And so it begins!

I'm into day 4 of the camino now and my body is starting to realise that walking that distance is not an easy task! Day one went very well, we passed over the pyrenees to end the day in a monastery which slept around 100 people in one large room! This place had a great atmosphere with loads of people feeling excited and anxious about the ready if the trip! That night we are the pilgrims menu which was a delicious 3 course meal then all curled up into bed by around 21:30! You'd think when you go top bed so early it would be ready to wake up early, this is not the case! We were woken up around 6:30 to the sound of a recorder followed by a walking guitar player who had an affinity for the beatles! What a lovely way to wake up, even if out was so early! The guitar playing continued on until we left the building with some simon and garfunkel and bob dylan following the beatles! That got the second day off to a roaring start!

The second day was a lot easier then having to across a mountain pass! We also joined up with another girl so there were 3 of us walking together along the path together. We had a great time chatting and getting to know each other. We stopped in Larrasoaña where we had a beet outside the cafe and welcomed other pilgrims to the town. The hostel was not the best, the bathrooms leave much to be desired but there was a lovely atmosphere with everyone together!

day 3 was an interesting day, we decided to go a bit farther than most people and stop 6 km from where everyone else was due to stop. That was a great idea until we arrived at our stop, only to discover that the hostel we were planning on stopping at is closed this year! That meant we had another 6 km to go before the next hostel! It also started raining at this point! However at the end of the gill we had to climb the sun came out and we had beautiful warm sunshine for the remaining hours we had to walk! However we were definitely beat by the time we arrived! A great high of that say was we got to ring a church bell at the to of the steeple! Don't think many people have done that!

After our dramatic and exhausting day yesterday we took it easy today and enjoyed the countryside and the lovely views offered from out strenuous climbing and enjoyed looking at all the wild flowers growing along the way. We have arrived early at the hostel so we have time to relax, unwind, have a beer and then get cooking! We're also lucky that we managed to get a room to ourselves there so no snoring!

Starting a new adventure!

I'm on a train to st jean pied de port, which means st john at the foot of the pass. This is a very small town on the french/spanish border but it has a huge importance. It is the popular starting point for the french route of the camino de santiago, a pilgrimage that starts from many points across europe and ends on the west of spain in santiago de compostela. This is what I will be doing for the next month. My plans are to walk the 780 km from st jean pied de port to santiago and see what happens. Many people say its a life altering experience, I'm not really hoping for that much but I guess a bit of inner calm would be nice, to be able to step away from the materialism and narrowmindedness that I'm surrounded by all the time. It would be nice to remember what is important in life rather than being drawn into what advertisers think is important for life. The camino is supposed yup be different for each person that walks it. I'm looking forward to seeing what the camino holds for me

Sketchy electrics

Now that I have my van its time to start thinking about improvements! As I am currently completely broke (I bought a van.. tends to deplete funds rather drastically!) I am focusing on fixing the stuff already in the van. This starts with the extremely interesting electrical system that the previous owner has left me with. Wow! What am impressive maze of cables, switches and joins! I'm surprised the car hasn't caught fire yet! I must admit I'm a little fearful of delving deeper into this wire nest he has created. For the most part my knowledge of electricity is knowing to turn off the light switch before changing a light bulb... And I feel that even that rule can be occasionally broken. The encouraging thing is that I can only be shocked by a 12V car battery. That doesn't pack much of a punch does it? Oh, I should probably Google that to make sure... I haven't yet attempted touching the electrics as yet, I'm blaming the cold miserable weather for not wanting to hang out in the back of my van playing with wires. I know this is merely an excuse to hide my terror in facing those wires. I think I'd rather thoroughly scrub the car clean than trace a dodgy wire along the van's body to see where and how its connected!

Second hand cars huh?

