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

Ireland, Isle + much, much more...‏

Hey peoples!!

Hello hello hello!

I've been lazy again and there's so much to say that the thought of sitting down and actually writing it all down is quite intimidating. But here goes! And I'll try to keep it short (which means make a cup of tea / coffee, relax and enjoy the show - you'll be here for a while).

Firstly work - it's actually been a few weeks already but for those of you that don't yet know, I've been made permanent at Fallon. Hooray!! Working on my previous accounts + one other (Asda George - their clothes range).. so slightly crazy at the moment to say the least but a few of my current projects are finishing up so it should all become manageable again. Which will be nice!

On the house front - one of the flatties (one of the boys) moved out, and another guy just moved in on Sunday. Another Aussie, 25.. will fit in great I'm sure. Right on time, too - our slightly belated housewarming (Ella's and mine) is now doubling - tripling - as Grant's farewell & Ben's housewarming as well. We're having a relatively major bash (between 6 people it's hard not to) next Saturday, 14th July. If any of you feel like swinging by for the occasion... :)

Actually a few of you already are - Jodes will be staying with me for that week, and Rich (Apps) will be in town literally for a day or two over that weekend and is coming along which is awesome! Lou and Dave are around but I think up in Scotland on Saturday. Will be lots of fun.

So I think I'm up to Ireland, and everything since?

Ireland feels so long ago (well I guess it was). If I go into too much detail I'll be here forever, but in a nutshell it was brilliant - probably didn't see as much as I thought we would overall (or maybe I just don't remember it :) but it was all one big party town - party country - and loads and loads of fun.

I went with Christine - we flew to Dublin on a Friday night after work, did a 3-day tour of the South, and then had another day in Dublin before flying back to London that night. The three day tour went (in terms of big towns / major attractions) from Dublin to Galway, where we spent the first afternoon and night out - heaps fun. Then the next day we went onto the Cliffs of Moher (gorgeous) and onto Killarney that night which was another massive one - lots of traditional Irish music & Guinness (and Baby Guinness shots - big fan!).

Went on a horse & cart ride around Killarney national park the next morning which was gorgeous and then on to Blarney to kiss the Blarney stone! God knows who picked the most unreachable stone in the entire castle but hey, I've now kissed it and officially have the gift of the gab. Anyway saw a few monasteries, gorgeous lookouts, etc. along the way as well but that was basically it. Oh and we drove through Limerick at some point for lunch - aka 'stab city'. That was fun?! At least I can say I went to stab city and came out alive. Surely that's an achievement.

So that was the tour and then Chris and I spent the next day in Dublin sight-seeing.. well at the Guinness factory anyway, and in a tourist shop trying on stupid leprechaun hats. Then we flew home!

So that was Ireland. Really cool / lovely place but the nights out really made it, so much fun! Weather was cold but sunny at least, in contrast to my Lake District experience :)

So all good!Think I had a weekend or two in London after that, then in early / mid June I had another two days off work and went to the Isle of Wight music festival.

Now THAT was amazing, and a truly memorable experience for a festival virgin! (thank God I didn't get tickets to Glastonbury is all I can say). I went with Kim, Nuals & Bron - and we ended up having a spare ticket at the last minute so Pete came along as well. Token English guy with four Aussie girls.. he loved it! He's well versed in Aussie vocab now and even says 'thongs' instead of 'flip flops', it's great :)

It was actually really good - the music was AMAZING but onto that in a sec. Given I'd never been to a 3-day festival before (and am quite high maintenance, let's face it) I think I did very well sleeping in a tent for 3 nights, surrounded by fields of 20,000 other people in tents (loud, drunk other people so not much sleep to be had), not showering for almost 4 days, and using port-a-loos that are only emptied once a day (!) and don't flush (actually have no flushing mechanism). And all this whilst being up and about / dancing / squashed in a moshpit for most of each day.. I did very well!

So anyway the music - brilliant. We saw (in semi-chronological order) - Groove Armada, Snow Patrol, Wolfmother, Ash, Kasabian, The Feeling, Amy Winehouse, Paolo Nutini, James Morrison, The Fratelli's, Keane and.. the Rolling Stones!!! (and heaps more that I can't remember - a full 3 days worth). So much fun.

