End of secondment

Quick one!

First load of photos are up on my website: www.mirandasiu.com - thanks to Rhys!

More coming in 2-3 weeks - ie after i get home and process my nice old fashioned camera film!!!!

Having a great last week here. Had a fabulous leaving dinner last night thanks to Dan - the gorilla & Larry for hosting it.

Had a great time in Brussels - danced the weekend away - despite my ankle! I danced with the most gorgeous Jose Del Rosario - definitely one my highlights of the weekend. Of all the dances I chanced to pick a Bachata - slow romantic beautiful dance. See photos of the salsa weekend at:

http://photo.salsaweb.be/album208

I might be in the background of some of them. In fact my leg is.

Met some lovely people and of course great to have Sam there too.

Off to London this weekend. If you're around, give me a bell. Off to Paris on Tuesday then leave for home Thursday.

See you all soon

Miranda

Week 11 - almost home

I think the french from three weeks ago has worn off on me, coupled with the fact that it's the end of the day and I'm feeling lazy this email will be in English only.

Désolée pour tous les français et Francophones, mais ce mail ne serait pas traduire en français parce que je suis parasseuse.

Last I wrote I was rejuvenated from a trip to Paris. I have almost run out of all the french food I brought back but have been enjoying it ever so much.

LONDON

The following weekend I travelled down to London to hang out with Tina, Sam (from Paris) & Harry. Saturday we rose late due to chatting until ungodly hours of the morning Friday night. Managed to squeeze in a few hours at the National Gallery. Not as impressive as the Louvre but had some cool paintings there too.

Saturday night I was well fed by Tina (again) before heading out to an 'exclusive bar' in Chelsea (expensive area). Apparently most of these exclusive bars require your name on the door before being allowed entry. As we were guests of Tina's colleague we were on the list and permitted to enter. The bar was not terribly impressive but was decent. Our host paid for all the drinks which was fortunate for me. Being the impressive drinker that I am I managed to drink one cocktail over 2 hours.

The best part of the night was meeting a few lovely ladies that were fashion designers for Stella McCartney. So hearing of their glamorous lifestyle was interesting. They were really friendly and lovely and made the night pass quicker as we did not really know a soul otherwise.
Sunday I arose early to meet Sam, Harry and Sarah to take a visit to the Spittlefield's markets in Shoreditch where the famous french baker making lamingtons in episode 1 (week1) was originally found. However, we arrived too early and most stalls were only just setting up. Due to construction work the baker was not there either. However I did manage to find another decent celtic baker and bought a few items for the forthcoming week there.

After a brief hot chocolate in a nearby café, we ventured onto High Street Kensington and brunched at a very popular café - Giraffe. We caught up with Amanda Lukin there and had a very interesting conversation about management accounting (as we are all accountants). NOT. We did manage to steer away from work and catch up on the more interesting aspects of each others lives, like travelling and discussing the differences between the northern and southern hemisphere in a very amicable manner that was not derogatory to either side. (in other words we had a whinge :) ).

As the weather was fining up (which it was not forecasted to be), we took a leisurely and enjoyable stroll through the Kensington Gardens (just opposite the café) which then turned into Hyde Park at some point. From which we tubed it to Waterloo and sent Sam off in style with a farewell party of 3. Interestingly enough all 4 of us split at that point in time to 4 different train lines. Sam on the Eurostar, and the three of us split between the Bakerloo, Jubilee and Northern line.

I then met up with Lisa (Thommo) and Doug (Dougie) J at Leicester Square. It was a fine afternoon for coffee, cake and ice-cream. Managed to catch up about 18 months in an hour before I had to depart myself.

All in all it was a lovely weekend catching up with fellow Aussies.

BIRMINGHAM

During the week I ventured out ice-skating at Solihull (20 mins drive). I saw a very scared Bear (Matt Trump) on ice. After 10 minutes or barely moving 20 metres around the rink, the Bear scooted off, took off his skates and traded them in for ale.

So Jo M, JT and I all enjoyed the gracefulness of ice-skating while the bear watched on with a lager in hand.

The next night (Thursday) I went to the local cinema in a cultural centre and caught 'Les Choristes (The Chorus). An acclaimed and award winning french film. It was awesome and glad I managed to catch it. I must admit the patrons there were mostly septuagenarians that concerned me a bit until I saw a few other younger people.

Farewell drinks

Friday was set for my farewell drinks (as I am going to Belgium this weekend and London on my last Friday here). I didn’t really expect to drink. A good gathering came down after work and started on ale immediately. I decided to have at least one drink and started on a cocktail.

Being inspired by the previous weekend in London and a sign that seemed to indicate a reasonable price (it was half that of London) for Moet & Chandon (Champagne), I decided to treat a bottle to my merry colleagues. Strangely enough I managed to drink a glass without as much effort as it has previously required (I can't remember finishing a glass hitherto).

