Anzac Day and Elgato TV

April 25 in Australia is Anzac Day.

Usually I spend Anzac Day at school, but now that I'm back in Oz, its a public holiday (of sorts - but more on that later), so I get the day off, like everyone else.

Its a strange public holiday though. Unlike Australia Day, where, if it falls on a Saturday or Sunday, they give you the Monday in lieu, so you get a long weekend, Anzac Day holiday is taken on the day it falls - even if that is, like in this case, a Saturday. Not that I've ever minded before - because every Anzac Day I can remember in Australia has basically involved me getting up at some ungodly hour and going to play in the Salvo band in the near darkness and freezing cold at the Sandgate RSL Dawn service, then off to Nundah and Banyo for their respective services (where the Banyo guy always got the officer's name wrong) before finally making it into town for the big march. Which meant, that when it was all over around 1pm, you were so shattered, that all you wanted to do was go home and sleep - which was what you did. So I never noticed that the shops weren't actually open on Anzac Day.

But this year, because its been soooo busy at school, and because, let's face it, it takes me an eternity to get home, I had a whole stack of errands that I needed to run on my one day off. Particularly because the next day, Sunday, was a whole day rehearsal for the school musical - so there would be no chance to get anything done then.

Well, I had to kiss any idea of getting errands run goodbye, as everything was closed. The only thing that was open, as usual, were the pubs and the TAB - because what do old diggers want to do after the march? Drink and bet, of course.

Anyway, that's not really the main point of this post. This year, because I don't play in any Salvo band anymore, I didn't have services and marches to go to - so I managed a little sleep in. And then, I set up my lovely Elgato Hybrid TV tuner on my lovely Mac, and was able to watch (and record) TV on my computer. So, seeing as there never is anything on telly on Anzac Day but war movies or the march in town, I started to watch that. I began to get a little reminiscient of days gone by, when we would march - and to be honest, I would have to say I missed it a little.

But after that, the ABC (Aussie version of BBC but way, way WAY more boring) were showing the 94th anniversary service from Gallipoli. I was so glad I watched this, because 10 years ago I was there at a dawn service at Gallipoli, and it was one of the most moving things I've ever done. There is absolutely nothing like standing there in the freezing cold, pitch darkness, listening to some Maori dude waving a bullroarer whilst standing on some cenotaph, and thinking about the Anzacs and what they have done for our country. Just special - something I will never forget, for as long as I live.

So I was glad that, despite the fact I didn't get my errands run today - I got to remember the sacrifice the Anzacs made, and think about the effect they have had on our way of life.

Lest We Forget...

The 36 Hour Journey Home

So the next morning, Thursday, I made my way to the airport for the long journey home. I thought I knew how long it would be (should've been 23 hours or so) but oh, how wrong I was!

The first thing I had to face was, how to get all my luggage on the plane. You see, I had bought (being the good aunty I am) quite a lot of things for my lovely nephews and nieces, plus a soprano sax for me, so I had really quite a lot of luggage. Possibly more than my allotted 20kg. And the problem with airline travel is that you are only allowed 1 piece of hand luggage (although the number of people I see who simply can't count - and who get away with it - is just phenomenal). The trick to taking more luggage than you are allowed is simply to get it somehow passed the clerk at check in. If you can manage that, you're home and hosed, as at the scanners going through to the departure lounge, no one checks the number of bags you are carrying. So, you just got to get it passed that first hurdle.

Problem is, I have 1 huge oversize bag which is absolutely chockers with my clothes, shoes, Baby Gap stuff for 2 little girls, and....

... Guitar Hero: Legends of Rock! What? Yes, you heard me, Guitar Hero - for playstation 2, for my nephews. I saw it at HMV for £20, which was just incredible - that's like $50, when in Oz, I had seen it (at the time) for $100 or more. So that was a good bargain - provided I can actually get it home.

Anyway, continuing with the problem. So, I have a huge oversize (and possibly overweight) bag to check in, plus, a chockers carry on bag (with all the heavy things from my luggage - including mugs, stuff for my computer and so on), a handbag, camera bag - and - a soprano saxophone. How can I make a carry on bag, a handbag, camera bag and a soprano saxophone look like just 1 piece of carryon luggage?

Simple. I managed to squeeze the camera bag and hand bag into the already overstuffed carryon. Now I had the problem of the soprano. There was no way it could fit in the bag (it was too long for it, for starters), and no way I could fit it in my check in luggage - plus I wasn't convinced it wouldn't get damaged there.

