Ok, been a relative while since entries, so lets go:
Christmas Eve:
Esther and I realised that we didn't have presents for anyone we were staying with, so we wandered into central London to buy presents. In the end, it wasn't anywhere near as bad as you'd expect.
We went to church for an 11:30pm service at the local church. It was a high Church Of England church, so all the incense and things was a bit foreign. Oh, that and the prayers to Mary. There were plenty of songs and millions of creeds and things and we ended up standing for most of the service. It was pretty interesting.
As it was Christmas Day by the time we'd finished at church, I called home and spoke to Mum, Dad and Dale which was pretty good as I hadn't spoken to them for a few weeks.
Christmas Day:
Sat around aaaaaaaaalll day. Lyn and Robyn cooked a Turkey, ham and all sorts of other goodies. We stuffed our faces with so much food it was nuts. The rest of the day consisted of lying around and watching Top Gear.
Boxing Day:
Esther and I went out to look at London's sights. As museums were shut, we did all the outdoor things. Unfortunately, everyone else who was a tourist had the same idea.
We started out at Buckingham Palace. We tried to get there in time to see the changing of the guard and early enough to get a good spot. Unfortunately, the trains kinda stuffed us up and we got there VERY late. By the time we got there most of the cool stuff had happened, and any chance of seeing it was gone, s we took a few photos and left.
We hopped off the train at Big Ben. It was very weird because Big Ben was NOWHERE as tall as I imagined. Its really quite short. The face of the clock is very wide, but the actual height of the tower isn't really that high. The Houses of Parliament looked quite nice. The building itself is very ornate with lots of cool stonework and things.
Westminster Abbey, what a disappointment. Its a really boring looking building. As you need to pay and the line to get in was HUGE we didn't go in, but the outside was really boring. Oh well.
Next we walked up Whitehall towards Trafalgar Square. On the way there we passed Downing Street where Mr Brown lives and also past where the Cavalry are based. We got to see the changing of the horses and men with swords who's job it was to yell at people if they got too close to certain buildings. Pretty funny when it happened to someone.
Trafalgar Square was alright, it has statues and fountains and things.
Next we went to London Bridge, then walked along the Thames to Tower Bridge. We were kinda bored by the point so we took photos of us jumping around being ninjas in front of the bridge. That night I watched Arsenal have a pitiful draw with Portsmouth. yuck.
London Landmark photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23885&l=7fb37&id=544876388
Jumping and fun photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23886&l=124dd&id=544876388
27th:
This day Esther and I went out with Robyn and Cam to the British Museum. They have pretty much everything from Greece and Egypt there. The story is that everything was 'donated' to the museum. Pity it was stolen by the people who donated it in the first place. They seriously have a huge amount of stuff. That said, I was more interested in the building itself, rather than the exhibits. The next place we went was Covent Garden, which wasn't actually a garden, but a place where they have lots of markets and things. Tasty banana and cream crepes were eaten there.
28th:
This day Esther was sick, but Robyn, Cam, Alexander and I went out to the British Library. THIS place was great. The have the earliest version of Paul's letters in existence, some of the oldest bibles to exist, the Magna Carta (two out of the four originals, plus an updated version), early books by writers such as Jane Austen and Emily Bronte, original Beatles lyric sheets, Scott's diary open to the last entry and many other really awesome things. I had to go find the USA Embassy (long story, but I might be classed as a illegal immigrant there), which I couldn't fix up what needed to be fixed up when I got there, so I went wandering. I got COMPLETELY LOST. It started raining. I got soaked. Because I cut the arms off my thermals to make gloves, I looked like a soaked and wet bum, so when I found my way and got on a train, people looked a me and shook their heads. Pretty funny now that I look back at it.
Yesterday:
We went out to the Imperial War Museum. We had a race with some of Robyn and Cams friends to get there. We got there first and so they were 'the tippo'. On the way there we found a sweet 'trainspotters' shop where they sold many train books and models. I'm going to go back there without everyone else so I can look at everything properly.
The war museum was HUGE and we spent most of the day there. Some cool things were the wartime posters and all the spy gear they had.
That night I got to watch Arsenal beat Everton 4 goals to 1. Pretty brilliant especially as Everton were up 1-0 at half time. One guy was so annoyed at half time that he kicked over a chair and left. Everyone had a good laugh at how he left after Arsenal had kicked their third goal.