The Stones were officially the best - i.e. fireworks, travelling stage, the whole shebang - and it was amazing to see them live, but my favourites in terms of music were probably Snow Patrol, Wolfmother & Keane.. amazing to hear that many people singing along to all of the songs. Really really cool. Will leave that there but on another music-related note, I'm off to Live Earth this Saturday!!! Line-up link below for anyone who feels like a bit of jealousy:http://liveearth.msn.com/concerts/UK Can't wait!!

Other than all of the above, London life in itself is quite busy.. constantly catching up with people (seems like another person arrives here every week) - recently have seen Kirsty (Angus), Ryan, Bec Campbell, the Diskins (are any other ex JWT-ers on their way - we have enough for our own agency I think) as well as Bec Oxenbould... can't think who else but there seem to be heaps of people over here. It's awesome!

Also went to the Royal Ascot races last (?) weekend which was great - a good excuse to get dressed up, steal some random guy's top hat and see the Queen do her royal wave... all very posh.

What else... the weather is ridiculous. It's been averaging about 15 degrees for the past few weeks and raining non-stop... and this is summer?! Looking forward to sailing in Croatia - I'm off for 10 days with Ella (flatmate) at the end of the month... can't wait!! Need some sunshine.

On the bomb stuff, thanks for the concern but it's fine for now - the one they found in London was actually near work (a few blocks away) but they found it early in the morning and it was all under control. Only impact on me was that my closest work tube (Picadilly Circus) was closed that day as the area was still being searched. Related to that are a million bomb scares (but not actual bombs) - i.e. they keep finding 'suspicious items' everywhere and evacuating tubes, etc. to carry out 'controlled explosions' whatever that means, but they end up being random fire extinguishers, etc. left lying around. Again, no impact on my life other than painful 2-hour trips into work when stations near me have scares. Annoying but I guess I'd rather them all be too alert than not alert enough to that sort of stuff. So all ok for now anyway.

Think I should REALLY leave it there. Hope you are all well, keep me updated with all the latest goss - would love to hear what's going on with each of you guys.

Luv u all,

x

Jas

London life, travel + as usual, it's all about me...

Hi peoples!


Well it's my first lazy saturday morning in ages - I've been feeling sick for the past few days so am loving being able to sit back in my trakkies and take it easy, and write the email i've been promising for afew weeks now!


Going out in Putney this afternoon for a few drinks for Chris' farewell (her official farewell is next weekend but Kim, Nuals and I won't behere) so using the opportunity to rest beforehand.. I honestly haven't been at home for more than a few hours at a time (excluding sleeping hours) for weeks! It's been pretty busy.


London life is the same as before.. lots of catching up with people and lately lots of travel (but I'll get on to that later). I'm still amazed at how many people I know are over here - have caught up with Winnie from Penno High since I last wrote (and apparently Emily KD is here as well), and also Kirsty Angus from JWT, and last night randomly ran into Shannon Lewis (?) - Canadian girl from JWT a few years ago.. so strange. Joe (Ryan C) is also in town now, will hopefully see him at some point this weekend.. very cool. Loving it.


So before I get into the travel stories - it was my b'day a few weeks ago and I need to say a massive THANK YOU!!!!! for all the phone calls /texts / emails / facebook messages / flowers / pressies, / cards, etc. - think it was one of my most spoilt birthdays yet and I'm on the other side of the planet!! Thank you all so much for thinking of me, had a wonderful day. My room looked like a florist that weekend - had 5 bunches of flowers and lots of cards.. loved it :)

Went out to a piano bar in Kensington that (Friday) night after work, Nuals + Chris couldn't come cos they were in Amsterdam but there was still + about 25 people who made it, and I'm still in awe to think I only knew 4 of them two months ago! It was brilliant. I even had the piano man sing me happy birthday, AND brown eyed girl.. loved it :)


Stayed there till 1ish then about 8 of us went to a nightclub nearby till close.. very very good night. Then 5 of us hit Gourmet Burger Kitchen at 2pm the next day for breakfast.. :)

In terms of travel - I think last time I wrote I was about to go to the Lake District? That was the first long weekend in May, about four weeks ago I think.


Went on a mini-bus tour with Kimmie, Nuals, Felice, and Kimmie's friend Michael. Had a ball, although weather-wise it was freezing and raining and generally quite miserable, so unfortunately I don't think I came out of the trip thinking the area was as gorgeous as I should.. it was too grey for my liking!


