So I had a dream that I was being attacked by a broom and woke up to find Nikki’s elbow in my head. She is such a bed hog it is driving me crazy. I should never share a bed with anyone other than Damian…<3
We got up, showered, had breakfast, and went in search of a laundrette… which we found! So now all our clothes are clean and then world is beautiful. It took a good few hours for the clothes to clean and dry so we kind of chilled out in there for a good while.
After that we went in search of a traditional English fish and chips, which is really easy to find if you’re not gluten intolerant and in need of grilled fish. In the end I just got fried fish and pulled all the batter off and it was good. Plus, they gave me olives to satisfy my inner wog.
Then we took the tube to hyde park and walked along it until we got to Harrod’s. Which is the fanciest, awesomest shop ever and ohmy gosh their shoes are ridiculously expensive. On the other hand, they have a really fancy café where I had a Devonshire tea that was quite possibly the best scone of my life. Thank you England, you did not disappoint.
After that we half walked half ran to the National Science Museum because it was about to close but it was really good and I wish we had something like that here. I was expecting it to be more gimmicky and hands on and here play a game and pretend to learn, but it was filled with some seriously cool information about the past and the future and current technologies. A+ England.
The museum closed at six, so we strolled along the road popping into souvenir shops and clothes shops and so forth until we reached the bunch of grapes which is basically a really traditional old English pub. Dad has been looking for one the whole time we’ve been in London, so it was good to check something else off the list. After that, we continued our stroll, going into more shops and things and eventually having dinner. We ate at a place called Spaghetti House but awkwardly none of us ate pasta so that’s a bit of a fail, although dad had pizza so at least it’s Italian.
After dinner we went to the metro station and Nikki saw a sign that said “If the time is 12:01 and trains arrive whenever the minute hand and hour hand overlap, how long do you have to wait for a train?” to which she found the immediate answer of 64 minutes and I found the immediate answer of 64 minutes and 5 seconds but upon reflection realised that this is an infinite paradox and if you believe ancient philosophers the train will never come which is quite obviously not true, and I could write you an equation to determine when the train will come, and yet if I were to calculate it, it would take an infinite time to calculate and would be an infinite decimal; the limit of which is the correct answer. I guess this made me think about infinities and think about the way we think of things because we take infinite limits of things everyday which seems like it would lead to inaccuracies but is actually the only way of being correct, in the same way that 0.99999999999 repeated is equal to, not smaller than 1. Infinities exist in everything, and although we try to eradicate them, they are necessary and beautiful.
You’re welcome for the philosophy.
I don’t think anyone who understands this maths actually reads this… life is sad.
Off to Madrid tomorrow!
Saturday, 30 June 2012
Friday, 29 June 2012
Day five
(Note: I think I babble a lot in this because the post is soo long, but whatever, I saw the queen so there)
Another day, another bowl of miel pops without milk, although in London we also have toast and eggs and stuff cooked for us so I had a fried egg and that was nice. We had a big day ready so we headed off through the underground into Green Park. We arrived at Buckingham Palace at around 11 to see the changing of the guard at 11:30 and oh my gosh it was the most boring thing in the world and we stood around just waiting for something to happen for ages. Eventually the guard changed, we took some photos and then rushed off because we wanted to hear Big Ben chime at 12, but all the streets were blocked and we could barely move. And then the queen drove past. And I can now tick “see the queen” off my bucket list. After she left, they let people cross roads but by that time it was too late for poor Ben so we crossed the river and went to our next stop; The London Eye.
The London Eye is basically the biggest ferris wheel ever and it takes half an hour to go round because it moves so slowly and from the top you can see the entirety of London. It is magnificent. And it took forty minutes to get to the front of the queue. But when we were up the top, we looked down, and the queue was gone. So yeah, we were pretty pissed. But it was gorgeous, none the less. After our trip on the Eye, we went to have lunch which was meant to be fish and chips but we passed this shop that sold hot dogs and they smelt so amazing that we immediately changed our plans. And dad made me eat some popcorn because I couldn’t eat the bread which was pretty awesome. The shop also had some amazing looking ice cream so I got white chocolate and coconut and they were fantastic.
