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Mon, Aug. 15th, 2005 04:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annarti
Woo~ email done. That took too long. Mainly because of this, which I feel like posting here cos it sums up a lotta stuff. Reply to an email from my Aunt =D
Hello~! Sorry it's taken me so long to reply--the computer here has been dead since I disappeared offline two-ish weeks ago, and only just now been fixed. But yes, I'm here now! =D
> So what do you really think of living in the UK? Do your friends live the
> lifestyle you are accustomed too? Like live in houses (the Poms call them
> bungalows) with big gardens (I mean regualr size gardens here), or
> duplexes
> on housing estates or in terrace houses like in Coronation Street. Do they
> live in the affluent areas of their cities, or the Christie's Beach's of
> them?
Houses are definitely tiny compared to most places in Adelaide. Where I am right now in Barnsley, it's a semi-detached house, tiny kitchen/laundry with about 6m^2 floor-space, and Samantha's room is in the attic, with a stunning view of the brick wall next door, 1m from the window. The other rooms have a gorgeous view tho (I'll be uploading photos tomorrow). They're right on top of a hill, with patchwork fields opening out below, quaint little town opposite, a field with a dam and a herd of horses. It's so cute and English!
Most people in Barnsley I think live in these kinds of houses. The richer people (around Yorkshire, not just Barnsley) live in houses about the size of yours, only split down the middle and with two families living in them. It looks really bizarre! I was quite surprised to see an Adelaide-esque suburban house (minus veranda of course) with just one driveway leading into it!
In Liverpool I'm in what would be an average two-storey Adelaide house, but again, two families in it. Even they admit it's tiny! I'm not complaining tho--better than paying God knows how much for a hotel room.
> Are your friends on uni holidays just now?
Yep--Samantha (Barnsley) is currently in that wonderful gap between college and uni--she starts uni at the very end of September.
Sallie (Liverpool) has a condition called CFS ME, which Uncle Dave has prolly heard of. Basically, she gets exhausted incredibly easily, so we've been taking it pretty easy while I've been there. She dropped out of school at 16 because of it, and gets some sort of allowance from... I dunno, government or someone, since she can't work. She's definitely improving tho, I can tell through reading her journal over the past coupla years. She was pretty pooped by the time I left for Barnsley tho, poor girl. But we love her.
> Are they like you expected them to be?
Exactly like!
> What are prices in general like, for
> usual things you buy, like drinks, chocolate bars, movie tickets etc?
About one-and-a-half to twice as expensive as in Adelaide. Except petrol, which is, I kid you not, 86 PENCE per litre. I think we can all stop complaining about our $1.10 per litre now!
> Have you been to lots of those cute little English villages with thatched
> roof houses etc ( and cute pubs!).
Not seen any thatched rooves, but plenty of cute little villages! I can't help thinking when I'm on the train or bus going through this gorgeous green countryside with little villages dotted in the valley, "It's so cute and English!" My friends keep giggling at me for saying that whenever I go somewhere new!
> Have you been to York yet?
Yep, went there last week. It's so adorable! And the minster is massive! I'll say more about that in my journal in a bit, along with photos tomorrow.
> Have you had your fill of cathedrals and castles
> yet?
Been to the York Minster cathedral in York, as well as the castle there, but it's not a particularly impressive castle. Many more of them to come yet, I should hope!
> Are you likely to hop over to Ireland when you are back in Liverpool?
I hope so, that would be fantastic. If not, at least Wales or Scotland. I'm not leaving this kingdom without seeing snow, at the very least! And not Adelaide-esque snow, either!
> And the Pommy weather- is it really summer?
Erm... No. They keep telling me it is, but I've had a sum total of six sunny days (I've been counting) and even they felt more like pleasant winter days, late autumn at best. I'm regretting packing my boardies and leaving another jumper at home...
> Last weekend we went to
> Middleton- mid-winter and it was 20C, and we were able to sit out on our
> front balcony for lunch and coffee, watching whales in the sea.
I HAVE SO MUCH ENVY. I don't think the temperature's topped 20 more than once or twice.
