As Fi Bows to Peer Pressure

The New Zealand Memorial in London’s Hyde Park Corner commemorates the enduring bonds between New Zealand and the United Kingdom, and our shared sacrifice during times of war. It is a symbol both of our common heritage and of New Zealand’s distinct identity. I was unable to make the dedication in November or the ANZAC day commemorations but found my way there a couple of days later. It reminded my homesick-self of home and was a beautiful place to spend an hour.

Designed by architect John Hardwick-Smith and sculptor Paul Dibble the memorial consists of 16 cross-shaped vertical bronze ’standards’ set out in formation on a grassy slope. Each standard is adorned with text, patterns and small sculptures. “Through the words and images, any New Zealander visiting the memorial will recognise home, and British people may learn something of the relationship between our two countries,” explains Paul Dibble.

The memorial, was dedicated on 11 November 2006 and is expected to become a particular focus for Anzac Day commemorations in London each year.

I’ve uploaded some photos from my visit to the memorial.  Here’s a preview -

Click here to find out more about the memorial.

I’ve also uploaded a couple more photos to my “London - Out and About” album so go look at those :o)

Yesterday and today have been rather weird weather-wise. While being rather warm and beautifully sunny, the odd but thick haze covering the city has led to an insane lighting effect that makes everything look a little like a combination of dusk and those overly-warm photos I have of buildings around Europe. Still it is nice to be able to eat lunch outside in Gordon Square, the delightful park on one side of Passfield that has grass and flowers and yummy dirt paths that make it seem so much more proper despite it’s lack of size.

Anyway Italy . . . and Switzerland . . . in a reasonably short post . . . photos will follow when I get myself organised with editing them.

I left for Italy having had 3 hours sleep because I am silly. The trip from London to Venice, while sounding simple enough, was insane. Taxi to Victoria Station, National Express bus to Stansted airport (an hour or so out of London), Stansted to Treviso (40 minutes away from Venice) on a plane, Treviso to Mestre on a bus, Mestre to Hotel . . . well I hadn’t really worked that bit out when I left but anyway. Going through London on the bus to Stansted made me realise how little of this city I have been to and how weird it is to feel so very at home in a city I barely know. Odd! Having bought my train ticket for Venice->Bern in Mestre I managed to con the Hotel into coming to pick me up and had a lovely ride through the Italian countryside (which was deceptively sunny that day) with a man that spoke no English or Spanish. A very quiet trip!

Venice was incredible and I was equally incredible at getting lost most of the time, despite the fact that I had a very detailed map. However discovering large signs pointing to key destinations just above eye level made finding Piazza San Marco a lot easier the second time. The first time I found it because a lovely Italian man told me where to go after asking me out in a strange Spanish/Italian mix that I had going for most of the trip (even in Switzerland where is was totally useless). While I like compliments, travelling alone makes me a little warier of overly friendly guys that I’ve just met. For the next two days, Venice was cold and wet and I had a lot of fun puddle-jumping. I shopped, ate a lot of pizza, visited amazing buildings, drank a lot of coffee, went to the top of a bell-tower with an amazing view over Venice and made the fatal mistake of deciding that despite the rain and hail it was better for me to stand outside for long periods of time to enjoy Venice. When it stopped raining, the night before I left, I enjoyed a gorgeous water-bus ride down the Grand Canal. Truly spectacular and beautiful and amazing and I’m gushing. I also got to see a Baroque orchestra perform in 19th Century costume, not often that happens methinks, although also not something many would necessarily want to see.

Bern is the capital of Switzerland and it is amazingly pretty and everything you expect of an insanely old European city. The Old City, where my hostel was, is actually a UNESCO World Heritage site. My train ride from Venice to Bern was fantastic. I shall go to Northern Italy properly sometime, I would like to go to Verona and the little villages by the big expanse of water that we passed. As we worked our way over the Swiss Alps, snow began to be dotted on the ground and as we emerged from one tunnel we were greeted by an white landscape with everything covered in snow. Snow began to fall and it didn’t stop for the next three days. I went up a mountain and played in lots of snow, got caught in heavy snow fall, traveled around the whole city on buses and trams to escape the snow for a few hours, found the bear pit and decided the poor things looked miserable, and then met two Aucklanders embarking on a month’s tour of Europe. An excellent time had by all! Oddly there were a lot of pharmacies and psychiatrists in Bern and they lack good coffee shops, however excellent chocolate shops made up for this. I had a fantastic time, took lots of silly photos, and got very cold and wet.

