Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Stop Press! Celebrity Spotting! Again.....oh yes!

I mentioned to Mark that I had been blogging about his keen eye for celebrity spotting and he was much put out that I had not blogged about his spying Sarah Harding.

Well it seems Farringdon is the place to be, though it does have some pretty tasty restaurants... and in the case of Sarah Harding, maybe she was at Karaoke Box! She is after all one of Girls Aloud and they have to let her practice sometimes.

It seems again, at lunch Mark spied a lovely young lass, tall, blonde (blah...) with her friend standing by a black fancy car with a little dog in tow. He thought it was her, and realised as he walked past her that it was indeed her. That was Marks, almost could touch experience of Sarah Harding...hardy har...

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Lack of Photos....

Equals lack of Photoshop...its in the post apparently....it will get here soon. I hope.

Stop Press! Celebrity Spotting! Again

It's never me who spots them, because I walk in a daze, I find it rude to stare, briefly glance or even smile in public - weird I know. Though this time I was in MAC dealing with uppity sales assistants who would not serve me because I was in a queue at the counter (obvious place to wait for help I would have thought) and not randomly looking totally dejected, lost so to await their so called "one on one personalised service"...don't get me started...

But anyway, Mark was waiting outside of said shop (definitely better service out there) and Heather Mills walked past him. He only realised today, after reading some article about her eco-friendly restaurant (yah right - its going to have an ice rink and they don't serve meat - apparently both make it eco friendly...humm) in Brighton. We were in Brighton and she went past him in a very exotic brightly coloured jacket - he thought he was mistaken, but it was definitely her.

My left eye has been twitching a lot lately, its supposed to mean good luck, maybe I will spot a celeb soon then.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Is it all too much?

Am i trying to do much with my life? This year alone, I am getting a little stressed out over the things I want to achieve before the days become dark, cold and the fairy lights, sparkle, shopping and festivities of Christmas begins once again. Stressed somedays to the point of tears...humph.

Ahhrrr..just before you read further...this blog was meant to be published last week, but alas had no time. Uncanny! Freaky! Ironic! - right words not sure, but you get my drift.

Its May already, the second end of it too. I have been skiing in France, I have been to Hull, to Derbyshire, to two hens parties, the Churchill Museum and War Rooms, the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition, the London Marathon (not participating), Copenhagen and within the next 3 weeks we have plans to go to Brighton, Vienna & Salzburg. But sadly, to me, it doesn't feel like enough. Last Saturday I wanted to go to Eltham Palace out past Greenwich but I slept till midday (stress does catch up with me occasionally and all i can do is sleep) and it takes nearly 2 hours to get there, so I was disappointed that we had only a lovely day at the Borough Markets instead.

Just an example of a week in the life of Lisa, and you let me know if you think I am doing too much and are stupid to feel that I am lazy and boring if I have a night in, or if I go to bed before 11pm.

Last Sunday - BBQ with Friends to watch the Arsenal vs Chelsea football game

Monday - Doctors appointment, Pilates class then had dinner at home with Mark and catch up on Goks Fashion fix

Tuesday - had drinks with Julie and then off to see "Priscilla Queen of the Desert" Musical

Wednesday - had a Spanish lesson at lunch and then a catch up with the girlys at the Directors bar on Southbank

Thursday - went for a run, then to the gym with Mark

Friday - had friends over to dinner, Mark cooked Risotto (Prawns, Chorizo and Asparagus) and I made poached pears in cider with Chantilly cream!!

Saturday - went to Brighton for the day with friends to see the band Kasabian in the evening

Sunday - sleep in and then late afternoon birthday lunch for lovely Sophie

And that is aside from all the boring must do stuff, like wash dishes, clothes, tidy the flat, clean the shower, sort the mail, blah blah....

