My Blue Heaven

Very busy bee

Man life has been hectic lately. I’ve suddenly turned into Miss Super-Flat-Hunting-Machine. The clock is ticking, and my time is now very short. I’ve been requested to vacate my cousins place by end of August (as they have friends staying with them in Sept). Which really doesn’t give me much time coz I am going to be away the last 2 weekends of August! Ideally I’d like to find a place to move into by the weekend of 13/14th Aug. Which means I really gotta get my act together! Eeek!

I’m now going with the option of moving in with a friend I met here in London, who was looking for someone to move into a new place with. This way, neither of us has to move into an existing houseshare. I’m looking at 2 bedroom houses/flats around Clapham/Battersea as I’m quite fond of the area now. I think we should be able to find something really nice after combining both our budgets. And the places will mostly be new or newly refurbished, which is really nice. I hate living in old places.

So I viewed a nice top floor Edwardian conversion flat last night, and am viewing a modern Victorian conversion tonight. Tomm night I’ll be looking at an old warehouse modern industrial conversion – apparently the apartments are really cool in this place. Here’s hoping I find something soon!

So, other than flat hunting, I’ve been pretty busy with work. Plus I went to Frankfurt again on the weekend, which was really really nice. I love it there. The weekend markets are great, esp the freshly made crepe stalls.. mmmm.. and bike riding is the easiest (and coolest) way to get around. Everyone gives way to a bicycle over there – cars and pedestrians, the bicycles rule the roads and you can go literally anywhere on them – roads, footpaths, malls.. everywhere except on trains and trams. Oh and would you believe, I discovered an AUSTRALIAN ICE-CREAM cafe!!! Yes.. Australian Ice-cream.. as in like the one in Pitt Street mall in Sydney. How wierd is that!! Anyway, I took my camera this time and will upload piccies when I have time. Ugh I have soooo many photos to upload now. 🙁

I also did a spot of shopping whilst in Frankfurt, and in the airport. They had a special sale on at all the shops that weekend, and duty free shopping is great too. 🙂 I bought myself a new pair of Nike airmax runners for quite cheap, and 2 pairs of Tommy Hilfiger combat pants (a black and a rather “bling-bling” white! :P) which are really very nice – the material is so silky smooth, and were a bargain! 🙂 Also stocked up on some hair conditioner/products and face moisturiser that I was running low on, coz its just so much cheaper to buy stuff in Europe than it is in London, esp with the stronger UK gpb. 😉

Starsailor live

I went to the Starsailor gig at the Somerset House on Tues night, which was great. 🙂 Again, I went with Ai (we really are getting our fill of gigs over here!!) The support acts were ok. The 2nd support act, a band called El Presidente has to be the most well-dressed, best-looking band I’ve seen in a while. Hahah. And even more.. they have an ASIAN CHICK as a drummer! Singaporean girl – not bad looking either, wearing a pretty strapless yellow dress. Yeh.. what the!? Hehe. As a band, they certainly put effort in their appearance. I found them to be rather poser-ish. Starsailor was cool. And they played my favourites… Alcoholic and Fever. Yay. 🙂 The venue itself was really nice too. Outdoor venue, in the courtyard of the old Somerset House. Pics to come.

Alrighty… I will endeavour to make an effort to upload at least SOME of the many photos back-logged on my laptop tonight. I’ve taken these few evenings off to devote to flat-hunting, and just relax at home. I realise I’ve been trying to do way too much and my body just isn’t coping very well. I’m exhausted for work from sleeping late, trying to fit in too many dance classes or exercising and travelling. Amazingly enough, I haven’t actually gotten sick yet – I’ve had other health issues, but no cold/flu type sickness! Thats pretty amazing for me coz I used to get colds really easily back in Sydney! Even during summer! Maybe there are less bugs here. Anyway, I’ve taken a bit of a break from dance classes *sniff* over the next week whilst I flat hunt. Once I get settled into my own place, I can resume the dancing and exercise regime. But there are just too many different dance classes I wanna do – I can’t fit it all in, and it gets a bit pricey! I wanna keep up my new-found salsa, plus there’s hiphop, zoonation and fusion funk classes, and then there’s good ol jazz that I’ve gotten back into again. I’ve forgotten how much I love jazz dance. *sigh* So much I want to do.. not enough time and money

Yikes this has been a looong post. Lots to update eh. 🙂 And I promise there will be visual updates tonight. 🙂 Well I’m off soon to that flat viewing appointment. Any hints on renting and dealing with real estate agents?

