2 cool Aussies in Wimbledon

Trips abroad

2005-11-27T11:52:00.000Z

Well we have had a great 2 and a half months since I last posted.
M's mother Daph stayed with us for a month after we got back from Norway.

Daph in Prague.

We went for a weekend in Prague, then a driving week in Scotland (also with M's sister Jo).
(Photos of Scotland in later post).

Then on to a weekend in Bruges.

M and Daph in Bruges.

Then a weekend in Paris where we met up with my brother John and his girlfriend Tammy.

John and I at the Louvre in Paris.

M, Daph and Me, riding the big bus in Paris.

Daph departed back home and a few days later my mother Marg turned up from 9 months working in Liberia.

Then we met up with John, Tammy, and Marg for a weekend in Ireland before John and Tammy went home.

John and Tammy in Kilkenny.

Me, Mum and M in Ireland.

The next weekend Marg joined us for a trip to Guernsey.

Me going fishing in Guernsey. No bites!

M in Guernsey

Mum went back to Bris and it was down to me and M.
A few days later my mate Timmsy stayed over for a few days while we watched the first leg of the Football playoff with Uruguay.

We then had a lovely weekend up in the midlands (Hednesford) visiting family (grandad's cousin) and then are final weekend in Amsterdam, staying at the Swissotel in the middle of town.

M and I in Amsterdam. (My famous extended arm shot!)

There was going to be a trip to Barcelona next weekend, but we just can't be bothered anymore, it's nice just to be able to relax in the weekends without the stresses of travelling.

We leave for OZ on Monday the 19th Dec, we both only finish work the previous friday so things will be hectic that weekend.

Good thing is I have 3 work christmas parties the previous week, monday is the IT party, wednesday is the Libraries party (IT is part of the Libraries department), then the big Museum Christmas party is on the Friday night.

Awesome ice rink at work at the moment,.

Well hope you enjoyed the photos.

Awesome Trip to Norway

2005-09-03T15:02:00.000+01:00

Last weekend was a long weekend and so we went to Norway. It was fantastic trip, Norway is a very beautiful place. We arrived Friday night at Torp airport which is at Sandefjord, about 2 hours from Oslo. The next morning we took the train to Oslo and were met by Erik, a norwegian mate of mine who I played soccer with/went to Uni with in Brisbane. We stayed at his place in Kopke for the next 2 nights and he was a great host - taking us around to all the main attractions in Oslo. We went to the Viking museum, sculpture park, fortress, walked around Oslo, among other things but my personal favourite was the Kon Tiki Museum. This guy Thor Heyerdahl was a pretty amazing dude and he did a lot of stuff in his life. Because he spent a lot of time in the pacific there was some stuff about the Solomons.

Norway is such a clean, friendly place. The tap water was the best water I have ever tasted, it was unbelievable stuff, of a sweetness and purity I have never tasted before - and this was just the tap water. The only downside was the expense. We are used to high living costs from London but I was blown away at the cost of some things. A 6 pack of beer from the supermarket was 16 pounds! All in all I could definitely live in Norway for a while. So we had a great time in Norway, and many thanks to Erik and his mum and stepdad for their hospitality.

View of the harbour from other side of town, very nice houses in this area, near the museums.

Me and Erik at the Viking museum.

One of my famous extended-arm-self photos in sculpture park.

Oslo harbour with seriously massive cruise liner. Over 400m long.

Centrepiece of Sculpture Park in Oslo.

Sculpture Park: At first I was lost as how to identify with the art.

I looked for an answer and discovered it among the sculptures.

Me and Erik

M and I enjoying traditional Norwegian food.

Out of Barking - into Wimbledon

2005-09-03T14:38:00.000+01:00

We moved into Wimbledon about 6 weeks ago.
Our new place is pretty cool.
I better rename the blog now that we don't live in Barking anymore.
Check out the pictures of the new pad.

The living room and bedroom at the back.

The kitchen.

Another view of the living room with kitchen at the back.

M is asleep on the couch.

There is a spare bed to the right of the photo.

