The ups and the downs...

SO MUCH has happened since I last wrote – I honestly don’t know how I’m supposed to condense such a crazy period of my life into digestible (hopefully even entertaining?) ramblings.

In a nutshell, my life has been a major rollercoaster ride over the past few months, complete with major highs and devastating lows. The good news is I’m steadily climbing again. And hoping it levels out for a while.

Details are below to bring you up to speed.


Belfast girls weekend away
12th – 13th April
Kimmie asked at some point in March if I was keen on a weekend away in Belfast. I said no, not particularly. She said flights were £10 each way. We booked, and sure enough, eventually we went (with Christina, another friend of ours) for a girls weekend away.
Belfast is a genuinely interesting place. Not the prettiest of cities, or even the most happening - the Belfast Wheel (a super dodgy version of the London Eye, minus the Thames and the view) seemed to be a leading tourist attraction – but honestly really interesting. We did a Black Taxi Tour (the OTHER main touristy thing to do) with an awesome driver, who explained all of the conflict history to us whilst driving us around the Protestant vs. Catholic parts of town and showing us all the war murals. I had no idea that there was still a Berlin Wall-like structure dividing the city in two – granted, a gate is opened during the day to allow access but at night the two parts of the city are separated by 6m(ish) high walls for safety. AND apparently the cemetery has a wall built underground, separating the Protestants from the Catholics even in death. Full on stuff.
Our awesome taxi driver also told us where to go out for dinner / drinks, etc. and we ended up having a brilliant night out with the scantily-clad locals, feeling extremely over-dressed (literally).
Given the meagre at best results returned by both Google and Ask.com to the apparently unusual query of ‘Belfast + tourist attractions’, we had pre-booked a day trip in the Northern Irish countryside for the following day – to the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge (bring it on) and the slightly more interesting sounding Giant’s Causeway. The rope bridge was a rope bridge, but it was fortunately a rope bridge in a gorgeous Northern Irish coastal location with views across the water to Scotland. Worth the trip for a few pretty pics and some sunshine on our faces if nothing else.
The Giant’s Causeway was super cool – it’s an all natural geological wonder, explained in my un-geologically-educated terms as lots of perfectly hexagon-shaped rock formations by the beach. See pics. They’ll do a better job explaining than I will. Again, worth the trip for the sunshine, company, ice cream, and cool pics of perfectly hexagon-shaped rock formations by the beach (how many people can say they have those??).
Overall despite low expectations, we made our own fun and had a brilliant time. And I genuinely recommend a visit to Belfast for anyone interested in the historical side of things. Really interesting.


A few days later…
I broke up with Pete FYI (all good, totally the right thing).


A few hours later… - Operation Water Feature
I woke at 2am to the sound of dripping.
To keep a very entertaining and potentially very lengthy story brief - a few drops from my ceiling (NB I'm in the middle floor of the house and the bathroom is NOT directly above my room) turned into a steady stream of hot, dirty black water leaking through my ceiling. An hour and a half later - after we realised it wasn’t getting better and moved all my stuff out in about 5 minutes flat - the ceiling collapsed.
Turns out the central heating had died that evening, and had taken the hot water with it... apparently all the hot water went into some emergency reservoir tank thing, the (broken) pipes leading into which are in the ceiling above my room. 80 litres of hot water came through my ceiling, and eventually flooded through my floor into the living room below. Lots of fun. Karma??


For the next month…
I was homeless. Well, roomless. Sleeping on the couch, sleeping in Ben’s room (when he went to Oz for a week), sleeping in Andrew’s room (when he went away for the weekend), sleeping in Rich’s room (when he was at his girlfriends house), sleeping in Ella’s room (when no other room was available and I refused to sleep on the couch due to the newfound presence of a rat on the ground floor). Fun and games.


Cinque Terre long weekend away to meet Mike
3rd – 5th May
Mike had left Rotterdam to begin his European adventure.
I had nothing to do for the first long weekend in May.
I take full credit for suggesting a weekend away to the gorgeous Cinque Terre (five small cliff-top towns on the north-west coast of Italy near Genoa / Pisa).
We met up on the Saturday afternoon in the beautiful little town of Manarola. Upon arrival, Mike had already met up with Lee (his good friend) and Victoria & Noah (Lee’s lovely lady & gorgeous son, respectively) and taken them to the nearest bar, in true Mike style. I was greeted with a beer before I was allowed up to the hostel to drop off my bags.
That afternoon Mike and I walked from Manarola to Riomaggiore, the next and final town in the Cinque Terre (the idea is that you walk between each of the towns along the beautiful coastal paths during your stay – Manarola is fourth in the sequence). That stretch of the walk is meant to be one of the most scenic and it was truly amazing, especially as we walked back watching the sun set, having enjoyed a glass of the local Cinque Terre vino overlooking the sea. Very nice.
The following day Team Cinque Terre (Noah included) walked (or in Noah’s case, got carried) from Manarola to the next town in the opposite direction, Corniglia, where we enjoyed a lovely breakfast in a gorgeous café in the town square, working on our tans in the sunshine.
Adequately fed and watered, Mike, Lee and I left Victoria and the little one in Corniglia as the path ahead got steeper and more treacherous (not really). We pushed on for the next 45 minutes or so to Vernazza, which was my favourite of the 5 Terre. Absolutely gorgeous town, with a beautiful beach / port area that I needless to say took millions of photos of. Victoria & Noah trained it over to meet us for lunch - by the time they’d arrived we had already sampled (and thoroughly enjoyed) a glass of the local Cinque Terre white, and with them proceeded to sample (and thoroughly enjoy) a slice each of the world’s biggest & best Italian pizza. Followed by Crema Cinque Terre-flavoured gelato. When in Rome…
From there Victoria & Noah bade us farewell and returned to Manarola as us three hardcore hikers braved the elements (35ish degree heat, it’s a tough life!) to walk the final and most difficult, uphill stretch to Monterosso – the fifth and final town where another glass of Cinque Terre vino awaited our arrival.
The evening’s festivities included a big fat meal to overcompensate for the day’s strenuous exercise, and a bottle of Cinque Terre vino for the table (sensing a theme here?? That stuff is amazing!) to complete the evening.
The following day I (sadly) had to leave relatively early to catch my flight back to London. Words really don’t do this area justice so again, pics are up on facebook for anyone interested. Very highly recommended (and not just for the wine!).


A month and a day after my ceiling collapsed…
I got my (newly renovated) room back. Two days before my birthday.


The Festival of Jas (18th May and the following week)
Anyone who knows me well will have expected nothing less than a festival, and I delivered. I had an absolutely fantastic few days, with spirits heightened even further by the fact I had a home again.


