My Blue Heaven

Never thought I’d say this in London..

But I’m actually wishing the temps would drop a little! It’s been really hot this whole week.. even at night. I don’t mind the heat during the day.. its nice to have decent summery weather.. plus I’m in air conditioned offices. But trying to go to sleep at night in the sauna of a room that I’m in is really hard (these british houses are TERRIBLE – they really keep the heat trapped in – which is good for winter, but sucks for summer.. and no such thing as air conditioning either!) Last night I really didn’t sleep very well, tossing and turning and waking up the whole night coz it was so stuffy and hot.

But other than that minor complaint, I am enjoying the nice weather we’ve been having here. Am making full use of my singlet tops and skirts and havaianas. 🙂 I hear this summer in London is going to be a warm one! So in preparation, I went on my first shopping expedition last night. 😀 I haven’t shopped since I arrived here in London.. thats like… a whole MONTH AND HALF of NO shopping!!! :O Anyway, almost every girl I’ve encountered has raved about The Top Shop on Oxford Street.

I finally decided to take a trip there after work.. and its pretty cool. The latest fashions in one big store (which is PACKED full of girls!!!) and the prices are quite cheap too. I bought myself a pair of sunnies for £10. Not bad eh. They’re rimless aviator/J.Lo style sunnies… medium filter with that gradiant shading thing.. in a brown-gray tone. I likey. 🙂 The only thing that sucks is that I’ll have to wear contacts to wear em… ah well. They sorta look like the 2nd from the top, in the picture to the right. Very similar shape & style, but a slightly darker brown/grey shade. And the sides have a double, not single err.. metal thingy.

Anyways. Getting close to end of the day now. Woohoo.. almost the weekend! I get to sleep in tomorrow. Woohoo! 🙂 Gonna go to Salsa class again tonight, the first time since the ankle sprain. Hopefully I should be fine to dance. Coz tomorrow I’m going to go to Zoonation (hiphop) class as well. And thats much more intensive than salsa! Gotta get back into dancing… have slacked off a bit. 🙁

Gotta get more active too.. coz I have been pigging out waaaay too much lately. Ugh! I can feel the kilos starting to pile on! :\ Although, I have started running regularly. Been going once or twice a week – running around Clapham Common park, which takes me about 20-25 mins. Great exercise and outdoors too, which is nice. Just need do it more often and keep it up regularly. (I lost my overseas Fitness First pass… grrr… Thats why I took up running. Its free!)

Current listening :: “I’m A Slave For You” – Britney Spears (For some reason I love listening to this song when its really hot… it just suits that sorta weather…)

Eine reise nach Frankfurt

I had an awesome weekend in Frankfurt, Germany. It’s really nice there – the city is quite pretty. Its clean, smells nice, and has a really nice laidback feel to it – kinda reminds me of parts of Sydney at times. It’s quite modern too – with cool things like escalators that only run when the sensor detects someone approaching it, or the coolest toilet seat plastic covers that with just the touch of a button, AUTOMATICALLY rotate to give you a fresh covering to sit on!! I wish I had my camera! Those germans are really quite ingenious!

The weather was simply gorgeous while I was there. Really warm around 25 – 28 degs.. with blue skies and sunshine. Perfect summer holiday weather! On saturday I visited the main shopping mall and street markets in central frankfurt. I tried my first german Bratwurst (pronounced “bratvurst”) sausage. Very tasty! They’re also big on crepes there – with every other food stall selling either sausages or crepes. I had a cinamon sugar crepe, then later tried an apple sauce crepe.. both yummy. Sooo much better than the crappy crepes we get back in Sydney.. or London. These are BIG too.. and cheap! Next time I’m gonna try a nutella crepe…. coz for some reason… the germans really like their nutella!!! Hehe go figure? Anyway, the food there is quite good. Definitely cheaper and better quality than here in london. I also tried some german buttermilk from a stall in the street market. Very nice.. very filling. Chocolate flavoured of course!

They’re also really big on beer. And you can get alcohol anywhere – not just bars or pubs. They have street stalls at the street market selling vodka cocktails and different kinds of beers. They had a stall selling honey beer. And they have fruit beers. I’m not into beer, but my friend tells me the beer there tastes really different.

