Random Photos on Flickr

Sign 033
Originally uploaded by ppdigital.

Just up procrastinating.. was about to start some work and I came across this set of road signs on Flickr. Im a big fan of this sort of stuff. I always find the appeal in the everyday aspect of photos.

Im shattered.. its been a long day! Time to get this work done then some sleep!

Sunday Bloody Sunday

In order to make up for my very hectic weekend in Poland, I had a completely lazy weekend in London. I've barely left the house! We got slightly carried away at Friday night drinks and indulged just that little bit too much. Like I always say as soon as you start having shooters it always turns bad. Surpisingly enough, Phil & I both had very sore heads on Saturday morning. Being the good little girlfriend I am, I had to drag my sorry arse out of bed for ingredients to make BLT's & coffee. I had some errands to run as well so it made sense. I was standing in Freezeland with my head pounding praying I wouldn't pass out onto the floor. Bright supermarket fluoro lights are not kind to hangovers. We put on Vanilla Sky (good movie!) and the only other movement out of the house was to get Indian for dinner.. Very slack!

After watching Ley Ley get beaten in the Aussie Open final, Phil actually went into work and I got started on my housework.. such an exciting life I lead... and now I have to get started on some work. Im making great headway on my photos.. just finishing tagging them all now.. then I can start posting them to go with my blog. Bought some cool Threadless t-shirts & some books from Amazon (some classics, the DaVinci code and a book on Bath) so I can look forward to packages next week!

*** I might be going to Roland Garos to watch the tennis! Bouyiouw.. it looks like we have missed out on our Wimbledon tix too :(

Links & Stuff

56K Modem Emulator

Girl threw a hoop

I wonder if they do a pet's mobile international.. I miss my dog!

Wordcount

10x10t

Me, in Poland

Me, outside Etuida Terminal, Warsaw Airport, Poland
Originally uploaded by yahnyinlondon.

As you can see, it was snowy.. I even had stupid ear muffs to wear. You can check out my photos in here.. Although Im still waiting for Phil to give me his camera!

Poland, arrgh work, arggh busy

Well this is my overdue report on our trip to Warsaw, Poland. We left about 2am-ish Friday morning to make the trip to Luton. Luton is IMHO a crappy airport, however it cost us £9 each return instead of the £25 each return to get to Heathrow, Gatwick or Stanstead if you take the Express trains.. and if you catch the tube it only takes about 1 hour & a half to get there.. not much more than the others. It was the first time when I wasn't flying alone which was nice but I think I made up for it by being as pathetic as possible. I've flown a fair bit now and I still manage to shit myself. As always Phil found my monga-ness rather amusing...

Luckily we arrived and managed to get through Customs (Passport Stamp.. YAY!) and get a bus to the city. It looked very Eastern Bloc in the suburbs and yet strangely built up in the actual city. Lots of tall buildings. We found our hostel rather easily... Phil is the chief map controller, tourist guide, remote controller between us so I just followed his directions :) Every day he would get the Warsaw book and go - we are going here and then here and then catch this bus and Im like OK I want to go here.. He would fit it into his little plan and away we would go... Sorted. The first day we saw the Palace of Culture & Science and the Modern Art Museum.. Then we checked out the Old Town & had dinner. During the next few days we saw the Royal Castle and New Town, lots of churchs, the Caricature Museum.. All the parks too :) We had one night were we got on the bevvies.. 2 half-litre pints for 7 zloty (about £1.50) were too good to turn down so we got pretty trashed and sampled the Turkish kebabs. It also snowed heaps so I had lots of fun playing in the snow & having snow fights. Food was brilliant - 2 or 3 course meals for about £20 all up... We managed to try lots of Polish specialities too. I even got some amber jewellery... a ring in the shape of a flower that Phil bought for me :) and no, its not that type of ring.