Our plan was meant to be to catch a bus to St Paul’s Cathedral but when we looked at the bus routes we didn’t realise that the one we wanted was different depending on the direction and also you need to prepay for bus tickets and have exact change and dad didn’t have 2.30 in coins for each of us so we cut our losses and started walking. The walk took forever, mainly because Nikki kept wanting to stop and upon reflection we’d walked from like, before Buckingham Palace so our legs were a little stressed. We got to St Paul’s Cathedral at 4 o’clock and saw a café near it that looked really tempting so we had to make the choice which to visit first. We walked into the information centre next to the Cathedral and found out that it in fact closed at 4, so we’d missed it. But they had a service inside at 5 that we could go to for free (entry normally cost 15 pounds each, so this kind of seemed like a brilliant idea). So we stopped at the café for an hour and had a drink and then went to the service at 5 and then caught a bus back to the steakhouse from yesterday for dinner.
We’d intentionally caught a bus because Nikki wanted to catch a traditional English double-decker red bus, and yeah it was pretty fun. In the end, we didn’t even need to prepay for our tickets because it had a conductor that was fully like the Knight Bus who came up and sold us tickets, and also didn’t believe that I was eighteen because apparently I look so young. Dad’s genes (or so he claimed). We got to Trafalgar Square and walked up and around Leicester Square waiting until we were hungry enough to eat. And after Nikki went into one shop I decided it was time to stop that shit and eat.
The steak house does this amazing Stone Grill thing where they give you your steak partly cooked and give you a really, REALLY hot stone and you slice your steak, cook it, and it. That way, every bite is warm, and cooked exactly how you want it. And also, there’s a sort of novelty to cooking things on a rock that normally ends in Nikki or I cooking vegetables and potentially cutlery. After dinner, we walked down Coventry Street (I shit you not this place is a monopoly board) to the comedy store. It was stand up night =D So dad bought Nikki and I Bacardi and cokes and we sat down in what I consider the best seat in the house, and watched an awesome night of stand up. The comedians were fantastic, although there were some jokes that only English people could get, and basically the whole experience was fantastic.
After that it was late, so we just jumped on the tube and came home. Very long day. I don’t know how this post got so long…
Another day, another bowl of miel pops without milk, although in London we also have toast and eggs and stuff cooked for us so I had a fried egg and that was nice. We had a big day ready so we headed off through the underground into Green Park. We arrived at Buckingham Palace at around 11 to see the changing of the guard at 11:30 and oh my gosh it was the most boring thing in the world and we stood around just waiting for something to happen for ages. Eventually the guard changed, we took some photos and then rushed off because we wanted to hear Big Ben chime at 12, but all the streets were blocked and we could barely move. And then the queen drove past. And I can now tick “see the queen” off my bucket list. After she left, they let people cross roads but by that time it was too late for poor Ben so we crossed the river and went to our next stop; The London Eye.
The London Eye is basically the biggest ferris wheel ever and it takes half an hour to go round because it moves so slowly and from the top you can see the entirety of London. It is magnificent. And it took forty minutes to get to the front of the queue. But when we were up the top, we looked down, and the queue was gone. So yeah, we were pretty pissed. But it was gorgeous, none the less. After our trip on the Eye, we went to have lunch which was meant to be fish and chips but we passed this shop that sold hot dogs and they smelt so amazing that we immediately changed our plans. And dad made me eat some popcorn because I couldn’t eat the bread which was pretty awesome. The shop also had some amazing looking ice cream so I got white chocolate and coconut and they were fantastic.
