Farewell to Newcastle.... next stop Europe

Well, its all happening now. I've resigned from work and finish there on the 14th. I move out of my house tomorrow and will be staying with my mate Ken for a few weeks, before I leave Newcastle on the 16th to go to London, and then head for Paris for the start of my Europe trip! Nita and I are meeting there and will be travelling mostly by train for 2 months.

The basic itinerary is: Paris, Holland, Krakow, Prague, Czesky Krumlov, Vienna, Budapest, Bucharest, Istanbul, Athens, the Greek Islands, Naples and Spain. Then I'll be back to London before flying home to the Gold Coast in mid September.

So it is all very exciting! I'm going to miss my friend and work mates here in Newcastle, but I'm ready to leave and return home to some decent weather. I don't think I could handle another English winter...

A few weeks ago I went on a science communication conference in Belgium. It was very interesting, and Belgium is lovely. I've put in a few pics from the trip.

England has gone football crazy. I must say I've got quite into it all, especially with Australia doing so well! Robbed I say, and all my English friends have been very supportive and totally agree. Out side my work they have set up a big screen for the England games, so I've attached a pic. Cars are driving around with England flags attached to them (some even with 6 attached!) and every bar and pub and shop has England flags flying. Its all very intense! They really love their football here, that's for sure.

I've had Kirstie staying for the past week, which has been lovely. We were at college together at Uni and we haven't seen each other in almost 4 years. She is in between 2 trips around Europe, and is really enjoying it.

On Monday night it was my housemate Marek's Birthday, so we had a bit of dinner here at home and I managed to cook up some polish food for everyone. He hadn't had any polish food since coming to the UK over a year ago, and he said it was better than polish food (a very nice complement). It was a bit of an expience cooking food I'd only heard about, but it all turned out well and was quite tasty. There is a pic attached on the night - Marek is in the Newcastle football shirt we gave him for his birthday. He's a real Geordie now!

latest adventures

Well I've been kind of busy lately. All these things I've been planning for so long are actually starting to happen. I've covered a fair bit of ground in the past month and a half considering I have been travelling on weekends, so hopefully you can make it through the email to the pics I've taken on my travels.
The South of England: Haywards Heath and Brighton
Lizzie came on her holiday to the UK for a month. I visited her down at Haywards Heath, where she was visiting the family she nannied for 2 years ago. We went to Brighton for a day and I caught up with some old friends who I met in Montreal 5 years ago, Sarah and Dana. Great to see them again. It was lovely down in the south, so different to the north of England.Lots of trees and tiny country lanes. Brighton was different again, a beachside resort town with white building lining a pebble beached ocean. The was a big pier with amusement games on it, and another one which was almost fully collapsed. Dad says he used to fish off the old pier when he was a lad. Was interesting to see some places he had grown up.
My Birthday party
I celebrated my birthday on the Saturday before the 18th with lots of friends. Lizzie was up visiting by then, and Nita came down for Glasgow, with 12 of us going out for Italian dinner and then to a nightclub. Was great fun to party with my mates in Newcastle
My actual birthday
Mum and Dad arrived on the 17th, so for my birthday we had the whole family together again after over a year. It was so great to see them again!

Prague
We all went to Prague on the 21st for 3 nights. Prague is such a beautiful city. It reminded me of Florence quite a bit, with its terracotta coloured roofs, river running through it and beautiful buildings. But Prague had more beautiful buildings and much more gorgeous bridge, wider streets, and the castle complex was quite incredible. Plus it was cheaper and had great food and beer! It was so easy to get around on the metro and trams too. I can't wait to go back there in the summer now. I can imagine it will be just perfect weather for sitting in a bar, drinking delicious Czech beer, and watching the tourists pass you by.

Pics of Prague:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2e0wkff.amz2sou7&x=1&y=i94qaa

Lizzie headed back to the States from Prague. She is now living in Vancouver for 5 months with the same family she was in Costa Rica with, nannying for the 2 kiddies.

