Travel...FINALLY!

It took a while, but in August AND September, we finally ventured out of Brum to pay a visit to Bristol and Ludlow, respectively. Almost immediately, we wished we hadn't! Both places were so much nicer than Brum, it was hard to bring ourselves to leave.

Bristol was a one and a half hour trip from Brum, and the train station is absolutely HUGE! You could easily mistake it for a station for a major city like Sydney or London, it was so massive. I don't really know much about Bristol, so maybe it needs to be that big, but it seemed a bit excessive. Having never been there before, we left the train station, and being on a tight budget, decided to wing it - that is, we walked in the direction everyone else seemed to be going. Luckily, there's plenty of signposting and we managed to work our way over to the town centre, stopping off at the St Mary Redcliffe cathedral for some happy snaps. It's a magnificent building, and the first really ornate church I've seen here, but the tombstones in the flooring freaked me out a bit - I've never seen that before!

Anyway, after taking in the church and it's surrounds, we continued our search for the town centre and a tourist info centre. It was still very early, so we figured we had plenty of time to find the art gallery, where the Banksy exhibition was held (our original purpose for the trip!) The weather was fine, and we just mosied on down to the info centre and grabbed a map and some directions, then set off again. The art gallery wasn't far; it was up a steep hill with trendy boutique shops on either side, but there was no time to look now - we were on a mission.

Finally, we found the art gallery and from across the road, could see a mass of people waiting in a queue in a nearby side street. Holy cow, we thought, that queue is massive! But we'd made the trip to Bristol especially so we weren't going to turn back now. We crossed the road to join the queue...and 20 minutes, a couple of streets, and another hill later, we reached the end of the line. To say the line was long is the understatement of the year; to say it was like queueing for a ride at Disneyland isn't even close; this was the queue from HELL itself. We waited for a little while, debating whether to stay or go, when we overheard some newcomers to the end of the line say that it was an 8 hour wait from here. Catch ya later, Banksy! Opting to do something other than wait in a queue all day, we headed back into the town centre to the shops we'd missed and started on plan B - touristy stuff.

Bristol is a really nice town. As we came back down the hill, we found a beautiful park with an amazing view, and a very tall tower, reminiscent of the evil queen's in the film, The Brothers Grimm. Squirrels were running around as well, which was so cool! It was my first time seeing so many, just out and about, going about their squirrely business.

We also came across some of Banksy's work scattered around town, so in the end, we did see some of his stuff. Another sight of note was The Golden Hynd, but I can't remember why it's famous anymore...

Anyway, whilst it's probably not a must-see for most people travelling in England, I liked Bristol - It reminded me a lot of Melbourne!

Saving money

They say life is all about sacrifices, and since being here, I've had to make quite a few when it comes to food and clothes especially. But it's definitely taught me a lot about what I actually NEED to get by, and what I want 'just because'. Of course, I haven't been able to resist temptation completely - Amazon is my new favourite store and I've bought more from there in the past nine months that I have from all the online shops I've shopped at in my life. I can't help it, I'm a gamer geek...and I love books, it just works out so well...

So here's what I've discovered, I'd rather spend money on games and books than food and clothes...yep, that's right. Weird, huh? Strangely enough, I can live without buying myself new clothes, even though I'm limited to two pairs of trousers, three tops and three pairs of shoes (no biggie for guys, but the ladies out there will understand). But if a new Square Enix game comes out, I'm there, baby! A book sale at Amazon? I've got bells and whistles on, dammit. And with the exchange rate the way it is, games are sooooooooooooo cheap here, what's a girl to do?

But I haven't been throwing money away, no no no..! I've bought a whole salmon in an effort to, not only boost my seafood intake, but save money as well. A WHOLE SALMON, people!! Now, those of you who know me, know that fish and I aren't the best of friends, so you may be questioning my sanity. But I have pictures as proof! I've also resisted all urges to call for takeaway and walks down to the local chippy.

So what do you think you could/couldn't give up in the name of saving money? Would love to hear from you!

Too many celebrity chefs

If there's anything England has a surplus of, it's celebrity chefs. Here, they're a dime a dozen. For starters, there's the infamous Gordon Ramsay. To be honest, I was a big fan of Gordo back home. I watched Kitchen Nightmares every week, rushing home from doing the groceries to get back in time to catch the start. But here, he is so over-exposed, I'm not at all fussed if I miss an episode or three. And the whole cheating on his wife thing didn't help either.

Then there's Jamie Oliver, possibly the MOST annoying celebrity chef on TV, constantly popping up in ads for Sainsbury's. At least shows are on only once or twice a week, but ad breaks are around every 15 minutes - not so lovely jubbly.

For a while, I found Hugh Fernley Whittingstall quite entertaining with his River Cottage program. It was really refreshing to see a chef who was doing something for the environment and making the most of seasonal fruit and veg. And some of the dishes were so unusual, I just had to keep watching to find out what he would cook next: squirrel offal skewers, manish water made with the head of a goat and goat offal...hmm...detecting a pattern here?

And then there's Heston Blumenthal, the chef famous for making ridiculous things such as hot ice cream. I find his strangely clinical approach to cooking a bit off putting, but I did enjoy his take on historical feasts. The things people ate in Victorian England, Tudor England, etc. were weird enough, seeing Heston's take on it was even more interesting. Still, I'm not about to rush off to his restaurant.

But wait, there's more...Ainsley Harriott, Lloyd Grossman (I cannot stand this guy, he is sooooooooooooo annoying), that guy on Masterchef, etc etc. There are just so many cooking shows, celebrity chefs are multiplying faster than rabbits. Somebody stop them before they take over the world!