Elisha’s Neighborhood

Phew! It's been fairly busy the last couple of days!

Monday I got into the Sydney property market - I purchased a gingerbread house kit! (frankly it was as much as I could currently afford in the way of Sydney housing, haha!) It was a lot of fun to decorate but very hard to get it looking good - mine looks like it was made by a blind 5 year old, but at least it was entertaining!

What else? I met up with Jasmine and Janna on Tuesday night for a catch up at Max Brenners, and when Janna had to leave at 6, Jasmine and I continued on with dinner at Kelly's, where there is an amazing view over to Sydney Harbour, and some pretty nice steaks and ribs and such. I got pork ribs. Deeeelicious:

  Then today I saw the eye specialist, they told me I needed a referral form and so afterward I had to jog up to Randwick to organise a referral for them, spent time smelling the christmas trees in the fruit market, bought some pikelets and raspberry jam for breakfasts next week and called my university as well as Sydney to get some information about the possibility of doing a PhD, and the usefulness of same. I got an appointment with a careers advisor for next monday at 1pm.

And that's pretty much all my exciting news. Tomorrow I'm seeing Alison in the evening, and possibly Jasmine and Celia for breakfast, and tonight Anna is coming over for dinner. Sunday I'm seeing Bec which I'm really excited about... it's good to keep busy!

night voxies!

R

I had a nice first day back in Australia. My sister took me for breakfast at Balmoral beach. The place was really beautiful - you could see the harbour from our table, and the food was good too. It was the perfect start to my return to Australia.

Sand Bunny

Tonight I'm having dinner with Celia, I'm so excited about it! Annnnd... photos of my chanel sunnies and of course, the butterfly garden in Singapore!

Wooooooohoooo! I am currently blogging from Singapore airport, total excitement over here, I had starbucks, I went duty free shopping, and I went in their BUTTERFLY GARDEN! I know right? coolest airport in the history of airports! pictures to come hopefully!

And, I wrote a post the other day while I was on my way to Roma, check it out:

10/12/2009

Today was my last day in London. I felt I'd seen all the things I truly wanted to see and was down to the stuff that was a 'maybe' for me - I had intended on visiting madame tussaudes but the main fun in MT is getting your picture taken with the celebrities, so I didn't think it would be as much fun on my own,as I had no one to take my photograph, and equally, no one to take photographs of.

SO! instead I decided to have a really relaxing day doing not much instead. After breakfast I took my time packing since the hotel I was staying at had a 12 noon checkout. It was called the Seraphine Hotel, and was near Hyde Park (Metro Kensington High Street), and I was really quite impressed with it - the staff were incredibly helpful and friendly, and the room was really nice, although miniscule. I left my bag at the checkout desk and went to Kensington Palace, which is almost across the road. It was the house that Queen Victoria grew up in, and I was a bit disappointed there wasn't more information about her and her life inside. They were having an exhibition about the last season of Debutantes in London - in 1958, which was very interesting, and they also had a collection of Lady Diana's clothes but I would have liked MORE somehow.

After that I took a double decker bus to Knightsbridge and went to see Harrods again, looking for last minute christmas gifts. I didn't really find anything in there, I wanted to look for a pair of sunglasses as well and simply couldn't find any because they were hidden away - the Chanel counter had a pitiful selection so in the end I gave up and took a bus back to Kensington. I went to a pub close to the hotel, the Goat Tavern, and had a jacket potato and a half pint of London Pride for lunch, and then trotted a few doors further down to starbucks where I knitted until it was time to grab my bags from the hotel, print my boarding pass and get the tube to Heathrow.

I was so excited getting this flight, simply because it marked the first step in my  journey  back to Australia, as well as being just that little bit closer to seeing my family and friends.

It's supposed to take about 1 hour on the underground to Heathrow from central London, but after missing my train to see my Granny, when I had more than an hour and a half to get there, I wasn't fooled, so I left at 3:30, to get there by 5 (and I was spot on for this, I got to Heathrow terminal 5 at almost 5pm).I'd also left plenty of time to eat or shop after I checked in my bags, but his ended up being a very bad idea - my gate wasn't even listed when I had checked my luggage, gone through security and passport control etc. Surrounded by duty free, massively reduced priced, already-cheaper-than-in-Austalia luxury stores... I somehow came away with a pair of chanel sunglasses (to replace the black pair that I have a feeling got left in the changerooms at H&M).