Coming back to London on Saturday was tiring but nice. I spent the afternoon in wet and cold Paris but couldn’t take much more wet and cold so having walked up to Notre Dame and got soaked, I caught the metro back to the Gare de Lyon and headed off to CDG airport for my flight home early. Despite not having my own bed, or even a bed at all, to come back to, arriving in London was fabulous. Knowing where to go is good and it felt like I was coming home, which was a nice feeling. I’m crashing in friends’ room and beds until tomorrow when I get my own room back . . . my own room!!!

I had such a good trip, there were times when the coldness and general wetness of the trip was a little frustrating but I had a blast anyway and I got to play in snow properly which was amazingly cool. They’re definitely both places I’d recommend to friends and hopefully I’ll make it back there . . . I have to go back to Venice because there’s all sorts of places I didn’t explore and I have to get a replacement for the lovely blue glass ring I bought myself that had the thoughtlessness to break when I was in Bern.

I think I’ve done a pretty good job of summing that up concisely, photos will appear soon soon dearest all. I know I say it a bit and you probably don’t believe it because you never hear from me properly but I really do so miss you all my New Zealand friends. I have told Cynthia that she must bug me about emailing more often, and so must you! 

On Tuesday I will have been here 3 months and in many ways the last month has been both the best and the worst. I’m beyond the homesickness stage, although I do miss family and friends a lot (particularly now as Christmas approaches). I’ve finished my first term at LSE and it seems odd to think that I’m a third of the way through Masters, time is flying by. Excuse me recapping on things I may have said already . . .

I love London, living in the central city is fabulous and it means that I spend very little on the tube. I’ve started going to HTB, which is on the other side of the central city so I tend to catch the tube there and back but otherwise my life usually revolves around walking as far as I can. It’s great! We have little parks on both sides of Passfield, and even our own garden with grass and trees. Although it’s not something anyone is appreciating right now, I’m sure they’ll prove popular in Summer. It’s got quite cold here, although not as cold as I’d expected. It’s fun venturing out once the sun goes down (at around 3:30pm) with lots of layers on and seeing how far you can get before you realise that you’ve left scarf or gloves at home. I keep forgetting that evenings outside are going to be much colder than my nice warm room. We live in a very nice area of town and it’s reasonably safe, although I’m usually walking with friends after dark. LSE is a 20 minute walk away and is a completely crazy place. The professors are nuts, the other students are incredibly intelligent and focused and we’re surrounded by the Royal Courts of Justice and several other important places (I refuse to count the Australian embassy as an “important place” however).

Uni finished last Friday, and as is the way of things, all hell broke loose at Passfield over the previous two weeks culminating in a very odd extraordinary committee meeting on Friday night. I got almost no sleep for the two weeks, and somewhat unsurprisingly ended up with something resembling the flu by Saturday. I did, however, have a fabulous night last Wednesday though, I think it was Wednesday, the whole week went by very oddly and quickly.

Anyway Christmas . . . I’m heading to York, a fabulous little city in Yorkshire (makes sense really, doesn’t it) for 3 days of tourist delight on Sunday. I’m then going to a little village where my dad’s best friend’s family live and I’m going to spend Christmas with them. I’ll also, hopefully, find time to work on my Development Management essay there. I’m heading to family on the Welsh/English border for New Years and then back to London on the 2nd to work on my 2nd and 3rd essays. What fun! It’ll be nice when all the Passfield people get back on the 7th, I’m already missing their general craziness a lot, although I might see some of them over the break.

Time to fly, I have some final photocopying to do for Mum, the last parcels to mail and then packing to sort out. Fun fun fun, tralalalala! I’m sorry this isn’t a proper catch up, but then again if I wrote about everything you’d get quickly bored by the masses of paragraphs to read . . . must update blog more often :oP

I arrived in London two months and four hours ago, lost, confused and very very tired. I had wonderful people help me with my bags on the tube and the guys at Carr-Saunders Hall, where I spent my first night, were amazingly helpful. I remember wandering around trying to get my bearings before I stumbled back to the Hall and bed.