Today:
We had another race to the statue of Winston Churchill, but the others won by a long way (we hadn't left the house) so we were The Tippo today. We walked past the Cavalry again and went to Trafalgar Square again, but this time Esther and I split from the main pack when we entered the National Gallery. We had a look at an exhibit about Stained Glass, went and looked at some famous paintings by Monet, Van Gogh, Renoir ad other various people. You're jealous, I know it.
We wandered down to the Palace again to take better photos now that less people were there, but instead took jumping photos again.
Tonight was just sitting around eating pie. Yummo.
Photos will be soon!
Monday, December 31, 2007
Monday, December 24, 2007
Scotland to London
Well, heaps has been done since my last entry.
On the 21st we left Edinburgh and drove to Middlesbrough via some coastal roads and things. It was very foggy a lot of the way, but once we hit the coast it cleared up enough for us to see.
We went back inland to go to this place called Bedrule because Geoff had done some research and discovered that the name "Turnbull" originated from there. The Turnbulls built a castle there and everything. It was pretty cool. There and on the way there was just covered in ice. So much so that everything looked like it was covered in snow, but because the sun didn't go up high enough for long enough in the day to melt the ice, each night another layer would get on the ice. There are lots of photos of it, so check them out.
That night we stayed in Middlesbrough in a dodgy hotel where the cups in Lyn and Geoff's room had lipstick marks on the cups in the room. I did get to watch Father Ted on tv though.
Photos of Edinburgh - Middlesbrough: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23594&l=826db&id=544876388
Early in the morning of the 22nd we woke up at 5:30am to drive to Bristol so we would be there by 1pm so I could watch Arsenal vs Tottenham in a pub somewhere. We stopped once, and about 1/2 hour from Bristol we realised were would arrive there at 11:30pm. Geoff mentioned that while I was watching football he might go and drive to Cardiff as it was in Wales because it was so close. Looking at the time, we realised that we had time to go to Bristol, drop off all our stuff at Steve's house (one of esthers friends from manchester uni who was at home for the holidays who we were staying with), put Steve in the car then drive to Cardiff intime for the football, so thats exactly what we did! On arrival in Cardiff I found a pub and watched Arsenal beat Tottenham 2-1! Steve, Esther and I wandered around a bit, met up with the others and went back to Bristol. That night we played games and watched 'Strictly Come Dancing' and the final 'Parkinson' ever.
Photos of Middlesbrough to Bristol via Cardiff: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23595&l=5c017&id=544876388
Today we loaded into the car, drove to see the house from The Young Ones (woo!) then went to Bath to see the roman baths. They were REALLY cool and I had a great time looking around there. Photos show you all about it.
We then raced across to Stonehenge. When we were getting close to it, I put on the song 'Stonehenge' by Spinal Tap and we rocked into the carpark listening to that up loud, with Alexander cringing at the tackiness all the way to the stones. They were also well worth looking at and again, photos will show you it in all its majesty.
Photos from Bath + Stonehenge: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23601&l=1ac64&id=544876388
I'm now in London in Shepherds Bush and will be for the next week or so until I go to Ireland. In two days it is Christmas (so doesn't feel like it because its cold and stuff) and then NYE, then Arsenal match.
Hope all of you at home are doing well, I'm having a great time, and if I don't speak t you over something before then, Merry Christmas!
On the 21st we left Edinburgh and drove to Middlesbrough via some coastal roads and things. It was very foggy a lot of the way, but once we hit the coast it cleared up enough for us to see.
We went back inland to go to this place called Bedrule because Geoff had done some research and discovered that the name "Turnbull" originated from there. The Turnbulls built a castle there and everything. It was pretty cool. There and on the way there was just covered in ice. So much so that everything looked like it was covered in snow, but because the sun didn't go up high enough for long enough in the day to melt the ice, each night another layer would get on the ice. There are lots of photos of it, so check them out.
That night we stayed in Middlesbrough in a dodgy hotel where the cups in Lyn and Geoff's room had lipstick marks on the cups in the room. I did get to watch Father Ted on tv though.
Photos of Edinburgh - Middlesbrough: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23594&l=826db&id=544876388
Early in the morning of the 22nd we woke up at 5:30am to drive to Bristol so we would be there by 1pm so I could watch Arsenal vs Tottenham in a pub somewhere. We stopped once, and about 1/2 hour from Bristol we realised were would arrive there at 11:30pm. Geoff mentioned that while I was watching football he might go and drive to Cardiff as it was in Wales because it was so close. Looking at the time, we realised that we had time to go to Bristol, drop off all our stuff at Steve's house (one of esthers friends from manchester uni who was at home for the holidays who we were staying with), put Steve in the car then drive to Cardiff intime for the football, so thats exactly what we did! On arrival in Cardiff I found a pub and watched Arsenal beat Tottenham 2-1! Steve, Esther and I wandered around a bit, met up with the others and went back to Bristol. That night we played games and watched 'Strictly Come Dancing' and the final 'Parkinson' ever.
