Hi Folks,
Well firstly Happy Aussie Day for last Thursday. I have experienced many an overseas Australia day and its always involved something physical (in Aspen, it was boarding down Highlands Mountain in bikinis and the Aussie flag, lead by leopard-skin-G-banga-attired-Chris-Day… to Whistler, it was playing kick the footy and catch the snow ball and pretending it is warm weather and hence wearing thongs in the snow (not the Chris day type, the flip flop variety as they are ONLY known in the UK/USA)… to Irleland, it was more shanangans outdoors with a cricket bat (a fence paling) and an attempt at wickets (3 huge empty magnums of champas)… all of which was spiced up by a little alcohol consumption and some sort of Aussie tucker.)
Not in England.
There was nothing about being outdoors except for those poor working people who had to painfully line up at 5 o’clock to get into any venue. It was all about being warm inside a very British pub called the “Slug and Lettuce” but which claimed being Australian and sadly, got it all very wrong. They had Aussie specials for the day–you could get �2 snakebites (yes peoples, thats a traditional Austraylian drink made from 1/3 fosters, 1/3 strongbow and 1/3 grenadine/red cordial, in a pint glass, in case you were unsure), 2-4-1 cocksucking cowboys (cos they are from outback Austray-ya), an Aussie menu which consisted of fries, wedges and curryworst hotdogs (they naievly forgot the meat pie)… They played very Austray-yan songs from our local bands like U2, Violent Femmes, Coldplay, James Blunt and Madonna… So all in all it lacked the basic fundamentals of what we would call Australia Day except the end result was still a drunken smile, a cheers and a bit of a boogie!
To fill in time between the excitement of house hunting and job hunting, I have taken a few little vacations. Two weeks ago I joined 5 others on a trip to Belfast then Dublin. That’s the 3rd time I’ve been to Dublin and for those of you who have been there too, would know that it really only takes one full day to see the sights and then it’s over to the nightlife (which becomes a day event anyway). I’m sure thats what the Dubliners would want you to experience anyway–so I just saw more pubs than I had previously. Unique to this trip however, was an unexepected invite from Superman to ride in his cart while he ran infront in his outfit yelling at people on the streets of temple bar to “get out of the way cos Superman’s on a mission”! I swear I nearly fell out: (a) from laughing so hard and (b) cos bloody cobblestones aren’t easy to cart along on when you’ve been drinking!
Belfast was great–definitely worth 12 hours of your time (no more though). We obviously had a Protestant bus/tour driver cos he told us his side of the ongoing “civil” war that still tangibly exists in Northern Ireland. The most confusing tour, because he was simultaneously showing us: the peace wall (it stands at 5m tall and topped with barbed wire to separate the Catholics and Protestant schools and neighbourhoods), the Catholic real estate, the Protestant real estate, the orange schools, the green schools, the war memorials dedicated to the Catholics and those dedicated to the Anglicans/Presys whilst telling us that Belfast is a united city, peaceful and egalitarian!! He said there’s no more fighting, animosity, that they all live in unity there!!!! During our tour and checking out the mural walls the Catholics painted, a Catholic ran up to us and asked us if he could tell us the story of Northern Ireland from his point of view!! When he finished (35mins later) we asked him if there was somewhere we could go to get the History of Belfast and he summed up all our previous questions with one reply “there are no museums that will tell you about our history cos it’s not history, its still going”… Okey dokey… so we hopped on a train and went to dublin 🙂
Went to Berlin last weekend with 5 girls. Got VIP tickets to James Blunt which was a great concert but he was a bit or an arse himself (typical English!). Fobbed us off at the after party and wouldn’t even get his photo taken (his guard said it was a “tall order girls”). Sure. I insisted we do this 5 hour walking tour through Berlin that everyone I know who went to Berlin has raved about. I stupidly did not put two and two together to realise that these friends did this tour in summer and being winter and close to Russia, the temp that day never rose above -17 degrees C. The coldest was -23deg C. I cannot tell you (prob much to your relief cos this e-mail is now a melodramatic saga) what was said on that tour after WWI cos I was so zoned in on my pain and numbness! Not a smart idea unless you have a thing for extreme weather.
Anyway, so I start my new job on Wednesday in a back stability clinic in London. Sounds like it should be alright. Good experience anyway. I get every second Friday off too, also appealing. I am currently “room-hunting”–very unfun and some dodgy characters out there in London Town but I will be sure to find something sane and fun soon… Keep in touch and let me know all your plans!!!
Speak soon Love Nat x