Postremo confessione

Keep Calm and It's My Birthday

A big shout out to my family and friends - for being awesome people and for loving and supporting me despite my quirks and foibles.  This year I will try to do better.  :-)

And a big kiss for Mr Terrific, my Mat-ilicious tea granny.  You are my life's adventure.

Hopefully I don't get in trouble for violating copyright laws, etc., but the following quotes had me in hysterics so I just had to share.  All credit to the creative geniuses behind them. 

Now ... I get cake!  Oh - and I'm off to see Phantom on the 22nd!!

Keep the peace,

M

Before I die I want to ...

We came across this interesting public form of a 'bucket list' along the banks of the Regent's Canal.  One notable entry was 'live in Oz and London', prompting me to wonder if Mat had been in this place before.  

I'm a big fan of maintaining a bucket list, crossing off accomplished items and adding new ones as I go. Two years ago I began taking drumming lessons; I have (at long last) gone on a cruise; in a couple of weeks I get to live out my dream of seeing Phantom of the Opera in London.  One day I'll visit Antarctica. 

What would you write on the board?

Keep the peace,
M

A Walk to Remember

The English love their long walks and the sunny weekend gave Londoners all the encouragement they needed to stretch their legs and have a gambol.

On Sunday, Mat and I invested the morning in writing job applications, then spent the afternoon walking the length of the Regent's Canal - from its starting point in Islington to the finish line at Little Venice.  In all we walked about six miles (almost 10km) along the canal's towpath, sharing it with other walkers and many bicyclists.  

Untitled, 2014

(pub at Islington underground, London)

Lock-keeper's house

Old gasholder at King's Cross

In case you want to know what a gasholder is ...

I couldn't help but take this couple's picture ... how sublime to be dining on the roof of your canal boat, with crystal glassware no less.  We had a late lunch/early dinner at an Italian restaurant in St John's Wood and then continued walking along the canal, up towards Little Venice.

Little Venice, end of Regent's Canal

No photos from today, but we did stick to the same schedule: breakfast, work on job applications, a walk (this time around Highgate Wood and town) and then lunch out.  I'm getting a little over not being able to cook for myself and having to eat in restaurants every day, although today's burger at a pub in a converted church was very yummy.  The upside is we don't eat past 4pm so we're using up the caloric intake when we need it most ... a good thing, otherwise I'd have to buy an extra seat on the plane for my return journey.

Keep the peace,

M

Eat 'em and weep!

Not since 1985 have I tasted the delicious little Hungarian treat called 'turo rudi' ... a dairy confection of pressed cottage cheese with a light citrus flavour, dipped in chocolate.  Until today!  

We visited the Camden Town markets for some fun-filled chaos this morning and in and amongst the hundreds of ethic food stalls was a second-generation Hungarian's delight: langos, palacsinta, goulas, etc. and also a few popular sweet treats such as turo rudi, and an all-time family favorite - 'Sport' bars, which are chocolatey and yummy and packed with happy childhood memories.  Mat and I sat in the sun and ate garlic salted langos, which is a deep fried bread (not to mention a heart attack on a plate) as well as the turo rudi and sport bars.  Today is a good day to be alive.

                       

Camden might be the home of the punk movement, but it's also well-known for it's canals.

  

The markets were terrific.  Besides lunch, all we bought was a watch-cap (beanie) for Mat - it's still quite cold at night when you're outside - but just being in that atmosphere and soaking in all the different accents and sights and sounds was marvellous.  Where else can you buy a turkish carpet and get your mobile topped up at the same time?  

I can be forgiven the occasional selfie; otherwise I won't turn up in any photos

After Camden we went into central London via the #29 bus and dropped into the Canadian pub called The Maple Leaf, at Covent Gardens.  Of course, we had to refresh ourselves with Moosehead beer! 

    

Today was a beautifully sunny day with blue skies overhead and 'spring' in everyone's step.  The newspaper said it was going to be a nice long weekend.  

Please, please let the temperatures reach 17c. 

I love reading your comments so feel free to write them often!  For some unknown reason, in addition to the UK, Australia and Canada, I've picked up readers in the USA and Germany too, which was entirely unexpected.  If you've stumbled across the blog by mistake, greetings!

Keep the peace,
M

Hassles in Highgate

If I started the day yesterday being cranky, I finished it in mild despair.  We did accomplish our two missions: a bank account for Mat and the move to a new Airbnb location. Thumbs up for that.  However, from there our day got bleaker and bleaker.

As pretty as this location is, it was probably never going to live up to the hospitality that Pauline and Steven extended us in Shadwell. That said, although these folks are nice enough on the surface, and certainly can't be called mean, it's not a location I would return to (terrible wi-fi/phone reception in the bedroom, which wouldn't be a problem if we were permitted in the lounge room. Making phone calls while shivering on the doorstep is NOT fun; cooking is not allowed ... actually, the kitchen isn't meant to be used outside of breakfast, but I got permission to put our milk for tea in the fridge; no laundry permitted, etc).  There is a lovely cat here with a silly, common-as-muck name.  I've privately renamed her Cat-sheeba; equally silly perhaps but at least she doesn't sound like a cheap pole dancer down on her luck. She's napping on my lap as I write this, which also isn't allowed but neither the cat nor myself are about to give away our secret.