Current listening :: “Coming Down” – Starsailor

It wasn’t hard, to get the party started..

No, not for The Cat Empire. They have this remarkable ability to be able to rock out the house. A full house at that. You just can’t not get into their music when you see them perform live. You can’t sit down at their gigs… the whole packed out venue (all four floors) were up and hands-in-the-air dancing. There was an amazing vibe and energy at the gig.

Me (Myself) and Aileen *cough* had an excellent view at the front-most spot on the 1st level – we were practically overlooking the stage, from a side-on vantage. I forgot to bring my camera, but I did have my pda which takes not-too-bad photos, albeit at a fairly low resolution. I even took some video, which, admittedly has fairly crap sound quality compared to the gig, but hey better than nothing! I’ve uploaded pics in my gallery (snippets below) and also might put up a vid or 2 (tho quality isn’t very good, and the camera was shaking a bit coz I was trying to dance whilst taking video.. haha).

The played about equal amounts from old and new albums, which was great coz I hadn’t heard much of their older stuff live before. I enjoyed classics like “Hello”, “The Chariot”, “Days Like These” and “The Rhythm”. Ooh and they even played “The Crowd” too, which was cool. The new stuff included opening with “Sly”, and also included “Lullaby”, “Sol Y Sombra” etc.. in fact I think they played most of the songs on their two albums, as well as a number of improv sections – very cool, like suddenly breaking out into the opening act of The Lion King… which they did rather well, harmonies and all. Haha. They pulled in a freaky variety act mid-concert too – some guy who stuck two sharp swords ALL the way down his throat into his belly?!!!

Anyway, it was great to hear some awesome aussie music again (though it did make me feel slightly homesick.. *sigh*). Bit funny calling them “aussie music”.. their style is so hard to describe.. a fusion of funk, jazz, latin/cuban, with a smattering of rock, laced with some hiphop & rap. It’s just music, and it’s clear they are all incredible musicians, the band is really tight, and the pianist/keys guy Ollie is particularly awe-inspiring. His solos are just amazing! 🙂 And if you can get over the aussie accent, there’s few reasons not to love Cat Empire’s stuff! Gee it sounds like I’m promoting for them huh.

Definitely will be seeing them again at next opportunity – ages away as that may be.

Current listening :: “Two Shoes” – The Cat Empire

The Potter addiction continues

I bought the latest Harry Potter last week (£7.96 at Asdas!) and caved in to start reading it on Thurs.. now I’m almost finished – and I’ve even been trying to not read it too often. Booo. I read books too quickly. But they sucker me in like a pensieve and I can’t help myself.

But I’d just like to say… [spoilers]I predicted Harry and Ginny getting together a mile off. Ever since they first met in book 2, I knew it would happen. A gir’s sense perhaps. Most of my friends (GAVIN!) were all “No way.. As if”. But HAH!! I was right!!! *smug satisfied look*[/spoilers] Only one more book after this one apparently…. *sniff*

In other news. Tis a miserable day today. Been 15 degrees, rainy and grey. At the height of summer too! Grr. I pulled out my cream wintery zip-up coat for today.. and am very glad I did. So tomorrow night I’m going to see The Cat Empire.. for the 2nd time ever. Yay for aussie music! And for aussie bands travelling all the way out to London! 🙂

Current listening :: “White Dove” – Starsailor

Apple’s latest creation

The I-Flea! Hahaha… check out this spoof ad – its hilarious!!