What happens when you buy a used car? Drama of course! I was finally able to pick up my van from my friend’s house where I had to leave it until I got it registered and bought the number plates and insurance. Having sorted all of this out I gleefully took a 3 hour train ride to his house to collect the van. After a 1.5km walk from the train station once again set eyes on my new van, its shiny green exterior calling to me! I unlocked the car excited beyond belief to finally be bringing it home with me. I inserted the key into the ignition and turned, nothing happened. There was a slight rumbling in the engine but nothing I had ever heard before (and I’m from South Africa, I’ve heard loads of cars try and fail to start!). That worried me. Usually when it’s the battery the car engine tries to turn over but doesn’t have the power to do so, similar story with there’s no gas. My car sounded like a washing machine during the wash cycle. No lie, no exaggeration! What to do then? Curl up into a ball of dismay that all my dreams of cross country travel have been shattered by the simple turning of the key in an ignition? Well obviously that wouldn’t solve anything so I sent a few messages to friends in Switzerland who know nothing about cars so naturally they couldn’t help. This followed a long distance call to a friend in South Africa who knows loads about cars but this didn’t help either as he had no idea what the sound was and being 10 000 km away couldn’t very well take a look in the engine!

There was nothing left to do but call road side assistance. If you ever need roadside assistance in Switzerland on a Sunday you will suddenly realise… K-ching! There goes all the money I saved bargaining down the price of the car! And that money was just for him to come to the car. First thing he does is check the battery, signs indicate “weak”…that’s never good. So he attaches this gizmo to the battery and wham, car starts! Well if I’d known it would be that simple I’d just carry my own gizmo around!

So once the car was started it could not be stopped. I had a bit of a hairy moment when I had to fill up with gas but it seems that the battery had enough juice to keep going, thankfully! Then without a single problem my van drove me the 200km home. But now not only do I have no money for the rest of the month, but I can’t afford a new battery until next month. I guess that means focussing on making the inside of the van absolutely awesome!

The next big adventure

After a few months of working a terrible yet pretty well paid job in the Swiss Alps I have now been able to afford a VW T4 van! Sure its no dream car, it has its flaws and is going on 20, but its still younger than me (and I'm going strong!) and most importantly its all mine! There's an incredible sense of achievement when you buy your first car. Its not the first car I've owned, but it is the first car I've bought and I'm very proud! The van started its life as a construction vehicle (poor thing) and was then bought by a windsurfer who needed the space to transport all his things. While he owned it he inserted a rather hideous yellow but none the less functional bed frame and drawers! The colour can be fixed!!! I now have a new project, to turn this van into my dream van! It has the potential and the spirit (I mean what car having gone from a builders van to a hippys home would not be excited about the change!?) and I have the time now to convert it. I need to admit I know nothing about converting a van to a campervan but I have brains and some patience and very little money.. this can be achieved! And it shall all be documented stage by stage on my blog... now where to start? Tie dying some curtains I think!

No memories of pain!

Why do we do sports that cause us so much pain? For the third time this season I find myself miserable and on pain killers hoping to relieve the irritation of another skiing accident. And yet the idea of stopping skiing hasn’t even crossed my mind, well until I started writing this it hadn’t and even so I pondered more why that thought had not yet crossed my mind more then I pondered actually giving up skiing!  I thought that it might be the feeling of fresh powdery snow blasting me in the face as I manoeuvred through a foot of snow, the thrill of jumping off a cliff that would normally break someone’s legs, the camaraderie of chatting with friends about an epic run or perhaps the lifestyle of being a lover of mountains. All of these things make skiing (or snowboarding for that matter) an absolute addiction for those of us dedicated to mountain winters. But why do we endure the pain that so often does come with this great sport? What makes the pain of injury worth that great powder day? This is not something I can fully answer myself. I have my own reasons for going back day after day. Importantly because I feel that each day only gets better than the previous and if I have injured myself, it means next time I venture out onto the slopes I’ll be a better skier and I’ll be able to face that narrow couloir without side-slipping down the steep parts, I’ll be able to dominate the moguls and cruise through the trees without stopping.

