Pics from life in Europe

Pics from my time in France and the UK

Normandy, dancing with the Lion King cast, ice-skating,catching up with a friend for the first time in 10 years and helping in a soup kitchen

Good afternoon everyone

Well, sorry its been a few weeks since I last updated my blog, I wanted to at least have something interesting to write about as I know many of you wait with baited breath for my next blog entry.

Since, I last wrote I have just finished my first day of work.. well thankfully, Im still here and they are still paying me..well I think they are anyway as I havent actually been paid yet!

Life in my house is going well, I have settled in and managed to know how to find my way around the picturesque town of Willeseden Green. The housemates are going well, though I still havent actually met one of them as she is still away on holidays. On my first w/end there, I checked out the local clothes warehouse for some cheap shirts as I dont think my fellow employees would appreciate me coming to work with the same shirt for 3 days in a row! As Im still surviving off Aussie dollars, I had to be very picky in my shirt collection and who says that 4 quid shirts arent top-notch! Im sure my light green shirt with pink stripes shirt will be fashionable one day.. it has to be! As the weather has already starting turning nasty, I also got myself some winter clothes.. btw they have no idea of what a singlet is in this country.. I got a blank stare from the employee.. apparently they're vests! Which I dont get, but when in Rome do as the Romans- so vest it is!

On the Saturday night, I experienced more of London's nightlife thanks to Marie's b'day! It was a fun night, that ended up in Old Street and it all got a bit much for me as I went to sleep on the couches inside the bar..

On Sunday evening, I was invited by Julia and Bel (thks guys) to go Salsa dancing with the cast of the Lion King in a cool bar in downtown London.. Dancing with the Lion King dancers is like going for a swim with Ian Thorpe..good luck trying to keep up! The cast were really cool, and one of them even taught me how to Salsa.. I did alright but I dont think I will get a call from the management of Lion King offering me a dance role.. they all had too much rhythm for my liking, I felt very uncordinated! I should have popped out the ATM move.. now that would have impressed them!

The following week of work, I joined the gym as I think Ive already starting to get the 'injection', yes Ive noticed that I have put on 0.5 kilo since Ive been here.. that may sound nothing but I havent put that much on since I was 8! With this in mind, I have tackled the gym and pool to work it off... The rest of the week, I have been settling in with my new role, at least now I know exactly what is expected of me and Im starting to get my head around it.

That weekend, I once again experienced the local London nightlife to a bar that was more like the kind of bars that I expected to see in London..
On Saturday evening, I had my first ever dinner party at my new pad! (Thank you Bel and Julia) We even ventured out to experience the local nightlife in Willesdeen Green.. lets just say there were too many random people for my liking.. think I might stick to the city!

(Keep going this does get better... go and get a cup of coffee to wake you up cause the second half is really interesting)

On Sunday, I ventured to Bracknell to visit Casey who is working as a Nanny for a woman that unfortunately has MS. I met her and her husband and they were good value, a typical English family.. he was a massive football fan, which was shown by his tattoo on his arm.. Then Case and I went ice-skating, which was the first time that Ive been..

Its something that Ive wanted to do for a while, but never got my act together to actually do anything about it.. well, at the start I could barely walk on the ground with my blades on and once I made the trip on the ice the pole was my best friend for the first hour... worse thing was, there were 6 yr old girls doing these tricks and making it look really easy!! Bloody kids!! I once again felt very uncordinated.. but thanks to the wonderful advice from Case to imagine in your head that you are doing it and it will come.. as weird as that sounds it worked!! I pretended I was that Aussie guy who fell over (cant remember his name) and managed to get out on the ice by myself and made a few laps around ... also shows you that anything new you try and do is 90% mental -hence why kids can pick things up so quickly!

This ended a great day and has given me the inspiration to go back again.. Im in training mode for when I go to NY and ice-skate on Central Park.. just like in the movies!

