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 th
e 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
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