Trip to Oxford (Travel Tuesdays)

Earlier this week, Charlotte and I went on a day trip to Oxford.  Neither of us had been before, so in hopes of catching a smart fellow, off we went.

After a rough start of me sleeping in, and the trains being delayed that is.

Once we got to Oxford, it was nothing that I had expected.  To be honest I didn't know what I was expecting.

It had that small town feel, everyone either walking around the town or riding along on bikes. 

People stopped people in the streets to chat.

I had a proper conversation with a sales lady about her dog.

In short... nothing like London.

After strolling around the town, and some of the university grounds (and saw Oxford boys playing Rugby - HOT), we went for afternoon tea and a bit of shopping.  I was introduced to cream tea where it was tea (or in my case coffee) and a scone with cream and jam.

We then went for dinner at The Bears Inn (or just The Bear to the locals.)  We struggled to find it, but after Charlotte asked for directions from a guy who she very clearly intimidated (he stuttered out directions in a blind panic that a blonde girl was talking to him.)  However once we did find it, it was a very small (if you are tall - duck) kind of a place.  Very warm and had amazing food.

Oxford is a place I could see myself living in.  It was so beautiful and so peaceful and hope to find myself back there again soon.

Aussie Out

xo

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Farm Yard Crazy

On a recent trip to the corner shop, Charlotte discovered a packet of plastic farm yard animals.  After a great laugh about how funny it would be to buy them and put them in Thoms room, we left the shop and I didn't give it much thought afterwards.

A few days later, there was a knock on my door.  I opened it to find Charlotte holding the packet of plastic animals.  The farm yard hunt was about to begin.

So we giggled like school girls as we hid 6 plastic animals in his room, and waited impatiently for him to come home and see how long it would take him to notice.  Not very long at all.

Next we set out sights on Nicoles room.  While she was out on a date we re-hid all the animals and waited.  We received a group message on whats app, with her finding one of the animals, and the game was on.

We had hid them in Charlottes room also (The only photos I have I stolen from her as we hid them in a panic thinking she was coming home.)

My house is crazy... and I love it.

Aussie Out
xo

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Australia Day Traditions

Every year on the 26th of January, what started out as 3, but then has been cut down to 2, people gather for the annual Australia day Ice Hand Championships.

It started 6 years ago on a stinking hot day back in Sydney, where myself, Lucinda and Bondy (who is no longer apart of the game) were complaining about how hot it was.  We saw a large container of ice and then talked about how good it would be if we jumped in to cool down.  This somehow lead to the brilliant idea of us putting out hand in the ice and seeing how long we could last.  This stupidity is now carried out every Australia day.

What does the winner get?  Other than a sore hand and regret.... ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

1st Australia Day Ice Hand Champions #SoSweaty

2nd Australia Day Ice Hand Championships

3rd Australia Day Ice Hand Championships

4th Australia Day Ice Hand Championships

5th Australia Day Ice Hand Championships

6th Australia Day Ice Hand Championships

Aussie Out
xo

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Pretty Bag Wish List

After a boring Sunday in bed, Charlotte and I decided that a day trip window shopping in central London was in order.  

After window shopping in Covent Garden we strolled down to Regent Street and into the most amazing store.  Libertys.

Bags were the item of the day.  So I have complied a wish list of bags that one day (if I ever win the lotto) will own.

1.  This Kate Spade bag.

2.  Mulberry.. need I say more?

3. Kipling... I want one of those monkeys!

4. Michael Kors - Its just SO pretty

5. Alexander McQueen. (Pictured first).  This is the ultimate dream bag #tasty

One day!

Aussie out xo

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Let it snow!

As an Australian in London, one of the most exciting thing about Winter is the possibility of snow.  Whats the point of it being so cold if you can't even enjoy how pretty London could look covered in white powder (until everyone wakes up and destroys it)

Last year I was bitterly disappointed with the lack of snow.  That was one of my main things that I wanted to see.  

So this year, hearing more and more stories about it snowing in the North has given me hope.

I've had 3 different people on different occasions, send me messages about it snowing where they are.

Charlotte was nice enough to send me snap chats of it snowing while she was up North for Christmas and I was sitting in a pool of my own sweat in Australia.

Thom sent me a facebook message today.  Even though he lives with us, he works up North during the week.  His main concern was being stuck, while mine was that I'm going to go crazy looking out the window thinking that every small white bird that passes by is a dream come true #ImSoLame

The Christmas Boyfriend  decided to tell me last night about it snowing because he knows how much I want to see it.  Whether this is a sick ploy from him to try and get me to visit him, I don't know, but the boy does not play fair.  And he doesn't deserve the snow, because all he is doing is complaining about how cold it is.

Will I ever get snow?

I just want to build a snowman!

Aussie Out

xo

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Speed Dating Adventures

My housemate Charlotte and I have a London bucket list.

Things we have been slowly been trying to tick off for a while now, and one of those things is speed dating.  So I got a message from Charlotte while I was back home about a speed dating event that looked interesting.  So with the promise that no word would be said to the winter boyfriend, I agreed to go for a bit of fun.

What I didn't expect was the next day to end with matches, memory loss, a message from a guy telling me I was his highlight of the night and told me to get in contact with him and a killer hangover.

Lets rewind a bit.

We were told to arrive early as we could miss out if we were running late, so Charlotte and I figured to go early, find the place and have some drinks as neither of us wanted to take this too seriously.

Walking into the bar, we quickly discovered that we were the only females there and with a weary eye on the door, we just kept seeing more and more men walk through.  So we decided the only way to deal with this is to make sure we keep the alcohol flowing.  So 2 large wines down in roughly 30 minutes, we were feeling much better about the situation.

We were called downstairs to where the event was taking place, found a place to sit and decided to just chill at the tables instead of standing with the sausage fest that was surrounding the bar.  What we both didn't expect was for the guys to come over and talk to us.  As the wine switched to cocktails, the event was kicked off.

14 guys, 4 minutes each.

Now 4 minutes is a short amount of time when you are having a great conversation with somebody, or a very long time when you have nothing to say to somebody ( I had a couple of those, one in which resulted in getting the guy to write my name in Japanese on my arm as it gave us something to talk about)

I don't know if the guys were attracted to our winning personalities or the fact that we were the only females that weren't really taking it seriously but after the "dates" had finished we were surrounded by guys wanting to talk to us.  They remembered everything we talked about and all I could think was I wish they hadn't removed their name tags because I had no idea who these people were (to say I was drunk at that point would be an understatement.)

While I started dancing with people in the empty cocktail bar, Charlotte decided to start making out with a guy she just kept telling me looks like Jim from the Office (US).

At some point in the night, we figured we better leave as Charlotte had work in the morning.  A guy decided he wanted to walk us to the tube station, but that just ended with me insisting that we dance on the sidewalk, and soon after, we lost him (sorry kind stranger and because I didn't say yes to you.. I shall never know your name.)

Quickly deciding that the tube was out of the question as Charlotte was throwing up, we got an Uber home leaving us to feel extremely sorry for ourselves in the morning.

The next day we got an email saying we had our results.  Kinda awkward that I matched with people that I don't remember talking to.  However I must of made an great first impression to people, especially one guy who said I was the highlight of his night and I was so genuine and wants to meet up again.

If I have learnt anything from this experience, when they tell you to not get drunk - best to listen!

Would I do it again?  Hell yes.. Stay tuned for the next awkward speed dating adventure!

Aussie Out

xo

  

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A video blog about my 2 weeks home!

EDIT: If you can see the video, click here for a different upload

Aussie Out
xo

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