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Tuesday 10 January 2006
I had a great time in Egypt - loads of temples, tombs and pyramids and good, easy to digest "soundbites"
of Ancient Egyptian history and legends. Riding a camel to the pyramids was definitely a different way to spend Xmas
Day, and eating a Bedouin meal by candlelight in the mountains around the Red Sea was a different and fabulous way to celebrate
New Year too.
I absolutely loved scuba diving! It was just a fantastic experience and I have definitely found
a new hobby. It was so satisfying to "crack it" and feel like I knew what I was doing and of course the hundreds of
fish and corals were just wonderful. My highlight was hovering in mid-water face-to-face with Nemo!
I will of course provide full details and photos of my trip here soon! In the meantime, I have
returned to cold, grim London and had new flatmates move in for the two months I remain in Bethnal Green. My New Years
resolution is to work out what travel I want to do this year (less than 11 months till I go home!) and book some holidays
this month (I have just booked a ski trip, so I'm doing alright!)
Monday 16 January 2006
Going back to work last week was a bit of a shock to the system, so I took Friday off, with the intention
of heading up north with Eram to the cottages she'd booked for her birthday weekend. Although we didn't quite get there
as early as planned (....), it was nice not to be at work of course! The weekend was a great break and a wonderful way
to celebrate Eram's birthday. Click here for photos.
Wednesday
25 January
Things
have been a bit quiet around here, but hopefully looking a bit busier over the coming days anyway. I did get out for drinks with Ben last night (and took rather a while to get out of bed this morning because
of it!) and I had drinks with the Havering crowd on Friday too, to farewell Penny.
Tanya
and I spent a nice afternoon at the V&A museum on Sunday where we took in some fashion, plaster casts and glass... It
is hard to define what theme the V&A has - Ben's suggestion is "everything Britain had stolen during Vistoria's
reign". Maybe that's it!
I
had a lovely massage on Saturday afternoon and in a show of extravagance have booked myself another one this weekend! So nice, and I reckon it's about time I treated myself to some luxuries. Tomorrow Tanya and I are off to get our haircut by a kiwi girl who cuts from her home. I am hoping for great things!
It's
a year today/tomorrow since I was hit by that car and I phoned the police yesterday to find out what on earth has happened
to the police report - they just sent it to my solicitor last Friday! Honestly,
I always knew the wheels of justice turned slowly, but here in Britain
they must be seriously rusted up!!! I will be onto my solicitor soon to get us
a court date so that I can finally get that whole episode done and dusted.
Monday 13 February
It’s been three weeks since I last wrote – I’ve been busy!
The day after I wrote saying that it has been a year since my accident, I heard from my solicitor
that the insurance company have admitted liability! That’s good news. It means that they admit that the driver caused my injuries, so we don’t have
to go through the courts proving that. The amount of compensation I will get
is still of course an issue and things are moving ever slowly towards getting that sorted out.
I have to go and see a specialist on renowned Harley Street at the end of this month to start
things off.
It was my birthday on Tuesday 31 January and I had seven girlfriends join me for some drinks in
Piccadilly Circus and then tepanyaki for dinner, which was lots of fun. The chef came out and cooked sizzling prawns and steak on a hotplate at our table which was good entertainment. It was just nice to see my friends again and have a get-together in “celebration”
of me entering my 30th year!!!!
The weekend prior Eram and I went to the National Gallery (another thing ticked off my list!) and
saw an exhibition of photos taken in Hackney which I thought was just fantastic. The
following weekend was less cultural… Marie and I met for lunch on Saturday and then attempted to join in on the infamous
Waitangi Day Circle Line tour. We managed a pint a Victoria
but then as we entered the tube station to go to Westminster,
the tube was closed! Seems that they just couldn’t handle the thousands
of jubilant kiwis down underground. Still, we followed the hoards of kiwis to
Westminster Square where we arrived just in time for
the haka at 4pm. We could barely see a thing, we were so far back in the crowd,
but we could sure hear it, and the national anthem that followed. It was awesome
just to be there surrounded by proud kiwis and I couldn’t help but comment that there wouldn’t be many people
back home celebrating as enthusiastically as we were. I am pleased to say that
as far as I know there were no “incidents” that the nation ought be ashamed of either, which is good.