And these germans are rather liberal… not just with the alcohol but, err, s.e.x. They have this shop.. which is just on the main shopping mall.. selling all sorts of err.. s.e.x related goods. Books, dvds, toys, tools, blowup dolls etc etc. You get the picture. BUT its not a R18+ s.e.x store. It’s not hidden away with a discrete entrance like in Sydney. It’s a main line chain store.. just like a chemist or supermarket.. eg woolies, boots, soul patterson. And people just go in and browse like they would a clothing store. I went in and had a look around. It was interesting. We came across these funny figurines called Bad Taste Bears. They look a bit like those cute “MeToYou” bears.. but they’re posed in all sorts of… err bad taste… ways. Some are of a sexual nature… some are just funny.. and some are in rather bad taste.. but still amusing.

I’m glad I was with my friend, coz I couldn’t speak any german at all… except Guten Tag.. Guten Morgen.. danke.. and scheize. 😛 Now my vocab has expanded slightly to include “1” (ein), “2” (zwei) and “exactly” (genau). Not much of an achievement I know. But I find the gutteral throaty german speech really hard to pick up. Actually it was quite amusing.. we went to an italian resturant for dinner on Sat night, and the menu was in italian with german descriptions… and I found I could understand more of the italian menu items than I could the german descriptions. Just coz I’ve been to so many italian places to eat before. Hehe. But luckily, most germans also speak english.. and are quite happy to do so. The waiter at the restaurant even gave us (coz I obviously was a foreigner) a choice of a japanese or english menu. Hah now that is truly international. 🙂 On sunday we went to a sunday brunch buffet (they’re big on their sunday brunches there) at a local german pub/cafe.. and we ate for like 2 hours straight. I sooo must have gained a few kilos over there.

The main form of transport around frankfurt seems to be the bicycle. Apparently the germans are really quite environmentally concious. So they do all sorts of things to save electricity and reduce pollution and reduce waste/recycle. The bicycles rule the roads and the footpaths over there. You hear a *ding* of a bicycle bell behind you, and you get out of the way. And they basically can ignore traffic lights and everything. It’s a great way to see frankfurt, which is quite a small city. I went for a bike ride on Sunday, and that was just really nice. Esp on such a warm summery day. We road down to the river side, which was full of people out enjoying the sunshine.

Oh and I went on an autobahn!! On the way back to the airport, I was running late for my flight.. so had to catch a taxi for the last half of the journey. Now most autobahns don’t have a speed limit.. but this one did – 100km/h. Not that my taxi driver cared (or most germans I think). Maybe he sensed I was in a hurry, coz he was hurtling down at 160km/h!!!

Well turns out I didn’t need to hurry, coz my flight back ended up being an hour and half late (trouble at Heathrow…. fuel spillage on one of the runways). Grrrrrr. I didn’t get back into London till around 12:30am.. which meant no tube or trains. Which meant the night bus into town, and then another night bus out to clapham. Grrrrr. I didn’t get home till 3am. And had to go to work in the morning. Am feeling a bit better today though after a bit more sleep last night.

So… that was my weekend adventure. 🙂 Was awesome… I wanna see more of europe now! Methinks I’d like to see Italy next. Can’t wait to try their gelato… and italian food… mmmmm…. :D~

Oh and stupid me forgot to bring my camera. But my friend had a camera (digital SLR in fact) and took pics. So pics are coming… er… soonish.. hopefully..

Oh yeh, one last observation. The sun sets sooooo late here at the moment! We’re talking after 10pm sometime! It really doesn’t get dark until like 10:30pm… and then gets light again at 4am. Its pretty cool having so much daylight… but a bit decieving about how late it really is. So its like, crap is that the time!! But I’m really enjoying the ultra loooong days we have here. Esp with the balmy weather. 🙂

Current listening :: “(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave” – Joan Osbourne & The Funk Brothers

Ankle update

Hey guys. Thanks for the kind comments. My ankle is feeling quite alot better today! Yay! Looks like it won’t take too long to recover. I can pretty much walk ok on it… I can flex and point my foot… just gotta be careful not to roll my foot outwards. Guess it wasn’t a very serious sprain… thank goodness.

