The other day I was in my local supermarket. The customer in front of me, a tradesman, had just purchased a bottle of juice and then left the store. While I was being served, he came back in with a leaking bottle, which he’d dropped. The shop assistant told him that it was OK, just to replace it. The tradie pulled some coins out of his pocket to pay for it, and the shop assistant said, really it’s OK, just grab another one. The tradie was really uncomfortable, explaining that it was his own fault, and that he had dropped the bottle. The shop assistant gently repeated it was OK, just get another one, and then a 2nd shop assistant chimed in with a wink and a gentle nod to reiterate the same. The tradie did eventually get another bottle of juice from the fridge, grateful but obviously still a bit uncomfortable. The reason I’m mentioning this, is that it warmed my heart to see these three men’s discourse… the customer’s desire to do the right thing, and both shop assistants’ ability to see this, and their gentle reassurance of the customer. It was a sweet scene and I left the shop with smiling eyes.
The crutch lady
Yesterday I was walking down the street in the middle of London. I saw a young lady crossing the street very slowly on crutches. When I say slowly, I mean I’ve never seen anyone handle crutches so badly and she was like a snail. She was hunched forward over these crutches with her good leg about two feet behind her body, and her broken leg stuck out the back of her as though she was pretending to be an aeroplane. The lights turned green for the couple of cars in the queue who thankfully politely waited while this lady inched to the side of the road. My goodness she was so slow it was painful to watch. It was a really unusual sight. Now for some reason, this lady didn’t approach the pathway via the gentle slope intended for wheelchairs… she approached the kerb instead, which was quite a high step. Well of course at the angle her body was positioned there was absolutely no way she could navigate this step and she came to a halt. Two scruffy teenage boys, looking as though they were out to cause trouble, who had passed her on the crossing (not difficult!), stopped and looked back at her, assessed the situation, then went back and lifted her up on to the kerb. She was thrilled. I was delighted to have witnessed the scene and I walked on with a smile on my face.
Hampstead Heath
Our Day Out to Hampstead Heath
We were greeted by fresh air and sunshine as we left the house headed for Acton Central rail station, 1.3 km from our place. We stopped on the way for our planned brekky treat… coffee and eggs benedict at Tailor Made café where we had been previously and knew the coffee was good. Just a quick digression here, because as we arrived at the café it was closed! Oh No! I had even checked the website to make sure they were open on Sundays! But wait… there is a sign in the window saying they had moved and taken over ‘Rocket’, a pub just further along the same road. Well we had no choice but to keep walking as it was the direction we were heading for the station anyway. When we arrived at ‘Rocket’ we were very pleasantly surprised to find that it is now a really cool café/restaurant with interesting décor and excellent coffee and food. Saved!
Having consumed an elegant sufficiency, we caught the Overground train to Hampstead Heath station which took about 20 minutes. From the station, all you do is cross the road and you are in the Heath. Although, I believe the correct term is ‘on’ the Heath. We enjoyed strolling through the lush growth underneath a canopy of trees. There are an absolute plethora of pathways criss-crossing all over the place. We can see how it’s easy to get lost because at this level you really can’t see anything but trees and with the sun at mid-day, east and west are difficult to sense.
However we managed somehow to keep walking in a northerly direction and ended up at destination #1 which was ‘Kenwood House’. [From the website…’Kenwood House, on the edge of London’s Hampstead Heath, was probably first built in the early 17th century. Between 1764 and 1779 Robert Adam transformed it into a neoclassical villa for William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, and the interiors include some of Adam’s finest surviving schemes. Kenwood is now home to the 1st Earl of Iveagh’s renowned collection of Old Master and British paintings, which includes works by Rembrandt and Vermeer.’]
Then we somehow headed south again and ended up at destination #2 which was Parliament Hill… a high-point in London with extensive views over the city. After that we headed back down the hill, watched a few overs of a local cricket match, then, feeling ravenous, went in search of lunch. Back at Hampstead Heath station were quite a lot of cafes and restaurants and we ate lunch in a place called Dominiques – a hamburger each and I had an iced coffee. Not as good as the iced coffees in Sydney, but the closest I’ve found here in London. By now it was about 3pm so we came home on the train.
All in all, if you look at the map… on this particular map each square is 450 metres… we walked about 5 km around the park, plus 1 km each way to/from Acton Central. That’s enough for today!
Greenwich
Birmingham
Who knew Birmingham would turn out to be such a beautiful city?
Los Angeles
After a smooth enough flight, we arrived into LA airport at about 8:30pm. Again, hubby had done his research so we knew how to get in to the city. The first stage was to get the shuttle bus from the airport to the Metro Green Line. There were a few friendly people on the bus eager to help each other and let us know when to get off… actually it was the last stop of the route so that was easy. One lady who got on the bus had three young sons with her and the longest surfboard bag you’ve EVER seen. They hoisted it on the bus, with other passengers being very patient and having to shift and squirm to fit it in down the aisle. The kids were clearly surfers… classic shaggy white haired surfie look… and the Mum must’ve been taking them to or from a surfing competition. They reminded me of holidays in Port Macquarie when I was a child.
Once we got onto the platform at the Metro station we met two policemen who sauntered over to talk to us and ask us where we were from/going. They were nice enough but one of them was particularly making a point of telling us this area might not be all that safe. Oh great, thanks! We realised that apart from the policemen we were the only white people on the station. But I didn't actually feel unsafe at that point because I'm not racist and the other commuters were just waiting for the train. We obviously wouldn't have got off the train anywhere other than our stop, and we could see out the window that a lot of that route was not very well lit at all, so one wouldn't want to go wandering about in those dark areas late at night… but that goes for anywhere in the world. So, suffice to say we shared a carriage with mothers & kids, couples, families, and people going somewhere.
