The End... 27 days later...

Sitting on the sofa at home after a long day of being at home. There is clean laundry hanging, the suitcase is away, thai has been ordered for dinner And it's time to tell you all about the last few days.
My reason for not posting while I was still in England is some seriously patchy internet...
Thursday... It was so long ago!!! looking back at my photos, that was the day i did some more nerdy tripping around London. First up was 221b Baker St - the Sherlock Holmes Museum. From there Sarah and I went to Abbey Rd - to see the studio, and stand with the huge group of others trying not to hit by cars getting the iconic Beatles album cover shot. I got there is the end. After a long slow bus trip back into town I decided i'd head out to Notting Hill, for a couple of reasons. Portobello Road is in Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and of course, the blue door. back to the hostel for a nap, and then out to the Royal Albert Hall for a night at the proms. I saw the BBC National Orchestra of Wales performing some Elgar, Ravel and Debussy.  It was spectacular.
Friday involved packing... it was a bit sad to get everything back into my suitcase... I also headed in to the Tate Britain to see a photography exhibition that opened on friday called 'Another London' - photos taken by photographers who were either visiting or emigrating to England. it was really good. I spent a few hours wandering around the Tate, then caught a ferry along the thames and the tube back home. More chillaxing, and then off to Beanii's place to watch the opening ceremony! quiet night in, with risotto for dinner and opening ceremony on TV. wasn't how I had originally planned to see the opening, but it was a great night, great opening ceremony.
Saturday I had HOURS to kill before I had to leave for the airport. I hung out on the couch at the hostel watching the olympics for a while, then decided that I could probably get out to see the men's road cycling go past. hooray for free olympic events! when I got to fulham rd at South Kensington, I had just missed seeing the men ride out.. booo. after yet another seriously disappointing coffee (I can not tell you how many i threw out over the last month) I went wandering along the cycling track (which was closed all day, with very little crossings open for cars) to Hyde Park. not much was going on in the city, so I wandered back along the road to South Ken. by then it was lunch time, so I went into a pub on the track, grabbed some lunch and stayed there to watch the cycling on TV. a few hours (and three new pommy friends) later we made our way back out to the barrier to watch them cycle for home. I was just on the finish side of the 3km to go sign, so when they came past us they were flying! i got a couple of pics, but they are blurs of colour.
Finally it was time to head to the airport, where i managed to distract the women at the check in counter just long enough to get my 2kg over weight carry on through without any extra charges.
The interminable flight home, broken by a massage in Hong Kong (how much is 280 Hong Kong dollars?) and Wendy and Mum at the airport to meet me!!! straight home (via some decent coffee!) into a shower then back out to class - i'm a good little student!
Eventually all of my photos will be available online, but gimme a chance, there are tonnes of them!!!

Day 23…

You’d think by now I’d be running short of things to do and see…  ah, no. Thursday was another lovely sunny day so I headed out to see 221b Baker St, and Abbey Road (where I have a number of pics of me dodging traffic) and Notting Hill. Notting Hill had 2 attractions – the blue door, which I found, and Portobello road, which they sing about in Bedknobs and Broomsticks.  It was getting pretty hot then, so I hopped on a bus and took the long way into Trafalgar square (would have been much easier and quicker to take the tube) and went to the National Portrait Gallery. It was good, and as is typical of museums and galleries, set to the perfect snoozing atmosphere. I came back to the Hostel and had that nap, then it was off to see the BBC National Orchestra of Wales performing Elgar, Debussy and Ravel at the Royal Albert Hall. It’s an amazing building, and the music was brilliant.

Tuesday and Wednesday…

Tuesday was a big drive on a slightly broken bus in the smallest tour group I’ve ever been part of. There were 4 of us…

We drove to a little town called Lacock (Lay-cock), which you may have seen if you like period movies. One of the most notable to have been filmed there is the colin firth Pride and Prejudice, amongst a whole raft of TV shows and a smattering of Harry Poter… The town prides itself on its look – no power lines, no TV satellite dishes, no modern architecture (and by modern I mean nothing newer than about 300 years)…it was beautiful and quiet and not yet really hot… After that we went to Bath. Beautiful, informative, full of tourists and sunshine. This is also where our bus broke a little… The front door had to be held closed with a length of rope and the air conditioning stopped working… After a very hot drive to Stonehenge I took a crapload of photos of a pile of rocks… There are more and bigger rocks than I had expected, but the whole thing is quite a bit smaller than I was expecting.  Then the long hot drive back into London. I finally got a chance on Tuesday night to climb up to the lions in Trafalgar square to get photos!

Wednesday was a relatively relaxed wandering day (I  ONLY HAVE 1 LEFT ON MY MONOPOLY TOUR!!!)  which ended with more theatre. Matilda (music and lyrics by Tim Minchin) is beyond brilliant. It was so much fun! I smiled the whole way through, except for that bit in the middle which almost had me in tears… I wish I could see it again. Every single kid in it was brilliant, esp Matilda.

Today I’m off to the Sherlock museum and Notting Hill.

Mondays child is full of..... something...