I would definitely recommend Poland.. its similar to Prague but not over-run with stag do's... Easyjet flies there for £30 return if you book early enough.
I so cant wait for Budapest.. this time we have 5 days there :)

Happy Aussie Day for yesterday.. I was a bit hammered so I didn't do anything. Its not the same when you're in London.. The appeal of having to buy tix to get into the walkabout with 1000 other Aussies, crying into their Snakies about not being at home in the warm, while singing to Khe Sahn just non-existent. Im proud of being an Aussie but I don't need to get rat-arsed to prove it, and honestly, celebrating Aussie Day isn't the same without my mates back home, a BBQ, the Hottest 100, cold beers and a day off. Everyone has got on my back about not celebrating it but I have my reasons.

Thats all, work calls!

Woohoo Poland Tomorrow

So tomorrow morning at 3am Phil and I have to drag ourselves out of bed to get to Luton Airport.. ick... Work has been really busy this week and Im shattered. Hopefully we can leave work on time so we can go home, get some dodgy fish & chips from round the corner and watch French Connection 2. Then nap. Although considering how long its taken me to write 3 lines, pretty much explains what chance I have of leaving on time.

I wish I had some exciting stuff to report but really this week has been a combination of sleep tube work tube eat work repeat. I did manage to make my first home-made quiche too. I wanted to make these courgette, tomato and basil tartlets but I couldn't find little ramekin tins anywhere :( so I just made a big quiche. It was edible so I guess that means it was a success.

Been reading up on Warsaw big time so hopefully we can cram lotsa stuff in. As you can see by the weather Im going to get to see snow. Hopefully there is enough so I can make a snow man!!! I might even buy some snow boots. Apparently they are the new ugh.

Best be getting back to work.. and hopefully have some photos of our trip up soon :)

Tate Modern

Why do weekends go so quickly? One moment you are finishing work on a Friday and then next thing you know, its after midnight on Sunday and you are thinking.. why aren't I asleep yet? I need to get up early.

The weekend was nice... Phil cooked me a beautiful dinner on Friday (He is such a good cook.. its like having your own Belgian restaurant.) after a few drinks at the pub with the work crew. Saturday I thought Id try a recipe in my healthy cookbook called Kipper Kedgeree - basically rice and kipper fish with some vegies and spices, served with boiled eggs & lemon. It actually turned out well but the fish is very strong. I got stuck into some house cleaning and work for the rest of the arvo and cooked dinner to take to Phils, then we had a quiet night watching DVDs. Well Phil was watching, I was sleeping mainly. Watched the French Connection this morning... was actually pretty cool and turns out it was on tonight at 11pm. Went to check out Tate Modern to see the the Robert Frank exhibition before it closes. There is some new ones opening soon which should be good. All in all a very chilled out weekend... which is good before we go to Poland on Friday.

Workaholic

Sorry about the lack of posts, hold on, who actually reads my contrived drivvle again? oh well buggar it. If you are actually reading this Im sorry. Things have been busy. The new room is treating me well but I just can't manage to get to bed early. I've been trying but it just hasn't happened for me this week.

You know when you work late, then by the time you get home its like 8:30 - 9pm, then you cook dinner and eat and clean up the kitchen and like OMG its midnight or something. Then you think oh f&*k I need to get up early for work but the teev is on and you stay up watching some mindless pointless crap on tv til like 2am. You finally turn the teev off only to not be able to sleep. Im one of those wierd people who can fall asleep on the couch in front of the teev but when Im in my room, all cosy in bed I can never fall asleep with it on, or if I do I wake up having one of those wierd nightmares that is really what is showing on teev at the time. I have a timer on my teev now but I always set it and then never fall asleep, the stupid thing goes off and Im scrambling for the remote which has now managed to sneak its way under my bed. Phil on the other hand, loves to fall asleep watching teev, and I always wake up and have to search for the remote which he stashs safely away. I mean if we can fly to the moon why cant they invent some sensor tv that automatically detects that you are in deep sleep and turns itself off? Or perhaps the volume control slowly turns down as you head towards la la land. Do you remember the internet fridge? Well if they can put the internet in a fridge surely they make one of those teevs.

Well thats all.

Morning

First working week down for 2005... but now I have another whole one to go.

