Update

Hi Everyone

Here is an update from London just to let you know how I have been going and what I have been up to. As previously blogged I have so far done a bus tour about the city in the freezing cold. I am glad to say that the weather has been really nice this week and hopefully the big warm coat I brought last week won't need to be used in the next while. The weather is planning to get up to 26 degrees this week, yah, can crank out some of the summer clothes I brought over.

I have moved into my house and its alright except for a few minor things (I only have a mattress that is extremely shit, I have no windows in my room, there is no hot water in the kitchen and who needs pressure in the shower right) other than those extremely annoying gripes, its working well for me at the moment, well at least until I can decide exactly what my plans are over the summer. I could do with suggestions do I just do mini-breaks every second week or so or do I do the full 1 month bus tour? Not sure I could handle it though?? Recommendations please.

Work - well fortunately this has not really been an issue. I have had six days work so far and have work for the next two weeks which is really good and I got paid today from last week. Hello pounds!!!

Holidays and sightseeing - This weekend I plan to take in some local scenes. I am looking at heading to see the changing of the guard, Westminster Abbey and Tower of London if I can squeeze it in. I am also looking at planning a holiday to Spain for the running of the bulls and thinking about doing this tour or one similar. Am also catching up with everyone for lunch on Sunday which will be good, might even be able to squeeze in Hyde Park whilst I am over that way.

Just for the sake of a picture, here is me in front of Budda statue thing in a park Alesha, Ben and myself went for a walk through.

Well, until something interesting happens, catch ya.

Toni

"Things I have learnt/oberserved about London"

These are a few things that I have learnt in my 2.5 weeks in London

- You live according to your tube zone. You don't ask people what area they live in you ask them what tube station they are closest too.

- Even when sardenised in a tube, even if three people hop off, 20 more people will always be able to squeeze in (especially in the mornings and after work)

- They are pounds and pence and not dollars and cents!!!

- They still have one and two pence coins here which serve no other purpose but to make your wallet heavy!!

- The " and @ are in different places on the keyboard which is extremely annoying!!

- London is not just full of Londoners

- London is very old and they have lots of old things here, way too many for me to remember

- When using an escalator you must always stand on the right (very important, so as not to get abused, there are even signs!)

- Orange lights are shown both before a red light and before a green light. So don't think just because its orange you are ok to cross because you are not.

That is all for now, will hopefully do some more sightseeing this weekend so more pictures to come.

Chow for now :)

Update from London

Hello Everyone

I finally have time to write a blog on my goings on in London so far. I have been so busy looking for a flat and have finally found one. Living with three aussie chicks. Move in on Sunday can't wait to unpack everything.

So far in London I have:

- Tubed almost everywhere looking for a flat (I bet I have lost a few kilos as well!)

- Started work. I worked three days this week, was supposed to work next but they don't need me to, so hopefully will find something else or will go back the week after

- Meet up with Hayley for a catch up

- Randomly ran into Pam on Oxford Street, there are hundreds of people pushing past the street and I noticed her because of how warm her coat was (all the shops have summer clothes can't find a coat anywhere)

- Spent too many pounds!

- Did a bus tour of London, here are some pictures

These pictures are being spaz but they are

- Big Ben

- Trafalgar Square

- Big Ben and House of Parliament

- Tower of London

- London Eye

- National Gallery

- Me in Trafalgar Square in front of National Gallery

Toni

Places I have seen (part 1) with a little history as well

Hi everyone

Just thought I would post some posts about my sightseeings so far and because there is a lot of history behind these places, thought I would include that as well. Sorry if its gets too boring, hopefully the pictures will make it interesting.

TRAFALGAR SQUARE

Trafalgar Square is a square in London, England that commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar (The Battle of Trafalgar (1805) (was a naval battle west of Cape Trafalgar in the province of Cádiz in south-west Spain. In the Battle of Trafalgar, a British fleet of 27 ships of the line defeated an allied French and Spanish fleet of 33 ships of the line on 21 October 1805 in the most decisive naval engagement of the Napoleonic Wars. The French and Spanish lost 22 ships, while the British lost none. The British commander Admiral Lord Nelson died late in the battle. Since then he has been considered one of Britain's greatest naval heroes) a British naval victory of the Napoleonic Wars. The original name was to have been "King William the Fourth's Square", but George Ledwell Taylor suggested the name "Trafalgar Square".

