthday so I went for dinner with the girls then we watched Ella Enchanted on DVD. Sunday I met up with Soth again and tried Yum Cha. A new experience for me. Was really enjoyable, yummy chinese food. The chicken feet werent too bad either. Then after that I raced off to the pub to catch up with the Phlat crew to observe Irish culture in the form of hurling and of course have a few drinks. As you can see, action packed.

The most exciting news of late, is that my little sis is coming to stay with me! Yay! I'll get to show her around London, n'all. And introduce her to the fun of sitting in pubs all day. Excellent......

New and improved with pictures

This is me and my old workmates from Reuters - Soth on the left and Kate on the right. As you may guess we were part way through a drunken night out when this was taken.

Testing 1, 2, 3...

Let's see if I can post pics...

This is from the beginning of our trip in Venice.

She speeds....through another blog update

So where were we? Ah that's right, Seville. In Seville we managed to absorb some of those traditional aspects of Spanish culture - flamenco, bullfighting and stinking hot temperatures. We visited a bull ring (but didn't actually watch a bullfight), went to a Flamenco show which was very cool and had a look around some of Seville's historic sights, like the Alcazar, an amazing Moorish palace. Also, apparently, where they filmed Mission Impossible 2.

After Seville, we headed to Lagos in Portugal which is a nice little beach town where we spent our time, where else, but at the beach. I think I may have even got what looked to be a bit of a tan, although it's long gone now. In Lagos we familiarised ourselves with traditional Portuguese food from a place called Burger Ranch. The closest thing to Wendys I've had since NZ. Yummm.....

After Lagos it was onto the capitol Lisbon, where we did a one day whirlwind tour of the sights which included Castelo de Sano Jorge (the old castle that overlooks the city), the impressive monastery dos Jeranimos and the Belem Tower. The next day we took a day trip to Sintra, a gorgeous town just outside of Lisbon with gorgeous palaces, stately homes, ruins etc.

After Portugal it was back to Spain to Sebastiantien, via a short stopover in Madrid. San Seb (as the Aussies like to call it) is a very nice beachside town, which reminded us a little of Nice, although we didnt get to see too much as we were only there for one day.

Then it was back to France! First stop was in Bordeaux, where we studied up on wine tasting by going on a wine tour around the area. I actually appreciated drinking a good red wine so I did learn something. Pity it's only €30 a bottle stuff I can drink.

And of course after Bordeaux it was our final stop Paris! Paris was hectic, but very cool. We only had 2 days to cram in all the sights, so we were pretty much on the go the whole day. We saw the Moulin Rouge, Sacre Ceau, Arch D'Triomphe, the Effiel Tower, Notre Dame, the Louvre (and the Mona Lisa, of course), the palace of Versailles and the cemetary where Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde are buried. I think that was probably one of my most enjoyable parts of Paris. Fcemeteryetary there was really a community sort of atmosphere with people coming to pay tribute. Tammy and I even kissed Oscar Wilde's memorial with lip gloss as per tradition. Jess & Catherine came across a man with wild hair and a Jim Morrison t-shirt who had devoted all his time to directing visitors where to go.

So it was a very weary group of girls who arrived back in London, almost two months ago now. We really did have a fantastic trip, despite the heat, the sightseeing fatigue and bumpier bits. Hmm...writing this is making me a little nostalgic. Except possibly for communal showers and wearing the same manky clothes over and over again.

Who you callin' lazy?

So remember there was that time I went backpacking? Feels like ages ago...oh wait it was.

Hmm....where were we? Well we had a pretty chilled week and a bit in Greece. The islands there are gorgeous. The first island, Paros, was pretty much a beach island so that's what we spent most of our time doing. Apart from the odd drinking sesh as well, of course. The hotel we stayed at was this weird old fashioned style hotel, run by a man and his elderly mother. The place was a bit creepy and reminded me of Pyscho meets Agatha Christie in Greece....

I think my highlight of Paros would have to be waking up the entire village at 2am with my excellent rendition of Gwen Steffani cheerleader style at the top of my lungs, followed by a joint group singalong to the Sound of Music.

