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