First day back at work

2005-07-11T21:10:00.000+01:00

Today was the first day back at work for me and many other city workers since the bombings last thursday morning
I was a little bit more anxious than usual as I boarded the C2C rail service to Fenchurch St.
The atmosphere inside the train also seemed quite tense, usually most people avert their eyes from others but today there was a lot of fellow passenger scanning going on and some suspicious stares.
This could also be due to the fact that many of these people getting off at Fenchurch St were quite close to the Aldgate train bomb last week and they knew it.

I said in my previous post that I thought the tube incident at Aldgate was a Circle line train (I actually said Aldgate East station which is 50m from Aldgate station but they are on different lines). Well it was certainly a circle line train, coming out of Liverpool St enroute to Aldgate when it blew up - next stop after Aldgate was Tower Hill where I was about to catch it to work.
It blew up just after leaving Liverpool St at around 8:51 - as I was arriving at Fenchurch St.
Then as I made the 4 minute walk to Tower Hill they closed Tower Hill station.
I don't know why I didn't try to set off for Aldgate station, because it is the closest tube station to Tower Hill, but instead I eventually decided on London Bridge which is twice the distance in a south-westerly direction.

So it started off a more stressful journey than usual but by the time I had jumped on the tube at Tower Hill, everything felt pretty normal again.

On a much brighter note, Meredith is arriving back in London tomorrow night. That will be great, I know she has had a lovely time back home and I have organised some nice things for her to do in London.
I had staff/family/friends tickets to go and see the diamonds exhibition at the Natural History Museum tomorrow night. But with Meredith coming home then, I managed to exchange them for Friday night tickets instead. It will be a great evening, you can read about the exhibition here (http://www.nhm.ac.uk/diamonds/exhibition.html).
In the VIP lounge are some truly awesome diamonds including the 200 carat Millenium Star, the 60 carat Steinmetz Pink, 5 carat Moussaieff Red plus other amazing diamonds.
I hope Meredith doesn't like them too much, they are a bit beyond my budget at this stage.

Anyway, gotta go, chat later.

London explosions

2005-07-07T21:58:00.000+01:00

I sent this email earlier today.___________________________________
Hi family/friends,
By now you have probably heard about the explosions in London.
Just wanted to let you know that Meredith and I are OK.
Luckily Meredith has been in Brisbane for 2 weeks to attend her brothers wedding but she is due to leave Brisbane for London tomorrow. She will try to delay the flight for a few days.
This morning I was on my way to work at the Natural History Museum at South Kensington, from where we live at Barking it is a 1 hour journey from east to west through the centre of London.
There are 2 routes I can make, either catch the district tube line all the way, or go overground rail from Barking to Fenchurch St and then walk 5 mins to get the district tube line from Tower Hill (near theTower of London).
Most days I catch the rail because it is slightly quicker and more comfortable.
Today I was running slightly late and got to TowerHill about 9am, the station had just closed and people were starting to bank up. Noone knew what was going on but I heard people saying the whole underground had been shut down. There were heaps of fire engines/fire command units and other emergency vehicles going past us.
I learnt later that they were going to Aldgate East station which is the next stop east from Tower Hill on the district line and only about 600m away.
After 5 mins I started walking towards what I hoped was another route to work, alot of people were queuing for the buses but I had no idea which bus to take.
I rang my boss to tell him I would be late and whether he knew what was going on, he didn't know anything soI rang another mate at work. He told me the tube website didn't say anything was unusual but he wouldfind me another route to work via the buses.
It involved about 4 bus changes and would take an hour and a half so I said forget it. I decided to walk to London Bridge which is a big rail/tube station.
I started off walking with lots of people but halfway through the trip there were considerably thousands more people walking the other way. Hmm obviously thatstation was not open so I joined their flow.
My mate rang up again and said that his missus - who works at the home office - had just told him there were explosions reported on the tube line and all tubelines were suspended.
I thought screw this, I'm going home to Barking.
On the way back to the station, helicopters started cruising around overhead and the mobile phone networkwas patchy as the providers canned non-essential mobile traffic for priority emergency services.
Fenchurch St was still open and the above ground rail service was still working so I hopped on board and got home about 10:30.
I understand the station closed not long after so I timed it well.
Only when I got home did I really work out what had been going on. The blast at Aldgate East station had occurred minutes before I reached tower hill and thanks God that I never catch the tube from Barking. I was on the different line approaching tower hill at the same time.
Reporting from Barking, London.
______________________________________

