1. Sunshine - If there is anything that makes me happy this is it.
2. My Mates - Group hug :).
3. Beaches - Eternal summer.
4. Weetbix - You were the reason I searched for the Aussie shop here in London.
5. Golden Century - My favourite.  What don't I love at this non-yum-cha, open until 4am restaurant in Chinatown.
6. The Australian - Pizzas of course!
7. My Toyota - Brought me closer to the sunshine and the beaches.
8. Mandatory Thursday & Friday Drinks - They were always there even when you had no plans at 4pm on a Friday afternoon.
9. Hotel Lobbies - Where you could sit in comfy couches, drink liqueur, share dessert or a cheese platter and listen to a piano player.
10. Sky Phoenix - Their fortune cookies, interesting patrons and interesting music.  The only place on a Friday night where you could go with a large group and not need a booking.

Two weekends ago I made my second trip out of London and headed for Paris - beautiful city, I can picture how much more beautiful it would be in any other season than winter.

This trip shall always be remembered as the first time that I have missed a flight.  I got there 5 or 10 minutes after the check in closed.. and.. had to wait until 7am in the morning for the next flight.  I could have abandoned the plans to visit Nic and Christine in Paris and gone home but I couldn't, wouldn't, and didn't.  I especially did not feel like going home and being asked a million times about why I was not in Paris on the weekend and how it was that I actually missed the flight (another question that might come to people is why did I catch a plane to Paris instead of the Eurostar).  Fortunately, I was not the only person that had missed that flight, a Frenchy did too, and what could have been a terrible time at Luton airport by myself (waiting for the minutes to tick on by) was made more bearable.  It was comforting to have someone there feeling just as you do.

I sms'd Nic to let him know that I would be delayed in getting to Paris, the French dinner and champagne would have to wait, and attempted sleeping in Luton airport on uncomfortable chairs, strapping the backpack to the chair so I wouldn't have to worry about it being stolen (thanks for the sms from Eiffel tower mate that made me feel that much better while I was waiting at the airport, haha).  An insight into the Amazing Race, it isn't as much fun as it looks like on TV.  I didn't get much sleep during the night, two hours if I was lucky, and then an additional hour on the flight.  It is unbelievable that even after having an overnight still didn't make it in the A boarding group!  My only chance and I missed it by five seats.. Not that it mattered in the end since groups A and B got on the bus at the same time and being near the door managed to be one of the first ten people on the plane.

The first day in Paris involved strolling around the city, having two great tour guides, after which a nap was needed then dinner and a Parisian club.  The waiter at the restaurant (which had a view of the Eiffel tower) informed me that I pronounced "l'addition s il vous plait" in good French.  The second day involved more French food, climb of the Eiffel tower, and flight back to London.

The coming of the New Year (2007) was celebrated in Timisoara, very close to what I believe New Year celebrations should entail.

The temperatures were still hovering around the -5'C and we had tickets to an Operetta (The Bat) and then reservations to a restaurant from 10pm onwards.  I didn't bring many clothes with me, half my suitcase was filled with presents, and I was forbidden by Daci from wearing jeans.. thus my only option was to wear a dress.  This was the first time I attended an Operetta, in Romanian, and I liked.  Through the second and third acts I was trying to translate for Christine the jokes and the storyline, the role each person was playing in order for it make more sense. 

After the Operetta we walked to the restaurant and had our entree after, then headed back to the city centre to watch the fireworks display, walk back to the restaurant again, eat, dance and be merry.  At the restaurant each course was served approximately at an hourly interval.. by 5am the troops were tired and we asked for our dessert to come out early so we could head home.  The company, the dancing, the food, the restaurant, the recording of Nic dancing, and the early hours made it into a terrific New Year!

We arrived home, people brushed their teeth and got ready for bed.  I was the last one to head to the bathroom to brush my teeth (it just had to be so).  I was tempted not to and maybe I should have just gone to sleep.  I walk to the bathroom and flick on the light switch (which is outside the bathroom next to the door).  Fortunately for the location of the light switch because I could have been showered with glass.  The bulb blew, noise like a firework throughout the house, and the lighting on the entire upper level worked no more!  Sit on the stairs of the upper level watching poor Adi trying to fix it.. in the end we gave up, using a torch I started to clean the shards out of the bathroom.. they were everywhere, sink, bath tub, all over the floor, even near the door.  I can thank my lucky stars that the light switch was not inside the bathroom.