Norwegian Fjords long weekend away
24th – 26th May
This was a bit of a random one. We’d been searching online for cheap flights for the long weekend, with San Sebastian or perhaps the south of Spain in mind… then someone (Nuals?) came across cheap flights to Stavanger and all of a sudden the Norwegian fjords were a go.
And what a go-er they were. That part of the world is absolutely stunning. Needless to say I’ve done a lot of travel since I’ve been here (as well as beforehand), and the Norwegian fjords go down as one of my favourite places of any I’ve ever visited. Seriously.
Team Norway (Nuals, Tilley, our friend Ange and I) flew into Stavanger late on the Friday night, although it felt as though it was about 4pm… we were a few weeks ahead of the midnight sun so it never really got dark. Quite cool! We called it a night upon arrival at our hotel – resting up in preparation for the big weekend ahead.
Saturday morning we made our way down to the lovely waterfront area, and got ourselves on the first ferry to Tau… the first stop en route to the hostel we’d booked in the middle of nowhere in Fjord-land. The ferry ride itself was spectacular, bettered only by the fresh prawns we’d bought from the fish man at Stavanger pier, which we proceeded to demolish en route… yum.
From Tau we had to get a bus for half an hour or so into the Norwegian countryside before reaching our destination – Preikestolhytta, our hostel. It was absolutely gorgeous. I’ve never been so excited by accommodation at any point in my life.
Preikestolhytta is located right on a gorgeous lake (with amazing views from each bedroom) and at the base of the hiking trail that leads to the world-famous Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock) lookout which goes down as one of the best views and most amazing places I’ve ever seen in my life. The hostel itself used to be a hiker’s lodge so is literally in the middle of nowhere. Very cool.
After expending some much-needed energy jumping up and down with excitement, Nuals and I said our farewells to Tilley and Ange and took off up the hiking trail. Five minutes later, already exhausted, we considered coming back!
Nevertheless we trekked on, and when we reached the top every pant, curse and bead of sweat was worth it a million times over. The view was AMAZING. If a picture says a thousand words I’ll stop right here and advise you to check out the pics on facebook… that view is like nothing I’ve ever seen before, it literally took my breath away. Both Nuals and I were speechless for a good half hour while we tried to capture every angle of the view possible, should we ever forget what it looked like (highly unlikely). Absolutely stunning / awe-inspiring / truly beautiful.
We finally tore ourselves away to walk back to the hostel in time for dinner, and tried our hardest to dull down our description of the amazing past few hours to poor Ange in particular, who had been desperate to hike the trail with us however had damaged her foot royally the week before playing softball (incl. fractures and torn ligaments) and was hobbling around on crutches. We promised to take her on a ferry ride down the fjord the following day so she could still see it, albeit from a different angle.
True to our word, the following day we all caught a local ferry to the end of the Lysefjord (the fjord we’d seen from Preikestolen the day before) and back, appreciating the gorgeous scenery that (almost) matched what we’d seen from above.
Our third and final day was spent tearing ourselves away from Preikestolhytta (it took a while) and travelling back to explore Stavanger itself before our flight home that evening. It’s quite a cute little city / big town – the centre has gorgeous cobbled streets that we explored, enjoying the sunshine and checking out a few cute shops. A lovely day to end an amazing weekend, and we were all very sad to leave when the time came to get on the plane.
Not that we could have afforded to stay any longer really, we were all on the verge of declaring bankruptcy after only 3 days… it was worth it though. AMAZING again. Go there!!!


Monday, 2nd June
Life took a turn for the worse.
I got a phone call saying Ange (who I’d been in Norway with a week earlier) was in hospital in a coma. I was told to prepare for the worst. I spent the day & night in an intensive care ward praying to a God I’m not even sure exists.


Tuesday, 3rd June
Ange passed away.
I won’t go into details here (online privacy, etc. etc.) but I think I’ve filled most of you in on what happened… a pretty devastating turn of events and certainly something that changed my perspective on what’s important in life, that’s for sure.


For the next few weeks…
If my life’s been a rollercoaster recently, this was when I hit the bottom. Luckily I had amazing friends over here who were going through exactly the same emotions I was, so we helped each other through it.


Canterbury & Kent weekend away
14th – 15th June
In the hope that getting out of London would help (and because Kimmie had a friend in town), a group of us organised a weekend away in the English countryside. Very randomly. We were at a pub on a Tuesday night and decided to hire a people-mover to go explore Kent that coming weekend because apparently there were some tunnels (?) there worth seeing. As you do.
In the end there were 7 of us that went, and we had a ball. We spent Saturday sightseeing around Canterbury – one of Nuals’ friends lives there so played the part of tour-guide magnificently – and Sunday lunging (in joke) our way around Leeds Castle, which incidentally is nowhere near Leeds. For the record I have no idea what tunnels we were supposed to see, but we didn’t see any!
That, combined with numerous pub stop-overs, a visit to the rocky ‘beach’ at 3:30am on Sunday morning, and crooning to ‘Bleeding Love’ and ‘Hey There Delilah’ at all times in which our people-mover wheels were in motion, made for a very entertaining weekend away. Just what the doctor ordered.


Royal Ascot – 21st June
Another posh day at the races, drinking Pimm’s and stalking the Queen. I didn’t bet anything, clearly I didn’t win anything but I had a great time anyway – I think the entire population of Australians in London was there.
I won’t go into much detail other than to say it was great to have an excuse to dress up (I went all out with a proper fascinator the size of my head this year) and have a fun day out with all our friends. Always a good laugh.


Espinho (Portugal) beach weekend away
28th – 29th June
Kimmie and I had booked this a few weeks prior, when we just needed to get out of London for a few days and forget about everything. It worked!
Unfortunately Kimmie had torn a ligament in her ankle the week prior (!) and was on crutches the entire time (we hadn’t been able to change our flights), but that just ended up meaning more beach time which wasn’t a bad thing at all. Espinho is a tiny little Portuguese village just outside of Porto on the north coast. It’s literally a few quiet, dusty streets full of locals (hardly any tourists in sight) and a long sandy beach. That’s pretty much it. We loved it. Given the circumstances, once settled we barely moved from the sand, and after two days of relaxation had decent tans to show for our hard work. We enjoyed local coffee (amazing), local seafood and local wine... what more could we ask for?? It was a very stress-free weekend away.


Two days later… 1st July
The big move.
For various reasons I decided to move house and have a fresh start in London. After house-hunting for all of a week and a half (and for a 3 or 4 bedroom house of all things - didn’t think I’d be doing that until I had the standard husband, dog and 3.2 kids) I moved in with Christina (the friend of a friend who came to Belfast & Kent, etc.) in a gorgeous 3 bed house in Clapham Junction.
Randomly the house is literally a street away from Kimmie and about 5 mins from most of my London-based friends, and it’s awesome. We both absolutely love it. It feels so unbelievably homely (I guess as there was no-one already living here when we moved in, it’s entirely ours) and we love having people come round or crash so all of you need to get off your butts and come visit!!
The original plan was to find a guy to take the third room (we figured three girls might get a bit hormonal :) but in the process of helping me move, Nuals decided she loved the place and two days later she and Tilley moved in! So much fun, it’s been the most happening house for the past few months, literally like an ongoing episode of Friends.
Unfortunately Nuals & Tilley are now fast approaching their return to Sydney so Christina and I have been interviewing guys for the past week or two (a process very similar to what I imagine speed-dating to be like, highly entertaining!) and have found a really lovely guy to move in when they go. Incidentally his name is Pete and he’s English!! (no, not the same Pete but still random!)
Not looking forward to our happy family being disbanded when Nuals & Tilley leave, but it will be interesting to test out the new dynamic once Pete moves in in a couple of weeks. So it’s all happening on the house front as well.


And that’s pretty much it (!).

Since the move, life’s continued to be busy (as always) including various catch-ups with friends, our housewarming (amongst other parties), the O2 wireless festival in Hyde Park (jumping up and down to Powderfinger with the million other Aussies paying tribute in London’s liquid sunshine), the Kylie concert, etc., etc. but such is London life. ‘Busy’ is its middle name.

Given the above will take 3 weeks to read already I’ll leave it there for now, and update again in due course with the latest on my visa / working situation (my battle against the English authorities continues… still!!!) and upcoming travel plans… nothing like a bit of suspense!
Hope you’re all well, miss you all HEAPS so keep in touch and let me know what you’re all up to. Speak soon!

xxx

Jas

Travels home, and home again.

Hey peoples.

Well it's been the usual 6 or so weeks since I last wrote, so prepare yourselves for another epic update on the life of your favourite expat (or so I like to tell myself). There's actually not as much to update on this time around, so you might just get to the end. God forbid.

Let's start with my flight halfway round the world for a boy who had me in tears en route at Hong Kong airport.. (that could be the start of a bad TV soap right there)...
Turns out Mini Murray is as determined and stubborn a little bugger as his Aunty Jas. Despite Kat steering well clear of curry (as per my well-researched orders), the little one decided enough was enough, and made his entrance into the world at 5:40pm on 18th February – a day early and while yours truly was still airborne. I landed in Hong Kong airport to a text message from Max Christopher Murray (he's a quick learner, that boy) introducing himself as my new nephew and saying he couldn't wait to meet me. Needless to say I spent the next hour in tears and on the phone to anyone who would listen, texting half of you, and announcing Max' arrival on facebook. The wonders of modern communication.

My two weeks in Sydney flew by, as expected. I spent as much time as possible with mum & dad and obviously my sister, brother-in-law and gorgeous new nephew (who, incidentally, happens to be the most gorgeous boy in the world – what can I say, Krnjetin blood :).
I caught up with as many of you as I could one-on-one, hit the beach a couple of times to hide my newfound English pasty-ness, and obviously said hello and waved goodbye at my round 2

farewell drinks at Opera Bar.

