happy belated birthday alice!
did you guys get my package?
Thursday, July 28, 2005
Monday, July 25, 2005
Sunday, July 24, 2005
firenze
Hi sorry I have taken so long to get my act together and write about Florence! I've been back for almost a week and my time in Italy already feels like a dream. It's amazing how you forget about the rest of the world when you are traveling, the people that you meet along the way become instant friends and family and it seems like it will never end.
To continue on from my last blog entry...
After relaxing on the beach in lovely Vernazza in Cinque Terre me and my new friends Molly, Anna and Lindsey (Womble) from Mississippi and Stewart from Ohio had our last night out in Cinque Terre and headed off to Florence on the train on the Friday. We stopped at Pisa on the way (it's the thing to do) and checked in our bags and walked through town on a mission to find the famous tower. I was quite surprised because friends have advised me to simply get off the train then get back on once I'd seen the tower, but Pisa is quite a nice small city. This was my first experience of city dwelling Italians, and they are certainly different from village dwelling ones! Every girl is super sleek, incredibly tall and skinny in tight black pants or tiny little skirts and big black sunnies. I don't know how they walk around in such tall stilettos when all the roads are paved in crazy cobblestones! I was struggling to get around in my 'flip flops'!
The tower really does lean quite a lot, it's pretty amazing. The whole park where it is situated is completely overflowing with tourists, all standing making fools of themselves trying to position themselves in photos as if they're holding the tower up. I really wish I'd taken a photo of all these silly looking people, it would have been much more exciting than the tower. I feel sorry for the architect who built the buildings around the tower, because they are so much more stunning and no one pays any attention to them. We had lunch and one of our half-daily gelatos in Pisa and then headed back to the train and towards Florence.
Hmmm I was planning on writing about Florence in this entry but there is just so much to say and I don't want to miss anything out... I think it may have to wait for the next blog, which I promise will have a few more photos.
As for being in London, I have only started to be scared about terrorism in the last 4 days. There are possibly 4 attempted suicide bombers on the loose at the moment and there have been times where I've been on a packed double decker in the last couple of days with a very sick feeling in my stomach. Can't do anything about it though.
I finally sort of finished up at my job on Friday and have a new job with TMP for 4 days processing the temp testing. My boss lovely Amanda at my old job wants me to call her when I'm done there, she's so sweet, she was desperately trying to find work for me so I could stay on but there isn't much at the moment. I would love to work there more in the future but I guess variety will be a good thing.
Ohh yeah Jaan craziest thing happened to me last night. I was at a house party in the North East suburbs of London with a whole bunch of people I don't know, and I met a guy from Adelaide. He said he's from Marden, went to Charles Campbell and has been to Alpha video etc etc. Then I mentioned your name and he freaked out cos he knows you! It was so strange... John Stokes was his name, he said he knows James Moratz quite well. It was all too weird for me...the world is too small.
Signing off for now, will post with photos (reasonably) soon!
Love the beckmeister
To continue on from my last blog entry...
After relaxing on the beach in lovely Vernazza in Cinque Terre me and my new friends Molly, Anna and Lindsey (Womble) from Mississippi and Stewart from Ohio had our last night out in Cinque Terre and headed off to Florence on the train on the Friday. We stopped at Pisa on the way (it's the thing to do) and checked in our bags and walked through town on a mission to find the famous tower. I was quite surprised because friends have advised me to simply get off the train then get back on once I'd seen the tower, but Pisa is quite a nice small city. This was my first experience of city dwelling Italians, and they are certainly different from village dwelling ones! Every girl is super sleek, incredibly tall and skinny in tight black pants or tiny little skirts and big black sunnies. I don't know how they walk around in such tall stilettos when all the roads are paved in crazy cobblestones! I was struggling to get around in my 'flip flops'!
The tower really does lean quite a lot, it's pretty amazing. The whole park where it is situated is completely overflowing with tourists, all standing making fools of themselves trying to position themselves in photos as if they're holding the tower up. I really wish I'd taken a photo of all these silly looking people, it would have been much more exciting than the tower. I feel sorry for the architect who built the buildings around the tower, because they are so much more stunning and no one pays any attention to them. We had lunch and one of our half-daily gelatos in Pisa and then headed back to the train and towards Florence.
