Diggin' for digs

We go for our "roomie" interview tomorrow, for the place we looked at the other day. It will be a good opportunity for us to meet the other housemates to see if they are our cup of tea.

We have been looking for other places in the meantime. Far out, there are some weirdos in this town. But I guess you get weirdos everywhere. Hippies, booze hounds, neurotics, snobs - you name it, I have read their ad looking for a housemate.

The thing I don't get is the amount of people who are "coupleist". A place sounds great, then at the end of the ad - "Sorry no couples". What are we - lepers?

Maybe they are all just miserable bastards who think they are going to bust us shagging on the kitchen bench or something.

Searching for a place

We decided to go to the museum yesterday. We heard they had some great exhibits on, so we toddled off. We ended up at the wrong museum though. We wanted the British Museum and ended up at the Museum of London. Fortunately for us, entry to the Museum of London is free - there are some bargains to be had in this town! We will eventually get to the British Museum.

As our tenancy ends in a few weeks, we have to find new digs. We found what seemed like a nice place, so we wandered across to the other side of town to check it out. It ended up taking us 2 hours to get there, because the train drivers on certain lines of the tube had called a snap strike. We had to get off the tube and find a connecting bus with hordes of others. We worked it out alright. I'm really glad it ended up like that, because it meant we got a little bus tour through places like Notting Hill and Kensington. Wa hey, I am going back there. Shops, shops and more shops. It was like Chapel Street, but much, much bigger.

I was salivating - my poor little credit card, you are gonna get a flogging.

In the end, pedestrians on the footpath were going faster than the bus, so we got off and walked to the next tube stop. Fortunately trains were running again. So, we proceeded to accidentally get on the wrong train. We just laughed and turned back when the train got to the next stop.

We got to our destination bang on time at 7pm, so lucky we left early.

The Aussie tenants moving out gave us a tour of the place, which is really big. It's a 4 bedroom place. We got along like a house on fire with the Aussies, it's a shame that they are the ones moving! There was a lot of interest in the property, with several other couples getting a tour as well. We are going to meet the other tenants on Sunday, so we will see how things pan out. There are a squillion other properties about if this one doesn't come through, though it would be good if it did.

The joy of online grocery ordering

Because it's a bit of a struggle trying to get groceries home on the bus, we decided to order online.

I ordered most things ok. In particular, I just wanted 2 little chillies and a small bit of ginger for a stir fry.

Oops.

Anybody got any good ginger and chilli recipes?

You orright? Are ya bovvered?

Settling in nicely in our little cockney town.

Went for a stroll up the high street yesterday as they had a market on. I love listening to everyone's accents here - very, very cockney.

We had to take a look in the local pie and mash shop. We could hardly understand what the customers or the staff were saying when they were ordering the food! It was hilarious. It seemed that the only difference to the order was the amount of mashed potato you were asking for. You get a hot beef pie, with mashed potato slopped down the side of your plate, then it is all covered in a sauce called "liquor", which is actually a parsley sauce. A bit like mint sauce. It doesn't have any alcohol in it, not really sure why it is called that.

I wish we had the guts to actually order one, so I could have taken a photo.

When we were walking back to the flat, as one of the market stallholders was packing up to leave, I saw him gently lean over and fall into the blankets/doona covers he was selling. It was like it was in slow motion and I wasn't quite sure what he was doing. As we got closer I realised he was a little old man and he must have had a stroke. It frightened the life out of me. Quite a few people came over to help him. I felt terrible that I had a mental blank and couldn't even remember what the emergency services number is over here. It's 999. Someone called an ambulance and he could talk a little bit, so hopefully he was ok.

I accidentally said the price of something in a shop as "two dollars" and the shopkeeper laughed at me. Probably thought I was a dumb Australian twit. We still can't get used to the different coins here. Shopkeepers also get really annoyed if something is less than 5 pounds and you give them a 20 pound note.

I think I just need to respond in my best cockney accent:

"Sorry luff - I don't fink I got nuffink smaller".

Different but the same

You probably aren't gonna believe me, but I am typing this looking out the window, which is bright blue without a cloud in the sky. Probably should take a photie.

We are both really sad with the news we got about Grandpa and I haven't posted for a few days because I just don't know what to say.

So, I guess you will just have to put up with my usual mindless fluff.

We are settling in well. Opened up our UK bank accounts and got set up with mobile numbers.

We are finding out funny little things along the way, such as:

- they don't use bread tags over here on loaves of bread. They use that pain in the bum sticky tape stuff. Feel free to donate to the 'We are unemployed Aussies who need bread tags on our bread' charity fund.

- They don't wash their clothes in cold water in the washing machine. They don't sell any kind of laundry powder that you can use for cold water, as it won't dissolve unless you have the water at least 50 degrees. There is an environmental campaign on at the moment to try and get people to wash their clothes in water at about 30 degrees.

- They don't have shop assistants hound you when you are in clothes shops. I am loving that. Though actually, it's probably not a good thing, because I will buy more if they don't hound me.

