September 2003

For updates on the last week or so of my life, take a look at my August journal; its worth the trip to see my pics from Hampton court! My trips to Singapore and Frankfurt are in July's journal.

I finally took a bash at my photos from the Victoria and Albert Museum. I got tired of it after a bit, so it isn't the lot, but it is a fair swag of them, and mostly the rest are photos of 16th century lighting (one of my thangs), so you might find it dull anyway.

Hope you enjoy!.

Tuesday 30 September.

Check this out. If I am still here for 12th night, guess where I will be celebrating? Wild huh?

While I have been gone they have been going great guns on the Crossroads Project. In case you don't know anything about it, Crossroads is a cooperative which has bought a piece of land outside Yass NSW, and will be building a medieval eco-village. The first building started going up this year and has been really inspirational to lots of us. I got to help out a little on getting the frame up (mainly painting oil onto timber) and just recently the roof has been going on. I don't quite wish I was there to see it (as I am loving being here) but its close!

Thursday 25 September

Well, I now have my own Swiss bank account; how cool is that!?!

I have also uploaded a few photos so you can have a look at the view from Paul and Sheila's apartment.

Tuesday 23 September

Well today was my second day in the UN. Its a rough life wending our way through the French fields to Switzerland each morning, with the backdrop of the Jura. Paul and Sheila's flat looks out over the fields, and at night you can see the lights of Geneva in the far distance.

Tonight was pizza. Simple and good, mine had three cheeses; bleu, chevre (goats) and an ordinary fromage, and a few tasty olives (for decoration more than impact).

I heard a wee bit today about the feast of the Butterflies today; sounds like the food was truly unforgettable, and that Oonagh did a lovely job as always, of decorating the hall. By the way, Oonagh tells me she is planning on selling one of her amazing frocks; do take a look! I would love to hear more tales of the feast, so please, do email me and let me know your perspective!

Thank you to the wonderful team that put the event on; I was with you in spirit, if not in flesh!

Sunday 21 September

I flew in to Geneva this afternoon. Paul picked me up from the airport and drove me back to his and Sheila's place in France. Yep, I will be commuting each day from a strange country. How cool is that?

Dinner was bread baked with goats cheese, and pastry parcels filled with spinach and goats cheese. Oh how I shall be suffering here. (grin) Things are going to be a little complicated for the first few days as I try to sort out bank accounts in the two countries so that I can get paid, and actually access the money! I still haven't sorted out trying to get money from my British bank account back to Australia, so I can pay some bills, a few of you may have already seen a whingeing email on the subject.

Wednesday 17 September

Well. Just as I thought my life was going to settle down for a bit things go and get exciting. On Sunday I am packing my bags and moving to Switzerland.

Yep, it seems that the job in Geneva is back on, so I am off to Switzerland. I am going to stay with Paul and Sheila for a bit, in France, till I find my feet. I am hoping that I can catch up with my dear friend Christoph, who lives in Basel while I am there.

I felt really bad about having to call up the people whose flat I was going to move into to tell them the news. They are such lovely people. I will have to send them a postcard so that they can really tell that I really have moved here.

My workmates have been so sweet. They tease me about it all and offer to hide in my suitcases, and laughed at me for being torn about what to do about the flat in Deptford. "Geneva, Deptford. Deptford, Geneva. Gee we can see why you are having trouble chosing!"

I am sorry to be leaving both the job, and the flat (that I hadn't even moved into) in many ways. My workmates are just lovely, and I was really looking forward to having a space for a while of my own. Now I am moving in with not only two people, but their two children. They are great, but its going to be tiring!

Here are a few pics of Micheldever for you... so cute!

Monday 15 September

I know its been ages since I last updated; sorry! I got the bill for my first month's access here, and it was truly scary so I haven't been able to afford to log in using my global roaming access account. The housemove meant that I could no longer log on to my English isp (grrrrr) and so therefore I have been rather stuffed generally and without access. I have been able to check my email through the kindness of Liz, but not ftp. Most frustrating all around.

So whats my news? Well I have found a place to move to. It is a rather nice flat in Deptford, where I will be sharing with a Bulgarian girl who is studying Japanese theatre. As ya do.

I am still working at a local council but am getting frustrated with the pitiful state of my bank account every week, and am on the serious job hunt for something a bit better paid. I really like all the people I work with, however, which does make it all much more bearable. My new 'digs' cost £340 a month which is pretty good really, and it will be lovely to have a place of my own. Liz and Sayiid have been just wonderful to me, but I really want to get out of their hair, preferably before they want me to!

On the weekend I had a wonderful time helping my friends John and Fiona move house. They are moving to a little village near Winchester called Micheldever which is SO cute. I promise once I get my isp sorted out (I am moving to using AOL, yes I know they have a reputation for being evil incarnate but at least I can get on line, and won't have $250 bills each month!)

