New Camera

Its about time right!

I have spent months and months looking over cameras and humming and harring trying to decide which camera I liked best. It has now been something like 4 months since my camera broke and I am heading to Greece in less than two week so it was time to decide. So I decided on:

Olympus MJU Tough 8000 in Blue

Its the same brand as my last camera (that broke!) but I wanted something I knew how to use and that took good photos and I will be more careful when I take this one underwater. Whilst reading the manual it suggested that I get the seals changed every year so I will do this, this time. I have tested it underwater and all seems to be going alright.

Its 12 mega pixels and has a cool setting called beauty, whereby you take a picture and it will show you the before picture and then the enhanced picture - great for those drunken shots where you think you look fab and then realise that maybe you don't!

I like it so far but I doubt it will get much use when I get back to oz...

Edinburugh, Scotland

Edinburgh

I had a miniature stopover in Edinburgh in April before my Easter Scotland tour and thought it was so nice that I might go back. So this weekend I hoped in an overnight coach and headed on up.

I got to Edinburgh - Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, a position it has held since 1437 -around 8am on Saturday morning where I was greeted by a friend, Casey, who lives there that I meet on my Scotland tour. We had breakfast in an all American dinner before unloading my stuff back at hers and headed into town. We walked past The Elephant Cafe - which is the birthplace of Harry Potter. JK used to spent her days here writing Harry Potter looking out the back window looking at a fancy pants private school and Edinburugh Castle.

- Me outside the Elephant Cafe

The month of August was an excellent time to visit Edinburgh as the Fringe festival and Edinburgh Tattoo was in full swing. On Saturday we spent most of the day watching street performers, skits and walking down the high street. After my falling asleep during a skit we decided to walk back to hers (I love that you can walk everywhere there) and have a nap.

On Sunday I decided to do a free walking tour of the city. It was really good and because our guide was so enthused in the history it lasted four hours (it was only supposed to be there). It was really interesting and I learnt so much about the history of Edinburugh.

Look who I found in Blackfriars cemetry - there is also a McGonogal - nout sure about the other characters

Heart of Midlothian

The heart-shaped design of the cobble stones near St Giles Cathedral marks where the entrance to the Tolbooth used to be located. The Tolbooth was originally set up in 1561, as the name implies, to collect tolls but also became used as a prison after 1640. There was also a scaffold for hanging criminals (and others) and the heads of the more famous victims would be displayed on spikes in the face of the building. The Tolbooth was demolished in 1817.

Perhaps as a sign of disrespect to the town council, it became common for passsers-by to spit on the cobble stone design. While this is not encouraged these days, it is wise to give the emblem a wide berth when walking past - just in case!

After the tour I quickly rushed up to the castle for a look around. The castle is pretty much the same as a lot of other castles I have been to. It does hold the Scottish Crown Jewels and the Stone of Destiny ... woooooo

- Me with the castle in the background

The Stone of Destiny

Our tour guide had great fun telling us about the Stone of Destiny and because she was an excellent guide we got a reinactment of it all as well but basically - The Stone of Scone/Destiny is an oblong block of red sandstone. It was used for centuries in the coronation of the monarchs of Scotland, the monarchs of England, and, more recently, British monarchs.

In 1296 the Stone was captured by Edward I as spoils of war and taken to Westminster Abbey, where it was fitted into the coronation chair.

In 1328, in the peace talks between the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England, Edward III is said to have agreed to return the captured Stone to Scotland. However, this did not form part of the Treaty of Northampton. The Stone was to remain in England for another six centuries.

So …

On Christmas Day 1950, a group of four Scottish students stole the Stone from Westminster Abbey for return to Scotland. In the process of removing it from the Abbey, the students broke the stone into two pieces. Once the police realized the stone was stolen they launched a massive man/car hut so the boys hid the greater part of the stone with gypsies in Kent for a few days, they risked the road blocks on the border and returned to Scotland with this piece, which they had hidden in the back of a borrowed car.

The smaller piece was similarly brought north a little while later. This journey involved a break in Leeds, where a group of sympathetic students and graduates took the fragment to Ilkley Moor for an overnight stay, accompanied by renditions of "On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at." –

A major search for the stone had been ordered by the British Government, but this proved unsuccessful.
Perhaps assuming that the Church would not return it to England, the stone's custodians left it on the altar of Arbroath Abbey,. Once the London police were informed of its whereabouts, the Stone was returned to Westminster.

In 1996, in a symbolic response to growing dissatisfaction among Scots at the prevailing constitutional settlement, the British Conservative Government decided that the Stone should be kept in Scotland when not in use at coronations. On 3 July 1996 it was announced in the House of Commons that the Stone would be returned to Scotland, and on 15 November 1996, after a handover ceremony at the border between representatives of the Home Office and of the Scottish Office, it was transported to Edinburgh Castle arriving on 30 November 1996 where it remains.

After the castle I met Casey for some more street performer watching before heading home to rest my dreary feet (over 7 hours of walking/standing, phew, more exercise than I do in one week). That night we bundled up (its cold up there!) and headed into town for a ghost tour of the city (more walking) the tour was ok, there were two many of us to be scary, but it was an alright tour, not sure I would recommend it though.

See my ghost "orb"

My trip was over on Monday and I headed on back down to London.

It was a nice trip and glad I got back up to see Edinburgh again.


Toni

Long time no hear (and write)

Hello to all my loyal fans ... Louisa and Hayley (if there are any others please make your presence known and me feel better by leaving a nice message in my guest book).

I know it has been a long time since a real update but, I STILL don't have a camera. I know it has been ages and how can I possibly go without, but it has been a huge decision and now I have finally made my decision I am waiting for it (my selected colour) to come in stock (sad I know and no its not pink UNFORTUNATELY!).

So I just thought I would post a post to let you know my plans for the next month and a bit.

