Notting Hill Carnival

Reading Music Festival...

On Friday Mark and I skipped work and went to Reading for the annual music festival (think Big Day Out - but add an extra 2 days, camping plus 60,000 people).

We only got tickets for the Friday, which was good enough as Mark really wanted to see the Kaiser Chiefs and Franz Ferdinand. They were the top acts for that day so was perfect - they were really good, I wasn't a huge fan myself before but they were awesome live so I will definitely listen to them more now.

The pictures are of Panic! at the Disco, Mark and I with our cider, the stage in the evening, Mark and I again, Kaiser Chiefs and Franz Ferdinand.






















You can see more about the Friday at the Reading Festival by visiting the following link -http://www.soundgenerator.com/sound/news/showarticle.cfm?articleid=8213#

The Tube Around London - My Pros & Cons!!

Well to be perfectly honest there is no way I would ever complain about the tube. It is most ridiculously frequent, even on the weekends its about 7-8 minutes, which is longish when they come every 1-2 min during the week.

You are warned well in advance of any "planned engineering works". Then you are given up to the minute information whilst you are on it, and even if someone commits suicide under a train they announce that too - obviously they don't want to have the public blame them for delays so that is what they say... So really on that what bus in Adelaide do you ever know when its going to be late or not come ....hummm none. Plus the tube covers all of London and the staff are always helpful, especially if you are lost - I never am, much, hummm. Nah really it’s all good!

Oh and the other thing I love about the tube is the "stand to the right" rule. This is obeyed by all, local, tourist, young, old, tall, short - you just do it, and be prepared for the blasting if you don't!!! This law is more obeyed then any government, traffic, rule or regulation ever - lets put it this way you'd have better luck cheating at monopoly or having a mobile phone on on a plane then beating this rule!!

On the down side - yes still a bit of a downside. It's quite hot in summer and its a bit less hot in winter (though I think this counts as a plus then). It's expensive to travel on, some of the tube lines are quite noisy (think am getting deafer for sure taking the Central line – my goodness the rattling on some of the straight stretches!!) and you get tube dust up your nose (i.e. black snot). That also comes from the fact that most cars run on diesel, so the extra carbon in the air also gives rise to black snot. However, diesel is better than carbon dioxide - i guess.

Anyway the annoying things about the tube....Usually its the people who are annoying, like the chic who dives from half way down the carriage to take the seat of the person you were standing in front of (thus that seat is really rightfully yours if that person gets up), only because you have to move out of the way to let them off. So giving her the perfect opportunity to take the seat (ugh). Then there is the people who have their headphones on really loud, worse still those who don't bother with the head phones at all and allow the entire carriage to be entertained by hip hop rap crap or whatever annoying music - and let me tell you they never play it softly either.

There is more – the people who;
- sit down for one stop when its busy
- let the children take up seats during school holidays - they travel for free, so they should stand - attempt to read the paper when the carriage is completely full and you're all practically bursting out the door.
- have incredibly odorous bodies
- do not move further inside the carriage when its peak hour and you have to kamikaze your way in the door, then they have the cheek to give you a dirty look for shoving them (thought the dirty look doesn't ever come from daily commuter’s, just tourists - who quite honestly should not be on the tube at those times).
- Insist on diving into a fully loading train when another one is due in 1 minute!!! Really.

Oh, I am so bad, the day after writing this I broke two of these rules – one I sat down for a stop, the carriage had two other people on it, so I don’t think this counts.

Then two, I dived into a “sardine can” carriage for one stop. I had to, I was late for work and had already missed my stop at London Bridge (I was reading, listening to music, and the train was too busy to see out the window). The trains were having “minor” delays (read trains will have little delays all day long) so people were piling in just to avoid the long waits for trains. It was as bad as I have ever seen, and I was the only person at the Bermondsy station to get on the train, as I just went up and said "alright you lot move it I am only going one stop, let me on". There were a few groans, but I got on - yippee for me!

Mark nearly gets to be a “sardine” everyday on his train, but he waits 3 minutes for the next "non-sardine train" to arrive. It must be pretty bad though for him because he actually emailed National Rail and Thameslink trains to complain – he has to be pretty bothered for that to happen. They came back with a brilliant long email as to why it was so - seems they just don't have enough carriages. This apprently stems from the fact that they lease the trains and there are no more available for them to lease!!

More Oliver....

Just got a few more pictures of my adorable nephew Oliver... such a cutie! He is one month old already; he eats lots - has gained 1kg, and his puppy dog "sisters" love him too:-)

Greece Pictures....

