Leading up to D Day...

The Olympics are something that I am dreading... When it affects main lines you're traveling daily, you freak out. The start of my fear was beginning with today. The torch relay, it was meant to go past work at 0930 hours, when that's the time we start work.I thought I'd be proactive and get in before that. The results were good. I got to work in normal travel time plus 20 mins, but got to see the torch go past as well...

People starting to wait a couple of hours beforehand

Crowd's are starting to gather near work

Going up to the lobby - looking out from the escalator

Looking down from the lobby

View from the office down on to Museum of London

The start of the trucks getting everyone in the spirit

London in our 4 days of summer.

I finally have a lunch friend at work, E, who has just started on our team. We went for a walk one day this week and we got to witness some crazy art around the city and make the most of the Olympic atmosphere. There were people dancing showing their pants (undies) on beds in public and the weird Olympic statues. It was a lovely sunny day, and there were even boys swimming in fountains, even though they're full on chemicals to stop the algae from turning it all green.

Crazy bed dancing

It's so hot in London people are swimming in chemical fountains

OE Travel Blogs

You can check out some of my blog's on OE Travel Blogs, a great place to find travel tips, meet travelers and compare tours! A summary of my Dubai blog has just gone up, think I saw that it's blog of the month for July! *blush*

OE Travel Blogs

My Dubai blog on OE Travel Blogs

 

The Shard opening

One of the benefits of my new job is getting wined and dined and schmoozed by media companies. One of the first parties that I got invited to was on a roof top terrace at the Double Tree Hilton over looking London last Thursday night. 

One of the only buildings to make up the London "skyline" is the Shard. It's to be the tallest building in Europe (for now) and even though it looks unfinished, the opening happened to be on the same night as the media party. There was talk of a spectacular laser show and the building being lit up for the grand unveiling (even though 12 million people had seen the thing being built, it's not like they'd put a curtain around it during the past 3 years). We were in prime position for this. A little over-rated, but hey, at least we got to see it. The free alcohol and canapes weren't that bad of an environment to have seen it either. 

Three legged bandit

You might have read my earlier post about Ras, my Aunties cat in Dubai. He's full of mischief and thinks he is some Persian warrior that was put on this earth to roam wild, chasing butterflies. 

Just before I left Dubai, Ras ran away. I think he took offense to my blog, and left home. I didn't get any goodbye cuddles from him, and we feared he may not come back all. About a week after I left Dubai, Ras returned home, and according to the vet, he'd been living wild. It must of scared him a bit, as he didn't venture too far from home again after that. 

But he still liked to roam. Determined to not be restricted, by walls, windows and doors,  Ras set out early one morning, and got hit by a car. You would have think that he would have used up his nine lives by now, but someone clearly isn't keeping count, and Ras came out of the whole incident minus a leg, but still wanting to be roaming the streets. Let's hope he's learned his lesson now and won't take on any more cars.

Taking the safe option and napping with Zoe

Minus a leg

How to do Ibiza on €20

Ibiza

It was jubilee weekend, and people in London either wanted to escape the chaos, or deck your house out in red white n blue along with yourself and celebrate with Lilibet. Up until the Thursday the previous week, I had thought I was going to be donning the union jack and cracking open the Pimm's and eating cold sausage roll's at street party's for the 4 day weekend, but in a turn of events, I decided I would be using my flight's to Ibiza and joining a few friends who were going.

Street parties in London for Jubilee

On the Saturday afternoon I made my way to the airport, and was meeting Jess at the other end as we had different flights. With a lot more ease at the security check than normal, I had a few beer's in the airport bar before boarding the flight. My dreams of a quiet flight with a bit of sleep were dashed when there were more screaming kids than stag parties on the flight, and when young Dale decided he would take the seat next to me and insist on talking to me the whole way. I shouldn't really be complaining as Dale was quite a babe and he bought me drinks on the flight - it could have been a lot worse!

I landed in Ibiza, and even though it was just past midnight I could still make out all of the small private planes parked at the airport. Wouldn't that be nice? Ibiza immigration was easier than a domestic flight anywhere in the world, breezing through in about 10 minutes (including line up), and before I knew it I was hiding behind a pillar to jump out and surprise Jess as she walked towards the baggage carousel.

We caught a cab to the apartment, and went and said hello to others and dropped our bags off and then went for a walk. We were staying at privately owned apartments right on the beach, right next to each other. Since it was around 1am by the time we got there, we went for a walk around the street's to see all the drunk English tourists. Wow. This place really is like they make out on tv. Every 2 metres people were asking us if we wanted to buy tickets to some club, or go in to their restaurant. With the idea of getting a few drinks being taken over with tiredness, we made our way back to the apartment. Trying to stealth mode it in without waking Al and Ali was an epic fail, as the light switch above the door lock turned out to be a door bell. Getting settled in to our room, Jess came in to say that the toilet didn't flush. Great. I jumped up and went in to our bathroom, and turned the little tap at the base of the toilet, and with great relief the sound of water filling up the cistern graced our ears. Jess then came back in to grab a bottle of water - all of the taps were salt water. Thank goodness I was only here for a couple of nights. How is my hair meant to feel clean after washing it with salt water!!

