Let’s make it a good one

Posted on January 1, 2016 by Kym Hamer

Here we are at New Year’s Eve again. The year’s gone by so quickly and it doesn’t seem that long ago that I was trying to stay cool last New Year’s Eve Down Under. Time flies doesn’t it? And speaking of fun, I’ve managed quite a bit of it over the last 12 months.

After returning from my bi-annual pilgrimage to Melbourne (and a fab top-up visit from Lil Chicky) in January, travelling-for-work was much less frequent this year but I managed to find some cash and conquer some new frontiers. Ten days in Seattle with Seattle-A heralded my first trip to Canada, I spent four fabulous days in Stockholm at the start of August and then jetted off for a week of sun, sand and a whole swag of reading in Mauritius in November.

Speaking of reading, I smashed my book-a-week target by 25% (I read 65) and 8 of them got a Gidday 5-star rating (that’s 12.5%). I discovered Henning Mankell recently and will be reading more of his Kurt Wallander series next year. And while it doesn’t count in 2015’s quota, I am in the middle of my first Philip Kerr – March Violets with protagonist PI Bernard Gunther – and if things continue as they are, the new year looks set to start with another big fat 5 star rating. Awesome.

There have been many theatre outings over the year, Death of a Salesman being one that I studied at high school yet hadn’t seen and the most recent being Hangmen which featured a cracking ‘noir’ plot and really great characterisation. I’ve also been back to Sadlers Wells to be swept away by the Rambert Dance Company and transported to Spain at the opening of the London Flamenco Festival.

I’ve upped my Live Screening ante enjoying some new (well new to me) Shakespeare – Love’s Labors Lost, Othello and The Winters Tale – and several operas including my first Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, The Mikado. Live Screening also delivered a theatre highlight – Man and Superman – and a new crush, Ralph Fiennes. When seeing his face alight with joy in taking the final bows, well I may have had a little weak-at-the-knees moment…okay maybe not so little.

I’m finishing the year with a two week staycation. Christmas was spent with friends in SE London and aside from an outing to Borough Market and Southwark Cathedral with another friend yesterday, I have just enjoyed being at home. I’ve still got five days off before I go back to work so plenty of time of time to complete my Christmas jigsaw puzzle, finish March Violets and catch up with friends for a little Star Wars, drinks and dinner.

It’s almost midnight here, Bryan Adams is rockin’ it out on the telly and before long, the crackle of fireworks will be heard overhead as those locally organised start the new year with a bang. All that remains is for me to wish you the very best for 2016…

Let’s make it a good one.

My favourite things: Festive films

Posted on December 20, 2015 by Kym Hamer

It is the last weekend before Christmas and having despatched most of my presents to their respective other sides of the world several weeks ago, all that remains is for me to do a few last minute things at home before the big day on Friday.

What it also means is that I’ve been at home all weekend and after immersing myself in the glitz and glamour of Strictly Come Dancing’s [very grand] Final and the last two episodes of the awesome Netflix series Bloodline last night, Sunday on the box is set to deliver a few more of my favourite things.

As I’ve been tap-tap-tapping away, Mr Wonka has led his five golden ticket winners and their ‘plus-ones’ along the red carpet and into the most fabulous factory in literary history. Gene Wilder is the quintessential Willy Wonka for me, combining playful joie de vivre with an other-worldliness that the later movie just did not capture. I’ve already welled up at Mrs Bucket’s “Cheer Up Charlie”, “Pure Imagination” is one of all-time musical favourites and I can feel a bit of “Oompa Loompa-ing” coming on in the not too distant future. Very little beats a bit of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

And then later on tonight, free-to-air channel ITV is running a live TV adaption of The Sound of Music from the soundstages at London’s Three Mills Studio. There are some well-known faces (to me anyway) in the cast from some of my favourite TV shows – Kara Tointon and Katherine Kelly from Mr Selfridge, Julien Ovenden from Downton Abbey, Alexander Armstrong from Pointless and Mel Giedroyc from The Great British Bake Off to name a few – so it promises to be a splendid night on the comfy couch at Gidday HQ.

The week that stretches in front of me holds just three days in the office before a welcome two week break.