We arrived at the next transition and changed from the Green Line to the Red Line, eventually alighting at our destination and it all went without a hitch. Hollywood/Highland Metro Station is on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue which was really, really busy and not a taxi in sight so we walked to our hotel, which thankfully wasn't too painfully far away. We were completely buggered by the time we arrived at the hotel, but the hotel is very nice and bright and comfy, hooray. There is plenty of room to walk around, the bed is queen size, and there is a table with 2 chairs and a little fridge. YAY. Hello little 2-day home.
By now it's about 10:30pm but we wanted to eat before going to bed. Luckily the 'Good Greek Grill' over the road sold lovely fresh salads and freshly cooked chicken and beef skewers. So I had a rocket & chicken salad (which was enormous) + a glass of red wine, and hubby had a lamb souvlaki and a beer, then we crossed back over the road to the hotel for a very good night's sleep.
Day 5 – Saturday 23rd June – 'Evolving Out Loud' Day 1
The Hollywood Hotel offers a free brekky which we weren't aware of but were very grateful for… there is a built in sideboard in the hallway and they stack up stale croissants and oat bars, yoghurts, juices and urns of tea and coffee so we helped ourselves, very pleased that we didn’t have to go hunting for somewhere to eat.
We were a little early for the event so we walked up and down the freak show that is Hollywood Blvd, looking at all the different tourist sites and shops. Cotton On (the Australian retail chain) had a shop there so I was able to buy two more pairs of my favourite leggings. In the street there are a lot of people dressed as super heroes who wander up and down... I think you pay them if you want a photo with them. Great for the kids, but when we heard Superman call out to his friend in an accent that wasn’t Superman-ish, it spoiled it for me!
Then we headed to the Dolby Theatre (home of the Academy Awards) to check in to the Kyle Cease event “Evolving Out Loud”. YAY… We Made It!!! We even managed not only to skip the long entry queue, but to start a new queue with us at the front, just by asking where we should register!
The event was wonderful. Kyle Cease is a very insightful, funny man - very down to earth and practical. Everything he says is worth writing down. He started his career as a stand up comedian and now he has combined transformational speaking with his comedy. He’s very good.
At the lunch break, we went for a walk all the way down to Sunset Boulevard and found a classic American style pizza joint called 'Delicious Pizza'. So we ordered a big slice of pizza each with a San Pellegrino Limonata for me and a Diet Coke for hubby.
We spent an enjoyable afternoon back in the theatre. At the end of Day 1 - both having learnt some quite profound new ways to look at our lives - we bought a greek salad for hubby and I finished last night’s salad (it was so big it lasted me two nights… yay for the hotel fridge).
We ate at the little table in our hotel room, watched a bit of the world cup soccer, then to bed for another good night’s sleep.
Day 6 – Sunday 24th June – 'Evolving Out Loud' Day 2
We had plenty of time in the morning before the event, and we didn’t want to wait for the hotel brekky to start so we went for a walk, open to the possibility of finding a café. Well, we found better… it started with finding a café on the corner of Cahuenga Boulevard and Selma Avenue which we thought looked interesting and we went to have a look, but around the corner from it was a fantastic Farmers Market. We wandered up and down looking at all the delicious offerings, and found a fresh juice stall (carrot, apple and ginger please), a really GREAT coffee stall which had the NICEST coffee, and shared two freshly baked healthy gluten free, nutty, zucchini muffins.
We walked some more, took photos of the Hollywood sign on the hills in the distance, and walked past a night club that was still in full party mode from the night before.
Well that was a really nice start to the morning, and then we headed off to the event which started at 11 am.
When the first morning tea break came around, we weren’t hungry so we went for a walk along the Blvd. It so happened that the Hollywood Carnival was on the same weekend… it’s a bit like a mardi gras parade. We missed the parade itself but the participants were very elaborately, scantily clad. I couldn’t take any pictures so you will have to use your imagination.
The lunch break was spent with a new ‘friend’ called John from the event who wanted to eat with us. So we stayed close to the theatre and ate at Ramens Express (Asian noodles). The food was nice, and we wouldn’t have tried it otherwise. My lunch was very spicy which was good for the cold that I could feel creeping up on me.
Some of the activities we did at the event involved a lot of talking to each other, and by Sunday arvo I could feel my voice getting very hoarse.
The event finished by 8pm. We stopped for a beer at the 'Jamesons Irish Pub and Sports Grill' on Hollywood Blvd so we could celebrate the great weekend and ponder everything we have learnt. It was a happy, noisy place. We ate dinner in the Greek place again, then fell into bed. I have now lost my voice.
Day 7 – Monday 25th June
We had brekky in the hotel. The croissants must have been last week’s because they were getting staler.
We dressed and went for a last walk around to sight-see and take a few more photos. We fell upon a cafe on the corner of Sunset and Wilcox called 'Rise N Grind' who served very nice coffee, thank you very much.
Then we went back to the hotel to check out and organise a taxi.
We had lunch in the very pleasant airport food court… a delicious toasted prosciutto and gruyere sandwich, plus a Stella beer. A lady at the next table commented on my scarf – she liked the subtle pattern – one of my own designs, yay. But unfortunately due to lack of a voice I was unable to have a conversation with her.
