Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

The first snow has fallen...

Home Cooked Pub Meal :)

Steak, baked potatoes and steamed veges.

Simple yet delicious :)

I can't believe that in three weeks time I'll be home again. After nearly a whole year of living in London, I am finally going home for Christmas. As much as I have enjoyed being over here, I'm definitely ready to go home... even if it's only for a short while.

But I'm still squeezing in as much as I can before I go home. Like today, for example.

About 785 years ago, when a new mayor was elected, it was a tradition for the Mayor to prove himself to the people and swear loyalty to the Crown. The mayors would walk upriver from the City to Westminster to pledge allegience. This year it was Lord Mayor Boris' turn. Traditions and futures are celebrated with a parade showcasing the past, present and future businesses, charities, Her Majesty's Forces, City Police and more, along with a firework display in the evening . I have been to a few of London's 'festivals/parades' and I have to say that I'm not impressed. It lacks... entertainment. Big floats pass by extremely slowly, the rare few being somewhat creative, people dancing to random music while following the floats, crowds of people giving the wrong impression that something exciting is happening and therefore attacting more crowds and blocking people's way. But somehow, everytime there's a parade on, I have a little bit of hope that it won't be like the last. And everytime I go to one, I'm disappointed. And yes, this one was no different.

One of the creative floats, a big book with the world coming out of it.

Can you spot Australia? :)

One of the marching bands.

Guess who's back after her 2 month trip around Europe? :)

My artistic shot :)

As you walk around London now, you can't not get into the Christmas spirit with Christmas lights and decorations up everywhere!

Trees decorated with blue and white lights. Magical :)

Even the cupcakes are lit up!

Covent Garden decorations

A big office building in blue :) My kind of building :)

A store's Christmas display window.

Giant Christmas tree in Covent Garden. But this was a special tree because the lights would only turn on when a couple stood under the giant mistletoe and pulled it while kissing :)

London nights (and days) are getting very very cold so what better way to spend it at a cute little cafe, drinking warm coffees, eating cake and having a girly catch up :)

Passionfruit and coconut cake & Chocolate Square (like a chocolate tart)

Just like in Max Brenner, the drinks were served in a 'hug mug' :)

And you know London's getting cold when...

...they rug their cold drinks up with a beanie while in the fridge :P

How cute are they?!

Top Gear Live!

MPH, London's equivalent to the Melbourne's Motor Show, was on last weekend and the three Top Gear boys were hosting a performance. When I realised that this could be my opportunity to go and watch them live and make my brothers and other guy friends jealous, I didn't hesitate to buy tickets :)

The car show was held at Earl's Court Exhibition Centre. The Top Gear Live performance wasn't on until later in the evening so my friend, Bharat, and I decided to look around the showcases first. I wasn't that interested in the actual car showcases hence not many photos but also because my camera battery died :( I was not happy. However, I was happy that I manage to take the next two photos before it died:

Back to the Future car!

Herbie! :D

Then it was time...
(photos courtesy of Bharat/internet)
It was a huge stage so no matter where you sat you could see everything quite clearly.

I'm not a huge Top Gear fan but I must admit that the tv show is quite enjoyable to watch... most of the time. When they talk about the 'specs' of particular cars, its like another language to me. But when they come up with crazy yet ingenious experiements, I'm just as excited as my brothers.

Can you spot the three speckled dots that are meant to be the hosts?

I swear they're there! :P

Car Football
It was hilarious as they were driving cars with only 3 wheels so they kept toppling over.

The Stig's line up of new cars
I loved the lighting and amazing computerised backdrop!

We also participated in the Cool/Uncool wall... exactly like you see on TV! :D We were given an A4 size of paper where one side had COOL and the other side, obviously, was UNCOOL. There were cameras above us that could actually read which side you held up and then processed it to feed it back to the wall. Depending on the number of cool or uncool votes it read, the computer could generate where the car would sit on the wall. And of course, Clarkson had his override button if he disagreed with the audience :P He also mentioned that everytime he was in Australia, he would have to use his override button nearly all the time?! What's that about?! :P

If you're in London next year, I highly recommend you buy tickets and go! Even if your not a car fanatic :) Now that I've seen Top Gear Live, I feel I need to start watching Top Gear on TV more to learn about cool (and uncool) cars :)

Merhaba! (hello in turkish)

Gate H46 now boarding.

