18,19,20,21 World Heritage Sites I have visited.

BELGIUM
Grand-Place, Brussels (1998)
HUNGARY
Budapest, including the Banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter and Andrássy Avenue (1987, 2002)
POLAND
Historic Centre of Warsaw (1980)
UK
City of Bath (1987)

Im aiming to see 50 World Heritage Sites as listed here

Im updating my 28 Things. See more progress on: Visit 50 of the world heritage sites

Battle of the shopping conglomerates... & Easter

4 days off... wish we had weekends like that every weekend although 4 days of no internet connection were tough... I started getting a little stir-crazy... too broke to go out atm and still have plenty to organise.

Friday began with a trip to Ikea and a lost right hand light on Phil's car. Are you planning on driving a hire truck? Be careful when you turn, reverse, change lanes etc etc because in case you hadn't noticed.. ITS A LOT BIGGER THAN YOUR USUAL CAR! Like uh duh! This guy clipped the light on Phil's car as he crossed two lanes... I thought the IKEA trip would take us a couple of hours at most, so I was quite suprised that we walked out about 5pm (we got there at 12ish). Ikea is one of those places that time seems to elapse at a faster rate than normal. You walk through that little maze and have "married couple type domestics" for what seems like 15 minutes and suddenly 4 hours have gone by. No wonder I was starving when I got out.. They had the dodgiest fast food place ever in view from the checkouts selling hot dogs, fries & a soft drink for £1.40. They were moving like hot cakes.. Im like I dont care what it is but I need to eat. They could have put fried horse shit there and I would have wanted some. Ikea shopping makes you hungry. Especially all that Aisle 38 Number 24 Shelf 3 crap. After taking a good half hour squeezing it all into the car, we got home, unpacked (thankfully our apartment is on the first floor and not too far from the elevator.) and then we had to put it all together. *Cue more married couple type domestics. There seems to be this strange equilibrium of the cheaper the item is, the more annoying putting the thing together is. The worse thing is, we still have no couch (and need more storage space) so we will have to go back again and go through it all this weekend too.

Other exciting developments for the weekend - More ASDA shopping! They have to have the most bargain basement appliances ever. In the interests of shoppers everywhere we thought we would roadtest these babies out. My old housemate Dave brought this £5 toasted sandwich machine from there and he swears by it. Its drunk proof too (the state he usually uses it in.) We got a classy toasted sandwich maker but we did get a bargain iron, toaster & microwave. Ill keep you posted.

Happy Easter

So its like a 4 day Easter weekend... Im so chuffed as that means 4 whole days off. Unfortunately those days will probably be spent lifting, unpacking, putting back together, moving and buying furniture... (I'll take the last option Baby John... ) but still I have FOUR WHOLE DAYS OFF WORK. Needless to say the excitement level of our office is running about the same as the last time they told us they were putting on free drinks for us. 4 Days Off™ Creating excitement in offices everywhere.

Banksy does New York
Meanwhile Banksy is at it again... There is heaps of his stuff around where I work (East, East Central areas of London) but this time he hit New York.

Bashford does running
A mate of mine is doing a fun run for charity.. He is trying to raise some money through drop cash. If you are feeling generous why not donate a few dollars? Not to mention check out the drop cash site in general. Really good idea if you are doing any fundraising.

Whatever you are doing this Easter, hope you have a great one :) and be safe on the roads too! Mmm bring on the chocolate.

London - Eboy style

Eboy London Poster
Phil and I are on the hunt for cool posters to frame & hang on our big white walls (Our landlord gave us permission provided we put the hooks in properly). This one certainly takes the cake.

Our new office
Its in this street, made famous by Jack the Ripper. Its a lot nicer now, especially because our company is in there too!

Blogging is good
I would definitely have to agree with this. I really enjoy writing my blog, even if my reader numbers are infinitely low.

UK Worlds Biggest Music Buyers
Home to such great artists as The Spice Girls, Boyzone, Girls Aloud, Goldie Looking Chain... Need I continue?? Its a worrying statistic.

Not much else to report on the house front... we dont have to pay a water bill! and Ive almost changed all my address details already... furniture and further unpacking on the weekend :) and possibly some photos on Tuesday.