It also seemed somewhat fortuitous (or is that ominous? doubtless some -OUS word anyway!) that there was a starbucks directly next to my boarding gate, and they had the CARAMEL DRIZZLE on sale there. I have never, ever seen it before even though I've looked many times, so I snapped it up, although what I will do with it, no clue. Use it with my cappucchino maker at home I guess! I have to remember to put it in my checked luggage though or they'll take it off me at the airport I imagine.

I am looking forward to shoving all my liquids into my massive suitcase, getting a long, luxurious shower, and watching movies in bed as soon as I get to the hilton!

And then tomorrow, I'm back to Sydney. I wonder what it will be like - will it have changed a lot? have I changed? Mum already said to me in a recent email that she wasn't sure she'd recognised me, and that in my facebook pictures I looked (direct quote) "different - more mature somehow" - I asked her if she meant that I'd AGED badly! I'll be interested to see if people think I'm different or not - I feel the same!

My arms are killing me, there is this strange tingling like the muscle wants to snap when I move them sometimes, probably from cutting off my circulation and almost dislocating my shoulders carrying my outrageously overstuffed country road bag on my back, and hauling my laptop and handbag in a cotton shopping tote on one arm. How I will stuff that handbag into my suitcase, and my laptop into my already straining hand luggage bag I shudder to think. When I'm coping with stressful things, I like to break things down into simple tasks and not look beyond that task. Then next hurdle on my list is definitely going to be sorting out my packing, which if you could only see in person, you'd realise what a herculean task this is going to be.

After that, it will be begging the check in desk not to charge me for excess luggage, assuming I arrive on time, manage to get my flight on time etc!

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And! high five, they so did not charge me for excess luggage, even though my suitcase weighed 30 kilos! yeah baby! butterflies, chanel, no excess luggage charge, free wireless internet AND! only 10 or so hours from Sydders! massive high five kids!

I almost always start my blog posts with Today.... so I've been sitting here trying to think of something else to start with but frankly, I'm tired and I have a lot to do tomorrow so I want to get this over with as quickly as possible before I forget!

So! This AM, I took the Tube to Tower Hill and went to see the Tower of London. I had a tour by a Beefeater (he was amazing, very funny and told some wonderful stories) I saw the largest cut diamond in the world and the rest of the crown jewels, I saw suits of armour and the ravens of the tower...traitor's gate, the tower where the princes were supposedly done away with, and the section of lawn where Anne Boleyn, the Countess of Salisbury, William Hastings, Catherine Howard, and a few others were beheaded. Apparently the Countess of Salisbury had to be chased around the chopping  block, and was struck 11 times with the axe before she died! the other thing I didn't know was that the head isn't held up to show the crowd the head, but the reverse - it's to show the executed person the crowd, and their own body. Gruesome!

Anyway. After that I went to see the houses of parliament, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey - the abbey costs almost $25-30 Australian dollars to enter, which I think is an outrage for a CHURCH - to charge money in the first place, but to charge so much is an outrage frankly, so I didn't go inside.

That being said, if they ever tell you that there is a lift, DON"T TAKE THE STAIRS!

I was exhausted when I reached the top. On to the Covent Garden Opera House though, it's a beautiful theatre. My seat was really high up but I had a good view of the stage and I enjoyed the performance, the music was beautiful and the costumes and set changes were stunning.

View from my Seat

I'm back at the hotel now, tomorrow I check out and tomorrow night I get my flight back to Rome for one night before I leave for Sydney. I absolutely can't wait to see my family and friends! not long to go now though!

This morning I ate breakfast and headed into Hyde park. I strolled down to the serpentine, saw the Peter Pan statue, and tried to feed the squirrels, but they were dreadfully skittish, so I ended up giving the bread that I'd brought to the pigeons - they landed on my hand and sat there looking at me for a minute- a very disney moment! I spent about an hour and a half wandering around, which was really relaxing.

Then this evening I went to Euston station to have Harry Ramsden's fish and chips for dinner, and then I went to a bar close to my hotel for a pint of London Pride beer.