> Only we
> didn't have our binoculars (originally Pappy's) cos we got down on Friday
> night and found we'd had some uninvited guests, who among other things,
> had
> decided that the binoculars would be better off in their possession than
> ours. So our plans for a nice quiet weekend were spent entertaining the
> V.H
> Police on Friday night and the Christies Beach Crime Investigation Unit
> (fingerprinting etc) on Sat.They broke in through the downstairs
> (deadlocked) sliding door, and broke into all the locked cupboards we have
> for our private stuff that holiday tenants don't have access
> to.Fortunately
> they otherwise only emptied out clothes etc, pulled things off the pantry
> shelves, but did not vandalise the place, so cleaning up was easy, and we
> only lost about $1000 worth of goods (including chips, biscuits, wine,
> beer
> and soft drinks). They even took our kitchen rubbish bin ( the cops
> thought
> they would have used it to stuff everything in to carry them). The crime
> squad said they found gloved prints on the sliding door, and also the
> wardrobe doors and red wine bottles, and a screwdriver mark where a door
> had
> been forced. So that's the biggest drama here.
That I don't have so much envy for. I know what it's like tho--as you know, we got robbed a few years back. None of the reds were gone tho--that was the first thing Dad checked when he got home!
> On a better note, we had a great holiday up in Queensland. Spent 6 nights
> on
> the Gold Coast- the weather was cooler than we'd hoped for ( probably like
> a
> Pommy summer!),
I think you might be exaggerating a bit there--I could do with a Gold Coast winter right now!
> so we did a lot more sightseeing up in the Hinterlands
> since
> it wasn't really swimming weather (and the girls and I went shopping at
> Pacific fair and Harbourtown which is much bigger than Adelaide's). But we
> had a fantastic (warm) day at Wet 'n Wild- all of us going on most of the
> rides. Unfortunately our digital camera (only just over a year old)
> decided
> to jump off a bag (when the bag was bumped), roll on to the decking and
> dive
> into the pool at the end of a waterslide, and subsequently drowned!
> Another
> insurance claim.Fortunately we had backed our photos up to the X-Drive the
> night before, and had only taken four photos that day.But Liz had her
> digital camera with her, so we used that for the rest of the holiday.We
> also
> went to Dreamworld, which is also lots of fun, but after being to
> California
> Disneyland, it was a poor second cousin. We stayed a night in Brisbane,
> and
> caught up with friends there, then went up to the Sunshine Coast to Noosa
> for 5 nights. Liz, Caro & Nick all had a surfing lesson there- for all the
> time we've had our beach house, they've only boogy boarded. They said it
> was
> so much fun- we might have to look at getting secondhand surfboards and
> wetsuits! At least for Nick anyway.
You need some luck to start coming your way, by the sounds of it! Bet your insurance company is just loving you right now.
> Nick is on his "L's" now- got 100% in his test. He's been driving heaps,
> especially at night since it gets dark early just now.Last Sat he had his
> first lesson with a driving school instructor- he's doing logbook. He
> won't
> be able to get his "P's" till he gets back from Germany in January cos his
> 6
> months isn't up until just after he leaves for Germany (Nov 26).
Should I be glad that I'm safely around the other side of the world right now then? ;)
> We are getting a new car soon for basically all the kids to share. Just a
> Toyota Echo- Caro is envisaging herself zapping around in a cute little
> red
> car- they say red cars go faster! But really, both the Mazda and Falcon
> have
> done over 250000kms, and we don't want to put big money into repairs on
> them, so when they die, it will be permanent, so thought we'd get a
> reliable
> car before we're stuck- with Caro & Liz & Dave all doing shift work not
> accessible by public transport, and Nick also being on wheels soon, it was
> time to add to our collection. It's supposed to arrive early Sept.
Might be nice to mention this to my dearest father... I could do with a new Echo in place of the Magna *shudder*
> We look forward to hearing more about your travels. All the best- stay out
> of the way of terrorist bombs (but you just gotta visit London- it's such
> an
> exciting city).
Definitely. There's no way I'm flying halfway round the world and not seeing London. We have about three places of accomodation lined up, including a place in Brighton and two in inner-London, so I think we've done quite well there. We'll probably be heading down there next week, hurrah!
Uko's pooter unfortunately doesn't like my camera, so I'll have to do some uploading tomorrow when we skip back to Liverpool to see Sallie again, and then you can expect gorgeous little piccies of gorgeous little English country town stuffs. And York, which seriously is adorable.
For the curious, here's Uko's retelling of what we've been doing over the past coupla weeks. I'll add my bit tomorrow, because it'd be silly saying it all now, then saying it all again tomorrow with photos.