Each day on the mountain brings me closer to my goals; closer to knowing the mountains, closer to nature and closer to myself. When faced with a steep tree run, nothing is important but you, the mountain and survival, hopefully with an element of fun. Life is put into perspective. Sure you might end up with a bloody nose, a twisted back, a pole in your shin but it will be worth it when you remember the pillow you bounced through, the face shots from knee deep snow or even just the fun you had helping a friend learn to ski. Pain is temporary, sure it hurts while its healing but once its healed it difficult to remember the level of pain, to bring back those horrible memories of being stuck in bed and barely able to move. However it’s never difficult to bring back the feeling of elation from hitting that jump and landing it, the memory of snow washing over your face as you make those perfect lines down untouched snow. So I guess that’s what makes skiing worth all the pain. Pain is temporary, memories last a lifetime!

The boss from hell

I’m sure many people complain about their bosses, it’s normal to dislike a person that insists on spending their days telling you what to do and how to do it. Sounds rather feudal and old-fashioned, doesn’t it. This is especially so when your boss ends up in a position of authority not because he’s good at it, but because he’s the oldest employee in the company and they had to do something with him. He rose through the ranks not on skill but on persistence and loyalty to the company. Not great leadership traits for sure! If this sounds like your boss then you are well on your way to empathising with me in the misery I face every day in dealing with my boss. Now add to this man an excessive drinking problem and you will get a pretty good idea of who I am working with. (That sentence is full of grammatical errors, but I like it as it is, so it stays).

He is a man that causes stress and havoc with his every movement. If someone sees him arrive in the building the word is passed through the hotel so that everyone is aware and can go into hiding as he passes through. God forbid you are within his sights when he walks around, something, somewhere within a few metres will be desperately wrong and entail a degrading and demeaning lecture where you are invariably called stupid or childish.

It’s not all bad, I have found that having a dreadful boss brings staff closer together. When there is a common enemy differences are overcome between staff and everyone will stick together, will cover for each other and in general gang up on the boss in a mutual group of loathing. Tight friendships are formed that might never have occurred if you didn’t need someone to whisper to about the latest awful thing the boss said. Comfort and empathy are not far away as everyone has felt his wrath, his passive aggressive statements and his demeaning speeches. I will take the good from this experience and ignore the bully that is my boss, it is after all only one season and in 2.5 months I will be on my way to the beaches in Spain and he will still be the miserable and unhappy man he is now.

Powder days

When you work 12 hours a night in a bar, any time you’re not too exhausted to get out of bed becomes an exciting day for searching for any powder that might be left on the mountain. My friend and I did just that two days ago. We were lucky enough to finish work the previous night by 3am, giving us plenty of time to sleep and still ski before we had to start work again at 6pm. It’s always an amazing feeling to get back onto my skis and dominate the mountainside. This time we decided that there were too many people on the slopes, so we would do a little exploring and find fresh untapped powder in the trees and forests where most gapers (tourists to the mountain who can’t really ski) would not dare to go. What luck that we decided that. We had some of the most amazing powder runs through the trees, a few forays near the river that were a bit too close for comfort and an epic bail!

I was flying through the forest and had just glided off a fallen tree covered in snow, making it the perfect jump and was absolutely delighted as I cruised towards the road to wait for my friend. Unseen to my elated eyes the drop from the forest onto the road was slightly larger than expected, about 3 feet larger! If, as a skier or snowboarder you have ever dropped something onto a completely flat landing you will understand the pain involved in an unexpected flat landing! Due to gravity and laws of falling bodies and Newton and all that stuff, the ground stopped my feet but gravity kept my face moving, straight into my knee! It was an extremely fast, powerful slam of my poor nose directly into my leg, leaving in my excruciating pain, blood squirting everywhere and a hysterically laughing friend! Guys…. Well the good thing about falling in the snow is that there really isn’t a problem icing the injury. I’d hate to think what my nose would look like if I hadn’t instantly iced it. At the moment it’s about twice the size it normally is and when you have a large nose to start with that’s the last thing you want! Especially when you have to work in 2 hours’ time!

However, the moral of this story is that when it is a powder day, and you get to make fresh tracks through a forest, explore new areas and generally roll around in the snow, the minor discomfort of a swollen nose is completely worth it. Any time the pain becomes too much I remember bursting through powder cushions that covered my waist… ah pain? What? No, it’s a minor scratch, all worth it!