It seems to me in my warped brain that I am not doing enough, what else should I be doing - am I not reading enough, blogging enough, uploading enough photos, studying enough (my photograhy books), taking enough photos, should I take up French/Dancing/skating again, going to the gym enough, running enough, spending enough time with friends, seeing enough shows/bands, getting out in London, walking around the parks enough, trying enough restaurants, or the biggie...travelling enough - after all that is why I am here. Enough, enough, enough...enough of that that word already.

At the moment I am trying to work out how I am going to get to travel to Italy this year, then Berlin and Sweden, oh and chuck Budapest in there too. I have said no to going to Paris with a friend in July, because we just cannot afford it. Mark and I have trips lined up right through the end of September, including going to Ireland and Cornwall with Dad.

We are also still trying to work out how to have a summer holiday of about 5 days in either Greece or Croatia, around June/July without it costing the Earth; as I am still paying off Mars. Oh and I am desperate to get to Egypt before I return to Australia, and if I had to choose only one holiday this year....that would be the absolute must do.

To some this may seem very self indulgent and hedonistic already, boardering on the extreme, but I still consider that at the moment I am still living the fantasy that is life in London. I am still on a massive holiday. A holiday that may end with a reality like bump in Feb 2009, but a nice bump, I hope. After all I will be back with my dear family and friends, who by then would have been mildly negleted, as how I see it, by me, for about 4 years.

In general for me this is a topic that I can go on about forever, its my bug bear, my inner demon, my main challenge. I never really know if how I feel is how other people feel, or if they do but then priorities change and they forget they wanted to be super people and do everything, or if they ever felt like that in the first place.

I don't know; I just know that I am getting to figure out more each day the things I cannot do, the things I cannot have, and wanting to do them and have them more then I ever did before. They say you only live once, so go for it and live life to the full, but sometimes it would be nice to believe, as Buddhist do, that you live hundreds of lifetimes over. Then the stress of trying to do everything in one lifetime would certainly disappear.

Saturday, May 09, 2009

Kobenhavn - BBQ with Princess Mary

Just kidding, apparently she was out, so no BBQ or even an invite to afternoon tea for this bank holiday to Copenhagen. Finally we managed to arrange a holiday around a bank holiday long weekend.

We left London and a strangely not very busy Heathrow on Friday night and after a very short 1 ½ flight landed in Cophenhagen just as the sun was setting. It was lovely a bright red sunset just like home in Adelaide . Getting to the city was easy very simple and quick transport links helped too. Our hotel was right near the Opera house and the canals, so we quickly got settled into Hotel City Best Western and rugged up for a walk around, was a bit chilly being surrounded by canals and being close to the coast.

We didn’t see much at first but quickly found Nyhavn, which is a very picturesque restaurant and bar street right on the canal with lots of boats, very Amsterdam like. After a drink of yummy cider – Somersby, which is Carlsbergs branded cider – it was back off to rest up and plan for long weekends adventures.

Saturday morning we were in for breakfast at 9am, and it was delicious - more than delicious probably the best travel breakfast ever. Tasty tea/coffee, melt in your mouth Danish pastries (or Viennese pastries as they are called there), fresh fruit and yoghurt, tasty bread, ham and cheese, as well as bacon and eggs – oh and chocolate melted coated cornflakes. Yum.

We filled up and headed for the train station walking past the Copenhagen Opera house and right up the Stroget, which is the longest shopping strip in Europe (and very boring after the 10th time...not to mention depressing as the shops Sand and Malene Birger looked so very tempting) so we could head to Helsingnor (pronounced Elsinor). Its right on the coastal strip and very near Sweden, you can take the ferry there to Helsingbord, its only 2km away, we contemplated going, but were advised it was much of the same. Thinking back, not sure we could have as I am sure we would have needed our passports – which we didn’t have with us.