The Lake district
First weekend in June saw me, Mum and Dad in the Lake District, which is one of the most beautiful areas of the UK. Beautiful fells (mountains) and lakes. The weather was pretty crap unfortunately but my parents still enjoyed it. We went for a few walks around lakes and fells. Just lovely. We also stopped by Hadrians Wall (the roman wall that was built across England to keep out the scary Scots) and a ruined castle - Barnard castle. If only the weather had been warmer than the 12 degrees max it would have been much more pleasant
Pics of the Lake district and the Netherlands:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2e0wkff.5pjymklr&x=0&y=-2j9hrv

Holland
I was in Holland last weekend to visit a friend who was observing the international criminal war courts there as part of his law degree. My friend Katie also flew over from London so it was a semi-reunion of college days 6 years ago. We were lucky to get some fine weather as Dave said it had been raining the whole time he'd been there until Katie and I arrived.

Amsterdam was an interesting city- I had expected the canals and clogs in the souvenir shops, but not the sleaze... there were quite a few stag parties around and it was a bit wrong. The sex industry is really in your face, girls in windows. I'd never seen anything like it, that's for sure. It was great seeing the wonky houses, so narrow and tall and leaning because of unstable foundations. I'll be going to the museums there when I return in a few months.

The Hague was a pleasant surprise. Like I didn't know there was a nice beach there! Not that you would go in the water cos it would be freezing, but it was really nice along the beach, they had some very nice restaurants and bars along there. It had a very Indonesian feel about it - reminded me a tiny bit of Bali (the weather made it a tad difficult to see the similarities).

We had a fun night out on Saturday, watching the sun set from a cosy bar on the beach with Dave, Katie and Dave's two mates in his course. They were nice guys. We all ended up at an Aussie bar singing along to songs by Pearl Jam and other random music.

The cycling tour around the Hague was lovely, very relaxing riding around the flat bike paths on a very nice bike. There was a nature reserve we rode though, then the royal forest near the summer palace, and then through the centre where we saw the UN buildings and more palaces. A very easy city, nothing spectacular, just nice. I really enjoyed the M C Escher exhibition though. It has his entire collection. Incredible art pieces, so detailed.. I wish I'd had more time to spend there.

What now...
Well Mum and Dad return from Portugal tonight, and they leave to go south to visit their friends tomorrow. It has been so lovely seeing them. I have really missed my family being over here.

Tomorrow I'm off to Belgium for 5 days for the ecsite conference (European science centres conference). Very exciting. I'm doing a presentation on the Centre for Life shop. I only found out I had to do the talk on Tuesday, so its a tad nerve racking, but I welcome the challenge.

The geordie T. rex!

We have a new T. rex exhibition at work. For Alan Shearer's testimonial today they draped the 11m T. rex in an Alan Shearer shirt. So hilarious!

Puffins!

Puffins taking off in the Farne Islands

On Saturday I went to the Farne Islands with Ken, Baz and Nita. We got a boat tour out to the islands which were teaming with wildlife. Puffins (cute birds, a cross between a penguin and a parrot to look at) flying like little torpedo flying penguins, grey seals lounging on rocky outcrops, and so many birds nesting on rock faces, including shags, guillemots, turns, eider ducks, and cormorants. It was great to see such amazing wildlife all around. I decided that was something that I've missed from my travels so far- lots of wildlife.

So many birds!

We went out dancing with the crew last night. Was so great! And today was spent wandering around town after dropping off Nita. I saw "The White Countess" at the movies, which was a great film, very subtle and beautiful, set in Shanghai before WWII.

Grey seals catching some sun

The Scottish Highlands

Here comes another post to tell you of my travels. This time I stayed in the UK, travelling to Edinburgh to join a Haggis tour of the Scottish highlands. My friend Ken joined me for the trip, which was great. He was the token English person on a bus of Aussies and Kiwis, most of whom are living in London (no surprise there). There were lots of great people on the trip. It was kind of strange for me to be hanging out with so many Aussies! It has been so long. Ken went to Scotland and discovered more about the Aussie culture than anything else. Quite bizarre for him.

So the trip was great. We covered quite a bit of ground.On the first day we travelled to the Falls of Bruar, Aviemoor, Culloden moor, and ending up at Dornoch beach, which was a lovely white sandy beach. Also passed the church where Madonna and Guy Richie were married (I seem to have a Madonna theme on recent trips- her nightclub in Miami and now the church where she was married? Weird).