After that we caught the ferry to Santorini. Santorini is amazing. The huge cliffs and white houses are exactly how you imagine them. Maybe even better. I even managed a cruise and volcano tour with Tammy, Lesley and Jo. Was def a great way to see the island. Our hotel was lovely, complete with swimming pool which we managed to hog.

So after several days in the sun in Santorini it was time to head back to Athens to begin the marathon journey back to Italy. We literally spent about 3 days at sea (with one day's rest in Athens) before we arrived back in Ancona in Italy. Ancona is the port town nearest Rome and my first stop on Busabout and really not much else. Our hotel room did have MTV so we holed up in the rooms watching music tv and dying each others hair. Who said backpacking meant you had let grooming go...?

From Ancona it was onto Roma! Va bene! Rome was amazing. There is literally so much to see and do in Rome, there was no way we could see it all even with 3 full days there. We got to see all the main sites - the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and Palpatine Hill, the Vatican, St Peters, the Sistine Chapel.... I think our highlight of Rome was the ancient roman ruins Russell Crowe's Aussie Rules field which we discovered at Palpatine Hill and best mushroom pasta ever from the campsite we stayed at. Unfortunately we didnt get to see the new pope but we did go and visit John Paul II's tomb. Oh and I managed to blaspheme inside St Pauls while I was climbing to the top. Go me!

After Rome we went on Busabout's 3 Day Southern Italian Explorer. We stayed in the gorgeous town of Sorrento and got to visit Pompeii and the Isle of Capri and well as drive through the Amalfi coast, one of the most beautiful views in the world we were told. And it was pretty amazing.

After those 3 days it was back to Rome for a quick stop, then we headed off to Florence. Florence of course is Art City. We spent most of our time there visiting (or queuing for) the two main galleries - the Academia, which had Michelangelo's David and the Uffuzi, with Botticelli, Raphael, Rembrandt...etc, etc. We managed to see work by all four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by the end of it.

Our next stop after Florence was Cinque Terre, on the North Eastern coast of Italy, it is made up of 5 small villages, all clinging to the coastal rock. We stayed in the first village Riomaggiore in a lovely little apartment, which was like heaven after a few weeks of hosteling and camping. It is a gorgeous area, another of the most beautiful areas in the world. We spent most of our time hanging at the beach or wandering around the tiny village.

After Cinque Terre, it was finally time for us to say goodbye to Italy. I really enjoyed our time there but I think we must have had enough pasta and pizza to last us for a good ten years. We headed to Nice, France next.
Nice is really cool. The beach resembles Brighton or somewhere in England, but much cleaner and really nice weather. We got to tour around Nice on our favourite method of transport Le Petite Train (which we discovered in New Caledonia so many years ago). Also made sure to hang out at the beach and we had the best ice creams ever from a shop in Nice. They have really bizarre flavours like rose, lavender etc... It was sooo good, better than all the gelati we ate in Italy. .

From Nice it was on to Barcelona in Spain. We spent 2 days in Barcelona and got to see heaps and heaps of Gaudi buildings (Barcelona's most famous architect/designer), stroll down Las Ramblas and even managed to fit in a visit to the Picasso gallery.
After Barcelona it was onto Madrid and the weather just keeps getting hotter the further in Spain we go. We spent 2 sweltering days in Madrid where we visited the two most famous art galleries in Spain and the Real Palace, then it was onto Seville.

Phew, so there you go. More later. Hopefully....

I have a home!

After weeks of staying out at teh phlat(tm Carly) in Acton, I finally moved into my new flat last Saturday. It's a lovely Victorian terrace house in Archway (that's North London)and I have a nice big room with my own huge double bed and wardrobes and drawers and everything. I dont have to live out of a backpack any longer. Excitement!

My flatmates are two very nice, very friendly English girls and we get on pretty well so far. We even managed a night out on Wed for Liz's birthday.

So I'm a Norf London girl now and I'm allowed to moan continously about how useless the Northern Line is.

Sorry still no updates on my trip.....if you're lucky I might challenge myself to backpacking around Europe in 50 words or less.

I ain't no dirty hippie!

Despite what this quiz says.

I am 29% Hippie.