The important things in life

Sometimes I find myself completely bogged down by the problems in life that I no longer see what is important. I think many of us have this problem where we forget that we only have one life, we only have one shot and we should take advantage of every moment. Life is not worth wasting on trivial problems, bullies who try to demean us and stressful jobs! There are always going to be reasons to be negative, to be worried, to be stressed. Then there comes that moment of clarity when you suddenly realise that all those feelings are not important. All the worry that's been needlessly eating you up inside is never going to solve anything, that in fact worrying is perhaps the most useless passtime of all. Anyone who has ever criticised someone about being a lazy layabout should look to themselves first and ask how much time they have spent worrying. I feel that I would rather waste an entire day being too high to do anything than waste 10 minutes worrying about something that cannot be changed. But I'm getting distracted here. The moment of clarity.

So as you know I'm now living in a tiny village in the Swiss alps called Lenk. I discovered just how tiny the other day when I went skiing on a powder day. It was one of those days where the visibility was next to nothing and it was dumping with snow. It was also my first day out on the mountain this season. We could barely see where we were going but it didn't matter at all. Every run we did felt like getting first tracks. As we rode the chairlift back up the snow covered all tracks and once again we had clean lines all the way down. The groomers had about a foot of snow on them and even more to the sides. The snow covered my knees and thighs with every turn. My skis glided over fluffy whiteness with absolute ease. No obstacles, no challenges. Buttery as snowboarders would say! As it was our first day up on the mountain with zero vis we stuck to groomers, but who can complain when you're skiing a foot of fresh snow on a mountain that had about 5 people skiing. Its one of those days most people look out and think, I'm going back to bed. For us it was one of those days where we thought thank goodness most people are pussies!!!!

The next day arrived with clear blue skies and the promise of new snow. Now if you've ever skied in Europe you will know Europeans have a very distinct "on piste" vs "off piste", for Americans that means groomers vs the rest of the mountain. Unlike in North America though, ski patrol only take care of the piste. Anything off piste is completely your own responsibility, which means that a lot of Europeans have this terrible fear of anything a snowcat hasn't mutilated. For me this means kilometres of untapped powder fields where every trip down gives me the opportunity to create a fresh line. This is the first time I've lived in a small resort. Think I've been sold on it! Sure the mountain is not as huge as the main resorts in the alps but then how many people in those resorts can say they get a fresh line every time they come down?

It is in days like that you realise that there are no problems, that nothing is insurmountable, anything is possible and that life is fan-fucking-fastic! We are not on earth to suffer, we're here to enjoy every day to the maximum. So whatever you do, do it with passion! We only have one life. That's it. LIVE IT!!

The deep end

I have survived my first two nights working in a German speaking bar. I have found that when Swiss people speak, I have no idea what they are saying. When I ask them to speak high German they look at me with contempt. When they hear me trying to speak high German they ask where I'm from. When I tell them South Africa they ask "How the hell did you end up in Lenk??" Suddenly I'm a topic of interest and any mistakes I might make are instantly forgiven. I can however brag that I'm getting better at this bartending thing. I only sort of want to have a panic attack when a huge group of people walk in, I now know what glasses to serve most drinks in and my manager forgives me when I screw up and takes over when I look terrified! Today is the first day I think I feel slightly normal again, working from 8pm until 4am takes some getting used to but tip for survival, keep busy! When you're constantly moving your body can't think about being tired. Then when bed time comes, well rest has never felt so good!

I have also found out that I will be working for a local festival when that opens. I have no idea who any of the acts are and somehow feel that they will all be quaint local Swiss acts but its in a massive tent (and called Das Zelt!) and I will be watching for free while doling out drinks to happy festival goers.

I have also today managed to find the gondola up the mountain. If you ever do come to Lenk, the gondola is not within walking distance! Taking the bus is strongly advised! I think this is the first ski resort I've worked at where its taken me nearly a week to actually locate the gondola. I will be heading up the mountain for the first time tomorrow. Hopefully it will be my first day off since I've been here. What a wonderful idea, no work for 2 whole days! Slightly more normal sleeping hours and the possibility of 2 full days of skiing!