Photos of Middlesbrough to Bristol via Cardiff: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23595&l=5c017&id=544876388
Today we loaded into the car, drove to see the house from The Young Ones (woo!) then went to Bath to see the roman baths. They were REALLY cool and I had a great time looking around there. Photos show you all about it.
We then raced across to Stonehenge. When we were getting close to it, I put on the song 'Stonehenge' by Spinal Tap and we rocked into the carpark listening to that up loud, with Alexander cringing at the tackiness all the way to the stones. They were also well worth looking at and again, photos will show you it in all its majesty.
Photos from Bath + Stonehenge: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23601&l=1ac64&id=544876388
I'm now in London in Shepherds Bush and will be for the next week or so until I go to Ireland. In two days it is Christmas (so doesn't feel like it because its cold and stuff) and then NYE, then Arsenal match.
Hope all of you at home are doing well, I'm having a great time, and if I don't speak t you over something before then, Merry Christmas!
Friday, December 21, 2007
Ach, I cunee understand a werd yee saying me lad!
Where have the updates been? Where has Owen been? Has he fallen off the face of the earth? No he's just in Scotland!
Hmn... whats happened since then?
Well..
I went to see Billy Bragg and The Pogues play. Billy played first and was amazing. I sung along to every song (even if I kinda forgot the words) and had the best time ever. You know a performer is great when its just one person and a guitar and they can command such a good stage presence. The Pogues came on second and weren't so good, but I'm happy that I can say I saw The Pogues play.
The next day I went out to the local pub with some of Esther's uni friends and watched Liverpool vs Manchester United and Arsenal vs Chelsea. Man U won their game, and Arsenal won their game, keeping Arsenal at the top. The Man U fans in the pub (remember, this is a pub IN Manchester) were furious, haha.
That night we had dinner with Esther's friends and as the night went on, said goodbye to them one by one.
Eventually, an hour before the sun came up, it was our turn.
We hopped on an early morning train to Glasgow, met Esther's family there and went to bed. We slept all day and all that night.
In the morning Esther and I quickly raced around Glasgow having a look, then it was back into the car to drive to Loch Lomond.
Loch Lomond was a lake. Whoopee.
After that we went to a Whiskey Distillery and were taught all about how whiskey was made and got some samples to try. It was pretty good whiskey too. We drove to Edinburgh that night. For dinner I sat in a local pub and watched Blackburn vs Arsenal. Arsenal won with their second team. Pretty good end to the day!
Photos of Glasgow + Loch Lomond + Distillery:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23401&l=acfd4&id=544876388
First day in Edinburgh was spent looking at the Castle. It was HUGE. It was really darn cool and no matter what I type it can't really describe it, only the photos can really show you what it was like. What I will say was that it is on the top of a hill and so the views from the castle were brilliant.
After the castle, we had some food (were served by an aussie) and Esther, Alexander and I wandered down to the Scottish Parliament were they were having a debae, so we sat in on that for awhile and learned about ITV shutting down somethingorother.
First day in Edinburgh photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23403&l=82d51&id=544876388
Today Esther and I wandered around Edinburgh, checking out old buildings (i.e. churches) and just soaking up the place. I did some audio recording (got a dude playing bagpipes and stuff) and just generally enjoyed Edinburgh. Its a pretty nice place (lots of hills though) and things are still as they were hundreds of years ago.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23405&l=a8a50&id=544876388
So yeah, next entry will be from England again. Bye Scotland!
Hmn... whats happened since then?
Well..
I went to see Billy Bragg and The Pogues play. Billy played first and was amazing. I sung along to every song (even if I kinda forgot the words) and had the best time ever. You know a performer is great when its just one person and a guitar and they can command such a good stage presence. The Pogues came on second and weren't so good, but I'm happy that I can say I saw The Pogues play.
The next day I went out to the local pub with some of Esther's uni friends and watched Liverpool vs Manchester United and Arsenal vs Chelsea. Man U won their game, and Arsenal won their game, keeping Arsenal at the top. The Man U fans in the pub (remember, this is a pub IN Manchester) were furious, haha.
That night we had dinner with Esther's friends and as the night went on, said goodbye to them one by one.
