Serendipity

Why Serendipity you ask?
Well, two reasons:

1. It was my film to mime in a game of charades we played in Africa

2. I find our entire trip can be summed up by a quote I have just read, upon my return to Sydney: "Serendipity is my favourite word - because surprises are better than plans" Yen magazine

There were so many hours of research and planning that went into our trip, and yet some of the most rewarding lessons, and memorable moments are those that stemmed from surprises.
From things Cam and I could never have dreamed of.

And so, for my last entry I would like to finish with a list of numbers. I feel it is the only way I can sum up our year without dedicating my uni dissertation to it.

In the famous words of Jonathan Larson, (whose production Rent we saw in NYC) "How do you measure a year?"

525 600 minutes
17 plane flights
3 rental cars
4 continents
1 bag stolen
4 jobs
38 hostel beds
1 terrorist attack
39 inflations of a sleeping mat
1 of the 7 wonders of the world
9 National parks
2 overland trucks
47 Bus trips
2 winter coats
2 pairs of thermals
1 white christmas
1 surf lesson
2 servings of high tea
2500 miles of Californian highway
45 000 on-the-way-home-from-the-pub-kebabs
500 pints of John Smith
1 European festival
36 churches
15 museums
8,000 photographs
1 tea carton
1 Greek cruise
1 Canadian bear sighting
1 elephant ride
4 flatmates in London
4 Triple J winners
1 Hippie hostel roomie
2 Red-neck trailer trash roomies
1 Poppa Norm
20 000 fleas
1 walk of the longest pier in the world
1 visit to a cloistered convent
3 African flat tyres
1 sprained ankle
1 raging river crossing
5 pairs of sunglasses
4 pairs of jeans
2 Argentinian steaks
5 viewings of American Psycho
4 issues of Southbender
24 countries

1 blog


Thanks to everyone who read the blog, emailed, called and visited!

It is good to be home!

This may just be the last blog entry before we board our final flight.

Our time here in Africa is drawing to a quick close, and Cam and I both cannot believe how quickly the last year away has gone.

Since I last wrote we've been to another 4 countries, and have been busy doing all sorts of fun African things, like being robbed during a little less-than-legal money exchange deal in the street (Entrirely the fault of our tour group leader who was orchestrating the whole thing) and crossing a river that was chest deep, with all our valuables on our heads (like African ladies carrying water containers) - after a flash flood rain shower happened while we were mountain hiking to some caves with ancient paintings.

We've also been riding elephants, visited a crocodile farm, chilled out on a houseboat for a few days, and now here we are at one of the world's seven wonders - Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe is not nearly as dangerous as every one would have you believe. Granted there is virtually no fuel here, and in the 7 days we've been here, the Zim dollar has gone from being 130 000 to the US dollar to 160 000 - which is awesome for us travellers, but not so for the locals - 70% of whom are out of work - recieving 4000 Zim dollars a month from the government.

Sounds fairly decent untill you realise that a loaf of bread is 150 000 zim dollars.

Is quite weird doing the daily grocery shopping for our truck, dinner costs about 8 million dollars, and takes about 50 years to get out of your bag - as the laregst note they have is 20 000 dollars (ten cents or there abouts).

In other exciting news - Cam sprained the hell out of his ankle in the impromtu river crossing - which has rendered him entirely incapable of doing any of the adventure sports here at falls - but luckily we have a chiropractor on our truck and she has been yelling at him to keep his ankle bandaged - and he bought a walking stick at a souveneir shop - which combined with his new cowboy hat (made from some poor game animal) makes him look like a real tourist twat!

Anyways we've just come from an afternoon of high tea at the Victoria Falls grand hotel, and we're soon off for our first resturaunt meal all trip - so we need to shower and do all the things normal civillised -non-safaring people do before we go out so - everyone take care - and the next time you here from us will probably be at home!

Can't wait to catch up with you all - and hear what you've been doing for the last year!

See you all soon

Lauren

Jambo! Mambo!

Greetings from Zanzibar island, Tanzania, Africa!

Cam and I have been on our safari for almost 2 weeks now and we have seen and done so many new, different and at times weird things!

The trip is quite rough, we are camping, and often not in the most glamorous campsites. So far the bathrooms have consisted mostly of holes in the ground - which really compliments the stomach bug that we all have :)

But we are enjoying the challenges, and I am sure that when we arrive home we will never complain again!

The last few days have been very sunny, here on the island. We've been snorkelling, swimming, having massages from the local women!, and eating bucketloads of seafood! - And staying in sub-human lodge accomodation with a real flushing toilet and running shower!

One of the absolute highlights so far has been the 3 day game drive we did in Serengetti national park and the Ngoronogo Crater. We saw the big five animals, and plenty of lions getting "jiggy jiggy" (as the locals call it) - it was quite amazing to be there during their mating season!

Cam and I have taken enough photos to make up for every tourist who ever comes here - my ipod is getting hammered with all the CF card downloads we are cramming onto it!

I would post some today but these guys barely even have a phoneline between ten computers and it might just take the rest of my life to upload them!