The evening wore on and I moved onto Bicardi Breezers which contrary to my previous thoughts were quite tasty! After two of those I was starting to feel a little woozy and needed a short sit down, much to the humorous enjoyment of my colleagues.

Then Dan (the Gorilla) inspirationally handed me a bottle of WKD (Wicked I had learnt from a previous discussion). It has on the bottle 'Iron Brew'. Which I find a rather apt description of the taste. It was terrible! In my inebriated state I acted on the silly and playful suggestion by my colleagues, which was all unanimously to skull the bottle as that was the way to drink the drink!
Needless to say the rest of the evening was not productive (except in the bathroom) and I quit quite early at 11pm.

Thank you to Dan for the drink and trying to feed me not long after. Thank you to Neil for driving us to Larry & Dan's and then onto Lloyd's bar. Thank you to Larry for showing me his nipple at the bar and offering me more ale. Lastly thanks to Jo for being a good sport and leaving the party early to take me home.

Saturday

I had a big day ahead on Saturday. I had invited a few people around for dinner that evening. I arose at a reasonable hour given the festivities the night before - with no hangover. :)

The outdoor and indoor markets in the city offered me plenty of produce at a very reasonable price for that night's dinner. I spent the most at the Chinese supermarket and bakery buying particular goods than I did at the food markets.

I then spent the rest of the day cooking and cleaning. I prepared a chinese feast of: Wonton noodle soup, vegetarian chow mein, vegetarian sticky fried rice (err… slight error, bought the wrong type of rice, but everyone seemed to like it), honey soy chicken wings, baby back pork ribs with chinese pork rib marinade, two plates of veges (pak choy and choy sum) and some silver thread buns (like man tou). All the food I had been missing for the past 2 months. Desert was a selection of chinese pastries with custard and coconut. Also bought some White Rabbits (soy milk flavoured candy), peanut brittle type sweet and walnut jube sweet (all chinese sweets).

Needless to say I actually made to much for my 5 guests. :) But most of it came off quite well, the wontons, chicken wings and pork ribs being the favourites. I was quite pleased with my efforts. No one died, so must have been alright.

Also needless to say Jo and I have been eating the leftovers all week. I think I might just finish the last of it tonight. :) I'm ready for pasta again. :)

Sunday

If I hadn't had enough of Chinese yet, I was about to go overkill by indulging in Yum Cha in Chinatown (which consists of a couple of chinese grocery stores/supermarkets and a handful of chinese restaurants around a bend in the road which you could blink and miss it, there's not even any signs to say you're in chinatown, just pedestrian arrowed signs heading towards the road saying 'chinese quarter', ie it's quite small).

Unfortunatley I only managed to rally one couple to come along for this magical feast (as I had sold it on Friday night). The other party I was expecting was 'in the gym' for 3 hours - you know who you are. :)

The restaurant we went to was famous for their dim sims but did not offer yum cha the traditional way I explained or expected. In stead they gave you a menu to order from and they brought it out afterwards. The Dim Sims were fresh which was a pro and was decent so not a bad lunch. More importantly the couple were back in time for kick off (football/Soccer) and I in time to go snowboarding.

Sunday afternoon JT (Jo), Larry and I headed off to Tamworth (ha ha for Australians) to go to the Snowdome to ski/snowboard. £22 bought 1 hr and ski equipment for this artificial internal slope.

The slope was quite gentle and nice to board down. After I failed miserably at the rope tow - didn't get more than 3 metres - we all headed up the travelator to the top (being about 20 -30 metres up). Had a few good runs before slipping on a nasty ice patch and hurting my derriere quite badly. Next run down they had put up barriers so no one could hurt themselves as I had done. Nice timing. It was good for an hour. Had a lot of fun and glad I finally got to go snowboarding after bearing all this nice cold weather. :)

Haven't done much since. Except roll my ankle yesterday. Not very happy about that. Going to Belgium this weekend for another Salsa weekend, at this stage it doesn't look like I will be able to dance at all.

I will indulge in Belgian waffles so should be enjoyable all the same. Sam should be joining me late Saturday night/Sunday for half of the workshops so the company will be appreciated. I hope they let me video tape it considering I won't be able to take part and have paid to.

Bad news is that if my ankle doesn't heal up in the next week I'll have wasted more money again as I have booked myself in for a Salsa weekend in London (long weekend) the following week (my last one). I booked this all two months ago. :(

Such is life. Things are fine otherwise. I have a very full belly. I return home in two weeks. Next week is my last week working.

After that I will be in Brisbane for 2 weeks working before I head off to LA for two weeks end of May to the start of June. So let me know if you're in the US and want to catch up in that time and I shall make an effort. :)

Might not write much in the upcoming weeks as I'll just be dancing/rather sitting and not doing anything interesting at all.

So alas my time here ends next week and I shall be heading for southern shores soon!

Talk soon

My Photo Web-site

Note that photos from December 2004 and before can be seen at:

www.mirandasiu.com (see also link in side-bar under'links'. :))

Currently having difficulty with FTP and Blog picture posting (server problem, I think work has a firewall or different FTP port that i can't work out with my simple IT mind).