Hmmm I was planning on writing about Florence in this entry but there is just so much to say and I don't want to miss anything out... I think it may have to wait for the next blog, which I promise will have a few more photos.
As for being in London, I have only started to be scared about terrorism in the last 4 days. There are possibly 4 attempted suicide bombers on the loose at the moment and there have been times where I've been on a packed double decker in the last couple of days with a very sick feeling in my stomach. Can't do anything about it though.
I finally sort of finished up at my job on Friday and have a new job with TMP for 4 days processing the temp testing. My boss lovely Amanda at my old job wants me to call her when I'm done there, she's so sweet, she was desperately trying to find work for me so I could stay on but there isn't much at the moment. I would love to work there more in the future but I guess variety will be a good thing.
Ohh yeah Jaan craziest thing happened to me last night. I was at a house party in the North East suburbs of London with a whole bunch of people I don't know, and I met a guy from Adelaide. He said he's from Marden, went to Charles Campbell and has been to Alpha video etc etc. Then I mentioned your name and he freaked out cos he knows you! It was so strange... John Stokes was his name, he said he knows James Moratz quite well. It was all too weird for me...the world is too small.
Signing off for now, will post with photos (reasonably) soon!
Love the beckmeister
Thursday, July 21, 2005
i'm back in London just in time for another bomb
Hi all,
I'm at work, just a quick note to let you all know I'm fine, I am sure everyone else is as well. I'm at work and have just found out about the bombs, will update later.
Sorry if I don't text you back but I don't have any credit!
PS Adelle my address is Flat 38 castelnau mansions, barnes. No street name needed.
Ciao
I'm at work, just a quick note to let you all know I'm fine, I am sure everyone else is as well. I'm at work and have just found out about the bombs, will update later.
Sorry if I don't text you back but I don't have any credit!
PS Adelle my address is Flat 38 castelnau mansions, barnes. No street name needed.
Ciao
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Thursday, July 14, 2005
cinque terra italy!
I've been in Cinque Terra (Five Fishing Villages) for three days and it is soooooo gorgeous! I flew over the Alps on the way to Genoa it was pretty darn exciting, then ran to the train station just in time to get the train through Cinque Terra to the last town, Riomaggoire. I can't believe how many friends I made really easily, and I can't believe they are ALL American! Itàs obviously an American hotspot here. It's strange becausde now that I'm on pounds things are actually cheaper for me than the Americans.
We did the big 5 town hike yesterday which was absolutly exhausting but so stunning, worth every horriblòe step that I had to climb up and down. I used up the majority of my memory card yesterday so I'm going to struggle to get all my pictures up here. I'm in the cutest village today Venazza, been sunbaking on one of the few sand beaches around here, the sand is black so it's really hot! I've been eating fruit, pizza and gelato for every meal that I've been here and according to my travel buddies I will be in florence as well. The gelato is SO good but it melts everywhere.
The Italian people here are great, except for the young italian guys of course, I have NO time for them and their blowing kisses and 'smouldering' eyes. In our village everyday all the old Italian ladies and men sit on benches in the main street watching everyone go past and gossiping. The is an old lady in the house across from us and I really want to take a photo of her hanging her washing out of the window but she's too shy. It really is just like in a movie here but better. There are cats on every front step and even in the colourful boats. I've been trying to speak as much Italian as possible but it's hard because as soon as they think I'm American they start to speak to me in English.
Better go, thinking opf maybe doing some snorkelling this afternoon or I may just walk up to the tower in this town and take photos of the boats.
Going to Florence tomorrow, as are all 7 of my dorm buddies. I think I'm just going to try and stay with one of my new friends because I haven't organised it yet.
Will upload some photos as soon as I find some cheap internet!
Love Becky
We did the big 5 town hike yesterday which was absolutly exhausting but so stunning, worth every horriblòe step that I had to climb up and down. I used up the majority of my memory card yesterday so I'm going to struggle to get all my pictures up here. I'm in the cutest village today Venazza, been sunbaking on one of the few sand beaches around here, the sand is black so it's really hot! I've been eating fruit, pizza and gelato for every meal that I've been here and according to my travel buddies I will be in florence as well. The gelato is SO good but it melts everywhere.