Fish and Chips

My first sightseeing day in London!

I stayed up quite late last night knitting and watching a fascinating documentary about artist Kit Williams, so I didn't get out of the hotel until around 10 this morning.

First I went to Mark's and Spencers, to look at cashmere sweaters. The one near the hotel didn't have a huge range of colours so I went to the Marble Arch store instead, and chose one grey v neck and a pink round neck.

Cashmere from Marks and Sparks

After that I decided to continue on the same underground line to St Paul's Cathedral. I lit a candle, saw Lord Nelson and Duke of Wellington's tombs in the crypt downstairs and then climbed the 257 steps to the Whispering gallery, then the 119 steps to the Stone gallery, and finally, the last 152 steps to the golden gallery right at the top. There was a beautiful view over London.

After that I crossed the Millenium bridge ( I couldn't help remembering the scene in the most recent harry potter movie where the bridge collapses!) and visited the Globe theatre which was beautiful and fascinating. The guide was telling us that because there are no lights on the stage to blind the actors to the audience, they can see all 1000+ people watching them, so of course there is a different kind of connection to the kind you have in a modern theatre, and most of shakespeare's plays included speeches that were at least partially directed at the audience, most commonly the 'groundlings' that stood in the centre, rather than on the seats around the outside.

After the Globe, I had a gourmet burger as a late lunch, and then set off to see Ripley's Believe it or Not museum!
That was fun but some of it was a bit 'leap out and scare you' which made me quite nervy since I was alone!

I bought a few gifts I was looking for, although I've got one or two things left before I'm absolutely done. Then I took the underground to Hyde Park Corner and took a stroll through the Christmas Markets along the Serpentine Road.
They had an open air ice rink, lots of different rides and food and stalls... it was so festive with all the Christmas music, some of the ride attendants were singing, which made me giggle! I had some mulled wine and wandered around and then made my way back to the hotel. Now I'm sitting in bed, watching Oceans' 11 and relaxing.

So! This time next week I'll be landing in Sydney again!

Anyway. I'm on the train on my way back from visiting my Nonna in Huddersfield, the train has free wireless which is pretty cool, so I thought I'd give it a go. I had 40 minutes between my train from Leeds and my train to London, and I was thinking it would be really long and boring, but it actually worked out really well, I had starbucks and subway, exciting stuff, since it was my first sub in almost 6 months! I was quite tempted by the christmas one they have here, chicken with stuffing and cranberry sauce, but I went for the one I usually get in the end!

Yesterday I missed my train from London since my flight was a tad delayed and the tube seemed super slow, so they made me pay for a new full priced ticket! I thought this was a bit steep since it's 86 POUNDS per ticket, I'm wondering if it's covered by my insurance policy so I'm going to check it, although my guess is, it won't be. Anyway, I got there in the end and had a nice time looking at photos and chatting with my Nonna.

My second cousins (mother's cousins?) gave me a lift to the station which was very nice of them so it was a good 2 days in all.

Tomorrow is my first tourist day in London, so I'm not really sure what I want to do, I have this huge long list of stuff I might want to do, so I suppose I should look at my tourist map and make a plan. My current list of things I want to do is:

Visit the Tower of London (I haven't been since I was around 9 years old)
see big ben
Madame Tussaudes
go to the iKnit store (it has a bar in it! woohoo!)
Harrod's Knightsbridge
Marks and Spencer's in Marble Arch
Ripley's believe it or not
touch a squirrel (or at least feed one!) in hyde park, and go to the christmas market there
visit the victoria and albert museum, since i haven't seen it
 
I suppose I should visit the british museum and the portrait gallery and stuff as well so they're possibilities.

On wednesday I booked to see the Nutcracker in Covent garden so I'm really looking forward to that as well!

anyway, that's about it from me, I'll have to add photos of my sub (lol) and me and my Nonna when I get a chance later on.

Ciao a presto voxies!

R

Today was my last day in Rome.Maxie and I went to Romoli for my last pastry with Fragolini and cappuccino, and then we took a bus into the city and went Christmas shopping! I knew I didn't have any space in my luggage so I only purchased a tiny map of London, and a gorgeous Tiffany keyring. I checked the online prices and by buying it here I saved quite a bit of money on the Australian and British prices. I'll have to post a pic of it soon.