PARIS

Français – For english scroll down.
Salut tout le monde!
Ça va ?

Parce que j’ai passé le week-end à Paris , je suis plus confiant à ecrivant en français. Il faut practiquer ! Et pour lesquels qui a du temp , il faut corriger ! Fait attention : mon français n’est pas parfait et j’ecris comme je suis parlant.

Bon, mon week-end à Paris était fantastique. Il a commencé à vendredi soir. L’hotel que j’ai resté à était très bien et location parfait (7me)! Prés de tous les chose à rive gauche: Merci à Sam pour m’attendant à mon hôtel pour une heure quand je voyagait (?) la. Il a eu très tard quand j’ai arrivé.

Ensuite, nous prenait un chocolate chaud dans un petit café, juste á côte St Germain-de-Prés (6me). Le mâitre d’café était très amusant et je pense qu’il avait bu quelquechose plus fort d’un café. Il était bizarre et sympa.

Samedi matin (Presque midi), on a commencè le jour avec ‘brunch’ chez Sam, avec Lana (son amie Australienne). C’était très merveilleux. J’adore les baguettes française, les fromages excellent, les confitures – tout sont déliceux. La nourriture, je la manque!

Puis nous promenait á le Panthéon (6me). Ça c’est incroyable. Vraiment magnifique! Plus grand de le Panthéon á Rome. Dans le centre il y a un pendule qui oscillat (? Swing) et répresent la rotation de le monde. Chaque heure, le pendule traverser 11 dégres. C’était tellement intéressant mais c’est difficile expliquer.

Le temps faisait (?) très beau. Le soleil était sourirant et tout le monde était partout. Ensuite nous avons visitè le jardin du Luxembourg. La vue était trés jolie. Il m’ai amusé beaucoup. Tous les vue sont difficile á expliquer, mais il était excellent!

Puis, nous avon visité l’église St Sulpice. Encore incroyable, très belle et très vieille. L’organe (seul) est aussi vieux que Australie!!! L’organe est plus nouveau que le reste (?) de l’église.

Ensuite on a trouvé les magasins célèbres de St-Germain-De-Prés. Lana et moi étions très heureuse. Sam nous attendions avec beaucoup de patiènce. Finalement nous a trouvé un très bon café qui faisait les gâteaux frâiche et extraordinairement délicieux. Ma palette et estomac étaient dans le ciel/très content. J’ai fini l’après-midi par achèté des vestes, pantalon, jupe and chemises!

Le soir était très bien aussi. Nous avons dîné prés de l’avenue Mouffetard dans le 6me. Il était un créperie trés bon que Sam a connu. J’ai mangé plus que je pouvait parce que je suis gourmande. Après ça je ne pouvait pas marcher á le bar qu’il y avait les amis de Sam qui nous attendions. Mais par hasard le bar était pres de le café que nous avons mangé les desserts merveilleux. Le bar et les amis m’ai amusé bien.

Finalement, plus tôt dan le matin de dimanche j’ai traversé a la rive droite (?). Un peu après 8 heure, j’ai rendé-vous avec ma amie Cindy au dehors de les pyramides du louvre. J’ai passé tous la journeé la et était magnifique. J’ai trouvé beaucoup de choses que je n’ai vu avec plaisir. Le temps au dehors faisait très beau encore. Le meuiller parte était, il était gratuit parce que il était le premier dimanche de la mois.

J’ai fini le jour prenant un café glacé avec menthe (ou quelquechose pârait le nom était en anglais – After mint!) et un tarte pomme dans un café dans St Michel.

J’ai arrivé a l’aéroport un peu tard â cause de les travaux et moi (qui n’ai su quel terminal que j’ai partant á). Mais je pense que je suis l’un dernier personne á ‘Check-in’, parce que quand j’ai arrivé le personne d’Air France m’a dit qu’il m’ai donné un mise á niveau á un place d’affaire sur l’avion. Quel chance! Le repas sur l’avion c’était pas mal du tout! Par conséquent tous mes baggages (j’ai trois parce que j’ai fait du shopping) étions cabine.

En fait, j’ai passé un très bon week-end!

Aussi, aujourd’hui j’ai visité Chinatown á Birmingham et trouvé tous le nourriture chinois que j’ai manqué.

Bon, il me prenait une heure et demi á ecrire ce mail, a tout a l’heure!!! Il faut cuisiner mon dîne!

English

Hello everyone

After going to Paris I was inspire and more confident in writing in French, some of you may remember my previous travel emails from years gone by were bilingual.
It took me 1 ½ hours to write the french, I am going to be brief with the English!

I have a wonderful time in Paris. Stayed at an awesome hotel that was in a great location in the 7th arrondissement. Near a metro station, about 2-3 stops from the St Germain de Prés area. And not far from Sam’s place. All about ½ walking distance.