It has been funny to watch Cam really getting into his group's chores on the truck. I reckon by the time we get home we just might make a decent housewife out of him. He's not even too bad at handwashing in salt water! - But his toast made over open fire leaves alot to be desired...

We've also been having some really incredible malaria-pill-induced-dreams, which makes it hard to work out wether we've actually been doing all of these cool things - or just imagining them!

A few days ago we did what all the guide books discourage (such rebellion!) and rented 4 wheel drives off some local dodgy dudes and drove up the coast - we had an awesome day - Cam felt like he was driving the Maroon again, and we got to see the only community of Colubus monkeys left in the world, and went on a spice tour where another bunch of local guys showed us around and made everything imaginable out of banana leaves and palm fronds! And that night, we made honorary Australians out of the 16 or so New Zealanders on our truck, and celebrated Australia Day with lots of local African beer, and a bit of Karaoke!

The locals here are an abolsute inspiration - we have encountered mostly rich people who survive off the tourists, and yet even they live in mud/dung huts - but they are so friendly and they all wave madly when we drive by - we stopped our 4 wheel drive at a school the other day so one of the boys could use their squatter, and we were surrounded by smilling children and locals - it was very cool (I also bought 4 cokes and two packets of Marie Biscuts for about 2 US dollars which I thought was the best bargain ever!)

Anyway should be off - Cam and I still have 50 000 tanzanian shillings and plenty of bartering to do - never know when you might need that 3rd set of wooden african salad servers ;)

cheers all! See you all in about 5 weeks

Akuna Matatta

Lauren

PS. this is where we are headed next!
http://www.absoluteafrica.com/itinerary.lasso?trip_code=SC39

Season's Greetings

Hi All,

Well time sure is flying by, and Cam and I are completing all the final preparations for our safari in Africa. We leave in just a little over 2 weeks, and have about 50 million things to do! (believe it or not - this is more hectic than leaving Sydney - I suppose because we can't really leave any loose ends with our parents this time!)

We celebrated the holidays here in London in true antipodean backpacker style.

Christmas dinner was a casual affair at home with the flatmates:


Our beautifully dressed table (with real-genuine live wreath)


Starter Salad - Recipe by local chef Jamie Oliver


Lauren bastes the monster chicken (with pork stuffing!)


English trifle for puddings! (With an Italian twist - marscapone and panetone!)

And once we had all the food and festivities out of the way I decided to use Boxing day to visit the famous London January sales. So there I am about to walk into to Topshop when who do I see? None other than Natalie Rhame from high-school, and Uni!

I am begining to think that all these people from home are following me around the world on some weird mission set by my mother to monitor my every move.

New Year's Eve was spent at a local pub/club with the flatmates and a various assortment of people we have met around the world! And was followed by a fantastic New-Years-hangover-day traditional English fry-up!

And now, here I am, sitting in a mountain of duvet, on our lounge, nursing a very wonderfulittle stomach bug that had me up all last night with bodily fluids coming out of all possible exits. delightful.

Well thats all for now, I am still feeling quite queasy and I will be off to bed, but stay tuned formore exciting tales, such as "the adventures of the English doctors surgery" and "Inland Revenue - friend or foe"

Happy New Years all!

Lauren xo

Cameron and the tale of the South African pub

Today is my Sunday, (it's really Tuesday - but now that I'm a slave to the consumer retail dollar again - weekends are my working week) and because I'm at home while everyone else in my house is at work (and consequently I can't work out how to switch on the tv and cable box) I've decided to update the blog.

As I sit here typing away, covered by my soft, warm doona I am wondering what you all are doing back home, where smh.com tells me it is 25 degrees. So far in the last week, the warmest temp we've had is 5 degrees, but that is usually around 3pm, when we all are still at work.

The mornings are by far the worst - leaving for the station at 530am, is nothing short of painful. But I've got my clothing all worked out, and with just the right combination of thermals, socks, scarves and my coat, only my face is exposed to the full brunt of the cold!

Earlier today the checkout guy at Sainsburys (who looked to be about my age) reassured me that I couldn't have picked a worse year to come to the UK for winter, as this is the coldest one he has ever lived through so far. Awesome.

On the upside though, the other day when I left for work it was sleeting, which to the unitiated Australian looks and seems just like snow. I rang Cam squealing "Mate it's snowing - I'm walking through my first snow!" and then proceeded to describe it, and have Cam burst my bubble with "No Lau- that's just sleet..." talk about a let down. I mean if it's going to be this bitter cold, the least it could do is make the land of the grey and brown look nice...

But the bookies in the London are offering the best odds on snow for Christmas day in history, so there is something to look forward to!

And now it's time for:

Cam's bimbo moment of the week
On Saturday while I was at work, dodging tantrum-throwing children and parents racking up the Visa with presents-from-Santa, Cam and our South African flatmate Myron decided to watch the South Africa vs Wales rugby game at a pub in Covent Garden. (Cameron into sport can you believe it?)

Anyways they went to a South African pub called the "Springbok" which as most of you probably know, is the name of the Natioanl SA Rugby team - we have wallabies, and they have wimpy little antelope, fair.