After that we just sat around the airport until flight time. The journey back was quite smooth and we arrived on time into London, being now Tuesday 26th June.
For me, London doesn't feel like home, and it is strange to be going there after an overseas trip like this. I just want to sit down with my family and share our experience over cups of tea or perhaps a glass of Champagne, which by the way I haven't had since we left home. But this was a choice and right now this is where we live. So knowing that I still have a lot to learn, and knowing that not many people get to have this experience, I shall be grateful and patient, exercise my writing skills, and be thankful for video calling technology. We have learnt a lot on this journey already and the gap between how I WANT my life to look and what it ACTUALLY looks like feels now, after this trip, a larger gap than ever. It does somehow seem feasible to close the gap… but I do have a lot of work to do!
Los Angeles Gallery - Day 1
Los Angeles Gallery - Day 2
Los Angeles Gallery - Day 3
New York City
New York – Day 1 – Tuesday 19th June
The Journey
For some reason we always book flights that require us to leave home super early… this time it was 5:30am when we headed off to Acton Town station to catch the Piccadilly Line tube to Heathrow Terminal 5.
Self-service bag check often presents a hiccup and this time it was my suitcase that got its wheels caught on the transporter and held everything up. Then going through security it were I that had to stand in the scanner with my arms in the air like a criminal. It’s such an invasive process that it made me teary but I stayed strong so as not to weigh my husband down with a whimpering wife. After that small ordeal we found a decent place to order a pastry and a coffee for our brekky and wait for the gate to be announced.
In general, the BA-117 flight to JFK went smoothly, but some of it was extremely bumpy and I felt like my bones were shaking. I was scared but I just closed my eyes and said to myself “I’m scared and I love that” over and over, because I’ve been reading a lot about the importance of accepting how we feel in the moment so the emotion can be experienced and then dissipate. It seemed to work and no-one was any the wiser of my silly fears. In the smooth bits I watched TV so the 7-hour flight eventually passed.
Arriving at JFK was a surreal experience for me… to be actually in America and hearing the accents and noticing already how different it felt, when I’ve only ever seen/heard this on the TV. Once we’d been photographed and fingerprinted, the border lady stamped our passports and we were on our way.
Hubby had done extensive research (thank you) before we left so he knew exactly how to get us to our hotel. We caught the Air Train from the airport to Jamaica Station, then changed to the Long Island Railway from where we caught the train to Penn Station which is on Manhattan island, then changed again onto the Subway ‘Line 1, South Ferry to 242 Street/Bronx’ and got off at 103rd street, right outside our hotel. Just a quick shout-out to husband here… because even though I’d packed lightly in a carry-on case, he still mostly took charge and grabbed both our suitcases to navigate all the stairs. I mean he IS ten times stronger than me so it’s like lifting feathers for him, but it saved my crooked spine and for that I am very grateful.
A note on the subway carriages: they are like tin cans, literally, they are all steel with hard plastic seats. One has to hold on tight if standing up because it’s a pretty rough ride. At least they have air-conditioning, so the temperature is a pleasant respite from being outside on a hot day. Also, I didn’t get a chance to count how many carriages per train, but there are many more than in Sydney and even in London, so the train seems to take forever to pass through the station. I guess it makes sense because of the population, but it was something I noticed and wanted to remember.
Marrakech Hotel
This hotel is NOTHING like the internet pictures! We had a very dark room, small and stuffy, with a soft, bouncy double-bed pushed against the wall. The first night we were kept awake by very noisy motors (air conditioners?) right outside the room, and every time one of us turned over the bed bounced around like a water bed, so in the morning we asked to be moved to another room. They obliged (the members of staff we dealt with were very pleasant) and the 2nd room was better, but only just. It was one of those rooms that you just wanted to get out of. The internet connection was bad too, so we couldn’t even use the time productively to look at maps and do research. Not good, but this is our budget so we grinned and bared it… in fact, we were so good at the grinning and baring that we didn’t even say anything much to each other until much later when we’d left and gone to the LA hotel, then we let rip on how bad it was.
New York City
Having left London at 8:30, after 7 hours and 40 minutes of flying, minus the time difference, we landed in New York at 11:10. Border Control and the train journey took about 3 hours, so we got to the hotel at around 2pm and still had plenty of day left.
Once we’d ‘settled in’ to the hotel, we took the 104 bus down Broadway towards downtown. The bus trip was quite funny. It was really slow and it seemed to be senior’s day. Everyone here has an opinion and wants to speak up. An older lady up the back of the bus had a go at a young family sitting down and said, in her strong jewish American accent (is that a Bronx accent?), ‘there are seniors getting on, you can’t sit there’ so people shuffled about accordingly. Then another lady got on who wanted to go somewhere particular, so everyone on the bus was offering an opinion on how she should get there, then she’d get off and as a group they’d decide she should get back on and try a different route… it went on for the whole trip and held up the bus, but it was funny and we were grateful to be sitting down and seeing New York out the window.
We eventually alighted at 42nd street and walked the short distance to Times Square. I’ve gotta say this is a real disappointment. Not that I had any expectations, but still. I really have NO idea what’s so special about the place, unless of course you are into bright lights and advertising. I don’t want to be mean about it, but I was overwhelmed and didn’t know what I was supposed to be looking at. The only unique thing here was the couple of girls wearing nothing but painted boobs and g-strings, galavanting about asking people to take a photo of them and pay for the privilege. Naked busking?