I spent most of my weekend on the Left bank and thoroughly enjoyed it. Sam patiently waited for me for an hour to get from the airport to my hotel on Friday night. We then walked to a cute café in the St Germain area – near Café de Flore. The owner was a character to say the least and probably had a little to drink too! But it was great to be there and catch up with Sam.

Saturday I woke up late and had brunch at Sam’s place with Lana and Sam. The food was glorious. Oh how I miss the french baguetttes, cheese, jam and everything. We carried on to the Panthéon which was marvellous.

In the centre there is a display relating to a french physicist. It’s something he created and displayed in the 19th century. A pendulum swings from the centre of the dome of the Pantheon and represents the rotation of the Earth on its axis. Each hour it moves 11 degrees. Or as the video says, the Panthéon rotates around the Pendulum. Quite amazing. Beautiful old building.

We strolled down to the Jardin du Luxembourg which were absolutely amazing. The weather was fantastic so all the Parisiens were out in their glory (some people’s glories were hanging out more than others). But the fountain, palace and gardens were just beautiful. You wouldn’t believe it’s just come into spring.

We then travelled along to St Sulpice – famed from Dan Brown’s popular novel the Da Vinci Code. Funnily enough (reference for those who have read it) there’s a plaque that states that ‘contrary to a popular fiction novel, the meridien line here is not and never was a rose line and the P & S are not representative of the imaginary Prior of Sion etc etc’. It was built for some astrological reasons and the P & S = Peter and Sulpice the main patrons of the church when it was built in the 17th century. The organ there is as old as Australia! Just beautiful.

Unfortuantely for my credit card (and for Sam who had to wait) I found a inexpensive Parisien clothes store nearby in the famous St Germain De Pres shopping district.

Luckily we found a café nearby that served the most delicious fresh cakes! They were made on order and came out absolutely divine. The cakes did not last long on the plate!

That night we dined in a small creperie in the same district/arrondissement. It was very good and I stuffed myself silly with a savoury (main meal) and sweet (dessert) crepe. All made to order.

We partied on with some of Sam’s friends at a bar near the café with the delicious fresh cakes. Had an early night as I was to rise early the next morning.

Sunday was the first Sunday of the month and hence all the museums (just about) were free. So Cindy (Vanessa’s friend) and I patiently queued from about 8am (I was a little late) outside the Pyramides at the Louvre to enter at 9am. By 9am the queue was quite extraordinary so well worth rising early. Although Sam caught the metro and walked straight in at 9:05?!

I spent the entire day in the Louvre and enjoyed it thoroughly. I ended the day with a chocolate Mint milkshake (as close to as you’d ever get in Europe) and an apple tart that was just lovely.
My flight back was just as good. Due to some stuff ups, I ended up checking in for my flight quite late and must have been the last one. I got upgraded to business class. This had a number of advantages. I could carry all my 3 bags (two full of shopping) as cabin luggage, I got a meal on the plane (1 hr 30 flight) and first off the plane too.

Had a great weekend.

Furthermore, I managed to go to Chinatown at lunch today and found my favourite chinese foods. I couldn’t resist buying some chop sticks – I didn’t realise that I’d missed them so much! It was great to hear people speaking cantonese and have them address me accordingly. I almost felt like I was home (the English speak British english so I don’t feel quite at home in the language sense, unlike cantonese which is the same (almost) anywhere). :)

This will be a brief one.

It's Friday night. TGIF (Thank God IT's Friday) drinks are on and they happen to be in the area that I've been sitting in working all this week. So heaps of people chatting, eating and drinking all around me. Bit distracting.

Easter was lovely. Went down to London to visit Tina. Thanks again to Tina and George for putting me up.

Tina treated me to coffee and cake in Leicester Square where all the big movie premiers are usually staged.

We bought cheap tickets to see 'Who's Life is it Anyway?' a play staring Kim Cottrell (from Sex in the City). It was surprisingly quite good! It was a comedy drama and I would recommend seeing it for £24.

So we saw that Saturday night which was good. We wandered into a Waitrose (better quality super market) on Sat afternoon where I found Brioche!!!!!! (French sweet bread). I was very impressed. There is only one Waitrose near Birmingham. Just outside on the border in Solihull. (quick note I'm getting quite acquainted with the geography of Birmingham and England, so much so that I sometime show the locals where to go). :)

Sunday I tried to find the shoreditch markets that Harry had taken us to on my first weekend here. Unsuccessfully as there were a great many street markets that crowded my view. Plus halfway there I found out the clocks went forward and that I was actually an hour off where I thought I was.

Subsequently I had little time there and was a little late for a midday party at a friend's house.
I went to Harry's friend's (Sarah) high tea party and met an ecclectic range of people from their church. It was lovely and very enjoyable. Food, music and company were all very good.

Afterwards we all went to their church in Shoreditch (or thereabouts). It was a lovely old church were James Parkinson (founder of Parkinson's disease) used to patron. It's in the middle of being refurbished and newly established parish.

