Bye bye to London

We're leaving on Saturday afternoon after 10 months in London! I for one am looking forward to going home. And we are stopping in LA for three days on the way :)

Yeah!

I'm looking forward to the HOT summer weather in Sydney!! Smell the warm night summer air....

PS Letch is getting Maccas breakfast - eeeewwww - but we still love 'er :P

Letch is too sexy for her hat too sexy for hat, just too sexy yeah

All the best to Tod and Ang for their wedding next weekend. We are so sorry we cant make it but we will make it up to you. We love you both and are sure your wedding will be AMAZING!

T-Hound Ambrosius the Second

We're gonna be back in Sydney PRETTY SOON now!!

Since we got back from Poland, and the whole Corey things (which was hilarious - seriously, he didnt get bashed, it was a mild snuggle - Anthony Mundeen and Corey Delaney, now thats a bashing!) ok back on track.... since we got back from Poland, Mare and I have been back at work and making the last of our last few weeks in London.

Well, only Mare went back to work, I left my job and started working part-time so I can study. Yes I'm dong the GAMSAT again. So I couldnt work full time. The new job I got was at the Bank of New York. A pretty good one too. But I left it cause it was taking up too much time. Now Im just studying while Mare is out bringing home the bacon :)

Ive been going to the British Library - which they boast is the UK biggest and top one. And it has better security than the airport! I had to register with proof of identity, sit an interview and have a rectal exam just to be let into the reading rooms where the books are.

Mare has been been busy at work because its the time of year when bonuses are paid out. HR have to organise it and its been a nightmare to get things working with the New York office. There are time differences and douch bags involved. So now thats over and we are starting to get sad about leaving London - but happy about going home!

Now Ive gotta get back to the books. more later.

PS I broke my wrist Snowboarding in Poland. I thought it was just a sprain/bruise so I didnt get it checked for two weeks. Now Ive got a freakin cast :P

This is the way to handle annoying ACA interviewers!

What a Leg end! The "A Current Affair" lady, on her high horse, talked to this guy like his teacher or parent or something. He handeld it damn well I recon.... esp the way he answered her questions at the end of the interview!

Christmas in Poland & New Years in Slovakia

Happy New Year!

Well, we are back from our 2 weeks trip and boy did we have fun!
There was a minor delay with getting to Krakow (umm...about 12 hours) but once we were there, it was certainly worth the drama.
Snow everywhere and a family that was as welcoming as a hot bowl of soup on a rainy winters day. Whilst in Krakow we had the chance to do some site seeing, walk around the wonderful historic town and see all it's beauty. I particularly like to big castle, stunning church (most OTT I have ever seen) and the main square. It was particularly beautiful because of all the snow which really made me really feel like it was christmas time from the movies.

Tomasz and I enjoyed a traditional christmas with real polish food (many thanks to Krysia who makes everything from scratch). Christmas eve was seafood - salmon, carp, hering, perogi and borsch with ushka. Then, the christmas presents and a game of songstar on Jenny and Kamila's new playstation! Christmas day was spent roaming the city with Slawek, Krysia and Jenny, then another feast for dinner - wonderful veal with a veal with a multitude of other goodies including my favourite soup (white sausage soup) and vegetable salad. YUM! I even had a stab at making perogi and ushka (I nicknamed myself the perongi queen but the name didn't quite catch on).

After Christmas we headed to Zakopane for a few days which was wonderful. The town in so romantic with horse drawn slays dotted around the town to take you wherever you please. I learnt how to ski here which was interesting as the instructor's english skills were limited as were my polish skills. So, I taught her some english as she taught me the "snow blow" (which I now know is actually called the snow plough). I had an awesome time - particularly watching Tomasz snow board (I didn't realise he was so good). God was watching out for me when we were on the slopes as Tomasz was trying to terrorise me while he was snowboarding by throwing snowballs - however in doing so, fell off his snowboard and now, three weeks later the doctors suspect has a fractured wrist. Thanks god - you really got revenge for me!

A few days in Zakopane and we were on the road again - quite literally...each walking with our 15kg bags across the border to Slovakia.
We spent the next couple of days with my best friend Hayley, her boyfriend Vladusko (Vladimir) and a few of thier friends. More skiing, snowboarding and laughs including a nice new years eve in the middle of nowhere (no really, we were in the middle of no where). Great time, it was good to catch up again with Hayley and Vlad (even though they were in London a couple of weeks ago).