After a bit of wandering and wondering we found a Spanish style bar where we could sit down and eat and freshen up. A lovely fresh salad for me, Nachos for hubby + we both ordered a pint of American Lager (the smallest size they had). I don’t think either of us finished because we were mindful of being jet-lagged and how much of the day we still wanted to experience.
Next stop was back onto the subway line 1 to South Ferry where we caught the Ferry to Staten Island. This ferry trip is free and really worth the experience.
We had been told that the ferry does a circular trip all the way round the Statue of Liberty and then back to port. What actually happens is that everyone boards (this ferry is MASSIVE so there are a lot of people crowding on) then heads straight over to Staten Island where it stops and they tell everyone to get off. Oh no! We don’t want to be stuck here! Luckily we realised that it was heading straight back again, so we had to run through the exit, run around to the entrance and re-board. Luckily we just made it back on before the doors shut, in fact they were shutting the doors as we passed through. Phew!
The ferry sails past the Statue of Liberty, not very close, but at least we could see her. The thing that struck me the most though was the feeling of being in Sydney because the harbour looks very similar from this angle, and we were blessed with blue skies and sunshine which also made us remember home. Looking back from the Ferry to the city was a similar layout to seeing North Sydney (New Jersey) on the left, Circular Quay (Manhattan) in the middle, and Balmain (Brooklyn) on the right. It was really a strange, but homely, feeling.
After sitting in the sun and wind for half-an-hour and feeling worn out, we trained it back to our hotel. We weren’t all that hungry for dinner, but found some ready-cooked chicken wings, healthy juices and big bottles of water at the local Gristedes supermarket two doors up, so we had that in our room and had an early night, unfortunately not to be a good night’s sleep though.
New York – Day 2 – Wednesday 20th June
After our first terrible night’s sleep in the hotel which I mentioned earlier, we dropped off hubby’s shirt at the drycleaners across the road and bought some cold tablets and Vitamin C (I won’t elaborate too much on our health, but husband had developed a sinus and throat infection. I was fine at this stage but it caught me at the end of our trip).
Based on hubby’s memory of his trip many moons ago, we walked north up Broadway all the way to 112th Street to ‘Tom’s Restaurant’ – the site of the external view of the café used in Seinfeld. Newman! It was a really cute diner style restaurant with great service and simple, freshly cooked food. It wasn’t touristy and no-one was in a rush so we felt really relaxed. They refill your coffee until you say ‘no more please’ and even offer hot-water refills for a cup of tea which is great if you haven’t already squeezed the life out of your tea bag! On this first day I ate a set menu of 2 eggs, potatoes, 2 pieces of whole-wheat toast, juice and tea. Hubby ate the set menu of pancakes with bacon and syrup, juice and coffee.
The weather was superb and so after brekky we were able to walk, walk and walk some more. We headed east towards the centre of the Island, stopped at the beautiful Cathedral Church of St John the Divine, which we went into but they were preparing for an event so we couldn’t see too much. So we went next door to explore the West 111th Street People’s Garden, where there is a lovely peaceful garden, some hand-made plaques of famous people, and a large Peace Fountain. Then we headed to Central Park to look for bike rental. I hadn’t conceptualised just how big Manhattan is, and the Park itself is 2.5 miles long. From about 100th Street we caught a bus about 30 blocks but then we walked again because the bus was just too slow and hot. There are traffic lights at every intersection, which is at the corner of each numbered street (103rd, 102nd, 101st, 99th, 98th etc) PLUS often a set of traffic lights for pedestrians at the halfway point. So it’s an incredibly slow stop-start ride. We eventually entered the park at about 66th street… oh what a beautiful haven in the middle of the city. We wandered freely through the park for a while and by the time we found the bike hire on 59th Street, we were knackered and way too hot so decided to come back tomorrow!
We have fully acknowledged the necessity of eating well, so we bought some freshly made ready-food at the Gristedes for lunch. By now we are in the 2nd room which is better but still dark and there is no table in the room (nor a fridge), so we ate on the bed. We then showered and changed ready for our next adventure…
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert! It is performed and filmed in the Ed Sullivan Theatre on Broadway and 53rd Street. We had nabbed a couple of General Admission tickets, but apparently that didn’t guarantee we would get in. We knew we had to arrive early so we were there by 3pm. The organisers asked us to queue in the street around the corner (we were very patient) then at 4pm we were moved to the queue in front of the theatre (losing patience), then at 4:30pm they checked our ID and informed us we would definitely get in, yay, which we did at about 5pm (completely drained from standing in a queue for 2 hours!).
It certainly was an interesting experience. First I have to share my opinion that they don’t treat their audience with much respect at all. Once we were inside, we were expected to act over-enthusiastically, clap really loudly, and laugh with as much gusto as we could muster… which in theory is fine, but I’m telling you it’s very difficult when you’ve been standing in a queue in the street for such a long time… sorry guys, my enthusiasm left at about the 3:30 mark!
Having said that (and moving right along), we both enjoyed the experience of watching a live show being taped and seeing what happens behind the scenes.
We were ‘warmed up’ by a comedian who wasn’t very funny at all (sorry, it’s probably just a culture thing) but of course we all had to laugh uproariously, then when Stephen Colbert appeared we did as we’d been asked and clapped and cheered with all our might, only to be told that wasn’t the real entrance and he would do it again for the filming! OK, take 2.
It was interesting watching him recording his monologue (which if you’ve seen his show is probably the best bit). We oo’d and ah’d and laughed in all the right places and the producers seemed happy with the result.
