Life's little lessons

Here is a list of things I have learnt  or come to the conclusion of over the past six weeks whilst living in London.

• How to use a coffee machine (I no longer have to lie on my resume when I say I am a trained barista!)
•  London  does not know the defintion of the word 'Summer'. There should be a law that if the temperature does not reach about 30 degrees, the word Summer can not be used to describe that particular season. Therefore, the months that England is in now should be referred to as "Winter 2.0" 
•  Having an accent means you can get away with anything.
• I like to sleep talk about colour schemes and people I have never met (much to my room mates amusement)
  
• Pringles is an entirely acceptable form of breakfast/lunch/dinner/midnight feast
• I will never be able to return to the unreliable and slow train service that is Metro after experiencing the tube. I have been acclimatized to only have to wait a maximum of 4 minutes for a train, anything more and I will die.
• Amsterdam is a city, not a country.
• English people do not know how to pronounce the word 'aquatics' , 'yoghurt' or 'hostel' correctly
• Mixing blacks and coloured clothing in the washing machine actually does make your pretty, pink underwear come out a murky grey colour once dryed
• Wales is to England as New Zealand is to Australia
• Doing grocery shopping at 3 am means you come home with a lot of stuff you really didn't need ei- alphabet potato chips to play word games with, 8 tubs of chocolate yoghurt and a ASDA shopping trolley to hang your washing off.
• The ability to sleep anywhere. I'm talking on the tube irrelevant of standing or sitting, on cafeteria tables during break, the decking floor of a boat crossing the English Channel, the dry stores room whilst polishing silver, the toilet cubicle of a hostel (the list is quite endless these days)
• It is not weird to ask strangers if they want to lick your arm when you are covered in chocolate
• The TV soapie "Eastenders" is so bad it makes "Neighbours" look like it was directed by Spielberg
• Stuffing granola bars in your bra does mean you can get them through army security (except you may crackle/crunch and receive stange looks when they pat you down)
• 'Offies' are the greatest invention in the world.
• "Hiya, you right?" translates to "Hey, how you going?"
• Bacon and baked beans on toast may be the most delicious meal in the world or possibly the grossest and I am always just so delusional with hunger when I eat it I think it is an incredible delicacy.
• The walk from Stratford station into Olympic Park is so long I think I should get a gold medal every time I complete it. 
• I have meet more Australians in the past month than I have in my entire life living in St Albans
• OREOS tast like absolute shit in the UK.
• I am absolutely in love with the city of London.

Sweet like chocolate

Yesterday was one of the first days that I have had off in ages where I didn't have anything planned. So naturally, to fill in my spare time I went shopping and TopShop was calling my name.

If any of you have been into a clothing store before, then you will be aware of the state of manic that takes over me when I see the word 'SALE' , which is exactly what happened yesterday afternoon. So despite constantly trying to budget for necessities such as food, bills and transport- I love that fact that I was able to legitmately justify to myself why I needed to buy like ten new pieces of clothing.

keeping it classy in the kitchen

Jordan, Red Mel and I had decided to go out last night, therefore techically I was in need of a new outfit. My top is from a vintage store in Amsterdam. I love it -  I think it is so, so summery and cute !

We went to a club called 'Fabric' which is supposed to be like one of the best in London, but unfortunately it didn't exactly float our boat so we left pretty early.
Yet again though, our lack of planning had failed to make us realise that all the tube stations would be closed at this time of morning so we had no way of getting back to our side of the city. After wandering the streets we found the 'Hire a Cyle' stand (and despite the warning signs which said "do not ride while intoxicated") we concluded that pedalling home was the way to go.

Clearly more intrested in taking selfies than in bike riding

 Apart from stopping off at the skeezy 24 hour kebab shop (which has nothing on FunCity Kebabs by the way), riding bikes around the city till 5am was the evening's highlight. It was actually so much fun and the city looks so pretty by night sunrise.







 Let me just say though, that riding in a mini skirt is no easy feat and I have never been more grateful that Dad had insisted on us riding over the Westgate Bridge when we were kids and had actually taught me how to ride bikes well.





Today, we decided to go to the Notting Hill Carnival.

I would really like to reiterate the fact that all three of us are terrible at planning ahead so we were all looking forwards to going to what we thought would be a nice little festival with like fairy floss and face painting.

What we actually had gone to was the fourth annual Carribbean Carnival celebrating the independence of Tobago and Trinidad.
And apparently how 50 years of independence is celebrated in the Carribbean is by closing off streets for miles so massive trucks blaring Jamican music can lead a parade of people around throwing melted Cadbury chocolate at eachother.


I am deadly serious. 

white meat only

And seeing as I feel that my booty qualifies me for some sort of ghetto status, we decided to jump into the parade and be the only white girls in a swarm of proud black people.










