Finally got the Burg Frankenstein pics from my brief trip to Frankfurt with Paul and Sheila together.

Sunday 24 August

Well the move is mostly over; we are totally moved but there are, of course, heaps of boxes to be unpacked. The new apartment is beautiful and in the evenings sitting on the balcony looking out over the water is just delightful. I will be sorry to have to move away!

Today I went to Hampton Court Palace with a friend from the SCA. There were some great tours and activities going on, and we sat down on a bench and got to see Elizabeth being dressed, which was great. The costumes that the actors/staff got to wear were, on the whole, great, and I was most jealous of their hats. Elizabeth's gown somehow still ended up looking like a costume rather than a dress, but I can't put my finger on why. It was made out of silk velvet and silk taffeta and must have been as hot as hell to wear. I had a brief but interesting chat to the lady being Elizabeth about forehead cloths (she started in a state of "undress" and got all frocked up as we watched) and she said that she had been issued with the set of cap and forehead cloth and just basically wore them in the way that seemed to work for her. This is, for those of you expiring with curiosity, was to wear the triangular piece so that the straight edge is over her forehead and the cap over the top, so you don't see the triangular edge at all.

I wandered the Tudor kitchen which was grand fun and was one of the only indoor bits of the palace where you are allowed to take photos, so you too can have a peek at what I saw. Damn but I want to cook in that kitchen. Nothing much, just a small feast for 60 or so people. <grin> The palace has a little cookbook for sale they have made from period recipes, but I wasn't overwhelmingly impressed by the redactions, so decided to give buying them a miss for now.

Oh, and as a side note, I had my first Wensleydale cheese ever yesterday... its goood. A little smokey and a little lemony, with a creamy but not claggy texture. I can see why Wallace likes it so much. ;-)

Thursday 21 August

I have been helping Liz pack for the last two days, as we all move house tomorrow. I had intended to move out earlier than this, but she and Sayiid asked me if I would stay on through the move, and I am delighted that I am able to contribute to the household in some way.

Last night I met up with a bunch of SCAers; four visitors from the US who are leaving today, Tina (ex pat NZ) and some old friends from Melbourne. I had my first ever fish and chips in England which weren't bad. Cod and chips is the equivalent of our old flake and chips.

Sorry, I still haven't sorted out my pics from the V&A, but have emailed a few around to various people who would be interested in particular items. Here is a photo just to give you a taste of things to come!

Happy Birthday to my friend Robert for yesterday!

Monday 18 August

I have work! I realised that I forgot to say this in any earlier journal entries. I am working for a local council doing a few days temp work, but this is just the beginning I am sure. Today was a filing frenzy, which at least gave me the satisfaction of feeling that I had achieved something by the end of the day.

Sunday 17 August

A quiet weekend on the whole, I did however go out on Saturday night, and discovered the sights of Soho. It had the most people I have seen in one place in London so far.

There were people playing drums, a line of artists doing sketches of passers by (if only I had had the money to get one!) and I had a wonderful dish for dinner of shredded chicken and jellyfish. It was great to be eating familiar food.

Sunday 10 August

This morning helped Liz with a bit of packing, then packed myself off to the V&A. It was a great choice of activity, because today was the hottest day on record in England; 37.9. Good to be somewhere lovely and cool.

Of course I only got to peer briefly at the joint, and must go back for more visits, however did find all sorts of interesting gems.

This evening I have been sitting on the back step trying to stay cool, and to let some cool air into the house. Unfortunately Liz's husband's (reasonable) Egyptian paranoia of insects and other nasties combined with the shocking revelation that the English dont have fly screens means that the doors and windows all stay shut at night, so the house is staying hot. And of course the houses here are not designed to keep you cool!

Still, I got a lot of picture sorting done. You can see the results of my efforts sorting out the first day of my trip to Singapore if you like.

Tomorrow I am back on the job hunt with plans to go to Chancery Lane to hand out resumes to agencies. My theory is that once they have met me how could they not hire me?

Saturday 9 August

Today I learnt something useful. If you get Lily pollen on your clothing, don't attemp to wash it out. Brush the garment with a soft brush to try and get the majority of pollen out. Then just put your garment in the sun and in about an hour the pollen will have disappeared. Seriously it worked! My brand new linen shirt got that nasty yellow pollen on it, and I thought it was a goner, but a bit of research uncovered this solution. I put it to the test, and much to my amazement it actually worked!

Friday 8 August

Today we went to Liz's new apartment, which is very beautiful and has a grand view of the Thames. Then we went to Sloane Square to check out furnishings (I mainly sat and read my book in the cafe). Liz and Sayiid are getting some truly amazing and gorgeous furniture. They are completely refurnishing the house, leaving pretty much all the furniture behind.