Gai Paree

Paris was really nice. Très bien. Très splendide! I remember going there once before as a kid.. finding it really boring as all we did was look at old stuff in museums and old buildings. But this time I really quite liked it. The old buildings and everything. Was even contemplating the possibility of living there for a bit.. hmm… interesting thought there..

I like the whole old buildings with white window shutters, and small balconies with ornate black railings and red flowers in the flower pot look. There is this charm about it. Photos are coming.

But for the moment, highlights in brief:

• Dinner on Sat night at The. Best. French. Restaurant. I’ve ever been to. A homey little place called Le Pre Cadet, in Montmarte. The food was superb and the service even better! The owner was so attentive and helpful that it felt more like he was our host and we were guests at his dinner party. He even walked us out and shook our hands as we left! I had fillet steak and the yummiest dark chocolate mouse/fudge cake. It was smooth and creamy and chocolatey.. not frothy like mousse, but rich.. and much smoother than normal cake texture. *drools*
• The french pattisseries. Soooooo scrumptious. The french really know how to make their pastries and cakes huh. Mmmmmm. To borrow an expression from a friend.. Kazzart = Piggy. 😉
• The beautiful buildings and architecture.. just the feel of the place. It is afterall, “gay paree”.
• I quite liked Notre Dame. Even though it was absolutely packed with tourists. Dunno what it is with me and old cathedrals. I find them majestic and beautiful.
• Seeing a snippet of the Tour De France coz they were in Paris on the sunday that I was there! How cool is that! 🙂

I took a plethora of photos. Which will be uploaded when I have time to sort through them. Damn I have quite a backlog of digi photos piling up now. No time. 🙁

Anyway, work has been quite busy. At least I get to go to jazz dance class tonight. Yay! The highlight of every week for me is being able to go to dance class.. be it hiphop, jazz or salsa. 🙂 Gonna be doing Sheila Sangster’s intermediate jazz tonight. She’s a small blonde american lady. Good teacher. Its nice to do some jazz again, after so long. My jazz technique is a little rusty though.

Current listening :: “Only Hope” – Switchfoot (Hm I’m finding I currently like this original version more than the Mandy Moore version.. as pretty as Mandy Moore’s version is..)

Miscellaney

I randomly discovered this website, Australian-Food.com, whose slogan is “Delivering Australian Food to the World”. Hahaha. So I guess if I really feel nostalgic for some good ol Aussie tucker (ie Tim Tams!) one of these days, I’ll know where to look!! 😉

A friend called me from Sydney yesterday. T’was really nice to be able to chat to someone from home again. I’d just like to note that he sounded really occa! Hahah. I’ve been surrounded by pommy accents so much that I’ve grown accustomed to it.. and a real australian accent sounds so much more prominent than before.

Hm. I’ve only been here 2 & 1/2 months, but it seems like longer. A lot of the time I don’t even think about it as being in another city, another country.. I consider it home. But at times I do miss home.. my real home… sometimes I close my eyes and I can conjure up fairly vivid images of home, as if I’m there.. like of the last time I went to Wattamolla beach with friends.. what it felt like to be standing there, taking in the amazing vastness of the ocean.. and the national park forest behind the beach.. watching the sunset reflect off the calm inlet waters, and our shadows lengthening as the sky grew that darker orange colour, until the trees were silhouetted black against that vibrant dark orange/pink/blue sky.

*sigh* Ok now I feel homesick. Ack. Shouldn’t think too much about it like that.

Still.. I am happy here too, for the time being. Experiencing all these new and exciting things.. discovering new and exciting places. Like salsa dancing (which is alot bigger over here). Or Europe. Incidentally.. I’m going to Paris this weekend. Squeeee! On my very first Eurostar trip!! 😀

Ooh and I’m going to be seeing Starsailor on 2nd August at the Somerset House summer set festival. I bought tix for myself and Ai. Yay.

Well best get back to work. Morning tea break is over. 😉

Current listening :: “They Weren’t There” – Missy Higgins

Please explain?

There are some things I just don’t understand. Not sure if I ever will.