In the morning we only observed, we didn't buy, so we stopped for lunch in a kind of restaurant near Torre Argentina that wasn't particularly nice, and debated the merits of our possible purchases, and then in the afternoon, went back to buy them.

There was a huge traffic jam and a lot of rain on our way home so we ended up catching a taxi part of the way, walking some, and then catching a bus. I spent the late afternoon trying to get my second bunny mitt finished, and my absolute last things packed, and THEN Carla and Giusseppe came over and we went for a glass of wine in the wine bar right near our house. It was really quite sad, she cried, and I hate seeing people upset. It's always nice to know you will be missed, though, although it reminded me of how much I will miss others.

I've really enjoyed this experience, I felt it has been very good for me, very liberating and encouraged me to grow and mature in ways I never thought of. It's sad to leave as well - although I find it unbelievably frustrating trying to communicate, until I was getting ready to leave, and saying goodbye to everyone, I never realised how much I'd begun to fit in. You never notice how much you know, how much you understand, until you have to go.

At the moment, I just can't imagine everyone speaking English, of understanding everything that is going on around me, because I simply haven't experienced that for 5 or almost 6 months. I begin to wonder if I will fit back into Australian life!!!

I think when I get back to Sydney, that is when I'll realise how different I am.

I'm supposed to be leaving at around 8:15 tomorrow, I'm taking a taxi to Termini (since I don't want to wrestle my ridiculously large back onto a bus) and then the Fiumicino express at 9:22. I'm hoping I'll arrive with enough time to buy my ticket and to get a coffee before I have to catch my train. Eek, nervous! next post will be from London or...

SYDNEY AHHHH

Goodbye Roma, it's been fun. I'm going to miss you.

So this morning I went and posted my huuuge boxes, it really was a weight off my mind knowing that I don't have to deal with that extra stuff, or carry that extra weight.

I have Carla a little christmas present, and we went shopping in Zara, she helped me pick out this cute coat! my black one has holes in both pockets from my keys, and seems to pick up every piece of dust, every hair, every scrap of wool, so it is ALWAYS grey rather than black, so I'm going to leave it here.

Winter Coat

When I was looking for Carla's chrissy present, I also found this Starbucks teeshirst! haha! had to get it

St. Arbucks Tshirt

What else? they were having a Christmas market in Piazza Navona! it was cute, we had crepes with Nutella, but oenoes, I managed to get melted nutella on my favourite leather handbag and I can't get the stains out! nooooo!

But check out the size of these Nutella Jars! crazy town!

I was so excited to put my present for Maxie underneath our teeny tiny tree! tomorrow we might go for coffee at Romoli, and then tomorrow afternoon is supposed to be a walk with Carla, Giusseppe and their dog Borgo in Villa Borghese, so I hope the weather is nice!

So! day two of my holiday-tourist-bonanza week!

Today I crossed another few things off my list, I  bought brown paper and wrapped my 2 boxes of stuff to send to sydney, but the line for the post office was outrageous, so I'm going to set my alarm and go at around 9am tomorrow morning.

Then, I caught the 80 bus in Piazza San Silvestro and walked from there to Via Del Corso, where I went christmas shopping. I managed to buy Janna and my old work colleagues' presents, but was unable to find anything for my flatmate Maxie, OR for Carla, who messaged me and organised to meet up with tomorrow.

After that I had hot chocolate at Tazzo D'Oro which I wasn't too impressed with, enjoyed some chestnuts that I bought from a street vendor, and walked to the Capitoline Museum.

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire...

After I had tramped through all 3 levels and the 4th, subterranean level, my thighs were killing me, especially after yesterday's climb to the top of San Pietro's Dome!

 I then walked back along Via Del Corso, and looked in the shops on my way - isn't this Christmas tree in United Colors of Benetton cute?

Oh Christmas Tree...

I also saw 2 coats I really liked in Zara, and I think I will have to take Carla to help me choose tomorrow!

when I got back to Eritrea, the main street that is directly parallel with the one we live on, they'd turned on the christmas lights, it looked so festive!

Lights on Via Eritrea

I had a coffee with Maxie and then we came home and I finished my first rabbit mitt! I'm very excited about the mitt. Photos soon!