- this long weekend heading to Edinburgh to hang out with a girl I meet on my Scotland trip

-2 more weeks of work. Thank god. I have just had the WORST two weeks at work in the whole entire world. My boss was awful he called me names I didn't even know the meaning off and then today kindly told me that I wasn't at my screen enough, that I was not a staff member and not to talk to the staff so I rewarded his behaviour by walking out at lunchtime and not coming back! Asshole! I let my agent deal with the rest !

- 1 week off - since I walked out on my job (it was a TBC placement) I now have a free week and I have decided not to waste it on work so am thinking, Nice or Vienna.

- 2 weeks in Greece. I am heading to Greece for two weeks of spontaneous travel. Me and a friend are going to Athens and then going to spend the rest of the time island hopping around the Greek Islands will no accommodation and no plan!

- Back to London for a weekend full of leaving festivities, drinks, bowling and of course, The Church.

- Heading with Debra back to Ireland for 5 days of travelling round and unravelling some family history.

- Then back to London for Fri and Sat and then on Sunday around 9pm heading to the airport for my trip back to the Oz arriving in Brisbane around 9.35am on Tuesday morning.

So kiddies until I have some pictures and tales of adventures I need cheering up at the moment so text, email or facebook me with your stories and adventures.

Love Toni

Nothing much to say

Hello All

I haven't updated my blog in a while because I actually haven't done anything that exciting and because I still don't have a camera haven't taken any photos of anything exciting. So until something exciting happens, here are a few pictures for our lastest church mission.

Would you think less of me...?

I am still smarting from my dentist bill (for all those who don't have facebook or haven't heard me whinging about it, on Friday (after four days unemployed at home - a more convenient time for it to happen) I went to work yah! and then my filling fell out boo! so as I am working next week as well and being Friday afternoon I decided to go to an emergency dentist and one that wasn't covered by NHS as I couldn't get an appointment guaranteed to fix it on Saturday and it really needed to be looked at. So £220 I have a fancy white filling and am left feeling ripped off and lighter in the pocket.

Then today I got this -

A rare defeat with my travel insurance company. They have payed out for my broken camera (photo taken with said broken camera but as you can see it looks like it has been taken underwater and hence why new camera is needed - and it has rust on the screen).

The cheque makes me feel heaps better about the fact that I won against the morons at the insurance company - they asked me when I was last in possession of my lost or stolen item - I had to politely inform them that I was still in possession of it and in fact I was claiming for damage, hence the damage claim forms and the £20 letter from the camera shop. Anywho I have my cheque now and the problem is what to spend it on.

As you all know I have been tossing up between cameras and can't decide what I like. I was really happy with my camera (obviously until it broke) and it was shockproof and waterproof for over a year so, would you think less of me if I brought the same one?

My reasoning being

- I liked my old camera

- It was beautiful

- I know how to use it

- It has a lot more settings than cameras on the market these days

- It takes good photos - especially compared to other cameras I have seen

- I could probably get it for £100ish pounds therefore saving £100 to put towards dentist bill

- I would then have 3 batteries and 2 memory sticks - I recently brought the battery and memory stick for £60

- It takes panoramic photos on the memory card which is a feature not many (if any) other cameras do

So, I know I should upgrade to a better one, but I'm not ready ...

What do you think?

Toni

xox

A good decision??

Am thinking about getting this camera - Canon IXUS 960 IS.

Most of the time it has good reviews.

It does appear however to only be in silver which I am not too happy about.

Any suggestions/comments?

A bit out of order

Hey all

Have finished updating my blog of recent events. They are a bit out of order so make sure you scroll down so you don't miss a moment of my life ...

Toni :)

Camera Shopping

As you all probably know and for those who don't I am in the market for a new camera. My pride and joy, Pinkie, let me down and broke in Egypt. It was supposed to be waterproof and had always been until that fateful day.

So I need a new camera. I was going to go with another Olympus underwater one, but after my experience of it leaking and anothers on tour leaking and some reviews I had read apparently they aren't really that "waterproof" so I am looking for suggestions.

There are a squillion cameras on the market and I just don't know which one to get!

Any tips, let me know!

Thanks

Toni xoxo

Weekend 26 - 28 June 2009

On Friday night I meet up with Nikki, a girl I met on my Budapest tour, after work. I had just received a text message saying that there was a moonwalk planned at 6pm at Liverpool Street. We didn't really have much else on so decided to head down and check it out. It was ok, but really pretty much a huge bunch of people blocking off Liverpool Street dancing to three of MJ's popular hits and then a little bit of a moonwalking by some people. There were photographers and video cameras everywhere but not sure where all that footage ended up ...

On Saturday we went to Toast - Toast is a festival put on by ... someone... It has three different days, Fri for Saffa's, Sat for Kiwi's and Sun for Aussies. We (Louisa) managed to score us free tickets for Saturday's show so Tim, Louisa, Richard and myself headed down.

This year toast was held at Clapham Common and London sure put the weather on for it. It was a beautiful day and I managed to work on my tan quite nicely. After looking around all the stalls at the yummy New Zealand food and drink we found a suitable spot and hankered down ready for the acts to start.

Richard, Tim and Louisa found that NZ wine was quite tasty and after asking me every three minutes if I liked wine yet, gave up and just drank themselves a bit silly!! :) And apparently I am not as fun sober as I might have been drunk!!

<----- Winos

The starting act was by New Zealand singer-songwriter Jayson Norris. Jayson is really cool and I actually quite like his music. Its really nice to chill out to. He must live in London because on every (most?) Sunday afternoons he can be found with his acoustic guitar playing at the Ves Bar (where you can also find twisties, kbars and peanut slabs!)

Once Jayson had finished it was time for the main act and the real reason we were here. It was Dave Dobbyn!! Dave was really good and amazing live. The crowd really got into it and it was deafening when he started to sing Slice of Heaven. After Dave finished his set we were ushered out of the common and just in time as well as it looked like the heavens were about to open up and drench us!