Stayed in Ambleside (really pretty little town, a couple of really nice pubs / bars that we went out in, lots of fun!), visited Bowness /Windemere (average, nothing particularly exciting), got a boat across Lake Windemere (really pretty - but cold!!), saw Grasmere (gorgeous town where JJ was that weekend, but didn't manage to meet up), and unfortunately spent all of Sunday driving around all the other lakes but not leaving the bus due to (a) poaring rain and/or (b) hail!! Shame, given we were in the LAKE District.. didn't really see any lakes other than Windemere. Couldn't tell where the clouds / rain ended and the lakes began!


Monday we drove back via Liverpool.. weather cleared up by this point but not much to see (sorry anyone with Liverpool heritage.. not a fan!). Saw the Liverpool + Everton football stadiums (stadia?), and spent a few hours being Beatles fans.. went to the Beatles museum, then drove around to The Cavern (where they made it big apparently - air-guitared on the stage where they once performed :), Penny Lane & Strawberry Fields from the songs, and saw the house John Lennon grew up in. That was all pretty cool.


Overall had a fun few days - had a pretty good group, there was about 16 of us on the mini-bus (12 Australians, as always - one of them who went to uni with Futcher). One very interesting Sth African character who Michael nicknamed the Albino Teletubby (no I'm not uploading any photos of him, I feel bad!) and it stuck.. poor guy. Tour guide was a bit of acrazy hippy as well. But otherwise all good! :)


Then i went to Ireland with Chris last weekend for 4 days - I'll leave that for another email (gotta run - my lazy morning isn't so lazy anymore) but in a nutshell had a BRILLIANT time (incl. gorgeous weather- cold but sunny & blue skies) and I'm a big fan!! Stay tuned for more.. Finally, given it's been over a month and everyone here met him at myb'day drinks.. might as well confess there's a boy on the scene.. yes - i met him a week and a half after i got here! His name is Pete, 26, English, friend of a friend of a friend.. details available upon request.


Ok really leaving it there.. miss you all, hope you're all doing well!


Sorry i've been a bit slack at returning emails, will try catch up in the next few days before I head away again next weekend.. Isle of Wight music festival! Can't wait!!


x


Jas

London life

Hey everyone,
It's been a busy few weeks so thought I'd send a quick :) update on london life to date. In a nutshell - I'm loving it and having a great time.
So I started at Fallon on Thurs a week and a half ago, and it's going great. First few days were a bit slow but last week I really got into it (my GAD was on leave so I had to babysit her clients + help on a few other bits & pieces for others) - and obviously the more I do the more people I meet / work with so enjoyed last week much more.
For advertising people who are interested - I'm working on Ask.com (search engine, for their next big burst ofTV), CBBC (BBC children's channel, re-branding + new TV), BBC digital (new TV) + BBC Children in Need (their charity - rebranding / design at this stage). It's a great mix of clients - all really interesting and different to what I've worked on before which is great. For those that know him I'm working with Matt Keon (senior creative) who used to be at BMF. I'm still technically a freelancer (my contract says for 'roughly a month') so it's all very play-it-by-ear at this stage I think but we'll see what happens.
In the meantime I'm still looking for full-time work to start at the end of my 'roughly a month' contract - had an interview at DLKW (9th-ish biggest agency in london but not too crash hot a creative reputation, so i'm not sold) last week, went quite well i think, waiting to hear back. So that's work for you.
The other news is I moved a week ago and am now living in Fulham! Apparently my housemates chose me out of 20ish people because I could talk the hind legs of a donkey (very flattered, I had 2 'interviews', it was all very Spanish Apartment) last saturday, and I moved in on the sunday. All a bit hectic but good, at least now I'm settled and have my own room which is great (though I don't have Kim + Nuals permanently around anymore which is a bum).
So I live in a massive 5 bedroom house with 4 others - 3 guys + 1 other girl, 2 other Aussies + 2 Kiwis. I'm the youngest and the oldest guy is turning 32 so we're all relatively close in age. They're all awesome and we get along really well. The house is a gorgeous old huge townhouse - I think my bedroom now is bigger than (or at least the same size as) the studio I shared last time i was here! Very nice, we even have a backyard with BBQ.. how Antipodean can you get. So that's all awesome, love it.
So that's the big news, everything else is same old (as much as it can be same old on the other side of the planet) - catching up with lots of people and randomly running into (again, in a city of however many million people) Pru from uni on the tube (we'd just gotten in touch that day, and then randomly ran into each other that night, turns out she lives 5 mins from me) and Laura (don't know surname, Dave Sherro's ex.) at a pub! Very random. Have caught up with Bel, Dave + Jaime as well (we had a mini JWT Syd reunion) + James (Roest) + went to JJ's house-warming FYI...
Other than that heading to Lakes District this (long) weekend and finally got round to booking Ireland for late May.. let the travels begin!
Ok that's it - oh and I got talked into joining Facebook so you all have to join and be my friends :)
Luv u all, bye!
x