My life as a movie? please?

You know when you sign up to do job you've never done before in a language you can’t speak? Welcome to my life!! Right now I am about to make a living as a bartender in the German speaking part of Switzerland. I don’t speak German, I don’t know the difference between cognac and whiskey and I couldn't tell you what glasses they are served in, in English or German! Why did these people hire me?? I have spent the last three days cleaning and stocking the bar that I am to work in. I have never seen some of the glasses I had to pack away! And as for green vodka? What’s wrong with the normal clear vodka? Why do we have to make green vodka? And what glass do you serve vodka in? The only time I drink vodka is when it’s well-disguised by some kind of mixer, then it doesn't matter what colour the bloody vodka is!

Even I realise that right now to anyone who has ever worked behind a bar I must sound like a complete idiot, an absolute novice, I should probably go back to my pints of beer drunk safely on the other side of the bar. Well this is where my dilemma comes in, I really am this ignorant and I really will be working in a bar for the next few months and it is all in German. I rather hope that all of this becomes some kind of Coyote Ugly story, where I am dreadful at first but somehow perform a feat of wonder and everything turns out fine and suddenly I’m flicking bottles around like a was born in a circus. Ah wouldn't it be wonderful if life was like a movie? Unfortunately this is real life, my life and it is about to get a little crazy!

Stay tuned for updates in this new crazy stupid adventure I'm embarking on, and if you are a seasoned bartender reading this, I can pour a beer… is that a redeeming fact?

Can someone invent Teleportation already!!

Its all very well to jet set and travel around the world, a different continent every few months and until they develop teleporting, many hours sitting crammed into flying cattle trucks! There are perhaps 50 odd people each flight who have the pleasure of flying business class, for the other 500 odd people on the flight breathing space is not an option! On a recent flight from durban, south africa to dubai (en route to switzerland) there was not a single empty seat in the whole of economy class. If you have ever spent 8 hours on a fully booked plane you will empathise with me. Now add to this 4 hours of continued turbulence and you begin to get a picture of the flight!

I have spent many hours on many planes and have still not come up with a way of making economy class over long distance bearable, but there are ways of making it tolerable. Firstly, choose a seat near the back, the back of the plane its always emptier than the front so the chances of getting a free seat next to you are much higher. If you're on a full plane though it doesn't matter much.

The next bit of advice, be friendly! The air stewards can make or break your flight! They have a lot of people to keep happy, in cramped conditions for many hours and a little bit of compassion and friendliness goes a long way to making sure they go out of their way to make sure your flight is pleasant.

I experienced this to the extreme on my horrid flight across africa. A little bit of joking and chatting to the air steward lead him to bringing me an extra business class dessert with a glass of champagne! I can assure you that business class have delicious dessert and a little bit of chocolate and champagne go a long way towards making an economy class flight not only tolerable but a little exciting too!!

Chicago Police Taxi Service

I was looking through old photos and came across some of them from my time in Chicago and thought that they had a story that had to be shared! After a 18 hour long, non stop drive through from Colorado to Chicago I couldn't justify wasting one of my few days in Chicago sleeping off the long drive, so my friend, Nate (a local) and I set off to see what the Windy City had to offer. In order to make things more interesting for him, the tour of Chicago became a tour of the great drinking spots Chicago has to offer, with a side line of seeing the sights. I can definitely recommend this way of seeing a city. It is, however, going to take some help from Google maps to piece together the walk we did through downtown Chicago. Our trip started with a walk down Michigan Ave towards Navy Pier where we enjoyed our first beer at the Billy Goat Tavern, a Chicago landmark for their burgers, which I don't eat... the beer was good though. It is also from this place that the alleged Curse of the Cubs originated. (Owner of the Tavern was asked to leave Wrigley Field during a World Series game because his goat's odor was offending fans. As he left he declared that the Cubs would never win another World Series, which as to date has not happened).