The Italian people here are great, except for the young italian guys of course, I have NO time for them and their blowing kisses and 'smouldering' eyes. In our village everyday all the old Italian ladies and men sit on benches in the main street watching everyone go past and gossiping. The is an old lady in the house across from us and I really want to take a photo of her hanging her washing out of the window but she's too shy. It really is just like in a movie here but better. There are cats on every front step and even in the colourful boats. I've been trying to speak as much Italian as possible but it's hard because as soon as they think I'm American they start to speak to me in English.
Better go, thinking opf maybe doing some snorkelling this afternoon or I may just walk up to the tower in this town and take photos of the boats.
Going to Florence tomorrow, as are all 7 of my dorm buddies. I think I'm just going to try and stay with one of my new friends because I haven't organised it yet.
Will upload some photos as soon as I find some cheap internet!
Love Becky
Saturday, July 09, 2005
london bombings
Hi all,
Well as you all know it's been a very very strange week in London and really quite scary. Everyone at home probably saw more of what happened than we did because it was the perfect live TV viewing time for you. I feel really strange and a little bit unattached because now that it's the weekend and I'm further away in outer London everything seems normal. Anyway everyone has their own experience of the London bombings, luckily mine was not a terrible one but I should just write about what I heard.
Thursday morning I got on the district line of the Tube at 8:40 and stood there reading as usual until we stopped abruptly just before St James station which is where I got off. We stayed in the tunnel for something like 15 or 20 minutes and we were all really hot and bothered as it was packed as usual and we were running out of fresh air. If this didn't happen all the time I probably would have been freaking out. The driver said we were stopped because of a signal failure further down the line and then we finally started to move and get off the train. I feel terrible to think of how grumpy and impatient I was when 10 or so kms down the line people were going through such hell. I work one building away from New Scotland Yard and when I stepped out there were hardly any people on the road but there were a lot of sirens and rushing cars everywhere. That isn't really that unusual for our street, there are men with machine guns patrolling every day but now I think about it, it was really eerie.
Half of my workmates weren't at work yet so I told my boss about the delays. Danii and Natalia showed up not much longer because they had been kicked off the tube at Victoria and Westminster station and had to walk. It wasn't until 9:40 that we started to hear that there was an explosion, and then after 10 we heard that there were more. I started to get worried about Adam because I knew he worked up near one of the explosions but I couldn't get in touch with him because the phones were down. It turns out Adam would have gone through two of the tube stations where explosions were that morning if he hadn't slept in. By the time he walked to the station it was closed and everyone was desperately clamoring onto buses. Apparently a little while later the girl next to him on the bus got a phone call from someone saying there had been explosions on the tube and to get off the bus, so he and several others rushed off the bus. Meanwhile Claire was freaking out at work because she knew Adam went through those tube stations in the morning and she couldn't get in touch with him and his work hadn't seen him yet. She was very very relieved when he showed up at her workplace to say he was ok, then he walked all the way home. You know something is wrong in London when half of the workforce is walking out towards the suburbs at 10 in the morning. In the office we didn't realise how serious it was until the news started to filter onto the internet. We stayed at the office until around 3 then Danii and I walked home, it took us both around 2 hours but we certainly weren't complaining... The feeling was quite strange with all these workers walking in droves down all the main streets from London. No one knew where they were going because they usually catch the tube, I walked part of the way with a French girl that was also quite lost and chatted to her.
My friend Sarah was stuck trying to catch bus or tube to her first day of work in the morning when it all happened and she ended up stopping at a pub in edgeware road with a French guy she met when sharing a streetmap with in the street. They sat there and watched it all unfold on TV for wo hours, she let the guy borrow her phone to try to call home, then a lady came in to the pub and asked to use sarah's map. The lady was standing there with a cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other and told Sarah that she had to go because she'd been stuck in the tube for a few hours and was late for work. The lady had soot on her arm and she was in complete shock, she'd been stuck in the edgware road train after the bomb went off for two hours with people screaming in the next carriage and bodies within view, and she was now standing in the pub talking to Sarah. Heaps of people have these stories.
My workmate Simon was also on one of the trains that had a bomb, the one at aldgate and liverpool street. It must have been the most awful experience, he was also in shock when he rang work. It's so horrible, I feel so sorry for everyone for all the longterm damage this has done to so many people.