- They have a lot of pre-prepared and packaged food, especially in the fruit and vegie section. Though we had the best strawberries that we had ever eaten yesterday. They were English ones. We also had a bit of mango in some fruit salad. I wonder if they realise over here that mango is not supposed to be hard as a rock?

- You can't buy much tuna or healthy muesli bars, but if you want mushy peas or hot dogs in a jar, you're covered.

Wot's all this then?

Well, we have made it to ol' Blighty. What an effort. For those wanting to come over here, wouldn't recommend Cathay Pacific - their onboard entertainment was pretty sucky.

We managed to get both suitcases down to approx 25kg. The 10kg hard drive went into a laptop bag, which wasn't weighed. No more excess baggage payments for us!

We boarded the plane and we discovered that we were sitting next to a couple with an 18 month old little boy. I felt sorry for them, because they probably saw the disappointment in our faces. It wasn't bad at all though. He was the most placid little kid and only cried a few times over the 15 hours, which I thought was a fair effort. By midway through the flight he was blowing me kisses, so I had made a little boyfriend.

I tell you, parents with kids under 2 on flights deserve a medal. But only those parents who keep the kids quiet. The other type suck.

It's a beautiful 21 degrees here today. I think it is about 4am Aussie time now, so I am finally getting a bit exhausted.

We move on to our more semi-permanent digs tomorrow, so will let you know how things go from there.

p.s. Turned on the TV here and the first goon we see is Shane Warne. Such a bogan.

Hong Kong

Hello my friends!

We have made it to balmy Hong Kong. What an effort. We bent over and took it up the jaxy from Cathay Pacific, who charged us $32 per kilo for our excess baggage. We had 10 kilos excess baggage.

Nerdboy has now decided he doesn't need the massive amount of clothes he has brought with him, so he is going to leave some of them in this hotel room. Whatever works, I suppose. Though, I did happen to find a computer hard drive in one of the suitcases, that no joke, would weigh around 10 kilos. How did that get in there??? Ah, you've gotta laugh. That frigging thing better pay for itself.

Because we got here at around 5pm and are leaving at 5am tomorrow, we are not really seeing any of the sites. We are staying in the biggest hotel I have ever seen. You almost need a golf buggy to get from the lifts to our room. The room is MASSIVE - it has two bathrooms! It also has those weirdo American toilets, which I always think are a little strange. The hotel is attached to this massvie shopping complex, but we were both too exhausted to even look at much.

We had an authentic Chinese meal for dinner tonight. Not a sweet and sour pork, chicken and cashews or banana fritter in sight.

No crazies on the plane, so sorry guys - I haven't got any stories for ya.

It was so sad saying goodbye to everyone at the airport this morning. I start balling if I even think of it. Though the best bit was that I could hear my family laughing through the customs doors after we had gone through and the doors had shut. Then every time they opened again for new people to come through, I would peek out and look at them all. They couldn't see me, but it just made me have the biggest smile on my face.

Geez I will miss you crazy kids.

p.s. am attempting to upload some new photies on flickr, so wander over and have a gander at your leisure.

We have liftoff

What I will miss about Oz - besides friends and family, cause that is just a given.

- The smell of fresh lawn clippings in summer
- Reasonable prices in restaurants
- The smell of jasmine flowering in early October, cause then I know my birthday is nearly here
- Driving along the coast
- Vegemite and Chocolate Butternut Snaps
- Aussie attitudes

I'm sure there is more, which I will realise once we are in London.

So, this is it for my last post from Australia, as we now have 00 days to go, according to the countdown on the right.

Keep it real guys. Love youse all.

nerdgirl and nerdboy xx

Hairy escapade

I got my hair done today. Hairdresser ace AJ did a great job, am very happy with it.

However, it was quite an interesting experience, as I got to meet one of the young apprentices.

Young apprentice: So yeah, why are you going overseas?

nerdgirl: For the experience, we've always wanted to go, blah, blah, blah....

YA: So, the UK. That's in America, isn't it?

-----------

Young apprentice knows that I am getting picked up by my husband, who she has not met. I have rung nerdboy, so she knows I am expecting him pretty soon. The door to the salon opens. A guy roughly around the age of 75-85 walks through the door. A nice looking old gent.

You could see it in slo-mo as young apprentice looks at the door and then looks wide eyed at me. You can see the cogs in her brain moving as she realises that I obviously have a thing for much older men. She then tries to act nonchalant.

I can't help myself.

ng: That's not my husband!

Fortunately we both then cracked up laughing.

Good grief AJ. How do you do it each day?

Review: Powderchair

This gig was bloody awesome. I had big expectations and the boys delivered.

First cab off the rank was Silverchair. Well, before them was the support act - couldn't tell you who it was and I am glad I missed it. Because nerdboy and I would be late to our own funerals, we of course got there and Silverchair had already started. We arrived in the middle of their first song. The crowd were pretty low key during Silverchair, which made me think there were a lot of Powderfinger fans there. I was rockin' it out anyway, cause I love their stuff.