The end of the 1st year in which I decided to have New Year Resolutions - even though they weren't in a normal sequence.  I decided what they would be either a month before the New Year or a month after the New Year.  This year there will be more, a combination of old and new (still a work in progress).

To go over December - the holiday and Christmas party haven.  Christmas was spent here in London with Nic and Christine and their relatives.  Not having any relatives here I was "invited" to spend Christmas with them, or was it me inviting myself along ; ).  It was the first time that I had a proper English Christmas lunch, delicious food and like in all other cultures it was too much food, if you attempted to eat it all it would have been hard to move a muscle hours afterwards (isn't this right Nic?). 

We flew to Budapest early on the 26th - there could have been a few problems as Nic decided to turn my alarm off (not snooze but off) and if it wasn't for a distant voice (Christine) which asked "was that the alarm?" that came to me like in a dream and made me wake up we could have continued sleeping.  We all slept on the plane to Budapest and when we exited out of the airport we took the exit which was less crowded and tried to find our Regina car hire desk.  There was no desk.. go to the information desk where the lady is on the phone.. ask "Can you" and get an answer of "No" even before finishing the sentence.  In the end Regina car hire was found (two persons with a sign containing Nic's name on it, but because my great idea of taking the exit which wasn't as crowded we didn't pass them).  We exit the airport and make our way to the car park, the Regina employees walk over to a cute Mercedes, open the doors and take out paperwork.  It is a beautiful car, but it must surely be his personal car?  Nope, it was our car, a delight to be a passenger in (car mirrors that folded inwards when you locked the car / seat warmers for those -5'C days). 

Budapest is a beautiful city with delicious food and mixed people, friendly to completely unfriendly.  The accommodation that we found was reasonable too, an apartment which could have housed 6 or 7 people instead of 3.  The next day we did some more sightseeing, Nic helping to fund the lifestyle of two illegal gamblers at one of the sights that we visited.  The drive to Timisoara was pleasant with a side stop at the Kora store (Christine and I wanted to stop at Metro but Nic made the executive decision and took us next door to Kora).

Time has quickly passed on by and Nic and Christine have arrived in London!  Caught up with both / Adrian, plus their very extended family last night at Red Oak in Borough (after getting off at London Bridge tube station only to catch the tube one station south to Borough).  The gathering at the pub was fun (a stranger remarked that he liked my leggings, I am becoming very acclimatised wearing dresses in the middle of winter) as was the dinner afterwards in Chinatown at the Friendly Inn - photos to come shortly.

Ahh.. not to forget, yesterday I also had my interview (interview?  my thought was more along the line of a meeting) at the Job Centre for my National Insurance number.  The appointment was at a non-local Job Centre office and it took me 1 hour to get to Tooting!  I arrived on time, just, after passing the building and having to stop at a nearby shop to ask for the shop number.  The assistant at the shop informed me that he was the ladies favourite number (is there never a straight answer?).  I made it to the Job Centre only to wait in one queue, than another queue.  The person who I had the interview with was very friendly and such a lovely person.  He noticed that I had travelled from afar and I mentioned that I noticed that there were two markets in Tooting.  He was kind enough to tell me about them and also about the shopping centre located in the area.  After the paperwork was filled out the paperwork and credentials had to be checked by yet another person and .. another wait took place..  after a duration my interviewer left and came back with my credentials and delivered them to me (I also mentioned that I had friends arriving from Sydney).  Felt special since he had to call the names of the other people out but mine was personally delivered without that necessity :).

Last weekend was another outing visiting the Soho Lounge, aliased on the guest list - photos to be posted from there as well.

Unfortunately I don't have many stories of new places that I have visited - expensive living here on Aussie dollars converted into pounds!  Soon that shall be no more and I'll be living purely on pounds that have always been pounds.  I need to plan the Christmas / NYE / plane ticket back to visit Oz (which will probably have to be changed) because they are all coming up in the next two months and now I have a contract to consider.

Met some more random strangers - on Sunday tourist business men were taking photos near where I was sitting on the south bank opposite Westminster.  One approaches me, even though I was wearing headphones and reading a book, and asks me "can I take photo with you?".  Sorry Scotty, but I had to say no!  There are many Christmas decorations on Oxford Street or London sights that would have been more suitable than I.

People are very friendly around here, yesterday someone greeted me with "hey sister" and today I found an "eye colour brother".  Not the mention being asked for directions too many times (scary actually being able to help them out!).