There was a band that played rather enthusiastically to take the show to and from each commercial break, and three guests to be interviewed. I didn’t know any of them, and it’s probably really obvious but it became clear to me on the night that the interview spots in these talk shows are just for marketing purposes because each guest always has a new book/movie/show they want to promote. I guess their agent negotiates with the producers to get them on the show.
The final act was a music performance by a chap on guitar with a pre-recorded backing track and three violins to support him. The lights were dimmed and the smoke machine turned on to create a melancholic atmosphere. I quite liked it. At the end of his performance there was a delay while the producers checked the sound, then, ‘yes it’s a take’, so that was it.
The show finished by 7pm without much fanfare… it was sort of ‘ok that’s it, thanks for coming’, so everyone piled back out on to the street. We were a bit hungry so we decided to go next door for pizza. The restaurant looked nice from the outside, but once we were inside and sitting down we realised it was VERY expensive. Unfortunately we just couldn’t face trudging around looking for somewhere else to eat so we stayed put, which we regretted in the end. It was $24 for a basic 17” pizza plus 3.95 per topping and we had three toppings… mushrooms, olives, beef, so the pizza was $32, plus of course we had a drink each. We thought we’d arrived in time for their ‘happy hour’ but we found out when the bill came that we had missed it by about three minutes so my wine was $11 and Andrew’s beer was $7. What? Needless to say we didn’t leave a tip.
Being a superb night weather-wise, we walked all the way to the south end of Central Park, which was only about 5 blocks (10 minutes say) and wandered around a little bit enjoying the tranquillity. There were loads of people sitting around on the grass having had a picnic, or just lying on a rug staring up at the canopy of trees. We also saw loads of little sparks jumping about on the grass and realised they must be fireflies. They were really pretty and it was a lovely end to the day.
New York – Day 3 – Thursday 21st June
After a better sleep, we went back to Seinfeld Café for brekky because we like the simple food and the staff are friendly without being too attentive. We skipped the set menus today and I had two eggs with toast + tea, and hubby had a buttered bagel + coffee.
On the way back to the hotel, we happened upon Westside Market on 110th Street (www.wmarketnyc.com). They sell super healthy foods and delicious salads, so we bought ourselves some lovely lunch bites and juices to take with us on our day's exploration. We are both really pleased to have found this shop because we are super keen to eat well.
We also picked up Andrew's clean shirt, dropped off another one and stopped off at the hotel to freshen up.
We decided to catch the subway to Greenwich Village. This is the groovy part of New York where the sitcom 'Friends' was set and where you will find the brownstone apartment blocks seen in a lot of American sitcoms. We walked around exploring the area, then headed to a lovely park called ‘Washington Square Park’ to eat our lunch. It's a very hot day, so we sat on a park bench in the beautiful shade of enormous green trees with our shoes off, listening to a jazz trio turning out standards. We watched squirrels running about and climbing up and down the tree trunks. It was incredibly relaxing and a surprising oasis in the middle of the city.
We finally peeled ourselves off the bench to explore the streets of the East Village, into Noho (North of Houston Street) and Soho (South of Houston Street) and got a feel for how relaxed and unique this area is. I can't think of an area in any other city (that I've visited) that is similar.
Once we were feeling at the end of our energy, we headed back to the hotel to shower and rest, have dinner on the bed (purchased from our now favourite Westside Market… fantastic salad, mixed on the spot in a stainless steel bowl with our choice of ingredients) dress up, then head back out to Greenwich Village to the Village Vanguard jazz club to see a band called 'David Murray & Class Struggle'.
The Vanguard is a great little underground jazz club at 178, 7th Avenue, Greenwich Village that has a wonderful history of hosting superb jazz musicians since 1935. It's a poky wedge of a room but every table has a pretty good view of the little stage. The acoustics are good too. One of the prerequisites of entering the venue, even though we bought tickets, is that everyone must buy at least one drink. A waitress came round and took orders and duly returned with the drinks and a bill. Just before the end of the set, she came around again to collect money, but it was so ridiculously dark in there, and American money is so difficult to tell apart, we had to use the light from our phones so see (a) what the bill came to, and (b) what notes we were handing over. It was funny watching everyone doing the same thing and trying not to disturb the band.
We only stayed for one set because we really weren’t taken with the band. The musicians were individually great, but as an ensemble it sounded as though each soloist was playing a completely different tune in a different tempo to the rest of the band. I quite liked the drummer and bassist though.
As it was such a lovely evening again, we walked up 7th Avenue all the way to Madison Square Gardens where the crowds started to become much more touristy and the walk more of a trudge, so we found a subway which took us to South Central Park. I realised that this was our last chance to see any of the East Side, so we decided to see if we could catch a taxi north via Madison Avenue so I could at least get a taste of the area. We found a nice taxi driver who was kind enough to be our guide and he did indeed drive us up Madison all the way up to the 97th Street Transverse through the park and back over to our hotel on the West Side. Now THAT’s worth a tip!
New York – Day 4 – Friday 22nd June
We had brekky again at Seinfeld again, then went to collect hubby’s clean shirt but “Oh No!” they’ve sent it away for cleaning and it won’t be back till 2:00pm! “But we have to leave by mid-day!” After much um-ing and ah-ing and broken Korean-English, they said they would post it to us. Hmmm… OK, so here’s our UK address! Well, we shrugged our shoulders and said goodbye to the shirt. [Post script… they did indeed post it and we received a lovely clean and pressed shirt in a parcel a few days after we arrived home. YAY.]