It was bright and sunny so we headed to Krongborg Castle - built by King Fredrick II in 1574. Its also known as Hamlets Castle, as what it is known as the original movie of Hamlet was filmed there and its also where the original stories of Hamlet came from, before Shakespeare time. Its a UNESCO world heritage site so its well preserved. We took a tour around the casemates and fortifications, very cold and damp and all under the castle quite deep too before taking another tour around the queens apartments, the ballroom was my favourite its 60 meters long.

Tours are quite good especially when you cannot read much in the way of the signs. Though my Danish has now improved – hahha – I can say a few words and will add those few words to my few that I can say for other languages too! Though my strong point is definitely the French and obviously the English, but they all spoke English well there so we were ok on communicating.

After wandering back into the town we found the town square and then a nice little place for lunch where we had local beer (me) and cider along with traditional fare of cold roast beef and pork with rye bread and coleslaw. All that walking had tired us out – are we getting too old for this – so we napped on the train back to Cophenhagen to get us ready for our late afternoon evening out.

A quick change back at the hotel then we headed to the Tivoli Gardens , which is a beautiful gardens with Theme Park built in that has existed since the 1800’s. It was just stunning lots of fairy lights, elaborate buildings (including a mini Taj Mahal), flowers, trees, ponds, lakes, open air theatres, bandstands, 40 odd restaurants and lots of ride for big and small kids – thus Mark was quite eager to get on the super speedy roller coaster! Its also very good for the environment with a big windmill that generates all the power for the rides and a cup deposit scheme.

We wandered around, me in photo heaven and Mark sussing out where to eat. We eventually chose a place that did ribs and steak, so had one of each to share. Again yum. I could not find fault with the food there, nothing was bad – not even the hotdogs they sell in stalls everywhere in Copenhagen (of which Mark had 3 on the last day). After dinner I did a few night shots (photos) and after listening to a proper band playing all the songs from Sound of Music (still cannot get them out of my head – but that’s ok will be in Salzburg in 3 weeks!) we plunged in and went on a ride – the sky flyer. Well its basically a chair lift that goes way up above the park, one of my favourite rides from growing up – but its high, it was night time (so pretty), but so so cold!! That was enough and after establishing that they no longer did fireworks (they used to every evening) we got ourselves a body warming coffee and headed back to our hotel.

Next morning back to the train station (on our 24 hour ticket, that was care of the helpful lady the day before this allowed us to get a cheap ticket, so we could travel to Helsingnor return and to Roskilde on the Sunday quite cheaply) we headed to Roskilde which is quite well known for the music festival it holds each year. It also has a very lovely church - Roskilde Domkirke - which is resting place of many of the Fredriks and Christians of Denmark along with their wives.

We firstly wandered past a sea of children and parents setting up stalls throughout the town for a mass toy jumble sale, before we made our way to the harbour for the Viking museum. This was actually really interesting and mostly for the fact that they re-created (almost painstakingly the same way) one of the boats they salvaged and actually sailed it between Copenhagen and Dublin . We did a little sailing trip, where we had to row like the vikings would have (hard work!!) and our captains both did the Dublin boat trip and said it was very hard work – and oh so cold. I can only imagine!

After yet more cider and traditional food sitting in the sunshine we returned to Cophenhagen. After more wandering and a drink we had every intention of going out for an early dinner, but we both fell asleep, woke up all grumpy, trekked across town to find a restaurant that no longer existed (in the RAIN!) and ended up just having a quiet drink - at a bar called Obeliks -before taking a taxi back to the hotel. Sigh....

Monday we packed up early, stuffed ourselves full of food and wandered to Christianstown to attempt to go to the Vor Freslers Kirke. At the church there is a gold spiral staircase on the outside of the steeple that you can walk up. Unfortunately despite the sign saying, that it was open (it only had re-opened after being closed for 3 years) on the Sunday, it was not open for us on the Monday – pooh. Oh well we consoled ourselves with coffee and more yummy pastries before taking a walk around the town.