Paul Mac was working his magic, wearing a t-shirt saying 'Yoko Ono', which I thought was gold. Daniel Johns playing his guitar with his teeth was also pretty awesome. Don't know if his dentist would think the same way. 'Those Thieving Birds' and 'If You Keep Losing Sleep' were great from the Young Modern album. They finished off with 'Freak' which was fantastic.

Bernard (who looked ill) and the boys were up next, after a short break in between. They played a good selection from their current album and some goodies from the past. I was a bit emotional when they played some of their older stuff, cause that just reminds me of Oz and early days for me and nerdboy. They did go a bit over the top with some of the instrumental solos, which I always think are a bit of a wank.

They did an awesome job on 'Lost and Running', 'My Happiness' (of course) and 'These Days' was just brilliant. Lots of crowd participation, which was great.

The absolute highlight was both bands doing a combined effort at the end, which they apparently have not done for any other show so far. They sang 'Substitute' by The Who. Oh. My. God. Could it have gotten any better. All the young teenyboppers didn't know the song at all, but I was in my absolute element. What a choice pick!

All in all, a great gig. Couldn't say if either of them were better than the other. They were both great in their own way. I was also told today that they are touring the UK - will have to lock that one in.

I will try and post photies soon.

p.s. Yes, of course I wore earplugs. Am very chuffed at myself today for doing that.

Final farewells

Have had such an action packed last couple of days...

Had my last day at work on Friday. I've got the hangover to prove it. The girls all made sure I had an absolute ball of a time. We played 'Substitute' from Spicks and Specks using the book 'Learn Excel 5' or something equally as bad - just hilarious.

Had dinner at Little L and the G-man's place on Saturday night - an absolute cack - top night.

I found out that Little L has a small fertility statue, which she has placed in between photos of us and Little M and the D-man. Just praying for grandkiddies. She rubs the baby's head on the statue every Monday morning! She's just waitin' for those twins...

Today we get to catch up with my fam for a last get together. It will be the last time we get to see the kids for a long time. That will be very sad.

Happy birthday

A big happy 81st birthday to Bumpa today. Such a shame that it is being spent in hospital. Though he did say the kitchen staff brought him in a cake and sang him happy birthday. He said it was like the 'league of nations' singing to him...

I set up a UK company the other day, ready for contracting.

I always think it is funny how your subconscious mind works and how it impacts the rest of your body. I now have constant nausea and psoriasis. It's the wedding nerves all over again. The fun never ends!

I do love to live beside the seaside

Had our final farewell with nerdboy's uni mates and their gorgeous wives on Saturday night, before picking up our gypsy stumps and sauntering on down to the seaside to stay with Little M, D-man and their two gorgeous little poppets (who were very excited to see us, bless their cotton socks).

Just noticed the countdown said 10 days to go - it's coming along so fast.

My last week of work this week, so yeah, probably should get back to doing some...

Just a quickie

Am finding this whole lack of internet thing very difficult. It's ok, I am coping. I'm in another internet cafe where the keyboard sucks and you don't know who has been here drooling over porn before you.

We are living with Cerebral at the moment - keeping her up too late by talking too much! Have fun in Cairns mate, you lucky thing.

Moving in with Little M and the D-man tomorrow.

Caught up with Allie & JJ for some ten pin bowling action today. I caned everyone in the first game. Nerdboy came from behind to take the crown in the second game. Will post some photies real soon.

Found out that JJ's little bro, Milo got suspended the other day. Ha! What a cack. He was sticking up for his 'missus'. What a gent.

Vagrants

Am now "of no fixed address". Handed the keys back in after the G-man and Little L worked their magic on our place.

The property manager wouldn't give us a written reference. Apparently against company policy. Whatever. All our previous property managers have. We'll see how it goes. Might not need any of it in the end anyway. We've got our first month in London all sorted so we will take things from there.

We have a big night planned tonight, seeing Phantom of the Opera - which wasn't meant to be and we feel bad for having it - cause it's not meant to be us. It's meant to be for the D-man and Little M. Our thoughts are with you guys - we hope D-man is on the mend real soon.

Back to work tomorrow, for the final week and a half.

Movin' on up

All our worldly possessions now live in a tiny shoe box in woop-woop. So I am now typing this on the kitchen bench, on a chair too low with my arms up around my head trying to type. Some might say addicted, but I like to think of it as dedicated.

So, the truck wasn't big enough to fit all our stuff and the storage unit wasn't big enough to store all our stuff. It was cool - we dealt with it - cool as cucumbers. We had some awesome helpers who made things so much easier for us.

The three musketeers got to utilise our tetris skills in making sure things fit "like a glove" as we packed the storage unit. nb liked to say that every time he put something in there. To him, it was funny every time.

The water cheat is still trying to yank our chain, but we aren't biting. We are winning the war.

Happy Fathers Day for tomorrow to Mr T, G-man and Bumpa :)