Merry Christmas!!

A very Merry Christmas to anyone who reads this blog post!
An early start after a late-ish night of seeing the local pubs with another of my uncles and meeting some people that he knew. I went to the Raglan and got to throw and land a dart on the same board that my dad did when he played at home. Got to play some pool with my uncle and had a nice looking English lad give me some tips for both pool and darts [he was my age too, his dad kept on trying to set us up too... awkward]. We also bumped into some friends of my dads that hadn't seen me in almost 16 years, when they came over to Australia. It was really nice to hear from them and to give them my dads contact details so that they can send some photo's over and generally keep in contact.

Christmas went well, we headed over to Colin's mother-in-laws place for Christmas lunch. Paul and Heather dropped us off on their way to their daughters in-laws. It was really good seeing Lyndsey and Mia (I've got photo's and I'll take more tomorrow). Colin cooked lunch, we had a Turkey breast for the meat eaters, Quorn for the vegetarians. Carrots, sprouts, potatoes, swede, parsnips, broccoli and cheese as well as gravy and bread sauce. Very well cooked with flaming brandy pudding for dessert. We moved into the sitting room and had some tea/coffee/remaining alcohol from our glasses as well as some after dinner chocolate mints. More people came over and we proceeded to exchange gifts; Colin, Lyndsey and Mia gave me a matching amber earring set to go with the necklace and Lyndseys mum gave me some bracelets as well as Heather rapping up the tops we chosen in Canterbury. Julie had also gotten me a black roll neck top as well. My bag is now very close to being full, I could close it without opening the extra space, I'll need it though for when I do leave. Boxing day will be at Pauls from the afternoon onwards.

3 Days till Christmas!!!

Christmas is getting really close now, even though you wouldn't think it with the weather we've been having. It double digits today and nice and sunny.

Well getting back from Leicester was a pain, I was supposed to leave there at 12:30 and arrive back in Folkestone at 3:10pm, but for some stupid reason; a gass pipe in Essex had an issue and all the highspeed trains had been 'suspended until further notice' so I got told to go to Victoria station and get a national rail from there. So I ended up on a train to Dover Priory that took 2hrs and then had to get a connection to Folkestone Central. So instead of getting back at 3:10 I got back at 5:30. Not happy.

But I had a successful shopping trip with Heather yesterday, we headed into Canterbury and had a wander through the markets and had a browse through the main shopping precinct. We looked through Next and found some really nice tops, stored them on our internal shopping list and headed out through the town, found some nice shops, tried on some nice shoes. Found a really nice turquoise jumper in M&S (might get it tomorrow or saturday in Dover) but we headed back to Next and tried on the tops we'd found. We chose two of them, one a magenta 3/4 sleeved top with lace detail on the neck line and the other a navy top, loose styled and with split sleeves with a butterfly pattern on the front.
In the markets there was a shop that was selling gemstone jewellery, so I had a look and found some wonderful Amber necklaces all set in sterling silver. I found a red one that I really liked and got it as a Christmas present to myself (it was under £40 too) but most of the time was spent looking for critters that might've been caught in the amber.

Funniest thing though, I got home and found that Colin and the family had been over and had left my birthday present for me... they'd gotten me a smaller amber pendant as well. An orange cube of amber also in silver. So now I have two to choose from :D I'm very happy with all the purchases as well as all that I got some souvenir-y stuff for people. Nothing that's going to push my baggage limit; I've started to pack all ready.

National Space Centre (with a dusting of snow)!

Well today was a late-ish wake up for breakfast and then a mild rush to get ready to go and pick up Toop, Lauren and Tim to go and see the National Space Centre. The space centre is one of the UK's largest attractions that is purely devoted to space exploration and space in general, the building itself is and interesting 'bubble' design [which turns out is bullet proof, for some odd reason] and stands at an impressive 42m tall. It was built as a joint project by the University of Leicester and the government's millennium commission and is currently used by post doctoral researchers at the uni's space research centre.

