Food. Game.

We've already been enjoying the best of Namibian food. yesterday we bought takeaway braai, which is a coal cooked BBQ, from a NETS student who is selling lunches to pay his fees. We have eaten German breads and flavoured hummuses, and tonight for dinner we cooked our own braai. You burn up a lot of wood first to make coals, and then spread the coals out and put the meat on the grill. We also cooked up our truffles in garlic salt and pepper, they tasted rather nicer than mushrooms, they are less watery. Probably will never eat truffles again, let alone piled on a plate with potato salad and lamb.

Tomorrow we are going up to Erindi which is a wildlife resort. Staying one night, and driving out at dawn tuesday to see animals. And apparently the food is gourmet and all you can eat. We're going to see another market on the way this is a wood carving market. All I really like are beaded geckos. I love beaded geckos. I think I need to buy more.

We were introduced to the card game Dominion today. It's one of those complicated to learn, involving to play games. I won the second game! I don't win many games usually.

Here is a photo of Yoda the cat, who half African wild cat half tabby cat, and keeps scratching her nose, so she is now wearing a cereal box collar.

Impressions of Windoek.

Now it is Saturday, and I've spent my first day in Windhoek! It is bright and glary, but not too hot. We went to the shops yesterday, I bought some sunglasses for $530 and a bucket of sour worms for $47. I find it hard to think in $Namibian. I withdrew $2000 from a drive through ATM, and I could barely clip my purse shut.

This morning Margie and Maddie took me to some markets, the green market and the boer market, we bought things like German bread and sweet pickled watermelon and I ate a potato spiral on a stick with a tasty salt called chutney on it. Then we went back to a shopping mall and went to the body shop, which works out to be half price compared to Australia, so I stocked up in shampoo and conditioner! $75 Namibian is about $10 compared to $18 if I buy it at home.

Matt has not been shopping, he has been helping fix the pool pump and learning how to weld holes in metal.

Windhoek is a bit weird, the shops look similar but they have different names, they were very busy because end of month is pay day and also shopping day, and there were queues at ATMs and banks because all the eftpos things were down. The monthly shopping spree is because African tradition is that if someone asks you for money, you give it to them, so it makes sense to spend all your pay quickly.

Facts about Namibia so far:

Woolworths is a clothes shop that sells Marks and Spencer's and is like target.
Streets ice cream is called olla. They are a shop.
I saw a cafe called Wimpy, I must eat a wimpy burger while Im here cos that would never catch on in Australia.
English is the language everyone speaks, but it's not the language you hear spoken around the shops and so on. It's sort of the lowest common denominator. And it's full of words like brötchen for bread, that I'm always going "huh?" although I have already started using ya instead of yeah in only one day.
We got truffles at the supermarket!!! For something like A$10 a kg!
We drive everywhere.
50% unemployment means there is a lot of service like pumping petrol or supervising car parks. Also, no op shops because you just put stuff on the lid of your bin or give it to your domestic or I saw someone hand a bag out the window of their car. So I'm going to leave my old joggers here because in Australia they would go in the bin, here someone will get some more use out of them.

I'm going to be relaxing a lot here, it's just lovely weather and good friends and not much to do. This afternoon will be board games. This is the view from the back patio of our friends house.

Finishing the pilgrimage.

From Bath we drove back east to find a white horse, one of the big chalk horse shapes carved into the hillside at various places. We found the one Cherhill and then walked towards it in the rain.Then we drove south to Lyme Regis, which is a seaside town where Persuasion is partly set. I love Persuasion so this was a key milestone on the journey. Here is what I typed while staying there:

It is Tuesday, and I have today realised one of my many small dreams. I have walked along the Cobb at Lyme Regis. Hurray! Several times, actually. It can be a bit scary, because it's high and slopy with no railing, and the churning sea on one side can make me a bit dizzy, but when it's low tide it's very safe. There have been no waves crashing over it like in scenes from Persuasion, which is a good thing because I do not have a greatcoat. I have been climbing up and down the steps, except not the weird stone peg steps, the Cobb is adventure enough.