• Smoking (and why oh why does someone need to smoke in a restaurant.. please London, catch up with Australia and BAN smoking in restaurants. How can one possibly smoke WHILST they are eating?!)
• Social binge drinking (I mean why do that to yourself? What sort of pleasure can anyone get from drinking until they throw up? Why do people need alcohol anyway? Can’t they just be happy with who they are? Can’t they relate to other people without the need for external substances to help “relax” them.)
• Bitching and backstabbing. Just human nature in general really. Nuff said.

Hrmmm…

I will stop
I will stop at nothing
Say the right things
When electioneering
I trust I can rely on your vote

When I go forwards you go backwards and somewhere we will meet

Gone

Thinking about these things makes me wonder… about life… people… society.. the culture of western society in particular. London on the one side can seem like such a vibrant place… full of life and diversity. But on the darker side of the coin, it is a place filled with materialism, greed, and the insatiable and never-ending search for happiness and pleasure. Hrmm.

She told him she’d rather fix her makeup
Than try to fix what’s going on
But the problem keeps on calling
Even with the cellphone gone
She told him that she believes in living
Bigger than she’s living now
But her world keeps spinning backwards
And upside down
Don’t say so long, and throw yourself wrong
Don’t spend today away
Cuz today will soon be

She said he said live like no tomorrow
Every moment that we borrow
Brings us closer to the God who’s not short of cash
Hey Bono I’m glad you asked
Life is still worth living, life is still worth living…

Have I, too, become caught in that cage…?

Current listening :: “Gone” – Switchfoot

Chalk it up to experience

Just a quick update before I go to sleep (coz its Sunday midnight here and I have work tomm :(). I had myself a great weekend. The weather was hot hot hot – just like aussie summers! Started out with a rather fun Friday night out with work mates celebrating a 30th birthday. We went to a Salsa club called Fiesta Havana in the west end. Really nice place! I love the cocktails (esp as it was happy hour till 7:30pm with cocktails being only 2.50 quid) there and the latin/salsa/hiphop fusion of music!

I’ve discovered I quite like latin/cuban cocktails – like the Strawberry Caipirinha (fresh limes & sugar crushed together with fresh strawberries, Cachaça (sugar cane spirit) and crushed ice) or the traditional Mojita (fresh limes, fresh mint & white sugar crushed together with Santiago De Cuba Carta blanca rum topped with crushed ice and a splash of soda). So yummy! But.. I also discovered that drinking cocktails and dancing do NOT mix. The night ended in tears (literally) with me throwing up on the street outside the club. Ok before you jump to conclusions, I wasn’t drunk. I’d only had 2 drinks at around 7pm and then some nacho’s a bit after and only water from then on. But then I salsa danced a lot in that very hot club, was thrown around the dance floor (and dipped upside down many times), sweated and prob got very dehydrated… after a time of dancing I just gradually felt sicker and sicker… until eventually around 11pm it got too much – I was so nauseous I had to leave.. and threw up outside on the street. It was an EXTREMELY unpleasant experience. Puke going up your nose. Ack. 🙁 I haven’t thrown up for a loooooong time.

Anyway, I made it home without throwing up again, with the company of a very nice work mate, Emma, who walked me to my door! Then had a bit of a chat with my cousin and her husband – who happens to be a doctor (in psychiatry, but he’s still a certified GP) – and he reckons I had a heat stroke. The heat and sweating, plus the dancing and the alcohol… I think it was a combination of those things. But I’ve drunk and danced before no problems though… so… maybe its the salsa…. being dipped upside down and shaken around – prob isn’t the best thing for a stomach containing 2 cocktails and some nachos sloshing around together.