Our plan was meant to be to catch a bus to St Paul’s Cathedral but when we looked at the bus routes we didn’t realise that the one we wanted was different depending on the direction and also you need to prepay for bus tickets and have exact change and dad didn’t have 2.30 in coins for each of us so we cut our losses and started walking. The walk took forever, mainly because Nikki kept wanting to stop and upon reflection we’d walked from like, before Buckingham Palace so our legs were a little stressed. We got to St Paul’s Cathedral at 4 o’clock and saw a café near it that looked really tempting so we had to make the choice which to visit first. We walked into the information centre next to the Cathedral and found out that it in fact closed at 4, so we’d missed it. But they had a service inside at 5 that we could go to for free (entry normally cost 15 pounds each, so this kind of seemed like a brilliant idea). So we stopped at the café for an hour and had a drink and then went to the service at 5 and then caught a bus back to the steakhouse from yesterday for dinner.
We’d intentionally caught a bus because Nikki wanted to catch a traditional English double-decker red bus, and yeah it was pretty fun. In the end, we didn’t even need to prepay for our tickets because it had a conductor that was fully like the Knight Bus who came up and sold us tickets, and also didn’t believe that I was eighteen because apparently I look so young. Dad’s genes (or so he claimed). We got to Trafalgar Square and walked up and around Leicester Square waiting until we were hungry enough to eat. And after Nikki went into one shop I decided it was time to stop that shit and eat.
The steak house does this amazing Stone Grill thing where they give you your steak partly cooked and give you a really, REALLY hot stone and you slice your steak, cook it, and it. That way, every bite is warm, and cooked exactly how you want it. And also, there’s a sort of novelty to cooking things on a rock that normally ends in Nikki or I cooking vegetables and potentially cutlery. After dinner, we walked down Coventry Street (I shit you not this place is a monopoly board) to the comedy store. It was stand up night =D So dad bought Nikki and I Bacardi and cokes and we sat down in what I consider the best seat in the house, and watched an awesome night of stand up. The comedians were fantastic, although there were some jokes that only English people could get, and basically the whole experience was fantastic.
After that it was late, so we just jumped on the tube and came home. Very long day. I don’t know how this post got so long…
Day four
So the day started later which was utterly fantastic and we ate some Miel Pops which probably had gluten in them but were mainly corn and honey so I didn’t care about the rest of the ingredients. We packed our suitcases and left them in the hotel room as we went to get breakfast, same place as yesterday. I had the same hot chocolate with whipped cream, still just as good, and this time a bacon omelette which was pretty sensational because the one thing guaranteed to make life better at any given time is bacon.
After that, Nikki did some more shopping and I did a lot of complaining before it was time to go back and check out of our hotel. From there we carried our suitcases down way too many sets of stairs to catch a train to the station where our train to London left. The train ride to London was gorgeous, across the French country side and then through the Chunnel. Thankfully, in London, our hotel is near the international train station, but we didn’t know quite where so we took an English cab to it. Unfortunately, our room wasn’t quite ready because the toilet is leaking :/ so we have to stay in some crappy room overnight. Tres depressing. We decided to abandon ship and catch a train to London where we basically walked through a monopoly board because all the streets have familiar names. We saw Big Ben and Buckingham Palace and Piccadily Circus and Victor Tower and the London Eye and all the gorgeous sites.
We passed this place called pret that make all this awesome food and then you just go in and pick up what you want so dad and I have salad and fruit salad in there and the Nikki went looking for food she actually liked and we ended up at a steakhouse that was really similar to stone grill and we decided we had to go back later. After dinner, we pretty much just went back and crashed.
After that, Nikki did some more shopping and I did a lot of complaining before it was time to go back and check out of our hotel. From there we carried our suitcases down way too many sets of stairs to catch a train to the station where our train to London left. The train ride to London was gorgeous, across the French country side and then through the Chunnel. Thankfully, in London, our hotel is near the international train station, but we didn’t know quite where so we took an English cab to it. Unfortunately, our room wasn’t quite ready because the toilet is leaking :/ so we have to stay in some crappy room overnight. Tres depressing. We decided to abandon ship and catch a train to London where we basically walked through a monopoly board because all the streets have familiar names. We saw Big Ben and Buckingham Palace and Piccadily Circus and Victor Tower and the London Eye and all the gorgeous sites.