This morning Matt and I did a little walk towards charmouth but not all the way. I did a Marianne and fell over, except that it wasn't raining and there was no Willoughby to carry me and I didn't hurt my ankle anyway. Really I just slipped in the mud, and got mud on my jeans and hands and into my shoes. So I changed into a skirt to wash and dry my jeans leg, and I feel that a fluttery skirt suited my cobb-walking after all. Jeans have no romance. That's probably why there was no Willoughby when I fell over in them.

Pastry is popular in this area, also, I finally accepted cream on top of my hot chocolate, mmmmmmmm. I have been mooching from place to place along the beach and around Lyme, eating ice cream and fudge and reading a book on my iPad

.

On Wednesday we drove back towards London, and on the way we stopped at Stonehenge and took photos through the fence in the rain, because why pay good money to get even more wet by walking a few feet closer. then we drove past another white horse by accident! Then we went to CHAWTON, where I visited Jane Austens house museum, which is amazing. So amazing. They had so many things, like a quilt the Austen ladies made, her writing table, a lock of hair, jewellery, and it was done so simply and respectfully, not all gushy.

On Thursday we did nothing, except return our car and take a photo with the tardis at Earls Court Station and go to Heathrow really early, because what can you do in London with luggage? nothing, the airport is the only place you can fit in. And then we flew away! We saw so many things... The London Stone, the Tower and the crown jewels, a squirrel and a pheasant and a robin several times, bluebells, the Cobb, 2 houses Jane Austen lived in, many museums, 2 white horses, many places where Harry Potter and Jane Austen things were filmed, Matilda the musical, a tardis, thatched cottages, hedgerows, rain, English breakfasts, so many things. I shall post some nice photos later.

A nice normal Sunday. Plus Romans and lanes.

There was a couple of days in Oxford. The river and the colleges and the spires make nice photos. It's a lovely place to walk around. Then we spent a day driving between Oxford and Bath via Chipping Norton, which is a scenic country drive through the Cotswolds and sheepy little villages.

Our current home is a b&b called church farm in corsham. It's very cute and the breakfast is brilliant!

Today we went to church at widcombe baptist in bath. Getting there was like finding. Needle in a haystack. Bath is really not a place for driving and parking. The ministers wife suggested that we come back for evening church and then the car could stay parked at the school all afternoon which was a good offer. Evening church was really encouraging, there were baptisms and testimonies and the singing was hearty and the sermon was good. During the afternoon we split up and wandered. Like Oxford, Bath has lovely lanes to explore. It has long rows of terraces all yellowy grey stone. They curve slightly along the streets. There are also the main stunning circle streets. I kept wishing there were no cars parked along the streets because they ruined the effect a lot. So anyway, I love curving terraces and lanes, and Bath has them both!

The roman baths were interesting and beautiful, the assembly rooms were impressive, the fashion museum was well done, the Jane Austen centre was not very good. There was a roman army historical display in front of the royal crescent with trebuchets which I missed seeing used and all these tools for farming and medicine. A centurion showed me how the Romans had a circle saw to cut a hole in a skull to relieve pressure. He thought I had an Australian accent but not a very broad one.

I had a sausage roll for 80p for lunch, and a pasty on special for £1 at the end of the day. The end of the day was lovely, there was still plenty of light, shops shut and no crowds. Very pleasant.

A foggy day in London town.