Two months later, life seems a little less all over the place (thankfully!). Although I miss everyone at home dreadfully, I’ve made some great new friends and they’re teaching me a lot about their different cultures. I have a church, which I’m working on getting more involved in, and I’ve been elected to some rep role on the Passfield committee. I’ve seen a few friendly faces in the form of two MPs, my parents, and family friends and next weekend I’m going to journey up to Chester to meet, and spend the weekend with, extended family that I’ve never met. I’m really looking forward to both the weekend away AND spending time on a train. I like trains.

I’ve become addicted to Facebook, handed in my first essay, watched my first American Football game, and made my room look vaguely home-like. I’ve mastered the art of using the tube, I even have an Oyster card, and have learned that sleep is actually very important. I’m looking forward to Christmas “holidays” and exploring SW England and spending Christmas in a little village/town near Cambridge, must sort that out, although I’m not particularly looking forward to the 4 essays due in the first week back in January. Life is good!

I spent the weekend at Cumberland Lodge with 45 of my Development Management buddies. We had a fantastic time and did lots of crazy things. The Queen was home at Windsor Castle (her flag was up), so it was nice to have her join us for the weekend, although none of us actually saw her . . . well some people did, but that was on Friday in London . . . but I digress.

Cumberland Lodge is set in the heart of Great Windsor Park, 27 miles from London and 4 miles from Windsor Castle. Its Patron is the Queen, who has granted sole occupancy of this splendid seventeenth-century house to the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Foundation of St. Catharine’s. LSE postgrad students invade the Lodge throughout the year and this weekend was Development Management’s turn. I’m not sure whether they’ll invite us back next year after our rather raucus partying. Lots and lots of fun!! If you want to know more about what we did, email me and I’ll tell you the whole story, but here’s the basics . . . in photos :o) You can see all my photos here.

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We’re having a potluck lunch for my floor at Passfield tomorrow, everyone’s cooking or bringing bits and pieces. I was going to try and bake stuff until I discovered that we didn’t have an oven, how did I not realise that until now? Anyway I though it’d be nice to bring something Kiwi-ish, and since cooking lamb was off my list of things to do, I toddled off to the Australia/New Zealand/SA/ Canada shop in Covent Garden and bought Tim Tams and Gingernuts. Insanely expensive but I figure this will be my once-a-term treat . . . I also bought myself some pineapple lumps, they really are so very very tasty!!

It’s kinda funny, I never thought of myself as a proper Kiwi until I moved here. Maybe it’s homesickness talking, but I definitely miss Kiwi culture, being surrounded by people who talk rugby, general laid-backness, and people with Noo Zulund accents. There’s a lack of Pacific Islanders here, no one talks Samoan on the buses and many of my fellow Passfielders can not for the life of them understand the Haka . . . which I refuse to do for them anyway (just imagine me doing any haka, does that not create the funniest mental pictures ever?)

It was oddly nice being in the NZ/Aus/SA/CA shop, it’s kinda like stepping into another land. I was surrounded by Kiwis, mostly from the Waikato, discussing who’d won the Air NZ Cup Final. I was the only Wellingtonian, and therefore the only disappointed one it appears. (Waikato played Wellington in the Air NZ Cup Final, the old NPC, and won for those that may have missed this news).

The thing is that I didn’t come here to hang out in a NZ shop, so although it’s lovely to know it’s there, I think I’ll probably experiment with UK peanut butter, cereals, biscuits and lollies instead of going there every week. To prove this I have some brand of UK peanut butter in my cupboard, I haven’t tried it yet but hopefully it’s good!

