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| Handing out the gifts from Santa's "sack" aka garbage bags! |
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| Happy flatmates...we hadn't opened the gifts yet so we were still friends! |
Tuesday, 14 December 2010
Christmas Party!
On Tuesday 7th our flat celebrated Christmas together with Secret Santa and a nice roast dinner downtown where we met up with Martina's flat from next door!
A royal day out in York
On Monday 6th December I headed off to York to see the famous York Minster and the beautiful town of York.
Originally I was going to get there around 9/9.30 so that I could join a walking tour of the city. However, when I woke up at 8 and started getting ready I thought I would quickly check the temperature in York for the day. At 8am it was -15 degrees. I took off my clothes and got back into bed.
At 10am I got out of bed and tried for a second time. The temperature -13 degrees...lucky I bought long johns the day before! So off I went, all rugged up, to the train station. The train journey is only about 20mins as York is so close to Leeds (the obvious reason why Leeds is part of Yorkshire). However, due to "adverse weather conditions" (something I am getting painfully used to hearing) we were delayed by about 20 minutes. Where our train happened to pull up just outside York was next to a diesel engine called the Queen's Messenger. I thought, "how patriotic." I continued looking at the train, only about 2 or 3 metres away, and then I saw the Royal Insignia of Elizabeth II imprinted on the side. It was then that I realised I was sitting within a stones throw, literally, of THE Royal Train! I may have had a minor panic/excitement attack in my seat as I realised this was probably the closest I would ever get to the Royal Family. So very very very cool! I didn't know who was on it but it was an impressive feeling sitting side by side with the Royal Train for 20 minutes. Eventually we parted, like one of those black and white movies with the steam train pulling out of the station, and I arrived in York.
I met up with Liz and Diyana who had taken an earlier train and we managed to find a place selling kangaroo burgers for lunch. They were both impressed with the taste. I was telling them about my Royal Train experience and someone mentioned to us that Prince Charles was in York attending a service at the Minster. We dropped what we were doing and ran to the Minster only to find that he had already slipped out the back door and hopped aboard mummy's train for London. Never mind!
The girls headed back to Leeds and stuck around discovering York for a few more hours, spending some time in the Minster and the crypts below. Temperature check when I boarded my train for Leeds: -10 degrees...it didn't get any warmer than that all day!
Originally I was going to get there around 9/9.30 so that I could join a walking tour of the city. However, when I woke up at 8 and started getting ready I thought I would quickly check the temperature in York for the day. At 8am it was -15 degrees. I took off my clothes and got back into bed.
At 10am I got out of bed and tried for a second time. The temperature -13 degrees...lucky I bought long johns the day before! So off I went, all rugged up, to the train station. The train journey is only about 20mins as York is so close to Leeds (the obvious reason why Leeds is part of Yorkshire). However, due to "adverse weather conditions" (something I am getting painfully used to hearing) we were delayed by about 20 minutes. Where our train happened to pull up just outside York was next to a diesel engine called the Queen's Messenger. I thought, "how patriotic." I continued looking at the train, only about 2 or 3 metres away, and then I saw the Royal Insignia of Elizabeth II imprinted on the side. It was then that I realised I was sitting within a stones throw, literally, of THE Royal Train! I may have had a minor panic/excitement attack in my seat as I realised this was probably the closest I would ever get to the Royal Family. So very very very cool! I didn't know who was on it but it was an impressive feeling sitting side by side with the Royal Train for 20 minutes. Eventually we parted, like one of those black and white movies with the steam train pulling out of the station, and I arrived in York.
I met up with Liz and Diyana who had taken an earlier train and we managed to find a place selling kangaroo burgers for lunch. They were both impressed with the taste. I was telling them about my Royal Train experience and someone mentioned to us that Prince Charles was in York attending a service at the Minster. We dropped what we were doing and ran to the Minster only to find that he had already slipped out the back door and hopped aboard mummy's train for London. Never mind!