Anyway, almost home time! Yay! This day has been *real* slow. Ugh. Just been very bored and waiting for the end. I can’t wait till this weekend too. I’m going to Germany. Squeeee! 🙂

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

Just call me hopalong

I sprained my left ankle last night. Not Happy Jan. Not having a good run of things this past week or 2. *sigh* Ah well… guess its just one of those things. Its not too serious luckily… and nothing broken. Just some hobbling around and elevating of said ankle. Last night was a bit hard… couldn’t sleep very well coz it was hurting.

So how did this happen I hear you ask. Well.. I’d love to have some cool, exciting and glamourous adventure story. But the boring old truth is, I sprained it whilst getting on the bus. Pretty lame (pun not intended :P) huh. I didn’t see the step down onto the road before the step up onto the bus…. and I was talking to someone and carrying something heavy onto the bus, I put my weight down on my foot to lift the heavy bag… and stepped on the edge/corner of the gutter, which rolled my foot outwards, landing rather ungracefully on the floor of the bus (bumping my knee on the bus step too).

So there you have it. My adventure in London continues. I’m more annoyed about it coz it takes friggin aaages to get anywhere as I’m hobbling like a cripple… and I can’t do things I enjoy like exercise (I was just starting to really get into going for jogs around the park) and dancing! Wahhh…. no dancing for a few weeks. 🙁

Current listening :: “Square One” – Coldplay

Contented

I’m feeling quite settled here in London now. Don’t even have to think twice about things like getting to places, using the London transport system, and navigating the crowded streets of central or south london. I’m even getting quite good at optimising my journey – to avoid crowds and save time. I also seem to be (like most other londoners) avoiding the tube where I can. I’m so glad I don’t have to rely on it.

It’s funny how in Sydney I couldn’t do without having a car to drive, but here, I don’t even think twice about not having a car. Everything is so convenient and accessible via public transport. Most things are within walking distance – like going to buy groceries, or going to the train or tube station. I quite like this about London. And Clapham is a great place to live too… lots of shops and supermarkets within 5 mins walk, with easy and quick transport links into central london. I think I’d like to stay within this area when I move out (yes I’m still sponging off my cousins – I have no money yet!) I feel quite safe here too – no qualms walking home from the station at midnight.. whereas in Sydney I’d prob feel a bit freaked in my area.

I’m also feeling quite content being on my own. I spent almost the whole weekend by myself. And I was quite happy doing so. I think I’m getting used to my own company…. maybe I’m becoming more independant. I was just thinking to myself whilst standing at Leicester Square tube station tonight.. (after having dinner by myself in china town, after evening service at St Helens).. and I realised… I really am feeling quite content. I don’t mind the fact that I’ve just spent the whole day by myself. Of course it would be nice to have friends to be able to hang out with… but that hasn’t really happened yet.

Maybe I’m just not very sociable. Perhaps I should put a bit more effort into making friends and finding a social circle. Sometimes I feel like I’m a bit of a recluse.. maybe I am an introvert. I know back home I gave the impression of being a bit of a party animal… but on the inside, I’m think I’m not really. I actually much prefer staying home and being comfortable, having a nice dinner and meaningful conversation with a good friend, maybe watching a dvd… and just chillin. I do like to go out clubbing etc… but thats just to get my dancing fix… and to be able to dress up once in a while 😉 (which reminds me… really need to go clubbing soon… STILL haven’t gone yet!) But I’m really not into the whole mingling at bars or pubs thing. I’d much rather socialise with people over a nice cup of coffee at a cafe. I don’t see the point of trying to hold a conversation with someone at a noisy bar, where its all smokey, crowded and loud. And one thing I quite dislike about London – people still smoke indoors. Even in coffee houses. Yeuch. Gives me a headache. They really should ban smoking anywhere indoors.

Anyway… err this has turned into a bit of an introspective rant. Its almost midnight – and I have work tomorrow. *sigh* We have team meetings every monday morning too…. pooey. 🙁

Current listening :: “Close To You” – Maxi Priest (Ahhh… bring on some good ol old-skool r&b..)