Anyway, Micheldever has all these little cottages which I would guess are 16th century, and is, interestingly, a flint area. I found what looks like a spear head among the stones in John's front garden; I will have to find an archeologist somewhere to have a look at it for me. The houses have all got thatched roofs, and I managed to get a pic (though a little distant) of a house which is being rethatched. If they had been up actually doing the thatching I might have gotten brave and gone to try and talk to them, but didn't as there was noone in sight.

I did have a lovely chat to a nice man outside his cottage. He was having the wall patched, and he said that he had been living in the house for 71 years, and he would be 92 next February. He said that the roof was last thatched 50 years ago, and it cost him £250, but that the recent recapping cost one thousand.

The local church is pretty old, at least bits of it are, and dates back to the 1300s. There was graffiti carved into the church walls, dated in the 1500s; I hope the photos worked out and you will get to see them! If you want to know more about Mitcheldever, I found (eventually) a site.

On Sunday I caught the Docklands Light Railway to Greenwich and wandered around the markets. I gave myself a limit of £10 for the day. I managed to do pretty well with it; a pair of silver and garnet earrings, a chunk of nougat, a cute greenman plaque, a rather impressive cornish pasty and a drink. Not bad eh? Liz and Sayiid say I have a nose for bargains; I am starting to think they might be right!

After wandering the markets, I walked back to the other side of the Thames through the foot tunnel. I got some shots of it, but I don't think they really show it very well. That was fun, apart from the spots where there appeared to be small leaks... a bit worrying.

Oh, and Friday night was Fiona's birthday celebration. We went to a lovely restaurant in Chiswick (pronounced Chizick) called Riso, and had great Italian. Mind you it cost £30 a head, which when you translate it into Australian dollars, does make you rather wince.

Monday 1 September

I am slowly going mad without internet access.. I managed to read my email today, but still haven't had access to a home phone line to upload my journal. Sorry everyone; its not my fault! "Go to a cybercafe" I hear you say. Nice theory, but I need to be able to link my computer directly to the line, not a strange computer. The lack of 'net access has also meant I haven't been able to pay a few bills, something I never feel too comfortable doing on a cybercafe computer. Ah well.

Today was a long day at work; 7.30am till 7pm. Still, a high achievement day and I seem to be knocking the socks off everyone at work, so its all good. I have heaps of news for all of you, but its in my August journal.

There is a bit of August now on this page, but that's because I am writing it in September.

This past weekend I went to my first feast in the UK, Lammas.

It was fun to see that there were familiar faces among the crowd... recognise these? The drink that Thomas is drinking is an "Herald Lager". Yep, Herald Lager... and they make a Tournament Bitter too. Its very weak stuff, about .2 apparently, and tastes pretty much like water even to a non beer person like me! But they cost less than soft drink and actually do taste better than London water, which is horrid.

It was wonderful to see that the SCA here is filled with great people too, with, as you can see from Sir Michael on the left here, great senses of humour. I got to spend a couple of hours in the kitchen playing which was lots of fun. We laughed and joked and had a grand time. Then after singing a song for the feast, I asked everyone to allow me to take a photo to send home to Lochac. "One, two, three.... Drachenwald".

After staying in the hall overnight I headed home. I travelled both ways with Terry, Dan and Catherine. In a typical way for the SCA here, none of these three are from England, Dan and Terry both being from NZ and Catherine from Canada. The English were a definite minority at this event.

Terry lives quite near where I am staying, so, as my hosts were out I headed over to his house where I was able to have a quick shower. We then headed to Canary wharf, and eventually (after suffering from typical English cafe service) managed to get some brunch. There seemed to be a half hearted attempt at a festival going on, but the bootscooting music drove us away from investigating too much, though I rather liked these figures
As neither of us had any commitments for the rest of the day, we ended up wandering around a bit. I was a good little tourist and got my pic taken on this statue. We then went to the movies and saw a fun pirate movie. After that we wandered back towards Terry's house and had dinner at a Bangladeshi restaurant. There was a dinner meeting of the Bangladeshi political party apparently, but the owners found us a little table in the entryway. The service was great and the food quite decent, and ended up being very inexpensive (I think they must have cut the price of the dishes) and they also gave us a free drink at the end of the dinner to apologise for the inconvenience. We honestly didn't feel that we were inconvenienced and indeed, I thought I had just had the best service I had seen in London.

Reminiscing on London Traffic....

I now feel like I really have experienced London. I had the transport day from hell on Thursday. It took me 3 hours to get to work in the morning. Yes 3 hours. The trip home was even worse. The morning was a combination of getting lost and generally running behind. The evening was a blackout throughout the centre of London. Everything ground to a halt. In my case, the train. Stopped. Dead. For an hour and a half.