I’m not heading Down Under this year but will instead spend a few days with my very good friends and their family in South East London. There’ll be plenty of good food and wine and a bit of spirited board game-ing on the big day plus the promise of A Muppet Christmas Carol – an annual tradition on Christmas Eve afternoon for them – to get us all into a festive mood.

(My version of this is the 2004 musical version of A Christmas Carol starring Kelsey Grammer as Scrooge and Geraldine Chaplin as the ghost of Christmas yet to be – it’s tearfully, wonderfully fabulous.)

And then it will be on with the rest of my London staycation. I’ve got a couple of theatre forays planned as well as some potential gallery and museum excursions in my sights. Then there’s shopping, reading and catching up on a few things to ready myself for next year. Perhaps there’ll even be time for a pyjama day or two.

In any case, with just five sleeps to go until Santa sleighs his merry way across the world, I’m all set for a huge helping of festive nostalgia.

It just wouldn’t be Christmas without it.

Cruising London: Photo tour

Posted on December 13, 2015 by Kym Hamer

Last Saturday I spent a leisurely three hours on the Museum of London‘s Frost Fairs cruise along the River Thames.

Frost Fairs are a rare occurrence in the pages of London’s history. They were held when a combination of winter-y elements meant that the River Thames froze over and created a lot of excitement for Londoners. Our Museum of London host told us that the earliest Frost Fair was likely to have occurred in 1114-1115 between Westminster and London Bridges when all sorts of activities – shopping, drinking and eating, and games like skittles and ice-skating – were at the disposal of those who dared to venture out onto the river’s icy surface.

But it was a double-edged sword as while many entrepreneurs and well-to-do celebrated this rarity, a third of Londoners depended on the river for their livelihood and so were left destitute when they could no longer ply their many trades.

The last Frost Fair occurred in 1814-1815: Once the old London Bridge was demolished and the new bridge – constructed by John Rennie and opening in 1831 – was in place, a more free-flowing river was created, giving little opportunity for ice to “dam up”.

Cruising under Rennie’s London Bridge

So last weekend I made my way along the embankment to Westminster Pier, boarded the Pride of London and took my place on the upper deck. It was one of those grey London days – not as pretty as a crisp blue-sky day but it did lend something quite atmospheric to the usual view. Here’s a little photo tour of my time on board.

Boudicca vs Big Ben – looking up from Westminster Pier gives you this great perspective.

Blackfriars Bridge – trains stopping at Blackfriars Station actually stop on the bridge.

No Thames cruise photo tour would be complete without a shot of Tower Bridge

I loved this row of old bankside houses – the two building to the left of the row stand like sentries at the entrance to one of the many channels that branch off the river.

The cruise took us all way downstream to the Isle of Dogs and the Greenwich Peninsula, the latter being home to the Millenium Dome (or as it’s now known, the O2 Arena). It does look like some sort of alien ship has landed.

This is the Royal Naval College in Greenwich – you can see the Royal Observatory in the background (which by the way is a great place to visit.)

And this is the famous Cutty Sark, just a hop step and jump away from the Naval College

Along the route back, the daylight had started to fade and I spent most of the time just watching the bank glide by, the wake from the various river craft creating foamy ripples along the shore. Before long, we were cruising past the modern shapes of London’s City Hall and The Shard…

London’s City Hall is the curved building on the left and look how the tiny white-lit Christmas tree mirrors The Shard that overshadows it.

…and London’s lights glowed in the dusk as we continued to cruise back towards Westminster.

Southwark Bridge

The London Eye

Victoria Tower, Westminste Palace (640x360)

Passing under Westminster Bridge gave me this atmospheric view of the Houses of Parliament’s Victoria Tower

Soon it was a quick under and back again with Westminster Bridge, a gentle drift towards Westminster Pier and with my head full of what I’d seen and heard, I disembarked and headed home.

I am a big fan of the events put on by the Museum of London and this was such a great way to spend a few grey and blustery hours on a Saturday afternoon. So I hope you enjoyed this little photo tour a fraction as much as I enjoyed for real.