We passed this place called pret that make all this awesome food and then you just go in and pick up what you want so dad and I have salad and fruit salad in there and the Nikki went looking for food she actually liked and we ended up at a steakhouse that was really similar to stone grill and we decided we had to go back later. After dinner, we pretty much just went back and crashed.
Thursday, 28 June 2012
Day three
So dad decided that today was a good day to let Nikki loose and allow her to shop, but first of all, breakfast! Today was the day that I got to eat my one piece of gluten for the city, so we had croissants for breakfast which were absolutely incredible. And I also had a hot chocolate with whipped cream that was just as incredible, ain’t life beautiful. Then we went to a shop called Desigual which was actually kind of awesome and Nikki bought a shirt and everyone was happy and we walked down the Champs Elysse to the Arc de Triomphe, which of course we had to walk up… because our legs weren’t hurting enough from the Eiffel Tower, but the views of Paris were gorgeous.
After that, we caught a taxi to some huge shopping centre which had ice cream in the shape of flowers (really the only thing going for a shopping centre…) And then we came home so I could talk to Damian before he went to bed <3
I guess we must all still be pretty tired because after that, and skyping mum, we all kind of crashed for a few hours and then woke up at 8 for dinner (the people here eat at 9, it’s nutty). Post dinner, we searched for some take away coffee, but starbucks and McCafe were both closed so we gave up and came home.
And home just meant sleeping which was glorious as always.
After that, we caught a taxi to some huge shopping centre which had ice cream in the shape of flowers (really the only thing going for a shopping centre…) And then we came home so I could talk to Damian before he went to bed <3
I guess we must all still be pretty tired because after that, and skyping mum, we all kind of crashed for a few hours and then woke up at 8 for dinner (the people here eat at 9, it’s nutty). Post dinner, we searched for some take away coffee, but starbucks and McCafe were both closed so we gave up and came home.
And home just meant sleeping which was glorious as always.
Wednesday, 27 June 2012
Day two
Woke up, showered, and went in search of breakfast which turned out to
be eggs again… go figure gluten intolerance. And then we started walking to the
Louvre, which was not very far away. It was sort of beautiful and the Mona Lisa
was bigger than I expected and the crowds were not as big… Which I guess says
something about how people change my expectations of things. We then went to
Notre Dame which was amazing as far as architecture goes, and like 849 years
old, but also kind of a church, which put a bit of a damper on things.
We also decided to see the Eiffel Tower at night, as we wanted to see
the lights... so we walked from our hotel, which took some time but we had heaps. We ate dinner along the way because dad saw a fancy restaraunt and wanted to be a fancy pants and then we finished walking to the tower. We got there at 9:30, and it was still light,so we watched the light show at 10 and then decided to climb it to see the lights of Paris at dusk. When we got down it was so it was dark and we got to see the lights
again in the darkness at 11 (they play the light show every hour). We got a taxi home and then completely crashed for the night :)
Day one
So I am currently in the beautiful city of Paris,
France, with my darling sister and father, at the start of a five week journey
through Europe, which I will attempt to document in a vague way on this blog. So
we left Syndey at 6:45pm on Saturday, ready to fly to Paris via Dubai via
Bangkok. We all managed to get a bit of sleep between Sydney and Dubai, but
when we left Dubai it was light outside so we found it difficult to sleep on
the next plane... which is quite unfortunate because when we left it was only
about 3am in France so we probably needed that little bit extra but yeah. There
were heaps of movies and TV shows and games on our flights, so we were
definitely not bored (I didn't even have to get out my sims!) And though we did
have WiFi from Dubai to Paris, it cost money so we didn't bother with it.
They kept feeding us on board (I was always served first because of my
special diet) and sometimes it felt like the only time I woke up was to eat.
