Scene: Birmingham | Take: 1

Birmingham is the second largest city in England and a great destination for shopping and sight seeing. I decided to head off to "B'ingham" for the day as it is only a 30 minute train ride away.

This plan was doomed from the beginning!

Trying to book my train ticket turned out to be hopeless as the website didn't like my Debit MasterCard details, claiming that the card number was invalid! I resigned myself to just buying a ticket at the station the next morning, which is often more expensive than pre-booking. After sleeping through my alarm and missing the early train I should have just given up...especially because it was threatening rain. I sorted myself out and got the bus to the station and set off for the city.

It was pouring when I got there. So I went to the shops first, while the rain settled down, and had a look around. Some interesting stores with some great clothes. A department store called Selfridges & Co (similar to DJs or Myer) had two whole floors dedicated to menswear! Good luck finding that in Australia!! I also came across the Disney store...and took a photo:

After visiting the mass of shops for quite a while I decided to head out and follow one of the walking trails around the city for tourists. I got to the first stop (the huge City Hall), pulled out my camera and found that my photo of the Disney store had drained the battery! So I went to the Art Gallery and back to more shopping before heading home.

Clearly my trip to Birmingham was cursed from the start! Although I did get asked by a local family for directions...but the husband thought I was American so it ruined the moment for me. The wife recognised the accent but only from watching Home & Away. The only time Lincoln Lewis has had a positive influence from his work? Sorry Maeghan :)

Hopefully next week's trip will be a little better...

Do you know the Muffin Man?

On Thursday I took the bus into the Rugby Town Centre to check out the area. Turns out it is just a built up version of Wynnum...but with fewer Op Shops! The main mall section had a couple of the well known English chains like Marks & Spencers and TopShop/TopMan.

The town itself is football crazy with William Webb Ellis's name splashed on every surface possible...including his own museum! Whatever doesn't carry the name Webb Ellis carries the name "Rugby School": one of the most prestigious and expensive private schools in the UK. The campus is huge and covers half the town with several buildings not even on the site but in the blocks and streets surrounding it.

Embarrassing fact: I saw this doorway into part of the school and it reminded me of the doorway from Weirdsister College (the follow up series to The Worst Witch). Turns out the filming took place at Cambridge University and not the Rugby School.

Whilst discovering the town centre I came across Drury Lane...which was fresh on my mind still from watching Shrek on the plane. Couldn't find the Muffin Man though!

Found an Australian Bar, but I'm not sure what it belongs to! Sadly there is only one night club in all of Rugby...what will I do with my Saturday nights? I will just have to go to the pub - Rugby has the most pubs per square mile in all of the UK!

Home Sweet Home...for now

Given that uni doesn't start until the end of September I needed a roof over my head before moving up onto campus. So I am currently residing in Bilton, Rugby, in the home of my Uncle Martin and Aunty Hilary. Matin and Hilary are kindly looking after me for a few weeks, making sure that I don't get lost, sold to gypsys or go hungry! They have a lovely home in the outskirts of a town called Rugby which, as the name suggests, is the birthplace of the sport. My trip into the city centre made it obvious that the tourism economy rides off the back of their love for the sport...and nothing else!

Their house is situated across from a very green and lovely park which has a constant stream of families going through and playing on during these last few weeks of summer. The house itself is half renovated at the moment (I should have packed my painting overalls) but has an incredible observatory at the back in typical English fashion. My room is the window in the middle!

At the back of their incredibly huge block of land Martin and Hilary are building their new home which they hope to move into sometime in the new year.

For the next few weeks this will be my home - sharing with Martin and Hilary, Simon (Hilary's son), Hannah (Hilary's daughter) and George (the cat)!

A Farnham style exit!

After months of planning and talking about my trip it finally came time to say goodbye and what better way to do it than with 9 parties and family gatherings! Johnny got wind of this and is subsequently booking another tour: I'm Not Dead Yet - 2011! An honourable mention goes to Rebecca Swain for attending the majority of those parties.

Spotted at 14:45 17/08/10 at the Brisbane International Airport: an emotional mother and father saying goodbye to their youngest (and most favourite) son for 6 months. A tough moment for me...but then I saw the Duty Free shopping downstairs and the slightly unethical use of the QANTAS club's wifi!

The flight to Singapore was interesting...especially because for the last 6 months I thought I was going to Kuala Lumpur. Bronwyn, my 50-something yr old Kiwi (come Aussie) neighbour, was good for a chat, a Singaporean Sling chased by a couple of beers and regular toilet trips (which meant I could easily get out and walk around while she was busy).

The change over at Singapore was greatly aided by the piano lounge in the middle of Terminal 3 with the pianist taking all kinds of requests!

Boarding the A380 to London took a lifetime! A very full flight meant a long time to get on and seated...especially because I was up the very front, hence, the last to board.

By now I had so much sugar in my system from munching on Minties and downing Hot Chocolate, I had the shakes! And it certainly didn't help my stomach when we hit a few patches of turbulance along the way.

After 13.5 hours, and a great chat with the guy next to me who ships motorbikes from Australia so that tourists can do roadtips on their own bikes, I landed in the rat maze that is Heathrow Airport. There was certainly chemistry between the immigration officer and me: she was big, black, had more attitude than Aretha and was possibly having the worst day of her life; exactly how they are on UK Border Patrol.

I emerged from Customs sooner than expected (no full body pat down like Brisbane this time) and started scanning the crowd for a familiar face, which I found glued to the camera "recording it for your mother." 2 hours later and I was at home in Rugby feeling like I just woke up from a big night in the Valley...