That night we stayed in Carbisdale Castle, which is apparently haunted (I was having none of that though, much too sceptical for that :). It was a gorgeous night and we saw the full moon rising, and then reflected in a calm lake. We danced to a Ceilidh (pronounced caely, traditional music) band in the castle, which was great fun, and then went to the local pub at Invershin which was decorated with deer antlers and random film memorabilia, like a helmet from braveheart and highlander and a bow from Robin hood prince of thieves. Was a very cute little pub and I sampled some scottish whisky and beer and chatted to lots of Australians, and also a few locals, who were wondering what the hell 50 Aussies were doing invading their local in the middle of no where.

The next day we saw Loch Ness, Urquhart castle, the great glen, the stunning Eilean Donan castle, and ended up on the rugged Isle of Skye. Our tour guides were 2 Scottish lads, very funny guys who kept us very entertained on the whole tour. We stopped at this river on Skye, the Sligachan River, where we were told a faerie story, that basically ended with all of us having to dunk our heads in the ice-cold snow-melt river so we would be beautiful forever. I thought why the hell not, and it was lovely and refreshing, but as to the beauty thing, I'll have to wait and see.

That night it was everyone to Saucy Mary's, the pub next to our hostel for many whiskeys and beers. Had good chats with lots of Aussies.

Some thing very unfortunate happened that night. The house next to Saucy Mary's burnt down in the night, and a person was killed in the fire. A couple of guys off our bus were witnesses, and one was being questioned the next morning when we were supposed to be leaving. The Skye police wouldn't let our bus leave for 2 and a half hours, at which time they let us leave but the guy they were questioning had to stay behind. His mate was saying how they went to the back of the house when it was on fire cause they could hear people screaming, but he couldn't breathe in the smoke so he went away, but his friend was a bit more involved. Very odd.

Well we saw some beautiful sights that day, driving through the spectacular Glen Coe and the Trossachs. We even visited a Hairy Coo! (Cow in a Scottish accent). We got back to Edinburgh to find a police car waiting for the bus to pick up the other guy who had witnessed the fire. Very suspicious.

Ken and I had some yummy Thai for dinner in Edinburgh before catching a train back to Newcastle. I was sooo tired last night. All that whiskey and bus travel caught up on me.

Forgot to mention that the night before we stated the tour we stayed with Chris's Canadian mates from Busabout- Steph and Alex. They are great girls, very easy going and kind to let us crash at their flat in the heart of edinburgh. Went out for a few beers with them too (key to living in scotland and coping with the crap weather = drinking lots of beer it seems :)

Costa Rica

I've just returned from my trip to Costa Rica to visit my sister Lizzie. It was a fabulous trip for heaps of reasons: seeing my sister after a year apart; feeling warm after a long, cold English winter (it was snowing when I departed, and now its 14degrees! I think I'm destined for warmer weather now, thank heavens); Costa Rica is a fabulous country – so beautiful, diverse, friendly and easy to get around.

Miami?

I'll begin at the end, to explain why I'm sitting in Heathrow airport right now a day after I should have been here. I arrived at San Jose airport on Monday and was told that the plane was 2 hours late. Hmmm. Upon reaching the counter the lady says that it means I miss my connecting flight to London, hence I have a 24 hour delay, so would I like to stay in Miami or San Jose for the night at their expense? I would have gone back to my sister but it's a 2hour cab ride away from the airport, so I thought, well I've never been to Miami so I'll go there. I'd just started chatting to a couple of guys in the check-in line and they were in the same situation. So at least I had some people to hang out with.

I got to stay in the Sheraton in Miami, which was so awesome – king sized bed and all that. The two guys were from Chicago and had been to Miami, so we headed out that night to South Beach. We went to the Delano hotel, which is owned by Madonna, and it was by far the most amazing club (or whatever it is) I've ever been to. You walk into the hall of 20m high ceiling which have white flowing drapes hanging from the roof down a long room. There are a few different bars and 2 different DJ sections, a huge pool with beds around its edge you can hire (for $1200!) and it is all opulence. I had a good time dancing there, even met one of the DJ's, and then we headed to another bar which was jam packed with girls in the tightest clothing I'd ever seen. It was certainly and interesting experience, being in Miami for a night. There were loads of people out, even though it was a Monday night! Crazy place…

The next day I hung around the hotel, and the mall attached to it, until I went to the airport to catch my 8pm flight to London. And here I am, still waiting, this time for my plane to Newcastle.