Needless to say I had a brilliant time, although the concept of being home for a holiday proved a little harder to get my head around than one would expect. It took me over a week of being back home to comprehend that I would actually have to go back to London, and several weeks upon returning here (to my other 'home') to get back in the swing of things and stop missing everyone so much!

Fortunately my period of readjustment into London life was short-lived – after months of asking for more work, my ever-helpful employers decided to make up for my previous boredom and granted my request. Work began to consume my working weeks with early starts and 10pm-ish finishes (sans lunch break, naturally) from the day I got back.

I also had friends in town to bring me back to reality – I must say going out with them every night in various parts of London reminded me of how much I love this city. Even if all of you aren't here.

Dave (Sheridan) arrived a few weeks after my return, and stayed with me for about a week before heading up to his beloved Middlesborough. I think we were out every night but one (when we made the world's best pasta / stir fry concoction and polished off a bottle of wine while watching rubbish TV with the housemates), and I take pride in the fact his knowledge of Putney / Clapham pubs has grown exponentially.
We had a great time. So good, in fact, that he's moving down from the Boro sooner than expected (i.e. this week) to join in the London fun & games. Very exciting!

A few days after Davo left (and my body had forgiven me my recent negligence), Mike arrived. Very exciting again - I hadn't seen Mike (my old Sydney flatmate) since my first farewell almost a year ago, and there was lots to catch up on. Needless to say another busy week ensued, culminating in a spontaneous trip to the Cotswolds which failed miserably. The entertaining attempt did result in a day in Oxford (and some random nearby town, when Mike got us lost :) however, so a pretty good failure by all accounts.

That was about two weeks ago. Following Mike's departure, life regained some semblance of normality, although work continued to demand blood, sweat & tears and visa paperwork kept me up till all hours of the morning. London life at its best.
Fortunately that only lasted a week or so before BA whisked me off to Belgrade (Serbia) for a bit of family fun. I'd booked a few days off work before Easter to visit the city of my birth, that I hadn't been back to for over five years (and to catch up on sleep!).

I had a great time. Visiting Belgrade is always the same, really - lots of long chats over black Turkish coffee (for my grandparents, etc, the usual weak latte for me - I'm a Serbian disgrace :) and trips down memory lane to see the places my parents and I frequented before we moved to Sydney. Lots of food (anything I've said I liked at any point in my life will be waiting for me in quantities befitting an army) including desserts / cakes (six varieties awaited my arrival) and traditional Serbian alcohol (home-made cherry brandy... hello!).
It was great to spend rare, quality time with my family – mum's side in Belgrade and dad's side in Pozarevac about an hours drive away. I felt at home amongst people who shared my surname (or at the very least could pronounce it) and who complemented my ability to speak the language, despite my grammatical massacre of it. I wish I could go more often.

So there you go. That's the latest.

I'll leave it there, and will update in due course with the latest visa dramas (my war against the English authorities continues), and debriefs on my upcoming trips to Rotterdam (to visit Mike – if I can organise it in time), Belfast (cheap flights = a girls' weekend away), Cinque Terre in Italy (to again meet Mike, who will be in the area over a long weekend) and the Norwegian fjords (for the second long weekend in May). All subject to the UK authorities playing nice.

Hope all's well back at home #1.

Love you all, miss you all. Speak soon.

xx

A Christmas Odyssey

A big 2008 hello to you all!

Hope you had a brilliant festive break, and are coping as well as can be expected with the return to work and normality.

Here are some more miscellaneous ramblings for you on the London Life of Jas. Or rather, here is a thesis of miscellaneous ramblings, picking up from my Salzburg weekend away and filling you in on all my adventures since.

Salzburg (Christmas party & weekend away)
7th - 9th December
It was an early start as Fallon Air took off from Gatwick at an ungodly hour to land in Salzburg a few hours later amid mountains covered in snow. The English majority were quite amused at my immediate excitement, having not seen snow for about five years (since I was last over here) but none of the white stuff fell during our stay unfortunately.

It was freezing without that reward.
We stayed at an amazing resort right on a lake by the mountains (Lake Wolfgang?), and started the day off with lunch & mulled wine - fuel for the Winter Games to follow, where our sawing, reflex, ice-carving and cross-country skiing & shooting skills were put to the test. A highly entertaining afternoon, and I'll take this opportunity to gloat that Team Oz (myself and another Aussie girl) were coming second for ages in the sawing, beating a few of the guy teams... jaws actually dropped. It was brilliant!
That evening consisted of dinner in a Michelin star restaurant (needless to say, very nice) and a boat cruise on the lake, followed by a return to our hotel, underneath which was the 'Mystic Underworld', to get the party started. Despite the name, the underground caves were actually quite cool, and the party went off.

From memory I forced myself to bed at about 4am, knowing Pete wouldn't be too impressed if I was completely out of it for the weekend of sightseeing ahead. And only 3 hours later, it was time to get up again and bus it back to Salzburg airport to meet him and head into the city itself while everyone else flew home.
Salzburg is a really pretty city - not too big and not too much of a to-do city, where you have to tick the boxes in terms of sights you've seen. It's more a place to just wander around and get lost in, appreciating the sights along the way.
Needless to say Saturday involved lots of walking, stopping for regular apfel strudels and / or bratwurst & gluhwein along the way, to warm up (naturally, that was the official excuse).
Saturday night we went to Schloss Mirabell (an old palace in the centre of town) for the Mozart concert, to listen to an amazing solo pianist doing her thing. She truly was amazing, but after being very civilised & cultured for an hour and a half or so, we were quite ready to return to the town centre to hang with the cool kids and enjoy some more mulled wine.
Sunday brought with it the Sound of Music tour and Pete was just beside himself with excitement... :)
Not quite. But he did very well to last the day. The tour was actually better than we both thought it would be - as it turns out, not all of the movie was shot in the heart of Salzburg, so the bus took us out to a gorgeous little town called Mondsee (to see the church where Maria & Capt. von Trapp got married) as well as back out to Lake Wolfgang, so Pete also got to see the gorgeous snowy scenery where I'd been a few days before. Well worth it.

So yet another brilliant weekend away! Apparently this one was too much fun though - I flew home with a slightly sore throat on the Sunday night which subsequently worsened to become tonsilitis. I had the entire following week off work with a high fever, literally unable to stand without holding on to walls for support and unable to eat for about 5 days.. lots of fun!

A week after my well-timed recovery, it was time to pack my bags once again for the Eastern Europe tour I'd booked for the Christmas break. I had a week off work (that wasn't coming out of my annual leave) and I wasn't about to let it go to waste!

I'd booked the tour on my own - Pete wasn't able to come with me (and was keen to spend Christmas with his family), and most of my friends were either in Australia or in places too cold for me to ever contemplate going in the wintertime (Scandinavia / Russia, etc.). So I found a Top Deck tour that sounded good and off I went! It was brilliant... details below (as abridged as possible).

London --> Berlin
Sat, 22nd December
Arrived at the hostel in the early afternoon, and made my first friend (another Aussie girl travelling alone who was my designated room-share buddy). Went for a bit of a wander around to explore the area we were in, which was basically the shopping heart of Berlin. How convenient :)
Met the tour leader & group that night - there were about 16 or so of us in total. ALL living in London, mainly Aussies & Kiwis (as usual) and generally around the 25 - 30ish age group with a few exceptions. Went out for the first German bratwurst & sauerkraut meal of the trip with a few of the other girls, wandered through the nearby Christmas markets, enjoyed some mulled wine (also the first of many to come), and called it a night.

Berlin
Sun, 23rd December
Our only full day in Berlin. We trained it to the Brandenburg Gate to begin our walking tour, five minutes into which (while we were still AT the Brandenburg Gate) I had already lost all feeling in my toes, due to the cold. Brilliant.
The tour was really interesting, it was great to hear all about German / Nazi history and simultaneously see the places so integral to that time. We wandered (hobbled / jogged whilst wiggling toes, trying to regain some feeling) for a few hours past the Gate, several remaining bits of the Berlin Wall, the Reichstag (with it's crazy cool glass tower thing), the Jewish Holocaust memorial (very cool).. past what used to be Hitler's bunker (which is now a carpark), and Checkpoint Charlie - amongst a few other bits & pieces.
By the time we got to Charlie we were too cold to even look, let alone take photos. Our tour guide, already knowing us all too well took us to a beer hall for the traditional litre of beer & German pork knuckle.. SO GOOD.
Warmed up (by a brilliant combination of heating and beer) an hour or so later, we left the hall and returned to visit Charlie, and slowly made our way back towards the hostel via the Checkpoint Charlie museum, the Jewish Holocaust museum (underneath the memorial), a trip up the Reichstag crazy cool glass tower thing (for night-time views of Berlin) and past the now lit up Brandenburg Gate. Very pretty.