Being in the in the crowd of 1,100 people in the parade was intense. Everyone were dancing like crazy whislt melted chocolate and coloured dye was being flung everywhere. The music was so happy to listen to and it was so much fun dancing through the streets.

easy there white chocolate, wouldn't want you to melt

Sadly, Jordan lost her shoe and then we lost Jordan in the excitement of the parade so Red Mel and I continued on with the parade for the next 3 hours.  I loved it so much, I seriously think I may have been black in a past life.

what a beautiful chocolate man

 




By the time it finished, we had chocolate in just about every place imaginable (who knew my ears could hold so much melted chocolate!)  and our clothes (great idea to wear a white shirt by the way) were caked in dried up chocolate handprints.

hasta lavista swartzaniggro

 

Elated but exhausted we made the long train ride home and coped plently of stares from people who couldn't figuire out why we were covered in sticky brown paint yet smelt like we had been making out with Freddo Frog.

"''love dem bitchz"

My hiatus in updating lately is because I've been in the Netherlands for the past six days!

I came to the conclusion that if I had had time to post on my blog whilst in Amsterdam, then clearly I wasn't doing something right.

Now I will try to keep this post as PG13 as possible but quite frankly, Amsterdam was hectic. That is the only way I can describe it because after all, what happens in Amsterdam, stays in Amsterdam.

Use a magnify glass and you can see me on top of the A

We had a ten hour bus ride from London to Amsterdam (which I only learnt about two weeks ago is a city not a country) and of course, Red Mel and I had to run to catch it because it is impossible for us to arrive anywhere on time.
The shitty bus drove through France and Belgium, which excited us a great deal because it meant we had been to five countries in the past two days. Unfortunately I was sleeping most of the time and the only thing I can say I saw was French and Belgium(ish?) sheep.

our street art room

some of the photography lining the hallway

Arriving in Amsterdam, we checked into our hostel and it was the freaking, legit coolest place I have ever stayed at. It had its own bar and night club and was situated right in the Red Light District, so it was close to eveeerrryything.
All the rooms were designed by a different local artist, so the entire hostel had really interesting and unique artwork everywhere.













Straight away, I saw how easy it was for people to fall in love with Amsterdam. Not only is it such a  beautiful city with the old buildings and canals winding through the streets- it's the way of life that is so carefree and relaxed that really caught my attention. From the masses of  people riding on bikes to the locals who stroll with their children through the Red Light District for some afternoon sun. The open attitude towards everything from sexual orientation to sex with prositutes was amazing because it definitely added to the city's atmosphere that everyone is entitled to make their own decisions and enjoy the diverse and creative culture.

our view during lunch along the canal

Red Light District

Royal Palace of Amsterdam

Being a mass tourist

There's so many touristy things to see and do in Amsterdam such as ride the bikes along the canals, visit Anne Frank's house, the Van Gogh museum, the incredible night life- yet my favourite thing for sure was meeting so many different people from around the world and everyone just sort of instantly clicks.










I can't really describe what else I did in Amsterdam because I don't want to give my mother a heart attack. I literally had such a fantastic week there, seeing and experiencing so many new things. Add to this the fact that my two main passions (food and shopping) where to die for there, you can pretty much understand why I didn't want to leave.

adding to the collection

I can say that in the spirit of Amsterdam my room mate and I got matching "Roomies 4 Lyf" tramp stamps.


haha kidding, but we did get tattoos to commemorate the wonderful time we had. I really do think going to Amsterdam is a once in a life time experience and everyone needs to do it as almost a 'rite of passage' when they are young-
I absolutely loved it. 

This one time in Wales...

Ahhh Wales.
I am back in my nice little house in London and already thinking of my 3 days spent in Wales as being one of those experiences that will be told as an exciting adventure for many years to come.

I completely loved our little mid week break to Wales- the spontaneity and rushing around town trying to buy a tent two hours before we left was really fun. However, all I'm saying is a little bit more planning ahead wouldn't have gone astray. Say had we checked the weather forecast before we left or maybe not made the decision that packing a bottle of vodka and slab of Bulmers was more important than bringing towels and a sleeping bag.

road tripppp!!

Getting on the bus (which we got lost about three times trying to find) we were informed by a fellow passenger that when the bus stops at 'Pembroke Dock' it doesn't mean dock as in at the beach, it meant dock as in ferry dock. Therefore there was no beach nearby meaning we had no where to set up tent. 


But by what we later determined to be fate, the same woman (named Hetta) offered us to come spend the night at her house out of the wind and the rain. Thanking our lucky stars that we had met  Hetta, who had been an avid backpacker when she was younger so she "knows what is was like", we drove back to her house at 1am and spend the night in a very oldWelsh house.

The next morning after being woken to the smell of bacon, eggs and beans on toast for breakfast, Hetta drove us to an actual beach where we could pitch our tent for the night.

home sweet home

The views from the top of the camp site where amaazzzing. This tiny town of Pembrokeshire had about a dozen houses scattered across the hillside and only four non residential structures- a gardening shop, a cafe, a corner shop and a pub. The cliffs went right down the edge of the rocky beach shore and it just seemed to stretch on for miles. Everywhere you looked was just so green and lush, it was beautiful.



After exploring the beach and a couple of hours spent at the pub, we went back to our tiny tent for the night. Unfortunately by this time, the wind and the rain and started to pick up.