Yesterday on the tube was pretty strange, it was really empty and everyone was staring at everyone else that got on the tube, inspecting them and their bags. I just tried to read my book and not think about it, I was so scared to get on at first but by the time I got into town I was just really happy to still be living my life and not stopping what I was doing. It sounds so corny but you really can't let bad things that people do get you down.
Our building had one security alert yesterday in the morning when a 'suspicious vehicle' was parked out the front. Everyone was told to go to the back of the building, but of course it was just a courier van. Police dogs were out in force on all the corners, I must be strange because I was just happy to be in town and be ok, I just wanted to cuddle the dogs! It was my official last day at work yesterday so we went out for drinks but of course it was really empty.
I don't know if all of this sounds really stupid or uninteresting or incredibly self involved, but it's pretty much all we've been talking about in the last few days. We didn't see much of it on TV so it's all a little bit surreal.
Thanks to everyone who checked up on me, sorry if I took ages to reply but the phone networks were down for ages.
Love you all and I hope to hear from you soon!
Well as you all know it's been a very very strange week in London and really quite scary. Everyone at home probably saw more of what happened than we did because it was the perfect live TV viewing time for you. I feel really strange and a little bit unattached because now that it's the weekend and I'm further away in outer London everything seems normal. Anyway everyone has their own experience of the London bombings, luckily mine was not a terrible one but I should just write about what I heard.
Thursday morning I got on the district line of the Tube at 8:40 and stood there reading as usual until we stopped abruptly just before St James station which is where I got off. We stayed in the tunnel for something like 15 or 20 minutes and we were all really hot and bothered as it was packed as usual and we were running out of fresh air. If this didn't happen all the time I probably would have been freaking out. The driver said we were stopped because of a signal failure further down the line and then we finally started to move and get off the train. I feel terrible to think of how grumpy and impatient I was when 10 or so kms down the line people were going through such hell. I work one building away from New Scotland Yard and when I stepped out there were hardly any people on the road but there were a lot of sirens and rushing cars everywhere. That isn't really that unusual for our street, there are men with machine guns patrolling every day but now I think about it, it was really eerie.
Half of my workmates weren't at work yet so I told my boss about the delays. Danii and Natalia showed up not much longer because they had been kicked off the tube at Victoria and Westminster station and had to walk. It wasn't until 9:40 that we started to hear that there was an explosion, and then after 10 we heard that there were more. I started to get worried about Adam because I knew he worked up near one of the explosions but I couldn't get in touch with him because the phones were down. It turns out Adam would have gone through two of the tube stations where explosions were that morning if he hadn't slept in. By the time he walked to the station it was closed and everyone was desperately clamoring onto buses. Apparently a little while later the girl next to him on the bus got a phone call from someone saying there had been explosions on the tube and to get off the bus, so he and several others rushed off the bus. Meanwhile Claire was freaking out at work because she knew Adam went through those tube stations in the morning and she couldn't get in touch with him and his work hadn't seen him yet. She was very very relieved when he showed up at her workplace to say he was ok, then he walked all the way home. You know something is wrong in London when half of the workforce is walking out towards the suburbs at 10 in the morning. In the office we didn't realise how serious it was until the news started to filter onto the internet. We stayed at the office until around 3 then Danii and I walked home, it took us both around 2 hours but we certainly weren't complaining... The feeling was quite strange with all these workers walking in droves down all the main streets from London. No one knew where they were going because they usually catch the tube, I walked part of the way with a French girl that was also quite lost and chatted to her.
My friend Sarah was stuck trying to catch bus or tube to her first day of work in the morning when it all happened and she ended up stopping at a pub in edgeware road with a French guy she met when sharing a streetmap with in the street. They sat there and watched it all unfold on TV for wo hours, she let the guy borrow her phone to try to call home, then a lady came in to the pub and asked to use sarah's map. The lady was standing there with a cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other and told Sarah that she had to go because she'd been stuck in the tube for a few hours and was late for work. The lady had soot on her arm and she was in complete shock, she'd been stuck in the edgware road train after the bomb went off for two hours with people screaming in the next carriage and bodies within view, and she was now standing in the pub talking to Sarah. Heaps of people have these stories.