The following week, I made some calls and found out about a charity that feeds homeless people on Thursday evenings in North London. I thought I would give it a go as I have done something similar in Melbourne.. Well, I made the trek to Stoke-Newington from work and with my suit on to have my first day with North London homeless. I was met by the organiser of the charity, who was one of those ‘unsung’ heroes that does all this great work with what I can imagine very little recognition. I was one of the first volunteers there and was met by the chef (Canadian) and a crazy Scot, who by the looks of it have been doing it for years. I started helping out, with desserts and cleaning the dishes. To give you a background to the work, every Thursday evening they feed about 60 homeless people from the area with a 3 course feed (which is all vegetarian) and they come in from 7-8.30pm throughout the evening. As it got closer to 7 more and more volunteers turned up and in the end we had about 12 of us who assisted in serving and giving out the food and cleaning up the dishes. I was teamed up with a more experienced volunteer there and she helped me understand the system. It was a great experience to see the ‘other’ side of London and also I met some great young people and Im looking forward to making it a permanent Thursday evening affair. The only drawback is getting home, as I had to take 1 bus and 3 trains.. not very nice but it was all worth it as I've forgotten how much I miss doing work like this!

After this experience it was time to welcome the long weekend… it is the last long weekend in London for the remainder of the year so I was keen to do something and get out for a while. So I found a tour that went to Normandy in Northern France to get a better understanding of D-Day and WWII. We left London on Friday evening and boarded the bus to Portsmouth where we caught the ferry to Le Havre, which was an 7 hour overnight ferry.. very exhausting as it was hard to sleep with all kids crying, and fathers snoring.. We eventually landed in France.. YAY!! I have been wanting to go to France for a long time, so I was rapt to finally step foot in their country. Our first step was Bayeux, which is among other things famous for the Tapestry museum which depicts the Battle of Hastings b/n William the Conqueror and King Edward. I knew very little of this battle so it was most interesting to get a better understanding. We then left to visit the American cemetery which has over 10 000 WW2 graves and nearby Omaha beach. We then moved along the coast and visited Arromanches-les-Bains, where you see the remains of the Mulberry Harbour built for the D Day landings. An amazing piece of engineering that was pioneered by Sir Winston Churchill.. who made the famous speech ‘ we will fight them on the beaches’. Only half of what was built in the UK actually made it across to France and the Germans weren’t as surprised as the Allies had been hoping.. hence the large losses of life.
On Sunday we went from Normandy to Brittany and made our way to St Malo, a walled city.. before we made it to Mont Saint Michel. The Mont is surrounded by sea with a tidal range of 15 metres. At low tide you can walk the one km to the Mont. We then headed back to Caen to have our final night in France.
Our final day we headed to Rouen, it is here that Joan of Arc was burnt at the stake. Our last stop will be in Honfluer a picturesque fishing port famous for its seafood restaurants. We then departed to head back to our ferry back to Portsmouth and London. Unfortunately, the ferry was late leaving so I didn’t get home until 2.30 in the morning…

It was very enjoyable weekend away with a terrific group who all lived in London so it was a great opportunity to meet some new people. I definitely recommend it to anyone as its very educational and extremely scenic. ( I even got to practise my 2 years of learning French at school.. although it showed me that I really should have paid more attention in class... I think they had trouble with my accent)

The last notable chapter in my life here in London to date, was when I met up with my Ulla Mahaka on Wed night.. this may not sound very remarkable but Ive known Ulla for 10 years but never met her.. how does this happen? Well, when I was 16 I went on my mates computer into a chat room and she was on and with her stories she started my fascination in Africa (as she was from Zimbabwe). Over the years, she has moved from Africa to Europe and had a child and eventually moved to London and we have always kept in contact via email on a regular basis. Then on Wed night, we caught up face-to-face for the first time.. very strange, to keep in regular contact with someone you consider a friend for such a long time but have never met. Well, the catch-up went really well (I think we were both a little nervous as its been 10 years). It was great to finally have a conversation in person and not over email. She has had a remarkable journey over the last 10 years and Im sure we will catchup in the near future.

Well, that is at the end of my catch-up on life in London. I have some exciting times ahead with visits to Norway, Poland, Ireland etc.. (I hope they pay me soon!)

