Belated Australia Day pics

I spent an age this afternoon updating my photos and finally saving all the current ones onto the computer. I was well behind in this duty.  It’s been so long since I’ve posted that I wasn’t sure what to put up and I haven’t posted much because I didn’t have any terribly exciting news to impart. I mean, there’s only so many times that you can post on a blog, “This week I went to the cinema, bought groceries, fought the rain/snow/freezing conditions to get my mail and tried not to spend too much money so I don’t go broke before I find a job”. So I didn’t write it at all. In spite of this, I do actually have a lot of lovely photos I haven’t shared yet (because walking around London and its parks is still free) and will progressively get to posting.

And in case you hadn’t received the newsflash, my days of unemployment are coming to an end. The exact date I return to work is yet to be decided be the mountains of paperwork that have to be processed first.  I got the happy news a few days after these fun Australia Day celebrations in Shepherd’s Bush.

Yes, it really is pink. Snakebites are the (un)official drink of Australians in London.

Inside the blurry pub

Flatmates getting into the spirit

Documenting the situation

And yes, we did get to travel home on the tube still wearing our green and gold warpaint (as I’m sure many others did that day).

Winter Wonderland

Sorry I’ve been AWOL for a while but I’ve been hoping for some proper good news which I haven’t received yet.  Encouraging feedback - yes, more interviews to prolong my optimism - yes, permanent job - not so much.  A lot of the photos I was posting are from adventures in warmer weather, here’s a little snapshot of what’s happening outside my house right now.

Finally, it's not rain falling from the sky

The tree outside my window

view from the back yard

Yes thongs in the snow - can you guess where I come from?

Guess the famous landmark in the dark

Yeah, the picture is kind of dodgy but this is my camera’s version of the view from my last residence.  It actually looked better than this.

Hmmmm?!?

Winter fare at Borough Market

It kind of speaks for itself

What it doesn’t capture are the pigs heads routinely on sale, the ageing beef that looks gangrenous (I’m sure fans of properly aged meat could take issue with me) and the three thousand variations on sausage and pies available.  It is good to see food looking like the animal it comes from though.  This grosses me out less than the meat section at my local supermarket where everything is wrapped in plastic and still oozing questionable substances.  Sadly, didn’t get a picture of the deer that surprised me in one butcher’s stall.  I was idly wandering the row of food looking for a likely meal and nearly wandered into a headless, footless but unskinned deer carcass lying on the counter.  Good times.

Ok, so I’ve been slack…

…and yes, suggesting I might post stuff while I was away was more than mildly hopeful, especially considering the state of internet access in the towns I visited. 

Here’s some pictures of a very famous landmark in London and its neighbours.

Lovely blue skies in this direction

Dark skies forming at the National Gallery

Looming clouds edging towards St Martin's

The plinth with its current resident

I used to have a posting schedule that I roughly kept to, but that was before the coming to the UK.  I was trying to get back on track the other week before I found out I had to go away for few days.  I’ve got heaps more pictures to post, so, must try harder.

This is not the post I promised

So it turns out I spent most of the weekend planning the coming week and mildly panicking.  I found out on Friday afternoon that I was lucky enough to score two job interviews this week. Luckily they aren’t on the same day.  They are however, on two consecutive days in places that are a five-hour train ride apart.  And, they are not turn up, do your interview and leave processes.  Both interviews require the better part of each day for interview, tests/ presentations and for one, a buffet lunch with prospective future bosses.  I’m ok with all this and happy to finally being going to interviews again but it did require a little research on my part aided and abetted with research conducted in the Southern Hemisphere. 

It’s all sorted now though and I have trains tickets (some cheap, some not) and accommodation (not too bad considering short notice) because I’ll be away for a few days.  Both sets of accommodation have wi-fi so I might be able to pop up some more pictures soon but even if I don’t, I’ll certainly be taking more for when I get back to the big smoke.

More random pictures

cos I’m too lazy to write a proper post this week. Been slack on the blog front but finally seeing some results on the job interview front which is somewhat more important at this point in time.  I’ll try and put some longer posts together over the weekend…maybe.

Asking the important questions

I know you are, so what am I???

Ok, I won't (it's a very cute cow)

You can't trust the little critters

With thanks to the Regents Canal towpath for being both picturesque and heavily decorated.

This looks familiar

I found this little creature in the Victoria and Albert Museum but he really reminds me of the doorknockers from Labyrinth.

I can just imagine him mumbling

Happy (belated) birthday to the blog!

I feel bad, I forgot – I’m so terrible at remembering birthdays and anniversaries.

This probably should have been my Wednesday post but I lost track of the date. Anyway, it turns out that apart from a short break in January I have been blogging for a whole year now.  This also suggests that it’s now been a year since I had heaps of fun in Vietnam. But now I’m in London which is also an excellent destination and I intend to keep updating if only to keep a personal reminder of just what I’ve done and where I’ve been. My memory isn’t crash hot at the best of times, so I’m sure this will come in handy sometime Anyway, here’s some random pictures of stuff from here.

Big nosed ship at Hays Galleria

faces under our feet in Bloomsbury

scary balloons in Canterbury

Giraffe-snake, a rare creature only found in Camden (unsurprisingly)

motion sickness at the National Theatre

It's a busy city and river

Definite signs of Autumn in Southwark Park

South Kensington Art and Design

A couple of weekends ago I rugged up for a trip to South Kensington to visit one of the excellent museums in that area. I’d been wanting to go to the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum since I’d returned so that was high on the list. The fact it was the last weekend of a small story themed design exhibition named Telling Tales just helped propel me there (as did a quick look at the queues outside the beautiful Natural History Museum).

Before I rushed into the crowded world of weekend gallery attendance I made a worthwhile stop at the South Ken outpost of the Hummingbird Bakery. I sat for a while with a coffee and red velvet cupcake and I highly recommend it. The South Ken branch is marginally quieter than the Notting Hill branch on a Sunday which means you can sit and enjoy your purchases without having queued out the door and down the street beforehand (which I noticed people doing in Notting Hill as that branch is in the market area).

The cake tasted delicious....

Just to really rub it in

I had a wander around as I used to live about 15-20 minutes walk away and spent a bit of time in the area many moons ago. There have been a few changes and Old Brompton Road now consists almost entirely of cafes and restaurants whereas I remember a few more outlet luggage stores. The area around the tube station does seem to be a good place to head if looking for places to eat. I also came across this lovely bookstore in Thurloe St.

Piles of excellent books

Although it’s a discount bookstore, the items they have in stock are top notch and it was quite an effort to leave without weighing myself down with some purchases. And finally I made it to my destination – the actual museum. The V&A is a great place to go if you’re interested in art, design, costuming, textiles, sculpture and pretty much anything else decorative that you could imagine. It’s also free – which is even better.

One of the better entrance shots - still not quite sure what I was aiming for

One of the dining rooms - fancy huh?

entrance to the dining rooms from the internal courtyard

marble initials

light sculpture in the entrance hall

Although I spent a good amount of time wandering around looking at the displays, the V&A is a huge place and I need to make a return visit when the medieval galleries reopen later this year.