Walking Beer Can

Walking Beer Can
Originally uploaded by pberry.

I totally loved the middie can when I used to go to footy games with my parentals back home. Apparently he has been reinstated because he was banned at the end of the 2002 season (I think) because his antics were a bad influence on the kiddies. My Dad and I used to spend half time pissing ourselves watching him stand on his head, hassle the mascots and the people in the half time events, run into the goal posts and over the fence. Best Half-Time Entertainment™ Ever.

Meanwhile back in the Bow Quarter, Im finally in my new apartment. Not without some blood, sweat and cold beers (that being Friday night as the shop had a 6 for £5 Corona special and we had to have some alcohol to celebrate our new empty apartment). The sweat came in the form of me dragging most of my stuff from West London, doing two mega missions to Asda to buy all the essentials. Not to mention back and forth between East and West London again! Saturday I tried to carry all my shopping home and failed (full backpack, a bin, 4 other bags) and Sunday I succeeded (full packpack, bin attached and microwave in my arms). I cleaned the place out (because Phil cant handle dust) mopped and swept and wiped and dusted... Phil finally returned about 2am Monday morning and I was back up to let him in and help him with his stuff. There is a weekend Im not repeating in a hurry. He did bring me some chocolates :)

So we are settling in. Its kinda like camping because we are having to sit on a rug and eat dinner/watch tv because we dont have a couch or a dining table yet.

Finally getting my leisure centre passes tonight (spa!!!!) and going to watch Phil came home with it hidden in his shopping because I have wanted to see this for ages.. I love animated films.

One More Day!

I can't wait until tomorrow. Im so excited. Michelle, who is taking over my room is moving in on Saturday and I'm just finishing off cleaning and packing my room. Its pretty dusty!

Scott Peterson sentenced to life.
He was charged with the murder of his unborn child and rightly so. Whilst Im pro-choice with the whole abortion debate, provided its done before a certain cut-off date, killing an unborn child violently so close to being born is murder.

Shoe Dumping?
Can someone please dump some shoes outside my door? Preferably UK size 5, Manolo Blahniks, Jimmy Choo.. I mean Im not that fussy!

Sexy Yawns
I think this is like the whole "a sneeze is 1/8th of an orgasm" crap.

Being 15
I think they all sound like giant pains in the arse. When I was 15 I went to my first concert, my first proper party and yeah I did drink and do a few naughty things but nowhere to the extent 15 year olds now do, I suppose I was living in Perth.

City Farm near my office.
Spitalfields City Farm does adoption and sponsership of animals.. I was thinking about adopting a chicken or maybe a donkey.

Design In Flight
PDF design magazine. It cost US$3 an issue. Not sure if its in a hiatus though.

Interesting Amazon product image thing...
Make words out of Amazon products.. I spelt Pearl Jam in their CDs... You can even zoom in and see product details, price, Amazon sales rank. Very interesting.

Pixar office tours
Not only do they make the coolest animated features in the world, they also have the coolest offices to boot. If only I was an animator :(

Latte Art

Bath photos

Roman Baths, with Bath Abbey in the background
Originally uploaded by yahnyinlondon.

Here are the photos from our trip (mostly taken by Phil). Im looking at my stunning best - we had to get up very early. On a Sunday. It was freezing!

Linky to the original post about our trip here

Dizzee & Hump Day

Last night, Phil and I went and saw Dizzee Rascal at the Royal Festival Hall. It was a good concert.. I think his style works well live but the venue wasn't really suited. It wasn't sold out so all the noise the crowd made got lost in the venue. Something a bit more intimate like Islington Academy where Jurassic 5 played would have been sold out and pumping.

I was just reading through my posts for the last few days. They haven't been insightful... All my mind can think about is moving! I just hate that unsettled feeling.

Stink Plane
Thank God that wasn't long haul.

Cool Shoes
I want! Probably a little out of my price league.

Make Magazine
For the DIYers out there.

Scary Ads from the 1980s

The Beginning of my era.

Cool jewellery and homewares.
Some very pretty flowery girly stuff.

Mondayitis

It's only a few more days before we are in our new apartment. Ive almost packed everything up in my old room. Just have some tidying to do. I even had Indian & Pizza Go-Go for the last time (my 2 favourite takeaways from East Acton).