 When we had eventually gotten to the centre and had left the packed lunch there. We first wandered around the ground floor, this is aimed at a 11-15 age group and includes interactive displays. Like a reaction test to see 'if you have what it takes to be in space' and a remote controlled mini-rover to move around a Martian surface.
It also includes fact panels on all the planets and all the little neutron stars, black holes, worm holes and other strange aspects of space; some of which we still can't explain.

In the tower the first thing that you see is the bottom of some booster rockets and a large red button that says 'DO NOT TOUCH' [of course we pushed it] and set off a loud but funny launch sequence of dry ice and lighting effects. As you move up the tower you can learn all about the space race of the 50s-70s between the USSR [aka Russia] and the USA during the Cold War. It starts with the Russian side of things [including some rockets and missiles] then moves to the American side and their eventual development of a space program. You can read about the history of the Apollo missions and even 'land' a module on the moon. You can access the tower by either lifts or a staircase, the lifts I cannot guarantee that they will be working so I would recommend the stairs for ensuring that your kids sleep well when they get home.

We had an indoors picnic, prepared by Toop that consisted of Vegan scones, cous cous, carrots, Pringles and drinks. Overall the day was really fun, even though we missed the theatre viewing [which you really should see if you get the chance to visit]. I'll put the link in for you to see the centres homepage. But a very good day out.

http://www.spacecentre.co.uk/Page.aspx/1/HOME/

Scones!

The family and I headed into the center of Leicester for some christmas shopping and so that Micah could show me the covered markets and some of the main shops that were worth seeing.
Micah and I wandered through some of the stalls and passed through a sweet shop; I got some bonbons and Micah got some weird peanut sweets. We then walked through some of the main shopping drag, had a small window shopping spree and I contemplated getting some Christmas stickers.
I then met my Auntie Julie for lunch, she seems a little shorter than I remember but I was shorter when I last came over to England. We went to a local Italian place for lunch and had pasta for lunch, then we went to M&S for some shopping that Julie needed to do. After a few hours of wandering through some shops we parted and I once again met up with Micah. We then headed back to the car and proceeded to head to Toop's place to pick her up. Once there we gathered what we needed to make scones and then headed back to Micah's.
We watched some tv, play fought and then cooked some scones using dads recipe. We made about 8 and enjoyed them for dinner with home made plum jam and whipped cream. An enjoyable night for all with good food and even better company.

Leicester (minus snow)

Pronounced less-ter.
I'm in central England now, and I mean central England, Leicester is in the centre of the country. So now its even colder than in Folkestone (single digits and it isn't predicted to be over 5 or 6 all week and it'll get down to 1 or 0 overnight. But no snow in the most recent of storms, much to my disappointment (it's currently my birthday in both Australia and England) so I was looking forward to getting a little snow for my birthday, even if it melted away after a few hours.
I'm staying with a friend of mine called Micah, but I'm looking forward to seeing his uni and the massive supercomputer named A.L.I.C.E later today. Then we're heading over to a friend of his for a end of uni/ birthday party tonight, so that'll be interesting and fun.
I've talked to friends from back home and had messages from family, some warning me "not to get too sober" but yes. I have another 12 months of being a teenager, then I'm officially an adult this time next year. Creepy thought isn't it.

We went over to Toop's house and met her and her housemates Sam and Sophie, we finished cooking the highly alcoholic trifle (it had half a bottle of amerillo and some cherry vodka). Then we headed off to Lauren's for general fun and food. Micah had bought a bought a birthday cake for me (ridiculously rich chocolate) and we had a generally good time talking and watching movies. I generally had a very good time, and enjoyed the company I was around. A good birthday, but I did miss having it at home with friends and family.