Today is thursday. I wrote the stuff below on tuesday morning, about monday. the internet is a little hard to come across this week....

Theatre week. Monday. more sun. Today I took a train to oxford, then a bus to Abingdon, to see where my Mum lived when she was little. Its a nice area, a bit like a suburb splattered in the country side around Oxford. The houses all look the same, but there is space and grass and a creek which runs through which would make a great place for kids to play. Back into Oxford with only a couple of hours to explore, so I caught an open topped tour bus. I ended up with my jumper on purely so I wouldn't get sunburnt!
A fast train back into London - still took an hour - then more time on the tube. I think there are only 2 lines I haven't been on yet, so I'll get them in before the end of the week! After a quick shower I was off to the Globe to see Taming of the Shrew. Gen gave me a yard ticket. It was so much fun! Standing up for 3 hours, with a stair railing to lean on, laughing and cheering at Shakespeare. It really was a great experience, seeing Shakespeare as it was intended. And the weather was prefect for it.
Early to bed and early to rise, touring out to Bath and Stonehenge.

Sunday 22. It’s all relative.

When I first arrived in London, staying out at West Kensington was great. It’s an easy walk to the tube (but further than the train station at home) and a quick trip into town (about the same as from home to central). Everything was so easy!!! I guess the fact that I have never had to wait more than 3 mins for a train makes it all seem far easier.

In Cambridge everything was even closer. Stumble out the front door of the college and you’re at either school, coffee or a pub, or the market, or the mall. All within 5 mins. Stumble out the back door and you are at another pub, or the river or the back way to school. Again, 5 mins. It makes London seem like everything is forever away, and my feet are letting me know that I spent the day walking! Today I went to the bouncy castle Stone Henge – it was fun! The sun was shining (2 days in a row!!!!) and I went out fairly early, so when I arrived at stone henge there were very few people there – maybe 50 – and heaps of little tiny people. It seems jumping castles are great for babies and toddlers. It was really lovely to sit out in the sun for a while. After that I headed back towards the city and just went randomly wandering all around Covent Garden. Topped it all off with a lovely dinner at Jamie’s Italian. I’m starting to look forward to coming home, but there is still so much to do! Tomorrow is Oxford and Abingdon.

Day 18 – Sunday July 22

England has finally achieved something wonderful. Yesterday we made it through an entire day without needing umbrellas!!! Yes, you read that right, I was here for 17 days before there was a single one where it didn’t rain at all. I have never used my umbrella so often.

In other news… I finished and handed in my assignment on Coleridge, a week early! I’m pretty happy with what I wrote, so let’s hope my teacher likes it!

On Friday afternoon before dinner I went to the St Cat’s Chapel and listened to the St Catharine’s Girl’s Choir summer concert. About 25 girls all between 8 or 9 and about 17. They were really lovely to listen to. I recorded a song or two, so I’ll try and put the sound clip up one day.

Final night dinner was nice, kind of the same as every other dinner, but we were dressed up. Afterwards we went out partying, which I’m sure some of you have seen photos of! It was a fun night, followed by a very short sleep because we all promised we’d make it to breakfast at 8am! I had my laundry on well before that, and went for one last walk around my little bit of Cambridge. Cambridge is best first thing in the morning – it’s empty. All the students are still sleeping and the tourists haven’t arrived yet. The only thing open is Caffe Nero (aka coffee nerd). I think I’d get bored if I lived in Cambridge too long, but I loved every minute of being there! And I have a certificate that says I attended Cambridge University.

Saturday was the trip back to London. Gen and I decided we would catch the bus as it was slightly cheaper and we were in no rush (it takes more than twice as long as the train). When we were almost back to London, we got stopped by traffic in front of us going no-where… there were crowds all along the road so it was obvious there was some kind of gathering or demonstration going on… after about 5 mins a big truck came past making sure we were all excited about seeing the Olympic Flame in a few mins time! What a bonus to a bus trip – we pretty much had front row seats to see the torch! Then we turned the corner and followed the relay for about half an hour… it was a slow trip, but, what an opportunity! After a day wandering around Oxford St (and going to Lillywhites – a 6 story sports store) I met up with a few of the girls I’d been hanging out with in Cambridge (but who were in a different college) for one last get together. There is one person, Sarah, who will be in London all this week as well, so we’ll catch up a few times.

Today is Sunday, the sun is shining, London is bursting at the seams with people, and I am off to Greenwich Peninsula to see a bouncy castle life sized Stone Henge. I’m going to see the real deal on Tuesday!

damn Coleridge...

This week I have a 2000+ word paper to write on Coleridge and his conversational poems. this explains the lack of blog on two levels. I should be reading and writing something else right now. I haven't been doing anything much other than reading and writing...
I did, however, go to a ceilidh (read: kay-lee) last night. Like every other ceilidh i've ever been to, it was heaps of fun, and even more sweaty. it was actually really short, just 6 pretty simple dances, but most of the people there have never done that kind of thing before... I was called out at one stage to help the caller demonstrate what a do si do is. anyhoo! heaps of fun, heaps of sweat, late night doing some laundry so i would have jeans to wear today!
now I must get back to psycho-analysing Coleridge...

what I did with the middle bit...

