Would you like a cup of tea?

In Australia, whenever I told someone that I'd be going to London, approximately 50% of the time someone would put on a bad British accent and say, "Would you like a cup of tea?".

And the funny thing is- they do say it here! I've been asked if I want a cup of tea quite a few times. My tea intake has actually increased.

When I was staying with Michelle's family, we were actually woken up by Michelle's stepsister bringing us cups of tea at 7am in the morning. I was really surprised that they value their tea so much and apparently muttered something unintelligible and fell back asleep. I can't believe someone would wake me up to give me ... tea!!

(Pic from BBC News)

Cambridge

I went to Cambridge and stayed at Michelle's sister's family house so I got a bit of an insight into a British familys life. Cambridge is a pretty city, known for its university. Top three things:
- Punting: At first I thought Michelle and Joe asked me whether I wanted to go 'hunting' instead of 'punting' so I said "No thank you" as being the accident prone that I am, I'd most likely be the one to get accidentally shot at. But no- its was a boat that took us around the river as we went through the willows, saw the front entrance of Hogwarts which is used for Harry Potter (I got so excited), and saw little ducklings paddle past.
- Cows in public parks - there were unsupervised cows in public parks!! Was quite funny
- Pretty parks and trees
Many thanks to Michelle and Joe for showing me around Cambridge! x (and for explaining to me what minger, swotty and all those other british words mean)

Thou shalt not speak on the tube

If you've ever been on the tube in London, you'll realise how silent and stony-faced everyone is. Me, being the tourist, would look around up and down smiling to myself at funny ads on the walls or would play games by looking at people and seeing whether I can guess what country they're from but people would look back and shoot dagger looks at me for looking at them. I personally find the tube fascinating but Londoners hate going underground.

The funny thing is I heard these teenagers laughing about something and the girl giggled in a hushed voice, "Sssh! We're on the tube! We're not meant to speak on the tube!". Except people do speak on the tube late at night and you have funny, stupid conversations with randoms. I guess that happens around the world on all public transport routes late at night!

What I find really beautiful is when you get a really good busker at the tube station. You're in a cold, dirty environment but the music really warms up the station and I've even seen it melt some of those frosty faces away...

I think Im starting to put on weight...

and i wonder why...

A BBQ on the roof!

A lot of people I've met up with have been through the most random ways. A friend that I met on the nightride bus off a schoolmate, Debs, mentioned that his friend Ally is in London and I realised I knew her! I added her on myspace and she invited me to a BBQ in Clapham on a roof! Was very much like the Secret Life of Us...
In the first pic, I actually climbed onto the tiled roof area! Luckily I didnt die.

A special new friend

On my third day, I was at the British Museum by myself. I then sat down outside and thought, "Hmm.. what should I do now?". Literally 3 seconds after that, I made a special new friend where I give him piano lessons in exchange for him being my tour guide.

British Museum Questionnaire person: Hi do you have 5 minutes to do a survey?
Me: Yes sure (I sometimes love doing surveys)
He asks a few questions about the British Museum and in the contact details section...
BM: Where do you live?
Me: Australia
BM: Oh! Australias a lovely place. Have you heard of a show called 'The Bill'?
Me: Yes of course! Why?
BM: I helped write an episode for that, was quite interesting
Me: Cool! Are you a writer?
BM: Yes I am but am stuck in a rut a bit now because I have too many ideas but haven't sat down and produced anything lately
Me: What are your ideas?
BM: One is a novel about this woman who finds a child in a river and brings it up as her own child. She becomes obsessed with educating him as she aspires for him to become president one day. He then does become president but is an unemotional, power-hungry leader who has the brains but lacks the emotion and starts causing destruction and then dies.
Me: So its like a modern version of Frankenstein?
BM: Yes
We start talking about his other ideas. He also wants to build an economics museum... he had too many ideas so
Me: This may be a strange concept but I come from a business background and I think you can apply some business principles to your writing/ideas. You need structure. Some of the best pieces of writing are structured very well although we may not realise it. And you need structure on which ideas to focus on
I taught him some business principles and he is now working on his major piece of work based roughly on a business process I taught him
Me: I'm assuming you like music as well?
BM: Yes I'm playing guitar at the moment but would really like to learn piano
Me: I play piano!
BM: Can you give me piano lessons??? I work at the Barbican library as well so can give you access to their beautiful big grand piano
Me: I can but I haven't played for awhile...
BM: What will you charge? Or can we do a swap of skills instead.I can be your tour guide and show you some of the cool places to go
Me: Ok sounds good. Done deal.
BM: Also, would you like to get paid to give your opinion on new exhibitions at the British Museum?
Me: Ooh that sounds great but I'm not an academic or anything
BM: That's fine, sometimes the exhibitors want to get the general publics opinion. You get paid 40 pound
Me: Brilliant! You don't happen to have contacts for casual short term work do you?
BM: Yes I do, here you go... I can give you a contact of this Australian girl as well who does odd jobs called Sari. She used to be on Home and Away
Me: haha ok! Cool you're my new friend.
We then hung out after his shift and talked about all sorts of random ideas. We ate at a cool British pub overlooking the Thames and St Pauls (last pic). I also took these photos when I went for a wander around London that night.