Too right Marky - my mustard yellow boots might have provided the support that the Aussies needed to win the match!  Unfortunately I have left them behind in the safety of the closet in Sydney.

The atmosphere of the game was excellent - there were so many Aussies in the crowd, great musical support from the Ghana supporters too.  I took my farewell Aussie flag to cheer (it made a handsome scarf in the second half!).

On the weekend, while I was strolling through Hyde Park I was asked for directions twice!  I must have looked like I knew where I was going?  The first person I was able to help although there is a suspicion that he was handing out pamphlets and not really looking to get to Trafalgar Square.  The next group of people wanted to reach the Marble Arches, I pointed them in the direction and then they asked me about how to get to Queen's or King's Garden / Park... they were getting out of my depth on that one.

That's about it for this week, not that many events (I am still in shock from the wake up call this morning from Nic asking me to remember passwords).

Next Tuesday I will be going to watch the Australia vs. Ghana football match.  I need to figure a way to wear the Aussie flag..

Home alone on a Monday night – this might be the first time that I have been home alone on any night for the past couple of weeks.  So here I am running around the house from upstairs to down below eating the plums from the fruit basket (someone has to eat them).

I will try to start these "Week in review" sessions each week; otherwise it will be months before I write another posting!

Friday day, overall, was a bad day.  As the day was coming to a close I had to make my way to the tube station to get to Euston station in order to catch the train to Manchester.  With plenty of time I decide to leave the house after 5pm, needing to get to Euston at 6.20pm.  There should have been plenty of time, only, the tube didn't end up arriving as promptly as always, then it made random stops along the way in between stations.  Get off, run to catch a different tube line to get me to Euston, run from the underground to the trains to make it there just after 6.20pm!  Our little group of four persons was unable to find four seats together; actually we were unable to find three empty seats at all!  Luckily for us they decided to open up one of the first class carriages and the train journey felt like 20 minutes instead of 3 hours with the vino degustation and five hundred (card game).

… (what happened in Manchester stays in Manchester)

The train back from Manchester to London was full also, prompting the train officer to make an announcement before we left the station that “persons unable to find seats should kindly catch the next train”.  If I was to interpret the message by the tone of his voice it would have been along the lines of “get off the train now”.

• "And there I was sitting here thinking we haven't heard any train stories in a while" - in relation to the train story from Monday 23rd Oct at Holborn tube station.

It has been more than a month since the visit to Germany; lets see how my memory serves me.

Germany, the Bavarian countryside was exceptionally beautiful.  Germany is a place where I would like to visit and drive from town to town and stay at pensions along the way.  The pine forests, greenery everywhere, hamei, wild flowers, perfect weather, and efficient trains that arrive and depart to the minute.

On one of the days in Germany a tour of Ludwig's Castles was booked, booked from back in Sydney.  This trip featured another one of my moments - after boarding the coach and waiting for 8.30am, the time that the coach was due to depart, I get off the coach and go for a wonder to buy a bottle of water.  I get back and decide to ask the person that was informing people on which coaches to board (assumption was that he was the coach driver) if the seats right at the front of the bus were used by anyone.  The reply was, as expected, that the tour guide sat there.  I then had to say (why stop there no?) that if the tour guide didn't enjoy sitting at the front I would be more than happy to sit there.  We were all merry and had a laugh, I get back onto the bus and take my seat at the back.  The departure time comes and an unknown person arrives and takes the driver's seat!  The person who I asked about the seating boards the bus as well, only to introduce himself as the Tour Guide.  Not to say more, but I was remembered for the whole day there as well, plenty of jokes to be had.  Trivia for you, apparently during the whole month of August there was as much sunshine as we had that day, Mr Tour Guide informed at the beginning of the trip ~9am or 10am.  We were a lucky group with wonderful weather to enjoy the sights at both Linderhof and Neuschwanstein.  I recommend them to anyone and everyone (remember, drive through Germany staying overnight at pensions).

Another day was reserved for sightseeing in Munich, forever marked in my memory as the day before the Pope arrived.  In all the main areas and major buildings flower arrangements were being set up and red carpet laid (I walked on a patch of the red carpet!).

In Ingolstad I learnt a new recipe for making apple pie (secret is breadcrumbs) which I have successfully reproduced here in London.