First morning in Ibiza

The following morning brought grey skys, rain and disappointment. The others had gotten burnt the previous day, so they were quite glad for the sun not to be showing it's face. However, we were here for beach and sunshine, so what better way to deal with the disappointment? Start drinking of course (just joking)! Jess delivered me breakfast in bed consisting of cereal and a glass of chocolate milk,  which we decided half way through we could go and eat outside on our lovely courtyard that was right on the beach front. After that, when all of our apartment were up and half of the other apartment, we decided to go for a walk to get some supplies - mainly cash out and mix for alcohol. The boys decided that they wouldn't wear shoes, which turned out to be a big mistake as every cash machine this side of the island seemed to be out of money. We walked for about 15 minutes trying every machine we passed, until they finally found one that looked like a telephone, so it still had a bit of money in it. It was raining quite a bit now, so we made our way back to the apartment. 

View from our apartment

Eventually everyone was awake, the bass was pumping from Jet, planes were going over head every 5 minutes, and our neighbors were telling us off for talking too loud. We moved across to the other apartment and all had a few drinks, with everyone except Jess, Dan and I heading to Old Town to go exploring. Jess and I were going to hire a convertible Jeep the following day and go exploring then. The sun eventually decided to come out, and we decided to go for a walk down the beach and see if we could find crowds. Bora Bora and Jet didn't seem to be too busy, so we got some more beer's and went back to the apartment. 


The sun was well and truly out now, so we decided to go to the pool in the complex for a swim. This was a big mistake. In the twenty minutes that we were at the cool, someone had jumped over the balcony fence, and raided our apartment, taking all of the spending money me and Jess had in our wallets, our phones, 2 laptops from the other room in our apartment and a watch. 


That pretty much sum's up my 3 days in Ibiza. With all of my spending money gone for the weekend, there was no hiring of a Jeep, there were no nightclub's which the island is famous for and there was no restaurant's to feast on tapas. The following day we hung out in the sun at the apartment, went to a bar for a beer, and then I flew out that night.

I guess I haven't really ticked Ibiza off my list properly, so it's just another place that I'll have to go back and visit! 

Jess and I poolside

The rain continues...

My blog has been quiet since Amsterdam, the main reason is I don’t have a laptop, and I guess I haven’t been that much to write home about.

Deck chairs on Brighton Beach

Breakdancers on the Boardwalk

Brighton Pier

Pete & I enjoying the sun

After Amsterdam my friend Peter and I headed south to Brighton so that we got away for Easter weekend. It was nice and refreshing to see the ocean, but very peculiar being on a pebble beach with not a grain of sand in sight. Pete and I walked along the boardwalk and sat at a pub in the sun, until the sun disappeared and an icy wind whipped up from nowhere. We ran back to the hotel, and sat there drinking for hours until we were warm enough to brave the Antarctic elements  and head out for the nightlife. The next day we ventured to almost every shop in Brighton to see if we could purchase a onesie each so we could sit around the hotel in comfort and warmth. Unfortunately Primark had sold out of their animal onesies, so we ended up getting ones that were made out of tracksuit material, and I can tell you that’s the best investment that I’ve made. Pete wasn’t too happy when I forced him to walk the streets of Brighton to go to the off licence to replenish our wine stocks. Another night of drinking in the hotel and talking to friends and family back in Australia saw out our last evening in Brighton and we made it to big bad London with our matching onesies.

The only onesies in Brighton we could find

The gothic tree’s that line the London streets have blossomed and now there are bright green leaves covering their branches and daffodils are in bloom everywhere I look. Also everywhere I look is rain. A couple of warm weeks in late March brought a false sense of summer, and proceeded with April showers, which is now continuing in to May. Let’s hope that this stops soon as rain day after day really starts to get to you.

A few years ago I decided that finance was not what I wanted to do in life and was a career that I just ended up in. Upon moving to London, I thought this would be a good opportunity to start an entry level position in to an industry that held more interest for me. I would be starting on terrible money regardless, so I may as well make it something that I would enjoy. Luckily an opportunity came up through a friend of a friend, and I am now a Media Planner/Buyer for aia – a recruitment advertising agency. I have just finished day 2, and it has been jammed packed of meetings, remembering names and learning new things. Things are slowly starting to make sense and I am looking forward to the challenge ahead of me. It was sad to be leaving Deluxe and the friends that I made there, but they are just down the road and I know I will stay in touch with them. I couldn’t have asked for a better job to have started out with in London.

Aside from starting to build an ark, I finished a 5km fun run last week for charity, which I surprisingly enjoyed. I thought that I hated running, but now I can’t wait to get back out there and improve. I had thought that I would walk most of it, but I ran about 80% of it, and finished in 36minutes –something that I am very proud of.

Last week also saw the end of our netball season with us battling out for third place. I played absolutely terribly and was probably the key to our demise to coming 4^th over 3^rd.

Hopefully I'll get on here to add some photo's and another update soon... xx