It was only cold and spitty, not actually foggy, but we did get off our tour bus spontaneously at the Brittish Museum and go in. Lots of photos. We quickly wandered through the ancient Egypt, Assyria, and Greece rooms, and then upstairs to look at some special chess set. Then we went on the bus again and spontaneously got off at baker street to see sherlock holmeses house. Then we had pizza for lunch on baker street, which was made by Italians and very delicious. Then we went to the London museum to see the Charles dickens exhibit, smAll but packed full of interesting and precious things: his desk, his pen and ink well, some manuscripts and proof pages... Surrounded but artworks by contemporary artists who were his sometimes also his friends, info about other parts of his life. He really tried to be involved in society in many ways for the good. He was involved in charities and so on. Then Matt and I set out on a mission to find the London rock. It is a chunk of rock that is near cannon st station, used to be in a a church, and according to legend if you get the rock you rule London. It is very cunningly hidden, on busy cannon street, set into the wall of a very boring and currently empty building, at knee level, behind glass and a grill. You can hardly see it. But we found it! If i was a master thief, that is what I would steal, because it would be easy, and very symbolic, and historically interesting. Then we did some more bus touring, and then walked to covent garden to watch the musical of Matilda. covent garden is awesome, it's a bit too cool and shoppy, but they are at least good shops. And mainly, it's a very old area, and its got an intersection called 7 dials with 7 lanes going off it. I fitted in there. They were playing Gotye on the radio in a mall, and the radio lady pronounced his name Go-teeyay. Matilda was good, it had a really strong cast of kids and cute choreography and Tim Minchin music and lyrics and some good twists on the book and film. Then we got the train home. Those trains are fast.

An eye, a fort and a squirrel.

It dawned cloudy and wet. My body clock must still be out because I woke right up at 4 am, didn't go back to sleep for ages.  After our cheap, walking day yesterday, we decided to spend money and go inside things. We bought a hop on hop off bust ticket, which is quite expensive, but comes with commentary and keeps you out of the rain while still being able to see London. The trains a fast and cheap, but you are blind to the city. We also got tickets for the London eye and the tower of london. We bused and walked to the eye, and were on it at 11 am. It goes for 30 min. You can see a lot, and it is out of the rain, and you can take nice photos. But for the money it's not the best value. Although, you can find landmarks on some tablets they have there, and read about them. Then we jumped on a cruise which came with the bus ticket,  and went up the Thames to the tower bridge, that was really good. Then we were at the tower! I had no idea what the tower was. It is more of a fort. Very boxy with a lot of walls. We spent 4.5 hours there, and it felt a bit rushed at the end because we had to make the bus back. It is really interesting, we got the yeoman tour, it sleeted (although it was mostly a sunny day there were spots of hail) we saw the crown jewels, I went past them about 5 times, we spent 1.5 hours just in the White Tower, which is most of the museum. It was amazing to see Henry viii armour and lots of other stuff. Also, we saw some historical drama on the grass, and had lunch in the armoury place, which was really good. The first food here I actually took a photo of. I wish I could post photos from today. It was really photogenic. And so much detail, liked a lot of graffiti carved into the walls by prisoners. The place reminds me a lot of Port Arthur, they are similar in beauty and presentation of penal history. Anyway, our bust went to Piccadilly circus and we wanted to change to the route that goes near our place but due to confusion we missed it. Piccadilly circus contains M&M world! And I bought half a kilo of m&ms for £10, in the colours of my choice from a wall of mix and match colours. Probably not a sensible purchase, but it was so fun. So then we had a long walk home, but it was the same as yesterday, and it's a nice walk. And walking through green park (so called because it has no flowers in it because it is taboo to plant flowers on mass graves and they buried lepers there apparently) we saw a grey squirrel run down a tree and onto the grass. So much yay. So the we shopped at Tesco, cross that off the list as well. We got some orange juice which turned out to be cordial. And Easter eggs on special. Food can be quite cheap, a nice lunch in a tourist spot comes to under $10, right now I am eating a dinner of a tesco pre made chicken pasty for about 70p on special. However, meuslie is expensive, or at least we cant find the cheap stuff. We also found our way home without the map.  Tomorrow, more riding on buses, museum of London, Matilda the musical.

The walking day.