We then headed to Millennium Park to see the face fountain (a fountain that displays the faces of local Chicagoans), found another bar and of course stopped in for a drink, or two. We continued wandering through the streets of downtown Chicago, stopping for a beer whenever the need overtook us. Naturally this means the walk became a bit of a blur after a while. However, I feel that most people would agree when you are in a new city, sightseeing is the smallest part of visiting. You don't learn about a city through sightseeing, it's the experience, the feel of a city that leaves the lasting impression. Chicago is a city that is vibrant, clean and pulsing. The people love their city and you feel that wherever you walk.

Towards the end of the day we decided that one cannot come to the Windy City and not see a Cubs game at Wrigley Field so to Wrigley Field we headed where we met a few other friends, fortunately a lot more sober than we were!!!

We bargained for some cheap, yet pretty good seats in the stadium to go watch the trail end of the game. It was my first time watching a baseball game, and it was everything I was expecting. The Cubs killed their opponents and the stadium was full of drunk, happy supporters. I probably cannot explain a single baseball rule but it was still great fun and the atmosphere was enough to make anyone cheerful!

After the excitement of the game we headed across to the Cubby Bear for the after celebrations. What an atmosphere! They had a fantastic, cheesy band playing while serving cheap beer in plastic cups. The evening became a blur of dancing, drinking, celebrating that only ended when the bar closed and we were forced to call it a night. My friend and I literally stumbled out of there, very thankful to our slightly more sober friends for looking after us! About 5 meters outside the bar my friend passed out, right in front of the Chicago police! Backed up by a lot of drunk bravado, I entertained the police with tales of being an excited tourist from South Africa and how Chicago was the best city in the whole of the USA!!! This gave Nate's girlfriend enough time to rouse him from his stupor and convince him that it was time to get a train back home. It was a very eventful trip back home, though I don't remember it. The consequences however, are still very clear in my mind!!

I ended up getting angry with everyone and wanted to get away, pretty sure that I could find my way home if I got off at the right stop. So at the stop I charged off the train, leaving everyone behind. Well when I arrived on the street did anything look familiar? Of course not!! I'd been walking around Chicago in a sleep deprived state, now not only was I sleep deprived but rather drunk too! The following is guide on how to find your way back to your hotel when you are lost on the streets of a strange city at 3am.
Step One: locate a bus stop, when you determine that the buses are no longer running, look at the map they usually provide at the bus stop to determine your current location and the location of your hotel. When you realize that you are too drunk to make sense of the moving letters on the bus map, move to step two.

Step Two: wander into the middle of the street and look at all the buildings, landmarks and street signs to see if anything looks familiar and could possibly lead you back to your hotel. That this point you should also resign yourself to the fact that you may be walking for a few hours to find your way back home. If nothing looks familiar move to step three.

Step Three: look completely lost and confused while you are standing in the middle of the road, if you are in Chicago the chances are that a cop car will pull up within the next few minutes and ask if everything is ok. This is when you pull your best attempt at being a helpless, lost tourist (Which shouldn't be too tough because thats exactly what you are). The police will then ask where you need to be. If this happens you are pretty much guaranteed a ride, and a lecture, most of which you will have forgotten in the morning anyway.

This way you get a ride home from who knows where to your hotel, saving a significant amount on taxi fare, as the Chicago Police are not in the habit of charging drunk people for giving them a lift. And as Matercard would say, the look on your friends' faces when you ride up to the hotel yelling out the window of a cop car "those are my friends!!" is priceless.

I have to end this entry with a thank you to the Chicago Police who seem to do fantastic job of keeping the streets of Chicago safe! I never felt scared while in Chicago and I think the huge police presence has a lot to do with that.

Oasis in London

Everyone  has heard from Central Park in New York, its probably the only reason most people in that city can breathe. I have discovered London's far better counterpart, Richmond Park. Richmond Park used to be the hunting grounds of King Charles I who installed himself there to escape the plague in London. He was the monarch who walled in the park, but still allowed people to enter and use the park. 2360 acres in size this park has a bit of everything. When I visited it, it was in the throws of autumn and we were surrounded by a sea of gold, orange and brown leaves.

