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Tuesday 13 April
I am currently in the middle of my longest holiday since I arrived
in the UK one year and two days ago. I have taken just over two weeks off work for a long, far away holiday - in New
Zealand! If you didn't know, please don't be offended: I didn't tell many people, including my parents! I wanted
to surprise them and I certainly did, when I wandered in the door at home last Monday evening. They were expecting my
sister for dinner but they sure weren't expecting me!
I flew over with Singapore Airlines and had a whole day in Singapore.
I left the airport and spent the day in Singapore, checking out Chinatown, the botanical gardens and the shopping malls.
As you have to in Singapore, I bought a couple of electronic gadgets, including a digital camera to make uploading photos
onto this website even easier!
My sister Kimberley was in on the surprise and she told a few lies
in the days coming up to my arrival, ensuring that Mum and Dad had absolutely no inkling that I was on my way over for Easter.
It was also Mum's birthday this week so that was another reason for the trip. We got a short video of the expression
on Mum's face when I walked in the door - it was worth the trip! Dad said he saw me walk in the door with Kimberley
and thought, "Gosh, she looks like Rochelle"!
It is completely surreal being back - as though I never left.
Not much has changed, except for a few new shops in town! I spent a couple of days catching up with my best friend Justine,
my grandmothers and my cousins and their children and doing heaps of shopping. I brought a long list of "people
to see/things to do/things to buy and things to eat" with me and I've managed to cross a few things off that list already.
On Thursday I left with Mum and Dad for a sailing trip to Lake Benmore,
in the Waitaki Valley in north Otago. We had a great few days although it was rather cold and I couldn't take my swanni
off until today - typical! (For those non-kiwis, a swanni is a nice, warm woollen jacket - you'll have to come to NZ
to really see what I mean!) It was quite a change from the streets of London, with no cars, phones or people (other
than the dozen or so who we went with) and, (should I admit this?), no shower for five days! Ewww! I took quite
a few photos with my new camera although I felt like I'd never been away from this type of landscape and didn't see it all
through tourist's eyes as I thought I might. It's obviously all in my blood.
I have another six days here and hope to catch up with my friends,
my sister and my family and cross off those last things from my list, before heading home on Monday. (And back
to work on Wednesday! Arrr!)
Wednesday 28 April
It's been a while since I updated - I must have been busy!
I spent my last few days in New Zealand shopping, catching up with the grannies, taking my little cousin to the park, eating
all that food I miss and meeting up with friends Justine and Dale. Justine and I checked out town on Friday night and
found it rather quiet and little changed since I was last there.
It was really nice to be back home for a short time and to see everyone.
It was teary saying bye to Mum and Dad at the airport, but I wasn't sad to be coming back to London: I have many more friends
here and summer's coming!
I did suffer a little culture shock on my first day back at work
on Wednesday: back to a hour long commute, crammed tubes and noise, noise everywhere. But I am used to that again!
I have however been getting rather jealous hearing about my friends' jobs in the centre of town and I am thinking about trying
to get a job that's more central. The commute from my current job in Essex is just too long and sitting on stuffy trains
will be a rotten way to spend summer evenings when I could be sitting in a park enjoying the weather if I had a centrally
located job.
Last Friday it was St George's Day, which, one would think, would
be the English equiivalent of St Patrick's Day. But no, in England they don't even have a holiday on their national
day. So it was just another day at the office. The weather did seem to be getting nicer last week though, which,
it turns out, was just a bit of a teaser. It now looks as though I will have a few more chances to wear my new boots
before summer finally gets here!
Within a few days of being back I was off to Bristol and Bath with
Megan, Suse and Susy. The photos and blog from that weekend should be available soon.
Yesterday there was a flash storm which they are saying was
a once in 100 years event. It was a great thunder and lightening display and luckily I had my umbrella so I was able
to enjoy it. I met Travis last night for a drink before he heads north to his £80 a week apartment on the beach.
And tonight I met the girls for our weekly get-together. I've got a sore throat at the moment which I hope won't
get any worse. I will have a short sleep-in tomorrow, as I am gong to Court in Chancery Lane at 10:30 tomorrow morning.
Work is going well, after the initial shock of getting back after two weeks to all sorts of disasters, things are back on
track again. I do enjoy the work although I find the Court system here rather impossible to work within. It all
seems a bit Mickey Mouse to me, which I find hard to cope with. But it has it's blessing as I am not afraid of breaking
any Court rules - there doesn't appear to be any!
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Monday 3
May
It was bank holiday here today, that is, an unpaid day off work! The weather was rather
crap this weekend and most of my friends went to Prague, but on Saturday I did a London Walk around Little Venice (I didn't
even know we had one!) and yesterday wasn't bad so I went to Kensington Gardens for a few hours.