Thursday 7 August

Well it has been unbelievably hot here. I am currently sitting in Liz's house broiling slowly in London's hottest weather on record. Sadly the job hunting is going slowly. Due to the hot weather I haven't been able to face catching a train to Chancery Lane, where I gather there are a bunch of temp agencies. The trains here are getting up to the 40s inside them, with people fainting left right and centre.

Of course none of the trains have any form of cooling, as they haven't really got any call for it usually in London. People are crammed in like sardines already and it gets truly sweltering. I decided that if I went on the trains I would end up at my destination looking far from professional and competent, and more like a half drowned rat.

The train tracks have been buckling under the heat, so the trains are also all on a go slow, to try to prevent friction giving the tracks more heat. I knew I was arriving in summer here, but I (nor anyone here) ever expected these sorts of temperatures. So I am job hunting via phone and email, calling up agencies and then emailing my resume to them. So far there hasn't been much interest, which is disappointing. I don't dare house hunt until I have some work lined up, which is frustrating.

I did find an interesting permanent position to apply for, so I will give that a bash too.

Monday 4 August

Today was the first day where I got a bit focused on my future. Took the train into Earls court to track down a copy of TNT (a sort of Aussie/NZ "find your way around england" magazine) and took down some details of various accommodation options. I now have a list of agencies and jobs to call about, so expect that I shall spend much of tomorrow on the phone and online sending my cv everywhere.

Sunday 3 August

Today we relaxed around the house a bit, and then went on a grand adventure. Fiona and I went to the British Maritime Museum to see their "Elizabeth" exhibition. Oh yeah. WOW.

I got to see the originals of all those amazingly hoopy portraits in the books. I got to see Elizabeth's gloves, Mary's jewells, and all sorts of other wonderful things. There were some lovely textiles and I wished I could steal the lace off the wall to send to Mathilde. Sadly the catalogue costs 25 pounds so is beyond my reach currently, but the exhibition does go till September so hopefully after I start earning some money I will be able to lash out on it.

We had lunch sitting outside a pub; yes my first ever British pub lunch - and of course I had to have roast of the day with yorkshire pud. (Craig's mum makes better yorkshire puds)

The weather here has been unbelievably hot and steamy; about 24 degrees today.

Saturday 2 August.

Most of the day was spent at home while the neighbour Derrick worked on the plumbing, as the shower broke down. It was handy for Liz and Sayiid to have me around as hubby had to go to work, and Liz was off doing intensive house furnishing stuff (they are moving into their amaaaazing new apartment very soon).

I did, however, get to hop on the bus to try to hunt down phone cards. Abdou has kindly loaned me a sim card for while I am here, but I needed to get some top up credit for it. I have concluded that the phone system is totally bizarre here. Timed local calls are just the start of the mayhem, and I think that the confusion is probably a little worse in this particular household where there are 4 or is it 5 mobile phones between the 3 of us. Sayiid has one that he uses to make calls, which is different from the one that he uses to receive. (He does have a mobile phone business which I don't doubt is part of the reason for all this)

I did manage to get my global roaming isp sorted out which is great, although I will have to find a local ISP if I stick around for long, as $8 an hour might get a bit expensive when I get online and chat to my friends and relatives back at home.

Friday 1 August

I caught the train into the city to see what I could see, arriving at Charing Cross station. I started by going to the Church of St Martin in the Fields where I unexpectedly caught a lovely piano and cello recital as the drizzle set in.

After that I wandered to Trafalgar square, and, like a good tourist, took photos of the lions. I decided that as the sales apparently were ending any second now, that I should go visit Kensington and Knightsbridge.

Sadly I discovered that the problems of finding clothes for ladies of, shall we say, substance, exists here as well as Australia. However, I was delighted to find in H&M a linen blouse which cost me the grand sum of 2 pounds 99. Now anywhere in the world I reckon that was a good deal!

The stuff they say about food in London being expensive is true if you are earning dollars and paying pounds. But Boots (a sort of chemist/everything shop) has great meal deals which cost 2 pound 95 for a round and a half of sandwiches, a drink and a chocolate bar.

ARRIVAL IN LONDON

The underground wasn't so bad apart from the battle of the stairs, and various kind English gentlemen helped me schlep my 15kg (each) bags up all the stairs. Interestingly, all of them (so far) have been wearing suits. Final stop Welling. Cost 3 pounds 70 to get to Victoria station and then another 3 to get to Welling. OUCH! Victoria station was utterly confusing, and one of the travel tips I learnt from the experience is that the London underground may refer to trains, but does NOT include the suburban trains. I know that this will be bleedingly obvious to anyone English reading this but it was not in the slightest bit obvious to me, and I spent about 20 minutes desparately searching the map of the underground's stations trying to find any of the stations Liz mentioned in her email to me.

It gets dark really really late here; around 9.30pm! Liz and Sayiid welcomed me very warmly and I am now tucked into a lovely comfy bed in their spare 'oom.