Afterwards I headed home to change and go to a Salsa all nighter party in Kings Cross (not as bad as Sydney's Kings Cross). I met the people I had first met in Sweden the weekend before. It was good to see them and met more people. I only stayed to 11:30 so I could catch the last tube home.

Monday we went to Bath. George had been before but it was Tina and my first time. We had lovely weather with the sun out. It was just magnificent. A little cold while we saw the sights on the top floor of the open top bus tour. Managed to get it cheap at £5 each. well worth it.

We visited the ROman Baths which were impressive. Fortunately the audio guides you could stop and fast forward at any point. It was a little dry and speculative on many things (much like Stratford Upon Avon) but did not detract from the beauty and historic meaning of the baths.

We wandered around more up to the Circus and popped into some shops. Found a Waitrose from which I duly bought some groceries and more brioche to take back to Birmingham.

So this week has been rather uneventful. Had a few friends over on Wednesday night as the football (soccer) was on. England vs Azer Bahrain (or something like that). England won and it was an exciting game to watch.

Tonight I fly to Paris for the weekend to rendez-vous with Sam and Cindy (Ness' friend).
I will be going to the Louvre on Sunday as it's the 1st Sunday of the month and free. Not sure what else i will be doing, probably enjoying the city (nothing too touristy). Hopefully get to a few bars and see the nightlife. I'm staying in the latin quarter which is a prime and nice area to stay, just behind the Les Invalides (where Napoleon's ashes are kept in a magnificent sarcophagus), Rodin museum/gardens and Musee D'orsay (home to the french impressionists). A few blocks from St Germain De Pres (for those who have heard of it).

Sweden & salsa

Hola!!!!

I hope that you are all well.

I have to say that I'm having one helluva fantastic time.

Last week and this week my salsa dancing has really taken off. I finally took a class last week which was nice and started dancing again - after about 1 month off. I'd been visiting a few Salsa clubs mid-week, but just watching and hanging about.

I'm frequenting two clubs: Ipanema and Bar Risa, both on Broad Street - the main dining, entertainment area in Brum (Birmingham). Ipanema is a very funky bar/restaurant with a large dance floor and outdoor terrace which all the dancers spill out into.

Being the night before a bank holiday (Good Friday) Ipanema was packed last night. In the past fortnight I've started being recognised, ie starting to know some of the other regulars too. Which is making me feel more comfortable and at home with the Salsa scene here. However, I don't have many different clothes to wear, so perhaps it's easier to identify me! :)

Last weekend I went to Stenungsund, Sweden. It's about 40 minutes north of Gothenburg. It was AWESOME. Firstly I'm quite lucky that I've not missed a train, plane bus or anything yet. I've been very lucky in that regard.

There were two others from London that were on the same flight. Both were instructors at teh congress and one was also one of the DJs for the Salsa party on Saturday night.

In queueing at the Gothenburg (goteburg) airport to get through passport control, this one guy was looking at me and finally said 'Salsa?'. To which I was much relieved to have found the two strangers I was meant to catch a ride with to the congress (rather they found me).

Passport control was strange. They are very particular in Sweden! They scanned my passport or something. Then continued to look back and forth between me and my passport several times. They were also checking details on the screen, obviously to check my history etc. It was very unnerving.

Just a little note about Goteburg City Airport - it's tiny. The other main airport is Landvetter, I'm assumning it's much bigger. This airport was a landing strip in the middle of some fields with the airport terminal as not much more than a tin shed. :)

It was -6 degress celcius when we arrived. A bit chilly. Last Friday (the day before I arrived in Sweden) was beautiful in England. The sun was out. It was warm (10-13 degrees). I went outdoors without a jacket it was that warm!!!!!!!!!

We didn't have much luck with the local swede who was meant to meet us and take us to the venue. Apparently he was there and did see us (he later admitted) but did not realise that we were his cargo. :) So he left after 1/2 hour. We were given no details of who was picking us up so had no idea who to look for. We waited 2 hours before I finally found the details of the hotel/venue and rang up. We got picked up by the brother in law of the organiser of the event.

He happened to be a swede who married a Bolivian woman and spends 6-8 months in Bolivia working and the other time in Sweden. He was a very interesting person adn I found out a lot more of Bolivia than I had ever known.

We finally arrived at our destination and it was beautiful. The drive up was lovely too. Mountains lined with pine like trees, graced with snow. Stenungsund is on near two islands that are very popular for summer vacation for the locals. So our hotel was set on a bay that led out to sea. It was pristine and beautiful. I could have spent the whole weekend looking out the window and enjoying the view.

Fortunately I managed to tear myself away from the view for about 1 hr at atime to attend the classes which had the picturesque view on one side of the chandelier lit rooms. The dancers I met were amazing.