Feel absolutely shattered because the last few days have been hectic. We were in the fun process of finding a new housemate to replace Liz. So many people to show around, having to keep my (old) room clean and be around most nights. We picked another guy, Kenny, who seems pretty cool and chilled out. He also used to work in his parents Chinese restaurant and is pretty au fai with 'oriental cuisine'... We are all hoping he gives us a cooking lesson or two. Most of my day yesterday was spent transplanting my stuff from my old room to my new room, this one is a lemon yellow and quiet, my old one was peach pink and facing the A40. The old room was slightly more spacious with a large bay window but the new one is already feeling nice & homely.

Aside from that, Phil & I went to wagamama's restaurant. It was pretty average. Id heard good things about it and it was in the book. (Im trying to go to everything that is listed in the book, whilst Im in London.) The waiter was all prissy because we found our own seats (we were there for like 5 minutes and then obviously thought its just find your own seats) and generally wasn't overly helpful. The food was nice but nothing special.. Phil is a better cook easily :)

On Saturday, we visited the Tower of London. Id wanted to go for awhile and saw a cheap deal at lastminute.com and bought a couple of tickets. We did the tour with the Yeoman Warders and then walked around all the buildings. I think Phil enjoyed it more than me (Im not a huge history buff) especially when he saw that it was originally settled by people of Flemish origin. Next on the list is St Pauls. They have recently just finished cleaning the building so its about time I went and saw it!

Here are some linkies for you...

Why the future doesn't need us..
Champagne Chair Contest
I look like my dog! well not me but these people do.
Odd couple
Colorstrology - updated for 2005
Lists!!!!

IKEA naming... & new boots for me!

IKEA | home | Children's IKEA | Children's furniture | FARTFULL work bench
Apparently it means speedy or something like that.. I remember being in Germany and seeing Ausfart on the autobahns. Apparently it means exit. Fart Humour™ Still funny no matter how old you are.

I've been looking for the perfect pair of knee high boots.. I started looking at the start of December (which meant I dragged Phil into almost every boot shop in Belgium.) and had a strict checklist - they had to be pointy-toed, with a heel but not to high a heel, comfortable enough that I could wear them to work, and not baggy around my ankles like my other ones, I also wanted a light caramel colour but was willing to compromise on that. Last night I managed to find these chocolate brown boots in the shoe shop on leather lane (possibly one of the coolest shoe shops I know.. its v cool & the guy who works there is a champ.) Anyways after a quick visit on the way home, my budget was looking a little bit unwell but I had my new boots. Ill take some photos tonight!

Im still in the midst of uploading all my photos - Ive done some of 2003 already so look in the archives for the links.

My 43 things...

These are the things I want to do or am doing and have done... its a site called 43 things and its v. cool atm.

My 43 Things

Tropical Resort in Berlin?!!!

Indoor Tropical Islands Resort In Berlin
Very interesting... I want to go but it seems like it would be full of American tourists wearing dodgy Hawaiian prints or those dodgy parachute tracksuits playing on pokies.. I swear I saw some dodgy pokie machine type thing in there.

I saw this today Why are we so grumpy? and its definitely true... I mean hands up who is grumpy because its January and its going to be awhile before the next long weekend? Or because its freezing and they want sun? Or its too damn hot? or because they racked up so much debt on their credit cards? Nothing is ever good enough.. Its like a disease of disatisfaction.. then you look at some of the stories spilling out from the tsunami...People who don't have family or friends, or a house or even food and clean water. Here we are whinging about trivial things... pff I think its about time we all put a sock in it and started realising how much we have compared to other people in the world.

Charity singles - where your money goes... Sometimes its hard to shake the feeling that celebrities are doing this to get themselves publicity... oh we have made this great charity single and it comes out next week, oh and by the way we have a new album out next month. Using charities just to enter the public's consciousness is sooo not cool.

For those of you in London... the London Underground staff are collecting money for the Tsunami charities all today. So remember to have your money out and ready to chuck in when you go to the tube/bus/whatever tonight!

Balls in Brussels and Xmas/NYE photos from Belgium

Balls in Brussels
Originally uploaded by yahnyinlondon.

