January 7 2009: UK: Days One and Two
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Hello all! I’m currently in a business lounge at Beijing airport, having paid 30RMB for unlimited internet access. My flight to London doesn’t leave for another two and a half hours, so you can bet your bottom dollar that my internet-addicted self is going to be glued to this screen until I have to board.
Sleep has been hard to come by. I couldn’t sleep the night I left Melbourne through a combination of excitement and knowing that I’d have to wake up at 3am anyway, and couldn’t sleep last night on the plane from Sydney because of my chronic motion sickness disturbing my sleep every time I dry-retched. I tell you, it’s fun stuff!
The weather here today is minus six degrees celsius…or about twenty degrees lower than I’m used to in an Australian winter. I’m doing alright, with four layers on top, and two on bottom. Once I add a scarf, gloves, and woollen cap (and maybe an extra layer), I think I’ll be right for England, despite it’s the coldest winter in years. Worse comes to worse, I’ll buy a down jacket in England instead of just wearing the fellow’s black woollen blazer.
Yesterday I spent in Sydney sweating like a pig with Xuan - we had icecream at Passionflower (an Asian ice-cream joint), did some shopping at Broadway Centre, and watched a busker at Circular Quay who thought Xuan and I were dating. He obviously didn’t have a gaydar. I’ve also been taking a lot of “PHAIL” photos…for instance, an item at Target marked “Reduced to $21.99″…from an original price of $21.99. Mmhmm. I’d post those particular photos up, but I’ve kind of left my camera cable in my rucksack…which is currently being held by the airline for transfer to London.
In any case, I’ll post again probably when I get to Rachael’s house on Friday night. In the meantime, I’m told that people have been nominating me for the 2009 Bloggies in the category of “Best Australian or New Zealand Weblog”, so if some of you nominate me as well, I might actually stand a chance of being a genuine contender. There’s five days until nominations close, so it’s something to do if you have a spare moment.
January 5 2009: Off To England - See Ya Later!
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So, I’m leaving for England tomorrow for three weeks. Chances are, I won’t be blogging in that time (unless I grab the opportunity to be antisocial and hog other people’s computers when I stay with them), though I will be checking my email briefly every couple of days, so do feel free to keep emailing me - I will respond eventually!
My flight to Sydney leaves at 6am - which means I have to be awake at 3am in order to get there on time. I’ll be spending tomorrow in Sydney hanging with Xuan, then taking an 8pm flight to Beijing, waiting two hours, then taking another flight to London. I’ll return to Melbourne on the 27th of January, so jet lag not withstanding, will probably resume blogging on the 28th.
While I’m away, you can keep up with my movements here, and perhaps in this thread on Snark Forums. In the meantime, visit the following people that I’ll be seeing when I’m in merry ole England: Rachael, Ben, Jem, Sarah, Amelie, Lilian, Ruth, Tanya, Jenny, Catherine, Amber and Maren (and maybe Tracey as well, if our return flights from America and England respectively manage to get in at the scheduled times we can meet up briefly at Sydney airport).
Have a lovely January!
P.S. I’ve packed socks.
January 4 2009: New Zealand: Part Five (!!11~)
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Click for Parts One, Two, Three, and Four of “My Trip To New Zealand, Exclamation Mark, Exclamation Mark, One, One, Tilde”.
Auckland
We stayed at the YHA hostel in Auckland, which was probably the nicest hostel of our entire trip (it was reflected in the price!). Our four-person private room was impeccably clean with firm and non-squeaky beds. The bathrooms probably could have done with being cleaned more regularly (there was a distinct public toilet smell), but the self-service kitchen was incredible, the lounge was large, and it was centrally situated. Definite three star hostel accommodation.
As for the city itself, we saw it mainly by night. Intending to go to a comedy show only to find that tickets had been sold out, my cousin and I ended up walking along the waterfront, indulging in icecream, and taking pictures with statues of New Zealand icons. Your standard touristy stuff. There honestly wasn’t much more to do that we couldn’t do at home, as Auckland is structurally and socially similar to Melbourne, if a few years behind.