Eventually, an hour before the sun came up, it was our turn.
We hopped on an early morning train to Glasgow, met Esther's family there and went to bed. We slept all day and all that night.
In the morning Esther and I quickly raced around Glasgow having a look, then it was back into the car to drive to Loch Lomond.
Loch Lomond was a lake. Whoopee.
After that we went to a Whiskey Distillery and were taught all about how whiskey was made and got some samples to try. It was pretty good whiskey too. We drove to Edinburgh that night. For dinner I sat in a local pub and watched Blackburn vs Arsenal. Arsenal won with their second team. Pretty good end to the day!
Photos of Glasgow + Loch Lomond + Distillery:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23401&l=acfd4&id=544876388
First day in Edinburgh was spent looking at the Castle. It was HUGE. It was really darn cool and no matter what I type it can't really describe it, only the photos can really show you what it was like. What I will say was that it is on the top of a hill and so the views from the castle were brilliant.
After the castle, we had some food (were served by an aussie) and Esther, Alexander and I wandered down to the Scottish Parliament were they were having a debae, so we sat in on that for awhile and learned about ITV shutting down somethingorother.
First day in Edinburgh photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23403&l=82d51&id=544876388
Today Esther and I wandered around Edinburgh, checking out old buildings (i.e. churches) and just soaking up the place. I did some audio recording (got a dude playing bagpipes and stuff) and just generally enjoyed Edinburgh. Its a pretty nice place (lots of hills though) and things are still as they were hundreds of years ago.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23405&l=a8a50&id=544876388
So yeah, next entry will be from England again. Bye Scotland!
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Liverpool + Lakes District
Its been a busy few days for me since Geoff, Lyn and Alexander turned up.
Two days ago we went to Liverpool via Stoke-On-Trent and Chester. Stoke-On-Trent wasn't very interesting as it was the home of pottery places and fine china such as Royal Dalton etc, and as none of us were too interested in seeing that, we just walked around the park.
The next place we headed was to somewhere that I don't remember the name of right now, but it was a place where Geoff had some relatives come from back in the 18whatevers. We found the site of what we think might be the church they were married in, but all thats left of it is a giant tower. Surrounding where the church used to stand is a graveyard. Some of the old headstones of graves that hadn't been looked after and were 250 years old were large and so were used to make the path through the graveyard. Pretty creepy stuff.
Liverpool was next on the agenda. We ended up at Albert Wharf which is where a lot of English people left to move to Australia. It was pretty bleak looking, and we came up with the theory that they made it like that so people would actually leave and be glad to leave :p
On the way back to Manchester, as Liverpool was the home of The Beatles, I took us back via Penny Lane to have my photo taken with the sign.
Photos of that trip (you can see them even if you don't have a facebook account):
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=22785&l=d5bc5&id=544876388
Yesterday it was off to whats known as 'The Lakes District'. On the way we stopped at Preston so I could look through the National Football Museum. It was so amazingly brilliant I could have looked through there all day. They had the entire history of football and the English league up for you to walk through, and so I loved seeing all that kind of stuff including random facts like that the offside rule was introduced 3 years after the first league was created.
Next stop was this place called Lancaster that had a massive castle. We had planned to go an look through it, but it turns out its STILL used as a working prison!
Onto the lakes district we went. Slowly civilization dropped off the map, and before we knew it we were driving through REAL English countryside. You know, big hilly fields with stonewalls, narrow roads, lots of wind and extremely overcast. It was pretty nice to look at, but I was glad I had the refuge of the car to sit in as it was bitterly cold outside. Alexander had his huge grin on his face the whole time as he loves the cold and loved finally seeing the countryside that he'd been wanting to see. We listened to Billy Bragg to help set the mood, so that enhanced the rural English feel. It also made me mega excited as I'm seeing Billy Bragg play tomorrow night! Yes!
Photos of The Lakes District:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=22928&l=8093c&id=544876388
Away from going places, I'm doing just fine. I'm freezing cold every day (today it was 3 jumpers, thermals, gloves and beanie) but traveling around and seeing new things is really really fun. Also, I think I'm getting a massive cold. Yay!
Two days ago we went to Liverpool via Stoke-On-Trent and Chester. Stoke-On-Trent wasn't very interesting as it was the home of pottery places and fine china such as Royal Dalton etc, and as none of us were too interested in seeing that, we just walked around the park.