After Toast we had a quick dinner and went our separate ways, some of us having a wee bit too much wine!

As Richard was staying with me, we made the long trek (yes you guessed it, tube was down) home and had a shower and got changed and suggested to my flatmates if they wanted to come down to the Walkie for a few drinks. They didn't need much persuading and after a 40 minute rail replacement we were down at the Finchley Road. I felt I was a little behind (having not drinken all day) so I quickly downed a few vodka and redbulls and started dancing the night away. The night gets a little fuzzy from here but I know the drinks kept coming.

A movie (which I can't upload but check out my facebook or the new video's page I am starting) fills in some of the blank spots and for a girl who never gets hangovers, I had a MASSIVE one on Sunday.

These keys are now lost!

Royal Ascot

Royal Ascot was on again this year and a couple of months in advance we decided to go. We got a bargain price at just £13.00 for our tickets in the silver enclosure.

A couple of weeks before the event, Louisa and myself went to the Camden Markets for some party frocks, we spent the next couple of weeks looking at (totally overpriced) fascinators (they ranged from like £12 to probably £100) in the end Donna made an original for Louisa and I borrowed Debra Briggs' one from last year.

On the morning of the event I high tailed it over to the Northern Line, because yes again, you might be noticing a trend here, the Jubilee Line was down. I meet Tim and Louisa at their tube station and we made the journey down to Waterloo.

Waterloo station was maniac with people dressed in fancy dresses, suits and fascinators in all different shapes and sizes. We waited FOREVER (about 30 minutes) to get our tickets to Ascot (in hindsight prebuying tickets would of been a good idea) and scrambled into the train to secure our seat for the hour journey. We passed many stations where people tried to cram into the overpacked train lucky we had seats and lucky for us you are allowed to drink on the trains which made a scalf in your face more bearable. So we opened up a bottle and started soaking up the atmosphere. On the train I meet a boy who said his parents raced and he gave me some tips on who I should bet for.

One we got off at Ascot I heard my name, I turned around and bumped into Tracey Smith (a girl from Gisborne I went to high school with, I also randomly bumped into Natalie Jones a couple of weeks back another girl from Gisborne I went to high school with), what a coincidence. I knew she was in London but out of all the people here managed to bump into her, surprising enough it happens all the time in London.

We walked the short walk to the stadium and secured a good spot. For a couple of hours we guarded our spot whilst waiting for other friends who were late!!!!! to turn up. We did a good job though and there was room for everyone.

The day was spent, drinking, chatting, waiting in toilet lines, watching races and even putting some bets on. My hot tip was good and the horse I bet on won so I was £19.00 richer at the end of the day.

The racing finished at 5.30 but Debra said last year they waited at the platform 3 hours for their train so we decided to hold back and left (read: got kicked off the field) at 7.30 and jumped on the train and went to Clapham. After a few hours in Clapham I decided to make the trek (tube, train and bus) back to my house for some much needed sleep after our big day at the races.

Unfortunately (this seems to be quite common around me these days - don't bring your camera near me!!) Tim and Louisa lost their camera and all our photos. I am trying to get some photos of a friend but these are the only ones I have at the moment (sometime during the day I borrowed Debra's camera and took some self portraits, lucky aye).

At the beginning of the day I had fancy pants GHD curls but after an hour or so they fell out. Where is Debra Fish when you need her! :)

London Tourist

One of the girls I meet on my Budapest tour was going on the London Eye and becasue all my friends had been on it and I hadn't I decided to go with her to get that one ticked off my list. So after work I walked from St Pauls to the London Eye a nice brisk walk in the London Summer Sunshine and meet up with Aneeta.

I had pre-booked the tickets online to save 10% because to be quite frank they are really expensive. Something like £18 to go on the eye for half an hour, totally overpriced and, I am not sure, worth it in the end... We boarded the capsule and got comfy ready for the take off.

The London Eye - (also known as the Millennium Wheel), at a height of 135 metres (443 ft), is the biggest Ferris wheel in Europe, and has become the most popular paid tourist attraction in the United Kingdom, visited by over three million people in one year (suckers if you ask me!).

We had our ride and got nice views over London, but all and all I think its a bit overrated!

And for all of you wondering what my hair is like naturally, I am wearing it naturally (with a little hair product) in these pictures. After five or so years of hair straightners my natural curls have turned into bland waves!

.

Me and my curls (and longer hair) in 2005

Debra's Visit

Debra was over in London for a couple of days in order to get her Mongolian visa for her big Trans-Mongolian railway trip in August.

We decided to head to the seaside for the weekend and Brighton was the place. Brighton is about an hour away on the train and if you are lucky you can get £3.00 fares one way, bargain!

Debra had hooked us up with a fancy pants hotel, that .... was a little different. Apparently there was an option for bondage (which we declined)! It was really funky and everything was pink including the shower door (which I might add was see through!)

On Friday night we headed out to the Pier for some fish 'n' chips on the beach, just like at home!

Saturday was spent looking around Brighton Pier and through The Royal Pavilion - which is a former royal residence located in Brighton, England. It was built in the early 19th Century as a seaside retreat for the then Prince Regent.

The Pavilion's outside architecture is based on Indian designs (its the picture at the top) and the inside decorations are based on Chinese designs. The inside is magnificent, there are so many beautiful designs, statues, etc they are just amazing. It was said that the prince had never even been to China or India but designed them from pictures that he had seen.

As you weren't allowed to take any photos inside the palace I have found some, but they don't really give justice as to how amazing it was, but if you are ever over this way I would totally recommend going to the pavilion as it was one of my favourites.