Berlin --> Warsaw
Mon, 24th December
A very early start as we needed to get the 6:30am train to Warsaw. It was a 6-ish hour journey through which we primarily slept, with the odd 'ooooooh!!!' of whoever was awake and appreciating the growing mass of snow as we entered Poland.
Arrived, hugely thankful for the mini-bus awaiting our arrival to take us on a bus tour around the city - the temperature was in the minuses (minus 2ish from memory, and snowing lightly) and we were far too freezing to walk. We did get off the bus for an hour or so to explore the old town - relatively small and largely damaged in WWII, but very cute. The tour guide took pity on the shaking Antipodeans in front of her though, and sped up the tour as much as possible, even pointing to a building as we walked past and saying she'd tell us about it on the bus so we didn't have to stand in the cold :)

That evening was interesting. Eastern Europeans celebrate Christmas Eve moreso than Christmas Day, and we'd been warned that nothing would be open that night (no bars, etc.), so to buy the odd bottle of wine and plan to hang out at our hotel for the evening. However, following our amazing pre-booked dinner at the hotel next door (which was the only place serving food that night, apparently, and fed us at 4pm so we'd be out by closing time at 6), we returned to our hotel to find that it didn't have a communal lounge area. Sixteen of us ended up squished into one of the tiny hotel rooms, crowded on and around the bed, for what turned out to be one of the biggest nights of the trip. Very random.

Warsaw --> Krakow
Tues, 25th December
Christmas day!
Another relatively early start following breakfast as we hopped on a train to Krakow. I spent most of the 2-ish hour journey on the phone to home & to Pete - minus Christmas trees and presents but in exactly the sort of white, snowy environment that makes that time of year so special.
Krakow is gorgeous. The old town is really beautiful, much bigger than Warsaw and with a town square that (I've subsequently learnt) is larger than any other in Europe. It's fair to say that Krakow, and most of the other places we saw throughout the tour, would be beautiful at any time of year, however they were just magical at Christmas.
Krakow was beautifully decorated, with Christmas markets (and the smell of mulled wine) filling the square, and Christmas trees on every corner. We did another walking tour with a brilliantly traditional-looking Polish man who clearly had no sympathy for the shaking Antipodeans in front of him (female guides are so much more motherly!) and led us around the old town for close to three (toe-numbing) hours.
The tour was brilliant, we walked through the square, passed many a gorgeous church and headed up to the top of Wawel Castle, with it's concentration of even more pretty churches & chapels from various eras, and views overlooking the city.
That evening we went out to a really nice nearby hotel (again, no restaurants were open) for a big group Christmas meal which was lovely, and following a few drinks, called it a night.

Zakopane (Polish mountains)
Wed, 26th December
We hopped on a mini-bus following breakfast, for the start of our daytrip excursion into the Polish mountains. Zakopane is a lovely Polish resort, where the expected ski runs compete with numerous other winter activities, as well as cute market stalls for those that simply want to wander round and enjoy the sunshine. We didn't have enough time to hit the slopes, but had all booked in for our 'one horse open sleigh' ride through the snow to celebrate Christmas in style.
The temperature was actually quite mild compared to Warsaw & Krakow, probably close to 0 or even +1, and after the usual photo frenzy that accompanies Antipodeans in the snow, we hopped on our sleighs and took off.
I feel compelled to say the ride was lovely - and the scenery truly was - but I felt sick for most of the trip due to (a) going backwards for an hour over numerous bumps, but more importantly (b) the ongoing sound effects (and accompanying odours) coming from the backside of our horse, which was unfortunately positioned quite close to my head. Needless to say I was quite glad when our ride was over!
Next was the second activity of the day - ice-skating on a frozen lake. So much fun (she says, conveniently forgetting the terror of stepping onto the ice - sans handrail - for the first time in about 10 years). Managed to keep my bum dry, thanks to my lovely fellow Top Decker friends who stepped up and offered their arms for the grabbing when required.
That night we bussed it back to Krakow and after changing out of our Michelin man / woman attire, we completed the evening with a lovely dinner at a Jewish restaurant in the Jewish quarter.

Auschwitz & Birkenau (--> Prague)
Thurs, 27th December
Another mini-bus daytrip with the group to visit the Auschwitz & Birkenau concentration camps just outside of Krakow. I can't really say the day was enjoyable, but it was certainly an eye-opening and amazing (in the educational sense) experience to be at a place with so much history. You get to see and truly appreciate how horrific life would have been there, especially given the sub-zero temperature. It snowed quite heavily during our tour and as expected we all froze, whilst wearing numerous layers of warm clothing. I don't even want to imagine what life would have been like in a pyjama-like uniform and wooden clogs with the living conditions (or lack thereof) that we saw.
Auschwitz was the original administration camp where those that were fit for work were based, with only (!) one gas chamber. It's relatively intact and the bulk of our tour was spent there as the buildings in which people lived are now part of the Auschwitz museum. We passed through them with our brilliant guide learning more about the atrocities, walking past deep, wall-sized glass cabinets filled with human hair, or glasses, clothes, shoes, suitcases... prosthetic limbs. It was unbelievably disturbing and one look at each of them was enough to make me leave the room quite quickly.
In contrast to Auschwitz, where the majority of people lived and worked (until they died of the cold, or poor hygiene), Birkenau was known as the Death Camp, housing the major gas chambers. It was largely destroyed with the Nazi's fleeing attempts to remove all evidence of their atrocities, so the tour here was brief.
Overall, it was definitely a worthwhile excursion and I'm really glad I've seen the camps for myself, but the day was sombre to say the least.
Upon our return that evening, we had a few hours left in Krakow before hopping on our overnight train to Prague.

Not quite five star accommodation, I must say - six of us squished into a compartment the size of two toilet cubicles (!), three-tiered bunks on each side with about a metre's space in between. Not the best night's sleep I've ever had, but another experience that's for sure!

Prague
Fri, 28th December
Arrived in Prague in the dark, early hours of the morning and made our way to the hotel for a quick shower and buffet breakfast. An hour later, feeling human again, we set off into town for the start of our walking tour in the balmy 0-ish degree weather.
We began the tour in Wenceslas Square in front of the National Museum, and wandered through gorgeous streets filled with souvenir shops selling Bohemian crystal, amber and garnet jewellery in every possible design, along with Russian dolls and the usual tacky t-shirts, finally reaching the gorgeous old town square. Again - what would normally have been a pretty town square anyway was just gorgeous, with a huge Christmas tree in the centre surrounded by Christmas market stalls selling more touristy gifts, as well as the usual mulled wine and local delicacies.
We wandered on through the Jewish Quarter, towards Charles' Bridge with its amazing views up to Hradcany Castle and its buzz of activity, and up to the castle itself for absolutely stunning views of the city.
They say Prague is the 'city of a hundred spires' and it truly did look that way from high above - oddly enough there were also sections of it that reminded me of Dubrovnik with its red-roof houses as well. It's just gorgeous.
A late lunch naturally consisted of the staple beer, sausages and potatoes (they don't really do greens in Eastern Europe, I found), and from there the rest of the day was ours to wander aimlessly and get lost in the gorgeous city streets, each as pretty as the next. We wandered back up to the castle a few hours later for even more amazing (if that's possible) views of Prague at night, and completed the evening with yet another big fat meal. When in Rome....