This entry shall now be concluded with a description of the bus trip from Ingolstad to Munich Airport.  It was a chilly morning in Sept 2006 when, for the first time in Germany, the bus that was supposed to take us all to the airport did not arrive on time.  While on the bus, the designated time to arrive at the airport came and went - no indication from the bus driver when we would arrive.  Other persons, speaking German, began approaching the driver asking when we would arrive (I am assuming that that was what they were asking since my German is limited to identifying sour cherries).  To make matters lighter, when we reached a T intersection I pointed that at last there we were seeing signs pointing towards the airport!  But then the bus went towards the left and not towards the right.  Not to worry all, the bus did reach the airport, maybe not two hours before the departure time but on time.  As I was boarding the plane towards London I had my passport examined by German security, when he saw that I was from Australia he said to me "You are the first kangaroo of the day!".  He then asked what area I worked in, because of the working holiday visa, and we shared yet another thing in common.  I have been fortunate along the travels, meeting the best of people :).

Compacting a few days into one, and finally I am up to date until tomorrow.  The days in Timisoara are being spent getting for the upcoming wedding this Sunday.

Can I start another entry with the last day in city <fill in the name please>?  It did start in the morning, this time I managed to leave the alarm clock button on the musical alarm and the music was much better to wake up to than the loud beep beep beep the previous morning.  The general getting ready on limited sleep, going down to a buffet breakfast, and getting back up to take the luggage and check out before 11am.  There was plenty of time to sightsee from 11am until 6.30pm, walked around Toronto in the opposite direction and rested in a park for a couple of hours watching the chipmunks gather food.  The drive to the airport was pleasant, and the taxi driver very informative.  He kept on pointing out buildings which were not there three years ago and the new apartment blocks that were being constructed.  Also found out that in Canada there is paid maternity leave for one year!

No queues to check in at the airport this time!  Waiting, waiting, waiting, catching the bus to a new terminal along with the flight crew and walking onto the plane based on the row numbers.  As I was entering the plane one of the persons from the flight crew said to me "I remember you from the bus" I answered back "I remember you too", and then he mentioned that it was a long way to travel from Sydney.  To this moment I am still puzzled as to how he knew I was from Sydney.  Backtracking I remember having my passport out on the bus, but... Unfortunately he wasn’t working in the section that I was seated and I didn’t ask him how he knew. Next time I’ll walk around and ask instead of pondering on such things.

I like how they allocate seats on flights, being right at the back there were plenty of empty seats around and I ended up with two seats for myself.  I could have watched two movies at the same time.  Ice Age was supposed to be one of them but it is a movie that I doubt I will ever end up watching!  This time it wasn’t playing even though it was in the guide.

Arrived in Vienna earlier than expected which gave more time to wonder around during the 4 hour stop over.  The previous times that I have visited Vienna I have caught the express bus from the airport into the city. This time there were advertisements everywhere for the CAT (express train into the city that takes 16 minutes).  Had to try the CAT, knew how the bus worked and needed to expand the knowledge.  Bought a return ticket and took a pamphlet that was located at the ticket machine. 

While reading through this pamphlet at the train station, even the train station looked great decorated with the CAT colours (all I remember is the lime green right now), I noticed that if you buy a return ticket it is valid up to 30 days.  Why o why? Sitting on the train and moving from wondering how the cabin crew knew I was from Sydney to why a return ticket on the CAT would be valid for 30 days, in the distance I saw the light.  The ticket inspector man, he would know!  He moved like in a dream, crimping tickets along the way.  I asked if he spoke English and he said "a little".  Then I asked "why are the return tickets were valid up to 30 days" and he replied back with "it’s not a bad thing" in a pleasant questionable tone.  I defended the fact that it is indeed not a bad thing, but that I was curious as to why.  This is another question that was left unanswered. 

The CAT trip was fun, the train itself was comfortable, had an onboard WC, upper and lower areas, and you needed to press the open doors button if the doors were closed.  Got off the train and used the chapel tower as a guide to the city centre, walked and took very few photos (too many people and areas under construction).   Caught the CAT back to the airport, and somehow got the same ticket inspector, who once he reached my seat said "I remember you, the 30 days.. ". Yes, that is me.  Got to the airport and had lunch, waited on the most uncomfortable chairs that I have ever sat on (they haven’t changed in three years, still metal, cold, and uncomfortable in a boring waiting area of the airport) until the propeller 14 row airplane (!!) took off and landed in Timisoara an hour later.  In Timisoara it was afternoon, I had been a awake for many hours.