A short trip home

It feels like forever since I’ve been on this thing. Lots to catch up on so I’ll be short and sweet about it (I hope). As you know I made the decision to go home for two weeks, see friends and family and all things Aussie. It was wonderful, I had such a great time and did nothing that I intended to (except for the catching up part). Before I went I made a huge list of things to do, intending to act like a tourist, go and see all my favourite places in Sydney, catch up with friends, swim and sun bake every day and eat at all the food places I’ve missed. Yet I basically did the total opposite.

I flew home with China Southern and it took me 36 hours, which included a stop over in China for 14 hours. Lucky I didn’t book a hotel for the night and intended on hanging around the airport because they surprised me with a room in a 5-star hotel as I landed. It was heaven and made my long journey just a tad better. By the time I had landed in Sydney all I wanted to do was get home (and have a shower!) but an electrical storm meant that we were delayed with our landing and then again in collecting our bags, my poor mum almost gave up waiting for me. As I walked out of arrivals to see her of course she gave a massive scream and embarrassed me as best as she could but it was even better seeing my brothers there and it was then I realised how much I actually missed them.

It was late so I stayed at Mum’s and caught up with everyone, sharing stories and giving them their gifts and horrifying Mum with how much stuff I’ve brought home for storage but I finally managed to get to sleep and some how missed the jetlag Hooray!

The next morning I went around to see my dog and by surprise my boyfriend had also taken the day off. I was thrilled and didn’t know which one to kiss first. All my plans for that day had gone out the window and were spent with them. If you thought seeing my family was tough this was even worse. I knew I missed these two both not nearly as much as I realised once I saw them. It was like it wasn’t real and at that point I was sad that I only had 2 weeks here. This would be tough, so I’d have to make the most of it.

The weather really didn’t go in my favor whilst I was there so instead of sunbaking and playing tourist every day I spent it sleeping in, catching up on Aussie TV, walking the dog and every meal was spent catching up with friends.

Even though we have Facebook, Skype and instagram there is nothing like seeing your friends face to face. I’ve known about all their milestones like getting engaged, married and having kids but nothing beats sitting down and having never ending conversations with them. I really miss that big time!

I also managed to go to the beach twice. The first time with Becky and only for a few hours but somehow got so incredibly burnt (I really am turning pommy I guess) that I could hardly walk for two days and it hurt to even get from my front door to the car and the second just near the end of the trip when the sun decided to come back out so my desired tanned and bronzed skin wasn’t quite achieved…silly me!

However, I’m ok with what I did and instead of treating it like a holiday I now look at it as a privilege and opportunity to see my friends and family again. I went straight back to doing pretty much exactly what I normally do and I loved it. The first day or so I tried to convince myself that nothing had changed and it would be easy to go back to London but by the end of the first week I knew that wasn’t true. I realised that it wasn’t only my friends and family that I missed but it was the Australian lifestyle. We are so lucky to have the lifestyle we have in such a beautiful place. I’ve always been about colour and London I realised, can’t give me that with it’s grey skies and buildings and dull days, Australia, even in Winter can do it for me.

Week Two saw most of the same structure but with a few more arranged catch-ups with friends and a visit to my old school where I’ve also made some wonderful friends. Even just walking around the school put a smile on my face. It made me proud to be Australian and proud to be a teacher. As I walked past the classes they were calm and I could see some quality-learning happening. The classrooms were bright with beautiful art and work displays and every teacher had a smile on their faces. Don’t get me wrong, London has that too but the weather just makes everyone miserable I think and it just so happened that it was a nice day in Aus so this was the contrast that I was provided with. It just so happened too that I had came to Australia at the right time and after some discussions it was clear that my return to home would be much sooner than expected.

My mind was made up, my days in London were limited. I had decided that I would go back to London, finish the school term, travel a bit of Europe, doing the countries I have yet to explore and return home, ready for Term 3 in Sydney and it just so happened that there was a job opening available to me. Everything fell into place within the last week and I was excited about it all.

Knowing I would return within a few months made it much easier to say farewell to everyone however once at the airport I begun to plan out my last weeks in London and how I would tell my family over there because it was now that I begun to imagine my weeks without them once I returned to Sydney again. It gave me new light for London and I hopped on that plane with the eyes of it being a mini holiday and a better attitude to treat London as an adventure. Yet that all stopped when I got off the plane to snow, cold and misery. I began to wonder why I even came back. To stop these horrible thoughts take over once again I made a bucket list for London, in the hope that it makes my last few weeks more exciting.

London Bucket list

·      Stonehenge and Bath day trip

·      London Dungeons

·      Museum of London

·      International Rain Room

·      The Lion King

·      See a ballet

·      Take in the view from Ally Pally (requires a sunny day!)

