See we are in Australia, although Lyd needs to rethink her pose. OPEN YOUR EYES GIRL!

Lydia on hong kong harbour, feeling jetlagged

Birthday Man

Yesterday was my dad's birthday. Happy birthday Roger John Bamkin hope you like your presents, although they may arrive late because of a hiccup with my credit card and amazon.

Hope you get a nice cake and all the kids were nice to you, including tessa and marianne.

love you loads and miss you and thinking about you..............lyd xxxxxxxxx

opera's house

Yesterday I was meant to audition to be a hair model for a hair expo, it was in sydney so i arranged to meet my friend before to have a chat and then i was going to meet david from work. well then my friend got told about a free showing of films at the opera house starting at 3.30, my hair thing was at 5. But it was already 3pm and we had to meet david, and then decided we couldn't make it to the opera house in time, so we went and bought posh icecream in chinatown. i had choc mint, david had choc nut, g had pistachio (she is italian-australian).
Then her pal called again saying there were more screenings so instead of going to be a hair model we walked down the backstreets of sydney to the operahouse at circular quay. There was a huge queue so we debated about whether to join it or not, then they said there would be another screening at 6.30 if we missed the 5pm one, which we did. so we queued for 1 1/2 hours to watch a free film. eventually we got in, tired and hungry and watched two shorts sponsored by some indigenous funding, about la perouse rugby team and an actor from water rats whose brother had cerebal palsy and a learning difficulty. Then there was a new film being screened, we tried to stay inside the theatre but they wanted us out, because tons more people were queuing for this showing. So we went and checked out the queue and thought it was too long, then a woman sidled up to us and asked if we wee going in, we said the queue was too big, and she said that they were going to give free tickets to another play in the opera house to those who didn't get in. So obviously we joined the queue. I wanted to get the free tickets to the other thing but unfortunately we got in to see this film. It has apparently won lots of awards already and is about a philipino boy and his family. We also got to see the directors of the films and the people from the documentaries and ask questions. We hadn't set out to queue for half a day or to see three free films but it was worth it. Then we had a long bus ride home.

Hi guys, we've been up to stuff this week too.

on sunday i went to the fitness expo and had a look round, then i helped david and workmates take town their stall. then the guy that was running the stall, born in leic, raised in oz, living in korea, took us all out for dinner. Had a nice pub meal and a couple of schooners. david didn't really make any money out of the work, but didn't lose any, and had a chance to meet some people. The guy, kerry, also said he might have some work for david writing english books, and may may out some commission if he gets any business deals from the expo.
David had a great contact though, who has followed him up and invited him in for an interview to lecture on the fitness qualification courses.
I had interview for support work but i'll have to do(and pay for) a first aid course first, which is about seventy five quid, and i'm not even guaranteed work after that, so i'm applying for lots of shop jobs hoping they get back to me soon.
Also went and looked at a room to move into in june, sharing with the owner. the room is huge and much closer to the city, (you can see it from the next street, although may take an hour to walk there) its five mins away by train, and close to newtown which has tons of retro, gay, punk type people and shops. So we are moving there for the winter.
David also has some work starting on wednesday, at last. although not sure how regular or well paid it is. doing market research. Included a picture so you can remember what we look like.

lots a ozzie love

Easter was busy, no eggs though

So we've actually had quite a busy week this week, and I haven't even been having lectures (Easter hols). On Sunday we decided to treat ourselves and blow some money(eight quid) on a day trip to the blue mountains. We packed some bread and crisps and cereal bars and water, I packed three tops and gloves (it had been 9 degrees the day before out there) and we caught a train to Katoomba. We didn't know where we were going, or what we were going to see, I'd forgotten to look at our lonely planet, so when we arrived we walked out onto the high street and kept going. Hoping that the people in front of us were going somewhere interesting and not just round to see their pals. Passed a chocolate shop, and then arrived at echo point, where there were tons of tourists looking out onto a vista of beauty, the Jamison valley. This is basically miles of trees in the bottom of the valley, and we were on one side so we had a good idea of just how huge the blue mountains park is. We saw the three sisters, which was really just some old rock and not very exciting, and then went for a walk into the bush. We saw a little waterfall, and two red parrots. We also saw loads of brits wearing t-shirts and shorts, and I was wearing my jacket and jeans.

