Holiday Home

Going home was great it was so good to see everyone and catch up with family and friends. The weather was good and although it was very busy I really enjoyed seeing everyone and meeting all the new babies, seeing people’s new houses, catching up on eating BBQ’s, meeting friends new boyfriends, getting some sunshine, becoming a God mother, and going to weddings and birthdays and being there for friends in happy and bad times. It was a pretty full on 5 and a half weeks but it was great.

But now I’m back in London and it was so good to see Glen after only seeing each other for about 10 days in 3 and half months. We won’t be doing that again I hope.
I’m currently looking for a more permanent job hopefully Monday to Friday and looking for new housing options and planning Christmas in Bulgaria and New Years in London. Kieran

New York City

On the Wednesday 5th September we left for New York City.

In NYC we stayed in a simple but comfortable hotel/hostel in the upper west side. We arrived in NYC about midnight but for us it was about 4am so we went to bed and planned to meet my friend Rachel from high school at one of the piers to catch the ferry to Liberty Island in the morning. The whole excuse/reason for going to New York was to go to Rachel and Pete wedding. And for those wondering they are both Australian and live in Sydney and Rach has just always wanted to get married in Central park in NYC.

So in the morning we had breakfast at a typical American diners “you want Cwoffee? Then met Rach and Pete and Liam (Rach’s son). And Wendy and Steve (Rachel’s mum and Rachel’s mums husband)
We went to Liberty Island say the statue, saw Wall Street and visited ground zero.
We hung out for a bit and Rach and Pete’s hotel and Glen played with Liam and all his toys and Liam kept forgetting Glens name and so kept calling him Blake …

That evening we visited time square and the M&M shop and then stumbled over a great diner where the waiters and waitress sing so you feel like you’re in some kind of musical or something. They were really good singers too.

Friday was the day of the wedding and it was absolutely beautiful Rach looked gorgeous and Pete scrubbed up pretty well too. It was a hot day though so the boys in there suits weren’t happy campers. The wedding was in Central Park and they were married next to a pond it was a really lovely setting.

We then went to Tavern on the green a restaurant in central Park which is one of the most romantic places I have ever been too. The restaurant is full of big beautiful colorful chandeliers and is surrounded by a garden with really tall trees that are covered in floral lamps on every branch and the restaurant t is like a conservatory so when it’s dark outside you can sit in the restaurant and see all the beautiful lights outside.

Saturday we went to the baseball and saw the New York Mets play Huston. It was really fun and we had typical baseball hot dogs and the boys had beers it was very American but a lot of fun. In the evening we did a few bus tours of uptown downtown New York and Brooklyn.

Sunday we went to the Empire state building and then had to fly out in the evening for London

We arrived back in London Monday morning on the 10th September. We got home I un-packed and repacked for Australia and flew out to Australia on the 12th at midday with my house mate Ellie.

Jersey

Glen went to work in Australia for what was supposed to be 2-3 weeks and turned out to be 6 weeks. 4 days after Glen left I was asked by the nursing agency I worked for if I would like to do a line of work in Jersey which is an island 1hr of the coast of France and is part of the Channel Islands.

As Glen wasn’t here and I thought “how often would I get such an opportunity” I decided to go. So I left on the 16th July and worked there till the 1 September.

Jersey has only one hospital and I was working in the Emergency department which was small compared to the big city hospitals I’m used to but also great because I got to see people come in with minor things like sunburn (yes I know….) and gravel rash up to spinal injuries and cardiac arrests. The staff were fantastic and really supportive. I met some great people.

Jersey has a bit of a mix of English and French influence many of the locals speak French and the middle of the island looks very much like the French countryside. The coast is a mixture of bays, rocky beaches and surf beaches. The population doubles in summer and the land size of the island doubles when the tide goes out so you can literally see the same place on the one day and it can look completely different due to the tide. Also when the tide goes out the boats in the mariners are left just sitting on the sand which is quiet funny.

I also got to go over to France to St Marlow for lunch one day. Yes France for lunch….doesn’t everyone do that???