But all in all I only managed about 6-7 hours of sleep which isn't really a
night's worth and it was spread over much more than a night... So now comes the
struggle to stay awake until a respectable time… Once we got to Paris and got
our luggage, we took forever figuring out how to get to our hotel and then
getting here from the train station, but some helpful locals showed us the way
:)
Once at our hotel, it became an immediate priority to shower for the
first time in 38 hours (and brush our teeth...yeah)
Then we had omelettes for dinner (mine with salad, dad’s and Nikki’s
with French fries, because you know, it’s France). And we all had to get coffee
because otherwise we wouldn’t stay awake but we did until 8:30 which we deemed
an acceptable time to sleep and we kind of crashed.... And slept for 12 hours.
Saturday, 9 June 2012
Unrequited ice cream
"Man, I was thinking about unrequited love. I figure it's best to just walk that shit off. Find someone else to be excited about. It's like if you love ice cream but your ice cream man friend won't give you any. Maybe he's got a good reason. It cuts into profits. Who knows? But he likes you as a friend and wants to hang out anyway. It just drives you crazy to hang out with that dude, even if he's being reasonable from his point of view. So don't hang out with him. What, you ONLY like ice cream? It's ice cream or nothing? Don't be an asshole. Learn to love donuts."
So here's the thing... I can't eat ice cream or donuts, you know? i guess that's all I'm trying to say...
So here's the thing... I can't eat ice cream or donuts, you know? i guess that's all I'm trying to say...
Saturday, 2 June 2012
Unfamiliar territory
Haven't used the real web address for blogger in so long, it has changed styles. How interesting.
Just a few things to rant about...
1. I am so over people telling me to put on weight. I get it. I don't eat. I can't eat. The food I can eat tastes disgusting and the food I can't eat is not worth getting sick over. I am aware that I have been losing weight for months now, and I seriously don't give a crap. I don't care that none of my muscles work properly or that I'm in pain all the time. So stop caring about my health, you are not my parents.
2. I sit here for hours and watch crap TV with you so you can feel appreciated and yet you never do. I don't know what else to do, you like watching TV, you asked me to come in and play bubble games with you. The one time you ask to do something else, I'm in the middle of helping people with homework. And yeah, if it was anything else I would drop it to hang out with you, but homework is important and exams start in six days and I will be free in less than two weeks so just chill out until then.
3. I don't know where social lines are and I think that means I cross them. Sometimes the things I think should really just stay in my head because I think everyone is getting the wrong idea from them. And speaking of wrong ideas, stop telling me what I think and how I feel; those are my decisions not yours and it's confusing for my mind to be told different things. I don't want to overthink these things but I don't really have a choice. And that upsets me.
4. Exams exams exams stress stress stress. Mechanics, complex number polynomials, integration, limits, inverse functions, enthalpy changes, redox reactions. ...I think that's all I need to learn this week. And that's less than half my exams. And 51 is a waste of a mark. So I should stress less. But I won't. This is just me....
Happy studying
Just a few things to rant about...
1. I am so over people telling me to put on weight. I get it. I don't eat. I can't eat. The food I can eat tastes disgusting and the food I can't eat is not worth getting sick over. I am aware that I have been losing weight for months now, and I seriously don't give a crap. I don't care that none of my muscles work properly or that I'm in pain all the time. So stop caring about my health, you are not my parents.
2. I sit here for hours and watch crap TV with you so you can feel appreciated and yet you never do. I don't know what else to do, you like watching TV, you asked me to come in and play bubble games with you. The one time you ask to do something else, I'm in the middle of helping people with homework. And yeah, if it was anything else I would drop it to hang out with you, but homework is important and exams start in six days and I will be free in less than two weeks so just chill out until then.
3. I don't know where social lines are and I think that means I cross them. Sometimes the things I think should really just stay in my head because I think everyone is getting the wrong idea from them. And speaking of wrong ideas, stop telling me what I think and how I feel; those are my decisions not yours and it's confusing for my mind to be told different things. I don't want to overthink these things but I don't really have a choice. And that upsets me.
4. Exams exams exams stress stress stress. Mechanics, complex number polynomials, integration, limits, inverse functions, enthalpy changes, redox reactions. ...I think that's all I need to learn this week. And that's less than half my exams. And 51 is a waste of a mark. So I should stress less. But I won't. This is just me....
Happy studying
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