I went out on Friday night with Jen and Jennifer in Leicester Square for a drink and a meal
and on Saturday night with my colleague Eram and friend of hers to a pub in Old Street, after a short visit to Brixton
to see if we could get tickets for a gig from a tout, but had no luck.
Today I went to friends Toni, Duncan and Hayden's for lunch. It was lovely - Toni can
put on a jolly good meal (with a tiny bit of help from Duncan I think) and we managed to down 6 or 7 bottles of wine over
the long, leisurely afternoon. I left after lunch at 9:30pm! It was a lovely way to spend a rainy afternoon.
The rest of the weekend was spent asleep - very nice!
Wednesday 12 May
I've just had a great few days at work. Monday and Tuesday I was at the Principal Family Court in Holburn, in Central London.
It was a humourous and frustrating couple of days as a useless father tried to fight his losing battle over three days instead
of one. My role was as instructing solicitor, as we had instructed a barrister, which meant I had all the enjoyment and none
of the stress! A cop-out I know, BUT, today, I appeared in the local Court on my own matter, getting a final care order for
the Local Authority. I am rather pleased to have a final hearing under my belt, and a successful one at that!
I had a good weekend, going out with Megan, Suse and Laura on Friday night to a comedy club in Wimbledon and to Hannah's
house party on Saturday. Sunday we met for Yum Char in Chinatown and then explored Spittalfields market for the afternoon.
I'm trying to get back into the gym but everytime I go, I am in such pain for the following three days that I can't go again!
I swear I'm not making excuses...
Sunday 16 May 2004
God, I can't believe we're halfway through May already! This year is just flying by. Every week
seems so short - and every weekend even shorter!
I had another great week at work last week - lots of Court time
and then some excitement on Friday night when at 4:30 we were threatened with a writ of habeus corpus (aka kidnapping) because
Social Services have taken a newborn baby into care. It's a sad case but, as we have discovered, lawyers are totally without
feeling or emotion and we just found it all a bit of an exciting afternoon....
This weekend I had two nights out with my 'usual crowd'; Friday we
enjoyed colourful cocktails and had an earlyish night and then on Saturday we had a rather late one out in Covent Garden,
much of which I don't remember all that well...
On Saturday I met Megan and Suse for a pancake brunch in Kensington.
I walked there in the sunshine which was so nice. This weekend has been just lovely, perhaps summer is coming after all! After
brunch we walked to Harrods, where I hadn't been yet. What an amazing store! Thought Diana and Dodi's 'memorial' was a little
kitsch though. I walked back home again, through Knightsbridge and Belgravia - how nice.
Today I kept up the walking theme and after catching a bus to Baker
Street, walked through Regents Park to meet Megan and Suse again in Camden Town. We wanted to take a canal boat from Camden
locks down the canal to Little Venice, which we did. It was a lovely trip; something quite different to do in London. I walked
back through Hyde Park again and am now sitting in my room with the fan going on full strength. It's only just got dark at
about 9:30! Looking forward to another busy week at work - I wonder if we will be in the High Court tomorrow, as threatened!?
Sunday 23 May
Ah, the sun is shining and life is good!
Another week has flown by with me enjoying the sunny weather, enjoying work and even getting out of bed early to go for
a jog along the Thames in the morning!
I made a bit of an impulse decision this week. A couple of weeks ago I had sent my CV out to my agents to see what other
jobs were out there. I'm really enjoying work but absolutely hating the commute of 75 minutes, especially with this fine weather
meaning that the last place I want to be after work is sitting underground! Nothing much came out of it though and on Tuesday
on a whim I decided to look at the gumtree.com to see what sort of flats I could find that would be closer to work. Only one
ad took my fancy, I rang about it, went to see it that night and then took it the next day! So I am moving next month! I will
be living in Bethnal Green with Michael, a 30 year old aussie who seemed really nice, chilled and friendly and I think we
will get on fine. The flat is really nice and new and although East London isn't the flashest area of London, the flat is
very secure and well placed - only 30 mins to work and 15 minutes to Oxford Circus.
I didn't have too many nights out planned last week although on Thursday I met Hayden, Rochelle, Kerry and Damian and had
my first taste of absinthe - disgusting! I spent all week looking forward to School Disco on Friday night. It's a themed
night club where you have to dress in school uniform, or actually a rather slutty version of school uniform! I found a great
skirt, got knee high socks and put my hair in pigtails and looked the part! I had a great night out with Ben, my friend from
Hackney, my friend Eram and a dozen other English people who I hadn't met before. Click here for photos.
On Saturday Megan and Jen and I went to the zoo! I'd been wanting to go for ages (it's on my list of 100 things to do!)
and it was a nice afternoon. It's not the most impressive zoo ever but it was a nice way to spend the afternoon. Later on
Saturday I took my friends to Eram's house party and today, Sunday, I am sitting on our small balcony enjoying the sun and
listening to the cricket. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday!
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