My workmate Simon was also on one of the trains that had a bomb, the one at aldgate and liverpool street. It must have been the most awful experience, he was also in shock when he rang work. It's so horrible, I feel so sorry for everyone for all the longterm damage this has done to so many people.
Yesterday on the tube was pretty strange, it was really empty and everyone was staring at everyone else that got on the tube, inspecting them and their bags. I just tried to read my book and not think about it, I was so scared to get on at first but by the time I got into town I was just really happy to still be living my life and not stopping what I was doing. It sounds so corny but you really can't let bad things that people do get you down.
Our building had one security alert yesterday in the morning when a 'suspicious vehicle' was parked out the front. Everyone was told to go to the back of the building, but of course it was just a courier van. Police dogs were out in force on all the corners, I must be strange because I was just happy to be in town and be ok, I just wanted to cuddle the dogs! It was my official last day at work yesterday so we went out for drinks but of course it was really empty.
I don't know if all of this sounds really stupid or uninteresting or incredibly self involved, but it's pretty much all we've been talking about in the last few days. We didn't see much of it on TV so it's all a little bit surreal.
Thanks to everyone who checked up on me, sorry if I took ages to reply but the phone networks were down for ages.
Love you all and I hope to hear from you soon!
Sunday, July 03, 2005
what a week
Wow I have had one of the most amazing fortnights of my life! I've only had two nights rest in the last fortnight because there is just so much going on at the moment and I hadn't planned any of it and it's all only cost me £10 (besides all the food & beverages).
It all started with Wimbledon last week which as I've said was great. Wireless was pretty cool, I think I was more excited by my gold wristband than the bands though. Wednesday was the last night of Wireless, I finally got to see supergrass but left before Keane to try and beat the crowds. Thursday night was Mary Poppins. The sets were mind blowing, I loved it even if the story wasn't so exciting. Friday night I had another amazing time out in Soho, met some pretty cool people (not strippers) and stumbled home at some ungodly hour only to be woken up by my flatmates Saturday morning saying get up we're going to Live 8! Hyde Park had the most amazing atmosphere and the bands were just so fantastic. Once Beck and I break up I'm going to marry Bob Geldof, although I should probably not take too long because of the age gap and all... We couldn't get tickets to the actual concert with a view of the stage but we were near it and watched the whole thing on big screens with amazing sounds. The high point for me was definitely Pink Floyd, they opened with Echoes my favourite song in the world, then topped it off with Money and Wish you were here, my other fav Pink Floyd songs. The crowd was great and the spirit of the show was something I'll never forget.
And to top it all off sometime in between all these excursions I managed to make my first purchase on ebay! I am now an incredibally incredibally proud owner of a ticket to Sigur Ros at Somerset House in London. I can't begin to describe how happy this has made me to be able to see my favourite band in such a beautiful location.
So hopefully I'll be having another good week before I'm off to Italy!
Miss you all, I will email everyone soon.
xxx
It all started with Wimbledon last week which as I've said was great. Wireless was pretty cool, I think I was more excited by my gold wristband than the bands though. Wednesday was the last night of Wireless, I finally got to see supergrass but left before Keane to try and beat the crowds. Thursday night was Mary Poppins. The sets were mind blowing, I loved it even if the story wasn't so exciting. Friday night I had another amazing time out in Soho, met some pretty cool people (not strippers) and stumbled home at some ungodly hour only to be woken up by my flatmates Saturday morning saying get up we're going to Live 8! Hyde Park had the most amazing atmosphere and the bands were just so fantastic. Once Beck and I break up I'm going to marry Bob Geldof, although I should probably not take too long because of the age gap and all... We couldn't get tickets to the actual concert with a view of the stage but we were near it and watched the whole thing on big screens with amazing sounds. The high point for me was definitely Pink Floyd, they opened with Echoes my favourite song in the world, then topped it off with Money and Wish you were here, my other fav Pink Floyd songs. The crowd was great and the spirit of the show was something I'll never forget.
And to top it all off sometime in between all these excursions I managed to make my first purchase on ebay! I am now an incredibally incredibally proud owner of a ticket to Sigur Ros at Somerset House in London. I can't begin to describe how happy this has made me to be able to see my favourite band in such a beautiful location.
So hopefully I'll be having another good week before I'm off to Italy!
Miss you all, I will email everyone soon.
xxx
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