So, I grabbed a trolley to carry my luggage over to the counter, and I hung the sop case on the small hook over the front of the trolley, covering that with my coat. From the counter, you could not tell there was a bag hanging behind the trolley. Perfect! And it worked, too!

So anyway, I checked in and went through to the departure lounge, settling in for a coffee and preparing myself for the lengthy trip.

The flight to Kuala Lumpur was fairly uneventful, except that again the flight wasn't full, so I quickly spied my opportunity to have a row of seats to myself and at the first possible chance, took it. Excellent - 3 seats all to myself! I actually managed a little sleep on that leg of the journey.

But once we arrived to KL, the drama started. I should've only had 1 1/2 hrs stopover - but by the time we arrived, we were late - and had only 30 minutes. Ok, I can handle that - although I would've liked the chance to do a little shopping. So I boarded the last leg of my journey, found my seat, settled in and waited for take off. And waited. And waited.

Finally the announcement came over that there was some sort of technical hitch with the landing gear of the plane or something, but technicians were working on it. An hour later, and we still haven't moved. Then the situation starts to get dire, because the flight that we were on, for some completely insane reason, didn't fly direct to Brisbane, no, we had to go to Sydney first. (If I had actually read the ticket itinerary properly I would've realised that in advance - but anyway). Ok, so we have to go to Sydney. Fine.

Problem. In Sydney, because of the location of the airport in relation to houses and so on, they have a stupid curfew. This therefore meant that, if we didn't take off by midday KL time, we wouldn't be able to land in Sydney. Fine - fly straight to Brisbane and make the Sydney bound people suffer. They can stay in Brisbane and get a transfer back to Sydney. A completely logical solution.

You'd think, wouldn't you. It does make sense - to anyone going to Brisbane, or anyone with half a brain - but alas, not to the airline. So, when midday came and went, they took us off the plane (having made us sit there for 3 hours) and decided to put us up in a hotel for 12 hours.

Great, maybe I can see a bit of KL if I hurry. Petronas Towers, anyone? But alas, it wasn't to be - as the hotel they took us to was 2 hours bus ride out of KL (that makes sense doesn't it - put us up in a hotel the equivalent distance of Gympie or something from Brisbane). By the time we got there and had lunch, we really only had an hour or so to lie down before it was time to come back!

Suffice to say I wasn't really impressed. By the time I got home (and yes, we had to get off the plane - with all our luggage - in Sydney, go through some stupid scanners, and then get straight back on the SAME PLANE as before) I was absolutely shattered!

I worked out it took me 36 hours in the end... what a waste of time...and a wasted opportunity to maybe see another country...

Star Wars: A Musical Journey

So, when I left off, I was en route to Sutton for a few days with my mates from the Army.

On Saturday I headed off to Tariro's to see just who might be about, and spent most of the day there with Becci and Laura catching up.  Got to see a few others, Adam, Gemma and the lovely Hope, who is sooo grown up now, as well as Graeme and Emily and so on.  It was nice.

Saturday night I went with Laura to the O2 to see Star Wars: A Musical Journey. The last time I was at the O2 was when it was the ill-fated Millennium Dome, which to be honest, I don't remember much of, as it was so crap. Seem to recall some Blackadder Back and Forth film, and that giant body thing (which was rubbish), a few street performers and that's about it. So I was quite interested to see what they've done with the thing since then, especially because of all the debate about what to do with it once the millennium experience was over.

Its actually pretty good, there's a load of restaurants and things, and a cinema, and then the big arena, exhibition areas and so on - I was quite impressed.  And the Star Wars? It was just awesome!  We arrived there and were instantly enveloped in fans of all shapes and sizes, kitted out in all sorts of Star Wars paraphenalia - just like a regular Star Wars convention.  It was fantastic!  I instantly went a bit nuts at the merchandise counters, trying to decide what to buy at this once in a lifetime experience... Laura was much more level-headed about it all, concentrating on taking photos and absorbing the atmosphere... whilst I was like a little kid lost in Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory!

The performance was awesome, magnificent music, played magnificiently, and timed to match the video scene changes and laser display.  Just wonderful.

The next day, Sunday, I was at Sutton, and was able to catch up with my friends, which was fab.  Katie, Andy, Laura and I went for lunch at the Belmont, a traditional Sunday carvery, just yum.  We then spent the afternoon playing guitar hero, which I was actually terrible at - primarily because there really isn't any musical rhyme nor reason to the timings of the dots passing on the staff.  That being said, the wii version, which they have, is more musical than the PS2 one, which I really can't play at all.  Oh well.