Now that more info has come out, I can make a correction to my email. The blast at Aldgate was between Aldgate East Station
and Liverpool St Station which is either on the Hammersmith line or the Circle line, not the District line like I thought before.
Thanks to everyone that has replied to my email, I know you are all shocked by this tragic event.
I was really impressed with London's emergency plan. The tube stations were shut down within minutes of the first blast and fire crews were on their way very quickly.
My feelings have changed about Barking and London, I am starting to like London and the people with their almost normal accents. Barking is still pretty crap but I am getting more comfortable with it even though there is not long to go here.
Our lease expires here in a couple of weeks, so I am looking forward to moving over towards Wimbledon way. Will start checking for places online next week.

I have the day off tomorrow as well, the museum is closed due to the explosions so its a long, long weekend for me. Its probably a good idea the museum is closed, means less commuters through the city - which is good while transport is still under the ropes.
I read that 3 million commuters use the tube underground system every day, thats a lot of people. How did they all go getting home tonight with the tube out of action?
My mate Shane works on Canary Wharf and lives way up at St Albans. He is staying in a hotel near work tonight - just couldn't get out of the city. They had a bomb threat at Canary Wharf today as well.
One of my Kowie mate Dan's friends was at Edgware Rd station during the blast, he spoke to her this arvo and she said it was horrible, with lots of blood and stuff.
Sad thing is that yesterday was such a happy day with winning the 2012 Olympics, everyone seemed really stoked about it.
Then today was a tragedy.
But something like this can really bind people together, I really feel for my fellow Londoners now.

Talking about the Olympics, the 200 hectare Olympic park is going to be near Barking!
It will be in the borough of Newham which is pretty close to here, people that own property in the area are really happy cos they think prices will skyrocket. The current site of the park is a crappy, slummy looking place. Newham is the third most deprived shire in Britain. Plan looks quite awesome.

Hopefully tomorrow is a bright, sunny day.

2005-06-04T17:22:00.000+01:00

M and I at a dinner for Sammy's 4 day tour groups in Istanbul.

2005-06-04T17:18:00.000+01:00

ANZAC crowd walking from Dawn Service up to Lone Pine.

2005-06-04T17:16:00.000+01:00

Dawn Service with HMAS Anzac and another frigate even further out.

2005-06-04T17:13:00.000+01:00

Dawn breaking on the "Sphinx" at Anzac Cove.

2005-06-04T17:08:00.000+01:00

Me smoking a tobacco pipe filled with Coffee flavoured tobacco. At a small village not far from the ancient site of Troy in Turkey.

2005-06-04T16:59:00.000+01:00

Dan, me and Tone out fishing.

2005-06-04T16:56:00.000+01:00

M and I at Brighton.

Brighton and more.

2005-06-04T16:31:00.000+01:00

Due to the excitement I conveyed in my last posting about the Tower (and indeed the photo of me leaping about with enthusiasm), I have poured myself a bundy and coke to help with the description of our trip to Brighton last weekend. In fact if I drink a few more bundy and cokes plus some beers I will be able to relive our experiences of Brighton.
Excuse me for a few minutes while I knock down half of this Bundy/coke.
.........
Thats better.
I must take this opportunity to thank Tony Scott and Naomi the policewoman, both formerly of Kowanyama, for bringing me this bottle of 1125ml Bundaberg Rum from Australia. It was a lovely birthday present for my 26th birthday a couple of weeks ago. My other mate from Kowie, Dan Frenchie gave me a bottle of Gordon's gin which went down a real treat.

It has been great having my 2 good buddies from Kowie around since we returned from Turkey. Having lots of fun kicking footballs and drinking beer.