These are just some of our pictures from Athens and Santorini, I have so much trouble uploading pics to this site so the majority are in our flickr website - http://www.flickr.com/photos/80363963@N00/ - this link should take you straight there. Enjoy.

Sunny Santorini...

When I started this we were sitting in Santorini waiting for a taxi to take us to the old town of Ia (Oia) for a beautiful mediteranean dinner, so we could watch the sunset over the water. Bliss.

We had a lovely week just lazing by the pool, sunbathing, and drinking cocktails at our most gorgeous villa. It even has two pools and a health spa. Definitely worth the extra money. Brad and Tuti arrived late on the Monday afternoon, after which we had already spent 5 hours working on our tans. It was great catching up with them.

On the second afternoon we got our quad bikes and zoomed into town (not really - i was too chicken to let Mark go fast). That however changed and it became me going, "christ does this thing go any faster" all of course whilst driving around crazy hilly hairpin bends, while I was digging in my handbag for my camera to take scenic pictures!!! So I guess they just took a bit to get used to.

It was so nice just to relax in Santorini. I am not good at that and generally neither is Mark, not that we got bored at all, gee I mean we didn't even sleep in!! We were out and about by 9am everyday.

Firstly we drove to the other end of the island to visit the much touted Red beach, which I must say is lovely but requires hiking shoes to get to. But when we got there it was an organised beach with sunbeds and umbrellas - so important and a god send on pebble beaches. It was very small though and we only stayed a little while before we hooned off on our "pigs" (the local name for quad bikes) to Perissa beach about 15 minutes further up the coast.

At Perissa we were meant to be having lunch, mind you it was about 3-4pm, so when one of the restaurants offered us a Greek meal, plus free sunbeds we were sold. Food was good but sunbeds were ordinary and the beach, where we were, was quite boring even if the water was lovely. I only went for one swim, as swim which was cut short by the "killer 10cm fish" (quoting Mark) that I could see in the crystal clear water - ugh I just hate things in the water. Pools rule.

I think Brad and Tut both fell asleep there. On the way out we drove the length of the beach, well nearly it went of for miles and it was much more of a party atmosphere further up - some bars were brilliant, full of lots of comfy looking couches and all.

Our volcano trip was next, on the Thursday I think, though I kinda lost track of the days (isn't that what a good holiday is all about). Our little fishing boat, too touristy really, left from the Old Port. To get to the Old Port you either had to walk down the most rediculously steep windy stairs - covered in donkey poo or you could take the donkey (still able to smell donkey poo), but better yet the cable car. Yep we took the cable car - I didn't fancy holding my breath all that way!!

The Volcano was interesting, lots of walking along lots of very hot black rocks in extreme heat to see, hummm a big hole in the ground that we were told was the still active Georgiou volcano - he is expected to go off around 2025. Maybe we avoid investing in Santorini property then...despite the tempting urge to have a summer house there.

The trip encompased a further boat ride to some hot springs on the next wee little island. We thought we'd get there, walk for a bit and find a nice little bubbling pool of warm water. No such luck, the springs were right off the sea and you had to get off the boat, swim 50m and then you reach the sulphur pool. The extra catch was the little minor detail of having to swim through, oh you know harmless stingy jellyfish. Thus I decided the hot springs were not for me. Mark, Tuti and Brad went and all decided on there return - sprint return for Tuti after finding the jellyfish had multiplied in their short absence - that one the 'hot spring' water was barely warm and two that swimming while trying to avoid the jellyfish sucked.

Mark got a sting - just a baby one on his face - but he was lucky, some people had pretty nasty ones. We were told they were harmless but they had a special cream to stop the stinging. Ugh, very glad I skipped that one.

On the way back Tuti took her much wanted donkey ride back up to the town, they are pretty good and know the way and she actually beat us and we took the cable car.

Santorini is all about sunsets and beaches. It has the best I have seen. The beaches may not have been sandy, but let me tell you pebbles are much easier to deal with. They do not get into everything, including your bathers and stay in everything for days after you have been to the beach. I can also now see how they say Australia has a mediterranean climate, as all over Santorini were gum trees - lots of lovely olive coloured eucalyptus trees. It reminded me a lot of when I visited Moomba back home.

Our next beach was our most favourite it was Kamari beach which is a black pebble beach. The plan was to get there have breakfast on the beach, chill for a few hours on the sunbeds and be back in Thira for lunch. Well it was just too nice and we stayed all day. I had a massage - so nice (cheap too) and a yummy peach (weird I know but the fruit sellers by the beach had the nicest fruit).

