Live transmission

For anyone that has been optimistic and checked here for a new posting - you are very optimistic and you're persistence has paid off with an entry probably a year since my last.

I've been inspired of late to pick it up again (yes that would be you Alex!)

I'm also on the cusp of a 6 week holiday, which will be the longest I've travelled in one block of time so far. I fly to Bologna (Italy) today to meet up with Darren. Disaster has already struck with the campervan being broken into yesterday morning and all of Darren's stuff being stolen. How completely devastating. I'm going to do my best at cheering him up and will be picking up some duty free JD's on the way through. Denial is a solution!

P.S. I think packing is the worst thing about going on holidays. I've done okay but keep wanting to throw in extra things, so much so that I do not have an inch of space left and will be cutting fine on the painful 15kg limit of Ryan Air's.

slacker

sorry for the slackness of keeping this updated. I found Facebook and it is addictive. If you're on it to then let me know and that is a good way to keep in touch! if you're not on Facebook or have no idea what i'm referring to then where have you been? kidding!

I'm in the final decision making process of getting a laptop - finally!! so i will then be able to download all my photos and put them up for your perusal.

in the meantime, never hesitate to send me an email - i would love to hear from you
schelle x

happy new year

Cheers! Wishing you all a festive New Year's Eve and a good start to 2007.

p.s. Happy 75th birthday to the Coathanger

Lanark Mansions

New House; Great Flatmates
After a long stint sharing with Deev and her housemates, the long search for a new 'home' has ended!

My new address for sending welcome correspondence and presents is... available on request (I just had a momentary thought that posting my address on the WWW might not be best)! I'm still in the Bush; Shepherd's Bush that is 2 corners around from Deev and behind an illustrious Walkabout.

Time to introduce the gang (above) - to the right of me, Nick (studying Spanish with Deev and introduced me to the house, seems to know and is freinds with everyone, works at PWC), Holly (wine afficionado and inspirational gym fiend) and Danielle (amazingly can fall asleep anywhere, could be something to do with work hours of a lawyer).

These guys are awesome and very excited to have them as friends and live with them too. they're all English and I love the way the Ashes is panning out so far!

My room (rather small, me on the double bed, dresser and wardrobe to the right and behind the door. I'm packing the suitcase for my visit home to Oz)
Us at the pub down the road with Jon, ex-housemate that passed the baton on to me.

Wedding Day

Kristy and Shane's Wedding

2 December 2006

Congratulations Mr and Mrs McGregor! Wedding's are lovely, but all the more lovely when it's 2 people who are so well-suited and as my housemate coined so aptly, "together being greater than the sum of 2 parts." Plus, not only was this wedding beautiful, moving, white and have good food.. as all weddings should be... this was fun with no disasters or mini-dramas on the side; much to the credit of Ty and Shane's good organisation and easy going attitude!

Had a great time, very glad to have been a part of it. And thank goodness the dress fit ;-) The Ceremony

The Bridesmaids - Rach and I

My Family

Cutting of the cake

budapest, hungary

6-9 October 2006
I loved Budapest. It was a hidden gem. The first East European city I've visited and it has a tangibly different feel than the west.
A little bit dirtier, less sparkly and a bit dated, like it's playing catching up - but so full of character.

I took a long weekend to met up with Beth my friend from home whose doing a 4 month back-packing adventure. We stayed in this very friendly hostel, with the most helpful staff.

They are locals and pointed out all the underground places (sometimes only denoted by a sticker on the door) to go out at night, that you'd never find in a travel guide and even cooked us pancakes for dessert on the first night.

The ornate building in the picture above is the very ornate Parliament building on the bank of the Danuabe River. Basically the east side, old-part of the city is Buda and Pest is on the west and below is what's known as the chain bridge (pictured below with the moon so low it's sitting inbetween the buildings on the far side), one of the many bridges that links the 2 sides.

Known as the jacuzzi capital of Europe, with many thermal spas we couldn't pass an afternoon in a better way. We sampled the indoor baths that looked very Roman with the collonades, the sauna (remember Eastern Europe haven't embraced the boardshort look yet; the speedo is king) and wallowing in the outdoor pool whatching the afternoon sun slide away in water that's body temperature warm (37-38 degrees). Lovely! It's such a local past time you get a refund on your admission price if you leave within 4 hours of arriving.

Apart from doing other customary things like eating goulash, we got our hair cut as a Beth's hairdresser back in Oz was from Budapest and said there were many very qualified, but poorly paid hairdressers - hence is more to Sydney. It was certainly cheaper than London!

Speaking of money, I've very proud of my budgeting having only 74 florints (AUD $0.50) left at the end of my trip. It's the non-Euro challenge of how much money to pull out of the ATM, trying to the balance between not having wads left over and not having to incur bank fees for multiple transactions.

Although, having said that if I did have a few thousand florints left over... it wouldn't have been a problem as I could easily be tempted to return.

6 months on

Hello my dears,

I’m feeling a little out of touch and just wanted to send a hello and let you know what’s been happening.

I’m certainly enjoying being over here – the novelty hasn’t worn off and it still feels like an adventure of sorts. At this point in time I’m still working on a 2 year plan of working in London, which means I’ll have to start thinking of apply for a different visa and the associated hassle and rigamarole of government red-tape.

Davina is still sharing her room with me whilst I look for a place (i.e. room) of my own. Yes it’s been 6 months since I left home! In my defense, the plan was always to stay together until Deev got back from her summer travels and we both benefit from half price rent. She’s been very patient thought and letting me find the right place rather then setting a fixed date for me to move out. It’s such a painful, frustrating process looking for a place which fits all or most of the criteria of location, price and housemates. I can’t wait to find something and settle in.

I’ve been travelling a little – when I first arrived I saw a bit of Spain (south coast, Benidorm to be more exact), Switzerland (Geneva and Zurich) and Austria (Salzburg), and Ireland (the south) and since then have visited Copenhagen for 4 days (not what I expected; good, but you don’t need more than 2 or 3 days there) and Budapest (was fantastic! There’s a sense of discovery about it. The history of the Nazis coming in and then after that the Soviet occupation of the land that ended about 2 decades ago). There are all these cool, grungy ‘underground’ bars, which the hostel pointed us in the right direction of. There’s no signage, just a sticker on the door or a guy sitting out the front. Great architecture and the thermal spas! It’s supposedly the Jacuzzi capital of the world. The locals spend hours there, so much so that you get a discount if you stay for less than 4 hours!). And closer to ‘home’ I spent a weekend visting Matt in Leeds, north of England. My next London escape is to Amsterdam for a long weekend at the end of this month.

It’s been nice making friends and having old friends come for a visit.

The days are getting noticeable shorter week by week and I’m rather scared about the cold to follow. According to BBC weather in the space of 5 days (yesterday to Sunday) London loses 15 minutes of daylight! That’s an incredible rate that we’re losing sunshine (or more correctly grey sky).

Still working for a marketing agency in SW london. And look to be here until the end of the year at least and re-evaluate in the new year.

Only 6 weeks until I’m back home and very much looking forward to catching up with you (all of you!)

coming home

Quick update to let you know that I'll be back home on the 14 November for 3 weeks until the 13th December for Kristy and Shane's wedding!! Yay!!