That night we dressed up in fancy dresses to hit the Brighton party scene. After a tip off from ... not sure, Debra spoke to someone ... we headed down to the Pier. As we were walking along the Pier we got to a chatting with some boys who were going to the same place as us and they were on the door (VIP entry) and invited us to join in the line so we didn't have to wait for ages or pay as much for the cover charge. We partied like it was 1999 to some crap arse dance music, made bearable by the copious amounts of alcohol (and jager bombs) and decided to head home when Debra's feet were so sore she walked in stockings all the way home.

The next day after a well needed sleep in we checked out late and went for a walk down to the Marina where we sat in the sun and soaked up the sun in the ... what felt like, Mount, vibe. We then collected our things and jumped on an early train (had a heart attack thinking we were going to get caught when a warden walked by) and made the journey home (of course, as per usual, the Jubliee line wasn't working!)

All in all had a fantastic time in Brighton and for £6 return (or £4 with rail card a total bargain and breeze to get to for the day). Unfortunately, my computer seemed to delete or something most of the photos on Debra's camera we don't have many from our trip.

Debra was here until Wednesday to ensure her visa would be ready, so on Tuesday night we gathered all the girlies up and headed down to China Town for dinner. Some tourists asked us to take this photo for them so we decided to ask them to return the favour!

Hungary - Budapest

5 June 2009 – 7 June 2009

Friday 5 June 2009
As I wasn’t working on Friday I decided to use it as an opportunity for a long weekend away and with a bargain Budapest tour going I decided to jump on board. So at 3.30am I got up grabbed my bags and headed to the bus stop to catch my two night buses to Baker Street (normally 20 mins on the tube – but too early for that) by 5am.

The bus came and picked us up and we were on our way to Luton Airport. The tour should have had about 40 people but, I am assuming, due to the economic crisis there were only 19 of us.

Once at the airport I meet my roomie and another single girl who were both really nice and who I spent the weekend with, which was excellent. The tour group was quite diverse we had various nationalities, sexes, ages and races. It worked well, I managed to find another two single girls who I spent most of my time with.

At 8am we boarded our budget Wizz Air flight for the journey to Budapest - Budapest is the capital of Hungary and is considered an important hub in Central Europe. Budapest became a single city occupying both banks of the river Danube with a unification on 17 November 1873 of right-bank Buda with left-bank Pest. Widely regarded as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, its extensive World Heritage Site includes the banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter, Andrássy Avenue, Heroes' Square and the Millennium Underground Railway, the second oldest in Europe. Other highlights include a total of 80 geothermal springs, the world's largest thermal water cave system, second largest synagogue, and third largest Parliament building. The city ranked 3rd (out of 65 cities) on Mastercard's Emerging Markets Index and ranked as the most livable Central/Eastern European city on EIU's quality of life index (2009). . As soon as my head hit the seat I fell asleep and only woke on landing where I saw this ... hmmm.

Once in Budapest the company had organised a driving tour of the city which was really nice as it meant you didn’t have to walk around to all the places but could see them on the bus. We stopped at the top of the hill to get some great pictures of Budapest. Now, I can tell you one thing from that driving tour and thats the Hungarians are not afraid of PDA, there were people snogging everywhere!

After the tour we headed back to our room for a quick rest before heading into town for dinner. We went to this amazing place for dinner the meals were huge and delicious and I love throwing round 1,000’s . £1 = approx 300 Hungarian huff.

After dinner we had organised a boat ride on the river and then a pub crawl. The boat ride was really nice and showed us the beautiful city in lights. After the pub crawl we headed to a bar in Budapest. What I really liked about this pub crawl (if you can call 2 pubs a crawl) is that it took you to places that you probably wouldn’t really go too. At about midnight we headed out to the next pub which was up like 4 flights of stair, phew.

This bar was really cool as well. It had various seating places, and room and even had a roof top bar. We spent most of our night there, drinking, doing jager bombs – three in a row – what were we thinking! – mixing with the group, managed to find another couple of Aussies and dancing the night away.

At 4am (yes because Budapest is open till then, unlike English and American pubs) I got dragged off the dance floor by people more sensible than myself had a kebab and then passed out.

Saturday 6 June 2009
At 8am I dragged my tired (but not hungover) ass out of bed and jumped in the shower for a day of sightseeing around Budapest. You know we were the latest ones out and the first ones to rise – I am proud of this effort!

The morning was spent with me navigating, yes I can do it quite well, to a little market street where I stocked up on tacky souvenirs and the like. After that we decided to head over to the Thermal Baths were we spent a couple of hours laxing about. Once out of the baths one of the girls found a food fair were we spent the afternoon looking around, eating and having a lax before the highlight of my trip...THE CIRCUS.

In that pot is giant horse stew --->

The Circus was right across the road from the baths and once I heard about it knew I had to go and fortunately I found fun friends who agreed to come with me. Even though we looked like shite (no sleep does that) the circus was great. They had everything, a clown who threw spaghetti, type rope walkers – with no harnesses I was more worried and could hardly enjoy it!, lions, huskies, acrobats, 4 Chinese girls we think (the announcement was in Hungarian) who were amazing from Cirque du Soleil, and other way cool acts. If you go to Hungary I would totally recommend it! After the circus we headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep.

The next morning we got up early again and headed to Margaret Island for an exploration. Hungary has eight various islands that you can go to explore. The day started out in the beautiful sunshine and we enjoyed watching some cute as boys break dancing and then hired a bike thing and went for a bike ride round the island. After the bike ride we had a rest and I indulged in some of the biggest candy floss I have ever seen and then it when the heavens opened up and sent a down pour our way. We got absolutely soaked (my umbrella somehow missed getting into my suitcase) lucky our hotel wasn’t too far away. Once dried off and changed it was time to get back on the bus and head back to the airport for our Wizz Air flight home. I had a really good time in Hungary and would totally recommend it!

Weekend in Wales

My friends Beth and Rochelle were heading away to Wales for the weekend with Rochelle's friend Ben and they had a spare seat in the car and asked me to join.