Jas

PS - Claire / Jodes / Lou I missed you yesterday - I went to 'The Church' - a dodgy, dodgy London ex-cinema in woop-woop converted into a nightclub, but only on Sundays between midday and 4pm! You walk in (and out) in the middle of the day meanwhile inside a party is raging, mainly retro music and you buy beers in plastic bags of 3 cans per bag.. then you dump empty cans on the floor and dance around them. Classy joint - loved it! :) had so much fun but missed you lovely ladies dancing up a storm with me.
x

Spain + Portugal update

Hey guys,

Well I'm still unemployed so thought I'd finally send that Spain / Portugal update that I promised :)

All is going well over here, still waiting to hear back from Fallon (I'm up against a Senior Account Director! very flattered :) they're trying to figure out what level of person / position they need, should hear in the next few days). Have also seen a recruiter who's putting me forward for a few AM + Senior AM roles so fingers crossed.

No other updates really, have caught up with a few people and in a city of 12? million people I managed to run into a couple from the wedding as well. Caught up with Bel last week, James (Roest) yesterday, seeing Dave (Gibson) this week and other than that have been out with the girls and met a few more of their friends. It's all fun and games when you're unemployed! :) Anyway back to Spain + Portugal... I'll try keep this (relatively) brief and send through a separate link to pics as well, but in a nutshell the trip was awesome and I met heaps of really cool people. (FYI there are quite a few pics so I'd suggest a speedy slideshow when you get them - i couldn't cut down any more, I already ditched about 500 to keep it brief! :)

SPAIN

Started in Seville where I think I sent my first email from - gorgeous city and probably my favourite of the trip. Just really pretty, especially the Santa Cruz quarter with all its' tiny streets. Saw heaps, gorgeous cathedral / royal palace blew me away and the weather was pretty good so just spent heaps of time outside enjoying the sunshine! Caught up with some of the wedding crew (Bel + Jez obviously along with a few of their friends + fam) on the last night and had a great night out on the town. Lots of fun.

Then went to Osuna for a few days, little town with not much to see or do really other than just wander round the (again gorgeous) little streets full of white houses.. spent half a day meandering round town and checking out all the pretty churches before going to the wedding that afternoon.

The wedding itself was amazing.. the palace (yes palace) in which it was held was just stunning and had its' own little chapel / altar which was gorgeous. Saw all the people I'd met in Seville and met heaps more, all really really lovely and a few are also living in London so will hopefully see them again. Won't say too much more but it was a great night. Bel needless to say looked like a goddess.

Then Granada.. nobody warned me it could be cold in southern Spain?! it's right up near the Sierra Nevada mountains so was averaging I think about 8 degrees when I was there.. much too cold for a Sydney girl! But otherwise gorgeous. Much more of an Arabic influence in Granada than Seville so gorgeous shopping streets were full of Arabic-looking shops selling Arabic-looking goods. Really cute. Also heaps of Arabic tea houses, stopped into one on my last day with Amanda (one of the bridesmaids). Met a German girl and a group of Italians on my first night and ended up spending every day + night (+ early hours of the morning!) with them, lots of fun. Saw the Alhambra fortress/palace which is amazing and the biggest + best Granada attraction, but it's just a gorgeous city in itself worth wandering round and getting lost in. The Albaicin (spelling?) area is the Granada equivalent of Seville's Santa Cruz so again lots of gorgeous little streets. Very cool. then...

PORTUGAL!

In a nutshell - very very fun, had never travelled with a group of girls before so had heaps of laughs, interesting experiences (to say the least) and took way too many photos! Loved it.