Costa Rica

Now back to Costa Rica…

I got to Costa Rica without any trouble on my 3 flights and 2 hour taxi ride to where Lizzie is living. Wow she is so lucky where she is- living at Los Suenos, a Marriot resort, with 3 luxury pools to choose from, the amazing marina packed with million dollar boats, a few bars, restaurants, a coffee shop and a golf course (if one could afford to play there). All the staff there are so friendly, and so many of them know Lizzie now she has been there so long. She lives with the family she nannies for in an apartment within the resort. Very nice place.

Los Suenos Marriott Resort (Pacific Coast)

For the first few days I helped Lizzie to look after the kids she nannies for – Abby who's almost 3, and Max who's 8 months. Gorgeous kids, but such a handful! Totally wears you out trying to keep up with them.

On the Saturday we got to go out on the boat (Lizzie is working for a family where the Dad is the captain and the mum is the chef). The boat is so amazing. It's a multi-million dollar marlin fishing yacht, 125feet long, with a permanent crew of 5 people and it can sleep 14. What luxury. It was amazing cruising along in the boat.

We headed into Jaco a few times, which is the closest town to the resort. It is a surfing town on the beach, filled with restaurants and souvenir stores, American college students and not much else. It is a fun place though.

Food

The food in Costa Rica was so amazing! Fresh seafood was especially good, and soooooo cheap! Eg. $8 for a whole red snapper, cooked to perfection. Yummmmmm, I miss the food so much already. English food is not very inspiring, I can tell you.

The Caribbean

On Monday Lizzie and I headed on a bit of a trek via taxi and bus to the other side of the country, the Caribbean side. 8 hours later we arrived in Puerto Viejo, and very small coastal town quite close to Panama which is filled with surfers who never leave and people of Jamaican decent (meaning there were lots of Rastas there!). It is very different to the other side of the country where Lizzie lives. The Caribbean coast was even more laid back, the roads were atrocious, and the town had really only one street with some restaurants and bars on it. We stayed in a cabin that looked directly onto a famous surfing break called the Salsa Brava. Wow, what a view. The cabin was, well, lets say basic. We had an encounter with a cockroach and a sea crab that hidden in Lizzie's clothes, and we had to cope with cold showers.

There was one Rasta guy who seemed to always be sitting in a tree by the road. Every time we passed him he called out us. But seriously, he was always in the tree, and was well camouflaged at night with his black skin, so it was a bit disconcerting to hear the tree talking!

On our full day there we hired bicycles, and snorkelling gear, and rode south for 8km to the most beautiful beach, Punta Uva. The rainforest came right down to beach, and we sat under palm trees on the sand. We had a bit of a snorkel, and Lizzie tried out surfing on the small reef break there. It was so beautiful.

San Jose

The next day we caught the local bus to San Jose, the capital city. We'd befriended a Canadian girl who spoke fluent Spanish, and she negotiated with the dodgy taxi drivers to get us to a 5 star hostel called Pangaea. It had a pool, bar, free internet and free phone calls to the USA & Canada (not much help to us, but cool nonetheless).

We woke up early the next morning and walked into the city, where we found the central markets. They were awesome, full off amazing fruits and vegetables that we couldn't identify, meat, seafood and everything else under the sun. We saw a little food counter packed with locals and sat there for some Gallo Pinto, the traditional breakfast of eggs with black bean rice. Very yummy. Breakfast for 2 with coffee came to a huge $3. Very cool. We bought lots of jewellery there and I picked up some $4 sunnies. We caught the local bus back to Lizzie's place (a huge $2 fare!).

Back on the pacific

We went on a canopy tour the next day, a gift from the manager of the Marriott who we were chatting to at the pool one day. It was very fun, - you wear a rock climbing harness and get attached to different cables which fly you through the canopy of the rainforest. Some of the trees were so gigantic. Lots of fun.

After the canopy we headed to Manuel Antonio, which is famous for its national park. We saw monkeys and a type of raccoon, and a sloth. We hung out on the beach swimming cause it was so hot. We had walked through the rainforest but almost fainted from the heat in the. Swimming in sweat. Beautiful place especially when viewing from the water!

My last full day in Costa Rica was spent down at the resort pool, called the beach club, with Lizzie and one of the guys off the boat Martin. So relaxing lying by the beautiful pool, swimming up to the pool bar for a cocktail or hamburger, and finding some free wireless to connect to. Lizzie was friends with the pool barman, and he and is his mate invited us to go for a ride on some jet skis. So off we went at sunset around the coast. It was awesome fun, but all my muscles were aching the day afterwards from struggling to stay on the thing!