The next place we headed was to somewhere that I don't remember the name of right now, but it was a place where Geoff had some relatives come from back in the 18whatevers. We found the site of what we think might be the church they were married in, but all thats left of it is a giant tower. Surrounding where the church used to stand is a graveyard. Some of the old headstones of graves that hadn't been looked after and were 250 years old were large and so were used to make the path through the graveyard. Pretty creepy stuff.
Liverpool was next on the agenda. We ended up at Albert Wharf which is where a lot of English people left to move to Australia. It was pretty bleak looking, and we came up with the theory that they made it like that so people would actually leave and be glad to leave :p
On the way back to Manchester, as Liverpool was the home of The Beatles, I took us back via Penny Lane to have my photo taken with the sign.
Photos of that trip (you can see them even if you don't have a facebook account):
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=22785&l=d5bc5&id=544876388
Yesterday it was off to whats known as 'The Lakes District'. On the way we stopped at Preston so I could look through the National Football Museum. It was so amazingly brilliant I could have looked through there all day. They had the entire history of football and the English league up for you to walk through, and so I loved seeing all that kind of stuff including random facts like that the offside rule was introduced 3 years after the first league was created.
Next stop was this place called Lancaster that had a massive castle. We had planned to go an look through it, but it turns out its STILL used as a working prison!
Onto the lakes district we went. Slowly civilization dropped off the map, and before we knew it we were driving through REAL English countryside. You know, big hilly fields with stonewalls, narrow roads, lots of wind and extremely overcast. It was pretty nice to look at, but I was glad I had the refuge of the car to sit in as it was bitterly cold outside. Alexander had his huge grin on his face the whole time as he loves the cold and loved finally seeing the countryside that he'd been wanting to see. We listened to Billy Bragg to help set the mood, so that enhanced the rural English feel. It also made me mega excited as I'm seeing Billy Bragg play tomorrow night! Yes!
Photos of The Lakes District:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=22928&l=8093c&id=544876388
Away from going places, I'm doing just fine. I'm freezing cold every day (today it was 3 jumpers, thermals, gloves and beanie) but traveling around and seeing new things is really really fun. Also, I think I'm getting a massive cold. Yay!
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
The Parentals Approach....
Yesterday Esther's parents arrived. Esther and I went to meet them at the airport, so we went and sat in the terminal we arrived in and waited for their plane to arrive. We knew they were coming from Japan, and an hour after we thought their plane was arriving a plane from Funchal or somewhere was arriving, so we figured it was that plane. An hour and a half passed, and after seeing everyone hop off all the planes and they still weren't there, I went to the woman at the info counter and said "this IS where all the international flights arrive, right?". She looked at me for two seconds and went "um, no. they also arrive on terminal 1". Okay. So terminal 1 it was... ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE AIRPORT!
Esther and I legged it to the other terminal and there they and Alexander were. Turns out they were flying in from Frankfurt, their plane arrived ontime AND in the terminal that we weren't in. WHOOPS.
The next adventure was learing how to use the hire car. It is a computer on wheels. Geoffrey decided the best way to learn was to just push all the buttons to see what they did. In the end he spent 15mins trying to turn OFF the back windscreen, all with us yelling at him to try all the buttons again.
Eventually we did leave the airport... 2 hours after we had planned to.
Last night consisted of me and Esther sharing a cider and watching Oceans 13. A good night in.
Today I went and showed Geoff, Lyn and Alexander around Manchester. Esther was busy doing work and going to class, so it was up to me to do it. It went relatively smoothly. We went to the Manchester Art Gallery, which I didn't find interesting, so I busied myself with trying on the galleries masks:
Geoff and Lyn went off to look at some stuff so I took Alexander to Urbis to see the Hacienda exhibit. I'm not sure if he liked it or not, he was still buggered from jetlag. I ended up dumping Alexander with Geoff and Lyn and running off with Esther to the Christmas Markets. We stood around in the cold with some Hot Blueberry Wine to warm us up.
Esther and I legged it to the other terminal and there they and Alexander were. Turns out they were flying in from Frankfurt, their plane arrived ontime AND in the terminal that we weren't in. WHOOPS.
The next adventure was learing how to use the hire car. It is a computer on wheels. Geoffrey decided the best way to learn was to just push all the buttons to see what they did. In the end he spent 15mins trying to turn OFF the back windscreen, all with us yelling at him to try all the buttons again.
Eventually we did leave the airport... 2 hours after we had planned to.
Last night consisted of me and Esther sharing a cider and watching Oceans 13. A good night in.