Overnight bussed it to Lisbon from Seville, arrived very tired, met the girls (Kim, Nuals + Chris) at the airport in the morning when they landed. Picked up a car straight away and headed south. We drove for 10 mins (in crazy Lisbon, that was an experience in itself) before somebody told us we had a flat tyre so we had to drive back to the airport and complain and get the guys to change it!

Anyway back on the road... spent the first day driving south via numerous cute towns on our way to Lagos. Stopped in Sines (cute, simple town - had our first Portuguese tart of the trip), Vila Nova de Milfontes (cute tiny little coastal town), Oxeceihe (Oxy - another cute coastal town) as well as I think a few others but they were the main ones. Got to Lagos, had a quick wander round the (cute, big port) town and had the world's best ever seafood dinner.

Second day we drove east towards Spain stopping at Carvoeiro (the world's most gorgeous seaside town, I would love to go back there in summer - my favourite town in Lisbon), Albufeira (I'm getting confused with all the town names now but think this was the Monaco-like town, lots of 10-million star hotels) and Tavira (cute town on big river, saw lots of cute old men!). Think I may have missed a few towns here too but you get the drift.

Day three we walked along the Lagos coast - absolutely stunning, like the 12 Apostles (or however many there are left these days) in Victoria, but much better. Then drove back up to Lisbon via Sagres (simple port town) and Monchique (cute mountain town) and also drove up a mountain near Monchique for some pretty views.

First day in / around Lisbon we drove to Sintra which is a gorgeous suburb / town 45-mins ish away with beautiful old palaces and a gorgeous castle (my favourite castle of the trip). Pics will do this day justice so I'll let them do the explaining, really pretty, really fun.

Drove back to town to drop Billy (our car) off via Cristo Rei - aka Big Jesus like the one in Rio. Very cool, then had our first big night out in Lisbon which goes down as the weirdest (for both good and bad reasons) fun / entertaining night I've ever had out. High(or low)lights included: - going to restaurant (outside) for dinner, homeless guy being obnoxious (not being insensitive but this guy was just not right) to us and other people, waiter later gets a metal pole and beats him up.. in public.. including smashing a glass beer bottle near his face.. not cool. Needless to say we left, found another place for dinner and had another crazy (in a good way) waitor telling us where to go out and what to do. Went to a few awesome bars in the Bairro Alto district, met lots of randoms, went to one pub and enjoyed not getting hit on for a whole 5 mins before realising we were at a gay bar! Stayed there for a bit enjoying the peace and eating nuts before moving on... we wandered down the main cobbled street (packed with people) coining 'stuck-letto', where bending down meant having a photo taken of your backside, and where skirts were lifted up (!) not cool!! anyway think we found another place for a few drinks - had a good night overall but very bizarre!

Bit more general Lisbon sight-seeing in the last two days - cathedral, castle, monastery, Tower of Belem, etc. - and another very very big (but good, no wierd stuff) final night out, meeting heaps of people.

Very tired the next day for our final bit of sight-seeing, then got the plane home in the afternoon, all very depressed and feeling very sorry for ourselves.

Anyway sorry this is huge again (clearly I can't write concise emails) but you're up to speed!

So the moral of the story is when each of you comes to visit me, try fit some time in to see a bit of Spain + Portugal while you're at it :)

Better leave it there.. hope you're all good, thanks for the emails it's good to be up to speed on what's happening back home.

Miss you all!

x

Jas

Greetings from London...

Hey guys,
Just a quick one to let you know I'm back in London (as of last night, exhausted!) and to share my contact details.
The trip was awesome (understatement of the century) - will send another detailed thesis + some pics when I have more time - am just at cafe quickly now to do adminy stuff (work and house-hunting, etc. nothing exciting).
Had my interview at Fallon this morning, went quite well - in an ideal world I'll be doing some freelance work there from next week on but we'll see what happens. Not allowed to get my hopes up, it would be too good to be true.
Anyway my new UK mobile number is 07982 705 240 ( so from Aus. you text +44 7982.. or call 0011 44 7982... ) so text / call and make me feel loved :)
I'll be looking to move into my own place (own room in houseshare) as soon as I know I have work and can afford it, so will be in touch with details if I move in the near future.
No other major plans as yet - doing a 3-day tour of Lakes District in early May long weekend with the girls and potentially a 3-day trip around Ireland in late May long weekend with Chris (I picked a good time of year to come!) but that's it for now.
Hope you're all well, miss you all - keep in touch!!
x
Jas

Ola amigos!

hey peoples!

hope you´re all well! before I get going please excuse any typos or weird punctuation this keyboard is spanish.