Friday evening train journey back into London. arriving at Kings Cross at rush hour made me want to turn around and go back to Cambridge! there's a nice feel here, it's a country town which feels like it could easily be home. London is big and noisy.
After a quiet evening on the sofa, watching an interesting mash of tv, the first half of saturday was spent having a quiet day reading and watching the tv again. i haven't really had any down time in the past 2 weeks, so it was nice to just chill out for a while.
Just after lunch Beanii and I went out to do a self guided Monopoly walking tour. We managed to find 14 locations in 5 hours, including Fenchurch Street Station, which a fairly underwhelming overground station... 
At 11pm it was finally time to hit the road - it was really strange waiting all day to then leave the house. We arrived at the bus station, found our gate, and were invited to hop on the bus and have a wee seat so they could explain some things to us - yes, we really were headed to Scotland! about 10 mins into the trip i decided to head to bed. I had a bottom bunk, so to get in i dropped to hands and knees and rolled in. it was more comfortable than I was expecting, and I slept all the way to Glasgow.
Glasgow on a sunday morning is more than quiet - i took a number of photos standing in the middle of fairly major intersections, as the view up the streets was often really lovely.
After wandering the streets for a few hours, and randomly coming across a few of the sites where scenes of Lip Service were filmed, we headed to the Q&A session of the Lip Service fan event (my main reason to head to Glasgow). It was really interesting, and funny, and all of the cast were lovely and generous with their answers. I was pleasently surprised at the quality of questions the audience asked. I took about 160 photos but I know that many of them are pretty similar, so eventually i'll go through and pick out a few good ones.
The break between the Q&A and the party/signing session was spent on one of those open topped tour busses. An hour and a half circuit took in all of the important sites of Glasgow, and saved my feet from more walking. One of the things I found most interesting about the city is that so many of their buildings are red sandstone.
Back to the Lip Service event part 2 - after queueing for some time to look at some of the costumes we met some of the cast. Anna Skellern, who plays Lexy, is a sydney girl, and as soon as she heard our accents she just wanted to chat! we kept getting shuffled along (there were a few hundred people who wanted things signed) but it was great having a bit of a chat and getting some photos with the cast - Heather Peace is just as hot in person as she is on the small screen, but Anna was just so laid back and lovely.
Back on the bus, straight to sleep again, still in a bottom bunk. we arrived back in London almost an hour early, which meant I had time for a shower AND breakfast before class!
All in all it was a great weekend, and i'm glad I went to the effort to squeeze in a quick trip to Glasgow, which is a beautiful city.

The bit in the middle.

Day 10 - friday.
Today we wandered (paid our way) into the chapel at King's College. WOW! it's an amazing place. I took a heap of photos. I was so impressed i then went across the road and bought a Kings t-shirt.
My adventure for today is actually an adventure for three days, and i won't be blogging during it. I'll fill in lots of details when i get back to Cambridge on monday, but in the mean time I am headed back to London this afternoon, then on saturday, an overnight bus (with bunks!) to Glasgow. after spending about 17 hours in Glasgow I get the night bus back again, then straight back to class with no time to stop! right now I need to pack, carefully, because I have to carry everything I pack all weekend, with very little chance to put it down.
Have a great weekend everyone!

Day 9 - i've run out of witty subtitles.

Almost the last day of class for the week, which means almost the last day of two of my subjects. Jenny – my teacher for Urban Gothic, has become the centre of attention about what she wears. Day 1 and 2 were black dresses, then she branched out into a brown with floral dress. Today she had gone all out – most likely as she had to give the plenary lecture to the entire literature group – she wore a bright pink dress with a blue cardigan…   simple things, it seems…

I’ve enjoyed the Urban Gothic class, and the More’s Utopia class improved as the week went on.

Apparently trying to find a pair of jeans that I want to wear is near impossible. I went into at least 5 stores today, and two others on different occasions. I cannot find a pair of jeans that fit that I like. I’m headed into London on Friday night, so maybe Saturday’s task can be to find some jeans… I put a pair of shorts in the post to go home today too – London summer, you don’t scare me. One pair of shorts will get me through.

In the evening we decided we’d try out a new pub. The Bath House. Incongruously playing loud early ‘00s hip hop music… but the cider was good, so we stayed. And cringed at every new song…

I think I’ve found somewhere to get a vaguely decent coffee too!

Day 8

Wednesday's big event was punting on the Cam. There was champagne and strawberries and water and stories. It was a lot of fun. I got to have a go, and was quite good at it right up until the moment when I lost the pole... were going under a bridge, and the pole was just a little too tall... it turned out well enough, but for a moment we were just going for a drift on the river rather than a punt.
We heard a lot of stories about the history of the colleges we passed, but it was largely 'river stories' - not always true, a little bit legendary, but perhaps based in reality, and perhaps true...
There is something about living in a college town that seems to lend itself to pub visits… I almost thought I’d made it through a day without visiting a pub, but then I remembered we had a quick pint before dinner… They really are the best places to meet up with friends staying in other colleges!
I need to buy some new jeans though...