Back to Krakow (Slovakia back to Poland was another journey not for the faint hearted) where we visited Auschwitz, the old nazi concentration camp. It was a sobering expereince however it wasn't as sad as you would imagine. The camp is MASSIVE with heaps of horse stables that were meant to house the 60,000 prisoners at any one time. At -10 degrees I can only imagine what it was like....I was freezing and I was wearing something like 6 layers at the time!

For the last day in Krakow we chilled with our hosts in Krakow and did some shopping in a huge shoping centre (Galleria Krakowska).

All in all, we had a wonderful time in the picturesque Poland and exciting Slovakia. Can't wait to visit Krakow and Zakopane again soon in the near future.

Tomasz has posted some photos below.
Enjoy!
Love,
Mare
PS: I never thought I'd say this but the weather in London (+5 degrees) now feels tropical compared to the weather in Poland (-10 degrees). phew!
PPS: Only 6 weeks until we are back in Sydney



Main Square in Krakow before Christmas. The church in the background is the OTT one. THere were stalls in the square all sorts o f Christmas goodie - like mulled wine.

The beautiful snow covered area - we were taking the doggie for a walk. Try to find him in the photo cause he's white like the snow...

The Pierogi Queen in action helping to get Christmas Eve dinner ready

La Famalia (minus Jenny who is taking the photo) at dinner.

The horse drawn slays in Zakopane

Mare and Mr Statue Wladaslaw have the same hat!

How cooooool am I. No really, Legend.... snowboard extraudaneir....

Mare's first day on ski's!

The food in Zakopane was to the point - you order fish, you get a fish. You order pork knuckle, you get pork knucke and nothing else.

Skiing in Slovakia

Part of the Slovak gang on New Years Eve.

A great week with a couple of ozy friends

I'll get straight to the funny bit.

Who? Me and Mare, her friend from home Hayley, her boyfirned Vlad, Mare's London workmate Ian, and two random ladies in a restaurant.

The five of us (minus the two random ladies) went to lunch on Sunday last week. Hayley ad Vlad had stayed with Ian all week and we wanted to thank him for his hospitality by taking him out to lunch. Well lunch was great. Beer, food, wine, more wine, alot of laughs and it was time for dinner. And we were still at the lunch restaurant. So we hopped in a taxi and London Ian took us to another resaurant in the West End.

More food, wine, laughs and we were having a great time. As you would, there were loud laughs and jokes. Nothing unusual. As we were leaving, Ian noticed the two random ladies sitting a few tables away staring at him. So he asked in a polite English manner,

"Are you glaring at me for any particular reason?"
"I can't hear a thing my friend has been saying. We can't have a civilised conversation. Thats probably why this section of the resaurant is empty" Random lady A replied.
"Well you're in London," Says Ian.
"It doesnt matter where we are, you should have common curtousey for other people"
Now, we weren't doing anything that a bunch of people wouldnt be doing if they're having a good time, so this was a bit uncalled for. We all realised this and so did Ian. So he ended this most civilised of arguments with, "well back to the nunary with you!" And stormed out of the restaurant taken aback by the exchange, with the waiters apologising to him all the way.

We were all holding back the laughter at this hilarious argument which would never have happened in Aoustralia. We all laughed about it as Ian took us to an Italian cafe for coffee and cakes, and then to a bar in Soho for cocktails.

It was a great day finishing off a busy and fun week with Hayley and Vlad.

The BEST Commercial EVER!!!

You HAVE to see this... just feeeel the music like the gorilla does




An now for a bit of a remix:



I Love it!

Tomeks birthday in Warszawa

Mare and I flew in for a long weekend and pretty much just ate the whole time. With the exchange rate and the big occasion (my 25th birthday), we thought it would be great to splash out - and we did!


We stayed in the grey one


The first night we made reservations at Warsaw's number one restaurant Belvedere. Check out their website http://belvedere.com.pl/

It was in a green house with a wall of vines and palm trees. It felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. The food was amazing and Mare looked stunning.



We also did a little sight seeing:
Tall man, big right foot.

The scond restaurant we went to was called U Fukiera - in English thats 'At Fuckers' - just kidding.