Also, because I'd fallen offline on the actual date and had to make do with an sms, HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATE~! I've been thinking of you~ and I miss you~ and have bought stuff for you~ *glomps* Luv ya hun ^^
Hello~! Sorry it's taken me so long to reply--the computer here has been dead since I disappeared offline two-ish weeks ago, and only just now been fixed. But yes, I'm here now! =D
> So what do you really think of living in the UK? Do your friends live the
> lifestyle you are accustomed too? Like live in houses (the Poms call them
> bungalows) with big gardens (I mean regualr size gardens here), or
> duplexes
> on housing estates or in terrace houses like in Coronation Street. Do they
> live in the affluent areas of their cities, or the Christie's Beach's of
> them?
Houses are definitely tiny compared to most places in Adelaide. Where I am right now in Barnsley, it's a semi-detached house, tiny kitchen/laundry with about 6m^2 floor-space, and Samantha's room is in the attic, with a stunning view of the brick wall next door, 1m from the window. The other rooms have a gorgeous view tho (I'll be uploading photos tomorrow). They're right on top of a hill, with patchwork fields opening out below, quaint little town opposite, a field with a dam and a herd of horses. It's so cute and English!
Most people in Barnsley I think live in these kinds of houses. The richer people (around Yorkshire, not just Barnsley) live in houses about the size of yours, only split down the middle and with two families living in them. It looks really bizarre! I was quite surprised to see an Adelaide-esque suburban house (minus veranda of course) with just one driveway leading into it!
In Liverpool I'm in what would be an average two-storey Adelaide house, but again, two families in it. Even they admit it's tiny! I'm not complaining tho--better than paying God knows how much for a hotel room.
> Are your friends on uni holidays just now?
Yep--Samantha (Barnsley) is currently in that wonderful gap between college and uni--she starts uni at the very end of September.
Sallie (Liverpool) has a condition called CFS ME, which Uncle Dave has prolly heard of. Basically, she gets exhausted incredibly easily, so we've been taking it pretty easy while I've been there. She dropped out of school at 16 because of it, and gets some sort of allowance from... I dunno, government or someone, since she can't work. She's definitely improving tho, I can tell through reading her journal over the past coupla years. She was pretty pooped by the time I left for Barnsley tho, poor girl. But we love her.
> Are they like you expected them to be?
Exactly like!
> What are prices in general like, for
> usual things you buy, like drinks, chocolate bars, movie tickets etc?
About one-and-a-half to twice as expensive as in Adelaide. Except petrol, which is, I kid you not, 86 PENCE per litre. I think we can all stop complaining about our $1.10 per litre now!
> Have you been to lots of those cute little English villages with thatched
> roof houses etc ( and cute pubs!).
Not seen any thatched rooves, but plenty of cute little villages! I can't help thinking when I'm on the train or bus going through this gorgeous green countryside with little villages dotted in the valley, "It's so cute and English!" My friends keep giggling at me for saying that whenever I go somewhere new!
> Have you been to York yet?
Yep, went there last week. It's so adorable! And the minster is massive! I'll say more about that in my journal in a bit, along with photos tomorrow.
> Have you had your fill of cathedrals and castles
> yet?
Been to the York Minster cathedral in York, as well as the castle there, but it's not a particularly impressive castle. Many more of them to come yet, I should hope!
> Are you likely to hop over to Ireland when you are back in Liverpool?
I hope so, that would be fantastic. If not, at least Wales or Scotland. I'm not leaving this kingdom without seeing snow, at the very least! And not Adelaide-esque snow, either!
> And the Pommy weather- is it really summer?
Erm... No. They keep telling me it is, but I've had a sum total of six sunny days (I've been counting) and even they felt more like pleasant winter days, late autumn at best. I'm regretting packing my boardies and leaving another jumper at home...
> Last weekend we went to
> Middleton- mid-winter and it was 20C, and we were able to sit out on our
> front balcony for lunch and coffee, watching whales in the sea.
I HAVE SO MUCH ENVY. I don't think the temperature's topped 20 more than once or twice.
> Only we
> didn't have our binoculars (originally Pappy's) cos we got down on Friday
> night and found we'd had some uninvited guests, who among other things,
> had
> decided that the binoculars would be better off in their possession than
> ours. So our plans for a nice quiet weekend were spent entertaining the
> V.H
> Police on Friday night and the Christies Beach Crime Investigation Unit
> (fingerprinting etc) on Sat.They broke in through the downstairs
> (deadlocked) sliding door, and broke into all the locked cupboards we have
> for our private stuff that holiday tenants don't have access
> to.Fortunately
> they otherwise only emptied out clothes etc, pulled things off the pantry
> shelves, but did not vandalise the place, so cleaning up was easy, and we
> only lost about $1000 worth of goods (including chips, biscuits, wine,
> beer
> and soft drinks). They even took our kitchen rubbish bin ( the cops
> thought
> they would have used it to stuff everything in to carry them). The crime
> squad said they found gloved prints on the sliding door, and also the
> wardrobe doors and red wine bottles, and a screwdriver mark where a door
> had
> been forced. So that's the biggest drama here.