My first European Christmas and NYE. This time spent with Phil's family and friends. It was hard again to be away from home, especially hearing my family all around on Christmas Day opening presents and eating bacon sandwiches with the little dog running around underfoot. Look forward to 2007 when Im home for Christmas again.

Back-to-work-itis

Today is my first day of work for the new year. Luckily its not super busy so I can ease into it.

But more about Belgium... Saturday night and Im craving chinese, prawn crackers, spring rolls, sweet and sour, fried rice, the works (Well aren't you just a little lemon chicken? haha Merrick & Rosso..) so we go down to the local Chinese shop in Hamme and order one of those for two people menu thingo's and another dish. Perhaps if those people had of been 2 of my little brother's (or perhaps both, or Ben, Clint and Dad) they might have finished the amount of food we got. The containers were huge. As it was, we had chinese for 2 nights and Phil's Mum had some noodles. That pretty much sums up Belgian and food, and also why I stacked on a couple of kilos over the last week or so.

Sunday, Phil took me to Ypres (or Iepers) so I could have a look at the Australian War Memorial's that were near there. We had a look around the city first. It was a nice city but similar to a lot of other Belgian cities in a way. There was also ice-skating and I had a go. Phil refused to go skating and instead stood at the edge and took photo's of me. The ice was all chopped up and you could scoop up big balls of ice. I made a few snowballs to throw at Phil and then decided I was over skating. We drove out to Hill 60 and also to the Belgium Peace Monument but it was dark by then so I didn't really have a good look. Took a few photos and went back to Ypres to go to the Menin Gate to hear the last post. They play it at 8pm every night.

All in all, I had a pretty good time in Belgium. Not sure when we are going again... but have Poland to look forward to in a few weeks... w00t!

Sorting through my photos from my travels and planning to upload a whole pile when I have the time. Want to organise an easier way to manage content on my site but not sure how to do it as yet. I guess its always going to be a work in progress!

Some Interesting Stuff

Wagamama - mmm noodles
Random Acts of Reality - Ambulance Blog
Policeman's Blog

Happy New Year 2005

The new year is finally upon us. Its not been the best starts to the New Year with the tsunami in the Asian region. You can do everything to stop terrorism and then nature comes up and bites you in the arse. It makes me feel utterly powerless to stay glued to the tv watching the devestation, not being able to do anything but donate a bit of money. For links on how to donate go to BBC Asian Disaster : How to help or for Aussies news.com.au Emergency Contacts.

On a lighter note my first European Christmas & New Year has gone very well. I can actually understand a little bit of Flemish still have a very long way to go. This week Phil and I have been to Brussels to see the Cartoon Museum, Antwerp and visited the Museum of Modern Art and had pitas (kinda like a kebab for when you are sober.. very good.) and also Brugge (think Amsterdam without the seediness and stoners). We even took a drive to the coast but it was freezing! Last night we had the most amazing dinner at Phil's brother's girlfriends brother (yeah yeah I know girlfriends brothers cousins goldfish auntie... LOL) Anyways it was like 6 courses with champagne and oysters and coffee and these amazing dishes... Their house is amazing as Bart works in interior design... you know those houses you see in catalogues and Christmas tree's you see in flashy department stores?? It was just like that. The house has been in their family for generations and it was even used as a hideout for English & American soldiers during the war. Its so amazing to hear stories like that compared to home where most houses are brand new and have no history whatsoever.

Im afraid that I have put on like 5 kgs eating all this rich food all the time. For my secret santa New Years present An's Mum (An is Phils brothers girlfriend) bought me this massive basket of choccies and biscuits and coffee. I cant wait to get home and open it all up. Im going to be very weighed down on the Eurostar.

My housemate Liz is moving out and going to Manchester for her new job, so it means that I get her old room (away from the street thank god!) but Im going to miss her heaps. Her intelligence, dry humour and general Britishness has been a source of much enjoyment in our house. I wish her all the best in her new job.. and Ill be taking a trip up there soon!

I guess thats all for now so I will leave you with some links.

The oddest stories of 2004
100 things we didn't know this time last year.