Brussels again

Well once again we journey into Brussels, Alice came with me and we started out at an early 9am on a Saturday morning after some sub zero temperatures the night before as we had to scrape frost off her fathers car windows. We went into a balmy 3 degree Brussels from Ottigines and from there to the the Belvue museum thats near the Grand Palace and it goes through the entire history of Belgium. It goes through all the kings, how the actual country was formed as well as how it developed through the Euro zone. The museum itself was very interesting with both real and replica clothing of the kings and helmets from the German occupation during WWII. From there you can see the façade of the Palace royal [very shiny and gold, much like Buckingham palace], its in the same area as the MIM and a few art galleries.
We walked through from there, past a synagogue as well as diverting into a cathedral, to the Brussels justice halls. Which is a massive building, so big that they can't afford to maintain it, so the front is completely covered in scaffolding. Near there we have a monument to the soldiers that died in the world wars as well as a panoramic view of Brussels.
We then went to the mannequin de pis, who had been dressed up in the lead up to Christmas. As well as the Grand Palace and the Grand Place place which includes the museum of chocolate and the Maison du Roi and the markets along with some galleries [like pit street mall]. We had some amazing lunch at a local place called Exki, its all freshly made and most of it's organic. Very good food and here's a link so you can see what the choice was. http://www.exki.be/default/en-be.aspx
From there we went to the comic museum and saw the history of comics in Belgium. We then walked back to the main square, I got some chocolate for people back home and we then had a hot chocolat and chocolat crepes and waffles before heading back to the train station to get back to the eurostar terminal. I didn't like saying good bye to Alice but hopefully she'll be coming out again next year, so I'll get to see her then. Heading back to England was quick, it only took 1.5hrs and I was back at nannies around 7:30pm. So a very good trip and well worth the money spent on the tickets.

Louvain-la-Neuve (LLN)

Another cold morning to wake up to, not frost (thank goodness) but lots of wind the night before. After breakfast we made lunches for ourselves and went for the bus to take us to LLN, on our arrival  saw many students and people walking around with luggage cases and I could even see how bored someone had been as they had made space invaders on their windows out of post-it notes.

We walked through the town towards the Musèe Hergè or Hergè Museum, the writer and artist of the comic book hero TinTin (or Totor in French). Through the museum you see parts of TinTin's home as well as the influences behind the characters. You learn about Hergès childhood and early work and characters; as well as his early works you also get an inside look at the main characters of the Tin Tin stories as well as the main villains. An entire room is full of artifacts that were featured in the 24 adventures that have been published. This same room also reveals how Hergè meticulously researched the backgrounds and histories  of all the countries and cultures that Tin Tin would encounter.
Ofcourse where would TinTin be without his faithful sidekick Snowy or Milou, Captain Haddock, Professor Calculus, Thomson and Thompson and Bianca Castafiore. Each Character has a display that tracks their development through the years and has explanations from Hergè himself explaining the little characteristics and quirks that each of them have. 
When you purchase your ticket (€9.50 for an adult €5 for children aged 7-14) you are also entitled to a free chocolate and hot drink if claimed before 12. The museum opens around 10:30 most days and is well worth a look. They do have a gift store and I did get myself a small Milou toy; my only complaint about it would be that they don't allow any photography within the rooms.


The winter Christmas markets also opened today in LLN, hot mulled wine and fresh baked breads and meats available as well as clothing (scarfs, jackets) and other fresh produce is available (jams, conserves and other yummy things). 
Wandering through the markets there were many stalls selling hot mulled wine (and many people who had had a few too many glasses). There were many stalls selling clothing and scarves (for varying prices) lots of jams, conserves, meats and cheese as well as honey and lots and lots of sweets (the sweet stall was amazing, there was so much choice. I resisted the temptation). We had a chocolate waffle from one of the regular shops in LLN so I have had a Belgian waffle in Belgium; it was amazing, and only cost €2). I got my cousin Mia some earrings and myself two pashmina and silk scarves for €20 so I'll be warm next winter. One of the other exchange students is leaving soon for Argentina so we've had lots of people over for a farewell dinner. The Argentinians are loud but all are speaking either Spanish or French so its all going over my head. I'm looking forward to seeing more of Brussels tomorrow and will write of the adventures tomorrow.

Belgium!!