Today I went and showed Geoff, Lyn and Alexander around Manchester. Esther was busy doing work and going to class, so it was up to me to do it. It went relatively smoothly. We went to the Manchester Art Gallery, which I didn't find interesting, so I busied myself with trying on the galleries masks:
Geoff and Lyn went off to look at some stuff so I took Alexander to Urbis to see the Hacienda exhibit. I'm not sure if he liked it or not, he was still buggered from jetlag. I ended up dumping Alexander with Geoff and Lyn and running off with Esther to the Christmas Markets. We stood around in the cold with some Hot Blueberry Wine to warm us up.
Monday, December 10, 2007
York + Other stuff
Hello all, welcome to more exciting adventures.
I went to York the other day. It was a really nice little place. It used to be an old Roman settlement, so the place has a very rich history to it. These days its entirely dominated by old english architecture, but a lot of the main roads are built on the old roman roads. They have this huge minster there which is pretty cool, and all the streets have this nice old buildings and whathaveyou. York even has its own wall to stop intruders or something, but they still let me in, so really its not very useful at all!
I found a small museum where they showed you the remnants of an old roman bath that was kinda cool.
The other thing I did in York (the reason I went there in the first place) was go to the National Rail Museum. It is known as the 'biggest rail museum in the world' and after going there I can understand why. I spent 5 hours walking around that place. They have Mallard, The Flying Scotsman and many trains from all around the world there. I took heaps of photos. But yeah, it was really brilliant.
The past couple of nights we've gone out despite the cold. One night we went to this place called 'Revolution' which was just a bar, but the most expensive bar i've ever seen. I really didn't like it because bars aren't my thing at all, but it was good because I got to hang out with Matt and get to know him and his friends a bit.
Last night Esther and I went out with some of her uni friends because Monique (she is dutch) wanted to go out and eat 'real english fish and chips'. After wandering around we found this nice little pub that had decent meals and she got her fish and chips. I had this tasty burger, so I'm wanting to go back there. After dinner it was off to 'pub quiz' (they refuse to call it trivia for some reason) where we almost won, but again it was just nice to sit around and talk to Esther's friends and get to know them.
Today Esther's parents are arriving, so Esther is trying to get a whole bunch of work done before they're here. It'll be so strange when they arrive. Not a bad things they're coming, but it'll just be weird cause they're the people that 'live in that house near the city' to me. The only time I've seen them away from the house is once when they came to my house and once when we went to Narranderra with them, so them being on the other side of the world will be kinda strange.
here are some photos:
Mallard, the fastest steam train in the world:
The Flying Scotsman, currently pulled apart for a major overhaul and rebuild:
Shinkansen:
The wall around York:
The massive Minster:
Old Roman bathhouse:
Typical York street:
Random old building:
I went to York the other day. It was a really nice little place. It used to be an old Roman settlement, so the place has a very rich history to it. These days its entirely dominated by old english architecture, but a lot of the main roads are built on the old roman roads. They have this huge minster there which is pretty cool, and all the streets have this nice old buildings and whathaveyou. York even has its own wall to stop intruders or something, but they still let me in, so really its not very useful at all!
I found a small museum where they showed you the remnants of an old roman bath that was kinda cool.
The other thing I did in York (the reason I went there in the first place) was go to the National Rail Museum. It is known as the 'biggest rail museum in the world' and after going there I can understand why. I spent 5 hours walking around that place. They have Mallard, The Flying Scotsman and many trains from all around the world there. I took heaps of photos. But yeah, it was really brilliant.
The past couple of nights we've gone out despite the cold. One night we went to this place called 'Revolution' which was just a bar, but the most expensive bar i've ever seen. I really didn't like it because bars aren't my thing at all, but it was good because I got to hang out with Matt and get to know him and his friends a bit.
Last night Esther and I went out with some of her uni friends because Monique (she is dutch) wanted to go out and eat 'real english fish and chips'. After wandering around we found this nice little pub that had decent meals and she got her fish and chips. I had this tasty burger, so I'm wanting to go back there. After dinner it was off to 'pub quiz' (they refuse to call it trivia for some reason) where we almost won, but again it was just nice to sit around and talk to Esther's friends and get to know them.
Today Esther's parents are arriving, so Esther is trying to get a whole bunch of work done before they're here. It'll be so strange when they arrive. Not a bad things they're coming, but it'll just be weird cause they're the people that 'live in that house near the city' to me. The only time I've seen them away from the house is once when they came to my house and once when we went to Narranderra with them, so them being on the other side of the world will be kinda strange.
here are some photos:
Mallard, the fastest steam train in the world:
The Flying Scotsman, currently pulled apart for a major overhaul and rebuild:
Shinkansen:
The wall around York:
The massive Minster:
Old Roman bathhouse:
Typical York street:
Random old building:
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Dr Who + Trains = Fun!