So on Saturday I made the trek down to Putney (and of course the Jubilee line had "planned engineering works") for our weekend away. So once Beth was picked up we headed on out of London town. This weekend was about exploring small town in Wales which we did, our first stop being Chepstow - a town in Monmouthshire, Wales, adjoining the border with Gloucestershire, England. It is located on the River Wye.

In Chepstow we headed to the main street where they had a cute little market and then to Chepstow Castle - located in Chepstow, Monmouthshire in Wales, on top of cliffs overlooking the River Wye, is the oldest surviving stone fortification in Britain. It was built under the instruction of the Norman Lord William fitzOsbern, soon made Earl of Hereford, from 1067, and was the southernmost of a chain of castles built along the English-Welsh border in the Welsh Marches.

This castle was pretty cool, it was built on the edge of the river and overlooked onto fields. I could just imagine sitting up there with my bow and arrow firing away defending the castle.

After Chepstow we headed on towards the town of Tintern and Tintern Abbey - Tintern Abbey was founded by Walter de Clare, Lord of Chepstow, on May 9, 1131. Situated on the River Wye in Monmouthshire, it was only the second Cistercian foundation in Britain, and the first in Wales. It is one of the most spectacular ruins in the country and inspired the William Wordsworth poem "Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey".

Tintern Abbey was beautiful. Its situated in a field right near green bush and looks amazing. The ruins look so nice against the greenery and had a very serene feel about it. We spent a lot of time in the Abbey looking around and hanging out. If you are in the area, I would defiantly recommend going. The little town was nice too. You can walk halfway along a bridge and be in Wales and then jump to the other side and be in England. For the afternoon we ordered some cider and chips and sat by the river it was a really nice way to spend the afternoon.

That night we went and stayed in a hostel in a little town called Abergavenny when every television screen in every bar and pub in the area was playing the final of Britain's Got Talent! Lets just say this town was a little ... different!

In the morning we had a sleep in and then went for a wander into town. At the information centre they told us about this free coal mine tour so we decided to do that.

Big Pit is a National Coal Museum that used to be a working coal mine. In 1980 they closed the coal mine and reopened it for visitors in 1983. Big Pit offers free tours of the coal mine. They give you a light and belt and you descend into the coal mine via the lift shaft. It was a really cool tour, given by a man who actually used to work in the coal mine all those years ago and a bonus, it was free! They even had some birdies (is it canaries they used to use in the mines?).

It was such a lovely day that we decided to have some lunch and drove around for a while to find the perfect pub, outside in the sun with a Sunday roast to finish things off.

Had a lovely weekend and enjoyed visiting the smaller villages in Wales. I wish I had a car.

As my camera is still not in working order, people are yet to copy their photos for me so I uploaded a few off the Internet for your enjoyment!

Boozy bank holiday weekend

I was planning on going to the Lake District with a couple of friends to utilise my bank holiday (not that I really notice, I am very rarely employed) but as we left it too late and all accommodation was booked up, a boozy weekend with the flatties was on the cards instead!

Friday night
Finchley Road Walkie

The Flatmates (not including annoying, overstaying dossers)

Michael, Dallas, Gareth, Toni and Elina

The Boys

The Girls

Saturday
I dragged my sorry ass out of bed early to meet Louisa and we went shopping in Camden markets for our outfits for Ascot, as this was one of the only free weekends I had before 20 June! That night just laxed on the couch.

Sunday
On Sunday I did some general house things before retiring to sit in the back yard in the sun with a glass of cider, am really going to miss the British cider, at about 5pm we all headed to Ves Bar. Ves Bar is a bar in She Bu thats really nice to hang out at on a Sunday night. It has a kiwi guy with an acoustic guitar singing some great tunes. After a while we headed over to the Walkie (the drinks are cheaper there) for some dancing. At 11pm the She Bu Walkie closes so we decided to head on a tube and ... am ashamed to say... we weren't ready to go home so went to the Finchley Road Walkie for some more drinking and dancing!

After a feed of KFC on the tube

What, you wanna take my picture?

OK!

Dallas in Michael's t-shirt, Elina's shorts and my leg warmers

Monday
On Monday I was surrounded by sad, pathetic, hungover, whinging flatmates (yah for not getting hangovers!) and spent the day watching tele.

Egypt - Part 5

Dahab
4 May – 10 May
Cairo to Dahab to Jordan to Cairo to Istanbul to London

Don't have many photos from here, as had to get them from other people.

Today we rose at 5am to head to Dahab on Egypt’s red sea. We had a long day on the bus passing through Asia to get there. From Dahab its 20 kilometers to Israel and you can see Saudi Arabia from the shoreline. Once we arrived in Dahab we checked into our cabin style accommodation and spent the day lounging by the pool and then had a walk through the main street of Dahab.

Accommodation -------->

5 May 2009
Today I had a much needed sleep in, once I woke up I went for lunch/breakfast at the Dolphin Cafe which is wehre I spent the rest of the day eating, playing cards, smoking shisas, hanging out and got extremely sunburnt. That night we headed to Miss Dahab at the Tree House and danced the night away.

6 May 2009
Today we went snorkeling at the Blue Hole – Blue Hole is a diving location on east Sinai, a few kilometres north of Dahab, Egypt on the coast of the Red Sea. The Blue Hole is a submarine pothole (a kind of cave), around 130m deep. There is a shallow opening around 6m deep, opening out to the sea and an 26m tunnel, known as the arch, the top of which is 52m. The hole itself and the surrounding area has an abundance of coral and reef fish. – no one knows the exact depth as its too deep. The Blue Hole is beautiful and the fish and coral were amazing. I did buy an underwater camera but unfortunately!! It broke AS WELL so don’t have any photos of the fishies. That night we has an all you can eat BBQ dinner which was delicious.