We were going to ride bikes in Central Park this morning but realising the sort of day we had ahead of us, we canned that idea. What were we thinking!?! We packed, checked out of hotel, and booked a shuttle bus to the airport. The hotel advised us that leaving at 12:40 would be suitable for our 15:30 flight. With that sorted, the only thing we had time for was a coffee. Typical that we gravitated to a French cafe! It was really relaxed and fun, run by a Frenchman and a Canadian, and they had World Cup fever so the Soccer was on the tele and there were colourful flags everywhere.
After that we headed off to the airport to go to Los Angeles, which has it's very own post!
New York Gallery - Day 1
New York Gallery - Day 2
New York Gallery - Day 3
New York Gallery - Day 4
What would happen if we threw away our to-do lists?
I’m talking about those things we write down, hoping we’ll have time to get around to at some fictional point in the future. Personally, I always feel overwhelmed and pressured when I find one of my lists. “Oh, I still haven’t done that”, “I must try to find time to do that”, “I’ll feel better when all these things are done”…
The things on our lists were inspired ideas we had last week/last month/last year. We wrote them down but didn’t act on them at the time for whatever reason.
Now they are ideas from a past moment, stacking up on a list of ’should do’ items. We feel bound by this list from the past, feeling that we are supposed to complete them, feeling bad that we haven’t and not sure which one to tackle first. We procrastinate, don’t achieve anything, and block any new ideas from coming through.
We are effectively being held prisoner by ideas we had in the past… by who we were and what we wanted to express in that moment.
What if we accepted that we missed the opportunity to act on the idea, realise the moment has passed, and THROW OUT THE LIST.
Then we free ourselves to act on the inspiration that comes in THIS moment. We will be fully present and available for a new idea to pull us off the couch. Who knows, some of those old ideas may come back, and I bet they’ll be better than the original ideas because they are being expressed through who we are today, not who we were yesterday.
I like it, I feel better, and I’m going to throw away my list. Come and get me Inspiration… I’m ready.
I met Per Bristow
One of my favourite singing coaches decided to come to London and hold a Masterclass. I don’t know how, but I saw the event at the last minute and managed to nab a ticket. I’ve been following him for years and had been to one of his big events in Melbourne which was incredibly inspiring.
This event would be an intimate (say 60 people) Masterclass, in the Kings Road Chelsea, where there was a possibility to get up and work with him on stage. I responded to the survey with a ‘Yes, I’d love to work with you’ and I prepared a song. I received a standard reply to my email… “I can’t get everyone up but who knows, and it will be fun anyway”. Yeah, OK then, I’m just happy to be going.
It was unbelievable to see Per in person in such an intimate environment and I somehow got a seat in the front row. I was sublimely relaxed because I knew he wouldn’t be calling on me. We did some warm up exercises and then he asked the first person to get up and sing and they worked together for about 30 minutes I suppose. Then Per went through his list to call up the next person and he calls out “Ingrid”. And I thought oh how nice there’s another Ingrid here. And because no one answered he goes “Conde?” and I think OH MY GOD – THAT’s ME!!
So there! I played the piano and sang in front of 60 people and he got me to work on the storytelling side of my performance. And everyone clapped and said I sounded lovely and was right on pitch and were all very encouraging. So that was my afternoon really. I’m still buzzing with excitement, and I learnt a lot and am so pleased with myself for getting up and performing even though I was so excited/nervous/scared. It was an amazing experience. Oh, and I managed to get a selfie with him. Thanks Per!
October '17
The good bits…
The end of September heralded the arrival of our belongings that had been on a ship since 1 July. My goodness it was so nice to have two burly blokes bringing our stuff up the stairs and into our little home. We had lots of fun unpacking the kitchen boxes first. YAY to have a kettle and all our pots and pans and crockery. We can COOK at last. Hooray!!
By mid October I had two companies offering me work. It was an interesting time choosing between the job I thought I wanted… PA to an architect for a large architecture/interior design firm who have a global presence and offices in Sydney and Melbourne; and the government job I thought I wouldn't get in a pink fit because I don't have a Degree and my French is atrocious… PA to the Head of the London office of the European Commission. After sitting quietly and listening to the silence, the job that FELT most right was the government job in Westminster. Not knowing why but trusting my instincts, I accepted it. I am completely out of my depth in the arena of International Politics, but my organisational skills are what they hired me for, so in that sense I am content. It's really nice to be in beautiful Westminster, oh, and being at the forefront of the whole complex topic of Brexit is kind of interesting too in this historical time. Ha !
The not so good bits…
My father-in-law passed away on 18th October. Even though we had been expecting it for a couple of years, it was a shock and a time of great sadness. Watching my husband experiencing the full tide of grief was one of the more painful experiences this life has brought us. The distance between here and home feels exceptionally large at the moment, and we just have to sink into the pain and wait till it’s been fully felt. Time does heal if you let it.
The daily commute is a challenge! The fogged up windows of the tube indicate just how many bodies are squashed inside. To be on the outside looking in makes me feel slightly queasy… to be on the inside looking out, is just wrong. In fact I can’t see out through the fogged windows, I am so squashed that I can barely breathe, and everyone else’s hot breath and morning phlegmy coughs become my oxygen. To do this a couple of nights a year on the way to the footy is one thing… to do this every day, twice a day, is insanity. This is one of the worst experiences I’ve had since we arrived. Over the course of a few months, instead of complaining, I tried a few different solutions to try to cope. The best solutions I’ve found, apart from not going to work at all, is to go to work later in the morning, leave earlier in the evening, get on the train a stop earlier in the hope of snagging a seat, wear my cotton scarf doused in eucalyptus oil as a face mask, and escape the moment by listening to a positive podcast. I cope, but I wouldn’t call it Quality of Life.