So today Esther kicked me out so she could do some uni work, so I wandered down to the local Manchester Museum of Science and Industry, expecting to see some cool industrial and sciency type things.
On arrival I wandered into the first exhibit that was there, not knowing what they had, and lo and behold it was all about Dr Who!
Basically, it was an exhibit that consisted of the actual costumes of characters from Dr Who, all on display for you to see! I wasn't sure if photography was allowed, but as NOBODY was around (it was kinda creepy like that) I took plenty of photos. Rachael, Hugh and Mum, prepare to be jealous:
The REAL coat:
K9!
The Face Of Bo (he was one of the best things there):
The Cybermen, they look as creepy in real life as they do on TV:
The Daleks:
One of the statues from 'Blink'. This was actually pretty scary to look at (thanks to such a good episode they were in):
Me with a Dalek. This one you could actually go inside and move his suction cup and beater around. There was also a mic so you could talk like a Dalek too:
Manchester was the home of Beyer Peacock, who built the Garrat locomotives:
Manchester was also the first place in the world to have an official Public transport railway in the world. This is the place where Stevensons Rocket was tested and built. They don't have the replica of the original Rocket here, but they had this loco which is a similar type. It is a full working model. Very cool:
The first dedicated passenger train station in the world, right here. The building itself isn't too impressive (thats it on the left) but the tracks are in the original positions that they were in when the line was first built:
Oh yeah, I also got my Arsenal merchandise for when I go see the play in a few weeks. Very awesome!
On arrival I wandered into the first exhibit that was there, not knowing what they had, and lo and behold it was all about Dr Who!
Basically, it was an exhibit that consisted of the actual costumes of characters from Dr Who, all on display for you to see! I wasn't sure if photography was allowed, but as NOBODY was around (it was kinda creepy like that) I took plenty of photos. Rachael, Hugh and Mum, prepare to be jealous:
The REAL coat:
K9!
The Face Of Bo (he was one of the best things there):
The Cybermen, they look as creepy in real life as they do on TV:
The Daleks:
One of the statues from 'Blink'. This was actually pretty scary to look at (thanks to such a good episode they were in):
Me with a Dalek. This one you could actually go inside and move his suction cup and beater around. There was also a mic so you could talk like a Dalek too:
Manchester was the home of Beyer Peacock, who built the Garrat locomotives:
Manchester was also the first place in the world to have an official Public transport railway in the world. This is the place where Stevensons Rocket was tested and built. They don't have the replica of the original Rocket here, but they had this loco which is a similar type. It is a full working model. Very cool:
The first dedicated passenger train station in the world, right here. The building itself isn't too impressive (thats it on the left) but the tracks are in the original positions that they were in when the line was first built:
Oh yeah, I also got my Arsenal merchandise for when I go see the play in a few weeks. Very awesome!
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Hooray from England!
So I'm totally in England (yes, all of me)!
First impressions? ARGH IT'S SO DARN COLD
Lots of things are the same as at home though, so it doesn't seem too much like I'm in a different country. I haven't really met many English people a all yet. So far I've met: Miranda (a Dutchie who was walking around in a bath robe/towel), Tom (a german guy who's English isn't so good) and Steve (who was drunk and cause he has a broken foot was flying down the street on crutches trying to get to the next pub). So thats one English person out of the three that I've met.
Yesterday I arrived at 6:30am and met Esther at the airport, which was brilliant as I haven't seen her in 3 long months, so that was pretty darn exciting :) We caught the train back to where she lives and I had a bit of a rest for a few hours after the long flight (so bad, the airline food made me sick). At 1pmish, Esther took me out to look around Manchester. It's a very busy place, lots of double deck busses, trams which look more like trains, and people everywhere. Oh yeah, its also VERY rainy. Thanks to there being no rain in Sydney anymore, there were all these weird things on the ground that people call 'puddles' thats I had to deal with which were very strange.
While we were out we had a look at an exhibition about the Hacienda nightclub which I found very interesting. Esther was mostly into it because of design stuff (posters, art etc) but I was mostly into it because of music history etc. I was amazed at just how many items they had left from over the years. Lots of posters and flyers, lots of videos and recordings of bands that played there, and lots of photos too.