7 May 2007
JORDAN
There was an option excursion to Jordon for the day and I decided to take it up. There were only four of us that did. At 5am we all piled into a bus and were driven for a couple of hours to go to the marina to catch our boat to Jordan. Once the boat docked we hopped off and got on a bus and headed to Petra. From the scenic drive you could see that Jordan is nothing like Egypt and I would totally recommend you to visit it. The scenery reminded me of the Road Runner Cartoon (which funny enough they were playing on the boat ride back). Very rocky ... and looked a lot cleaner that Egypt.

Jordon is in the middle east and is part of Asia Egypt isn’t. The Jordanian currency is strong its about 1 to 1 with the pound. We arrived in Petra - Petra is an archaeological site in, lying on the slope of Mount Hor in a basin among the mountains. It is renowned for its rock-cut architecture. Petra is also one of the new wonders of the world. The Nabateans constructed it as their capital city around 100 BC. The site remained unknown to the Western world until 1812. It was famously described as "a rose-red city half as old as time" in a Newdigate prize-winning sonnet by John William Burgon. UNESCO has described it as "one of the most precious cultural properties of man's cultural heritage." In 1985, Petra was designated a World Heritage Site.– which was formed by earthquakes.

One of the tour guides gave this camel a can of beer and it was the funniest thing, the camel took it in its mouth lifted its head up and drank the hole thing. I thought it was going to eat the can as well as it was chewing on it but it spat it right out!

After walking around for a couple of hours we had an amazing lunch and then headed back to Egypt. At the boat dock before we could come back into Egypt they were checking for our temperatures to see if we had old Swinney. One of our girls was a bit hot so had to sit in the corner but after half an hour or so we were fine to leave. I don't have any actual digital photos of Petra, only hard copy ones from my disposable camera, so I down loaded this ones from the net.

8 May 2009
After a much needed sleep today was a good day to just hang out for the morning. In the afternoon I went camel riding. Now these bloody things are sooo uncomfortable, they jerk your body up and down and side to side how anyone can stay on them I dunno. After we stopped for a rest I switched to another camel and this wasn’t that bad, but I would hate to ride them for hours through a dessert.

Camel riding Egyptian Style <-------

9 May 2008
Today was our last day in Dahab. After lunch we packed up and got back on the bus for our 8 hour drive back to Cairo. Once in Cairo it was time for dinner and KFC was sounding good. After dinner I popped into the supermarket to stock up on a box of moro bars. 12 Bars for 26le which is like £3 – £4 bargain. Who would of thought aside from NZ, Egypt was a place in the world that made moro bars! I am ashamed to say though that I pretty much ate the whole box within that week .

10 May 2008
Yahhh, back to London my Egyptian adventures were over.

Egypt - Part 4

TEMPLES GALORE

Kom Ombo - Luxor - Cairo

1 May 2009

Kom Ombo

This morning we got off the Feluccas and headed to Kom Ombo Temple - The Temple of Kom Ombo is an unusual double temple built during the Ptolemaic dynasty . Some additions to it were later made during the Roman period. The building is unique because its 'double' design meant that there were courts, halls, sanctuaries and rooms duplicated for two sets of gods, the crocodile god Sobek, god of fertility and creator of the world with Hathor and Khonsu and god Haroeris, also known as Horus the Elder, along "with Tasenetnofret (the Good Sister, a special form of Hathor) and Panebtawy (Lord of the Two Lands).

Me outside Kom Ombo Temple ----->

<------ Some Egyptian traffic

After that we went to the Edfu Temple - It is the second largest temple in Egypt after Karnak and one of the best preserved. The temple, dedicated to the falcon god Horus, was built in the Ptolemaic period between 237 and 57 BCE. The inscriptions on its walls provide important information on language, myth and religion during the Greco-Roman period in ancient Egypt. In particular, the Temple's inscribed building texts "provide details [both] of its construction, and also preserve information about the mythical interpretation of this and all other temples as the Island of Creation.

This temple is huge! Edfu Temple ---->

After those temples we went to our fancy, pants hotel in Luxor. I managed to get some oh so good drugs that were expensive, but cleared me right up.

The afternoon we spent laxing out by the pool, unfortunately this is also when my camera got soaked so all further pictures are courtesy of other people from my tour.

< -----Sphinx's at Luxor Temple

In the evening we headed to Luxor Temple - the temple was dedicated to the Theban Triad of Amun, Mut, and Chons and was built during the New Kingdom, the focus of the annual Opet Festival, in which a cult statue of Amun was paraded down the Nile from nearby Karnak Temple to stay there for a while.

Luxor Temple has a row of Sphinx's that used to stretch 3kms to nearby Karnak Temple and which I also have just read a statue of Amum was paraded down it to stay for a while at Luxor Temple.

<------Luxor Temple at night

2 May 2009

This morning was another early one, so after a scrummy breakfast we headed out to the Valley of the Kings. On the way out there we made a quick stop to see these giant statues, think it used to be a temple and for a photo op on a donkey!

We then kept on Trucking along until we got to the Valley of the Kings - The Valley of the Kings is a valley in Egypt where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the 16th to 11th century BC, tombs were constructed for the kings and powerful nobles of the New Kingdom .

At the Valley of the Kings we were allowed to go into three tombs, Rameses - 1, 4 and 6.

The Tomb of King Tutankhamum - the only tomb ever to be discovered fully intact - was there also but I didn't go in as it cost extra.

The three Rameses tombs were cool, quite different from each other all with hieroglyphics and one had beautiful painted colours that are still vibrant today. You aren't actually allowed to take photos down there but sometimes the guards will pull you aside and for a fee you can, hmmm. Corrupt much?!

<-- excavating Egyptian style, no diggers around here

Temple of the Queen ---->

Pretty much anywhere in Egypt throw a bit of cash around and anything will happen!

After that we headed to Deir-Al-Bahri also know as Temple of Queen Hatshepsut - Deir el-Bahri is a complex of mortuary temples. In 1997, 58 tourists and 4 Egyptians were massacred here by Islamic terrorists from Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya in what has become to be known as The 'Luxor massacre'. Also from Queen's Temple ----->

Hmm, never knew there was a massacre there, the tour leader didn't mention that! I believe this temple is on the other side of the hill from the Valley of the Kings.