In Jersey every year they have the Battle of the flowers parade we went to the parade at night. All the floats are covered in flowers its very pretty and on my birthday weekend Ellie our flat mate from London and her friend (who is now also my friend ) Kelly came over to spend the weekend. This was fantastic cause I would have been very bummed being alone on my bday. It was a great weekend the weather was sunny and in the 30’s and we hired a car we saw Jersey cows and has a few boozy lunches by the beach and had a lot of fun.

I then left Jersey on the night of the 1st September and arrived back in London Glen was still on his tour so I had to wait one more day to see him, which after not seeing him for like 8 weeks was not so bad. It was great to see him again on the Sunday. Kieran

Full Monty Tour of the UK

On Monday 27/8/07 I started my Full Monty tour. This is the tour that I won through the TNT for the picture I took in Egypt (the pyramids at dusk See post for Sunday 6th May).

It started on Monday and went for 7days. The tour went like this:

Met the group on Monday morning at 7:15 nice and early but was lucky it was a public holiday as the tube was almost empty at that hour. From there headed out to our first point of call which was Windsor castle as we had made such good time out of London (no traffic on the Monday). Then onto Uffington white horse, which is an outline of a horse scratched into the surface of a mountain then covered with chalk. From there it was onto Avebury Stone Circle where we ate our lunch. After lunch we made our way to bath and to our hostel where we had the rest of the day to go and explore the city ourselves.

I walked around with Amy and then by myself for a while. Came back to the hostel for open mic night and some drinks was a good drunken night in.

Day 2 Tuesday
Left the hostel at 8:30 and headed to Wales where we crossed over using the severn bridge. Once in Wales we went to Chepstow Castle. Then after lunch we went to Trevor to walk over a boat bridge that was made for the canals and is the highest one in the whole UK. From there we headed to Tinton Abby. Then onto the farm house in Wales near llangollen where we had a bbq for dinner and I apparently went to sleep in a haunted bed (nothing happened though.)

Day 3 Wednesday
The day started early with us heading to view Caernarfon castle, then onto the town with the longest name llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. Then onto Conway in north Wales to see Conway Castle where we were free to roam for a good 2.5 hrs. We had lunch and then went to walk around and all over the castle it was brilliant to see it and walk around the walls. I then walked around the outer wall all over town. After we had had or lunch and walk around we got back on the bus and headed into the lake district. To stay the night in a hostel at Ambleside. I had Thai that night and after dinner we all headed out to the local night club that didn’t really kick off till 10:30. We arrived and were the only ones there, then 5 mins later people were pouring in. Ended up being a good night in a dodgy night club.

Day 4 Thursday
After our night in the lakes district we headed to the Scottish boarder on the way we stopped to have a look at Hadriens wall and a stop at the Scottish boarder. Interesting note the boarder where we cross the English side had no trees (see pic). We had the afternoon free to roam the streets of Edinburg. This was where we left our bus drive and tour guide Fergie. As we have a new drive and guide for the trip home. We headed down to the haggis tour office as one of the girls we were with was going on another tour and wanted to know where she had to go. While we were in there we decided to see if we could check in for Saturday. As the lady was looking it turned out that our whole tour was not in the system and if we hadn’t gone in none of us would be going home. LUCKY! We all went out that night to some of the Scottish night clubs they weren’t too bad. We spent part of the night following some guy to another club. As the group of us were getting sober and sober and angrier about this guy taking us to somewhere so far away. We all kinda broke up and went our own way to other clubs or back to the hostel. I was part of the hostel group.

Day 5 Friday
Free day in Edinburgh, everyone else on the tour was doing the free walking tour so I went as well. It was a good walk around and learning more of the history of the town. Although I had been there before I had heard some of it before but was still a gr8 walk never the less. After our walking tour some of the others were going to wonder around the town a bit more. I had done that so I set off with the people who wanted to climb Arthurs seat as I didn’t do that last time. We walked all the way there from the city and up to the top of the hill. At first we were only going to walk to the bottom but by the end we had walked all the way to the top and back along the ridge, we had seen the whole mountain and walked back through the wonderful fun thistle. Man I hate that stuff. 4hrs later headed back to the hostel for a rest, shower and get ready to go out on our ghost tour. Everyone chose to do the tour of the graveyard. If u you want to go don’t, do the chamber one (see previous post on Scotland). This one was cheep and nasty with cheap thrills that destroyed it for me. Nothing scary about it at all. Not trying to be a tough guy but they repeat stuff that was told on our day tour and wasn’t even scary. Most of the time we sat around listening to them just tell stories and not even about the places we were in front of. For a city that old u think they would have more. I was cut over how crap this one was. After the tour me and another girl decided to go catch the last chamber tour as she wanted to go, no one else did and I was happy to do it again. After getting there she changed her mind. So we just decided to go see some spirits in a pub hahaha.