I need to step away from the tie-dye. I smell too good to be a hippie and my dad is probably a cop. Being a hippie is not a fashion craze, man. It was a way of life, in the 60’s, man.

Take the
Hippie Test
@ FualiDotCom

Most pointless blog ever...

Well I intended this blog to chronicle my trip around Europ, but of course I was too damn busy to update it. So let's pretend that I wrote this about two months ago and it will go along nicely.

First stop on our very own Eurotrip - Venice

The city itself was an absolute blast! We spent 4 days in Venice, exploring the tiny streets and canals. We stayed at a camping backpackers just outside the city, complete with pool and bar facilities, both of which we made sure we used frequently. The weather was soo beautiful, sunny and pretty damn hot. I managed to get sunburnt and heat rash within the first week or so. Jo and I arrived on Monday and stayed in our tiny wee 2 person tent. We spent the next day wandering around Venice on our own then met the girls Tuesday night and were were extremely happy to be upgrading to a cabin..with walls even.
Wednesday was our first day sightseeing as a group. We went to San Marco Piazzo and stood amoungst the crowds visiting the Basicilia and the Doges Palace and just spent the rest of the day wandering. Venice is such a beautiful city, full of tiny nooks and crannies, where you can just about stumble onto anything. It's easy just to loose yourself amoungst the canals.
The next day we got a ferry out to one of the outer islands, Murano, famous for it's glassmaking and we got to watch an Italian family doing a glassblowing demonstration. We spent the rest of the afternoon searching desperately for gellato but no luck.
Friday night we got to have real Italian pasta and managed to finally find gellato store. Yummy.
Then Saturday it was all go as we missioned out to get the ferry to Greece! We were wholed up on the ferry for 2 days! Cabin fever, ahoy. But it is a wonderful way to see the whole of Venice.
Arrived in Athens late the next night. Managed to fit in some sightseeing the following day and saw the Acropolis and the Agora. We squeezed in a bit more sightseeing the next day and got our fill of ancient Greek ruins and relics. Then it was off to the Greek Islands. Beaches here we come.

For my first lot of photos go here - http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/melscott_nz/album?.dir=/28f7>

Time's up

With a day left at the Stratford flat Jo and I are about to embark on The Big Trip. Tomorrow we head off to Gatwick airport to stay at the lovely Premiere Travel Inn, Gatwick. We'll let you know how that one goes. It's a very early start on Monday morning as we check in at 4.55am. Ouch! Then it's off to Venice! Yay!

I have just bought a digital camera so I will be able to keep you all up to date with photos and the like.

Phase 1 of The Big Trip is about to start. Excitement......

Dear Mum & Dad.....

Why did you not take into consideration the many ways my given name can be bastardized?

That is all.

Love,

Mel-icious

Teasing Nicknames for Melanie:

- Mel Mel
- Melsy
- Felony
- Melolelonie
- Smellanee
- Melonhead
- Melanoma
- Smell
- Pail Mel
- Melancholy
- Maloney
- Hail Mel
- Smelly
- Mello Jello
- Mel-Smell
- Smelly Melly
- Melvin
- Melons
- Melster
- Melba Toast
- Melon Head
- Water Melanie
- Mel Dog
- Mel Belle
- Melicious
- Melbany
- Melfernee
- Mellow Yellow
- Meller
- Melkany

(taken from Babynamer)

PS. I can assure you that I have actually been given many of those nicknames over the years. My favourite probably isnt suitable for family members. Sorry folks.

Heard on my voicemail

"Yeaaah, giiiddaaay maaate. Just phoning 'bout the roooom in the TNT, maaate. Reeally interested. If you could giiive me a call back maaate......Cheers, maaate."

Who knew people actually talk like that?

The Countdown begins.....

Our first party of travellers left for the Continent on Sunday! So Jo and I are now on our lonesome in Stratford. (That's East London, luvies). We have said goodbye to scummy Willesden flat and temporary hello to scummier Stratford flat, complete with new and strange kiwi flatmates. They seem to have health food and weird objects lying around the house. Jo says they're something to do with "exercising" and "keeping fit" but I have no idea what she's on about......

I dont have much longer to go at Reuters now (6 days and counting). I cannot wait....

