Oi oi oi!

It's Australia Day on Friday, and all the Aussies at work are already planning on how to deck the office out with a huge Aussie flag and the wearing of THONGS in the office. Now the reason you can't say the word thong here in the UK is that people think you're referring to a G.. so you must say "flip flops". Similarly when you are frustrated you can't say you've "got the sh!ts with _whatever_ or _whoever_" because people will think you have the runs and look at your rather strangely. On the other hand, if someone here greets you with "Hi, you right??".. you must put your fists away because they are somehow actually greeting you with a meaning similar to our customary "Hi how's it goin' Mate?"... and they're not actually trying to start a fight. (Took me a while to get used to that one.. in fact am not sure I still am yet..)

White Winter..

After I took the photo below and left my building I was confronted with streets, trees, houses, cars, all covered in inches of snow!! I'd never seen this before in a big city and it was so pretty and brightened up a normally dull Winter day!

It's now 2pm at work and the sun has come out to warm us up in our frigid air-conditioned office.. I can handle this weather :)

Snow!

The view from my apartment this morning!

Good food in London?

Yesterday I went to Sophie's Steakhouse on Fulham Rd for "the BEST steak in London!".. so my friend Greg tells us. So the 6 of us all ordered big steaks for lunch on a Saturday... I have to agree it was the best steak I've had in London. Apparently it's as good as Gaucho Grill, but is far more worth the money as you get chips or mash with your meat as well. We all agree though, that since coming to London from gastro-fabulous Sydney, our tastebuds have considerably dulled..

I went to Covent Garden afterwards to do some shopping and found a fantastic travel bookstore called Stanfords. They have 3 floors of travel guides, maps, and travel literature. I'm currently reading "Tales from Nowhere" from Lonely Planet Journeys.

Last weekend I went to 2 30th birthday parties..one of which was my flatmate Alex's. 2007 is the year where my household (my 2 flatmates and me) turns officially 'crusty' (so I'm told by all my younger colleagues at work)..at least I look younger than all of them!!

Missing Morocco...

Today is the end of my holidays.. the past month has been hectic but amazing. Before Christmas there were parties, things to organise and friends to meet up with before I went away.

Alex, Mich and I went to Cologne for the Xmas markets the weekend before Xmas. We had a fantastic time browsing all the market stalls, trying out all the good food.. mulled wines, seafood, German pizza.. and doing lots of shopping (things in London are expensive!). We had a nice relaxing time and soaked up the Chrissy atmostphere. Glad I did it as I'm not sure I'll still be in this neck of the woods next year!

On Christmas Eve I went to Morocco with my parents on a 15 day tour with Explore Holidays. Had the most amazing time.. it was one of the best trips of my life and I hope to return soon... Took tonnes of photos (hopefully will put up soon!) and have lots of good memories. I thoroughly recommend going with a tour to get the most out of the trip especially if you don't speak Arabic or French. We visited the beaches and sea-side port of Essaouira, to dusty bustle of the medinas in Fes and Marrakech, trekked in the High Atlas Mountains and rode camels to watch the sunset in the Sahara Desert. We had fantastic local guides in all places who gave us a great insite into how the local people lived and the sentiments they have towards the government and the King. I loved the dusty villages, the nomadic tribes we met, the poor mules and donkeys with their life of hardship transporting loads of goods up and down mountain paths.

Every young man wants to be a tour guide in Morocco. Our tour leader came from a poor Berber family of 9 children and is lucky enough to be working for an English tour company now. Everywhere we went it felt like we were getting hassled to either buy something or asked if we needed a guide. Despite this I loved the Moroccan humour, they joke about everything and always have a smile on their face.

After Morocco I had another week off spending time with my parents. We hired a car and drove to Bath (visiting Avebury on the way), Stonehenge and Salisbury. We couldn't have asked for more lovely English weather - grey, wet, windy and cold. Needless to say we kept indoors as much as we could. Saw 2 musicals - Evita and Chicago.. watched Casino Royale at the cinemas.. enjoyed some Venezuelan music from enseble Ensamble Criollo at the Royal Albert Hall.. and patted a real life camel from the Gobi Desert whilst visiting in the Salisbury Cathedral!

I am back to work tomorrow.. am savouring this last day of my holidays.. however am already wondering when I can go back to Morocco and Africa...