OUtside Fukiera's. It was decorated in a way I had never seen berfore - see the resturant website HERE

We loved both restaurants but Belvedere was our favourite.
The next day we walked around the Old Town and it started to snow outside.

When it was too cold to walk around the Old Town we stopped into this cute little restaurant just off the main square. It was made to look like a village hut with fake windows too



The pototo pancakes were huge! and this was after a bowl of pirogi, mulled wine and soup...



It was a cold cold day and Mare isnt used to that kind of weather. This photo looks very Eastern European with that building in the background

Random - with fireworks in da backyard :)

Every now and then we do some touristy stuff to see London. Its nowhere near enough but we're slowly getting through it. The below two photos are from a sunny day out a couple months ago.


You can see the Tower bridge in the background, a pretty photos of Mare..... and my forehead.


On the 5th of November the British celebrate the day a guy tried to blow up Parliment. "Remember, remember the 5th of November" is the little catch-phrase for the day. And the we they celebrate is with fireworks. On the saturday night closest to the 5th there we fireworks going off non-stop all over the city. You could go outside and hear the explosions literally every few seconds all night!

I went to buy a couple of fireworks too : )

The cheapest box was for 10 quid, and it was a two for one deal. See the photos below for the box...
And I had two of them!! hehe he hehe

An amazing Autumn with hEAPS of fallen leaves!

We dont usually get so many leaves in falling in Australia so we took lotsa photos. This was on the way to the gym in a little part of London called Crouch end.


This one is on a street near ours which we think is really English. We've been documenting the seasonal changes of this street with photos of it as it goes through the growth - we are sooo cool

It was my birthday last week!

Mare and I went to Warsaw for the weekend. We just jet-setted our way over there and chilled out eating at some damn good restaurants. I will post photos when I work out how to use Mare's camera.

But til then...

While at work I came across some great cartoons - check these out:

This one is for people who find the no liquid rules a bit extreme...

(click here to view)

Mike Keefe Denver Post Nov 17, 2007 EditorialCartoonists.com

This one is a little satirical and ..well I love my American friends and u gotta admit that US foreign policy is a bit screwed up. So this cartoon is about that:

(click here to view)

Chan Lowe Sun-Sentinel Nov 17, 2007 EditorialCartoonists.com

Besides that, Mare and I are doing very well. Im leaving my job soon to start part time work and study. And we are going to Krakow in Poland for Christmas! Yay!

the personality of a Londoner

..depends on the situation and location.

In a customer service situation, a Londoner is rude, careless and unresponsive. Sounds cruel but its true. At the check out the attendant doesnt bother packing your groceries in your shopping bag nor do they care about smiling or initiating small talk. In Oz they are cheerful nchatty and all. But here they dont give a toss. Its good cause I dont need to either and there is no love lost. But, if you say hello and ask how they are then you get a whole new experience. They are friendly and will let you get away with not having enough change. It makes a big difference if you start a chat.

This is different from the tube (aka, the train). On the tube its a totally different story. You look after your ass and make sure you get on that train. There is a saying on the underground - here is always room for one more. And its freakin true. No matter how full it is, if you need to get to work on THIS train, screw everyone else, push, shove and get it. Its expected and no one cares.

In the car its like on the tube but faster and in a car.

But get them out of those environments, into a room, and they are polite but honet. If they feel crap, you will know about it. But they will chat and get to know you before they decide whether to keep chatting or leave.

The funniest for me is on the tube, all the polite formal business attitude goes out the window and its all about getting on that damn tube... even though a train arrives every 1 minute - literary every 1 minute.

We're back...

Its been a while since the last update - ooops. Its been an eventful month, well not that much.

The last you heard from Mare and me, I was in Australia and on the way back to London. And damn it was getting hot in Sydney. But in London, its a bit different. It gets dark at 4.30pm... thats right 4.30. Anyways...

We were waiting for my med interview results. Unfortunatley I didnt get in this year. It sucks. But thats it. No news of why or how to improve so its back to study for me. The bonus is Mare gets to work in London for longer with a few perks :)

So now our plans have changed. As it stands now Mare and I are staying on London until 21st february. Which isnt that much different from before. But we are not going to be in the US as long. Instead we are going to be in LA for 3 days in Feb. So all our Cali friends, we will plan an eventful few days.