Flight LH3362 to Ankara, Turkey :)

My school is currently involved in a project with 13 other countries around Europe (including Turkey, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, Germany, Spain, France, Slovakia and Romania. The project comes under the Comenius Program which is named after an educator called Jan Amos Comenius (1592-1670). The aim of the program is to connect students and staff to countries and educate them on the diverse cultures Europe has to offer. They have a variety of projects that schools can choose to participate in. Our project is called "Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink.' It aims to develop awareness of water issues in each country and what we can do to help.

Each country has to host a visit from the other countries and Turkey was first off the list. Turkey was not the country I put my name down for (I wanted to go to Poland and Spain) but because we had to go during the school holidays, a lot of our staff had families and other commitments and therefore could not go. I was happy to go, however, as I was planning to travel somewhere anyway. And what's more, all expenses were paid for. A free one week work holiday to Turkey? I wasn't complaining :)

My colleague, Rhian, and our English translator 'tour' guide, Atila. He was recruited from another school (not one participating in the project) as he was the English teacher and, as we soon discovered, was very well known in the town (will explain more later).

I didn't know what to expect from this trip as I had never been on a work related trip. In mind I expected a few meetings each day and then the afternoon or evening to sight see. This was not the case. It was better! We had one meeting the whole week and the rest was sight seeing! :D Turkish people are very proud of their country and wanted to to show it off.

Our Turkish host teachers - Urkut (vice principal of the primary school) and Cunyet (teaches Turkish at the highschool ). Urket was our 'body guard'. Whenever one of us would accidentally stray from the group, he was there to make sure we found out way back safely.

Day 1

Turkish Primary School.

The classrooms - look at how simple and small it is!

Currently I am fufilling my highschool dream of teaching in London and travelling around Europe. My next big dream is to travel around the world and teach in different countries. Going to Turkey has inspired me even more to want to make it happen. I loved the fact that even though this school had limited resources and space, the staff and students looked just as happy as a school with the latest technological gadgets.

The school put on an amazing lunch for us. Some of the food was made by the families and was absolutely scrumptious!

They're very big on their sweets in Turkey!

Baklava :)

Ate too much of this over the week :P

Some sort of fruit slice.

Mini sponge cakes with custard filling.

Being mobbed by children.

The children were fascinated with so many teachers from around the world. We felt like celebraties!

This boy taught me how to count to 10 in Turkish :)

biz, iki, ooch, dord, besh, alti, yeddi, sakkiz, dokkuz, on!

Next stop, the 1 day old Aquarium :)

This area was made into a forest where you could sit down and enjoying the sea creatures around you.

I think this says 'Cabel Car ride' :) or something along the lines of that! :P

From here we could see all of Ankara :)

Day 2

This was our one day work related meeting :)

At the town hall, we were greeted by the staff, students (yr 5-8), governers and education minister!

Each country was asked to prepare a presentation about their country and school. What we weren't told was that we were going to present it at the town hall with all the staff, students and VIPs! Luckily, my colleague is better at public speaking than I am so she took control :)

Day 3

This day involved a long 3 hour drive to a place called Cappadocia.

Our hosts squeezed as many attractions as they could on this day.

First attraction: Salt Lake

Goreme Open Air Museum

Cave churches carved by monks in the 10th century.

Spectular view!

Hot air balloon rides are the perfect setting for a romantic propsal!

Can you spot the hot air balloon?

Natural landscape formation - Fairy Caves.

Created by solidified lava streams and heavy erosion.

In front of the fairy caves

Pottery demonstration.

Wine tasting - no I didn't have any.

Holding wine glasses for photo purpose only.

Dinner was a traditional Turkish dinner with Turkish dancing.

Belly dancing.

Whirling Dervishes.

Turkish Folk Dancing

Because it was a 3 hour ride to Cappadocia, we stayed over for one night in a 5 star hotel!

Included: bathrobe, balcony, Turkish baths/massage, jacuzzi.

Day 4

Underground City - Derinkuyu.

Another lake, I forget what it's called.

Day 5

Turkey's Independence Day

VIP seats at the Independence Day parade.

Turkish president.

Some castle

A lot of the time we were just driven to places and had no idea where we were actually going (partly due to the language barrier).

The project team.

We were treated like royalty for the whole trip and being 'royalty' also included a big party just for us! Look at the decor - it was like a wedding reception!

Our nibbles - savory and sweets.

A three course meal all on one plate! :)

We were presented with gifts - handmade woven bags.

Day 6

And to top off the week: Ataturks's Mausoleum

I highly recommend visiting here if you ever go to Turkey!

I met some amazing people on the trip and became friends with the 2 teachers from Poland. Will definitely be visiting there sometime next year! :)

My new quote in life, thanks to my new Polish friends:

'The most spectualar and astounding experiences in life are the ones you never expect.'

:)