I met Beth Kempton
On Saturday 7th October I met one of my heroines... Beth Kempton. Beth runs a company called 'Do What You Love' and I have done many of her transformational online courses. She has also written a book called 'Freedom Seeker' which I totally recommend if you are feeling trapped. Beth held a workshop in London right near me, and I was so excited to meet her in person that I cried. Great first impression... not!
And now we can sleeeeeep
We have been graciously elevated off the floor by the arrival of our new bed base. She is named “Coco” and she is a french design. I love her.
It's truly amazing the difference between sleeping on the mattress on the floor versus being up on a bed base. We both feel completely different and I'm trying to pinpoint what it is. I mean, there are the obvious things such as swinging our legs over the edge of the bed and standing up easily, rather than rolling on to the floor and struggling to pull up a body that's leaden with sleep. Another factor is that when the mattress is on the floor, the bedding also spreads out onto the floor which makes tricky work of navigating around the room without tripping on the sheets.
But there is a deeper feeling of serenity and safety when we have a protective headboard and the soft covers fall over the edges; lightly and freely keeping us cool on hot summer nights, or the warm weight keeping us cozy on cold winter nights. Just bliss.
Exploring Chiswick - 9th September
We had a lovely day on Saturday. As it was such a sunny day, we thought we’d go and have a coffee and explore the Chiswick High Road. So as it turns out, the bus to Chiswick goes from the end of our street, yay. We had a coffee in a place called Nero… it’s a chain of cafes and you’ve probably seen them… the café was nice but the coffee was awful. Oh well, gotta try it to know. But the good thing about going to that particular coffee shop is that Bill Bailey was in there, so we saw our first celebrity.
Then we walked all the way up the High Road and back the other way until we were in Ravenscourt Park (in the borough of Hammersmith). There was a lovely pub there, where we stopped for a 90 p pee (you know the one where you buy two lime & sodas for 90 pence and you can use the bathroom! Ah bliss…). Having stopped and looked at the map we saw the River Thames had snaked up to meet us, so we went to Sainsburys for picnic supplies and walked down to the river. Oh it was lovely. We ate our lunch in Furnivall Park in the sun looking across to Hammersmith Bridge, then walked west along Chiswick Mall which runs beside the Thames and past some gorgeous homes and gardens. Quite a treat, tucked away, but accessible to all.
Somehow we timed it so that when we broke away from the Thames and decided to head home, we were in the perfect place to walk due north and ended up right back where we first alighted the bus in the morning! How’s that!
^ Awoke to a sunny sky.
^ Furnivall Park - a nice picnic spot.
^ Looking west.
^ Keeping up with the footy from afar ...
^ Couldn't get a photo of Bill Bailey, so this is us feeling chuffed instead.
^ Looking across to Hammersmith Bridge. Super low tide at the moment.
^ Walking along Chiswick Mall.
... I can't miss my annual finals chart update!
Simple tasks accomplished - 6th September
The most exciting thing we did today was a trip to Barclays Bank - woopy doo, how exciting - but it means hubby now has a bank account, and I managed to extract £300 from my Australian Mastercard and then deposit it into my Barclays account using the ATM machine inside the branch. It’s a bit scary putting a stack of notes in a machine and hoping like crazy it counts all the notes correctly. But it worked! Hooray... another hurdle jumped.
The second most exciting thing we did today was... the WASHING! It only took me a whole week to research how to do the washing in this hard London water!!!!!
What's Hard London Water, you ask? Well, it originates as lovely rain water that lands on the ground and then filters down through all the rocks and collects magnesium, calcium and salts on the way before being tapped for delivery to our homes. But magnesium and calcium are good for us, I hear you say. Yes, that's true, but not so good for appliances because the minerals stick to surfaces and become scale and white scum. It also makes lathering soap difficult so our skin, hair and clothing become affected. For example when I washed my hair for the first time, the shampoo didn't lather, and then because there was no lather it didn't rinse off. So now my hair is dirty + shampoo residue + minerals residue = disgustingly limp greasy hair. Gross! I'm absolutely NOT posting a photo of this.
^ Hubby now has a "legitimate" address and can open a bank account. Finally!
^ Checklist for the new laundry routine.
Moving in - 4th September
We moved into our new home at last. Minus all our household belongings which are still sailing the high seas, but we have collected a fair amount of stuff ready to set up camp.
^ Minicab full to bursting
^ First Delivery: Most important... a good night's sleep.
^ Second Delivery: I've been wanting a brand new vacuum for years!
^ Third Delivery: Couch building time.
^ First cup of tea in our new home.
^ First drink in the local pub. Wine on tap! That's a first for me.
^ My genius temporary paper towel curtains in the kitchen.
^ A new bright and happy shower curtain installed after I flooded the bathroom!
Utilities Vs Bank : Which comes first?
This is a real conundrum for newly relocated people like us!
In Sydney, we inform the Utilities providers that we are moving home, set up an account with them, and they send us a quarterly bill which we pay however we see fit, whether it's in person, by credit card, B-PAY, bank transfer or by direct debit. In the UK however, the only way to pay is by direct debit. So in order to set up an account, one needs a bank account first because you have to enter your bank details into the system when setting up your account.
