King of stones and oxes

Seeing as how it's almost the weekend, it must be time to talk about last weekend!

'O' is for the way you get 'old school' with me.
'X' is for the x-cellent sights to see.
'F' is fairly freakin', extraordinary.
'ORD' is a ridiculous thing to rhyme with. But, Oxford is beautiful and I had such a brilliant time there! Gorgeous old buildings stand stoically along almost every street and make you feel more intelligent just by being in their shadows.

Unfortunately, being winter, there was no punting to be had, but the river is ever so lovely and I can only imagine how beautiful this place would be in summer with boats and flowers and Harry Potter look-a-likes roaming the streets.

Better than all of this though, was seeing some old friends of mine from way back in my 'younger' traveling days!

Jan and Al (aka green beanie girl and stripy scarf boy) and I first met in Vietnam circa 2005 and after some fun Beer Hoi sessions we became friends. A few months later, I hosted the pommy couple in Adelaide, where I was living at the time, and we had a blast doing wine tours, going to footy matches, and eating delicious Al-cooked roast chicken dinners. Apparently Al's roast chicken dinners have improved somewhat over the last six years, but alas, he didn't love me enough to cook me one... *le sigh* But, they did take us out for cream teas, and to see CW Stoneking play, which was awesome!!

It was a fabulous weekend, and I really didn't want to leave, but my last week of employment was calling... I do hope though, that it will not be anywhere near another six years before I see these guys again. In fact, I'm pretty sure they promised to come visit me again later this year... right?

Frocks on rocks

Friday at work I made the executive decision to get a little romantic and take myself out on a Friday night date. A three course French dinner including oysters, white wine, and baked cheese in Soho? Yes please. A ticket to a musical playing in the West End? What fun!

Priscilla Queen of the Desert starring Alf Stewart - how much more Australian can you get?!

I have to admit to screaming (just a little bit) when Ray came out on stage - I hadn't actually looked into who was cast in the performance, so it was a flamin' surprise to see an Aussie icon walk out onto the stage!

I had an absolutely brilliant night out and have decided I am definitely one heck of a date. Maybe next time I'll go a little bit crazy and date someone other than myself...

It ain't too much for me to jam

Things are going to get sketchy. Not that they aren't already Miss Last Post Was Over A Week Ago, you say.

Well - times-a-runnin'-out and things need to be done, Dance Husbands need to be entertained, bags need to be packed, weighed, re-packed, re-weighed (etc), and trips to lovely places need to be taken!

The weekend just gone, for example, Dance Husband and I rented a car along with Miss Revival and Curly Haired Canadian Rob, and we drove up to the beautiful city of Durham for DJAM 2011. It was a fabulous weekend and so much fun - I highly recommend this event to any swing dancers looking for a highly organised and excellently put together program! The weekend was run like a university - you could choose to do whichever 'course' you liked and could switch around at any time. Dance Husband and I mostly concentrated on blues, but I also attempted to learn the Tranky Do before my head imploded.

The location itself was oh-so-lovely. Durham has a gorgeous river wrapping around its centre, a stunning cathedral, and beautiful bridges. The hotel was lovely, the food was delicious, DJAM rocked, and this was certainly the most relaxing weekend I've had in while.

This coming weekend we're off to Oxford, followed by my last week of work, then a ski trip to Bulgaria, and finally, five nights in Paris before I do a final pack, final weigh, final re-pack, final re-weigh (etc), off-load some of my excess stuff to my lovely Dance Husband who has been ever so kind as to let me use some of his weight allowance, and we head home to the great brown flooded windswept land!

Dot points of happiness

A few things that are making me smile (and not able to sleep due to my excitement) lately:

• My Dance Husband gets here next week.
• This is my last weekend in London. Next weekend I'm in Durham, UK, the weekend after I go to Oxford. After that it's Bulgaria, then Paris, then home!
• I'm going swing dancing next weekend... AND I have a dress for the movie premiere night that was on sale, and will double as my long-coveted black day maxi dress!
• I now own this ski jacket and salopettes:

• I got the above ski outfit for only £40!
• I now know that the fancy name for "ski pants" is "salopettes".
• His Travel Romance moves into our new house next week, and I'll be there just a month later.
• His Travel Romance booked my ticket home recently, and I get to fly in an A380 via an afternoon in Perth catching up with everyone I miss so dearly!

Thank you cat, for giving my tongue back

I realise there has been a scarcity of words on this blog over the last few weeks, but who can blame a girl for being absent from virtuality when in reality, she's seeing His Travel Romance for the first time in seven months?

So, my luck with flights continued to a strong degree when it came to my flight out of Charles De Gaulle for JFK - I was only delayed by a couple of hours, and can now say I've been to Canada as our flight stopped in Montreal to refuel before attempting to land in the Great Blizzard of New York! By the time we landed at 9pm local time, we were only the second flight to have done so for the entire day. It took over three hours for the ground crew to get our bags off of the frozen plane and across the icy tarmac, during which time the great majority of us sat on the floor around the baggage carousel and waited. I emerged from the terminal to find that, due to the conditions on the roads, hardly a yellow cab was in sight so myself and two others paid $70 each to share a private car which dropped us at our respective hotels... A yellow cab from JFK to Manhattan is a flat fare of $45 plus tolls and tip so, all in all, not a bad night to be a hire car driver.

His Travel Romance arrived the following night after similar baggage delay issues and actually waiting the hour and a half in line for a yellow cab, and a visit to the wrong hotel room at two o'clock in the morning when the hotel gave him the wrong room number and a swipe card to someone else's room... Oops? And there commenced just under two weeks of remembering what it was like to be in a relationship when the person you're with is actually with you. It's a novel idea, this being with the one you're with!

There were fabulous dinners and delectable breakfasts, long walks on snow-compacted sidewalks, lots of shopping and browsing, and lots of catching up with good friends. We went to Duane Park for New Years Eve, mocked the tourists who continually feel the need to hold certain parts of the Charging Bull's anatomy, and saw the Statue of Liberty from a dinner cruise. The Statue of Liberty was lovely lit up at night. We stayed at the New Yorker and I fell in love with Art Deco, we had a horse and carriage ride through Central Park, visited Tiffany's on 5th Avenue, and ate a Candy Apple in the snow. We also took a day trip to Washington DC which was a long day, but well worth the early morning... Especially when I got to have a staring competition with Johnny Depp and play the piano with Duke Ellington...

Vietnam Memorial

Vietnam Memorial

The Lincoln Monument

The White House

Will Smith watching on as Johnny and I stare it out

Duke and I at the piano

Her and His with the Washington Monument in the background

We skated around the Rockefeller Center's ice rink, saw the NYC skyline from the top of the Rock at sunset, and had a minor Australian celebrity moment when we saw Scott Cam coming out of the Rock with his family!

We had such a great time, and it was so lovely to see each other again, that we've decided we don't want to keep doing the long distance thing. He's decided he can't do without me, and I've decided Europe would be much better with him by my side. We are both very excited about the prospect of a little less travel (for now!), and a lot more romance :-) In roughly six weeks time, after a ski trip to Bulgaria and some holiday time spent with my dance husband in a yet-to-be-decided location, I will be hopping back to the land of the Kangaroo and wearing corks on my Akubra once again! Ok... maybe no Akubra, and the corks will be coming out of the bottles of wine, but you get the picture ;-)

A touch of red in the apple

2011

Happy New Year! I hope 2011 is as fun for you as last night was for me. x