We took two trips to the old town of Oia, first for dinner at 1800 (apparently the best restaurant on the island) and second we had a more casual dinner at a little restuarant practically jutting right out over the ocean. The people who flock there and to the rocks nearby to watch the sunset is just amazing. Some people had been there for hours vying for the best vantage spot. It really is the most beautiful sunset and it is the same every evening - lots of pinks and purples just gorgeous. Oia itself is so cute, quaint and white, with lots of windy streets all very precariously placed on the edge of the cliff.

Now sunsets were one thing but the moon setting was just awesome. One night after dinner, it was after midnight and we were having a few drinks before bed and we noticed the moon setting. It was high and yellow, then it gradually turned orange, then a bright blood red before it plunged into the ocean. I have never seen it like that and it was just incredible.

We propellored (no jet plane on that flight) out of Santorini on Sunday afternoon, after a bit of final tourist shopping and postcard writing. We were worried that we'd be tired since we were going to be arriving back in London at 9pm, but we were quite relaxed. So I must say I think I enjoyed having a real holiday and could well do with a few more of those.

Ps a final note, flying in over London at dusk, with the lights just starting to come on was also a most impressive sight; as being able to recognise Tower Bridge and the London eye and seeing them at their prettiest from the plane was really quite cool.

Athens

Our first trip to Greece, so another tick on the must go to places around the world. Many more to go we assure you. :-)

First stop we arrive in Athens on a warm summer evening, which was quite strange anyway as usually we have morning flights and its rush rush from about 5am to make an 8 or 9am flight. So it was a cruisy day, get up late, pack, leave to airport just after 1pm - no rush, very casual even with time for food and drinks in the bar before our flight. Since it was 10pm we headed straight to our hotel, via taxi as the trains - conveniently were not running, and rested up for the next days exploration of Athens....

A day and certainly no more than two is ample to explore Athens (see Map below) and I have attempted to show where we went on the map. Its not very clear so I may well elaborate, so you don't have to guess LOL.

The Acropolis was the first thing we wanted to visit and we were in easy walking distance to it from our hotel. In fact we saw it all lit up the night before as pointed out to us by our taxi driver. Though I wasn't paying too much attention as I was worried he was trying to rip us off at the time!!! (he wasn't as it turned out - thank goodness)

It was a very steep walk to get up there, hot and windy with the incessant chirping of cicadas in the olive trees. We were trying to figure out how the people sitting in the cafes nearby could stand the noise. It was quite a saga to get in, with about a million cruise ship tourists and the ticket booth was no where near the actual entrance. We lined up 3 times really - once for tickets, then again after we were told you had to check your bags, again elsewhere, and finally to get in the gate (i also misplaced one of the tickets and had an arguement with the women on the door to get in too - hehe!!!)

It was pretty impressive, seeing such old and magnificent structures still standing after all these years and still today they are doing a lot of work to bring them back to their former glory. The most impressive bit for me was the Erechtheion which was build in 421-406BC and the porch with the draped maidens (now copies of what was originally there).

There is a good view from there across to Mt Lykavitos where there is a small church (apparently the view from there is even better than from the Acropolis), down to Hadrian's Arch and to the Temple of Olympiad Zeus. Both of those we walked down to later on, after visiting the old Olympic stadium that they used in 1896 (its very small). On the way back down we could see the Stoa of Attalus, part of ancient Agora, which was a shopping arcade back in 159-138BC and the Hephaisteion - the best preserved Greek temple in the world.

After a delicious lunch in a little backstreet taverna we began to wander through the little market district as we headed towards the National Gardens. It was such a relief to sit down there as it was so warm wandering around.

On the way there we also passed the Parliament buildings, which would have been completely uninteresting if it were not for the hilarious Greek guards dressed in their cute little outfits (see pic). It was so hot they were swaying with the heat.

We later wandered around the Plaka district - an area of old blending with new - firstly just to walk the pleasant narrow streets and then later to explore the markets (lots of "tourist tat") whilst killing time before dinner. We still ended up eating way before Greek dinner time (usually 10pm and later), so we ate alone in a largish taverna, as we had to get up at 5am to catch a 7:30am ferry from the Piraeus port just outside of Athens.

We enjoyed it though and if we go again we'd probably visit the little islands off of Athens which I have been told are quite interesting with fishing villages and the like.

London Beach....

No you are not looking at a photo of some exotic location - this beach is smack bang in the middle of London, right near Brick lane in fact.

We found it one day when searching for the Spitalfields markets that are near Liverpool street. Somebody dumped a load of lovely white sand from the Caribbean onto what looks like a car park, stuck up a few umbrellas, plonked in a bar and hey presto - beach!!

The other pictures are of Spitafields, the church, which is quite original and a cute brick a brack shop.