We enjoyed the view and watched people cycling, walking their dogs, fishing, drinking and generally just relaxing and having a nice time. That is what Richmond Park seems to encourage, being happy. Lakes are interspersed through the park, deer wander around freely and the ducks make themselves known to all. This is the kind of place where you can't help but want to go fly a kite. And when the weather is looking fantastic, the sun is shining it seems like a great idea. Well that's what we thought, so we packed up the kite, got ourselves in the mood by singing Mary Poppins' "lets go fly a kite" song and made our way back to Richmond. However, the most important thing to consider when going to fly a kite is that no matter how great the weather may be, how bright the sun may be shining, no kite will fly when there is no wind. We were determined that there might be some wind at some point (I think a green herb may have had an influencing factor on our determination...) so that kite was set up... and lay absolutely still on the grass while we sat next to it, feeling a bit foolish. Families wandered passed us with questioning looks on their faces and we grew slightly more self conscious and eventually gave up kite flying to go climb trees instead! Just goes to show that Richmond Park can never be boring!

The next day we were much more fortunate and a strong wind was blowing, we headed to Old Deer Park this time to finally test our kite flying skills.

On the move again!

Back on the move again and it feels fantastic, to be going new places, meeting new people and getting up to interesting adventures again. This time I headed to London to meet up with a very close friend of mine. And sometimes in life you are lucky enough that your very good friend’s parents happen to have a massive mansion in a beautiful part of London! You can also get very lucky when said friend likes the alternative side of the city and takes you on tours that most tourists never visit. Ah so many highlights, so much to remember it’s all overwhelming. So let’s start at the beginning. A walk along the Thames looking at all the famous sights hundreds of tourists flock to London to see; Parliament, Westminster, Trafalgar Square and Big Ben (and for those of you that don’t know, Big Ben is part of parliament and is not located on a massive white building, also with a huge clock, a few hundred metres down the Thames…). After the mandatory walk along the Thames we stopped in at a bar on a boat. What a fantastic idea, if you stumble after a couple of beers, you blame it on the movement of the boat. Alcohol had nothing to do with it at all!! So if walking along the Thames has left you parched Tamesis Dock is a must visit. They even lend you their lighters, knowing full well that it is very unlikely to be returned… that’s what you get for being a pub that can’t find matches to give to tipsy patrons who need to light up!!

Ooooh, I wanna dance with somebody!

I forget sometimes how great it feels to spontaneously start dancing like, well, no one is watching. It all started with a hankering for the Backstreet Boys' Larger Than Life and progressed from there. How can that song not make you want to move around and act like you're Nick Carter! There is something so exhilarating about waving your arms around like a crazy person to the beat of cheesy music. Thanks to Spotify the cheese just continued with the BSBs being followed by Ricky Martin, Britney Spears, Nsync, Pink, Witney Houston, Meredith Brooks and even the Spice Girls made an appearance. At the end of half an hour I had my hair tied up on top of my head; 80s style, my shirt tucked into my bra and sweat pouring down my face! And I felt AMAZING! There can be no worries in your life when you're livin la vida loca, saying Bye Bye Bye or belting out Wannabe!

Not only does dancing burn calories but dancing is a great form of expression. You can be whoever you want through dance, tell a story, release pent up tension and jump out negative feelings all while releasing endorphins, happy drugs! Endorphins are said to have the same effects as codeine and morphin, without the negative side effects. What could be bad about that? So get out that cheesy music you secretly pretend to scorn, find some open space and go wild!

“Dance, when you're broken open.

Dance, if you've torn the bandage off.

Dance in the middle of the fighting.

Dance in your blood.

Dance when you're perfectly free.”
― Rumi

Probably going overboard on the pumpkin thing now

I just made a Pumpkin Pie. Now I’m not gonna say it was from an old family recipe, handed down generation to generation with a secret ingredient that makes it just that much better than everyone else’s. That would be a blatant lie. No, my recipe was taken, very unglamourously from the BBC Foods website. It was chosen purely based on the fact that it was the only recipe I could find that I had all the ingredients for. However, if you want an amazingly awesome Pumpkin Pie like mine, go to BBC foods where Antony Worrall Thompson is more than happy to share his fantastic recipe.