Let me start at the beginning. Driving from work each day takes 15-20 minutes. This was the first day that I had to get myself to work & back under my own steam instead of getting a lift with Liz. So, after a lousy morning of leaving the house at around 8.30 and arriving at 11.30, I did 5 hours work and decided to give myself a bit of time to get home. Of course, at the dot of 5, the skies opened. I hadn't thought to pack an umbrella, or, for that matter, a coat. This meant that the 15 minute walk to the train station was out. I decided that I would get a minicab to take me to Plumstead station, which would put me on the right line to get to Greenwich to catch the Docklands Light Rail home. Easy. Ok, so the minicab cost me £4. Ouch. Ah well, that's life and will teach me to carry a jacket!

I get on the train just fine. Then I get off at Woolwich. Why you may ask, when I am going to Greenwich? Well, you see in the morning I had to catch the train to Woolwich and then get the bus (supposedly) to work. So something in my brain told me I had arrived where I was supposed to be. Doh. Ok, so thats ok, I will just get the next train. I stand on the platform and hop on the next train. Which I then discover isn't going via Greenwich. Damn. Not to worry, I figure that I can get off at London Bridge and catch the Docklands Light Rail (DLR) to where I need to be. Off we go. Then we grind to a halt in the middle of nowhere. A voice says that the signal at London Bridge is out, so we are just going to wait until it comes back.I figure I don't care too much as I have a book to read and give Liz a call to let her know I am running a bit late. Half an hour drifts by with occasional punctuation of "still waiting for the signal". Its a bit cold in the train, but bearable. Another half an hour passes, and then another. My book was only a novel so is now finished. I stand up and offer it to any other passengers who might be bored. I explain that it is a murder mystery set in Siberia, amongst the snow and rain. That it could remind them of the current weather. That got a laugh.

Luckily I had my "portable brain" with me and I had only recently loaded into it some new books, so I had some more reading. After about 15 minutes the train starts off again, while we all cheer. We arrive at London Bridge. It seems that the whole of central London has had a blackout. We get out of the train to discover that the Tube is closed, that the DLR isn't going from there either. I am standing in the station and the big glass doors are shut to stop anyone getting in (coincidentally stopping us from getting out). There are people as far as the eye can see, crushed up against the glass; I really felt for the people at the front - there wasn't any crowd on my side of the glass! The rail people decide that they can send some trains out from the station so they open the doors. After about 5 minutes of pouring through the crowd thinned enough that there was a chance to squeeze out. I turned to a lady beside me who had a small child and said "follow me and I will make a path for you". So off we go. I can see buses and think that I see salvation. There is an information booth where a man patiently stood dealing with inane questions from people as lost as I. I ask him about a bus. He advises me that I would have to catch a bus to the other side of town and that maybe somewhere there I could find a bus that would take me to the DLR. But I should realise that the traffic lights are out too.

Double damn. I call Liz again; she is worried about me, because she remembers my phobia - being lost. I am doing ok so far I assure her. In reality I am ok but feel as taut as a bow string. I decide that I should catch a train back out the way I came in the theory that maybe the DLR will be going from the outer areas to the city edge. So its back on the train to end up in Lewisham, which I know has a DLR station. I get out and soon discover that the DLR isn't going from there either. However, the kind stationmaster tells me, there is a bus number 108 which heads that way. I rush down the hill to catch the bus, and squeeze on, explaining where I want to go to the bus driver. She nods and tells me that she goes near the Macdonalds on the roundabout, and that I will need to catch the D8 from there. Ahah! I know that intersection, grand! It is only a few moments walk from the apartment. Ok.. So the bus fills up to the point where she skips stopping at the next two stops because we simply can't take any more. We go past Greenwich station. It looks deserted and I make the decision to stay on the bus rather than attempt to see if the DLR is back up. My phone has almost run out of power at this point, so I turn it off, so that I will have enough power to call Liz and Sayiid to tell them when I am 10 minutes away. The people sitting in front of me are also trying to get to the Docklands, and we exchange pleasantries and confusion.

The bus went every where, I have no idea where.... for about 45 minutes. I am keeping cool, as at least we will be ending up somewhere familiar, and hey while the bus is crowded at least it is warm!

The bus pulls up and the kindly driver tells us that this is the way to go. Just go up the road and catch the bus. We hop off and to our shock discover that, indeed, there IS a MacDonalds on this roundabout, but it isn't the roundabout we thought it was. And there are 6 roads off this roundabout, which one is the one we should be on. The signs tell us that we are in Bow Park, and we cross our fingers and head up the road. My fellow wanderers are from Italy and Sweden, both living in London for a while now. By some miracle we chose correctly and the next bus stop is the one we want. 5 number 8 buses drive past us as we stand shivering at the bus stop before a D8 comes along. I turn on the phone and reassure a worrying Sayiid and Liz that I am ok and will be home soon.

I walk fast because I am determined to arrive before 10pm and successfully arrive at the block at 1 minute before 10pm. Yep, it took me 4 and a half hours to travel what would have taken 20 minutes in the car.