Our trip to Brighton with M, Tony, Dan, Pippa, and Naomi (Tony's mate from Kowie) was great.
I bought these cheap, group, allday Thameslink rail passes from Greenwich tourist centre the day before - 4 people for 25 quid.
We cruised down there early in the morning and it was great to see the sea again. Naomi had brought over some footies from Oz (league and AFL), and we kicked around the AFL ball on the beach. After a mid-morning croissant Frenchie found a brochure about fishing on a boat for 90mins -only 12 quid including rod hire. We jumped at the chance and set off walking to the marina.
Us lads had an absolute ball on the boat, while the girls went shopping.
We were jigging for mackeral and while some kids had some luck -catching some mackeral under 20cm long - we didn't catch anything. We had a great time drinking fosters though.
The fishing trip has got to rate as one of my best memories so far in this country - which is not saying much for London.
The rest of the day consisted of more beer drinking and kicking the ball around on the rocky beach. It might not seem exciting but I assure you it was very fun.
It was awesome being at the beach and we will have to do another one soon.

2005-06-04T16:30:00.000+01:00

Me having a ball at the Tower.

Weekends

2005-06-04T16:20:00.000+01:00

Two weekends ago we went to the Tower of London with Pippa.
It was interesting, check out the photos.

ANZAC Day at Gallipoli

2005-06-04T16:19:00.000+01:00

More to come....

2005-04-17T16:25:00.000+01:00

M, Me, Liam and Jo.

Saturday night at Jo's and Gelibolu

2005-04-17T16:08:00.000+01:00

Last night we cruised over to Jo's place (M's sister) at Clapham Junction.
We took over a bottle of gin and some tonic - that is our latest, greatest drink.
Jo lives in a big house with another girl and 6 other boys (plus a couple of hangers-on).
Had a pretty cool time, hanging out with the lads. Played a bit of indoor cricket with a Video tape cover as the bat and a tennis ball. I have been feeling very sports deprived lately.
We got our new didgy camera that we had got Jo to purchase for us at Pool.
Managed to make it home on the last train.
I will attach a photo taken at Jo's house with Me, M, Jo and Liam.

Going to Turkey on thursday, it will be AWESOME.
Meeting up with some of the Kowanyama lads - Tony and Dan, who have been trekking around south-east asia and dubai for the last 3 months. It will be really cool to see them.
Also meeting up with a good turkish mate of mine, Gorkem, who I know from Uni days in Brisbane. Haven't seen him for a couple of years so it will be great to see him again.
He will show us around his fair city of Istanbul.

Gelibolu is the Turkish version of the word Gallipoli.
Will write another posting before we leave on Thursday.

Parcel update

2005-04-17T16:04:00.000+01:00

Well we recovered the parcel.
I take away all the bad things I said about the postal people.
We rang the postal centre and few times and wandered up there last saturday morning and they had found our parcel. M was delighted and has worn her boots each time we have gone out. Now she just needs more clothes to go with the boots.

Postman Dodge

2005-04-07T20:23:00.000+01:00

I am turning into a whining pom.
Maybe that will be the real theme to this blog, forget the madness and bring on the whingeing (hmmmm, to "e" or not to "e").

Fanfare/Trumpets blazing
Welcome to this blog, you will witness the transformation of a staunch, true-blue Aussie. From a man so tough he eats glass and pisses out sand to a WHIngeing, Mad, Pom Aussie (WHIMPA).

Back to my whinge for the week.
It was the missus's birthday last week, and mama missus had sent a present to the missus - some lovely brown leather boots.
The missus really needed those boots, she is so short of footwear that I have had to draw some thongs on her feet with a nikko pen every morning.
Anyway the parcel arrived at our letterbox the day after her birthday, unfortunately we were at work and the parcel was too big for the letterbox
So Postman Dodge inserted a card in the letterbox telling us to go to the Barking Delivery Centre to pick up the parcel.
So the next day I got up early and trundled off to the delivery centre for a 7:30am opening.
When I arrived and presented my card, the man couldn't find my parcel and said that someone would ring me later today.
Nope, no call.
The next morning, I got there early and while I waited at the ground floor entrance, a man was leaning out of a second floor window of the delivery centre, smoking a cigarette and casually dropping ash from his cigarette into my personal space (at my feet!). After a couple of minutes the butt made it to my feet as well.