So clearly i´m in Spain! very exciting, in seville at the moment and absolutely loving it. currently sitting in an internet cafe across the road from the cathedral (a stunner).. so gorgeous.

But first things first..

Got to London ok - yes, managed to get on the plane (despite numerous airport tears) and got there alive and well although had a very painful trip. first we sat at sydney airport for 1 1/2 hours before taking off, then when we almost got to singapore (we were 1km above ground, descending into the airport) they diverted due to lightning and went to KL instead, where we sat on the plane for another hour (not allowed off) before flying back to Singapore! painful, took about 12 hours just to get there i think after all the delays. then had the lovely leg to london to follow..anyway got there ok. Kimmie met me at the airport which was lovely.

despite the flight i wasn´t feeling too bad / tired so after we went back to their place to dump stuff / shower, etc, we went to a pub on carnaby st for roast beef lunch + pints (served by 2 aussie guys - welcome to the UK!) so had a good catch up with Kim. nuals was away for the weekend so saw her later that night, and she took monday off sick so we got to hang out + catch up too before i left that afternoon. all good!

being back in london was really weird.. it never really hit me that i was leaving Australia and that London was my new home .. i thought it would hit when i got there but it was all so familiar that it just made things even more strange! The girls live in willesden which is a tube stop up from where i used to live, and walking down regent + oxford sts was just like before, except the gap i worked at is gone, replaced by new shops w. apartments upstairs. but good news is i still love london so i know i´ll have a great time when i get back and settle down.

i´ll need to start looking for a place to live when i get back (can stay with the girls for a bit so no major urgency which is good) and sort out a job. for those of you that don´t know (actually most of you) i have an interview at Fallon! (sony bravia bouncing balls ad agency) on the day after we get back from portugal. very excited!! a job there would be absolutely amazing but can´t get my hopes up we´ll see what happens. at any rate hopefully i´ll get a job soon and be able to settle down and not worry so much about spending pounds (and converting them to aussie dollars and having a heart attack)

anyway moving right along - had one night in london before heading to seville, got in last night. got a bus to the major train station nearby then a taxi.. when the driver dropped me off near my street i thought i was in some random little shrunken part of town - the street was literally about 1 1/2 metres wide! he couldn´t drive down it. but anyway that´s the area i´m in - it´s the old jewish quarter and all the streets are tiny and there´s a million and ten of them, it´s a maze. so gorgeous though! anyway went for a quick wander + dinner late last night, and have been out for about 11 hours already today! (thus the internet cafe stop, need to rest!!)

this email is getting long already so won´t go into details but seville in general is absolutely gorgeous, have seen heaps and taken about 100 photos already today, and i haven´t even been into the cathedral / bullring, etc. yet (no bull fights unfortunately, they start in 2 weeks. a bit too early). the people are all lovely except more than any other european city i´ve been to - they hardly speak english! at all. i expected them to at least know the basics (i.e. counting to 10, etc.) given it´s a touristy city but generally not. i wanted juice with my lunch but the lady and i couldn´t understand each other, so i started naming fruits in italian hoping one would click. we eventually both understood arancia (orange) at which point she offered me fanta, and then when i shook my head finally realised i meant juice. it was quite entertaining.

anyway i´m getting along fine, they appreciate you at least trying to speak spanish so i get by. lots of ´grazias´and apologetic smiles go a long way! oh and i got called a ´guapissima´! very impressed, i thought ´guapa´ (something along the lines of ´attractive girl/woman´ i think) was pretty good, but apparently i´m better than that :) hilarious.

anyway i should really leave it at that, this is getting epic. in short spain is gorgeous and i´m loving it. Bel´s wedding is on friday, we´re meeting up here tomorrow for tapas so will catch up beforehand. sorry i won´t do any personal replies today peoples (gotta run) but thanks so much for your emails. i´m thinking of you all (and have seen a few of you here and in london actually, very strange.. john, i saw you at age 83. seriously it was freaky this guy was a future you). anyway! luv u all miss u all, speak soon!

x

Jas