Twinkle twinkle

Posted on December 6, 2015 by Kym Hamer

It’s the first weekend in December and here at Gidday HQ, that means that it’s time to get festive and put up the Christmas tree.

I love doing this, especially as I only do this every second year when my Christmas is a London-based one. It reminds me of living at home in my late teens/early 20’s when, for a few short years, Lil Chicky and I would set aside an afternoon to decorate the Christmas tree at Mum’s together. The tree itself usually needed some MacGyver-like ingenuity to ensure it stood tall and straight for the festive period and bore up under the weight of copious amounts of tinsel and general Christmas bling.

So today I pulled the boxes down from the high cupboards. I tested all the lights and untangled the string of gold beads that I drape in lieu of tinsel. And I laid out all of the ornaments I have collected over the years – from my travels, gifts from friends and family and nods to my Dutch and Australian heritage – and with the jingling bells of Christmas movies on TV in the background, Gidday HQ got a dose of Christmas spirit. Here are just a few of my favourite festive things…

My wreath has had an Aussie update this year

I bought this fantastic festive tea-light holder in Dusseldorf in 1999

The tree gets quite full so in recent years I’ve taken to displaying some ornaments separately – the gold and red baubles are personalised ones from Mum and the one in the middle is a nod to sisterhood from Lil Chicky

Here’s a bauble from a work trip to the Big Apple in 2005 (it had to be done)…

…and this hand-painted glass bell was purchased in Rynek Glowny (the main square) in Krakow in 2012

For years my tree has featured this hand-made (not by me!) angel – this year she’s sitting on an apple to keep her upright.

I love this fabulous shoe, unearthed from a Christmas stocking during one of my bi-annual pilgrimages Down Under (my mother knows me well).

Lil Chicky snuck this back from our Amsterdam trip in 2013 and hid it in my flat for me to find…

…and she gave me this one courtesy of her trip to Japan in 2014.

I have A LOT of Dutch ornaments. I just can’t help bringing a little piece of my ancestry back from every visit I make. You see, there’s a fabulous Christmas shop down by the Singel flower market in Amsterdam – I’m sure I’ve kept them in business – where I spend my last day on each visit working out how to get these fragile purchases a) into my already full luggage and b) back home in one piece.

I’ve managed to restrain myself – here are just two of them…

Anyway, the deed is done. The tree is up, the lights are twinkling and Alfie Bear has donned his Christmas hat, ready to join in the festive fun. And there are already a few presents under the tree with this year’s Christmas bonanza from Mum arriving a couple of weeks ago.

Alfie Bear is a fixture at Gidday HQ, having come into my life as part of a redundancy gift in 2008 – he loves Christmas as much as I do.

So if I go missing in action at all, you’ll probably find me sitting on the comfy couch at Gidday HQ admiring the view…

There are 19 sleeps to go until the big day peeps – are you feeling festive yet?

A productive day

Posted on November 17, 2015 by Kym Hamer

I was woken by a veritable cacophony of birdsong.

I rolled over, still dim with sleep, the fissure of light along the curtain hem announcing that a new day had dawned. I squinted at the dial of my watch. 6.30am. I pulled the covers back up over my shoulders against the chill of the room, the air conditioner humming smugly in the background.

Fifty minutes later, I opened the curtains…

…to greet my first full day in Mauritius.

——————————————-

After some travel disruption and a later than expected arrival on Sunday, I had just enough time for a gentle stroll along the beach and a cheeky cocktail at the beach bar before my first Mauritian sunset – watched with the sand between my toes of course. What a sunset it was…

An early night (there was a very real danger of yours truly falling asleep in her dinner) meant that despite the early hour, on Monday I was up and ready for a productive day.

I met the holiday rep, agreed my pickup time for the return journey to the airport and got some tips on how to get the best value from my all inclusive package.

I booked dinners in three of the resort‘s five restaurants. Last night it was a 5 course traditional Mauritian meal with 8 other hotel guests and I have dinner at the beach restaurant on Wednesday and then the Asian fusion restaurant on Friday to go. The substantial buffet will just have to do on the other nights. *Sigh*

I also booked myself a visit to the hotel spa for a little pre-dinner pampering tonight.