·      Night out in China town

·      Cookes pie in Hoxton (recommended place)

·      Thorpe Park

I’ve been here for 5 weeks and done none of this (way to go Holly!) so with my last 3 weeks I guess I better make a move on and I guess by thinking that if I put it on here it may force me to actually do some, if not all of these. Wish me luck!

 P.S There is an extreme lack of photos as i completely neglected my camera on this trip so whatever was taken on the iphone is all that i can provide..and its really not much as we can clearly see i mostly take photos of the dog whoops! Enjoy..

Let it snow, Let it snow, LET IT SNOW!

2013. January. One of my favourite months in Australia.
New Years Day, the height of Summer, beach, sun, Australia Day, Big Day Out, Sydney Festival, Moonlight Cinema, friends birthdays and the final days of school holidays!

Only... I'm not in Australia. I'm in London feeling fat, white, ugly and in the middle of WINTER. During December I saw the temperature drop, the tourists leave and plenty of rain. Rather than experiencing a white Christmas  it was a wet Christmas (click here for more on Christmas) but still wonderful. After getting back from Scotland I promised my body a rest as I cut out alcohol for the month (yes I'm still going!) and eliminated meat, cheese and junk food from my diet, allowing my body to refuel on all things healthy as well as regular gym sessions once again. I can't believe how great I feel as well as how many more of my old clothes I can fit into again (still a way to go though).

All my family had warned me that January was the worst month and the brute of winter as well as the slowest of them all, so i was determined to not let it get to me and attempted to fill it with exciting adventures each weekend, acting like a tourist once again.
It began with Lauren, Bec and I hitting the ice rink at Somerset House before it closed. This was so pretty and I really enjoyed the experience. Next i was off to the Natural History museum to see the dinosaurs and the Wildlife Photography Exhibition which was absolutely brilliant!

January saw my little cousin's 11th birthday and whilst i didn't go to the skate park with him (that would have been funny) I did join him at the movies that night. The Impossible has to be one of the best true-story movies that I have seen in a long time. This movie was fantastic and I highly recommend it. Keeping with birthdays, that weekend I went down south to Brixton for the night to celebrate Bec Wiley's birthday (and she looked smoking!) where I also saw Bin and Kane, who sadly I have been so lazy about and not even seen them since Oktoberfest (I truly live in my little North East bubble over here). It was great to have a catch up however with the combination of the horrible flu I managed to have caught and the sober January I left in time to catch the last tube just after midnight.

Mid January had come and still no snow... just really really cold weather. We are talking minus. I could not go outside without wearing gloves a scarf n beanie but lucky i have a super warm coat so that eliminates the ridiculous amounts of layers to go outside and peeling off inside as everywhere is blaring with radiators. FINALLY, a small dusting and i woke up to messages about snow from almost every family member but it wasn't enough for me, melting by lunchtime. It wasn't until the next week that we had a rather generous fall over a number of days so that by the weekend London was covered in snow.

Words can't describe the feeling of waking up to a city in snow. There is something magical when you walk down the streets and imagine the difference between what you see in front of you now and what it looked like only days before. The snow doesn't stay long in London but when it comes everyone goes crazy. It was a Friday morning and I headed to work. The school playgrounds look beautiful. I had reception (kindy) that day and I don't know who had more fun- me or the children. We had snow ball fights, made mini snow men, attempted snow angels and a photography session in the snow. Fantastic!
The next day Rocky and I headed over to the park with the sledges and even though most of the snow had melted again we still managed to slide down the hills with some momentum from the snow/ice/mud. I loved it and felt as old as Rocky (11), racing him and my Uncle down the hill.
Sunday gave us another layer of snow and if i knew it would go so quickly I would have gone down to Southbank and captured the big Ben and London eye on a day like that however I was extremely lazy and missed the chance.

I never realised either but London actually can't always handle the snow either. Buses, trains and even schools shut down (makes me think about how other countries in Europe handle it then) but unfortunately not my school. All week we have endured wet weather conditions so the kids have been cooped up all week and it wasn't until we took them for a quick break outside that we realised why. Two teachers and a whole class can't even stop a snowball fight and as much as you may like to join in as a teacher we still need to prevent any catastrophes and sometimes that means by spoiling the fun.

So the snow has finally melted and after the icy week we've had I am actually a little relived. However that also means that its back to colder weather so the gloves are back out. I hope that isn't the last of the snow though and promise myself to venture to Southbank the next time it falls.

In the mean time though, the countdown begin to my next getaway......For the first time in 7 years my Grandad will be returning to Australia to visit my Mum and siblings and I very fortunately am going with him. It has been 10 months since I have had my feet on Australian soil and even though I've had many friends come over there are still some of the closest people to me that I miss oh so terribly and can't wait to see, even if it's for a quick flyby. So... let the countdown and catch ups begin!

What will I do first as soon as I land? Go and see my dog and let him give me to sloppiest kiss ever! It's been way too long!