Please don't die!

I have been privileged to meet lots (or should I now say 'loads') of interesting people, some of them in the most random ways. On my first day in London, someone came to fix the dishwasher at my cousin's place so I was supervising them. Somehow the conversation steered towards me trying to give him reasons why he should want to live. He was a big British man probably in his 60s and was still hung up about how his mother abandoned him and left him in front of someones doorstep when he was 2 weeks old. I had had about 4 hours sleep in the last two days but sat cross-legged on the floor in an in-depth intense conversation with him. He's now managed to track down his mother but she went psycho when he tried to meet up with her. He refuses to marry because he thinks all women are the devil but I think its stemmed from how his mother abandoned him. He doesn't want to be disappointed so thats why he wont marry/have kids etc but I told him he can't live his life in fear. Better to have loved than never love at all right? He was a lovely man and I really hope he doesn't commit suicide or anything.

PS. Here are some pics from Hedges and Butler. Monica's friend, Christel, messaged me on myspace saying she's in London too and invited me to an underground indie club to see her friend's band so I invited Michelle along. It was hidden in an alley and was really cool as the booths are like dungeon cells with books in them! I met her friends who are in a band and are shoe designers, journalists, and other arty types that live in East London. East London is where all the creative people live.

Why am I here???

Written 9th April

Last year I had a think of what my 'dream' would be. In my dream, I would one day meet a cool film director who happened to need staff for his hollywood blockbuster which involved a lot of travel. I would get a job oganising Brad Pitt's diary and would follow the crew around flying to Miami to film for 2 weeks, then fly to the Greek Islands for more filming and then Turkey etc etc... I wouldn't have much to do during the day after I sort out Brad's schedule so I'd just have time to travel (expenses paid for).

I then thought- why is this my dream? I concluded that the main reason is that I would get to travel around and see different things with all expenses paid. I then thought- why don't I pursue it? I didn't meet a film director although sort of encountered similar random opportunities but thought I'd do it my own way.

I believe society has shaped who I am- friends, family, school and thought it would be sort of cool to throw myself into a different city and see how I'd react to it. Not that London society won't affect me but it's more the idea of seeing who I am without the influence of those people/surroundings I've grown up with all my life.

Plus I started to feel too comfortable and complacent in Sydney and also a bit stifled as I didn't want to head in the direction that the people around me were heading- getting mortgages, spending all their time at work, settling into long term relationships... nothing inspired me anymore in Sydney! Life can't be just that!! You don't want to live your life with regrets and the dreaded 'what if?'. Right now is the right time for me with nothing tying me down.

So I quit my job and left my family and friends with a one-way ticket to London with no plans and haven't tried to make any plans just to make it more exciting. I have to admit I'm sort of addicted to testing myself, I want to push my personal boundaries and comfort zone and throw myself into this expensive city with nothing but hope.

But if there's a will, there's a way. I don't think you have to follow what society wants you to do and I think if you don't have anything major tying you down, you should go for your random silly dream and see where you end up. At least one day when you're 50 yrs old with 3 kids, big mortgage and tough job you won't go 'what if?'