That I don't have so much envy for. I know what it's like tho--as you know, we got robbed a few years back. None of the reds were gone tho--that was the first thing Dad checked when he got home!
> On a better note, we had a great holiday up in Queensland. Spent 6 nights
> on
> the Gold Coast- the weather was cooler than we'd hoped for ( probably like
> a
> Pommy summer!),
I think you might be exaggerating a bit there--I could do with a Gold Coast winter right now!
> so we did a lot more sightseeing up in the Hinterlands
> since
> it wasn't really swimming weather (and the girls and I went shopping at
> Pacific fair and Harbourtown which is much bigger than Adelaide's). But we
> had a fantastic (warm) day at Wet 'n Wild- all of us going on most of the
> rides. Unfortunately our digital camera (only just over a year old)
> decided
> to jump off a bag (when the bag was bumped), roll on to the decking and
> dive
> into the pool at the end of a waterslide, and subsequently drowned!
> Another
> insurance claim.Fortunately we had backed our photos up to the X-Drive the
> night before, and had only taken four photos that day.But Liz had her
> digital camera with her, so we used that for the rest of the holiday.We
> also
> went to Dreamworld, which is also lots of fun, but after being to
> California
> Disneyland, it was a poor second cousin. We stayed a night in Brisbane,
> and
> caught up with friends there, then went up to the Sunshine Coast to Noosa
> for 5 nights. Liz, Caro & Nick all had a surfing lesson there- for all the
> time we've had our beach house, they've only boogy boarded. They said it
> was
> so much fun- we might have to look at getting secondhand surfboards and
> wetsuits! At least for Nick anyway.
You need some luck to start coming your way, by the sounds of it! Bet your insurance company is just loving you right now.
> Nick is on his "L's" now- got 100% in his test. He's been driving heaps,
> especially at night since it gets dark early just now.Last Sat he had his
> first lesson with a driving school instructor- he's doing logbook. He
> won't
> be able to get his "P's" till he gets back from Germany in January cos his
> 6
> months isn't up until just after he leaves for Germany (Nov 26).
Should I be glad that I'm safely around the other side of the world right now then? ;)
> We are getting a new car soon for basically all the kids to share. Just a
> Toyota Echo- Caro is envisaging herself zapping around in a cute little
> red
> car- they say red cars go faster! But really, both the Mazda and Falcon
> have
> done over 250000kms, and we don't want to put big money into repairs on
> them, so when they die, it will be permanent, so thought we'd get a
> reliable
> car before we're stuck- with Caro & Liz & Dave all doing shift work not
> accessible by public transport, and Nick also being on wheels soon, it was
> time to add to our collection. It's supposed to arrive early Sept.
Might be nice to mention this to my dearest father... I could do with a new Echo in place of the Magna *shudder*
> We look forward to hearing more about your travels. All the best- stay out
> of the way of terrorist bombs (but you just gotta visit London- it's such
> an
> exciting city).
Definitely. There's no way I'm flying halfway round the world and not seeing London. We have about three places of accomodation lined up, including a place in Brighton and two in inner-London, so I think we've done quite well there. We'll probably be heading down there next week, hurrah!
Uko's pooter unfortunately doesn't like my camera, so I'll have to do some uploading tomorrow when we skip back to Liverpool to see Sallie again, and then you can expect gorgeous little piccies of gorgeous little English country town stuffs. And York, which seriously is adorable.
For the curious, here's Uko's retelling of what we've been doing over the past coupla weeks. I'll add my bit tomorrow, because it'd be silly saying it all now, then saying it all again tomorrow with photos.
Also, because I'd fallen offline on the actual date and had to make do with an sms, HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATE~! I've been thinking of you~ and I miss you~ and have bought stuff for you~ *glomps* Luv ya hun ^^
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Date: Mon, Aug. 15th, 2005 04:45 pm (UTC)OH MY GOD. YOU *HAVE* TO GET SOMEONE..... wait... no caps, kama.
... You *have* to get someone to take you to Hale, near Halewood which is near Liverpool airport. They have thatched rooves there, and you will just *die* at the cute english-ness of them!
*squee*
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Date: Mon, Aug. 15th, 2005 11:45 pm (UTC)