Another sunny day! The sky is epically blue, very Australian and clear and deeply, brightly blue. We started walking at 8.30. We walked to Hyde park, all around it, and by then I was tired because it was like already an hour and a half of walking. But that was only the start. On then to buckingham palace, then watched the guards change, then walked towards the river, found trafalgar square on the way, had a magnum ice cream for lunch there. I've been impressed at how little I've eaten and drunk today. It's partly because I know how to navigate the cheap food scene in Sydney, but it's different here. I don't think I want a potato with baked beans in it. The one thing that is everywhere is a chain called Pret a Manger, or something. So we will probably have to go there once.

This is an iPad pic of the palace, there won't be many more photos becaus I can't transfer them from my camera to my iPad.

Anyway, crossed the river near the eyeball, wandered along to the next bridge back to the houses of parliament and big Ben, which are lovely. Architecture with lots of fiddly bits and repitition of windows and spires is really good. We spent 2 hours in Westminster Abby. That place is full of tombs, it is basically an indoor cemetery. So it is very interesting reading the inscriptions. I bought a kids book about London, which is amusing and informative and illustrated.

Then it was 4 pm so we walked towards home, stopping for a toasted sandwich and a sit down, and going into Zara and Harrods. Zara in Sydney is like an ants nest before rain, everyone bustles frantically but I don't know why. So I went in to compare, and it was very quiet and normal. We walked through the ground floor of Harrods, it looked like a posher David jones. Boring. Too tired to look further.

Knightsbridge and kensington are nice ares. It all looks the same though so it goes on and on forever the same the same. Really cool tall brick terraces around a garden, over and over again. I like the way the whole suburbs have been planned in a cohesive way like that. It's a nice way to do medium density as well.

So that was about 10 hours walking! I was so slow and tired by the end. I discovered that Matthew is faster so ends up walking 3 steps in front the whole time, unless I grab onto his arm, which is an idea that came to me in Hyde Park as a Jane Austen thing, but it actually works.

By the way, there is a blue police box near the train station. Am going to get my photo with it.

First thoughts in another country.

Getting out of the airport and onto a train to earls court was a little bit stressful because it involved figuring out money and trains. Once we were on the train, which was about 7 am, I actually started to get excited when I looked out the windows and saw English houses! Allotment gardens! Spring buds on English trees! A red bus! A black cab! And it was a glorious sunny day, but cold! At earls court we got hot drinks at Starbucks and wifi to write home. The rest of the day involved navigating the track work to get to church at st Helen's, walking a lot of the way, hearing David Cook preach and also bumping into a familiar face from the cathedral, wandering through the deserted financial district and discovering cute things... Especially lanes. I love how there are all these skinny lanes off main roads, with tall terraces. We got back to EC and bought lunch in a pub at about 2, so it was quite a long time without food since the plane breakfast was at 4 am. It was also a long time without sleep, we pretty much crashed into bed around 3 pm and slept through my alarm, got up and bought food and then had dinner at 830 and then went back to bed. Too tired to make plans.

Thoughts from up in the air.

Check in was a little eventful. My 2 bottles of water were confiscated... Bring an empty bottle only next time... Which looked suspicious so I was bomb wanded and frisked by security.  Then I read all the magazines I'd brought and threw them in the bin. Nice. Then I was anxious and kept rearranging my bags, and putting my things in and out of my brothers bag too. He was very calm and just kept reading war and peace part 2.  I saw a sherlock lookalike. Then we got on the plane. There is more bag space then I thought for bags and feet. But I'd be so much more comfortable if I could curl my feet up or sit on one leg. It's true that airplanes are dry. I've drunk every cup of water offered. Not one bathroom trip. It's also noisy. I watched all the good tv first, too tired to watch a movie. The spoken word stuff is good. Keep wanting to fall asleep but can't. Still one hour from singapore, 10.30pm. I check the flight map quite a lot. And there is another meal. A sandwich. My guts are feeling too crammed to put Any more stale bread in. The neck pillow is not that comfy. The eye mask I made from fleece is brilliant. There! I feel like my experiences are processed now. ... I wrote all that on the plane, and saved it til I had time and wifi.