Cesky Krumlov
Sat, 29th December
Saturday was a free day for the Top Deck gang to wander around and explore Prague on their own, however since a few of us had late flights back to London (or were staying in Prague for NYE) following the tour, we organised a 'tour within a tour', and booked a day trip out to Cesky Krumlov.
Cesky is a little town about two and a half hours out of Prague by bus, and is a UNESCO World Heritage listed site - absolutely gorgeous, right out of a fairy tale. No major sights to see other than the castle, but a really picturesque city (with the added magic of a covering of snow) to appreciate.
After completing our walking tour in less than ten minutes (literally - the old town is tiny!), we sat down for a 3-course lunch we were pleased to learn was included within the tour price. To exemplify the apparent 'no greens' policy of the Czech Republic, we were offered a choice of four side dishes to accompany our mains - (a) mashed potato, (b) fried potato, (c) baked potato, and (d) potato salad. The Death By Potato challenge aside, the meal was amazing, with the best apple strudel of the trip for dessert. Nothing like a healthy strudel with cream & ice cream to compliment a carb overdose.
Following further wanderings around gorgeous Cesky (we're on a first name basis these days), we bussed it back to Prague to meet up with the rest of our fellow Top Deck buddies for The Final Supper. Yes. More food.
A quarter of a duck with sauerkraut and dumplings (oh, and hot strawberries in ice cream, for dessert) later, I felt truly ill but (disgustingly, looking back) satisfied I had ticked all the mandatories off my 'to-eat list' of Eastern Europe. Success! :)

Prague --> London
Sun, 30th December
The Top Deck tour officially ended after breakfast, so it was time to say goodbye to our new friends and vow to find each other on facebook (honestly, where would the world be without it??).
My flight wasn't until later that night, so I wandered back into town on my own for a final day of aimless wandering, a bit of shopping and the odd hot chocolate to warm up. I was even inspired to send a postcard back home (my 2nd in 10 months) which says something about my love of Prague. The last postcard I sent was from the first city I visited after leaving home (Seville), when travelling was still a novelty and not yet a fortnightly occurence :)
My evening flight home landed at Gatwick at roughly 11pm, in 6 degree weather. Balmy!! Bring on London, if I can handle the Eastern European cold (with my Urticaria 'condition'), London winter is a piece of cake!

So that was that.
Home again after an amazing, last minute 9-day trip away, having finally ticked the Eastern Europe box that had been on my to-see list for some time. I returned with over 300 photos, a thousand more memories and a few extra kilos... well worth it! :)

New Year's Eve was the following day, and after sleeping till 2pm (having arrived home from Gatwick at 1:30am), I geared up for the night ahead. A few of my housemates were actually throwing a party at our place, however Pete and I did our own thing and went into town to watch the fireworks.

I'm not planning on spending another NYE in London (too many places to travel, bring on New York next year!) so I wasn't keen to stay at home.
We had booked tickets to Tattershall's Castle, which is a boat-pub on the Thames, right across from the London Eye. Prime position, at a prime price! But well worth it. We had a few drinks on the top deck, ooooh-ed and ahhhh-ed over the amazing fireworks at midnight, and spent the rest of the night / morning downstairs in the club section of the boat, dancing in the new year! It was brilliant.

Since then, London life has been the usual - work, work, work, catch up with friends to hear about their Christmas / new year's adventures, party on the weekend, and hit the gym with a vengeance upon the return to work the following week. And repeat.

Fortunately for me, I've had another holiday to look forward to since coming back - Australia!!
I actually leave tonight (!) and arrive on the morning of Saturday, 19th Jan. I've sent out an invite for my farewell drinks (take 2) on facebook so will hopefully see some of you there, if I haven't had a chance to catch you beforehand.

Anyway - I'll leave it there (finally :)
Hope all's well & see you soon!

Until next time....

x

Not so miscellaneous ramblings

Welcome!

So I’ve started a blog. And now I have to write in it.

It’s actually quite intimidating, creating your own website and waiting for inspiration from which to fill it with meaningful copy that will (hopefully) entertain and enlighten those bored enough to read it.
Fortunately for you I’m living the high life in London and there always seem to be random observations to be made, and stories to be told which I’m sure are the highlight of your day! (or week, or year… :)

So where to start… October was a brilliantly ‘normal’ month. I banned myself from any travel-related activities - for the sake of my health, as well as that of my bank account. Pete was also away which meant it was a me-month; I joined a gym and got into the habit of going 3–4 days a week. I even saw a (predictably good-looking) personal trainer twice, but subsequently ruined all my hard work by spending equal amounts of time in pubs and bars catching up with friends, allowing Heathrow to re-inject itself right back with a vengeance.

October was also a month in which the weather got progressively worse – colder and colder by the day, which brings me back to my previous unexplained reference to what happens when I freeze my butt off at a football game (or elsewhere).
Apparently I get blotchy red, itchy patches on my skin (mainly arms & legs), which are the result of a charming condition called Urticaria. Urticaria is effectively an allergic reaction, and in my case the cause is none other than the cold itself! Wonderful. Perfect for living in London and all that.
Following separate appointments and matching diagnoses from a doctor and a dermatologist, I was put on daily medication (antihistamines) which I now take preventatively each morning. Touch wood I haven’t had any problems since I’ve been on them - other than the psychological trauma of feeling like a grandma taking my daily meds before I pop in my false teeth and get ready to face the day.

But medical condition aside, I’ve been well. Work’s going great as always; I actually had a break from crazy busy-ness for a few weeks recently and surprisingly was too bored to enjoy it. Apparently I’m so used to doing ten things at once that simple tasks and ample time were a bit too much for me.

So following my self-imposed travel ban in October, I was needless to say anticipating a return to my odd normality of travelling around Europe in November and beyond.

First (well, next) stop – Barcelona.

I flew over on a Friday afternoon (a week and a half ago now) and met my friend BG (Belinda, who lives in Paris) at our hostel that evening. She’d arrived a few hours earlier and had already picked out a funky tapas bar for us to visit for dinner, so after admiring the purchases she’d also had the time to make (!) we set off for the first amazing tapas & sangria meal of the weekend.


The weekend overall was what one would predict, given an executive summary of ‘an Aussie girl living in London and an Aussie girl living Paris, meeting in Barcelona for the weekend’.
LOTS of talking - apparently I’m starting to sound English (whereas BG has forgotten how to speak English :)
Lots of shopping - if Paris is cheaper than London, Barcelona is half price again… hello!!
Lots of eating and drinking – tapas, paellas, sangrias…
Lots of sightseeing – seeing the gorgeous, colourful sights whilst walking off abovementioned tapas, paellas, sangrias…
Brilliant!

I’m proud to say we got through the weekend with an impressive combination of BG’s Spanglish and my Spalian (Spanish / Italian) – surprising how far you can get with only a few words. Saying ‘I’m allergic to nuts’ was a bit of a tricky one though, so our downfall was BG switching to a unique combination of English and mime before ordering every meal, just to be safe.

Overall we had a brilliant time, and loved the city. Can’t wait to go back to Spain (again).
Next stop on Jasmina’s Tour de Europe = Salzburg!

Heading off on Friday with work for our Christmas party – should be brilliant!
Then, when everyone is miserably filing back onto our chartered plane for the flight back to London on Saturday morning, I’ll be relying on Berocca to work its’ magic for the day of sight-seeing ahead with Pete (who’s meeting me there for the weekend), followed by a Mozart concert that evening. We’re all class.
I’ve already booked the Sound of Music tour for Sunday morning too – admittedly BEFORE I made Pete watch the movie, but it’s still on. Can’t wait!

I’ve also finally sorted out my plans for Christmas and will be going on an 8-day tour around Eastern Europe – Berlin to Prague via Krakow & Warsaw in Poland. Should be brilliant! More detail on that one after the event… no exciting activities booked as yet, just the tour and a couple of ridiculously expensive flights.

And that’s it (for now)!
This isn’t really a blog, is it? I think the point of a blog is to write about random stuff rather than life updates but not to worry, it’s a start.

Hope all’s well back home - let me know what you're all up to, and I'll see you (somewhere outdoors, where I can work on my tan whilst catching up) in about six weeks!

x

A month in the life...