In the remaining time in London Mare will work at here present job which she LOVES! It give her more experience here and other advantages.

I will start working part-time, hopefully at my present job. And will also study for the 2008 GAMSAT. I can use my old score next year to get another interview or a better one. So I aim to get a better score in the GAMSAT so that I have a better chance of getting into Med next year.

Besides that, Mare and I are working and doing the usual thing. We are going to Warsaw for my birthday though! woohoo.

Im looking forward to writing some more stuff on here now :)

Cheers,

Tom

The vampires are coming...

As it gets warmer here in Sydney - and boy has it been great the last couple of days - its getting colder in London. Last night it was about 5 degrees celcius in chilly London town while it was a sweet 27 here in Sydney.

Now before I bore you with the weather...well what the hell its so warm here and Im not looking forward to the freezing cold vampire lifestle of London :) Appartently in the London winter the sun comes up at 10am and sets a 4pm. That means we get to work when its dark and leave when its dark - its the life of a vampire - only coming out at night! It will be a new experience for sure. And so will the visits to the solarium to get a hit of vitamin D to replace what we naturally get from the sunshine.

And becuase its cold and dark outside we'll end up inside...proabably in a bar drinking. So we will be tanned, in a bar drinking and outside during the night - hell thats just like summer in Sydney anyways!! Bring it on London!

The Med Interview Wrap-Up

Its over!!! at 6.12pm I left the final of 8 interviews.... yes 8 interviews. It wasnt that bad though. Each station (there were 8 of them in total) consisted of a small room, a senario, question on the senario and 7 mintues to answer. There were also follow up questions to make sure we covered everthing needed.

I think it went well. I could answer all the questions thanks to the help of Mare, and my mum and dad. We went through a whole bunch of senarios in practice for this.

It was damn tense before hand with all 8 interviewees sitting in the same waiting room making small talk. The tension in that room was thinker than my big toe-nail (charming, I know). But everyone was friendly, even the interviewers who made an effort to put us at ease.

I would give you some of the senarios but we signed a confidentiality agreement to not reveal any of them while the interview process is still going - which it is. We get the results in about two weeks.

But for now its time to relax and enjoy the sun (as long as it stays out)

Tomasz

Tom's coming home for a couple of weeks

Its weird refering to myself in the third person - but Tomasz has the med interview on the 25th and is flying in for two weeks. Im hoping to see a few of you in that time.

My old mobile number should be working if not then email/facebook message me.

Speak soon,

Tomasz

Belgium Chocolate

For the bank holiday weekend Tomasz and I made it over to a couple of cities in Belguim...

Brussels


Just couple of glasses of beers....mmmmm






















and a couple of chocolates in the gorgeous Belgium chocolate shops....












mmmm..and a couple more beers....

















plus some mussels




















But there was a point when it was all a little too much. aaawwww













So time for some sight seeing





Tomasz in 'Grand Place'. The buildings were beautiful

















Tomasz at the sight of the famous 'peeing boy'. One of the famous sights of Brussels (classy!?!)











Brouge







Tomasz with Michaelangelo's Maddona and Child in the background. The only piece of Michaelangelo's work to leave Italy during his lifetime.









The view of Brouge from the Bell tower. We walked 266 stairs to get this view...apparently in the middle ages they hadn't heard of elevators.











One of the beautiful canals in Brouge





















One more from Brussels before I sign off









Enjoy the photos!

Sending all my love back home and to all my friends around the world,
Mare xxx

I got an interview with Sydney Uni Medicine!!!!

Our Anniversary

2 years.... Thats right, its been two years now - who ever thought ay... :)

Below are some photos from our very happy dinner at a restaurant called Zilli Fish

We went there right after work, hence the work clothes. Ignore the fact that Mare looks like she is not wearing any pants.

We had the seafood platter for two mmmm sooo good.

Edinburgh, Scotland in Pictures

More stories and details coming soon, but for now some photos:
A beautiful monument to someone

Mare looking very historical on old Victoria Lane

Edinburgh Castle - it took our breath away from anywhere in the city
The inside of The Dome - an old bank turned restaurant
Kire wearing a pretend wig which, back in the day, would have been attached to his head with animal fat - the fatastic Scotish guide explains