I'm in Belgium staying with a friend of mine (also called Alice). An early start of 4:45 was called for and so a long day of travel began.
The Eurostar was running on time but for some strange reason it couldn't go at full speed through the channel tunnel, this caused us to run 20 minutes late and further delays in Lille (someone hit the emergency door button and the system had to be reset). After finally arriving in Brussels at 10am rather than 9, I got a map from the information desk and began to walk towards the Musical Instrument Museum or MIM, it has an amazing collection of instruments from as early as 1700. Ranging from harpsichords to baby grand piano's, to the amazing collections of flutes, bagpipes; horns as well as violins and other rarer instruments.
It has three main galleries; Western traditional instruments, piano's and strings and World traditional instruments. The World traditional instruments start from Belgium and move through almost all the countries of the known world. they have specific areas of instruments from different regions of Asia as well as Europe. Most of the instruments are from 1700 and 1800 and have to be kept under low light as part of their conservation, hence not flash photography so some of my images are blurry due to the low exposure. The second room had what was deemed as Western traditional instruments, these included the violin, guitar and other stringed instruments as well as the development of the piano forte and violin from how it is constructed to how the way it was played hanged over the years. Considering it only costs €5 it was well worth it I highly recommend seeing it if you get the chance and find yourself with a few free hours in Brussels (because you will need a few hours).

After that I headed back to the train station and got a ticket to get to Mont-Saint-Guilbert. Where I met Alice at the connecting station Ottigines; we caught up as the train moved away from the platform and then walked up to her house. I was introduced to her mother and grand mother while she was making some wonderful apple tarts, as well as both her sisters and her brother later on in the evening. I met the two cats of the family and had one sleep on me while watching a movie. Her mum cooked an amazing meal of pork, potatoes and a pumpkin bake for dinner and we had our choice of the remaining tart, meringues and chocolate biscuits. I'm looking forward to seeing Louvain-la-Neuve as well as the Hergè Museum.

Farewell London, hello traffic

Last morning in London.... sad that I'll be leaving the women of Pax Lodge so soon, after they had shown some amazing hospitality even though we had never met before. I do seriously recommend it to anyone looking to spend time in London and looking for good value and very nice accommodation.
Once again a good breakfast, colours and packing to leave to find Forbidden Planet again to get some posters for friends. Eventually found it and got the posters, made it back to Tottenham Court Road station in time to get a train to Embankment for Kensington Olympia for the Doctor Who experience with Nicola.

The experience was brilliant and well worth the money, when you enter you initially enter a room with some sets and costumes from some of the episodes. These included the creepers and The queens costumes, a WWII Dalek and some Silurians. You enter into the experience and sit by a screen where you can slowly see a crack starting to form along it. You have an introduction by the 11th doctor (Matt Smith) then the doors open as the crack widens and you walk through into a futuristic museum. The information droid begins to show you objects when the doctor 'intercepts' the libraries system and pops up on the screen asking for Amy or Rory, as he's gotten himself locked into the pandorica (again), he then accepts that the 'shoppers' will have to do and causes the TARDIS to materialise for us to enter.

Once in the control room you stand around the control panel and he instructs you on how to fly the TARDIS, you crash land and end up on  Dalek ship with one the factions of the Daleks. They threaten to exterminate you and when the Doctor intercedes and causes their ship to become visible. You come under attack from a rival Dalek faction and escape through a tunnel caused by the TARDIS. The only issue is that the path to safety takes you through a forest crowded with weeping angels. You then come upon the pandorica, the doctor opens it but causes time to rip and signal every single one of his enemies to come and find him (cue awesome 3D effects) with the Doctor safely back in his blue box and us moving safely onto normal lives. From here we moved into an exhibition hall with more costumes from all 11 doctors, recent companions and other major characters. There is also a monsters hall with a historical sequence of both the Daleks and the Cybermen, showing how they had developed from the very early episodes. A few silence were on the ceiling, some peg dolls from a recent episode as well as many more.