The girls headed back to Leeds and stuck around discovering York for a few more hours, spending some time in the Minster and the crypts below. Temperature check when I boarded my train for Leeds: -10 degrees...it didn't get any warmer than that all day!
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| Country side on the way to York |
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| The Royal Train |
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| Castle walls surrounding York |
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| The ice covered river |
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| York Minster |
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| The organ |
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| Christmas wish/prayer tree |
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| Prince Charles sat in one of these seats only hours before I took this photo! Yes, I'm a freak. |
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| Clifford's Tower Part of the old castle |
Returning to the white wilderness...
While I was in Rugby, Leeds was hit with a lot of heavy snow. I barely recognised the place when I got back!
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| When I arrived in September |
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| December 1st |
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| Snowman outside the building...definitely a man |
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| The Business School |
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| Hyde Park |
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The bowling gr...white Barefoot bowls anyone?
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| Snowball fight with the Spaniards! |
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| Vinh...an open target! |
Back to Rugby
I opted for a quite weekend on the 26th-27th November and headed back to Rugby. I would have done this trip more often if it wasn't for the $55AUD train ticket!
It was nice just to sit in front of the fire and watch TV for a change. I also took a tour of the new house in the back yard...which is huge by Australian standards which means the English don't know whether it is a block of flats or an office building. There still a bit of work to go yet but by Christmas it should be looking good.
It was nice just to sit in front of the fire and watch TV for a change. I also took a tour of the new house in the back yard...which is huge by Australian standards which means the English don't know whether it is a block of flats or an office building. There still a bit of work to go yet but by Christmas it should be looking good.
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| The back of the house covered in fresh snow |
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| Looking out my window onto the first snow of the season in Rugby |
A Turkey Lurkey Christmas
November 25th is Thanksgiving in America so Kira decided to throw a Thanksgiving Dinner for everyone in the flat. Liz (the other American) managed to escape the work and skipped off to Cairo to visit family.
My day started at about 9am when I got a message from an Australian I met over here saying "It's snowing!" Best wake-up message ever. I ran outside and took photos like a Japanese tourist...even though I have seen more than my fair share of snow before.
After the initial excitement wore down I went back inside to see the GIANT turkey going into the oven...at 9am! It sat there cooking all day making the flat smell incredible. We started preparing the rest of the food at around 4pm and cooked for a solid 3.5/4 hours before everything was ready. We used 3 different ovens in 3 different flats in order to cook everything.
When it was all served up an eery silence fell over the group as we took our first bite. It turned out that we were all so hungry for smelling turkey all day we didn't want to ruin the moment by talking. The food was incredible, the deserts were fantastic and all of us were stuffed by the end...pun intended...lame I know!
The first snow of the season on Thanksgiving Day...surely that is a sign of good luck?
My day started at about 9am when I got a message from an Australian I met over here saying "It's snowing!" Best wake-up message ever. I ran outside and took photos like a Japanese tourist...even though I have seen more than my fair share of snow before.
After the initial excitement wore down I went back inside to see the GIANT turkey going into the oven...at 9am! It sat there cooking all day making the flat smell incredible. We started preparing the rest of the food at around 4pm and cooked for a solid 3.5/4 hours before everything was ready. We used 3 different ovens in 3 different flats in order to cook everything.
When it was all served up an eery silence fell over the group as we took our first bite. It turned out that we were all so hungry for smelling turkey all day we didn't want to ruin the moment by talking. The food was incredible, the deserts were fantastic and all of us were stuffed by the end...pun intended...lame I know!
The first snow of the season on Thanksgiving Day...surely that is a sign of good luck?
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| Still in my slippers and PJs |
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| Hard to see...but the haze is snow! |
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| Kira, Diyana and Maria Preparing dinner |
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| The incredible turkey |
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| Diyana settling the dry argument |
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| Cheesy potatoes...so good! |
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| All cooked |
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| Calum attempting to carve the turkey Diyana eventually got frustrated and took over! |
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| 5 different deserts...but none of Nan's jelly! |
Kira, meet London...