That night we went to the Marriott bar, very classy, and drank mojitos and ate ceviche (popular Costa Rican dish of marinated raw seafood) and nachos with Martin and the two Costa Rican guys from the pool.

And its over.

So my trip has been awesome, and I really don't want to step outside the airport in Newcastle and be back in the cold again. It was so great just feeling warm all the time! When I was in Costa Rica it felt like England couldn't possibly exist. Costa Rica with its wealth of natural beauty, and great weather, is a completely other world to the UK. It was a great interlude in paradise.

I highly recommend going to Costa Rica if you get a chance. There is loads to do (I barely scraped the surface), people are very friendly, and it is cheap and easy to get around. A four hour bus journey cost only $7!

Update: I've made it back to Newcastle, with a 1 hour delay and my suitcase was left behind. Should be here sometime tonight. Brightside: saves me lugging the thing home. But till then I don't have a phone and all that jazz.

And it's lovely and sunny here, and 10 degrees isn't too bad I guess.

February in the UK

Thought it was time for an update on what I've been up to in this long, cold English winter.

Well, its still cold, and the thought of 4 more months of cold doesn't do wonders to the morale, but I think I'll manage with my interlude in Costa Rica next month to visit my sister. Most excited about that, the thought of sun soon makes me feel very happy!

Chris and I went to a Burn's night celebration, a Scottish night to honor a poet which involves men wearing kilts, saying the Burn's poem "Ode to the Haggis" and then everyone consuming a large slab of the stuff, accompanied by 'neeps and tatties'. Won't be eating much of that again for a while!

We celebrated Australia day with a small party at my place, introducing the English to fairy bread, vegemite, sausage sizzles (unfortunately from a fry pan) and lamingtons (I realised why I'd never tried to make them before, they are so fiddly!). It was good fun, listening to the hottest 100 as well.

Chris departed the UK the week before last. I was conveniently in London for a few days for work to visit the zoo and science museum, so we were able to spend another night together there. We were very touristy and checked out the extravagant and pastiche Harrods, where we purchased some pork pies (they were two for one so we thought we could splash out :), and admired the wares. Then we headed to Piccadilly circus, Leicester square, Soho for a cocktail and Chinatown for dinner. Yummo. Was a really nice night. London has a very exciting feel about it.

Chris left the next day for Japan. He is currently in Hong Kong, and still has to visit China, Thailand and Vietnam before he gets home to Australia in mid-March. As it looks at the moment we wont be seeing each other til I get back to Australia, which I think will be around September at the moment, after I've travelled around Europe in the Summer. Will be hard, but as before I'll keep busy...

While in London I visited the zoo for work, and got to hold an animal called a kinkajou, which is also called a honey bear, and is native to south and central America. It was so cute (see pic)!!

Last weekend I went to visit Tim (circus days) who is living in Alston working at a kids adventure camp. They mainly get school groups in there. It is a very nice part of the country with dry stone walls and green hills and not much else except pubs so we went to a few of those, hung out with his friends and work colleagues, and watched some quality Tom Cruise flicks like Top Gun and Days of Thunder. Hilarious. It was great to get out of the city though and see some of the pretty English countryside, although next time I visit I'll hope for some warmer weather!

This weekend Nita visited from Glasgow. We went to some funky cafes and bars and watched a few films, so it was a nice relaxing weekend.

Work is super busy this week with school half-term next week. The theme is the science of chocolate, so I'm finding it really hard writing and researching chocolate with out eating too much of the stuff! Oh well, it could be worse.... Researching mould would have a much worse effect....

The last pic is of Adrian, me, Chris and Baz down at the local pub the Bluebell having a game of pool on Adrian and Chris's last night in Newcastle. They'd spent so many evenings there....

Things that make me happy

these are things that will always make me happy.

the ocean. The sun on my face when its not that hot. travelling. meeting new people. chatting with friends. a smile from a good looking stranger. connecting with someone. looking at the blue sky on a crisp morning. swimming in the ocean. a hot shower. a spa bath. an excellent book. a good movie. my favourite music. Listening to music as i walk. my family. being in love. walking through trees. looking up to see a starry night. balmy summer evenings. penguins. sharing a good meal and red wine. the rainforest. dancing. singing. chatting with friends about everything and everything. an email that makes me think. feeling beautiful. a clean kitchen. a movie that transports me. dreaming.