The only alteration I can lay claim to, is the fact that I did not have all spice, so I tossed in more nutmeg, more cloves and cinnamon, loads of cinnamon, because everyone loves cinnamon. Actually I probably put way more of all the spices in, but I love spices and spices love pumpkin, so I didn’t think it would hurt. And it hasn’t. Love your spices! 

Night time!

So night finally arrived and I must stay the evil Jack-o'-Lantern  turned out better than the friendly one!

How to make a Jack-o'-Lantern

Today it was beyond necessary to go grocery shopping. During my grocery shopping I couldn’t help but notice all the lovely orange pumpkins on display everywhere I looked! Now this being my first real autumn it’s also my first real exposure to such tempting displays. Naturally I couldn’t resist! I would have to buy one and make my first jack-o’-lantern. I’d heard they were pretty tough to carve out so I thought I’d start small, and not be too ambitious. So I bought a little pumpkin that was destined to become my jack-o’-lantern.

After numerous referrals to youtube, I felt like I was ready to tackle my lantern. There are a lot of videos on youtube about carving out a pumpkin, some are great some leave much to be desired! Well if you are interested in making your own jack-o’-lantern (which is well worth it, because its enormous fun!) you’ll need a pumpkin, a knife, a bowl for seeds and newspaper to put the fibres and other such unwanted things.

1.       Start off by cutting the top of the pumpkin off. It’s important that you cut it at an angle so that when you put the lid back on it doesn’t fall into the pumpkin, so the top needs to be wider than the bottom.

2.       This is the fun part. You get to stick your hand into the guts of the pumpkin and yank them out! So much fun!! Separate the seeds from the fibres, keep the seeds for roasting and throw the fibres away (though if you’re anything like me, you might keep them and turn them into a soup later on).

3.       Smooth out the inside of the pumpkin with a spoon so it looks nice. This is actually easier than it sounds. The sides scrape away nicely (more soup fodder)

4.       Next best part, draw on the face! I used pencil, cos I’m not much of an artist and know I’ll have to change a few times.

5.       Once you’re happy with the face, time to carve it out. I only used straight lines, cos those are easier to carve and less likely to lead to a screw up. Push the pieces inside the pumpkin to remove them.

6.       Time for lighting!!!!! I, however, have to wait another 4 hours til its dark enough for me to light mine up. Oh waiting is the hardest part!!!

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Now for the intellectual stuff. Jack-o’-Lanterns are actually an Irish thing, coming from Samhein a festival celebrating the time when fairies and spirits are active. Originally they were carved out of turnips (not an easy feat I’m sure!). When Irish people arrived in America, they brought jack-o’-lanterns with them. In America, though, pumpkins were in better supply, and easier to carve so the lanterns were made from them instead. As Samhein is celebrated from the 31 October – 1 November it follows that they were adopted for Halloween.

Now go make your own Jack-o’-Lantern!!!

Crisis Averted

Today has been a pretty relaxed day. The weather outside has been horrendous and relegated me to purely indoor activities. This has been great for my German lessons but there is only so much German one non-German speaking person can handle in a day!!

Thankfully my boredom was alleviated for a few minutes by the sudden and abrupt entry of a bird through a door that was not open more than a couple of inches! Well a second later the cat was off the chair and after the poor, confused bird who flew into one window followed by another, and another. Fortunately the bird slipped down between the stairwell, giving me enough time to capture the cat and forcefully lock it in a room while I attempted to remove the deviant bird.

I grabbed a towel from the bathroom intending to bring it down mid flight, wrap it up and release it outside, unscathed and constantly indebted to me for saving its life. The reality was a little less heroic. The unfortunate bird had been dazed in all the confusion and merely sat on the step staring up at me as I approached it. I was able to cover it in the towel, slide it off the step and let it out outside. It a moment of beauty the bird looked up at me and our eyes locked for a second in which is can only be said that the bird displayed enormous gratitude before it took flight, escaping me, the house and the cat.

After having thoroughly searched the house and failing to find any sign of the bird, the cat is now sulking with me for spoiling her fun.