First is a collage for my friends birthday which we celebrated with a picnic on Primrose Hill. Next is a photo of a butterfly from today’s visit to Kew Gardens and last is a collection of shots I took for Shimelle’s class from prompts last week.
I have had computer woes and life woes of late so haven’t really been present in all senses of the world but after an amazing day with my friend’s Mum (who we stayed with when we first got here (to London)) I feel so much the better. Although-I have to say when I saw today’s prompt for Shimelles classI knew immediately what I needed to bouy my spirits!!! My friend’s Mum and I went to Kew Gardens and I went photo crazy!!! Especially in the rooms with butterflies! It must have been quite funny seeing all us photographers running round after the elusive blue butterfly! : )
Hi all,
A run down on life here in London Town. 1 hr 15 til I get to finish this temp job. It has been really fun and the people are lovely but even still…I have that Friday fever feeling…just want to get out in to the beautiful sun!!! 30* forcast for tomorrow. YUM.
I had a school friend coming over with her family I had been in touch with and coincidentally another school friend was on her way home from Holland. I offered her a bed at our place for two nights and we arranged a get together-also another girl from school joined us who is living in Luton presently!!! It was great to chat and hang out like the old days (only this time it was in a Pub…not at school!!!).
The next day my friend and I went to see the Changing of the Guard and St James Park and London Tower. Later that evening we went to see “Chicago” the musical. Had a great time together.
I have visited Wimbledon also with one of the girls from tour and because I bank with HSBC who were a major sponsor I got free strawberries and cream and a free glass of Pimms!!! Great. : )
I have been making contacts with people on the class forums and UKScrappers and may have located a crop and there is also the possibility that two other ladies and myself may start an informal crop. I am quite excited by this prospect…I miss the company of my scrappers back home!!!! Lets hope for some good fun. : )
I have been emailed an ‘intent to offer’ from NatWest for a Customer Advisor role pending all checks being completed. Unfortunately this can take weeks…so in the mean time I am temping while I wait. It’s not so bad except I really hate the not knowing part…I don’t cope well with uncertainty. But such is life-I am learning and changing all the time! Nothing like a challenge to spur on character growth.
I think that is enough from me for now. I shall put a couple of photos on later once I am home of my various adventures in London.
Prompt Two was regarding FLOWERS!!! It was all about finding different perspectives and showcasing them. I took so many shots I made 3 collages on Picassa (you can download this software for free off google!!!).
Prompt three was all about things in threes, so as I was wandering through Hyde Park shooting for prompt two I took photos of threes also.
I’m at work at the moment so can’t update my blog with pictures of the last few prompts of class. Today is scrapping day…I am not sure how I will work these ones yet since I am having to wait to get paper from home. NZ Post have it in their hands now and I am really hoping they get it here soon!!! It has been SOOOOO long since I actually put a page together what with making christmas pressies, then Mum’s birthday present and in a mad rush before I left NZ trying to complete all my backgrounds for my journal. (I didn’t finish in time so have recently finished them here). Maybe I can ask some of the girls from West London if they know a good shop to visit!!! (money…hm…)
So I am temping until my verification stuff is all signed off by NatWest who want to employ me. They say it takes two weeks for someone from the UK to be signed off…for me it mostly will be longer. It is just over a week now since my interview so maybe two weeks to go??? Today I am doing receptionist work at an office which looks after inflight entertainment stuff for airoplanes. Lovely people and fairly easy work. Back here again tomorrow. Hoping to have a weeks work next week from Office Angels so might put in the call now to see what is available.
Will post more later when I am home.
Today is day one of the classes. So far we have had two challenges, one to upload a fav photo and the next to take one in 5 mins after reading the challenge to upload. There is one more prompt to come out this evening which should be exciting!!! Eagerly awaiting.
In general life…lol
Worked today for a company as the building receptionist. Pretty much thrown in the deep end as I have never used a switchboard before. I managed fine after dropping a few calls but didn’t really enjoy the work. Can’t wait til I start at NatWest!!!
Today I once again quit smoking. I have never been bad or smoked much but had picked up the few a day habit again…I am reading this book my Sandra Cabot about “Syndrome X” and read some really interesting material on health and eating and body types etc and about the impacts of smoking etc. This is me putting a line in the ground and agreeing not to cross that line again. And since you are reading this now…you are my witnesses!!!
Along the same lines…I made an amazing lamb salad for dinner tonight and luckily have enough to have some for lunch tomorrow! All I need to do now is pick up on the exercise and I hope the extra kilo’s I put on while travelling will fall off. Have been thinking about buying scales but also considering rather watching the shape of my body and measurements instead??? What do you think?