The northern area of the square had been the site of the King's Mews since the time of Edward I, while the southern end was the original Charing Cross, where the Strand from the City met Whitehall, coming north from Westminster. As the midpoint between these twin cities, Charing Cross is to this day considered the heart of London, from which all distances today are measured.

In the 1820s the Prince Regent engaged the landscape architect John Nash to redevelop the area. Nash cleared the square as part of his Charing Cross Improvement Scheme. The present architecture of the square is due to Sir Charles Barry and was completed in 1845.

The square, a popular site for political demonstrations, is the site of Nelson's Column as well as other statues and sculptures of note.

Nelson's column

National Gallery

London's National Gallery, founded in 1824, houses a rich collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900[a] in its home on Trafalgar Square. The collection belongs to the British public and entry to the main collection is free, although there are charges for entry to special exhibitions.

The National Gallery's beginnings were modest; unlike comparable galleries such as the

Louvre in Paris or the Museo del Prado in Madrid, it was not formed by nationalising an existing royal or princely art collection. It came into being when the British government bought 36 paintings from the banker John Julius Angerstein in 1824. After that initial purchase the Gallery has been shaped mainly by its early directors, notably Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, and by private donations, which comprise two thirds of the collection.[1] The resulting collection is small compared with the national galleries of continental Europe, but has a high concentration of important works across a broad art-historical scope, from the Early Renaissance to Post-impressionism, with relatively few weak areas.

The present building, on the northern side of Trafalgar Square, is the third to house the Gallery, and like its predecessors it has often been deemed inadequate. The façade by William Wilkins is the only part of his original building of 1832–8 that remains essentially unchanged, as the structure as a whole has been altered and expanded in a piecemeal manner throughout its history. Notable additions have been made by E. M. Barry and Robert Venturi. The current Director of the National Gallery is Nicholas Penny.

My thoughts on the National Gallery

- The National Gallery is somewhere good to hide out when its really cold because its free to see and warm and they have nice clean toilets.

- It smells funny in there.

- It has lots of paintings.

- Since I am not really into paintings, I had a quick look around and specifically went and saw these paintings by Vincent van Gogh which are very famous (I listened in on a school group)

Im in London

Hey everyone

This is just a post to say that I have arrived safe and sound in London.

My flight was 21 hours in total with two changes in Singapore and Abu Dhubi. Once I arrived in London after over 30 hours with no sleep I was under strict instructions not to go to bed so Alesha took me out and about to see some shops and then I went and set up my bank account.

So far at the moment I am looking for work and someone to live. I have had a call from both the recruitment agencies I signed up for so things look good there now just gotta find somewhere to live that bigger than a box and looks clean and friendly.

Fingers crossed.

Here are some pictures from the plane (since I haven't really done anything else).

Me on the Plane -------- Plane food (that was the best meal!)


Entertainment system on the plan


View from the front end of the plane. It was real cool it has this feature where you could see the front end of the plane (during take off/landing, etc) and see how long was left on the flight, etc.

Toni

Turning 25

Being the youngest of a lot of my friends it was finally my turn today to turn 25 today, a quarter of a century, closer to late 20's than early!

Most of my presents this year were travel related.

I got some new pants, pack cover, pj's, pocket knife, laptop bag, travel journal, tripod for my camera.

For dinner we decided to dress up and go out for to the Casino's all you can eat buffet. It was a good meal and selection but some of us may have overdone it though with the dessert bar ...

Thanks everyone for your texts, cards, emails, face books, bebos, phone calls and any other communications used to wish me a happy birthday!

Toni

I WON THE LOTTERY... in spain ...

I got this letter in the mail on Wednesday, post marked all the way from Spain!






Toni

Caitlin Allen

This weekend I went and saw Dustin and Nicola and their new arrival, Caitlin. She was born 1 April 2008.

She was so teeny and oh so cute. She cried a little bit but I had quite a long cuddle when she went to sleep.

Here are some pictures!

Check out my photo gallery for more.

Toni

ps. sorry no pool photo, it was way too cold this weekend.

NEW CAMERA!

Hey everyone!

Just a blog to let you know that I brought the pink camera. Its sooo pretty!!

I just love it, I thought my old camera was ok, it worked fine, just a little on the heavy side. Well this one is fabtabulous!!! It has so many more features (besides the wonderful obviousness, its pink, water and shock proof), my favourites include:

-A light. When you turn the camera off you press this button it gives you 90 seconds of light. Its very handy!

-A clock. Also when the camera is off you can press a button and the clock will come on I think it also has an alarm.

-Very cool panoramic setting which combines the picture on the camera.