Pre-flight.

I woke up at 6.30 am. So I did Jillian, so that I  am tired and sleep on the plane. I did some washing so that I don't have stinky clothes when I get back. It's a lovely sunny day so it should all be dry to bring in at lunch time. I've been reading The Big Four by Agatha Christie and enjoying the sun as much as possible.

My bags are organised so I'm just chilling out until my parents and brother get here for lunch. Speaking of which, I have been so successful at eamptying my fridge that all we have to eat is some carrots, yoghurt, margerine, 2 eggs, frozen bread, and spreads from the pantry. So perhaps a little trip to the shops. It's only 10 am. This is my luggage.

This is my carry-on.

Freeeeeeee!

So I'm sitting at my desk, it's 5.30, it's Friday, sooooooo... I'm on holidays! 4 weeks off! I've had a couple of 2 week breaks since I started FT work but this the longest block of time since I was unemployed. Now I'm getting excited.

I'm taking my ipad on a trip so this blog will be badly formatted travel posts for a while.

Dress altering service.

A friend came over on Monday night and we altered some dresses of hers. A couple were taken up at the shoulders, which is easy in theory but then you can have a lumpy shoulder seam, so we handsewed the extra fabric down so that it was tucked in and flat. Then I hemmed a dress, and then we went out for dinner. Such a fun night.

Cushion.

I scavanged this piece of tapastry from Granny. It is a cushion front. I let it float around for a few years while I decided what to do, but in the end I decided to make it a cushion, since I also had a cushion insert floating around. The tapestry doesn't really match the material I used for the back but it's close enough and I wanted to use what I had. All I had to buy was a zipper.

I sewed the zipper to the front and the back, and then sewed the front and back together on the other three edges. It's not the most smooth and hidden zipper ever, doesn't look like a shop pillowcase, but that's what diy is - not like a shop!

Cushion in  location.

Least successful long weekend ever.

I thought a few days at home, in between a weekend away and a weekend leaving the country, would be nice and relaxing. I planned to do Jillian, eat fried breakfasts, read and do cross stitch. That was a nice plan.

I didn't relax at all, for some reason. I just got tireder and tireder. My mouth, which was already sore from the ortho on Thursday, went totally ulcerous so it hurts to eat. I don't recommend having a sore mouth and braces at the same time. Mouthful of pins.

But there were some bright spots. It was fun helping Elsie clean and then having yum cha with the cleaning team. I enjoyed church on Easter Day, singing the classic "Christ is risen hallelujah" hymns at the cathedral and at wild st evening church there was a lovely acoustic item. Both sermons good. On Monday I went up to Randwick to do some shopping, and found a really good chai latte at a cafe on Alison Road… both frothy AND hot! That was a moment of pure joy among the flatness of my mood. And it was a perfect sunny day. A friend came over so we could alter some of her dresses and then we had dinner.

It really should have been a lovely weekend, but I just didn't have it in me. Now I'm back at work, tireder than before, and torturing myself by putting salt in my puffy mouth.

Pondering on travel.

When you think about it, it is amazing that you can FLY to the OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD, half a planet away, in less than one DAY. Going to a place where they speak other languages and have different weather.

I have been keeping fairly quiet about my upcoming trip. This is basically because I don't like hearing people say "you should see this" and "i went here and it was amazing". This makes me feel 3 things: 1, jealous, because you've already travelled and I'm ignorant, 2, pressured to do things I didn't yet think I wanted to do, and 3, some of the magic of discovery has been killed because you already discovered it. It's like anything you prepare for, really, you want to collect SOME information and make good decisions, but you don't want to follow other people's paths and take their opinions on board before you experience if yourself.

