Wintery London Adventures

My first morning heading up to Central London to report for work (one day late due to Anti government protesters!) was atmoshpericaly foggy - like a sherlock holmes novel.I could barely see the other side of the river as I walked across Vauxhall bridge.




My building is where that big tower is peeking out tof the mist in the pic to the right. Its Shared with the Conservatives on level 3 (I enjoy spotting toffee nosed Tory types as they get in the lift and guessing which floor they will disembark..somtimes i feel like waving a placard at em!)

Ive been loving the location, once i emerge like a canned sardine from my train..if i can position myself tactically close enough to the exit so i can get to it before the train leaves... then i have the River to cross, views of London that just get better as i get into my office. Its easy to be distracted when you can see the Union Jack flying off the top of the Houses of Parliament as your being trained!.






Lunchtimes have seen forays into the Tate gallery a few doors down, a lovely leafy square close by for sandwiches.albeit in the cold. And a lovely church square surrounded by Georgian terraces. (Remember you can click on any of the pics for close ups)



This morning i emerged from the house to be greeted by virgin snow on the driveway which caused a flurry of excitement! I saw snowflakes falling throughout most of the day from my offices and trudged through some mini drifts of it to get home. Chilly but fun!



It certainly feels like the right place for a Christmas Market by the riverside complete with chestnuts! Now Nat and I just have to find our dream home...

Waverley Cemetary Sydney

On my last afternoon in Sydney I took myself down to Waverley Cemetary with my book, it was sunny and i found a warm spot for a power nap in the grass and a read. Cemetraries are peaceful places I find. This one is a particularly historical one with a fine view over the sea.

A Polish bodice ripper

Push Not the River by James Conroyd Martin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I picked up a suitably bendy and well loved copy of this one at a good friends in Wales a little while book. Set amongts dramatic political changes in late 18th Century Poland at a similar time to the French Revolution, It is supposedly based on the real life diary of the main character which came into the hands of the author somehow via one of her descendants. A real life connection with Historical Fiction - asssuming the fiction is well researched is always a bit of a bonus. I went to Krakow a couple of months ago too so it was nice to have a Polish set read. Theres a suitably scandalous scheming second lead in the shape of Zofia, the cousin you love to hate. A great foil for the ever so slightly too goody two shoes Anna. All in all its a great period romp and quite an incredible life story even if only half of it were true.



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Friendship

"A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart,
and can sing it back to you
when you have forgotten the words."



This is my good friend Symon, who is still living in sunny Sydney. We have shared stories, laughter, silliness, axnts, holidays, places to live, cafe breakfasts, music and many more things over the last 13years. He likes the cold and the rain (as long as he is inside), the colour green, frogs, dogs and all things shiny like a magpie.


He lives in a great loft style studio which hes made his own and gets to walk to work in the city past views such as this... which he enjoyed rubbing in, when i wes there to leave Sydney behind and come to London!..

He is a true friend and I will miss him greatly now that I am in London.










I hope that he finds the strength to follow his dreams..
















This is Symon hanging upsidedown..which is a very Symon thing to do....

London -San Francisco - Sydney - London

My Life is so complicated right now!. So no posts on here for over a month, sorry folks. After my gorgeous little English countryside trip in early October it was time to sort my life out and figure out what the bloody hell I was going to do next. Now generally I find it hard to decide what to have for dinner let alone what life choices to make. I had however had the feeling that I wantd a bit of a change on embarking on this adventure so I did put all my stuff in storage. Now after much deliberation I've decided to give living in London another bash, this time hopefully living and working fairly centrally. So this week ive been back in Sydney going through 10 years of aquired stuff, Ebaying and donating and generally stressing over lists of things to do - but this Friday is it - flying back to London. Meanwhile on my hastily arranged flight back to Sydney last week I did manage to squeeze in a 2 night stopover in San Francisco. This was a welcome break from all the organisation and stressing, it was nice to feel 'on holiday' again. I hadnt been in San Francisco for about 20 years. The last time i remember deliberately dropping my guide book in a cafe and mumbling something in deliberately emphasised Queens English in a (successfull) attempt at picking up a local. We ended up on a mini break up through the redwoods. I used to love how shallow people were about a twinky 21 year old with an English accent!. I have to say it doesnt quite have the same effect when youre 42 with a mongrel pommy/aussie accent!. Anyway i very much enjoyed wandering about and taking my snaps. Could be the last set for a little bit so enjoy

Millennium #3

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest by Stieg Larsson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Loved it - needless to say, after the first two, there wasnt much doubt this one would be a winner too. A friend wss saying to me the other day, she wasnt going to read these becuase everyone was and they they were books for people who didnt normally read. I say - beleive the hype, they really are great page turner reads, they are smart and clever and unusual. Great characterisation. I love the Swedish setting, with Swedish sensibilities and a very modern socially sound feeling to them. This ones very phychological - Lisbeth spends much of the book within one room but still manages to be a captivating central character. Blomqvist is the new James Bond - actually i was a little dissapointed with him copping off with yet another character in this one as it was a little too Bondy but i still like his no strings relationship with Berger. I must admit although it can never be the same - i think i would quite like someone to continue to write sequels to these -preferably a Swede



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