This weekend the Central Line was down from North Acton to Marble Arch which sucked. They didnt even have proper replacement bus services which meant I had to catch the No. 7 (slowest bus in the world!) I went over to Phil's on Saturday night about 8:30pm and whilst on the bus, I saw an altercation between this guy and these 2 ladies. I thought they knew each other and he was stopping to let them in the car but he pushed her, she kicked his bumper then he smacked her around the head. She went down like a tonne of bricks. I was writing a letter to my G so I wrote it all down but when I rang the cops she refused to make a statement. On the way back on Sunday, I thought I would taunt myself with clothes I couldn't afford at New Look, as I walked out some guy with a camera and a microphone wanted to ask me questions about what fashion and music I was into. I (stupidly) said yes. I had hardly any make-up and looked like crap.. I was wearing Miss Sixty jeans, Gola snow boots & a big furry jacket... Not exactly stylish but comfy none the less. I just hope I don't see my ugly mug on teev somewhere. I think I should have learned from the Anzac Day tv experience.

View from the office

I am now next to a window. Not much to see aside from a building site but I find a view of any sort very comforting. There is a construction worker who is missing his left arm from his elbow down... I have seen this guy working all day every day, doing something with bricks and this funny thing that lets out steam. I think he is a real champ for just going oh well such is life and getting on with it. I know if I was in his situation I would probably be so devestated and pathetic, thinking life just couldn't go on. Its often you dont see how lucky you are until you see someone worse off....


Jamies School Dinners
Causing quite a stir in England. Do you know school dinners cost 37p to make and prisoners 74p? Apparently even army dogs have more money spent on their food.

Mars Volta's New Album
Their first album was this amazing 45 minute start to finish piece of work where each song just wove into the other. I used to put it on when I would drive to Danika's... memories!

Stoned on Oceans Twelve
Apparently wacky weed was a slight problem on the set. Speaking of weed. We were at our usual Friday lunch at a new venue in Brick Lane and some guy asked our Production Director if she had any weed. We all just looked at each other and went ummm no!

Puppy Purse?
This is just cruel. Was this inspired by Paris Hilton & her rat or what?

Rent a German
This caused a stir in our (largely European) office today.. Whatever you do, DONT TALK ABOUT THE WAR!!!!

Say something profound
In Latin... hmm learning Flemish/Dutch is hard enough for me.

Dog Blog
This guy runs around and takes photos of dogs chained to post in America. I think dogs are the coolest... aww I miss my puppy.

Which game are you quiz
Apparantly Im girl talk.. what a load of crap. I remember playing that when I was 10... Now Payday.. that is a game!

Ok thats all.. its 6pm and I better get out of here before the magnetic force of the pub on Friday gets too strong. Going to have Indian from down the road.. mmm Indian...

Linkage

Guardian Unlimited | Online | Dotbomb survivors face new frenzies
The bubble burst.. years ago..

Bloggers Code of Ethics
Most of these are obvious but its an interesting topic.

Saying it with flowers.
Fred Durst says it with flowers... and yeah sorry about that 80 million dollar lawsuit thing.

Pretty Lights

DSC00776
Originally uploaded by ppdigital.

Another great photo from ppdigital... ppdigital is one of my favourite Flickr photographers.

We are still looking for a new housemate. We have met a few potentials and I have a favourite but its not me making the decision. Its been very quiet as its not that warm and uni hasnt just finished... Have you had trouble finding someone to flat or house-share? ** I just got a message from a guy saying he was interested. I texted back sorry but we are only looking for a girl. So he sends back a message saying Ive been looking at this house for 2 weeks yadi yadi yada and you arent even going to give me a chance. Well if you have been looking at the ad for 2 weeks why didnt you call before and secondly, if it says in the ad we are looking for a girl do you really think we are going to be interested? Its not a personal attack, its just that if I was in Wendy's position I wouldnt want to live with 4 guys either.

In sporting news.. We won netball again!! Quite convincingly too. So the team was on the bottom of the ladder but a couple of wins on the trot can do wonders for your confidence. There is a venue in East London so next season Im going to play there instead.

Leaving Home!

Wow.. bit slack with my posting last few days. Not all my fault though.