The girlies sound like they are having a wonderful time so far. Below is the latest dispatch -

We left London on Sunday morning for Brugges, afteralmost missing the bus!!!!We arrived in Brugges about 2pm and spent the daywondering around, it is very pretty, all cobbled,horses and carriages and canals.Today we went on aboat ride thru the canals and wentto the basilica of the holy blood, but the blood wasntthere. It rained alot today and we got wet!!!!Tomorrow we are going on a tour to Flanders and Ypres,then Wednesday we are off to Amsterdam.mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm loving the scummy hostel showers,they are so foul.Backpack very heavey, but want some clogs fromamsterdam, oh well must squeeze them in!!!!!Will email or send postcards soon, Love Jessxx

Will be me soon too. Yay!

Flat Tack

After being on cruise control for the last 9 months or so, everything is starting to happen all at once. Work has gone crazy (that's the day job) as our jobs are going to another department and we have to train them and oversee the whole thing and it's turning out to be a bit of a mess. I will still be working here until our trip though, so that's one less thing to worry about. We're also trying to off load our flat to someone else before we go, on top of organising the move and the Big Trip.

On a good note, all our friends are beginning to arrive over here. Carly has arrived already and Jo, next week and finally Tammy arrives week and a bit later. Yay!!

Imagine if you were at the Oxford/Cambridge boat race....

....and out of nowhere none other than Craig Parker pops out at you!! That's right people, our favourite stalker/ex elf is popping up into our lives again. How we laughed and laughed as we chased the cheeky chappy through the crowds so Cathy could catch a glimpse of him. But he was too quick for us this time. One day Craigy, one day.

Psst! Wondering what's so special about Craig? Go here to find out more.

Slightly belated.......

Happy 21st Birthday Sis!!

It's my little sis's 21st birthday this weekend. I can't be there, since I'm stuck over here in Blighty, so unfortunately I will miss the festivities.

I hope it is a wonderful night and everyone who does go will let me know how it went.

So a Very Happy 21st Birthday to you Katherine!! I hope you have an extra special night! Miss you loads and loads....

From Snow to Summer in two weeks flat

Well the snow has disappeared and in its place, summer has arrived! The bizarro weather means that it's now lovely and sunny and even getting up to 21 degrees. It feels almost tropical in contrast to the freezing weather not so long ago.
Apparently this is a freakish weather system and March isn't normally so warm. Here's hoping it lasts for a bit.

Let it snow, let it snow

So much for my getting my wish. It's been snowing on and off for the two weeks and and this morning, while waiting in the unrelenting snow shower for the bus, I realised the novelty had well and truely worn off.

Bugger

Typical. The snow disappears almost as quickly as it came. When do I get my snow storm, huh?

As I mentioned before I've been busy with this new job. I started last week and am slowly getting used to the job of a telephone charity fundraiser representative. I worked three nights last week and all of Saturday (on a hangover no less) so it has been sorta tiring. I think maybe I need to cut down on the nights out and I'll be fine.

Friday night I went out with a friend from work. It was really good fun, although trying to phone strangers on a hangover the next morning was a bit of a struggle. And this week we have another night out as he's leaving this Friday so won't be cutting down just yet. Next week, for sure.....

New Taste Sensation

Today I discovered this - Diet Coke with Lime. It's sooooo nice.

What can I say I'm a slave to the brand.

So we went on this trip right

Sorry. This update about our trip to Brussels is a bit belated. I started at the call centre job last Monday so things have been rather busy. But here we go, for your enjoyment.

A Brussels Experience

We all met up at Waterloo station to hop on the Eurostar, like proper jetsetters. Excitement! It's a bit bizarre to get off the tube from work then hop on a train straight to The Continent, but there you go. It only takes about an hour from London to get to the tunnel and then another hour via Lille, France to Brussels itself.

We arrived in Brussels at about 9.30pm local time and after a manic taxi ride (European drivers are scary!), checked into our lovely four star hotel, selected by Cathy herself.

Day One -

The next morning we started our sightseeing with a wander around one of the central tourist spots in Brussels, Grand'Place. It's a lovely cobblestone square with lots of museums, restaurants and the Town Hall. V. Medieval. We even managed to witness a couple of weddings while we were there.