Imagine a single dandelion on a huge flat expanse, being in a fierce wind and little bit by little bit, it would start to fall apart and be blown away. 

our sleeping bags were completel saturated

That's exactly what our 12.99 pound tent was like that night.
Except add rain to the equation and it made for a fun night. Every time the wind blew the side of the tent, the canvas would give you a wet slap in the face. We had somehow been jibbed of a cover for our "sun roof" so we had a nice constant drizzle of rain coming down on our heads as we slept. By 5am, after minimal sleep, we were absolutely drenched. We decided to pack up the neccessities (clothes and food duh) and go hide out in the public toilets.

A couple of hours later, we were yet again saved by a friendly local who offered us to come sit in their van and drink tea until the rain stopped. When 9 o'clock finally came round and the downpour had fiinnaaaally stopped, we went down to the cafe and had a traditional Welsh breakfast - bacon, eggs, toast, tomato, mushroom, beans and sausages. I'm not sure if 8 hours of sleeping in a puddle had given me temporary hypothermia but at that moment I had never tasted a meal that was more delicious.

After numeous trips to the cafe's toilets to make use of the hand dryer in a feeble attempt to dry our hair and socks , we rescued by the incredibly kind and generous Hetta who picked us up, took us back to her house and after sending our clothes off to the dry cleaner, cooked us a home made meal of spaghetti bolognese and we all watched Harry Potter.

So despite our failed attempt at camping, Wales was a good adventure. I was shocked at the geniune benevolence and kindheartedness of strangers towards us on our trip; but at the same time, deeply appreciative. I don't know how we would have survive Wales and it's wild weather without them!

To Wales ? Why not !

I am currently on a double decker coach bus somewhere between
Bristol and the border of Wales. The bus driver just turned the lights off so I thought it'd be a good time to blog.

London to Pembrokeshire, which is where we are staying (and by staying I mean camping on the beach with our newly bought tent from Poundland) is about a six hour bus ride. We don't really have much of a plan of what to do when we get to Wales seeing as we only decided to road trip it here yesterday night. We had all wanted to go away during the break between work at the Olympics and the Paralympics and when we saw that tickets to Wales was only five pounds ( that's like less than the cost of a Medium McChicken Nugget meal ) we thought , sure why not !

Not that this is relevant to the post but seeing as I am updating via my phone for once, here are some photos I found on it.

Jordan , myself and a jug of England's national drink PIMMS

my housemate being nice enough (drunk enough) to let me paint his fingernails

Inside St Paul's Cathedral, I am going to hell

Big Ben, duh !

the best decision

Yesterday marked the day that I had been in London for one month exactly. I cannot believe it, the time went so fast. All the fantastic experiences that I have had, people that I have met, amazing oppurtunities and new things that I have learnt have made this the best month of my life.
I would not change one aspect of it or trade it for the world.

Not that I would be able to pick my favourite part thus far (lies, it's meeting Kate and Wills) here are some photos from the past month.

Westminister Abbey

my cute little street

getting fancy with the dentist offices

Church

Coco Chanel Couture

I can't even imagine what the next few months ahead will have in store for me and my new life abroad !
Follow me on instagram for more photos updates - jennahales

Absolutely speechless

OH WOW

That's pretty much all I can say to explain last night. No matter how I try to describe it, I will never be able to convey the incredible experiences that I had yesterday whilst working the closing ceremony. All I can say, is that without a doubt I know that will be one of the most memorable of my entire life.

HTL chill lounge for all the celebs

The previous day I had gone into HTL (the High Talent Lounge) and helped set things up in preparation for all the celebrities who were going to be performaing in the Closing Ceremony- therefore I had a fair idea of who was going to be there. However, nothing could have prepared me for the for such a spectacular night.

costume designs for Queen

I was supposed to be a barista but seeing as me and the coffee machine were having 'artistic differences' ( note by this, I mean the coffee machine decided to meltdown and go on hiatus whenever I touched it) I ended up spending the night as a waitress.







So many famous celebs were there last night, its hard to remember even half!
I saw the Spice Girls in all their glory and they are absolutely banging ! They are ALL so tiny ! Mel B was by far the hottest in my opinion. Their costumes were to die for !

I had lots of little conversations with people as I moved around the room from the Timothy Spall (Peter Pettigrew in Harry Potter) about canapes to the Who who liked to mimic my Australian accent, Kate Hudson who was "most certainly sure" she was full on food to David Beckham who was going to carry his own plate to the bin. Liam Gallagher from Oasis asking me about the trams in Melbourne and my absolute personal favourite was when Niall Horan from ONE DIRECTION greeted me with "Hey baby, how you doing?"

Stealing the Official Olympic One Direction dressing room sign ;)

Last night was so unbelievably fantastic that at many times I was left speechless. I couldn't believe I was getting paid to be surrounded by so many famous people- it did not feel like work at all.

I did feel a little bit sad watching the Closing Ceremony, I didn't want it to end. I have had such an amazing time over these past two weeks, everything I have experienced has made me feel so privileged and has certainly made my Olympic experience beyond my wildest dreams.