Friday night we were supposed to leave for Belgium on the Eurostar. Except our train got cancelled due to bad weather in France. We ended up catching the train early Saturday morning. Should have seen the terminal on Friday night... more pissed off people than you could shake a stick at. Not that it was their fault but just the way it goes. Some poor lady was crying because she was meant to take her two young children on a ski holiday. It was a bit over the top... buy them some takeaway or a toy and rebook for the morning. In my day we didn't have skiing holidays! haha... mainly because we didnt have snow in WA but thats not the point.

Saturday arvo, we got there and went shopping to spend my voucher that Simonne (Phil's Mum) had bought me for Christmas then we sat down to the usual dinner... bread, various meats and cheeses, prepare and coffee. Then it was to the basketball to watch Phil's old team play. They pulled off a great English performance and snatched defeat from the jaws of victory (and a 10 pt lead going into the last quarter). Sunday, we watched the Hamme Carnival and then it was up early Monday for me to get back to London.

Our tenancy application is now approved, so we just have to sign the contracts and pay the balance. Still trying to find someone to take over my room but its been awfully quiet so far.... My address details will be changing as of the 18th March so be warned!

We Won!!!

Name your own planet...
They call me Yahny0tron.. leader of the planet Yahny!

When should you quit you're job?
Moe Taxes asks: "I want to hear from Slashdot readers who have quit jobs or turned down offered jobs because it was not what they wanted to do. Why did you do it? Was it ethics, ambition, pride, or disgust? And how did it turn out?

Today, our office is moving. Its crazy. As my boss is away I have to pack my stuff, his stuff and Phil decided he wasn't well enough to come in... So when I asked who was going to pack his stuff it was a rhetorical question.

Binge Drinking article
Found this link while writing a sticky about whose stuff Id put in whose crate.

Patron Saints of Graphic Design
Also another old link.

In Sporting news, we won our netball game. How chuffed was I? My first quarter (well half a quarter because I was late.) I thought I played really well for a change. Chufty badge.

In Sports News...

Netball is on tonight. At 6:30pm. Doh! Just finalising our tenancy application forms for our new apartment.. its officially been taken off the market. Not much other news today.. have too much work today!

Original Apple Designer dies.

New Banksy art in Brighton

w00t new apartment!

So we finally found a new apartment... in the Bow Quarter, East London. Some history.... Bow Quarter was originally an Old Match factory which has now been developed as apartments. There have been additional apartment blocks added on the site so there are now around 700 apartments. Its a gated complex, very secure, which is a touch elitist but after having our house broken into twice that doesn't bother me in the slightest. The gardens are all landscaped, it has its own leisure centre (pool, gym, spa, sauna, steam room and yoga classes) and a bar, restaurant and convenience store. Im soooo excited about living there. We dont have much furniture yet.. just the basics but we'll get by. The apartment itself is 2 longish rooms and a mezzanine (with a kitchen and bathroom too of course). Its all white and wood floors, very Ikea which is where I will be accepting gift vouchers for of any denomination ;) Although Habitat ones would be nice too!

We also went to Bath on Sunday... Well we almost didnt go to Bath on Sunday thanks to London Underground but we got there in the end. We then got stuck on the motorway as well as having the most inept guide ever. This guy was so fresh of the boat the bus smelled of fresh salty air. He was stuck in the typical "the most exciting thing that has happened to me is landing in Heathrow"... Frankly when you come from Australia, sometimes thats true but he was just generally irritating. The fact that he hadnt even been to Bath before and had no idea apart from what he read in his guidebook was just shocking. On the other hand the crazy old sea dog of a bus driver was an absolute gem. He was a real local. He even jumped out at the right time in the traffic jam to have a cigarette before the cars starting moving again. Tour Guide - 0 Bus Driver - 8.5

In Sporting news this week... Netball has started properly. We lost. I sucked. Mainly because I was crook as a dog but also because Im crap. Tomorrow we have a 6:30pm game and Im hoping we are going to win. Just once.

If anyone knows of any good UK free posting things like the gumtree that do houseshare ads please comment this post. Im advertising my room in my current house and it needs to go go go so I can get my bond :D If you are looking for a great double room and you're not a crazy person get in touch.