A little templed out??

I was ... but wait theres more. In the afternoon we headed across the river in a motor boat and went to Karnak Temple - The Karnak temple complex describes a vast conglomeration of ruined temples, chapels, pylons and other buildings. There are several avenues of human and ram-headed sphinxes connecting the Precinct of Mut, the Precinct of Amun-Re, and Luxor Temple. -

Sphinx's at Karnak Temple ---->

This the temple that used to connect to Luxor Temple by the Sphinx's although the Sphinx's at this end have Ram's heads. That night we boarded our overnight sleeper train back to Cairo.

Walking like Egyptians at Karnak Temple ----->

3 May 2009

This morning we headed back to Cairo and another fancy pants hotel, after a freshen up we headed out to a perfume factory and then Cairo markets.

Cairo markets are a lot more pleasant than other markets are, they are monitoured by the Tourist police and therefore the locals don't hassle you as much.

<---- Sobhy our tour leader

In the afternoon we spent it laxing by the pool and the night was spent having dinner at the extremely overpriced restaurant, conveniently for them though there weren't any others nearby, and then the night dancing it out at the discotech.

Egypt - Part 3

Sunset we could see from our boats on the Nile

29 April 2009 - 1 May 2009

EGYPT - Sailing down the Nile

29 April 2009

That afternoon we boarded our Felucca boat and headed off sailing down the Nile. The Felucca boats are just boats with compartments underneath to put all our gear in and on top is covered in cushions were we laxed out, ate and slept.

That night we went up to a Nubian village and hung out chatting and smoking shisha's.

At night on the boats they put up mosquitos nets and we just jumped in our sleeping bags and slept on the boats.

30 April 2009

Today again we spent the day on the Felucca hanging out. We docked up on the shore of the Nile and went for a dip - as you can see my camera felt like being waterproof then!

Girls from the boat swimming in the Nile --------->

<-------- Ad for Sprite - you think they will like it?

That night we docked up on the shore of the Nile and headed onto shore where our captains lit a bonfire and sang and danced to some Nubian tunes.

Video of us laxing out on the Felucca's

Egypt - Part 2

28 April 2008

EGYPT - Aswan

We woke up in Aswan today and had a quick walk to our hotel which was located on the main stretch. They afternoon we walked through the markets (the are the worst ones for hassling) and then went for a swim. It was so hot it was nice to just lax out by the pool - something you can't do in London.

That night we jumped on a boat and headed to a restaurant on an island near the Nile for a dinner at a Nubian restaurant. After dinner the waiters all got up and did a bit of dancing.

This man spun around and around for ages ----->

29 April 2009

This morning we got up at 3am to head to the Temples of Abu Simbel. We got up so early to avoid the heat and because we had to have a tourist police convoy.

Abu Simbel - (Arabic: أبو سنبل‎ or أبو سمبل) is an archaeological site comprising two massive rock temples in southern Egypt. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the "Nubian Monuments". The twin temples were originally carved out of the mountainside during the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses II in the 13th century BC, as a lasting monument to himself and his queen Nefertari, to commemorate his alleged victory at the Battle of Kadesh, and to intimidate his Nubian neighbors. However, the complex was relocated in its entirety in the 1960s, on an artificial hill made from a domed structure, high above the Aswan High Dam reservoir. The relocation of the temples was necessary to avoid their being submerged during the creation of Lake Nasser, the massive artificial water reservoir formed after the building of the Aswan High Dam on the Nile River. Abu Simbel remains one of Egypt's top tourist attractions.

Abu Simbel temple - above Nefertair temple

Unfortunately we only had about half an hour to look around the temples, but it was cool. Inside there are lots of different rooms and passages that have lots of hieroglyphics. At the back insdie the big temple there are four statutes ...

The axis of the temple was positioned by the ancient Egyptian architects in such a way that twice a year, on October 20 and February 20, the rays of the sun would penetrate the sanctuary and illuminate the sculpture on the back wall, except for the statue of Ptah, the god connected with the Underworld, who always remained in the dark. These dates are allegedly the king's birthday and coronation day respectively.

That afternoon when we got back from the temples we laxed out a bit before heading to the Nile to board our Felucca boats.

Egypt - Part 1

26 April 2009 - 10 May 2009

EGYPT - Cairo, Giza, Aswan, Kom Ombo, Edfu, Luxor and Dahab

26 April 2009 - Cairo

Arrived in from Istanbul and was collected at the airport by our tour guide. After getting visas for the people who didn't have them we got into the mini van and drove to our hotel. Now, this might not sound exciting, but Cairo traffic is something else!! There are cars, donkeys, horses, carts, buses everywhere on the road and all you can hear is beeping.

From what I can gather the buses are just vans with the doors open and people just jumping in and out and then taking off again. Then I saw this train at the station, that was dark, no windows, smoky and full of men - thank god it wasn't the one that we were catching! People are just hanging off all types of vehicles, screaming, yelling, speeding.

That avo we checked into our lovely hotel room and I just spent the night laxing out and trying to feel better.

27 April 2009

That morning after checkout we got put into groups and headed on the bus to the Egyptian Museum where we looked around for a couple of hours and even went and saw real mummies. They were grose! They looked like real people, just old and wrinkly. They still had their fingernails and hair.

After the museum we headed for Giza and the ... PYRAMIDS! They were amazing!

The Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza and is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World that survives substantially intact. It is believed the pyramid was built as a tomb for Fourth dynasty Egyptian King Khufu and constructed over a 20 year period concluding around 2560 BC. The Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years.

The Giza pyramids are on the outskirts of Cairo and one minute you are driving around the dirty, unruly streets of Cairo and the next minute you go through this gate and see the Pyramids. I always thought that they would be out in the desert a bit.