However... in order to set up a bank account, one needs proof of address. Oh that's easy, I say... I have a tenancy agreement for our new home. No, that's not acceptable says the bank. The only proof of address the bank will accept is a paper bill sent to your address from one of the Utilities companies. Right... um, wait a minute...
So, it's only taken about two weeks, but finally Thames Water sent us a Welcome Letter which, thankfully, the bank will accept. Unfortunately the letter is only addressed to me, not both of us. That means I can open an account, but hubby has to wait for the actual bill which has his name on it. Still waiting, waiting, waiting...
^ Treat this Welcome Letter like gold. Passport + Proof of Address = Bank Account
Mooching around for the rest of August
This first stage of the journey is quite tough to be honest, and it’s nice to have some regular and familiar news from family to keep me on the straight and narrow. Those little rituals in our day that we take for granted are actually the ones that keep us sane (in my opinion). For me, some of those things are my morning cup of tea in my favourite mug, climbing into my own comfy bed at night, having a hot shower and washing my hair with my favourite products, playing my piano, and having a quiet spot in the house to sit on my own and gather my thoughts - that’s usually when creativity strikes. Now that those things aren’t there, I realise how important they are and it helps to give me clarity on what I really want in life.
Over the next couple of weeks we've been caught in the rain a couple of times, I find out my right boot has a leak so my sock gets wet, we go shopping for a new bed, and explore parts of London we've never been. We are currently in the middle of the UK's summer holidays, so it's quite a good time to be chilling out.
We've also been refining our CVs and applying for jobs. There are absolutely loads more jobs advertised here compared to Sydney which is promising indeed. It's just a matter of getting our CVs interesting enough that someone will take notice.
This pond in the Italian Gardens was the scene of a mini drama on this day. There was a gorgeous little white poodle pup happily trotting along beside his owner, head high, feeling sprightly and enjoying all the new sights and smells. Little pup was enjoying putting his front paws up on the edge of the pond when he suddenly spotted a duck floating on the surface. To his little eyes, the surface moss looked like land, so he leaped over the little wall to chase the duck, when to his dismay he completely disappeared under the moss into the water. After an interminably long few seconds he reappeared, panic stricken and covered in yellow moss. Owner fished him out in a flash, but little pup was clearly dismayed and shivering, tail between his legs and feeling very sheepish. Hopefully he'll forget the incident quickly and carry on in his usual sprightly self. It was very funny and very sad all at the same time. I didn't get a photo, I didn't have the heart. Poor little pup.
Finding a place to live - 14th August
Before we left Sydney we had been researching the rental market in London for about 6 months, which is really hard to do online because how can you ever really trust the photos? So we decided to engage London Relocation Services to help us find a place. I must say the service was very good and took a load of pressure off us. They interviewed us for about an hour to ascertain what we were looking for and then they set off to search for suitable properties.
So on Monday 14th, we got up early ready for our big 'Viewing Day' and headed out to Ealing where we met our agent and our very own car and chauffeur for the day!
We saw about 15 properties from Ealing to Wimbledon. Yes it was exhausting. Yes it was overwhelming. But yes, we found a place we like. Hooray. London Relocation Services negotiated the terms of the lease for us and secured the property for us, so all we have to do is pay the money, pick up the keys, and move in.
^ My invaluable foldable checklist to compare all the properties we saw ran to six pages.
^ Can't wait to get our furniture in here.
Living it up in Highbury - 12th August
On Saturday 12th, we moved into our lovely cousins home in Highbury to house-sit while they are on summer hols. Thanks Ant and Haze for your timely holiday!
^ The many stairs in this house are good for the glutes!
^ A lovely place for a morning cup of tea.
Sunday – Today we played tourists and visited Buckingham Palace and surrounds.
The World Athletics walking event just happened to be on while we walked up The Mall.
Lord Nelson in Trafalgar Square.
Victoria Embankment Gardens
Particularly Happy Moments
- Morning cup of tea in the kitchen with the doors open onto the sunny garden.
- A really NICE coffee, with a good mellow taste and good consistency at the right temperature, sitting on the grass in Green Park on a sunny day and feeling relaxed.
- Watching the women's walking race as they hurtled past on The Mall – inspires one to get fit.
- Walking through the lovely green Victoria Embankment Gardens.
- A lime & soda and a loo break in the pub... any pub.
- The front seat upstairs on the double-decker red bus from Waterloo Bridge, along Fleet Street, past St Pauls, up past The Angel and into Highbury. What a view of London!
Hanging Around Swinton Street - 10th August
We explored the area around Russell Square today, and found this wonderful Phantom Fence on Malet Street. The railings were removed during WWII and never replaced. This public artwork highlights their absence. It's loads of fun!
There is more info on this website: http://publicinterventions.org/projects/PHANTOM-RAILINGS/
Went to "Footes" in Store Street to get some drum sticks, and this sign was in the window from one of my favourite bands of all time.
On the work front...
We've both now registered with agencies for work.
The process of 'registration' is rather strange… you have to send them your CV by email to get their attention, then when you go in to the office, they sit you at a computer to 'do your registration' which simply means re-typing the details of your CV into their online database. Hmmm... I would have thought this process would be automated by now.
As I was updating my CV this morning, I realised that in my first few jobs we didn’t have computers. Just a phone, a notepad, a typewriter and some carbon paper! Those were the days.
Time now to ponder the past over a drink and some dinner.
^ Great pub with loads of different beers and really nice food.
^ Errr.... so these are onion rings!