I found the Salsa community amazing. I did not know a soul. However from emailing the leader of the group of instructors from London, I found that I had an instant group of friends. All the swedish people kept coming up and introducing themselves to me. Everyone made sure I was alright and I happened to meet a great number of very friendly an interesting people in a very safe environment. We all share the one passion of salsa dancing. It was wonderful. I met people from France, Scotland, London and of course Sweden.

The funny thing was that the majority of the 800 that attended were Swedish. So doing the classes some were 100% in swedish (strangely enough it was still easy to take the class & comprehend what was happening) but my fellow students (and those i danced with at the party) would instinctively talk to me in Swedish. Sometimes the encounters were so brief I'd just nod my head or what have you as sometimes it was easy to tell what they meant. But if they asked a question and were looking at me for an answer, that was the time I'd say 'Sorry I dont' speak Swedish'. They'd instantly convert to English and go through the whole spiel of 'where are you from and what are you doing here in Sweden?'.

So it was a little complicated to explain that I'm Australian (which was instantly like, oh you travelled all the way from there for this, as they always asked when I was leaving and when I arrived). Then I had to explain I was working in England just for 3months. Then the fact that I knew no one here, well other than those i had just met too. So I had quite a few repetitive conversations but it was more I couldnt' think of an easier way to explain my situation.

However i have almost the same difficulty with the local Brum dancers too. Everyone I have met dancing knows immediately that i'm not a local wherever I am because of the way I dance. :) But fortunately they all tell me that I dance well and ask me where I learnt to dance.

I did meet a fellow Aussie Salsa dancer from Sydney in Sweden. We had a great chat. She returns next month as well.

The London crew I met in Sweden I will most likely see again this weekend. There is a huge Salsa party in London due to the Bank holiday (that's what they call it!) on Monday. It starts 6pm Sunday night and goes to -6am Monday morning. They said it's a massive event with 000s attending. I'm very much lookign forward to it and meeting all the instructors/people I met in Sweden again. I'm already on this particular Salsa club's mailing list... :)
The Swedes I met were very friendly, one was a perfect stranger and drove me to the bus stop so I could get back to the Airport on Sunday as i had to catch an earlier flight than the other Londoners.

I ran into some luck when I arrived into Gothenburg, the airport bus only runs once, 2 hrs and 20 mins prior to departure of the flight. I arrived about 1 1/2 hours prior. An english speaking gentleman entered the travel centre as I just made that realisation (and starting to count how much money I had for a taxi) and was asking the customer service person when the buses go to the airport. He was on the same flight as me (there aren't that many obviously) so we caught a taxi out together and only cost about £10 ($24) each. It was quite good given that the bus is half the price, but runs so infrequently. It total it took me abotu 8 hours to travel back to Birmingham. Which in reflection is a lot of time. A lot of time I spent sleeping!!!

I think I have perfected the art of sleeping on public transport. As soon as it starts moving I'm out like a light. :) However, it might have something to do with the fact I was dancing until 3am in the morning the night before. :) But it's ok mum, the dance party was just on the floor below where I was staying in the hotel, so did not have far to walk to go to bed. :)

Thanks must go to my cousin Marcus who let me crash at his place Friday night before leaving at 4am to catch my 7am flight from Stansted (takes about 2 hours to travel there by public transport at that time of the morning and have to be there at the latest 40 minutes before take off to check in).

Oh the food. I got to taste Swedish food - I like it!!! We had buffet lunch, dinner, breakfast and lunch. It was different and very good. Tasty - I don't know half teh stuff I was eating, but it was good. :) The bread is very nice too. :)

Also going back about a month ago, when I went to Brugge, Belgium I must thank Tina for letting me stay at her place under similar circumstances. Only difference was i got to party with her big corporate friends in MAYFAIR!!!!! It was a very cool jazz/funk club (just suited to me) that one of the directors of her company paid £15 (AUD 40) each for us to enter the club and then someone was paying for bottles of Veuve Cliquot champagne (about £50/AUD 122 a bottle). I had half a glass as I could not be rude a refuse such expensive champagne! It was a very unexpected pleasant surprise. We arrived home about 4am before I had to leave at 5am to get to Waterloo for my 6:30am Eurostar/train to Belgium.

So this is how I manage to sleep on flights and all methods of transport.... :)

Oh. this week has been very good too. Being 4 days and all. Last night there was a work Pool comp. I got to meet a lot more people from the Birmingham and Wolverhampton office (about 45 mins north). I even played pool and lost badly. I won 1 game by default because my opponent sunk the black ball. It was very enjoyable evening and am glad to have met and socialised with more people from this office. It was another late night not as late as the others, the clubs/bars seem to be opened late to 2pm. We stayed at the one venue that was closed off for us. Again on Broad street just opposite the road from Ipanema. So I snuck across for an hour and had a glorious time dancing and meeting new people before coming back.