And I lay by the pool and read a book. Yes, a whole book. Bliss.

Then it was time to start the cycle again with cocktail number two.

Now I call that a productive day and with a few notable exceptions – it will be the beach today instead of the pool – this is how it will be for seven whole days.

Now if you’ll excuse me I have another book to choose…

It’s a sign

Posted on October 25, 2015 by Kym Hamer

It’s been a week since my last post and I’ve managed to transfer all of my blog posts and comments across to giddayfromtheuk.com.

Hooray!

It was a much easier feat than I had anticipated, taking only 15 minutes to complete with remarkably few formatting issues.

I have also been out and about instagram-ming. (Now I am wondering whether there’s a snappier or more technical term for this and I have just completely outed myself as ‘not in with the cool kids’.)

Having committed myself to sharing daily, the weather has not been inspirational this week so in the absence of spectacular shots on my normal commute along the Thames, around Big Ben and past Westminster Abbey, I’ve had to look a little harder for something to share.

I should have known that London would not disappoint – local businesses are just the best.

Some thoughtful poetry from florist Lily Lane in Ballards Lane, Finchley

A pleading note from Sourced at St Pancras Station had me chuckling all the way to my train on Wednesday morning.

A horsewoman I am not but this was a laugh out loud moment from Source (as opposed to Sourced) in Spitalfields Market yesterday. Giddy-up…

So feeling like I had achieved a few good steps forward, today I have been attending to some administration tasks ie. upgrading my laptop to Windows 10, optimising and running scans, and downloading other new software versions. My laptop’s been running slower than snail mail and trying to add pictures on my tablet is a royal pain so as I was tap-tap-tapping this post out on my much-faster laptop (that’s hooray! number 2), I was hopeful that this week I had managed a small improvement in technical mastery…

…until I saw this on my home page.

It seems that this http thing-y has attached itself as a tag in all 500+ posts that I’ve transferred across from blogger. And despite my best efforts, I cannot find a way to remove the tag from all of them at once so guess what I’ll be doing tonight.

Probably serves me right for getting smug. Just as well I’ve got tomorrow’s sign ready…

On my phone from BI (Before Instagram); taken in the toilet of the Harris & Hoole coffee shop in North Finchley. I washed my hands first – promise!

So unless one of you helpful lot knows a more efficient way to do this as opposed to me deleting the tag post by post, tomorrow’s coffee will come in very handy.

*Sigh*

Mumbai Moments…

Posted on September 14, 2014 by Kym Hamer

Back at the start of 2012, I read a book called Shantaram. Written by Gregory David Roberts, it is a narrative based on Roberts’ experiences in the Bombay underworld. It is a wonderful read, my first taste of India and according to the Indian friends I know, an accurate depiction of Bombay.

This week I got to see it for myself.

Lucky enough to travel to India for work, I spent an overnight in Delhi – not enough time to see anything unfortunately – before heading south for two days in Mumbai (aka Bombay) and after a day at our factory and offices, it was time to experience a little local colour with beer and vittels at Cafe Mondegar.

Cafe Mondegar is located on Colaba Causeway, (officially known as Shahid Baghat Singh Road), a land link between Colaba and Old Woman’s Island in the south of Mumbai and a buzzing commercial street filled with bars, restaurants, cafes and throngs of people. Cafe Mondegar, or Mondy’s to the locals, is a hub for both local and expatriate socialising with tables and chairs packed closely together and a menu catering for adventurers seeking local flavours as well as travellers pining for a little taste of home, wherever that may be.

The main cafe wall is covered with a cartoon mural painted by famed Indian illustrator Mario Miranda which depicts the hustle and bustle of life in Mumbai – these caricatures can also be spotted on the plates supplied for your meal as well as the salt and pepper shakers on each table and a range of items for sale like t-shirts and mugs.

I was told that Mondy’s represented just the tip of the culinary iceberg but was an excellent place to start so left the ordering up to my colleagues with the only stipulation being I wanted to eat local food. In my experience, eating food in its place of origin always tastes better and I was not disappointed. Each dish was delicious and washed down with a range of ice-cold beers. With the vintage jukebox busting out some excellent 80s and early 90s tunes, Mondy’s got a big Thum(b)s Up from me.