.. well, it’s actually been about 6 or 7 weeks since I last wrote but close enough. SO much has been going on lately that I’m already struggling to not make this epic (so Kristian can get to the end, right lovely? :)
So here goes – a month in the life of Jas …

Aug 17th – 19th

PARIS

Ran away from work at 4:30pm hoping noone would notice me slip out (despite the backpack screaming ANOTHER early departure, who said Australians were hard-working...) Made it onto the Eurostar, got myself settled. Was joined by a young-ish French dude who I couldn’t understand – realised he was speaking French although subsequently still couldn’t understand him when he switched to English… spent the journey humouring his attempts at conversation and subsequently reading Harry Potter while he read over my shoulder… it was all a bit bizarre. Anyway I had a brilliant weekend catching up with BG (Belinda) who has lived in Paris for the past year (and I hadn’t seen for as long), and eating croissants & macaroons and drinking café crème’s & French vino. And talking at a million miles an hour (what else is new?)

Considering it was my 3rd time in Paris I wasn’t desperate to see all the sights again – the main criteria was to eat lots of French food and pretend to be a local (who doesn’t speak French beyond ‘merci’), however Paris being the great walking city that it is, I think we saw in that weekend pretty much every single sight I’d ever seen previously. And walked off the croissants while we were at it.
Overall I had a fantastic two days catching up with BG and wandering around that gorgeous city feeling jealous that she lives there and I don’t. Saw the Publicis office (on the Champs-Elysees, literally about 50m from the Arc du Triomphe) and suddenly appreciated their ownership of Fallon (hello, transfer!!). Maybe. One day.
Went home completely shattered from the amount of walking we’d done but having had a brilliant (if not relaxing!) weekend away.

Aug 24th – 27th (long weekend)

VENICE

This was my surprise trip away that Pete had organised* for the long weekend.
* Note ‘organised’. No, I don’t have a sugar daddy who pays for 4 star hotels in Italy for random weekends away! I did pay for myself but Pete booked flights & accom, etc. without me knowing where we were going. He managed to not tell me (and I managed to not pester him enough to make him tell me) until we got to the airport on the Friday afternoon, which was quite an achievement.
So very exciting stuff! Again, it was my 3rd time in Venice (!) but it’s one of those cities where you can wander aimlessly forever and a day, finding new gorgeous side streets and little canals around each corner and over each bridge. It’s beautiful.
So we pretty much just meandered… got lost, found our way and got lost again in a maze of canals. Ate lots of gelato & pizza / pasta and drank lots of coffee & Italian vino. Went on a gondola ride (it’s illegal not to) which was gorgeous as we got the evening light just before sunset… then followed that up with dinner at a cute trattoria where I befriended a waiter who appreciated my efforts in speaking Italian, and subsequently realised I spoke Serbian as well at which point we had a good little chat in yet another language that Pete did not understand. Slightly antisocial, looking back. As was running off in the middle of St Mark’s square 10 minutes later to greet a guy who had been on my Croatia tour... amazing how small the world is, really.

Must say I thoroughly enjoyed the 4-star hotel situation… very nice. Breakfast was at the sister (5 star) hotel by the water, so you’re literally sitting a metre away from the tip of a gondola, bobbing with the current… feeling very posh, surrounded by wealthy retirees who clearly could afford to be there (whereas we were clearly just pretending). It was fun!
Flew home on Monday lunchtime after a brilliant weekend away.
Randomly ran into Adam (Wilko, who I used to work with at Athlete’s Foot ten thousand years ago – Jodes, remember him?) at Sainsbury’s that afternoon. From memory we had a chat, he gave me a dinner suggestion and we went our separate ways.

Aug 29th – Sept 2nd

LONDON

Crazy busy week full of STUFF.
James’ farewell (Roest - he’s now in Manchester), drinks & dinner with the ex-JWT boys (Joe, Hulsman, Pigani & Lucas), Fallon summer party (starting at midday, I officially joined in the fun at around 7pm when I finally finished WORKING), Chantel in town (for a day), Croatia boat crew reunion (clearly being back at work had taken its toll and we needed to reminisce), dinner party at mine (Pete cooked :) with Kirsty, Bel & Jez and Craig… etc. etc.

Sept 5th – 10th

LONDON

Crazy busy week full of STUFF (take 2) – BG was in town visiting so this week included dinner & drinks in town (x a few nights), drinks with another friend who was visiting briefly in Islington, shopping & lunch at Portobello Rd (Notting Hill), shopping & lunch & drinks at Camden market, Brick Lane curry, pub sessions watching various Rugby World Cup games, etc. etc.

Sept 12th

LONDON (England vs. Russia football @ Wembley)

3 nil to En-ger-land. Woo hoo!!
Lots of fun. Surrounded by crazy English people, singing ‘England till I die’ (I lied), experiencing the new Wembley Arena for a packed-out sporting event (vs. Live Earth). Had a ball.

Sept 14th – 16th

CORNWALL

Girls road trip with Bel Noble, Kirsty & Michelle Diskin. Hilarious!
Arrived in Cornwall at 2am on Saturday morning after an 8ish hour drive – it took us an hour and a half to travel from Euston station (where we picked up the car) to near Heathrow airport… that’s EIGHT MILES. Psycho crazy London traffic. A lesson learnt.
Debated whether to stop somewhere halfway but decided to keep going – called the camping ground we’d booked at and arranged for them to leave a key out for us.
We finally managed to track down our caravan after driving around the campsite with our high beams on for about 10 mins (oops), and started unloading & getting all our gear together... all seemingly normal until…
- Bel heads towards the door to let us in. She fumbles with the lock, opens the door, gets as far as ‘it smells of –‘ and screams.
- Kirsty, who is right behind Bel, sees nothing but joins in the screaming and runs for her life, right at me.
- On cue, I scream at the top of my lungs, turn, and run towards Michelle. We all crash into the car in our haste to get away, as it’s in the way and clearly any delays with our escape could be fatal.
- Michelle stands behind the car looking a bit confused by the whole situation, and by our reactions to what she thinks was an aggressive attack by the beaver we’d just seen as we drove through the park with our high beams on.
After we’d officially woken the entire camping ground, our screams turned to uncontrollable laughter (unfortunately equally loud) as Bel got over her initial shock and told us the axe murderer we were running from was in fact a little old man in his jocks, standing at the door wondering why we were breaking into his caravan at 2am.
So following that little hic-cup (we’d been given the wrong key, all was eventually well and fortunately we didn’t have to sleep in the car), I can confirm that the remainder of the weekend was incident-free. After finding a gorgeous café by the water near our camping ground on Saturday morning and having THE best breakfast EVER, we drove down towards St Ives which is apparently the most beautiful town in Cornwall. Stopped at a really cute pub in the middle of nowhere (literally) on the way, and lay on the grass relaxing and watching the cows... Then went on to St Ives which didn’t disappoint, and sampled the local award-winning Cornish pasties which were amazing. Drove back via a dinner stopover in Padstow (for the best fish & chips in England), and called it a night. On Sunday we began the long drive home after a pub breakfast (!), stopping along the way at a few more cute little places and of course sampling a traditional Devonshire tea in Devon… SO GOOD!!
Overall had a brilliant girls weekend away, although there was probably a bit too much car time involved (it’s quite far to go for a weekend) but hey. At least I can say I’ve been there, done that.
Got home Sunday evening, tired already and knowing there were two more weekends away to come before the next sleep-in opportunity…

Sept 19th

LONDON

Went to see the Merchant of Venice @ the Globe Theatre with Kim, Nuals & Bron… an open-air theatre just like in Shakespeare’s day where rich people sit around the perimeter and the poor stand in the middle. We paid £5 each so enough said - I had sore legs at the end of the night (and was dripping... London’s not the most open-air-friendly of cities) but really enjoyed the show.

Sept 21st – 23rd

WEST SUSSEX

Weekend away to meet the parent – went down to Worthing to stay with Pete’s dad and explore south-east England. Managed to do it in a semi-relaxing fashion which was great, much needed.
We hired a car and drove down on Friday night after work, had a quiet dinner with his dad and hit the road on Saturday.
We drove down to town and walked along Worthing beach, which is actually quite nice. Just like Brighton beach (pier included) but without all the people & numerous cafés / stalls everywhere… equally pretty (and pebbley!) but just more quaint.
Then on to Lancing College which is where Pete went to secondary school – this place seriously looks like Hogwarts and is almost as posh as Eton… very impressive, beats Penno High any day! Really beautiful old buildings, a school chapel that’s apparently the largest in Europe and god knows how much land (including an outdoor amphitheatre)... And llamas?!
Drove back via Brighton beach and marina (gorgeous), and following a traditional English fish & chips dinner with the fam (his dad & bro), we went 10 pin bowling! Even funnier than our choice of entertainment is the fact that I found out Pete actually had lessons when he was younger… :)
Sunday consisted of more sight-seeing / exploration around the nearby towns – Arundel, Littlehampton, Steyning + a few others I can’t remember the name of. It was really lovely – these towns are honestly as beautiful as Bath or Windsor, etc. but off the beaten track and so tourist-free (unless you count me). Really enjoyed seeing a part of England that I would never otherwise have seen. Another fantastic weekend away.