- Auction setting. Takes three pictures of something in a size suitable for online auctions (ie trademe) and you can choose the best one.

- A bazillion different settings - portrait, fireworks, sand a snow, underwater moving, underwater still, macro and many more.

Document Setting

Landscape Setting

Macro setting

Night time

Self Portrait

I even tried it under water today. Unfortunately the sink doesn't really hold that much water and I wasn't able to get any good shots but might try in a pool sometime. Here are some pictures.

Picture of Zac when I was talking to him on webcam

Toni

P.s - Don't forget to leave a message in my guest book!

All booked!!

Hey guys

Just wanted to let you know... I booked my tickets!!

Yip, I leave Brisbane on 21 April and arrive at Heathrow airport on 22 April 2008 to start my two year working visa adventure!! Woo hoo, can't wait!

Toni xoxox :)

IT ARRIVED...

Yah, my passport and visa arrived today.
Woo hoo.

News

Your application has been approved and the visa has been issued. Your passport and visa should be depatched within the next 2 working days.

My story

I have been looking at buying a new digital camera for some time as I have had my old one since before I left NZ and its big, bulky and heavy (and everything counts with only 20kg of luggage) and... I just wanted a new one.

So I decided on the MJU790. Its the shockproof, waterproof, snowproof camera its on the ad with the dog drulling and Pam has one also and said it was real good. These are some of the underwater photos from Pam's Camera.

When I started looking last year the prices were around $450.00 and I was like ahhhh no I might just wait a while and then I wondered if duty free had it cheaper and they did for like $400 but they didn't really have them readily available at the aiports that I was flying to/from so I didn't bother and it sorta went to the back of my mind and I got on with life without a new fancy camera (I brought a laptop instead!)

Then the other day I was looking around at Dick Smith for some new cartridges for my printer and I went to see if they had my camera and if so how much it was and there it was for $328.00 the cheapest I had ever seen it and it is also going out of stock as a new model is coming in and they are on clearance. I almost brought it but decided to look around in case other places had it cheaper and so today i looked around. It seems that most places don't have it that cheap but are willing to lower their price to $328 so I went back to work and ponderd whether I would get it as a lot of shops didn't have it in stock anymore but before I had made any decisions I decided to look on Teds Camera House to see if they had it and then i saw this the OLYMPUS Mju 850SW Digital Camera. Isn't it pretty!!!! It is the same model but is a slightly higher mega pixel and it is PINK!!!!

I fell in love immediately!!! The only issue was that it was about $70 more expensive that the camera which is just as good that I could have today (this one is on back order).

When I brought my laptop pink ones were about $500 more than the regular ones, so I decided to get a regular one because I couldn't justify paying $500 plus more but can I justify paying an extra $70 for a pretty pink digital camera ... and then I get called into the bosses office (cringe - Zac will know what I am talking about!) fortunatley they were giving me a pay rise (I haven't yet told them I will be leaving in a couple of months). I walk out excitedly (and proceed to do nothing for the next hour gossipying about it and other things - what a wonderful employee!!) so my questions to everyone who reads my blog (probably only Zac, Jason and Alie oh and Hayley) are:

- Is my payrise a sign that I should get the new pretty pink beautiful camera?

- Can I justify the extra $70.00?

- Should I wait a little while longer to see if it comes on special?

- Or do I just go with the cheaper one and save the extra $70????

Your comments would be much appreciated in this hard decision proceess!!!!! Please vote in the top right hand corner and leave a message in my guestbook! Thanks

Toni

Dreamworld 2008 - Sara's 22nd Birthday

It was Sara's birthday today so we decided to head to Dreamworld to celebrate.

Dreamworld is a little different now than it used to be. It has a new ride called the motor coaster. It supposed to be one of the new six big thrill rides but I didn't think it was that great. You just rode alone on this motorbike contraption thingee that was kinda uncomfortable along this track.

They also have the flowrider which you pay like $5 extra and you get to surf on this wave thingee. We didn't do it, but it looked kinda cool.

Mum refused to get on any of the "big thrill rides" since movie world. So I made her sit in all the props and get pictures!

They have also taken away the gold mine ride which I thought was dumb.

About 1pm it started raining, we had just started lining up for the Giant Drop when there was a "delay" some people had got left at the top of the tower!!! and had to be slowly brought back down to the bottom!!!!!! How scary, can you imagine!

After about an hour it was up and working again so we decided to give it a try! I am here writing this blog so I made it back down safe and sound!

Toni