Day 6 Saturday
Today was an early rise as we had to be at the haggis tour office at 8:30 packed our bags and headed down to meet our new bus home and a few new ppl to join our tour. Today we were heading to York. On our way down we stopped at the Flodden Battlefield. Had a stop at the angel of the north. Then into York for a 3 hrs stop over and walk around. Had a walk down shamble street (Diagon alley in Harry Potter or so I’m told) Didn’t want to go into any of the museums so I just went and sat in a park with the people I was walking around. Now I prob should have had a look at the Viking museum, but I know I will be back and would have wanted more time. I was happy. It was then back to the bus to make our way to Beverly where we were staying in a friary. It was our last night all together, we had to have a big one. So we all headed into town to get some alcohol and dinner. Once back at the hostel we had to rig the window to open for us as the hostel had a curfew and we had to go out.

I picked up a mini keg and some ice to chill it. We ended up with heaps and heaps of alcohol when we put it all together in the fridge back at the hostel. Only one way to get rid of it all and that is to drink it. Easiest way… 100 club. That is 100 shots of beer in 100 mins. We didn’t have that long so we played 60shots. I was a bystander. But had to tap my keg and get into it. We all managed to finish the mini keg and 3 cases of beer before going out that night. I say good effort, and no one needed to buy any drinks that night.

Day 7 Sunday
Next morning, back on the bus and back to London, the holiday was coming to a close today L. On the way back we stopped at Sherwood Forest had a walk around, not what I thought it would be but hey would have been very different back then. After that we went onto Stratford-Upon-Avon the birthplace of Shakespeare. Had a walk around there and tried to go view his tombstone however it was in a church that just happened to have a wedding taking place that day so never got to see it, maybe another time. Had a good walk around and saw his house and the school he set up.

Back to London we said our good byes and headed home. Good part was I was coming home to see Kieran after 9 weeks apart. I say a good end to a gr8 holiday.

The tour was way better than I thought it was going to be and there were heaps of people traveling by themselves so no need to worry about traveling alone. I Can recommend it to anyone.


The places I stayed were.

• Bath
• Farm house in Wales (near Llangollen)
• Ambleside (Lake District)
• Edinburgh (2nights)
• Beverley near York

Some of the things and places I saw

• Windsor Castle
• Bath
• Snodonia National Park
• Lake District
• York
• Arthur’s seat
• Avebury Stone Circle
• Uffington white horse
• Tinton abby
• Boat bridge at Trevor
• Caernarfon castle
• Sherwood Forest
• Flodden Battlefield
• Hadrian’s Wall
• Chepstow Castle
• Conwy castle
• Went to the town of llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
• Stratford-Upon-Avon (Birth place of Shakespear)

Glen

Notting hill carnival

This is a Jamaican street carnival with a parade and music played in the street. I went on Sunday which was family day as the parade consisted of kids and it had more of a family feeling with less people as on Mondays. It was a good day out and the weekend kicked up some really good weather for us to walk around. Listen to some music and have some Jamaican food for lunch. We (Mat, Alexia and I ) decided to walk there from our house as it was such a good day. When we got there, there was not much of a crowd and or parade. Walking down the street we heard some music, walked over to it and saw that it was part of the parade with kids in costume.

After that we kinda just walked around not everyday do you see Notting Hill empty of cars and people rule the streets. We got some food saw another part of a parade with some kicking music and then decided to go home and make some punch as the day was still young had really nice weather and had lots of sun left.
Punch was good until I had to go to bed and get up at 5:30am the next day to go on tour.