Sept 26th

LONDON (Fulham vs. Bolton @ The Cottage)

Went to Craven Cottage (Fulham’s home ground, fortunately a 5 min walk from mine) to watch this Carling Cup match, which we unfortunately lost. It was 1-1 after 90 mins but went into extra time and we ended up losing 2-1 which is a shame. On the plus side (for the JWT-ers) - I randomly ran into BJ!! Quite fitting that it was at a Fulham match, really, given he’s such a fan. Didn’t even know he was in town visiting.
Really enjoyed the game, but froze to death (which is the beginning of a whole other story which I’ll save for next time…)

Sept 28th – 30th

PARIS / BORDEAUX – RUGBY WORLD CUP

My third weekend away in a row – and the last for a while!! I’m seriously all travelled out.
Met Joe (Ryan) at Waterloo and hopped on the Eurostar for the journey into France… still love that you can fall asleep and wake up an hour or two later in another country. Very, very cool.
BG met us at the station and after dumping our stuff off at hers (stopping frequently on the way back from the train to ‘oooh’s and ‘aaaaaah’s from Ryan who had never been to Paris before, and was frantically taking photos) we wandered up to a cute Italian restaurant for a plate (each) of the world’s biggest pasta dishes. Walked across the Champs-Elysees en route and had to stop and risk our lives in the middle of the road (as always) to take the obligatory amount of photos… Saturday AM – following a croissant & café crème breakfast with BG, Ryan and I hopped on the train to Bordeaux. My friend Mark who lives there (and who we were crashing with) met us at the other end, and after we dropped our stuff off at his place he took us on a token speedy-Gonzales tour of the town, before the game. It’s actually quite pretty – the centre isn’t that big at all, but very nice, cool old buildings and a lovely river-side area. Sped through it all (taking many a pretty pic along the way) and subsequently made our way towards the stadium for the Rugby World Cup.
Very excited (at the time... not so looking back. Damn Johnny)! We were decked out in our green and gold and joined the swarm of Australians making their way towards the game. Met up with Andrew & co. near the stadium and went to find our seats, buying on the way the biggest hot dog I’ve ever attempted to eat (and failed).
The game was lots of fun – at one point about 10 Mexican waves were circulating the stadium at once… great atmosphere. Great to see the team live in action, great to see a few tries…and fortunately we won! SO glad I went. As it turns out I wouldn’t have had another chance.
That night turned out to be quite huge – I think we can truly say we experienced the best of Bordeaux’s nightlife, meeting a few more of Mark & Andrew’s friends, and meeting a bunch of random Canadians as well who turned out to be a lot of fun. One wore a Borat cossie. Enough said!Trained it back to Paris on Sunday morning (I think Ryan and I may have grunted ‘good morning, croissant?’ at each other before falling back to sleep en route).

Felt quite sorry for ourselves until BG, being the wonderful, thoughtful person she is, took us to a brilliant Parisian equivalent of a pub for lunch, upon our arrival. SO GOOD. Revitalised, we did another speedy-Gonzalez tour of Paris for Ryan (while sampling every French delicacy we could find along the way) before heading back to BG’s later that night, exhausted, to grab our stuff and hop on the Eurostar back home.
Really, really fun weekend away. Loved hanging out with a random group of my friends who generally didn't know each other (with the exception of Ryan & BG) but all knew me…and we all know I love anything that’s all about me.. :)

And that’s it for the highlights (!).

I’m shattered. And broke. Have been doing WAY too much recently so have banned myself from any travel for the month of October (plans for November are underway). AND I’ve joined a gym (for the first time in my LIFE so please appreciate the hugeness of the situation) which keeps me out of mischief and at least I now spend money on getting fit, instead of getting fat (mmmm… nutella crepes & macaroons!!)

Pete is currently away for a month – in Australia of all places! (I banished him following the poms RWC victory on saturday…) He’s currently in Sydney for a few weeks - I gave him a 5 x A4 page list of where to go and what to do so chances are he’s coming to a Cargo Bar near you!

Meanwhile I’ve booked my flights for next year (arrive 19th Jan, fly back 2nd Feb) so will organise a few nights out during those two weeks closer to the time. I’d love to catch up with all of you (Sydney-siders) in amongst my best-Auntie-in-the-world / i-need-to-get-a-tan-before-i-go-back-to-london duties.

Ok might leave it there… after my final gloat - Fallon are flying us to Salzburg (Austria) for our work Christmas party!! I love my life. Bring on December.

Miss you all heaps! I saw the Vegemite Tales on Wednesday night (a play about Aussies in London) and got a bit emotional. Kim and I sat in the second row and were within spitting distance of Blair (hot BB / Neighbours Blair – now there’s a claim to fame) who I can confirm also sweated profusely the entire time.

Hope all’s well, let me know what you’re all up to and I’ll see you in Jan.

x

Jas

Cup of tea?

(I mean, coffee? Jeez I'm being English-ified already)

Get ready peoples, this is going to be a long one.

I'd apologise in advance but hey, let's stop pretending that it's physically possible for me to write a succinct email and embrace the inevitable, so I figure this can be your cue to get emotionally prepared, and enjoy (or sigh with resignation, whatever the case may be).

So, HI! :)

Turns out I live in London and get to travel to lots of wonderful places and do lots of wonderful things... when did that happen?! I love my life. I still wake up wanting to pinch myself occasionally, but fortunately it's all real. I do miss home (most days actually, given this pathetic excuse for a summer) but am having such a great time overall that the days just fly by and I realise it's mid August and I've been gone for nearly 5 months! Now when did THAT happen?

I could leave it there really, but I know you're all DYING for the latest update so here goes. From memory I was about to go to Live Earth when I last wrote, so I'll pick up from there.

That was early July? And it was AMAZING. My first trip to the new Wembley Stadium for starters, which in itself is pretty impressive. It's a massive new stadium that holds approx. 90K people and it was absolutely packed for the event - sold out. Pretty amazing.There was an annoying little paranoid voice inside my head as we were going in, given this was only a few weeks after the bombing attempt at Piccadilly and was the biggest event in London for probably a good few months, but thankfully all was fine.

Won't go into too much detail on the performances themselves but the line-up was absolutely amazing - I ticked so many artists / bands off the to-see list in that one day, it was unbelievable. They all performed about 3 or 4 songs each, so managed to fit in heaps of really big names throughout the day including (in no particular order) - Genesis, Snow Patrol, Keane, Chilli Peppers, James Blunt, Dave Gray, Damien Rice, Pussycat Dolls, Metallica, Black Eyed Peas, Kasabian, Paolo Nutini, Duran Duran, the Beastie Boys, and then finished up with the Foo Fighters and finally Madonna!

As per Isle of Wight I have to say that the final performance was officially the best (i.e. Madonna) as she had all the supporting fireworks, etc. and is obviously such an amazing performer, but in terms of getting the crowd going the Foo Fighters absolutely went off. As did pretty much everyone else really, can't express how good it was in words so you'll just have to believe me. I did take a few videos on my camera but you can hear me singing at the top of my lungs more than you can the bands, so might save you that particular form of torture for another day.

Two days after that, Lou and Dave arrived in London and stayed with me for a few days, and the day they left was the day Jodes arrived for a week as well, so it was all happening at 532! (my place)

It was SO good to see them. Just so amazing to have good friends from home over here for a couple of weeks and experiencing London life with me - however briefly. Needless to say there were tears when it was time for goodbyes - it was all a bit too much for me to go through it all again :) So those few weeks were somewhat crazy as you can imagine - I didn't have any extra time off work but caught up with them every night and on weekends to either go for a general sight-seeing wander, go out for dinner / drinks, go to the theatre, go to see Harry Potter (which had just come out), go to Brick Lane for a curry, go to Notting Hill markets, etc. etc. - the list goes on.