Things I like about England

the clouds. Real Ale. The seasons (but not winter). The cosy pubs. The proximity to so many countries. The history. The variety of accents. Flowers in the spring. the music. that there are lots more gingers over here like me. having pale skin is normal. yorkshire puddings in the freezer section. boots. long days in the summer. Turning my face to the sunshine and not worrying about sunburn. The rolling green hills. "Why 'ay man" (the geordie accent). the seaside.

Dublin and Berlin

The past two weekends have been fabulous, flying overseas to vastly different capital cities. The only downside has been feeling super tired on Monday at work. Ah well, it it totally worth it.

Berlin
Last weekend I went to the fascinating Berlin with Gez, Baz (housemates), Alan, Nick, James (Gez's mates) and Nita (friend from home living in Glasgow). It was fun travelling with a group of buddies. We stayed in an almost new hostel that was nice and close to the city centre. Germany knows how to do hostels I've decided, as everyone we spoke to was staying at a hostel they though equally impressive. Must be the German efficiency!

Nita and I did an 8 hour walking tour on the Saturday. It was a great way to get an introduction to the city, especially its complex history. We were frozen by the end of the tour though, it was so cold it chilled you to the bone. The maximum was 2 degrees and at night it went down to -6. There was ice on the ground when we arrived and it did melt while we were there. We had beautiful sunny days though, which made up a little for the cold. I never thought I would think of Newcastle as warm, but it felt quite balmy in comparison to Berlin when I returned.

On the Saturday night, after some weisswurst (my 3rd sausage of the day) and pretzel, we went on a pub crawl. I enjoyed it, chatted to Aussies, Americans and an Irishman, drank some German beer and had a laugh. The coolest place we went to was a building that squatters had taken over. The government helped to make it structurally sound a few years ago and now it houses a bunch of artists who sell their work there and it also has a few bars. It is totally covered in graffiti too. Very interesting place.

After getting home at 4am I was pretty knackered the next day. After a leisurely European breakfast of salami, cheese and bread we headed to the Pergamon museum, which houses the entire front of an ancient greek altar. Incredible to see such a large ancient building inside another building in Berlin! Also in the museum was the reconstructed surface of the tower of Babylon, Greek and roman sculptures and loads of other amazing ancient works of art. Incredible place.

Neet and I then wandered over to the Reichtag, the German Parliament building, now completely restored with a Sir Norman Foster dome on the top of it. We were up there for sunset and had a magnificent view over the city.

Dublin
The weekend before last Chris and I went to Dublin for 10pounds return including taxes! At that price we had to go somewhere. Dublin was great fun, a very cosmopolitan city that is easy to get around. We met up with my old boss from the science festival in Australia, who has just moved back to her home town of Dublin with her Aussie boyfriend. They are enjoying being back there, and it was great to have their company each night.

On Saturday Chris and I saw the Book of Kells, the art gallery and the Guinness Brewery. The highlight was definitely having a Guinness at the Gravity Bar on top of the brewery, as it had a fabulous view over Dublin. Guinness definately tastes better in Dublin! Totally different taste to anywhere else. Quite tasty actually! That night we met Marty and LIz and went to a yummy carvery and then to Temple Bar where we heard people break out singing to songs they knew as they were played by the band. Great fun.

The next day we headed to the coast on the Dart (train). We went to the cute village of Dun Lourighie, very lovely. That night Liz and Marty took us to the highest pub in Dublin, Jimmy Fox's where we had delicious seafood.

What's next
I need to stay in the country for a while to save some money! I'm visiting my sister Lizzie in the middle of March in Costa Rica for 2 weeks. Can't wait to be in the tropical paradise where she is! Then Mum and Dad visit in May/June, and the plan is to travel Europe with Nita in July and August. And after that I'll head back home to Australia. That's the plan at the moment, of course many things could change.

Hope you enjoy the pictures of Dublin and Berlin. And I hope you are doing well in the new year, which is quite miserable up here in the northern hemisphere, with the prospect of 5 more cold months ahead!

Happy New Year!