I presented my card again and the man told me that the parcel was still missing, an investigation was underway and his manager would ring me.
The manager rang me later that day and told me the parcel had disappeared, and if I liked, I could fill in a claim at a post office.
I was pissed and said "Sure mate" and hung up.
I have looked on the Internet and found that we are not the only residents to have complaints about the Barking Delivery Office.
Our local member of parliament has had meetings with Royal Mail representatives about the poor service in this area.
This is from a press release on ePolitix.com 25 October 2004
http://www.epolitix.com/EN/MPWebsites/Margaret+Hodge/4d42bae2-f8e4-41a4-b019-748bd1564d82.htm
______________________________

Hodge Secures Important Pledge From Post Office On Deliveries

Margaret Hodge secured a pledge from Royal Mail’s Regional Manager that deliveries will improve in Barking. The pledge was made in a meeting Mrs Hodge held with the leading Post Office official in the area last Friday.

Mrs Hodge came to the meeting with a dossier of notes cataloguing complaints she had received from constituents which she took up with Ian Songhurst, Area Manager for Romford Post Office.

During the meeting Mr Songhurst and his colleagues confirmed that there had in fact been a criminal investigation into missing post in one part of Barking, and that a postman had in fact been dismissed following an investigation.

An official from the Post Office suggested that independent research had shown that next day deliveries were up to 90.5% compared to the target for the area of 92.5%. However, Mrs Hodge responded saying that in the 10 years she had represented the area she had never received so many complaints about Royal Mail from her constituents. The complaints, covering a wide area of Barking, included not receiving mail for days and post going missing all together.

Ian Songhurst conceded that the quality of service provided by the Post Office had been poor, and that as Mrs Hodge suggested, this was in large part due to the reliance on temporary postmen and women in Barking who did not know the area and who were generally less reliable. He explained that an attempt would be made to employ permanent staff across the whole of Barking.

Mrs Hodge has undertaken to monitor the service the Post Office provides over the coming months, and would welcome comments from people in Barking. She will be meeting with Royal Mail again in six months time to review the progress they have made.

______________________________
Click here to see examples of letters from pissed-off residents - missing mail/passports/cheques etc...

I suspect the lovely brown leather boots now adorn the feet of Missus Postman Dodge.
This is not the end, I will keep you posted....

Mr Dodge - our rental agent

2005-03-31T22:00:00.000+01:00

This is an email I sent to the UK Office of Fair Trading tonight (OFT).
________________________
Hi,

I have recently started renting a property through an estate agent.
I have been paying my rent from my bank account, it comes out automatically by direct debit every month.
I decided I would like a receipt and rang my estate agent asking for a receipt for the two times I had paid rent.
He said he could write me a receipt each quarter but that it would cost me £25 for that privilege.
I refused his offer.
Is that illegal for him to charge me a fee to write a receipt for my rent?
Surely I can receive a receipt for my rent without having to pay for the receipt, and if I did pay him to write a receipt could I then ask for a receipt for the receipt payment - maybe he would ask for another fee for writing that receipt and so on until he has reached real estate utopia and I, bankruptcy.

Please advise me of my rights.

Regards
XXX
__________________________

Our rental agent still thinks we are fresh off the boat, well we may have been when we arrived and signed his lease.