Thums Up, India’s favourite cola

The following day it was time for some retail visits, seeing the types of products available and how they are sold – quite different from the superstores and chains of the more developed markets that I am used to. What it meant was that, albeit from the back seat of our Tata car, I got to see Mumbai.

Our first stop typified Mumbai for me, a curious mix of new affluence and poverty side by side.

Taken at Phoenix Market City, Kurla, Mumbai

Our second stop saw us back in the Colaba region. The streets off the main roads were quieter and lined with colonial architecture, a hangover from the area’s occupation by British forces in the 1700s.

Famous residents include Sir Ratan Tata, the Emeritus Chairman of Indian multinational conglomerate Tata Sons, the holding company for Tata Group (ownership of Jaguar and Tetley Tea among its many interests).

Speaking of Tata, we did visit one of their Star Bazaar stores in Andheri…

…where we managed to buy a Magnum (ice-cream) – quite new and extremely expensive in India according to my colleague – and eat it watching one of Mumbai’s many entrepreneurs…

Mumbai money: She’s selling Tupperware from her car boot.

And then it was time to head back to the hotel so we hit the road…

So that was the end of my first visit to India and more particularly, Mumbai. Where 20 million people exist side by side in states of extreme wealth right through to abject poverty and where entrepreneurialism thrives as every man, woman and child finds ways to make ends meet. Its crowded streets are overwhelming, decimated at this time of year as the monsoon season wrings out its final downpours and filled with the strangely happy beep beep of car horns as the traffic pushes and snarls and untangles itself again.

The atmosphere is one of tolerance – how could such diametric opposites co-exist without it – and a mixture of acceptance and hope, an acceptance of one’s destiny yet a belief that one’s actions in life will generate ‘good’ karma. And I found myself unexpectedly moved by this metropolitan melting pot, its busy, bustling hopefuls and its fusion of many opposites.

Gregory Roberts writes this in Shantaram:

“Fate gives all of us three teachers, three friends, three enemies, and three great loves in our lives. But these twelve are always disguised, and we can never know which one is which until we’ve loved them, left them, or fought them.”

I wonder what Mumbai will turn out to be.

A Day At The Fair…

Posted on September 6, 2014 by Kym Hamer

This time last week I was arriving at Heathrow Airport after a 9 day soujourn with Seattle-A and all of her boys.

You see, I’d managed to tack a few flights onto the end of a work trip so after about 7 hours flying (and a rather tight connection dash through Houston Airport en-route) I arrived at Seattle-Tacoma Airport on a warm evening in August to be hailed by a fond Coo-ee! and Seattle-A hug at the luggage belt.

It’d been about 6 months since my last visit so there was loads for us to catch up on over a burrito and a gin and tonic on the way home. There are so many changes happening in both of our lives – she as a second-nation expat and mother of twin boys and me as somewhat of a jetsetter in my new (since last October) job – but the feeling of picking up where we left off last time remained.

It was an unexpectedly busy first few days as a) Grandma-C was enjoying the last few days of her very own Seattle sojourn and b) I was invited to accompany Team-M on a long weekend in Walla Walla in Washington’s wine region under the auspices of celebrating a friend’s 40th birthday. Hmmm more travelling…but made palatable by wine and friends at the end of it.

Returning from our weekend away, I was left with a few days to hang out at Chez-M, plenty of opportunity for a cuddle top-up with my favourite little dudes and to soak up some Seattle-A time to sustain me until my next visit.

On my penultimate day, this included a trip to the Evergreen State Fair.

There was some discussion between Seattle-A and I beforehand as to what format this would take compared with our Aussie experiences – pavilions, rides, shows or lots of livestock to stand around and ‘admire’ outside. As it turned out, it was a bit of everything plus some fair ‘fare’ so here’s a quick scoot around the fairground for your armchair touring pleasure.

There was not one but two ferris wheels…

…and there were rides and games and plenty of vittels…

…although the Snohomish Pie Company (above bottom right) sold only sweet pies much to our disappointment. This turned into an important cultural lesson as the locals in our group laughed at our ‘uniquely Australian’ expectation of a savoury Snohomish slice.