From there it through the gift shop and out. I was very tempted to get a remote controlled TARDIS but settled on a satchel as it'd be more useful. The package that we got gave us a poster and a shirt included as well as a certificate proving that we had flown the TARDIS as well as other goodies. Overall an enjoyable day and a good way to end my Trip

Natural history and science museums

So today had a busy-ish feel as I made my way down to belsize park station to catch the train down to embankment to get to south kensington for the natural history museum, science museum, Baden Powell house and the Albert & Victoria museum.
There are things that miss from the trains at home. Like when they list the stations that train is doing rather than just saying the terminating stop. I eventually got to the museums and started with the NHM.

Multiple school groups were going in as I was so many small children and some not so small high schoolers were there as well. Not too crowded which was nice so you could move around with relative ease. The insect section was first. Winding paths with informative facts accompanied with models or interactive stations really made it enjoyable, albeit aimed at a younger audience.
From there it was onto the dinosaurs. Walking through the archway and being confronted by a large herbivores skeleton is startling but awe inspiring. Many skeletons were on display and even suspended from the roof with the occaisional animatronic raptor moving its head and forearms in reaction to your movement. From the upper walkway you move down and past the large animatronic T-Rex. There were heaps of scared kids with parents trying to reassure them that "it's just a big toy" without much success. More displays were on the lower walkway, these focused on how the world was changing as well as the adaptive methods of the dinosaurs.
Then the marine invertebrates including corals, sponges and shells of different genus' then onto the mammals. This included the large gallery with the life size model of a blue whale as well as skeletons of other whales and models of smaller aquatic mammals. Many taxidermied animal skins were on display as well as interactive stations.
From there I went to the main hall and up the stairs to the second level and the gem and geology section. Literally a long room filled with display cases of different crystals and specimens of rocks that had been found. This is where my camera battery died, much to my annoyance. At the back of this room was what they called "the vault" (I heard that in a rather menacing tone.. Anyone else?) where they keep some of their most significant and priceless pieces as well as loaned private collections. It included large nuggets of gold, opals, raw emeralds and a private collection of the 25 different colours of diamonds, showing them under natural and uv light (some diamonds glow under uv light, it's really cool). I then saw the cross section of a 1335 yr old tree, it was one of the oldest trees alive for a long time until it was felled.

After eating a quick lunch I wandered around the corner for the science museum. This was interesting as it was similar to the power house museum but with so much more (and a nicer layout). There was some art installment and the main hall had some historical engines that lead to a space exhibit models of different rovers and satellights as well as the different types of rocket engines that have been used over space flight. From here you wander into a room of transport and invention, with steam engines and early cars on display as well as a recreation of Thomas watt's workroom.
Exiting that and moving upstairs you find a level entitled "who am I?" where it talks about how our genetics and upbringing shape us as the people we are today and will be tomorrow. Lots of interactive bits and stand alone displays. Another level up is call 'atmosphere' which is focused on how our planet is affected by global warming and the solar system around it. Overall very good and a decent days sightseeing, I would seriously recommend to anyone with a spare day in London to go and see these two places, either side is the Victoria & Albert museum and Baden Powell house as well.

London! Now with extra rain

So I've just had my first day in London, it has all gone well. Nothing was stolen I didn't get lost too often.
I left folkestone at 7:20am (it was just starting to get light as we were driving through the towns. At one stop some guys got on board and we started talking casually. Ended up having some really funny stories to swap and compare things over here to home.
We eventually got to Victoria coach station and from there I headed up to Buckingham palace, took some photos of the gates and the front facade as well as the massive fountain out front.
From there I wandered through some of the parks up to Piccadilly and along to the national gallery and trafalgar square. Saw some wonderful painting, mostly religious but others were portraits or landscapes. There's an exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci paintings on as well.
From there I wandered up past Leicester square to the British museum. On my way there I found a shop called forbidden planet (?) it has a massive stock of sci-fi as well as comics. I was looking over some posters/calendars for people at home as they were all under £10 and very tempting.
The british museum is enormous and if you plan to visit set aside the majority of a day so you can explore and really read and see everything it has to offer.
From there I jumped onto the tube at tottenham court road and headed up to pax lodge in Belsize park (a north western suburb of London).
We just had a roast Sunday dinner. Roast beef, potatoes, Yorkshire Puddings, sprouts and cauliflower with apple pie and custard for dessert. I'll update again tomorrow after I've been to the natural history and science museums