Aside from that…. I had the best time dancing. The salsa really came together for me that night… I could totally follow the guy’s lead as we danced. I used to always balk and not be able to follow what the guy wanted me to do at previous salsa clubs… but I guess the classes have paid off and I finally got it! It just flowed.. and it felt awesome. I love salsa dancing! 🙂

Sat’dee n Sun’dee

So the rest of my weekend was a very relaxed one. I spent Saturday taking it easy and recovering. Just spent the day at home, cleaning up my very messy room, washing a few loads of clothing and drinking lots of water to rehydrate my body. Then at night I met up with Ai for the very first time! I took her to dinner at my regular haunt in china town before heading out to see Aimee Mann gig at Shepherds Bush Empire. We had a comfortable spot in the seating area up on level 2. And predictably I suppose, were surrounded by oldies. But what was scary was the mullets on some of those old guys. *shudder* Otherwise the gig was good.. I quite enjoyed myself – and I quite liked the support act…. a guy/band called Robert Post from Norway! They were a three piece band, with Robert singing and playing guitar. Nice upbeat stuff – might check out their album sometime. They’re quite new I think. It was good to chat with Aileen in real life too! We’ll prob be meeting up a few times whilst she’s here for 4 weeks. And methinks there shall be some Hagen Daz icecream involved somewhere in there. 😉

Sunday saw me sleeping in till 1ish and then meeting up with a friend for a very very late brunch (2pm) at a local cafe just down the road (called Giraffe). Very cool place with really good food and drinks! And they serve breakfast till 4pm!!! Gonna go back and try some of their other main dishes. They looked really yummy. I also had a really yummy frozen fruit smoothie with mango, strawberry, banana and apple and orange juice. The perfect thing for a hot summers day. Yummo. My friend had the frozen mocha frappe.. which I will try next time! The desserts also looked scrumptious. They have this white chocolate and toblerone cheesecake with milk chocolate sauce. Mmmmmmm……. :p~ Ok enough about food!

Time for me to sleeeeep. Its now well after midnight.. darn it. Was meant to sleep earlier tonight. Nite all!

Current listening :: “She Really Wants You” – Aimme Mann

One Step Back

Bad news. I lost my flat. Or rather, the room in the flat. The guy called me during work last Fri to arrange a time to meet to do contract stuff (but I have no mobile reception at work whatsoever, so he left a msg on voicemail). I was busy and out of london on the weekend, so I didn’t get back to him till Sunday night. And then he msgs me back and I find out on Monday that he’d given the room to someone else (who came to see it over the weekend and signed the contract on the spot).

Not. Happy. Jan.

I was pretty shocked/suprised. Didn’t realise it could happen like that. And that he could do that.. thought it was set that I would take it.. though I hadn’t given deposit yet. Was a bit upset at first.. but I’m ok now. *sigh* Anyway… guess I’m back to square one. It’s not so bad… I’ve seen some positives… I can save on rent for a bit longer for one. 😉 And it also gives me the chance to look around a bit more. I really didn’t do much research or looking around before deciding on that flat.. so perhaps its a good thing I didn’t get it. I can probably find something better – like a bigger room.. newer furnishings. There are so many different places to live too. So many suburbs in london I haven’t been to yet.

Weekend

So anyways. The weather today is absolutely beautiful. Very much summery weather… hot and sunny. Am wearing my havaianas and new H&M shirt dress. 🙂 I had a pretty good weekend in Canterbury. Visited the Canterbury Cathedral.. built by King Henry VIII (wat was his role in the reformation again? I can’t remember). It was beautiful and kinda freaky at the same time. They had a service on at the time, with a choral choir singing.. they sounded so perfect I thought it was a recording. It was kinda eerie.. gothic sounding, and added to the scariness of the place. I remember walking into the cathedral main hall (which kinda reminded me of the huuuge dwarven hall in the mines of Moria in LOTR FOTR.. you know with the huge columns and ceiling) to the sound of their choral voices rising up, filling the place with that gothic feel. Took some pics. But what’s with the gargoyles and scary statues and bones/skulls? *shudder* Anyway.. photos will err…. go in the queue behind all the other photos I still have yet to upload. My bad. I’ve been too lazy/busy.

Anyway, really need to do more exercise. I ate sooo much over the weekend. In the words of Cher from Clueless… I feel like such a heffer! And haven’t been to dance class for a while too, so am really missing that. Think I’ll go to Fusion Funk tonite. Yay!