We soon got our own back.

Seattle-A and I were rather curious about this apparently Australian delicacy, a large onion peeled, flowered and floured before being deep-fried. Upon interrogating the purveyor of said goods, we learnt that there was no Down Under connection at all. Nor did we find out who ‘Aussie’ was.

After a quick reconnaissance we were soon tucking in to some local vittels of our own…

The top right photo shows bacon on a stick. Yes that’s right – bacon – on a stick.

Those enormous deep fried things bottom right are onions rings (as distinct from the onion burst discovered earlier).

To the left is my lunch: a bottle of root beer (seriously I could not get enough of this stuff – anyone who can tell me where I can buy this in the UK will earn my eternal gratitude) and an all-American Russian piroshky. The lady was making these by hand when I approached the van so it was a salmon and cream cheese one for me and a meatier version for Seattle-A – delicious!

Soon it was time for a little more wandering and while we were searching for the petting zoo (the main agenda for our visit), our little group was waylaid, this time by ice-cream. Seattle-A was delighted with her Chocolate-Almond choice and was looking forward to devouring the whole lot…

…but the little dudes, particularly R, had other ideas.

And I can’t say I blame them – the couple of bites I had were divine!

More meandering followed with the little dudes practicing their new-found walking skills…

…and before long we found ourselves near our destination, these wooden creatures greeting us as we approached the location of said petting zoo.

With bears in the Chez-M area – neighbours report ursine visitors ransacking garbage bins under cover of darkness – we thought the ones below would look great scattered through the trees surrounding Chez-M but were unsure as to whether they would attract, repel or even ‘upset’ the real thing.

Speaking of locals, we were also treated to a display of indigenous colour and rhythm here so the little ‘uns in our party did a bit of tribal foot-stamping to the beat of a native drum.

Finally, we made it to the zoo.

Hooray I hear you say.

O (left) was not entirely sure of the competition for Mum’s attention…

….but R (right) was fascinated by these real-life creatures previously only seen in picture books.

So that was our big day at the fair. A hot, blue-sky day filled with new experiences for the young…

…and the young at heart.

And so the following day I packed my Day at the Fair alongside my new stash of Seattle memories in my suitcase, said some emotional good-byes and flew home.

But I’m already thinking about the next trip.

You see Seattle-A turns 40 next year…and you know how I love a birthday!

British…With A Twang

Posted on August 27, 2014 by Kym Hamer

I’ve been living in London now for more than ten years and lately I’ve been thinking about forking out some of my hard-earned pounds for British citizenship.

I have no plans to make my home elsewhere. I’ve blogged before about my pride in the life I have built here and I still love London. Yet there is a part of me that wonders whether some change in legislation or circumstance might result in my losing my right to live and work here (for the uninitiated, this is called Indefinite Leave to Remain in the UK).

With all of the travelling that’s been going on of late, I love nothing better than coming back to London’s grit, its hustle and its stiff upper lip-ness – things that I never thought I’d love given the qualities I miss most from Down Under are our laconic ease and quintessential directness. And my London friends tell me that I’m still identifiably Australian.

But in the last few weeks, meeting new people has been met with ‘You sound English – but there’s a twang in there? Where are you from?’ as opposed to the previous ‘Are you from Australia or New Zealand?’

Back in June 2011, I read an article in the Australian Times which asked Are You Losing Your Australian-ness? and at the time, I identified two things:

1. I was about 41% of the way along the list of 12 steps indicating British-ness.

2. That British-ness would overtake me after about a decade.

So it seems that the article was true to its word – linguistically speaking that is. But as we Australians can maintain our Aussie citizenship and hold a British passport, it’s not like I have to relinquish everything. It will just be that my divided heart will be manifested in dual nationality.

Life has a funny way of throwing one a curve ball and while I might be sitting in the dugout waiting for the next ‘batter up!’ (I’m in America at the moment so please excuse the additional third-cultural reference), previous innings have shown that it’s best to be a little prepared.

So it means I have to fork out some cash and get a few details together…like details of the last five years of travelling…to complete my application.

Now that’s going to take some doing…