Work has been very busy with me issuing proceedings relating to three separate children in the past
month – two newborn babies and a severely disabled three year old. The
circumstances of all the cases are so very sad, but we are all hoping that there will be happy outcomes for all the children.
Meanwhile, in the run-up to Valentine’s Day tomorrow I have been keeping very busy indeed
going on lots of dates! I went speeddating a few weeks ago and it was most successful. I got eight “ticks” (meaning 8/18 wanted to “date” me –
not too bad I thought) and four “matches” (meaning of those eight I was interested in four!) So I’ve been on six dates with those four in the past two weeks which has kept my evenings very busy
indeed! One cannot complain about that state of affairs at all.
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Sunday 5 March
Once again it’s been three weeks since I last wrote. I really have been madly busy lately – of the 28 days in February I had only five evenings at home! Madness. Things have quietened down this
weekend which is a welcome relief. I had an early night on Friday, went gymming
on Saturday and met new friend Pippa for a drink on Saturday. Today I’ve
started my East End-themed week by having lunch at Spitalfields with Marie and doing the Jack The Ripper walk with Jennifer.
It’s an East End-themed week because next weekend I leave my flat in the
East End,
after 20 months here, to move to my new flat in Clapham. I am quite excited about
the move although the prospect of moving nearly three years worth of junk is quite daunting!
Actually the East End-theme started last Wednesday when Jennifer and I went
to Jamie Oliver’s restaurant Fifteen in Hackney. Jamie runs it as a charity
and trains unemployed youths to be chefs, waiters etc. It was a great wee place
with wonderful staff although we had to admit that the food wasn’t really worth raving about.
I went skiing a couple of weeks ago, just three days in Meribel, Three Valleys in France. We could not have asked for
better weather or snow. The week before had been very poor apparently but we
had a great dumping of snow the day or so we arrived and then lovely clear skies for the three days we were on the mountain. I had gone on a organised trip, as my friends who ski (Justine, Jen etc) are all going
to Colorado this month and I had no one to ski with! I was roommates with Pippa and we seemed to hit it off, so I had a great few days
and enjoyed the skiing.
A few days after getting back I went up to Manchester
to stay with Kat and Andy. As always, I had a lovely, chilled weekend with them. They had teased me by saying I had to bring my walking boots, but in the end the weekend
consisted of far more eating and drinking than walking! The boots stayed in my
bag! Coincidentally Eram was driving home from Manchester on Sunday so I caught a ride with her which gave us a great opportunity to have
a catch-up on gossip.
I’ve been on a few more dates, pursuant to the speeddating incident, including
one on Valentines Day which was nice! I’ve also done some major holiday
booking in the last week and now have trips to Vienna, Verona,
Venice and Krakow lined up!
Monday 20 March 2006
I am now living in Clapham! I moved in last weekend
and I’m nicely settled in my little studio flat now (see photos here). I am going to have to be rather tidy for the next nine months though, as there’s
not a lot of room to let things get out of hand! I am really excited about discovering
Clapham and all its bar and restaurants. And I am thoroughly enjoying the ultra-short
commute (less than 40 minutes door to door now!)
My last week in the East End was packed full – going out in Broadway Market with Ben, having
a “last” curry on Brick Lane and going to the Backyard Comedy Club down the road from home. I then spent the weekend packing and moving – and even successfully drove a small van round London
on Sunday – after not driving for nearly two years!
Other than the unpacking and arranging that has kept me busy in the last week, I have got back to
the gym with a vengeance, going four times last week – let’s see if I can keep that up! Work has been a lot busier lately than in the past, including a week-long hearing this week that I plan
to sit in on as much as I can (we have a barrister to do the hard stuff!)
I went to see the New Zealand
film “The World’s Fastest Indian” with Tanya last week (what a great opening scene with the little NZ “bungalow”!)
and had a great night out with Marie and others on Saturday night. The dating
that kept me so busy in February has come to a halt so all of a sudden I have evenings free again – not sure I
like this at all! ;-)
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