Monday was a rushed trip back to Agnieszka's to dump my stuff then whizz out to Jessie's to say g'day.  Unfortunately Jess had injured her foot and was really unable to walk around anywhere much - so I went out to hers, rather than meet up with her in town.  The problem was, being a public holiday (Easter Monday) many of the buses were on strange timetables, and also, there was engineering works on the train, so a journey which should've taken maybe an hour took more than 2 1/2!  Incredible...

We had a lovely afternoon catching up.

Tuesday was a day of saying hi to kids at the Royal Festival Hall, plus saying farewell to Erik, before heading out to meet with Steve and Jo and the kids.  We had a lovely dinner, Ira and Neil and Col came too, and it was so nice to see everyone.

Wednesday was a day of lastminute shopping, saying goodbye to Mat, and a dinner with Ken and Jeff.  It was lovely to see Ken and Jeff, and we had a really good evening.

I stayed over at Ken's, as it was easier to head off to the airport the next day from there.

How quickly the time has gone!  I can't quite believe it!

Don't It Always Seem To Go That You Don't Know What You've Got 'Til It's Gone

This line, from one of my favourite Counting Crow songs (via Joni Mitchell of course), pretty much well sums up how I'm feeling at the moment...

Anyway, I met up with Erik at Victoria Coach station later on on Wednesday afternoon, and we headed off down to school to see if any of the girls were there.  We phoned Mat just before we arrived, and he sent Jerusalem and Rochelle out with the key to let us in - but didn't tell them who they were going to meet.  So when they saw us, there was great shrieking and squawking going on!  It was just delicious!

There were half a dozen or so kids there, doing coursework, and it was just lovely to see them all again.  The new guys were there too, so we managed to chat with them a bit about how they were settling in, and answer a few quick questions and so on.  After that, we headed off for a spot of dinner, and met up with June (SLC teacher) and Ruth (cello teacher).  What a lovely evening we had!

Thursday already!  Can't believe how fast the time is going - with only a week left now!  I met up with Erik mid morning in town for a day of shopping, before we met with Mat and Natasha in the evening for dinner.  We had a great time - first stop was of course, the Apple Store in Regent Street, where I bought my lovely Elgato TV Diversity tuner (one of the best things I've bought so far from that store - other than my lovely Mac of course), and then we hit Niketown, H&M, Selfridges (got my eyebrows threaded again - just as well, they were beginning to look like Mal Meninga!)... it was lovely!  After this, a spot of lunch, more shopping, and then we moseyed on down to the river, wandering through Piccadilly Circus, Leceister Square, Charing Cross and over to the South Bank.  From there we made our way to the Young Vic, where we met up with Natasha and Mat, before heading over to my favourite restaurant of all time, Tas.  Yum!  What a wonderful evening we had too!

Friday morning and I got up nice and early because I really wanted to go to a Good Friday service at either Westminster Abbey or St Pauls.  I went to one at St Pauls last year with Ira, Thom and Jean, and it was really good - but I wanted something different this time.  Unfortunately, the only sung service that day at Westminster Abbey was late afternoon - which didn't fit in with my plans for the day - so we went to St Pauls' instead.  Again, the female cantor was seriously out of tune - and this time I actually noticed that she did have a tuning fork!  Fat lot of good it did her!  Anyway, Erik and Aga came along too, and it was really lovely.

After this we met with my lovely old flatmate Jane, and had a very yummy Wagamama late lunch, before I headed down to Sutton to spend a few days with friends down there.  I actually went and stayed with Jean, which was nice - in fact when I arrived, we went off for dinner at the Belmont.  It was soooo like old times!  I felt like I had never left.

In fact, that's how I've felt the whole time being here.  Don't get me wrong, I do like being back with the family, and I think I like my job (the vote is still out on that one though), but I feel so much like I don't really fit in!  Friends have moved on, got married, had kids - but they don't expect you to have moved on with your life.  They still think of you as the same person you were 10 years ago, and there's just no way that's the case.  I mean, here, in London, I'm the norm - an individual - confident, outgoing, successful, seasoned traveller, accepting of others - and I guess that's the same in Oz, but I feel like I'm forever having to prove myself.  I especially have to do that in my job, but to a certain extent, with friends too.  And the lifestyle is different in Oz, the men are so terribly chauvinistic, and the women are in many ways content to be subservient (not all women, of course, but many) - that someone like me - a single, successful, independent woman - well, we're the abnormal minority.  Its like, if you're an unmarried career person, well - there's something wrong with you.