And then it was off to the most famous landmark in Brussels, the little guy below - Mannekin Pis. He's tiny but has legendary status in Brussels. No tourist shop is without hundreds of replicas of Mannekin Pis. Some of us did even manage to take home some souvenirs of him.

The rest of the day was pretty much spent wandering around Brussels' various tourist attractions including the Museum of Chocolate (surprisingly not enough chocolate) the Royal Palace, Parliament and St Michel Cathedral.

That night we went to one of the many crowded restaurant areas not far from Grand'Place. Now in Brussels they have these areas devoted to one type of restaurant (eg seafood, Italian etc) where men stand outside hollering at passing tourists to come and eat at their particular restaurant. After ignoring them all day (Funnily enough groups of four young women on their own seems to engage their attention pretty quickly), we gave in and had dinner at one of the less intimidating ones and had a lovely traditional 3 course meal and bottle of wine to celebrate Cathy's formal entry into adulthood.

Day Two -

We spent a relaxed last day looking around some of the rest of the sights of Brussels. My highlight was Cinquantenaire park and Le Arch de Triomphe. No, not the one in Paris, but stunning nevertheless. We also saw the European Union headquarters and several more churches and monuments. After some more wandering it was time for us to head back to the hotel and back to London. We boarded the Eurostar at about 4.30pm and arrived back in London by 7.30pm, just in time to grab some Chinese food for tea and mentally prepare ourselves for work the next day. (ugh)

So that was Brussels. All in all a really good holiday. I'll eventually get around to posting some photos from Scotland and Brussels. One day.

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Ooh gotta go I just spotted some snow!!

Superman is a dick

Excuse me while I indulge my inner comic book geek, but this is friggin hilarious.

Just briefly

Weekend was really good. Brussells was a v lovely place. More on that later. Now back to work.


Meh.

Good News

Training went well and I got the job. Just waiting to find out when I can start which might not be for a couple of weeks yet.

Oh and I haven't died of exhaustion just yet so you can all stop worrying.

Aaargh...

It's always when you're think you're already busy life decides to step in and prove you wrong. Work is still busy, not stressful, but busy nevertheless. And it's always when you're busy customers decided to annoy you even more.

Meanwhile my interview went well last night (yay!) so I get to go to training this weekend. (boo!) So I'll be working the whoooole weekend.

And to top it off I have to sort out our riddle of a gas bill. British utility companies suck people! Actually make that most British organisations of any kind. Oh for the elequent simpleness of Empower or ASB. *le sigh*

So things might go a little quite here as I will probably have expired of exhaustion by Sunday evening. Just kidding Mum!! Actually my brain is more likely to explode while on the phone to British gas on Monday.

We have lift off!

Since I am absolutey rubbish at keeping in contact with everyone, I decided to take the lazy (or is that geeky?) option of starting a blog so y'all can know what I'm up to.

Christmas and New Years was good and very busy with our trip up to Scotland for Hogmanay. We spent Christmas day at the flat with Yvette and Rebecca, and consumed loads of food and trashy British xmas telly. New Years in Edinburgh was really cool. Edinburgh is a very groovy little city. Our tour around the Highlands and Isle of Skye was brilliant. Got to see some amazing scenery and we managed to visit every single souvenir shop from Edinburgh up to Skye and back again as well. I think we must have broken some kind of world record.

This week has been pretty hectic at work as we are one woman down and have just discovered that January is our busiest month of the year. Who knew? I've also decided to apply for a part time job to earn some more moolah for our trip in summer. I've got an interview tomorrow so *cross fingers* all goes well.

Other than that things have been relatively quiet here. Everything has wound down from the Christmas/New Year holidays and there's no nice weather to distract us. It's freezing. No snow just yet, although Jess is hanging out for some.

Ah, isn't life in London absolutely enthralling? Nevermind. We're off to Brussels next week for Cathy's 21st so all going well, I'll have some tales of debauchery for you. (And of course by "debauchery", I mean "sightseeing.")

Should have some photos of Scotland to come shortly so stay tuned.