The internet is great. Well, so far it is anyway. I've been able to search, email, and compare accommodation on the other side of the world! In my spare time of an evening! What would I have done 20 years ago, or even 10 years ago if I did a gap year before uni… most of these places would not have had websites. I guess the proof will be when we get there, have they been honest and all that.

I'm collecting interesting tips. Interesting tips so far include: jeans aren't as useful as you think, they are bad for wet weather and bad for hot weather; buy a cheap ring so that it looks like you are married and you don't get hassled as much; when you are on the plane, just try and sleep—that should be your main goal when flying; you only need as much clothing for 4 weeks as you need for 4 days, assuming you rewear and wash every so often.

And other then that, I'm not thinking about it very much at all. I'm enjoying the vague sense of anticipation, but if I start thinking about details I start to worry. And I think I'm better not worrying and just dealing with things as they come up in an adventurous way.

Sorry, Jillian.

Back to normality: there has NOT been enough Jillian the last few weeks. Too many other things to do after work. I'm starting to feel it already, feeling like my abs have taken a holiday and are letting everything go. So the next 2 weeks I'm going to give it a red hot go. A and I are finding that if you do it after work, you have to be really organised to catch "the window". Start work on time, leave work on time, get home, get right into Jillian. If you lose 10 minutes here and there, it snowballs until you end up getting home at 6.15 and thinking "oh, it's too late now, I'm tired and I need to think about dinner". The window for me is 5.30 to 5.45. I've got to be ready to do Jillian before it starts to look like 6 o'clock.

Last night's Jillian confirmed that I've definitely lost fitness already. I had the wobbles. And today I am significantly sore in my quads etc.

Armidale.

I had a weekend visit to Armidale. My first time. Driving with friends to visit a friend and also I had a wedding up there. Photo journal of the drive up on Friday arvo: leaving Maq St Sydney...

Up the F3, looking rather stunning...

Radiant cloud formations at sunset...

I highly recommend driving north or south at late afternoon. You get all the glorious colour as the sun angles through the landscape, without the glare in your eyes. 

It was very good value, catching up with so many people. And speaking of value, we did some good shopping. We found Armidale quite elegant in an autumnal country way, which has a lot going for it over the way women and girls dress in Sydney, which is kind of trashy. We saw nary a leggings worn as pants, or tiny pair of shorts. I bought a $30 t-shirt dress at sports girl, and a stripy layered cardigan for $39 at Turners of Armidale, which was a lovely shop. And one of those unfolding hang-up bathroom bags. And best of all, the op shops and junk shops, where I for $15 I got a brown colorado skirt with zip pockets, a blankety cape with arm holes, and an old leather pouch.

The story with the cape is that I saw one hanging in Js wardrobe when we got there and thought it was cool, and she said it was from an op shop for $8. Everyone tried it on and it looks very retro and stylish for something so simple. Cape envy. When we got to the op shop, she found ANOTHER ONE! a little bit bigger, and more like an old blanket. I thought if nothing else I now have the pattern to make my own. Hooray! Here is a photo with the 2 capes. We tried to be Arty and almost succeeded. There is nice sunlight and a tiny rainbow though.

This is the pouch. I've been looking for a coin purse to maybe change the way I handle money when my glomesh granny purse dies. It drops coins already. I tossed up getting a little leather case with a piece of camera equipment in it for $10, but it seems a waste of a piece of camera equipment to just use the case. But I found this grotty thing for $5, with the explanaiong "tobacco" on it. I washed it, and I've been rubbing leather conditioner into it. It's nice and soft. It has one missing stud but the other one should work enough. It has a sort of flap inside the closure so I think it will hold coins securely.

 J lives in an apartment that is joined to the music block of a school, — it was actually like living in a great BIG house full of pianos. On Sunday morning we had a play and sing in a warm sunny music room.

And then we drove back. This is a nice bit of Thunderbolt's Way in the day time.

And this is coming back over the harbour bridge at night.