But not in London.  In London you're accepted.  In London you're to be admired.  In London, you're the norm.  And having spent the last few days here in London, it has really hit home to me just how lucky I was to live here for such a long time, to have so many things at the tip of my fingers, to meet so many interesting people and experience so many interesting things.

Again, don't get me wrong - I've made my bed now, and I've got to lie in it.  I love my family and I do want to spend time with them.  But - don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone...

Back in Blighty

Well I guess it should probably come as no surprise to many that after 4 months in the lovely Bris Vegas, surviving my first term at my new school (amazingly), I've taken off back to the UK to catch up with all my lovely friends, and feel a bit cultural again. Well, that's the plan anyway - but seeing as its the Easter holidays, and so many people are away at so many different times, I'm not sure that I will get to see everyone - but you can be sure I'll do my darndest! Anyway, I flew in two days ago and already, its been a mad dash. I flew for the first time with Malaysian Airlines, who really weren't all that bad - and at $1000 cheaper than the nearest competition, they were a real bargain. Surprisingly, the plane wasn't full, so I actually got a couple of seats to myself - allowing me to lie down and get a bit of a nap on the 2nd leg of the journey. On the first leg of the journey I took a Mersyndol as soon as I got on the plane, which just wiped me out - and woke up pretty much in Kuala Lumpur. The bad thing about Mersyndol though, is after taking one, you feel like you've been bashed in the head. Its stupid, this tablet is supposed to be for pain relief (and a bit of a calmative or something) but unfortunately whenever I take one, I always wake up with a headache worse than the one I took it for! Hence, I don't take them very often...

Anyway, I arrived in KL on Sunday morning and we had a couple of hours before the next leg. I walked around the airport, but at 5am there's nothing really open, so I decided, seeing as its 30 minutes by train to the city, and seeing as I have time to kill, I might as well go into town. This was a stupid move in the end, because it cost me about $30 for the return journey - and took an hour round trip - and being a Sunday morning, once I arrived at KL Sentral station, which was no where near anything interesting, everything was shut anyway! So I basically wandered around a little bit, then jumped back on the train to the airport. At least I got a Malaysian stamp in my passport - tick off another country then...

The posters all around the airport brag about how KLIA (the airport) is the best airport in the world. Clearly they haven't seen anywhere else! There's a handful of overpriced shops, a Burger King, a Starbucks and a Noodle bar, and that's pretty much it! It was crap...

Anyway, I eventually boarded the plane for the lengthy trip to the UK, and finally arrived late Sunday afternoon. From there it was a tube and a bus to Aga's place - and as I got out my oyster card, and jumped on the tube (balancing luggage precariously), it was as if I never left. Ah, bliss.

Had a lovely evening Sunday evening catching up, and then the next day it was off for a spot of shopping on the King's Road in the morning (oh I do love Chelsea - although to be fair, when I lived in London I rarely went there - its just too expensive!) and then a leisurely lunch catching up with Michelle and Steph. How lovely. Bit more shopping later on, then an early night (I do hate jet lag - and I do usually suffer more severely with it coming from Oz to the UK than vice versa, alas).

Tuesday was really the only day I got to spend with Aga on her own, as we caught the bus down to Winchester for the day. Had a lovely day wandering about the town, especially seeing the Cathedral again - we had a very informative tour from one bloke who showed us the library and the Triforium Gallery, and where we saw the lovely Winchester Bible - which had been handwritten by a single scribe. He was very knowledgeable, and really made the manuscript come to life. We also met one of the ladies there, who, upon learning I was from Australia, recounted an interesting story about how a piece of the stained glass has ended up in a pokey little museum in Gympie.

We had a lovely time - I especially enjoyed my West Cornwall Cornish Pasty which I had for lunch - SOOO my favourite food!

Anyway, that now leaves me getting ready for Wednesday... have a little bit of a thing to do at Lambeth Town Hall, then off to meet up with Erik and Mat later on- can't wait! It will be like old times again...

Lach's Soccer Match

So the mark of a good Aunty is obviously not to show any favouritism.  Which is why I found myself last weekend at yet another soccer match - this time Lach was the star.  Actually, he really was - he scored the only goal for his team!

Here's my slideshow of his match...