I think it took me a lot longer than I ever expected to settle in completely. I finally feel vaguely at home here, but it’s taken 4 weeks to get to this point. I’m actually back to being organised again, I think I’ve stopped losing things in my general confusion, and they’ve finally re-bolted my bookshelf to the wall so it won’t fall on me. I know when my essays are due, I’ve chosen my courses, I’ve organised my disability support bits and pieces, I have a bank acount and cashcards, a GP, and 5 new textbooks. I’m still vaguely church hunting but I’ve got a LSE CU cell group with very cool people in it, and the LSE CUers have been incredibly welcoming and fabulous to me. I’ve been on the London Eye with my parents and realised how HUGE London is. I’ve been to numerous very English pubs with new friends and not eaten very much exciting stuff. Life is good, I’m truly lucky to be here and amazed by the people that teach me, and by my classmates.

To sum up, God has been very good to me and I am constantly learning that I can rely on Him for everything. I think the first part of the song “Take My Hand” by Shawn McDonald sums it all up for me right now -

“Take my hand to the promise land
And on You I want to stand
‘Cause I cannot do it on my own
You’re what I need and I need to be
Right by Your side ‘cause I cannot hide
Lord, I know that I need You”

I have just made a decision to stop listening to NZ radio. Just because I can does not mean I should. Apparently it’s going to pour with rain tomorrow, somewhat unconveniently as my parents are coming to town for 3 days. I’m really looking forward to seeing them! [UPDATE - No more pouring with rain, just a little rain, YAY!! AND I've found a UK Christian Radio station so I'm now happily listening to that]

I went on a big adventure this weekend, I spent all Saturday studying and doing boring things so I could spend all of Sunday adventuring. I left Passfield (located at the top of the map) just before 11am and arrived at Holy Trinity Brompton, which is just off the left side of the map, at 4:50pm. En route I visited St Paul’s Cathedral, the Millennium Bridge, the Globe (kinda), the Tate Modern, South Bank, Westminster and Westminster Cathedral, Buckingham Palace, and Hyde Park Corner. You can view ALL my photos from this funtastic adventure here.

Next I walked over the Millennium Bridge, which is still vaguely wobbly, to the Tate Modern and the Globe. I took some photos of the Globe, but didn’t go in, and then spent an hour wandering around one floor of the Tate Modern. I like art, but it’s definitely something I can have too much of!!! You can walk down the South Bank of the Thames from the Tate Modern to the Westminster Bridge (back to Westminster/Big Ben) so I headed that way and got caught up in a Sunday fair-type-thing. Lots of street performers and secondhand books and people with weird shaped balloons. There was also a guy making really big bubbles, which I managed to get a photo of. Lastly, there was a Macedonian street band performing so that was really cool, they sounded fantastic and I got a few photos of them.

Having finally made my way to Westminster bridge, past the London Eye and County Hall where there were masses of people, I crossed back to the other side and went to Evensong at Westminster Cathedral. The singing was incredible, although I couldn’t see the choir from where I was sitting. One of the easiest ways to get from Westminster to HTB was to go through Buckingham Palace so I headed that way and got caught up in the parade of crazy horsemen wearing silly costumes. Apparently people wait for hours to see these guys but I just happened to be there at the right time, perfect!

Lastly I headed past Hyde Park corner and onto HTB. It’s a big church, a huge church, but it felt really nice and I really enjoyed both the preaching and the worship. I shall go back there I think.

I’m still getting over jetlag and finding my feet in this huge city with it’s masses and masses of people but I’ve finally got the internets at my hall and so I thought I’d just quickly blog to let you know that I’m alive, alert, not very awake, but quite enthusiastic.

I’ve had quite a lot of ups and downs this week, but I’m loving it here overall and everyone I have met so far has been amazingly lovely and nice.

I have a lovely room but although it’s rather warm outside and stiflingly hot inside (my room is like an oven currently).

Anyway it’s my bedtime so I’ll blog and do other such exciting things tomorrow. What fun!

Thanks sooo much for all your txts, blog comments, and emails, I really appreciate hearing from everyone and it’s kept me going during the less fun times this week! <>

Last blog post before I take to the skies and I’m stealing my sister’s lappie to do it.

I’m really excited but also quite scared by the whole prospect. I’ll have photos and stories to tell in a few days and so I’ll leave the interesting stuff until then but meanwhile I shall miss you all greatly!

It’s my turn to fly . . .

Love Fi