I actually got to drive for the first time last night. As I was the only one sober I drove Jo (my house mate's) new mini (about 2 months old) home. I even managed to navigate my way home without assistance (except the first bit getting out of the city). Not that it was particularly hard, but it was nice to be able to drive again. It was a very nice car to drive. :)

This weekend I will be heading down to London to go to the theatre with Tina and George (her house mate). Sunday I'll be going to that Salsa party. Monday will be going to Bath (famous roman spa town) with Tina and George.

In the upcoming weeks I'll be heading off to Paris next weekend. London the following as Sam (from Paris) will be coming across. The weekend after I plan to be in Birmingham - my only full weekend here!!!!. After that I'll be hopping across to Brussels for another Salsa congress. Then the following week will be the end of my secondment. I will spend that last weekend in London in another Salsa congress before skipping across to Paris and leaving from there back for Australia.

So more emails to come, but that's what you can look forward to reading about.

Week 5

Last weekend I spent in Budapest with my cousin Marcus. But before I go into Hungary, I will deviate for a short while to comment on my weekend with Marcus and Wan two weekends ago (ie prior to Brugge, Belgium).

For the first time I was able to explore Birmingham city – and what better company that two tourists as well!

I have picked up some colloquial language which I may use in this email:

Brum = Birmingham

More colloquisms that are difficult to get used to:

Hiya = common salutation

You right (?) – in a whiney tone = Common salutation, means hello.

After a photo shoot in front of my office, followed by one 5 metres later at Victoria square, then 50 metres in Chamerberlain square…. Just kidding. Well almost. I am rather impressed with the number of photos Marcus takes and the subjects.

As they were staying on Broad Street (the main restaurant/bar/dining area) in central Brum we wandered around Brindley Place – a commercial and dining complex by the canal. Modern and quaint.

Trivia: the length of the canals in Brum is longer than those of Venice itself.

We visited St Philips Cathedral – England’s smallest! It is very close to work and a common thoroughfare. In fact I had passed it many times but had not the opportunity to go in. Quite lovely.

We enjoyed a brief stroll down New Street (Brum’s High street aka main mall/shopping area) through the drizzingly rain towards The Bull Ring. We took in the sights of Victoria Square and Town Hall. It is quite charming and right next to work. I do enjoy walking through the area.

The Bull Ring is the major shopping mall in the city. It’s only about 1 1/2 years old and quite modern for England, especially Selfridge’s. We wandered around a bit. The Selfridge (major department store, like David Jones) there has a reknown architectural outside. I did not know it was reknown until Marcus quite excitedly told me about it. I had thought it to be a queer bit of architecture though.

Then we had a photo shoot back at my place before we headed back out for dinner at The Mailbox (a boutique complex of shopping and dining) which is located by the canal that leads to Brindley Place. We enjoyed good decent priced Indian in a very contemporary funky restaurant.
We tried out the clubs on Broad Street but found little luck in anything exciting or indeed open past 1am. Which is probably fortunate.

The next day after a rush for the train we arrived in Stratford Upon Avon to discover Shakespeare in his home town.

Much to our disappointment all the replica houses and exhibits plainly stated that the only facts about Shakespeare that is documented is that he was born, married and died. Everything else about his life is conjecture. There is even controversy as to whether he even wrote the grand plays and sonnets authored by him!

Stratford was a lovely quaint town with plenty of 16-17th century typical buildings and I learnt a fair bit about life in those times (or at least what the tourism board will have you believe). J
Alas the weekend ended too quickly and Marcus and Wan were off on a bus back to London.
I went home and proceeded to tell my housemates and visiting friends what a load of bollocks Shakespeare & Stratford is when they enquired as to my visit. As you can imagine I was greeted with a lot of disbelief and comments that I was speaking nonsense.

Budapest

Budapest is cheap, beautiful and interesting place to visit.

Marcus (my cousin) and I became tickless tourists for the weekend. Being armed with many maps, photocopies of lonely planet and print outs from the Hungarian tourist website, we hit the tourist sites.

Starting with the Opera House which was quite a magnificent structure inside and out. Paris Opera (Garnier) has always been my favourite, but what I could see of Budapest’s was quite impressive. As well as their modern flat screen monitor in the foyer where we could purchase tickets for that evening’s performance for 500 Forint = £2 = AUD $5. Very cheap in otherwords. The Opera was Lady Macbeth (…) so was something unusual. But we didn’t.
We then went to see the other Opera House which was more modern and very strange architecture. There were a great deal of very old buildings and very modern buildings intertwined with each other.

Well you may recall that last week I saw the alledged holy blood of Christ. This week I saw the hold right hand of St Stephen – first King of Budapest (c 1000AD) in none other that St Stephen’s Basilica. An amazing massive basilica constructed in the late 1800 completed early 1900s. It really gives the Vatican a run for it’s money in it opulent marble, gold and domed interior. And of course the eloquently decorated and secured right hand of St Stephen. It is apparently quite revered by the Hungarians.

We then ventured to the next amazingly large structure – Parliament. It is truly an impressive gothic styled building with steeples everywhere possible. Incredible.

