more bombs in London

Just a few quick words, today London was bombed again. You guys probably know more about it that Cam and I do as we've just spent the last 5 hours travelling home from Norway.

We first heard about it this afternoon when we got some panicky messages from some mates in the UK checking on us.

Anyways basically wanted to say that we're ok, and we're hoping Chitti is ok as he arrived in London yesterday and now that we've cvhecked our email and got his UK mob no we can call him to check up.

Norway was awesome as, we spent the last 24 hours at Borre's amazing summer house by the water - there are 2 guesthouses there guys! It was like this amazing house right out of an interior design mag - phew can those scandinavians design!

Anyways must run as we haven't been home yet to see Poppa. Just wanted to let everyone know that we're ok and we will try to stay out of harms way.

Love to everyone
take care

Lauren n Cam

Scandi, a blue wardrobe and the ultimate Australian himbo

Cam's bimbo moment of the week

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting the three other guys that Cam bonded with on his Contiki tour - and they were quick to inform me of Cam's tour nickname "the dumbest smart kid ever"

This name was then reinforced with no less than ten examples of classic bimbo Cameron moments from the tour - my favourite being the moment when he walked out of the Notre Dame in Paris and turned to Pete asking "hey man when are we going to that Notre Dame place?"

Since then Camo has managed to continue the tradition, and I thought that the blog would be a great place to post my favourite one each week. This week was a particularly hard decision to make but my absolute favourite occured when:

We had just arrived at Stanstead Airport, Camo decides to take control of the situation, pulls out our passports and walks over to the Norwegian Air check in desk

"Good morning sir and where are you flying today?"

"I'm going to Norway"

"Yes sir, we only fly to Norway, where in Norway are you going?"

turns around to Lauren - "We're going to Norway right?"

"Uh, yes Cam - we're going to O-s-l-o"

-----------------------------------------------

Well, here I am sitting in Børre's study in Norway, finnally (after 13 weeks) able to use the internet without counting the seconds untill I will be logged off!

We flew into Oslo airport yesterday and we're having an awesome time. Børre is the best host in the history of mates coming to stay - truly. He picked us up from the airport, brought us back to his amazing house with all of this Scandinavian design everywhere ( it's all sexy wood n stuff - so cool, and so BIG! There's like a fridge room thing and a sauna and a field outside his backyard. Cam and I just keep walking around like little kids and playing with things like the electric pepper grinder!)

so where was I? Oh yeah - recounting yesterday ...and then he cooked us this traditional Norwegian food for lunch - like these indigenous meatballs mmm so good.

And then he drove us into the city and we did the whole tourist sightseeing and photos thing.(Which reminds me I really do need to upload some photos...)

The today after waking up to have breakfast (bacon and cheese in a tube on toast anyone?) we all kind of dozed off into a little mid morning snooze.

We all woke up a few hours later, the cartoon network was still on and the breakfast stuff was all over the coffee table so we showered and dressed and hit the (raining) town.

We decided to hit the galleries as it was such a wet day, and of course in true lazy lau n cam style we punctuated the day with various cafe stops and snacks. The Edvard Munch museum was so inspiring, I can't wait to get back to London and do some sketching!

So the plan for tommorow is that we're driving to Børre's summer house (only 1/2 an hour away!) which is near the fjord in Oslo and we're going to hang out with his parents.

I seriously cannot believe how anyone with such an awesome house as this could possibly want to leave it for the summer to go and live in another house? Guess I'll find out tommorow!

In other news...

The other day Cam was feeling all domestic and decided to do our washing while I was slaving away at Subway. Long story short: my entire wardrobe is now blue (mental note to Cam - don't wash your new shirt from Amsterdam with the other light coloured clothes again!)

And a few days before that we had yet another weird "Are you Queenslanders (who won the triple j beat the drum comp) sure that you aren't following us around the globe?" moment, when Cookie n Shannon turned up just one suburb away from us in Leigh-on-Sea.

How weird is that, we met on our first day 13 weeks ago in an LA hostel room, (and discovered to our amazement that we have identical round-the-world itinerarys) then accidentally bumped into them and their equally "rad" mates in another hostel room in New York, and now out of all the towns in all of the UK they show up in the one just down the road!

So we've all decided we should stop relying on fate and start helping her out a little and we're all going to the Reading and Tomatina festivals together!

So as a tribute to Cookie, Shannon, Jacko n Alicia, and the fabulous Australians-living-in-the-UK bond that we have developed here are a few links to them

1. The triple J beat the drum webpage

2. Cookie's blog (that co incidentally is so well written that I'm ever so jealous)


And that's the reason why they won the comp - awesome hey?
That's QLDer ingenuity for ya ; )

Cheers for now guys!

High Alert and more Australians in Southend

It's interesting the effect that a few people can have. Since the attacks in London last week there has been a noticeable change in all of us.

The first time I noticed it was as Cam and I travelled into London on Saturday to meet Martin. As ouir train pulled into London Liverpool street (one of the bomb sites), the dude in the seat across from us got up (leaving behind two huge backpacks) and started to walk out of the carriage.

I looked at Cam - he looked at me - and not wanting to be a hypersensitive maniac I just calmly asked if Cam thought we should move - Cam looked at me as though it was the smartest thing I'd ever said - "hell yes - let's go"

So we got up and hot footed it into the next carriage (away from the guy) only to realise a few minutes later that he'd only been going to the loo. Never mind the fact that they've been ramming it down our throats not to cause any security alerts by leaving any bags unattended etc etc.