So I come home at around 10pm, and veg out on the lounge, the boys show up, (with dirty great big kebabs in hand) an hour or so later. And then Cam opens his mouth:
"Hi Lau - we had a great day - we watched the rugby at the Springbok in Central - what a coincidence everyone I met at the pub was a South African, I've never seen so many South Africans in one place all at once."

Myron and I just looked at each other and shook our heads, we truly are living with a genius. I mean he might as well walk into the Wallaby bar, and exclaim at all the Australians drinking VB - right in the middle of London!

The Australian English Dictionary

I hadn't realised how Anglified I'd become untill this week when I was speaking to mum on the phone and I kept having to explain what I was saying. You would be surpirsed at the difference between English-English and Australian-English, here are a few of my favourites:

Pants - Underwear
Trousers - Pants
Vest - singlet (chesty bonds mate)
Plaster - bandaid
Hoover - vacuum
Courgette - Zuchinni
Wellingtons - Gumboots
Sarnie - Sandwich
Rucksack - Backpack
Innit - Isn't it
You Alright? - How's it goin
Duvet - Doona
Pushchair - Stroller
Peppers - Capsicum
Tillpoint - cash register
creme fraiche - sour cream
bender - gay (cookie and I learned that one the hard way when we named the southend music zine "southbender")
carrier bag - plastic bag
thong - g-string
flip-flops - thongs
Offie - Bottle-o (short for Off-licence)
Mingin' - disgusting
mange-tout - snow peas
chav - bogan (think Vicky from Little Britain)
high street - shopping centre
five quid - five bucks
pound shop - 2 dollar shop
wendy house - cubby house
giza - bloke
load of bollocks - load of crap
bogey - boogers
kip - nap

and on that note - think I'll be off to take a quick kip, as I'm still recovering from my overnight shift at Disney.

cheers all
Lauren

Visitors from home (with photos!)

When I read back over my blog the other day, I suddenly realised how much of the trip has been left out of the story - for example - how many of you know that we've had a bunch of mates to catch up with here in the mother country?

I never dreamed I'd do a pub crawl of Southend with Martin, or have a drink in a London pub with Sarah and Heather, or even play legos with Chitti in Hamleys toystore in London's famous shopping district.

And for that matter, I never imagined I'd sit next to my cousin Adam on a plane to LA, and then have dinner with him in Disneyland - but as I've come to learn over the last few months, you just never know what life holds in store for you!

And here, are the pictures to prove it!



Sarah, Heather, Me and Jess in a London pub! - at Waterloo!



Chitti plays at the lego table in Hamley's toystore, London.



And this is where I worked for 3 months in Southend!


Me at Subway, Southend-on-sea

And tommorow I'm starting my new job as the 3IC of the Disney store in Oxford street!

Woo! how exciting is that!
Anyways must be off - Disney manuals to read and uniforms to iron, everyone take care!
Lauren

A new home away from home

Coming to you live, via wireless broadband from our new flat in london, the lauren-and-cameron-round-the world-saga continues...

This week's episode has seen us gather all of the stuff that we have collected and accumulated since leaving Sydney, (almost 7 months ago now) somehow cram it into our backpacks and drag it on one overland and three tube trains here to our new home, Willesden Green. (Can you believe Cam's shoe collection has grown from three pairs to EIGHT!!! and they say women are bad!)

We have managed to land ourselves right smack-bang-in-the-middle of London's largest Aussie/Kiwi community - without even trying! We even have an Australian shop here that sells all the comforts of home - cherry ripe, vegemite, tim tams etc etc.

Speaking of food... our week seems to have been mostly filled with eating typical London fare. Our first night here we had our first (of many to come I am sure) Indian takeaway. It was quite a novelty for me - I've never eaten much Indian before and it was truly awesome! (did you know that the Indian fast food industry in Britain is bigger than British steel???)

We've also hit China town with my Australian work mates, where the hilarious waiter kept calling us "you Kiwis", and on Saturday night Cam and I had the traditional on-the-way-home-from-a-night-out kebab from the local turkish takeaway. But this wasn't your average shaved meat with hummus job, it was the real deal shawarama chunks of meat with proper cooked onions, mmm garlic sauce.

By and by the way I have also managed to get some retail temp work. Which means I am now no longer a bum and can afford to do things, like eat and pay rent. I am working for Burberry in their stockroom, preparing for a big sample sale that they are having - and this week I have an interview for a permanent position supervising at the Disney Store in Oxford street.

So life seems to be working itself out. So much so that I am half considering taking another year of leave from uni, and staying on here to truly experience all the amazing things this country has to offer. Calm down mum, I did say half, after all I've had my thermals on for 2 weeks now, and winter has not yet even begun!

So that is it for this week's installment. Life here is chaotic, fun, busy, crazy, and at times trying. I miss home and everyone who is there, but I'm still not ready to come home.
But that's nothing that the coldest predicted English winter in 100 years can't fix, I'm sure.

Everyone take care!

Lauren xoxo