(edit Monday morning) woke up this morning and I could see the Australian flag through my window :)

Dover and Rain

Well nan and I went to Dover yesterday afternoon. It had been raining in the morning [first time it'd rained during the day] cleared up but had started to sprinkle again when we were leaving. We walked up and got the 102 bus to Dover and dropped into Marks & Spencers [their version of myer crossed with David Jones but with Big W/Target prices] I got a cardigan [one of the fashion ones, no buttons] and a couple of crocheted beanies/berets.

We walked through the town, dropped into the information centre and got some postcards for Grace and some more maps for London. Wandered up to the large clothing warehouse and had a browse through, saw a few things I liked but I'll go back during the Christmas week and get them when I know how my money is looking [and I have enough cash on me].

We stopped into Wetherspoons [local pub] and nan had a late lunch/dinner and then we headed home in the ever increasing rain. We got home just after 4:30pm and over here the sun starts to set around 3/3:30pm so byt 5pm its almost completely dark. Just imagine coming home in darkness like it was 8 or 9 O'clock at night. Anyway it kept on raining but let up a little as the night progressed.

Dover Museum, opened by the Queen

Summer mosaic on the main fountain in Dover

The Spring Side of the fountai

We had a minor incident with the outside drains as the rain had washed all the muck off the roofs [it hasn't rained hard for a few months] and had clogged the drains, somehow plants had started growing and had prevented the mud from washing away. The walls themselves had rotted a bit and there's a hole which leads to the ceiling cavity in the second room, so we had water running into the ceiling and dripping down onto one of the beds. Two of my uncles had popped round this morning and helped to clear the gutters out so it won't happen again for now, but the wall and guttering will require a builder to come in and patch it all up.

So that's what's been happening for the last few days, just wandering up around town, working on a cross stitch

My second home

I'm here in England, settled in and I've gotten over the worst of my jet lag [slept for 10 hrs last night]. My nan came and picked me up with a lovely taxi driver [absolute gentleman], the uncle that was supposed to drive had gotten diarrhoea and so a taxi was required.

I've slept well, even over heated. Had a nice walk this morning up into the town, found Bouverie Square for the coaches and had a look in Debnhams [I think thats the spelling]. But other than that its all going well and the weather has been alright. Bit of a cold change this afternoon but no rain as of yet. touch wood.... :]

I'll do another post if anything interesting happens and update you when I get to London on Sunday

I'm in Dubai

Got here safely, bit of turbulence so I'm not feeling amazing that and the altitude drops don't work well with my blood pressure.

It's not as shiny as I've been told but I'm waiting outside my gate (229) for the flight to England.
The A380 is a nice plane, the noisiest thing about it was the aircon and the occasional small child that had woken up.
I'm in one piece, tired (I did get some sleep) and nothings gone missing yet :]

4 days!!!

Had a skype chat with my nan and aunt a few nights ago. It felt odd to say "see you on Monday" to them.
But everything seems to be going fine, I can apply for a free meal and accommodation on my return flight due to my long stop over in Dubai.
Almost time to leave, I'm getting excited :)

16 days!!!!!

Wah~~~ Its almost time to leave :D

Does mean that my exams are closer but that's a back thought. Math quizzes to do and governor generals to see. Till next time.
Xx

Test post

Hey, just a test post to see how to add pictures ect.
to start; here is a picture of my boyfriend and I in costume for the gangsters ball in September

I also have a penchant for lolita styled dresses so I have a list of links to a shop called milanoo
Black Cotton Chiffon Bows Womens Lolita Dress