I guess there is just a general sense of uneasiness amongst all of the commuters - there are more sideways glances than normal, and everyone seems to be on high alert - even the slightest noise causes everyone to whip around in wonder and terror.

So, funny anecdote number two took place at work on Monday. There I was, minding my own business, filling the salads when one of the guys at work came up to me and said:

"Lauren, see that shopping bag over there, that a customer just left behind"

"yeah?"

"Go over and see if it's a bomb please"

"Right" I thought "...so chivalry must truly be dead."

Well either that or I'm somehow considered a less valuable subway employee as I only have 4 weeks of experience, (and can't speak 4 of the most widely used languages in India).

So I just looked at Tapan, half terrified and half considering wether or not thinking that chivalry was dead means that I'm not quite the feminist that I'd previously thought. And then proceeded to walk over to the bag and give it a prod -

"Is it a bomb?" Tapan asked timidly from behind the safety of the counter.

"Well Tapan - I'm actually not a bomb squad specialist so I can't be too sure - but it's not ticking and there aren't any wires"

So I picked up the plastic carrier bag and put it behind the counter - and I did notice that Tapan didn't walk anywhere near that part of the store untill the customer who left it behind returned to claim it.

Well, as Poppa would say "there you are", welcome to life post 7/7 (as the UK media have aptly named it.)

Life otherwise is much the same as it was before. Once Cam's family had all returned to the Southern Hemisphere and we all thought we could settle back into a bit of normalcy here in Royston Avenue yet another Australian decided to descend upon us.

After delaying his visit by a few days due to the dramas in London Martin finally got the Eurostar over to Waterloo where Cam and I met him, and brought him back to Poppa's to stay a few days. His visit consisted mostly of a day trip to an aeroplane museum in Cambridge with Camo, a "pub crawl" of Southend, and visit to the sales at Harrods (which I somehow think was more for my benefit than that of the boys).

Once we'd waved goodbye to Martin and started the journey back to Southend I suddenly realised that I've now been calling 15 Royston Avenue home for over eight weeks, and that surely must mean ... that it's almost time for Sarah and Chitti to arrive!

It also meant that it was almost time for Børre to return to Australia for his last semester of vis com, (and what should have been my final semester of vis com!), so this morning we went down to the library and booked ourselves a flight over to Norway so that we can catch up with Børre before he leaves! It's something we've been meaning to do for weeks but with all the ending of Cam's contiki, funeral, visitors from Australia and blowing up of 1/2 of London we've become a little side tracked.

So I am pleased to announce there is now a new plan on the horizon, (what are those famous song lyrics "Life is what happens while you're making other plans")

1. Visit Borre in Norway for 5 days next week
2. Work for 3 more weeks in Southend - possibly in a job that doesn't involve subway sandwiches
3. Catch up with Chitti n Sarah
4. Fly to Malta and visit the rellies for a week
5. Fly to Spain and experience the Tomatina festival
6. Fly to Athens and do a Greek cruise to farewell the European summer
7. Return to the UK and house sit for Poppa while he visits Australia for a month
8. Move to London (finnally) and find work so that we can hibernate for the winter (GULP!)
9. Make various trips to amazing European destinations (Salzburg advent markets etc)
10. Bid farewell to the UK and do our African safari
11. Fly home.

Phew. I'm tired just thinking about it all.
It's only been 13 weeks and already it feels like a lifetime since we were at home.

Love to you all, and keep the emails coming - it's good to hear about life back home

Lauren
xoxo

I feel very tired today.

The last two weeks have been very long and very weird and my brain is aching from thinking too much.

At the moment Cam and I are at a loss at what to do. Since Cam's nan has passed away and it is now time for his family to go home we don't know wether to move to London as originally planned as we don't want to leave his grandad alone.

And then there is the small issue of the terror attacks in London and the threat that there may be more of them.

It's weird to think that Kelly Cameron and I were at Russel Square station on Tuesday - and now it's been blown to bits.

We're thinking of going to Paris tommorow for a few days - mostly because Martin now can't come to London and also because I think I need to get away from 15 Royston Avenue for a few days as the last few weeks have rather taken their toll.

It was lovely to recieve so many emails from everyone after the attcks - makes us both feel very loved - Thanks so much to all of you who wrote to us. It's times like this that you feel the most homesick.

Anyway, must be off, as Cam's sister flies back to Indonesia this afternoon and I think I'll be doing my last shift at Subway and then handing in my resignation - that place is starting to get to me.

Everyone take care - as we promise to also

Love to you all

Lauren

sad news

just a very quick entry to explain why I've been very slack in texting/calling/emailing etc over the last 10 days.

Last Tuesday Cam's nanna who was suffering from senile dementia passed away rather unexpectedly early.

Long story short (as many of you know) I have been living with Cam's grandparents - so I've just lived through the weirdest week of my life in a lonely household with Cam's grieving grandad.

Cam's sister Kelly arrived from Indonesia yesterday, his dad arrives from Sydney today and Cam is back from his European Contiki tommorow.

The funeral will be on Thursday.

So all plans fro Norway and such are now up in the air - don't know exactly what will happen but Cam and I are making a special effort to be in London when all of our mates are going to be here - must run - talk to you all soon.