Then more things have happened, David got offered a job working at a market research place, but doesn't start till may, is nights, and he doesn't know what the wages are. Then he got offered a pretend job (travel and meals paid for) which is where he is now. Its helping a fellow from leicester who lives in south Korea, but was brought up in Oz. He has a company selling vibration platforms (yes we know!!) and wanted some people to help him at the Sydney fitness expo. He is a nice guy, and has been treating them to lunch and dinner, and its great for David to be able to leave the house. He also has the chance to see the expo and make contacts!! So he started thurs and finishes Sunday, and I'm going to pop down on Sunday and they'll try and get me in free. Oh yeah, and if they guy actually sells one of his machines David will get two hundred and fifty bucks, more if the guy sells more, or if David personally secures a deal (which is very unlikely).

More things we are doing, have been arranging somewhere for us to move, and so we're meeting a girl on thurs to see if her house is nice. I am meant to be doing work rather than writing all this so goodbye until something else different happens. Leave us a message too.

Trauma in Werrington

Well this week has been entertaining. I really don't like being late for things so imagine how I felt when I got locked out onto our balcony, on the morning of my presentation!!

I missed it, but someone filled in for me.

I was very traumatised and can't really write about it much, except that I cried, I was out there for 2hours before anyone even heard me shouting, David had gone into Sydney. I was very embarrassed. I felt like a caged animal at the zoo that has been closed for the holiday.

But I don't think it will affect my marks, thank heavens, I just have to write about it.

I am now the UWS ANZATA representative. cool huh. means that i tell uni about things happening in the art therapy assoc. and then tell the assoc. about things happening at uni, will get to go to conferences too.

Still no work, if anyone has contacts in Sydney please tell them david and i are nice and need jobs soon, or we'll be coming back to the UK.

changes

You can now add comments even if you aren't a member. I think

:(

Lydia had a stressful day today at uni.

perhaps beginning to feel homesick after phoning home last night.

:(

This is a tapestry/weaving I made for my group presentation on art therapy history. It symbolises many things. The girl looking in pain is from my class.
We now have work visas. yeah, just need jobs now and we'll be settled.

The end of March, not achieved much

Well we haven't vanished off the face of the earth, we are just in hiding in a remote township west of Sydney.
generally our weeks have been made up of going into my university and david will read while i study, and occasionally he'll look for jobs, trying to find the cheapest kinds of foods, hanging around our flat reading and studying, and two days a week i have to go 10-5 to lectures.

This week we had a powercut!!! Right after I came home from doing my first presentation on the history of art therapy. We thought it wasn't that big a deal, just had sandwiches and went to bed early but we don't have many electrical products, still no fridge, the street lights, shops and train station all lost power. lots of people were looking confused outside the chippy, no power = no chips.

My presentation was very successful, lucky really as we put a lot of effort into it. i was out of the house at 7.30 and the presentation wasn't till 10.am and was only meant to last 30 minutes. The weather is getting colder, yet the airconditioning stays on.

Lots of love to you all

We have now seen kangaroos. on my campus no less!!! ther were four grey ones and smaller than i expected.
I started my actual lessons on monday and tuesday 10-5, i have made some friends on the course. there are only two of us doing the masters full time starting this year but a llot of people doing the masters part time or the grad dip full or part time, so there are quite a few people on the course. it is taught in an old farm cottage (the campus used to be a farm and this is the homestead) and it has a lovely veranda that looks out over the countryside. as you can guess we are in a rural area.
The course tutors are very friendly and we even have a little kitchen (which has better facilities than ours at the moment)
I have also seen parrots, cockatoos, budgies, lizards and big ants. Luckily i haven't been too plagued by mosquitos yet, but the cockroaches are big here.
I have lots of reading and assignments to do in the next 12 weeks, but luckily no exams!!!the weather isn't very hot at the minute, we even had thunder and lightening, but the ozzies were glad of the rain.
We have been taking advantage of the uni free stuff this week, getting free lunch (bbq) yesterday and today, and i got a free candy floss.

just a quickie

So we have arrived safe and sound in sunny Oz, there are journal inputs from the last few days that david is going to put online so you'll just have to be patient. This is just a quickie to say we are alive. Miss you all, lyd and david

Thought it would be nice to put some pictures of my artwork on here too. This is an acrylic on board that Lyd painted in 1999. It's about 9 by 5 foot and displayed in my parents living room.

So while David is unloading the washing machine in the vain hope his clothes will get dry enough to pack I am busy blogging and sending out links so that everybody can keep informed about our latest adventure. Moving to Sydney!

We fly lunch time tomorrow on our first leg to HongKong. If there is access to the net while we are there you may get an update in a couple of days, if not you'll all have to hang on till we arrive in Sydney at the end of this week.

Enjoy.

 

 

 

 

little lydia