Hope you had a fantastic time on New Years. I spent it in Edinburgh with Chris, my friend Nita and her friend from Glasgow Linsey (a real Glaswegian). Can't say I talked to too many Scottish people while in Scotland this time! Edinburgh was filled with foreigners like me!

We had a great time. We stayed in a hostel in Leith, a supposedly dodgy part of Edinburgh but we found it quite nice. It is where the port is and is very pretty. I caught up with Katie and her boyf who are living in London who were up for New Years, and with Anna who I worked with in Canberra, both a the Walkabout pub which was a very Aussie place to be, and fun as by 4pm in the afternoon most people in there had been celebrating since midday for the Aussie new years!

For New Years celebration we went to the street party, which was awesome. We saw a band called Hard-fi, very fun, and a few others. The atmosphere was excellent, everyone was very happy to be there and there were the traditional new years wishes all round at midnight, along with some fun fireworks. After the street party ended at 1pm we went to a random house part (friend's of Linsey's) which seemed just like a night club, with a DJ set up in the lounge room. I danced for a few hours and then we got back to our hostel on a free bus (yey for free buses!).

Christmas was lovely as well. I spent it with Chris's family (Aunties and cousins) in Lancashire, which is right next to the Yorkshire Dales. We had a huge turkey on Christmas day, on top of a large three course Christmas pub meal with had the night before. Chris's little cousins got so many pressies! We also went for a few nice walks in the area. It was nice being out of a big city for a while and in the very pretty English country side.

Between Christmas and New Years is snowed in Newcastle! It was so awesome walking to work in crunching white snow. The layer of white made everything look so beautiful as well. The snow is all gone now, but I'm hoping it will snow again before winter is out.

Wishing you all the best for 2005.

Edinburgh weekend

Well it is all gearing up towards Christmas here. The days are getting shorter, there are Christmas lights up in town and the shops are manic! It is certainly a different Christmas here than in Australia.

Last weekend Chris and I went to Edinburgh. On the Friday night we met up with Nita and her sister Sarah who was visiting, and some Canadian friends of Chris's. We saw the Geordie (Newcastle) comedian Ross Noble. Very funny show. Nita and Sarah caught the bus back to Glasgow at 1am as they were off to Chile the next day. We had a few drinks in a pub called the Conan Doyle and tried to understand some Scottish accents.. They are so hard to understand!

Chris and I stayed at his Canadian friends place quite near the town. Chris met them on his bus about trip.

On Saturday we went to Edinburgh castle. Very impressive. It did cost a bit to get in (10pounds each!) but there was loads in there - some interesting war museums and some national jewels. Pity the weather was quite miserable! To warm ourselves up after the castle we went to an awesome cafe called Plasir du Chocolat. We had some amazing hot chocolates and incredible cake that was layers of meringue and chocolate mousse... Just the thing you need on a wet Scottish day!

We had a quite night in that night with a few bottles of wine and some yummy pasta. Before we left on Sunday we checked out the German Christmas markets. Chris of course sampled some german sausages.

There are some pics attached of Chris and I at the castle with the view of Edinburgh behind us.

Also attached is a picture of me and my house mate Gez dressed up at a 60's/70's party. I'm dressed up as Daphne and Gez is Velma from Scooby doo! I won best dressed at the party, hilarious.

Nicole (from the circus) is coming up next weekend and I'm most excited.

Chris is staying with me till the beginning of February. He managed to get his old job back but is getting paid about double what he was being paid before - nice work there. His work is 3 minutes work from my house, and he is helping to develop an online ordering system website for a shop called Ann Summers, which sells lingere. Poor him ;)

It is great to have him back here again, although the next month and a bit will go super quick! Christmas (lancashire) and New Year (Edinburgh) and then I picked up a 10pound return flight to Dublin so Chris and I are going there in early January, then the weekend after that I'm off to Berlin! A real jet setter over the next month. That is the great think about living in England, there are so many awesome places to visit near by, And of course England is a lovely place, but it does have terrible weather.

castles and the cold

I'm getting back into real life and Italy is seeming a long time ago. I'm also got more over my compulsion to jump on the next plane and continue travelling! Well, the idea does pop into my head occasionally, but I am enjoying just being in one place with familiar people and things around me.