As brilliant as it all was, I don't think I've been quite so tired as I was following those few weeks in a very long time! From memory I went into recovery mode and slept for about a week afterwards.

One of the Saturday nights within that already hectic period was our Hot House Party - i.e. the exceptionally delayed housewarming / bring on summer (which, to reiterate, didn't work) party at ours. It was substantially huge - am uploading photos from that night, but they were mainly taken before the house swelled to accommodate the 100+ people that somehow managed to make our fairly spacious house + backyard feel like a packed nightclub, so that the thought of walking around and taking more pics fell straight into the too-hard basket. It was a great night. I put myself to bed at about 5:15, despite the music still blaring and people still partying on in the most random of places (because clearly, bathrooms are the new dancefloor) when I realised the sun was coming up and I was going to turn into a pumpkin. Apparently Andrew (the token house 'dad', bless him) told everyone still standing at 5:30 to pick up a garbage bag and help with the cleaning up, which promptly cleared the place. Needless to say the aftermath wasn't pretty - the house looked like a bomb had hit it but it was worth it - I had a fantastic time and the other housemates (we sound so Big Brother) and I treated ourselves to a big fatty breakfast at about 2:30pm out by the Thames in Putney when the cleaning up was all done.

When I finally resurfaced from my hibernation after everyone had left, I was only a few days away from my blissfully relaxing 10 day break in the beautiful country that is Croatia (and for those of you not sure, no I'm not Croatian - I'm Serbian - but whatever, it was the same country when I was born there so I'm taking ownership of that amazing coast!)

I left on 27th July and got back late last Monday (or should I say Tuesday morning, really) - needless to say work that week was a struggle. I went with my housemate, Ella and we basically did a week-long tour sailing around the Croatian islands followed by three extra days based in Split once the cruising was over.

It was amazing. I use that word a lot, but it seems to describe everything I do these days - Croatia itself is really, really beautiful but seeing it from the top deck of a boat in 40+ degree permanent sunshine (but not humid, so a really bearable heat), whilst drinking beer / cocktails and perfecting the tan, IS the life.

We arrived in Split on the Friday night and found a gorgeous restaurant overlooking the water for a late seafood dinner + cocktails to get the holiday started (I love travelling on the pound!) and began the sailing trip the next day.

Our boat had 36 people on it (excluding crew) - one English girl and 35 Aussies + Kiwis! Must say it was an eye-opener - obviously there's heaps of Aussies / Kiwis in London, but seriously - do no other nations travel the world?! What is wrong with these people??Anyway, the group was pretty cool, the youngest people would have been early 20s and the oldest probably early 30s, so we all got along really well. By the end of the tour anyway. At first everyone was too busy napping on deck or jumping off it (each to their own) to bother making friends. But a few big nights out in the best clubs on the Adriatic changed all that :)

We basically got into a routine of getting up at 8:30am for breakfast (which finished at 9 and given you're on a boat with no other food available until lunch, you don't want to miss it), and then promptly heading to the deck for the first nap of the day because clearly it's too early to be awake - and because you want maximum tanning time. The morning consists of sleeping / reading / listening to your iPod whilst the view around you changes from gorgeous to stunning to divine... At 11ish the boat stops and you jump off deck into the most gorgeous blue/green water you've ever seen - or the lower deck if you're chicken. I can confirm that I jumped off the top once, enough to appreciate the dangers of bikinis attempting to defy gravity. Anyway after half an hour or so you stumble back onto deck for another nap / reading session because floating just takes SO much out of you! At 1pm, when you're sweating in 40 degree heat and are ready for another dip, the bell rings and you go downstairs to a 3-course meal, beginning with hot soup! Every day. Surprisingly you get used to the amount of food (lunch is the big meal of the day over there, not dinner) although you subsequently stumble back upstairs because eating took so much effort and clearly you need another nap.

From there the days varied. If we reached port at around 2 or 3pmish, that was it - we'd have the afternoon and night to explore whatever town we were at on our own before coming back to the boat to sleep (in claustrophobic little rooms with tiny windows from which fish can watch you while you sleep- almost) otherwise if we got to port late, we'd stop for another swim somewhere along the way - followed by, needless to say, another nap.

GOD it was good. By far and away the most relaxing holiday I've ever been on.

The places we saw in themselves were absolutely amazing - I'll let the photos do the talking but everything from the bigger towns of Dubrovnik and Hvar, to slightly smaller Makarska and Korcula to tiny Trstenik and Lombarda (to name a few) - everything was unbelievably gorgeous. We did the touristy walk along the Dubrovnik walls and climbed up to the hilltop fortress in Hvar, etc. but mostly we just got lost in the mazes of tiny cobbled streets (note to potential future travellers - marble is not thong /flip-flop friendly), swam in all the local beaches (note again - pebbles are not bare-foot friendly), and watched the sun go down in gorgeous water-front restaurants accompanied by a seafood platter and a bottle of local wine before heading out for a night on the town with our boat buddies. SO GOOD.

As a tourist, it definitely goes down as one of my favourite holidays to date (it was maybe even the best but I can't rate holidays in terms of favourites, they're all so good in different ways) but as me - i.e. someone who speaks the language fluently and has the same cultural background as the Croatians - it had a whole other level of meaning which made it really special.

The boat captain (Big Daddy :) virtually adopted me, and would come visit me for a chat whenever he was bored (as would a few of the crew)... it was lovely.

Again, I won't rabbit on here (or is it too late? :) but there were just so many little cultural things that I recognised and understood, and it was really cool to be a stranger somewhere that felt so familiar, if that makes sense. And when I said Krnjetin, everyone knew how to spell it!! Major excitement.

Anyway Ella and I had a few more days based in Split after the cruise (sadly) ended, so we did a couple more daytrips (to Trogir, and to Supetar) which were equally lovely and then spent the final day at the beach in Split - needless to say we were both quite depressed about coming back to London so ended the trip with a final dinner at the same restaurant with the same seafood and cocktails as on our first night... then got back to London (Luton, god help us) at 11:30pm and got home by 2am ahead of work the next day. Lots of fun.

The good news is that to get me over my post-holiday blues, I've got a few more weekends away to look forward to - starting tonight (!) when I go to Paris to spent the weekend with BG! (Belinda Gallaugher). Can't wait. Have been to Paris a couple of times before so not too fussed on the touristy stuff, just want to eat lots of baguettes / drink French wine, people-watch, and obviously catch up on the last year's worth of gossip. Will be a great girly weekend away.

The following weekend is a long weekend over here and Pete's taking me for a mysterious trip away - refusing to tell me where we're going until en route to the airport. Very exciting stuff - especially as I've been told to bring swimmers and that it's going to be hot. Woo hoo!! Guess my constant complaining about the 'bloody English weather' served a dual purpose to my desire to prove Australia's superiority :)

After that I think I've got a few weeks in London followed by a weekend in the English countryside in mid Sept. with Pete, and then - wait for it, so excited - I'm off to Bordeaux for the Rugby World Cup! My flatmate Andrew is going with a group of friends and had a few spare tickets, so Ryan and I are going to tag along and stay with Mark who's a friend of mine that lives there. Will be so good! We're seeing Australia vs. Canada too, so will be fun to deck out in the green and gold for the first time in a while.

Ok thinking I should really leave it there but one final piece of VERY exciting news. For those of you that I haven't yet told, I'm going to be an auntie!! My sister is pregnant which is majorly exciting - it's the first bub in the family and seeing as there's no way I'm going to miss welcoming Mini Murray into the world, I'll be back in Sydney for a few weeks in late January (dates TBC). I'll keep you updated as to the plans but it would be great to catch up with all of you at some point while I'm there, I might try to organise a couple of nights out rather than trying to see everyone separately so I'll be in touch closer to the date (in amongst my numerous epic emails).

Hope you're all well - keep the updates coming, I love hearing what you're all up to and getting all the Sydney goss.

I know I've continued to be quite slack at replying but I've now finally got a work laptop so can email from home as well which means - lucky you - more epic tales can come your way! :)

Luv you all, speak soon and see you in Jan.

x

Jas