Last night, Mat and I were hit with challenge after challenge with our technology, beginning with accidentally cooking our adaptor, to not being able to access our on-line banking or having a means of paying Mat's UK mobile phone bill, and no phone reception in the room to talk to support services.  Seriously, in the space of 20 mins it was one thing after another and it felt like we had been cursed.  Maybe we had. I will say this:  we have incredible people in our lives who came through for us big time.  Thank you again, Shine and Julie!  Because of these two angels, our heart rates have returned to normal.  The on-line banking issue has been sorted too and today Mat bought another adaptor, this time one that can handle my iPad.  Now we focus on the help wanted ads.

I'll wrap this post up here with some random photos from the last 48 hours.  With much appreciation for our family and friends and all your support and prayers. Love reading your comments!

Keep the peace,

M

St Paul's Cathedral

The Globe Theatre, circa 1997 - first thatch roof permitted within 1 mile of the City of London since the Great Fire of 1666

'When you have an old, burnt out shell turn it into a garden' - Mat, on coming across this minute oasis. Christchurch Greyfriars Garden.

Engine room, Tower Bridge

 View out of engine room - interesting lines

That could be modernised to read Royal Snail Mail.  How about this for a fancy washbasin?  It was in the ladies' loos at the Woodman Pub in Highgate, where 'children and dogs' are also welcomed.

I bought a tin mug for my Tea Granny with this saying on it. 

This quote will resonate with some - you know who you are.

The Tea Granny and Cat-sheeba

Sleepless in Shadwell

As I type I hope my coffee starts to kick in soon. Maybe I should have seasoned it with sugar this one time ... I definitely need the boost this morning.  

So what do you get when you have two people, perpetually on disparate body clocks, who are new to the country and are trying to occupy and complete all normal routines as much as possible in one 3m x 5x room?  And what if these two people have very different capacities to hear and make noise?  Or have different responses to bright lights or organisation?  What if between the hours of 10pm and 9am these two people can't escape the other's habits because besides hiding out in the toilet there is no where else to go?  While we're at it, let's just throw in a large, unexpected bill courtesy of the Australian Electoral Commission at the same time, purely for the scientific experiment of seeing what will happen next.

You get crankiness, that's what. 

And lack of very much needed sleep because your brain won't cooperate and give you peace for a few hours.

Fortunately, today we only have two things we must accomplish and everything else can take a number and get in line.  Mat is already knocking over the first task and is at a meeting at the HSBC bank to set up an account.  At least, I really hope they let him set up an account and he doesn't come back empty handed and hard hearted.  Neither of us knows what kind of documents they require first.  Maybe Mat has enough evidence to prove he's not from Atlantis or maybe not.  The second task is getting to our next Airbnb accommodation in Highgate, which is two trains and a bus ride away in North London (zone 3).  It's hard to imagine nicer people than Pauline and Steven and Shadwell is so easy to navigate to/from.  I will miss them.

By the way, for any of you foodie, Jamie Oliver fans, I walked past his restaurant Barbecoa yesterday.  It's near St Paul's cathedral.  It was the morning so not open, but didn't look very big.  Nor was Jamie out the front sweeping the step with a corn broom either, which would have made for a better photo.  

Before I sign off, this is a public service announcement to our Australian citizen friends: if you haven't voted in the last few years, you might just get a surprise in the mail one day soon.  In the last state election (yes, the one in March 2012), Mat didn't vote and has been fined $167. Neither of us voted in the council elections because, quite frankly, who cares, but according to the AEC we can be fined for that too.  So we could be facing $400+ in fines.  Lovely.  I feel more endeared toward our Premier every day.  Given that I work for the state, I feel like telling the AEC to take Mat's fine out of my stationery supplies.  I prefer buying my own anyway, thank you very much.

See?  Crankiness.  It's why I've started to ask God to change me instead of everything and everyone around me.  I do not want to worship my own misery.

Keep the peace,
M

A view from the Thames

Today, my something new learned is that London is one of the smallest cities in the world, coming in at just one square mile in size.  Goes to show that good things come in small packages.

After a shopping trip in the morning to Canary Wharf to buy shoes for Mat, we decided to spend the afternoon on a river cruise of the Thames.  I like a change in aspect and I always enjoy being on the water.  It's remarkable that in the last two days I have stood where Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin are buried, I have heard the chime of Big Ben, and I have seen the observatory where Greenwich Meantime was launched.  I am in a delightful dream.

We popped out of the underground, directly beneath the altitudinous St Stephen's Tower (aka Big Ben)

St Paul's Cathedral 

A bit of the old on the river ...

... and a bit of the new

Someone should write a song about this bridge

Tower of London

Tower of London

Doorway into Westminster Abbey Boys' School

Westminster Abbey

Never-ending staircase at The Monument

Lights out!

Keep the Peace,

M