After looking at a map for a few minutes and trying to figure out how to get to Buda (we were in Peste on the west side of the Danube River) I looked up and noticed we were directly across the road from the metro station we were so conscientiously looking for on the map. :)

We were well on the way to completing the lonely planet guide for a day tour in Budapest. Our next stop was Buda where Matthias Church (Gothic), the panoramic Fisherman’s Bastion and of course the Royal Palace/Buda Castle lay. The views were spectacular and the set up reminded me much of Edinburgh and the Royal Mile situated across from the city.

We also ventured into the Buda Labrinth. An elaborate underground labrinth that has been constructed from the remains of the tunnels and underground passages once used for the Castle as well as military operations in recent times. For theatrics they had eerie music playing which did nothing to abate my natural fear of dark spooky areas, which Marcus fortunately missed out on the opportunity to play on but indeed wanted to do so to me and perfect strangers!

Next we took a tram intending to get across to Capital Hill where a massive statue stood representing freedom. However, we had an interesting incident along the way.

Having arrived at the airport the night before I bought myself a tourist card entitling me to unlimited travel for 48 hours and allegedly many discounts and free entry into 60 museums. I would not recommend getting it as it was not worth the money, but was convenient for travel. However I was not explicitly told and did not sign and date the card as was required to be validated. Having caught a few trams and trains/metros and buses already, there did not appear to be anyone or machines checking the cards or a means to validate them for each trip.

Marcus had read up on the hefy fines imposed for not having a valid ticket, ironically he had mentioned it to me already You can guess where this is going.

So while minding our own business on the tram, two stops away from our destination a rather large/bulky young man in a tracksuit approached Marcus and muttered something. Which we both assumed meant drugs and we weren’t interested.

So then he said in English ‘tickets please’. Hurriedly we both produced our tourist cards. While he was inspecting Marcus’ card, I noticed he was wearing a velcro arm band with an ID badge. Possibly fake and I was highly suspecting that he was fake and going to try and mug us. He then turned to my card and quite clearly was indicating that mine was not valid and needed to be signed and dated. Marcus being the diplomat tried to reason with him and asked for a pen to fill in the details however he declined and said we had to hop off at the next stop.

At the next stop he was still holding my card and as we hopped off he waved over another large man in plain clothes and said something in Hungarian. At this point I really thought we were about to be mugged. I tried to get my card off him and leave quickly but he started flashing a wad of presumably fines with 6000 odd Forint at the top being the hefty fine. I still thought it could be replicas and he had taken off his velcro arm band.

Now 3 large men were ambling towards us. I panicked, tore the card from his hand said to Marcus that we were going. Marcus was bewildered, I got 3 paces away and the young large men stopped me I turned and was now backed against the railing by 4 large hungarian men, one waving some sort of ID authority card and my cousin.

I must have looked panic stricken and was thinking how to escape and which man to injure in the groin first. J One of the guys that came over was trying to be nice and speak english to me. I was not responding well and he just repeatedly said, ‘no date no good’ pointing at the card. So he finally dated the card and let us walk. Much to my relief, we walked away without having to pay a £25 fine (AUD $75). I didn’t even have that much cash on me.

So Marcus & I had a good chuckle about it afterwards, but it was a scary experience at the time. Very funny now. I think I live a charmed life.

We made it to Capital hill, saw even more breathtaking views of Budapest and the Danube river. Visited a war exhibit. Budapest held one of the longest and bloodiest sieges during WWII. The documentation in the exhibit was quite sobering and depressing. So I’ll not talk much of it. But the recovery the city has made in 50 years I think is amazing.

We dined and had traditional food at lunch and dinner. Paying only £6 or $15 for a meal and drink at decent restaurants. Dinner we even had dessert too.

On Sunday we comfortably enjoyed a promenade down Andrassy avenue to Heroes Square. Wandered the small castle there and saw the outside of the Spa/Baths there too. All quite lovely. We didn’t go to any spas although Budapest is reknown for them and medicinal thermal baths at that too. We also rode on Europe’s oldest metro line which had disney like tunes when annoucing the stations. There wasn’t much open so we were just enjoying Peste and a bit of Buda. Quite an enjoyable weekend. We lunched at a very funky restaurant that was again very cheap.

So Budapest was very interesting and pleasant to visit.

Last and this week I have been working about 10 miles outside Oxford and have been able to enjoy 2 hour commutes (each way) through the Cotswald hills. It is a very picturesque drive that I quite enjoy, except that the days are very long due to the commute.

This weekend I’m off to Gothenburg, Sweden for a Salsa weekend. I have finally been dancing this week in Brum. Met some lovely people and enjoying getting back into dancing after over a months break.

Glad to hear all your news. To all the families expecting babies in the next month – I hope that it all goes well – I’m sorry I haven’t written a personalised message yet.
Thanks again for reading (if you made it this far).

Oh the weather is still cool but manageable – I’m quite used to it! Budapest wasn’t as cold as expected but still ice and snow around the place. Not much in England.