Mind wanders back to 20 Jan 2005 - Real Estate Agent's office
Mr Dodge: Hello Mr and Mrs A, That property you are looking at is OK, but to be honest I wouldn't want my wife living in an unsafe area like that. Now here is a property that is a little bit more expensive but you will have peace of mind for your wife Mr A
Mr A: Gosh, well my wife's safety is the most important thing. We certainly won't be looking at places that are unsafe for her.
Mr Dodge: You are in luck, this expensive place has just become available (Read: not being advertised so we don't know the market price) and we may be able to convince the owner that even though you don't have the necessary rental references and haven't been in the UK for long, you will be able to pay the rent. Usually there is a reference check which costs £235 - but because I trust the look of you, I won't do the reference check. How's that?
Mr A: Thats great, thanks very much Mr Dodge!
Mr Dodge: But you will still have to pay the fee even though I don't do the check.
Mr A: Umm OK (This money still seems like monopoly money to me and I left my brain on the plane)
Mr Dodge: OK, well just let me ring the owner to see if she will OK this without a reference check, I like your chances because her sister is a teacher and must understand what you are going through.
Mr A: ??? Yeah sure mate.
(Watch Mr Dodge have a 5 min heated phone conversation with "Owner" - Look trust me on this one, Mrs XXX, blah blah blah)

Mr Dodge: Well good news Mr and Mrs A, the owner has agreed.

Back to present time

Well the moral is that real estate agents are sharks and our Mr Dodge is a white pointer.
But don't worry, I've hired Vic Hislop.

That sounded really good when I wrote it but I'm not sure the UK OFT will be as good a shark hunter as our Aussie Vic Hislop was.

2005-03-28T15:21:00.000+01:00

Ernest Lycett WW1 Medal Card

Easter Monday research

2005-03-28T14:44:00.000+01:00

Went and did some shopping today at Tesco's, we are boycotting our usual supermarket (Asda) because they sold us a dodgy coffee mug (The handle and the rest of the mug aren't comfortable with each other).

Spoke to my grandparents today which was very nice, I haven't rung them for about 6 weeks.
Asked them about grandad's father, Captain Ernest Lycett, who fought in both World Wars. Since we are going to Turkey/Gallipoli for ANZAC Day (April 25), I want to find out as much as I can about his time in the area. He was British and went in with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment at Suvla Bay which is a little bit north of Anzac Cove. You can read a good overview of the Gallipoli Front here
http://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/overview_gf.htm

Found what appears to be his WW1 Medal Card on the National Archives website.

Description

Corps	Regiment No	Rank
Medal card of Lycett, Ernest
South Staffordshire Regiment	11272	Serjeant
Royal Warwickshire Regiment	268623	Serjeant
Royal Warwickshire Regiment		Second Lieutenant

Date

1914-1920

Catalogue reference

WO 372/12

Dept

Records created or inherited by the War Office, Armed Forces, Judge Advocate General, and related bodies

Series

War Office: Service Medal and Award Rolls Index, First World War

Piece

Langley P A - McGrath D

Image contains

1 medal card of many for this collection

See the link here
http://www.documentsonline.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details-result.asp?Edoc_Id=3925994&queryType=1&resultcount=1

The National Archives office is at Kew Gardens, on the other end of the district tube line from us at Barking (About an hour away).
We might make a trip out there next saturday to do some more research.

Anyway thats all for now.

Number One

2005-03-27T23:36:00.000+01:00

Finally started our blog. I was going to start one when I moved to Kowanyama in mid 2003, but never got around to it.
Well here it is, a great resource to write stuff in, add photos and generally keep posted anyone that is interested in our progress/travels.
So I hope the postings are informative and enjoyable.

We have moved into a town called Barking in the Essex county, it is zone 4 on the London underground. We moved there so my missus could do supply teaching in Essex - she got the contract before we left Oz so our choices were limited. This is the closest we could live to London while still being close to her schools.
For a laugh, do a search on google for Essex girl or Essex boy
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=essex+girl&btnG=Search&meta=
There are lots of funny jokes about them.

Barking is a very multicultural, cosmopolitan place. That's what I keep telling Meredith anyway. When I tell English people we live in Barking they generally say "What the **** are you doing living in that **** place!" and that's the civilised responses.
Meredith was talking to a local Barking guy who noticed her Aussie accent and when she told him we lived here he said "What the **** are you doing living in this **** place!
So that's Barking.

We think we are the only Aussies in this area, sort of like pioneers I suppose.

Cheers from the 2 mad Aussies in Barking.