We made our way through the centre to walk through the Kings gardens, where Rosenburg Castle is - it houses the crown jewels - then over past the Amelienborg to the Castellets (a 17th century fortification) where we walked around across the top. It was beautiful and sunny too. Then we returned for the changing of the guards at Amelienborg, which was good a there was a band because someone Royal was at home. Not Freddy and Mary though – they were out as their flag was down.

After that we had hotdogs, the first of 3 for Mark went to the *snore* Danish Design museum (which was rubbish – basically an exhibition about not using light bulbs!!). I was very disappointed as I expected so much more as there design is second to none really, well maybe Sweden. Then Mark had hotdog number 2 before we hit the shops for the rest of the afternoon.

I found one store that I really liked and the Illum department store and homewear shop was very cool – much of what I actually hoped to see at the Danish Design center really, shame my house to furnish is too far away in Australia. Finally we had time for a drink back at Nyhavn before making our way back to the airport for our flight back to London . On Monday I actually felt like I had been away ages, so I guess it was a trip worthwhile, not too stressful and we still did quite a bit too.

Oh pictures will come when my lovely brother in law provides me with Photoshop...so stay tuned...this blog will get more interesting once I add pics!!

Stop Press! Celebrity Spotting!

Prince Charles & Camilla drove past Mark and his friend Matt while they were on their way to lunch. Mark didn’t see him as he thought the 2nd car in the convoy had the important people in it!!! Matt did though.

So where are you really from?

I have had several conversations with various peoples and adding to those conversations vague hazy memories of distant discussions, as well as just general observations of friends and colleagues, so it would seem, that everyone just wants to be an AUSSIE, and they don't want to be English. Lucky us.

Ok there maybe exceptions, but most of us are very proud of the fact that we are Australian. How could not not want to come from a place where the sun practically shines all year round? *sigh*

So some examples and proof.....One colleague pointed out that when he was in Australia, no matter where a person was from either born or via parentage (or grand parentage) they all went "yeah, but I am Australian". It didn't matter where they were from Malta, Spain, Pakistan, Italy or Greece - they were Aussies as far as they were concerned.

Where as what I have discovered here is that in London especially, if your not from here (irrelevant of holding a passport or having been born here) are Jamaican, Pakistani, Nigerian, Polish, Indian, Swedish or whatever - you are not English. In the sense of not wanting to be, at all. No respect for the country that brings such amazing freedoms and or a lifestyle that you may not have otherwise had from where you came.

This I discovered about one of my work colleagues after I thought he meant England had beaten Australia (Australia lost appallingly, a whole other story there....Australian sport has gone down hill since the disappointment at the Olympics) when he went "haha you guys suck we beat you". I went "oh well its the cricket, sometimes England beats us", he said nothing. Then as it happened to be St Georges Day (patron Saint of England) I asked him "well you seem to be pretty patriotic over the cricket, so what day is it today?".

He didn't have a clue - he thought it must have been St Patricks day. We all had a giggle, and said he wasn't very English not knowing St Georges day. Blank faced, he responded "oh no I am not English, I am Pakistani" and then we all clicked that it was Pakistan not England who beat Australia. So despite having been born here, raised here, schooled here, never having been to Pakistan and having obviously and English passport, this boy was very reluctant to claim being English.

Its a bit sad for England *insert me trying to sound British here* really, as they are quite good at letting lots of people in (though making it hard for us Antipodeans who run the place...well everywhere I have ever worked anyway), refugees, all of the EU and making themselves known as very much a multicultural society, the people they provide for shun the thought of being English.

I personally am a little guilty of this, because as much as I love it here and as much as I want all the perks of being English (though this isn't entirely true, as I would be quite happy to be allowed to live and work anywhere in the EU, especially France) so I can both work and travel. At the end of the day - well I am Australian, and no amount of time here is going to change that.

So I guess, from personal experience I contribute to the "not wanting to be English phenomenon", and well why would you want to be....you only get sunshine for, oh about 2 days of the year...