<------- View of Cairo from the pyramids - see how close to the city they are

After seeing the big pyramids we headed to the smaller ones where you can pretend to hold them and stuff, unfortunately my photographers were crap, but here are the pyramids anyway.

After that we went inside one of the smaller Giza pyramids. It was an experience. The Pyramids are huge but the passage way and tomb is not. You have to go down this passageway bent in half (one third for us shorter ones) and then down through another tunnel and then up a passageway at this stage you are sore and its really hot and smelly and then you come to this room that is probably as big as an average lounge room that has a tomb in the corner. Its really hot and made me feel claustrophobic and I don't get claustrophobia. I originally thought that the pyramids would be completely hollow but they are not, they are completely solid save for this chamber.

<----- Me by one of the Pyramid blocks. They are huge.

After that experience we headed down a bit and saw the Sphinx - The Great Sphinx of Giza is a statue of a reclining lion with a human head that stands on the Giza Plateau. It is the largest monolith statue in the world, standing 73.5 m, 6 m wide, and 20 m high. It is the oldest known monumental sculpture, and is commonly believed to have been built by ancient Egyptians in the third millennium BC.

That night we took a 14 hourish night train to Aswan, it wasn't too bad, and hell of a lot better than the first train that I saw go past!

Turkey for Anzac Day

Turkey

23 April 2009- 26 April 2009

23 April 2009
Had 4 ½ hours sleep and then up again at 5 for at taxi to the airport to catch my early morning flight to Istanbul. I was a bit stressed about my flights because I had trouble booking them, but there were no problems, yah!

Once in Istanbul I navigated myself out of the airport and was contemplating how to get to my hotel as transfers weren’t included by my tour company. Fortunately, I bumped into another girl, Jaime, who was on the same tour just a different hotel and we ended up getting a transfer together.

Once checked into the hotel I decided to wonder into town and check out a few of the sights as this was my only free time in Istanbul. I got Jaime’s number and we wandered around together.

We saw the Blue Mosque.

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque is the national mosque of Turkey. The mosque is one of several mosques known as the Blue Mosque for the blue tiles adorning the walls of its interior. It was built between 1609 and 1616.

That night our tour had organised for us to all meet in a bar (there were three different groups in different hotels) and spent the night drinking, dancing and smoking herbal fruits in Shisha’s.

A hookah (Shisha) is a single or multi-stemmed (often glass-bottomed) water pipe for smoking. Originally from India, the hookah has gained immense popularity, especially in the Middle East. A hookah operates by water filtration and indirect heat. It can be used for smoking marijuana, herbal fruits, or tobacco.

Trying the Shisha ----------------Too much shisha

24 April 2009

The next day we got up early and jumped on the bus to Anzac Cove

ANZAC Cove is a small cove on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey. It became famous as the site of World War I landing of the ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) on April 25 1915. The cove is a mere 600m long, bounded by the headlands of Ari Burnu to the north and Little Ari Burnu, known as Hell Spit, to the south. Following the landing at Anzac Cove, the beach became the main base for the Australian and New Zealand troops for the eight months of the Battle of Gallipoli.

We arrived at Anzac Cove at around 1pm and then found out we weren’t allowed into the site yet so we just mucked around and looked around the various graves, sites, etc.

Shrapnel Valley - got its name in the early days after the landing. As the Turks realised that this had become the highway to the front their guns rained shrapnel shells down upon this area. These shells made a particular whistle before they burst showering those below with lethal pellets. Australian: 527, New Zealand: 56, British: 28

At about 3ish everyone lined up and waited to get searched, metal detected and wrist banded up and then it was off to the cove to find a good spot for spending the rest of the day and night.

I spent the afternoon searching out my three flatmates that were there, hanging out the Debra and her tour group and generally just chilling and soaking up the atmosphere.

As the night goes on, people cosy up in their sleeping bags, fight for sleeping space and settle in. All throughout the night they have a big screen going playing stories and memories from war veterans, historians, etc. More people come throughout the night.

As dawn approaches we are all woken up and told to get up and shuffle along to make room for the people who are just arriving and the dawn service starts - make em stand I say (we have been there for hours!).

The service goes for about 45 minutes and includes, music, speeches, hymns, messages from the Aus and NZ prime ministers and the last post.

After the service we have about 3 hours to get up to Chunuk Bair about a 5 km uphill walk away, there is where the New Zealand service was being held.

The Battle of Chunuk Bair was a World War I battle fought between the Turkish defenders and troops of New Zealand and Britain on Turkey's Gallipoli peninsula in August 1915. The capture of Chunuk Bair, the secondary peak of the Sari Bair range, was one of the two objectives of the Allied August Offensive that was launched at Anzac and Suvla to try and break the stalemate that the campaign had become.

The capture of Chunuk Bair was the only success for the Allies of the campaign. However, the success was fleeting as the position proved untenable. The Turks recaptured the peak after a few days and were never to relinquish it again.

So we just strolled on up, stopping at the various graves on the way and for frequent breathers (spews), (I am not fit as the best of times, let alone with the way that I was feeling) until we finally made it up there. We were contemplating going to the Australian service at Lone Pine but decided to just get up there. We found a good stop on the grass in the sun and waited for the service to start. Unfortunately, I didn’t actually see most of the service as I was feeling too horrible, but listened to it and managed to find this footage - news footage of service.

After the service, the system they use to pick everyone up is whereby they gave you all the number of your bus and basically the buses are all lined up in random order and you have to wait until your bus turns up, fortunately our bus turned up after about ½ hour, but some people waited up to 2ish hours.

This is the line of buses we saw as we were heading out.


I was so sick on the way back that unscheduled stops had to be made and spent the rest of the night trying to sleep it off in my hotel room.

26 April 2009
The next day we got up and headed to the airport for our flight to Cairo.