Anyway, that is enough for now…I will attach the two photos I have put on for today’s challenges for the general public. : )
My blog is having the cobwebs blown away and a new redesign currently is in progress so please bear with me until I reach the final product!!!
Yay! I have signed up for a class on www.shimelle.com which starts tomorrow for the month of July. I am super excited especially after having been at a stamping/craft expo in Newbury today. : ) Let the fun begin!
I have recently signed up to a fantastic blog by a lady called Shimelle Laine. She writes in a way that is so easy to read it’s like she’s really there saying it to you.
On her blog they run classes and challenges etc. This weelend she posted a challenge to pick a favourite photo and do something! Scrap it, frame it, use it as a phone wallpaper, post it on a blog.
I decided to blog it, to share with my loved ones and you who follow this blog and because I am still waiting for supplies to be sent over from back home!
My favourite photo at present is an unusual one for me…normally I shoot photos of nature til the light is gone…but this one is one that speaks to me about London and the choices Dave and I made to make it our home for the next wee while.
Fav piccie for Shimelle's weekend challenge
We have been home now for three weeks. Well, back to the uk. Here is a summary as promised to many friends of our trip.
The trip was amazing, we had a great time and are already looking forward to going back to most of the countries.
The group was 31 people plus our tour guide and driver. Mostly Australians, some Kiwi’s, 3 Koreans and 1 English girl. We had a great group and all got along really well which made things a lot better.
We started in London and bussed down to Dover to get the ferry over to Calais. From Calais we were driven in our coach to Paris where we stayed two nights. We saw the Eiffel Tower, Place de la Concorde, Arc de Triomphe, Montmarte, the Lovre and a few other less well known places.
From Paris we went to Switzerland in the Swiss Alps, a little town called Lauterbrunnen. We didn’t have very good conditions on the mountains there so our trip up to the tallest Alp (Jungfrau) was a bit of a waste…After Switzerland we had two nights in Nice on the French Rivera. I did some shopping there and we did a night trip out to Monte Carlo (Monaco).
Next stop was Florence in Italy which was beautiful. On the way we stopped at the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We had a walking tour around the city and took photos of the Ponte Vecchio (a very famous bridge that I didn’t know anything of!).
After Florence we moved on to Rome via Orvieto which is a city built on top of a volcano. It has amazing views. In Rome we had another walking tour which started at the Spanish Steps and finished at the Colliseum. (Saw the Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Roman Forum). The next day we visited the Vatican City and did a tour through their museum and the Sistine Chapel.
After Rome we went to Venice with a stop-off in Verona which is the home of the balcony from Romeo and Juliet. It also has a love wall and a statue of Juliet. In Venice we had a toga party and a gondola ride aswell as getting lost in the city of alleys!!!
After that we headed off to Tyrol in Austria for one night where Dave and I went Paragliding.
Next stop was Prague. On our way to Prague we stopped at Mathausen which is an old Concentration camp. It was the worst one and was the last to be liberated. The stories there are pretty chilling. At the bottom of a camp was a stone quarry and leading down there are some treacherous stairs named the stairs of death. We had to walk down these to get back to the bus. It was a very different experience seeing it compared to reading about it.
In Prague we had a night walking tour and saw heaps of the old buildings there, Dave had his birthday on the Saturday (we arrived late Friday) and luckily there was nothing planned for Saturday so he got a lovely sleep in! Once we went out we went to visit the Castle and had a traditional Cezch lunch of beef goulash and dumplings (very nice) and bought Dave some sun glasses with some money the group had put together for him.
With only a couple of cities left we headed off to Berlin where we saw the East Berlin Gallery (A part of the Berlin wall which has been turned into an art gallery). We had a walking tour the next morning with a great guide who knew so much about Berlin, history, buildings, events etc. We really enjoyed it.
After Berlin we went to our last stop which was Amsterdam. Most of the group headed off to a sex show while 6 of us decided to pass and get dinner and visit a coffee shop. Dave and I went home reasonably early because at this stage he had a cold and wasn’t really feeling very well at all. We did a biking tour of Amsterdam and bought costumes for our final night together which was spent at a dinner, a canal cruise and then out to a bar (called Pirates). It was a really fun night and we all had a great time making the most of seeing each other.
On our last day we drove home from Amsterdam, through Belgium (briefly stopping off in Brugge where we bought some chocolates), through France to Calais and onto the Ferry back to London.
About half of the group will be staying on in London so we will be keeping in touch with them and have a special group page on Facebook to help that.
The lovely boys and girls from our trip