It has got really cold here. Tonight it will be below zero and I can't go out of the couse with out about 4 layers of clothing along with a scarf and gloves. Montreal was cold, with snow all the time and everything, but it really does feel colder here, with the strong cold wind and the dampness. Fingers crossed I survive the winter without too much trouble!

There is an ice rink in the square outside my work. Very fun to watch people gliding (well more wobbling) around in circles. I'll have a go soon, with some spare clothes in case I stack it!

On the weekend my old house mate Ken took me, Baz and his girlfriend for a drive in the countryside up the coast to Bamburgh Castle. It is very pretty up there, a castle over looking a white sandy beach and out the the farne islands. We had a pub lunch to prepare us for the cold, checked out the very old chruch where apprently St Aiden died (they have the cross beams that he apprently died on in the church), and looked at the graveyard because Ken is a stone mason and had carved many of the new headstones. Random I know.

We went for a bit of a walk along the beach by the castle. Not for too long though as it was so cold! In the picture you can see the sand being blown along the beach like mist.

On the drive home we stopped in Alnwick to go to Grannies Tea Room. We had visited Grannie's on the first drive we went on with Ken so the picture of him and me with our lovely english tea might look a bit familiar.. This time though that had scones so we had a proper english afternoon tea with scones, very quaint.

Chris arrives back in Newcastle on Friday! Hooray! Will be so good to see him after his travels around Europe. It has been almost 6 months since he left. He's not sure where he'll stay for the next 3 months, but fingers crossed he gets a job in Newcastle so he can stay here with me.

Some questions...

An email quiz...

1. Time of starting this test? 7.59pm, Sunday November 6.

2. Were you named after anyone? No

3. Do you wish on stars? Shooting ones yes

4. When did you last cry? can't remember

5. Do you like your handwriting? Yes

6. What is your favourite meat? Roast pork

7. What is your most embarrassing CD on your shelf? zero CD's on my shelf, most embarrasing album on my iRiver could be... Wham

8. If you were another person, would YOU be friends with you? Most certainly

9. Are you a daredevil? No.

10. Have u ever told a secret you swore not to tell? Yes.

11. How do you release anger? sing, write.

12. Where is your second home? Home at the gold coast.

13. Do you trust others easily? Yes.

14. What was your favourite toy as a child? My doll.

15. What class in school do you think is totally useless? When we had to go to chapel twice a week.

16. Have you ever been in a mosh pit? Yes.

17. Would you bungee jump? No.

18. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? No.

19. What's your favourite ice cream flavour? Most things with chocolate fudge in it.

20. What are your favourite colours? green, purple.

21. What is your least favourite thing? being cold.

22. How many people do u have a crush on right now? Only the one.

23. What do you miss most right now? Chris, good weather, family and friends back in Aust.

24. What colour underwear are you wearing? Black.

25. What are you listening to right now? Gez and Mike chatting, while flicking tv channels.

26. If you were a crayon, what colour would you be? vermillion. I love the name.

27. What is the weather like right now? Cooooolllllldddd and damp underfoot.

28. Last person you talked to on the phone? Chris from Contiki.

29. The first thing you notice about the opposite sex? Smile, eyes.

30. Do you like the person who sent you this? Yes, I like both of them (Neet and Row).

31. How are you today? Feeling a bit out of it after sitting on a train for 7 1/2 hours and eating sugary and salty snacks and drinking tea.

32. Favourite drink? Water.

33. Favourite alcoholic drink? Good red wine.

34. Natural hair colour? Red/strawberry blonde/ginger(if I'm in scotland).

35. Eye colour? green/blue.

36. Wear contacts? Yes.

37. Siblings? one sister.

38. Favourite month? November in the southern hemisphere, September in the northern hemisphere.

39. Favourite food? Roast pork with lots of veges. Okonomiyaki. Chocolate.

40. Last movie you watched? Broken Flowers.

41. Favourite day of the year? A hot summer day (so missing the warm weather here!).

42. Have you ever been too shy to ask someone out? Yes.

43. Scary movies or happy endings? Happy.

44. Summer or winter? Summer.

45. Do you want your friends to write back? YES.

46. Who is most likely to respond? Unsure. Maybe Lizzie?.

47. Who is least likely to respond? Chris, cause he's on the road

48. What book/magazine are you reading? The Morality of Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith.

49. What's on your mouse pad? It is a piece of newspaper from the travel section.

50. When did you last tell a lie? I don't tell big lies.