On Sunday 21st November I played the tour guide for the group and took Kira (being her first time in London) around to some of the big destinations.
We hit up Buckingham Palace (just in time to see the end of the Changing of the Guards) and ran into a group of hasidic Jews on holiday...Kira was in heaven! After some awkward photos trying to include Kira's kin-folk we headed off for a stroll through St James' Park. There was a guy in the park holding onto one of the infamous St James' pelicans. He told us that this was the actual bird that ate the pigeon (check it out on YouTube). Naturally we all wanted to pat the legendary cannibal! We then moved on to the Horse Guard Parades, where a Remembrance Day ceremony was taking place, then into Trafalgar Square for some interesting photos with lions...
After refueling with lunch we headed down towards Westminster to see Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament! Just as impressive on my 100th time round!!! We then, naturally, made our way to Harrods where Liz and Kira went crazy looking at shoes and fur coats that cost more than a good BMW (if there are any good ones?). Kira now wants to own a Chinchilla...
It was then back to the hostel where it was time to say goodbye. Jack, Kira, Liz and I headed our separate ways. I was off to a concert in Chelsea to see one of Matthew's friends from home, Fiona, perform. Fiona is living and working over here and performs with the Kensington Philharmonic Orchestra. Because some of the tube lines were down for maintenance I had to rely on a bus...which never came! After waiting half an hour or so I gave up and called it quits...sorry Fiona! Instead I headed into Hyde Park where a massive Christmas festival was happening. They had basically built a second London Eye in the park.
Afterwards it was up through the Wellington Arch and on towards Buckingham Palace where I pretended to be a talented photographer and took some photos of the Palace lit up at night.
A disappointing end to an otherwise great weekend in London!
We hit up Buckingham Palace (just in time to see the end of the Changing of the Guards) and ran into a group of hasidic Jews on holiday...Kira was in heaven! After some awkward photos trying to include Kira's kin-folk we headed off for a stroll through St James' Park. There was a guy in the park holding onto one of the infamous St James' pelicans. He told us that this was the actual bird that ate the pigeon (check it out on YouTube). Naturally we all wanted to pat the legendary cannibal! We then moved on to the Horse Guard Parades, where a Remembrance Day ceremony was taking place, then into Trafalgar Square for some interesting photos with lions...
After refueling with lunch we headed down towards Westminster to see Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament! Just as impressive on my 100th time round!!! We then, naturally, made our way to Harrods where Liz and Kira went crazy looking at shoes and fur coats that cost more than a good BMW (if there are any good ones?). Kira now wants to own a Chinchilla...
It was then back to the hostel where it was time to say goodbye. Jack, Kira, Liz and I headed our separate ways. I was off to a concert in Chelsea to see one of Matthew's friends from home, Fiona, perform. Fiona is living and working over here and performs with the Kensington Philharmonic Orchestra. Because some of the tube lines were down for maintenance I had to rely on a bus...which never came! After waiting half an hour or so I gave up and called it quits...sorry Fiona! Instead I headed into Hyde Park where a massive Christmas festival was happening. They had basically built a second London Eye in the park.
Afterwards it was up through the Wellington Arch and on towards Buckingham Palace where I pretended to be a talented photographer and took some photos of the Palace lit up at night.
A disappointing end to an otherwise great weekend in London!
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| Kira and Liz |
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| Kira didn't want to be focused in this picture...it was all about her brother Jew on the phone! |
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| Someone has to pack up the stands and it is always the first years! |
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| A hand isn't far off a pigeon... |
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| An Aston Martin...I'm disgusted! |
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| Hyde Park Christmas markets |
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| Ice skating in the park. Not the London Eye in the background - just another huge ferris wheel built for the markets. |
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| Wellington Arch |
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