Last night I also did one of the few things I've been wanting to do for a very long time. What was that? Well, see one of my favourite bands, The Slackers, play! :O
IT WAS THE MOST FUN EVER. I had so much fun that even anti-dance man Owen danced the night away. It was the perfect setting to see them in too. It wasn't a massive club, but a nice small one with a very informal stage in the middle of the room and there weren't massive amounts of people there but instead were just a bunch of people who really liked the band and there was plenty of room to dance and just have a great time. I even got to talk to Dave their sax player (the guy who made me decide I wanted to learn the sax) after the show so that was brilliant. He said they're talking about coming down to Australia sometime, but I know that they've been "talking about it" for the past 8 years, so who knows. I got myself a shirt (no mum, its brown, NOT black) too which I'm going to wear with pride. Photos:
Today isn't going to have much going on, but tomorrow Esther and I are off to Middlesbrough to look at an exhibition with people from her uni course and because that shouldn't take too long, we'll walk around Middlesbrough for a while and check it out.
So yeah, apart from the freezing cold (I can't believe I've got 2.5 more months of this) I'm having a good time and getting to see Esther again is amazing :)
First impressions? ARGH IT'S SO DARN COLD
Lots of things are the same as at home though, so it doesn't seem too much like I'm in a different country. I haven't really met many English people a all yet. So far I've met: Miranda (a Dutchie who was walking around in a bath robe/towel), Tom (a german guy who's English isn't so good) and Steve (who was drunk and cause he has a broken foot was flying down the street on crutches trying to get to the next pub). So thats one English person out of the three that I've met.
Yesterday I arrived at 6:30am and met Esther at the airport, which was brilliant as I haven't seen her in 3 long months, so that was pretty darn exciting :) We caught the train back to where she lives and I had a bit of a rest for a few hours after the long flight (so bad, the airline food made me sick). At 1pmish, Esther took me out to look around Manchester. It's a very busy place, lots of double deck busses, trams which look more like trains, and people everywhere. Oh yeah, its also VERY rainy. Thanks to there being no rain in Sydney anymore, there were all these weird things on the ground that people call 'puddles' thats I had to deal with which were very strange.
While we were out we had a look at an exhibition about the Hacienda nightclub which I found very interesting. Esther was mostly into it because of design stuff (posters, art etc) but I was mostly into it because of music history etc. I was amazed at just how many items they had left from over the years. Lots of posters and flyers, lots of videos and recordings of bands that played there, and lots of photos too.
Last night I also did one of the few things I've been wanting to do for a very long time. What was that? Well, see one of my favourite bands, The Slackers, play! :O
IT WAS THE MOST FUN EVER. I had so much fun that even anti-dance man Owen danced the night away. It was the perfect setting to see them in too. It wasn't a massive club, but a nice small one with a very informal stage in the middle of the room and there weren't massive amounts of people there but instead were just a bunch of people who really liked the band and there was plenty of room to dance and just have a great time. I even got to talk to Dave their sax player (the guy who made me decide I wanted to learn the sax) after the show so that was brilliant. He said they're talking about coming down to Australia sometime, but I know that they've been "talking about it" for the past 8 years, so who knows. I got myself a shirt (no mum, its brown, NOT black) too which I'm going to wear with pride. Photos:
Today isn't going to have much going on, but tomorrow Esther and I are off to Middlesbrough to look at an exhibition with people from her uni course and because that shouldn't take too long, we'll walk around Middlesbrough for a while and check it out.
So yeah, apart from the freezing cold (I can't believe I've got 2.5 more months of this) I'm having a good time and getting to see Esther again is amazing :)
Monday, December 3, 2007
Hooray from Singapore!
Well, i'm now in Singapore airport, waiting for my next flight. The trip over was pretty boring (8 hours) and i'm not lookng forward to the next section, which is close to twice as long (14.5 hours!). Made a friend on the flight over which was nice as i then had someone to talk to. I think I saw Dave May and Lauren in the line to get on to the plane, but I couldn't push up the line to find out if it was them or not. I didn't get an A380 like I was hoping, and economy class is just as bad as I remember (goodbye knees!)
This is just a quick entry, as they have very slow internet here and it'll time me out every 15 mins, so getting things done isn't happening so quick.
Singapore airport is a lot quieter than Sydney airport, which is kinda nice.
This is just a quick entry, as they have very slow internet here and it'll time me out every 15 mins, so getting things done isn't happening so quick.
Singapore airport is a lot quieter than Sydney airport, which is kinda nice.
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