New Toy

Oh and I have a new toy too. Well.. sorta… I have an Orange SPV M2000 pda/phone… for the next 6 months. I’m kinda looking after it for someone whilst they are overseas. And I can use it. 750 free mins a month.. plus the full PDA functionality. Yay! It’s got wireless capabilities, phone/video, mp3 player, microsoft office etc etc. I’ve been keeping myself amused trying to connect to random wireless networks about London. Hehe. So far I’ve managed to tap into next doors unsecure wlan. And briefly connected to some network in the square outside my work at lunch. I could sign up to TMobile and get connected at any Starbucks hotspots. But thats like £5/hour. Ouchies.

Current listening :: “She Left On A Monday” – Bic Runga

Thanks for the concern!

Just wanted to thank everyone for their concern in contacting me via this site or email or msn. Never had so many ppl asking me if I was ok!!! 🙂 Anyway, last night I managed to get home fine – caught the overland train home ok and my stations were open. Glad I don’t work in the actual city, where everyone had to walk out! Going into work this morning wasn’t too bad… a few delays.. they closed and evacuated a station (guess they’re being ultra cautious now) which affected one of the lines I catch so had to go an alternate route.

Anyway finally the weekend! Woohooo!! Looking forward to watching War Of The Worlds tonight, biiiig screen cinema at Odeon, Leicester Square. Hope its good, but I’ve heard its only so-so. Oh well, I’ll still enjoy it at least for the big cinema experience and special effects. Also am going to Canterbury (yes, as in Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales) this weekend, which should be nice. Gonna experience some English countryside. (Coz I still haven’t been outside London yet!!)

Final Step In Official Independance

Guess what! I found a flat! Woohoo! I’m gonna be officially independant as of next weekend when I’ll be moving out of my cousin’s place and into my new flat (a 3 bedroom, 2 story flat share with a couple and a guy). It’s in Canada Water, which is south east… very close to central london in Zone 2.. and VERY close to my work. Basically I’m just east of my work by 2 tube stops! 5 min tube journey! Or a bus takes me from practically door to door in about 20 mins!! 🙂 There’s even a night bus that stops just outside on the main road. The flat also overlooks the docks… yep.. I have water views. How sweet is that! The rent is really decent too… 125/wk including all bills, tax, wireless broadband internet, sky plus tv. Not bad at all. I have a small double room… which has a double bed, built in wardrobes and a bedside drawer… but no room for anything else really.

So… the final step. Very excited am I! 🙂 Pics to come after I move in.

Ok gotta go… its nearly 6pm on a Friday eve and I’m still at work! I’m outie! Gonna head to the pub for a drink with workmates. 🙂

Current listening :: “Gone Going” – Black Eyed Peas

I’m ok!!!

Just letting you all know I’m ok, if you’ve heard the news about London. If you haven’t heard… there’s been bomb blasts all over central london transport… in 6 tube locations, and 1 bus. Its chaos in central london. Half our office wasn’t able to get in.

We’ve been watching sky and bbc news on tv here keeping up with the latest news as it happens. Its pretty scary…. we got in touch with one of our clients who was actually on the first of the tube trains that exploded. Coming into Edgeware Road from Kings Cross. He was in the back carriage and the explosion happened in the front 2. Apparently the blast was so strong the roof of the trains blew off, soot and smoke everywhere and they were waiting there for 30 mins not knowing what was happening. Finally when they were able to get out, they had to walk over people/bodies(?) to get out.

Also a girlfriend of my workmates friend was at Camden stuck, and overheard military people (who are drafted in to help) saying that they’ve actually defused another 4 bombs around central london, but aren’t announcing this fact. I really hope there isn’t going to be any more repeats of this later today..

Anyways… its pretty chaotic in central London… diff reports coming in from all over the place. No idea about number of fatalities yet. I’m sure it will all become clear over time. At this stage, I’m just dreading trying to get home from work this evening….