I hope everyone is well and enjoying the start of Spring in Melbourne, unfortunately our summer has come to an end.

Post a comment and stay in touch.

Au revoir

Cheers
Troy

Some more pics from London

Its Saturday afternoon and miserable.. looks like we have enjoyed our summer!

I have moved into my new place.. here are some pics from our road trip to Oxford and my new pad with the Irish!!

Cheers everyone

Troy

Weeks 3 and 4

Good afternoon everyone

Well, today marks my first month anniversary in London.. Before I started this trip, I always said that I needed a month to find a job and a permanent place to live.

Well, today Thursday August 10th, exactly a month after I arrived I have started a new position with Transport for London (TFL) as a Project Manager. It is a 6-9 month contract depending how long they want me to assist with a project that is currently taking place within TFL. So thats one tick in the box, yesterday after a week of looking around different places I have found myself some accommodation. It is in Willsdeen Green (some of you might know it!), it is a quiet suburb that reminds me a little of Northcote.. its borderline zone 2, but in a very beautiful area. As most of you would know I love living out in the sticks anyway...

Im living with an Irish boy (23) , Irish chick (30ish) and a British chick (27) who I havent met yet as she is on holiday as she is a school teacher. I was very keen to move into a place where there are no Aussies etc.. not because I dont like Aussies- I love you guys!, more so I wanted something different than what sharing would be like back home. They all seem really nice, and I have a super room and the whole place is very 'homely'. Although the shower needs some work.. I think I woke up half the neighbourhood this morning when I was having a cold shower!

So in the space of 24 hours, I have moved in and started work... no wonder Im tired today!!!
Work wise, I was offered two positions within 24 hours after I wasnt given much of a sniff from anyone for 3 weeks.. it was a tough decision choosing one of the roles.. I ended up going for TFL due to the possibilities of future opportunities.

It is strange to be back into an office environment with a suit etc. after not being in work for 4 months.. although it doesnt take long to get back into the groove of it.
Well, what else has been happening since I last wrote....
The other weekend, I went to Oxford and some castle that Winston Churchill was born.. very cool.. Christina and Kate were going to Cardiff for Madonna's concert so I decided to tag along for the first part of their road trip. We had a wonderful time checking out Oxford, everyone does rave about Oxford and I can see why.. great little city. We also went to another neighbouring town, which Shakesphere was born! The three of us also decided to hit the nightlife of Oxford, and once again I dont think they were ready for my crazy dancemoves.. fun night!!
I have also seen my first musical, I checked out Footloose and loved it.. though the theatre was built for people that are 5ft nothing.. I had the flu and was going to go home to bed afterwards but after seeing that, the four of us decided we must go out dancing..
On Saturday night, I went to a traditional Swedish crayfish party.. we ate crayfish, sang Swedish songs and had shots of snaps.. gotta love the Swedes! It turned out to be a crazy affair..
On Sunday, we went to Fruitstock in Regents Park.. I expected people to be smoking peaches or something.. (Fruitstock... Woodstock) but no it was a free music festival.. I was off drinking and still feeling the effects of the night before. Heaps of fun, and as they say London is full of festivals during summer.. great time of year to be in this happening city..

As I was saying, I moved out of the hostel... yay!!!! Funny story, one of the French dudes I was sharing with asked me if I could make a compliant.. I asked why of course?? Apparently, the guy that was sitting below him decided to sleep naked and Mr.Frenchman (a muslim by the way) woke up at 5 and pray like he does.. and lets just say he got an eyeful and was not happy.. I was trying to not laugh when he was telling me this.. for the record the naked guy did move to another room..

So thats it, I have now finished my first day of work and have found a place to live.. as everyone attests to the first month in this city is tough!!! Especially with the new visa regulations, cost of living and trying to find a place thats not a dive.. Once you know how to make it work for you, its heaps easier..

I hope everyone is well, and stay in touch via a comment.. they keep me sane!

I will post some pics real soon!!

FYI I have cut my hair and Im slowing going as white as an Englishman!

Cheers
Troy

More London pics

London pics