Place: In Bed

Poison: Long Black

Favourite Things: pjamas and the underground.

For anyone playing at home, if you are travelling to London, NEVER hire a car! It is so not worth the effort. The underground is fantastic, the trains are so on time, despite the stuffy air, we are pro’s at the underground vibes.

In comparison, we have been in london for three days and we have had a 100 pound car fine and also this morning our car got clamped with another 100 pound fine attached! Seriously it was a drama. Both times we had paid our parking meter and were less than 15mins late. The traffice wardens here are just awful and I promise never to complain about parking ever again in Perth.

We might as well have caught taxi’s and the underground instead of hiring a car, it has been the bain of our London experience.

In contrast, we started the day on Portobello road at a cafe with Jeff and Julie Crabtree and enjoyed an extended breakfast of Haddock, eggs and holandaise! Jeff and Julie are just amazing and I soaked in their wisdom of years of experience in the music industry, ministry and living a large life of influence.

I enjoyed the conversation, company and most of all just learning from them and who they are. We had breakfast at the Electric Brassarie, which apparently is a big time celebrity haunch. But no rockstar anointing for me, I think I must have needed Kym Rolle with me.

After our wheel clamping drama, we ventured back into London central and participated in a English tradition, a real life English High tea. The sandwiches, tea and petite fores were delicious. An afternoon of catching up about life, family and love.

Tonight, we are in our pjama’s very early, trying to remain positive about the smog, freezing cold and london traffic police.

Tomorrow we are off to Oxford and the Tate Art Gallery…

I miss Leederville and North Perth…My regular cafes, no paying for parking, no wheel clamping when you are 15mins late for your car meter but mostly my friends and our daily life together.

Don’t get me wrong I am totally inspired by London and its cultural diversity, but we are so spoilt in the way we live our daily lives in little old Perthtown!

Challenged

A

Place: In Bed

Poison: Water

Favourite Things: live theatre

Tonight was one of my all time favourite nights in a very long time. Quite unexpected I was given tickets to see Mary Poppins in London’s West End. Growing up I was an absolute live theatre addict, performing every song from any musical that I could find.

I studied dance five times a week for at least fifteen years. In those years, day in day out, my all time dream was to be in a professional musical production and as I grew older and went to WAPPA, studying musical theatre, my goal was to stand on a stage in west end and perform live.

Well I never achieved that dream in London, but I was in hundreds of amature shows in Perth and a couple professional ones…So that’s the background and tonight as the curtain raised, tears dribbled down my cheek as I sat in the Prince Edward theatre and was transported to another time, place and memories of why I loved theatre so much.

The production and technical stunts in this show were one of the best I have ever seen. Better than Cirque de Solei even, as it carried the audience into a place of family, magic and music.

I loved the black and white sketches that were projected onto the cyc periodically through the show and of course the moment when Mary Poppins flew over the crowd.

It was breathtaking and I loved every minute of it. Mum, Jen and Eileen, I so wish you could have been there with me and maybe one day we will travel to London together, but this little drama queen is going to struggle to go to sleep tonight as my inspiration levels have reached saturation point!

Big deep breaths Amanda it was only a show. But what is it about a company of people performing in unison and the words of inspiration floating out over the red velvet seats that make most of our jaws drop.

I think we were created by a God who is delighted in joy and the simple things in life, his creation celebrating the gifts and wonders of humanity. Okay, this curtained landscape is completely surreal and not realistic, but so what, it creates a canvas of inspiration for old and young alike.

I pray in our sophisticated times, we dont become so technilogically savy that we loose the wonder of live theatre and the history it has forged creatively throughout the generations.

Thankyou Mary Poppins, yes… (sung with arms wide open and much vibrato!)

Anything can happen if you let it! Anything can happen just imagine, that should be my epitaph I wear my badge on…In honour of this worlds free thinkers, those who see beyond their blinkers. Jelly isn’t jelly till you set it! Anything can happen if you let it.

Supercalifragilistically Inspired!

 

AMP

Place: Hotel Foyer

Poison: Long Black with hot milk

Favourite Things: french accents

Slight Jet Lag, meant that I was wide awake at 5am, which for my family, previous flatmates and okay, yep everyone that is very hard to believe. So I got up not wanting to waste my last day here and went for an early morning walk.

Being Saturday morning, the remnants of a big friday night in Paris where still surfacing from bars, cafes and finding themselves stranded on the sidewalk.

This city does have an underbelly, but it doesn’t seem as sinster as most make it out to be…I love Paris and can’t wait to come again. On my early morning dalliance, I decided I need to come back soon and also stay in a farm villa somewhere in the tuscan countryside.

Last night I cracked my first creme brulee, aka amelie, the feeling was just as intense! I drunk slowly and tenderly a real hot chocolate and stared out onto the streets at 10pm on a friday night and drew in my journal the sights my eyes perused.

(yep this is it!, see my pink journal in the background…)

My most precious moment captured yesterday was late in the afternoon, when I found St Sulpice was 2 mins from my hotel and I stood before St Joan of Arcs shrine and earnestly prayed that my life would make a difference like this warrior child.

St Sulpice was eerily bouyant. People were not quiet in reflection. They were buzzing with Da Vinci Code theatrical energy searching for the heartline in this ancient temple. Can’t say that turned me on! I was wanting to light a candle and kneel and reflect on the years  of worship that had been offered up in this monument and the secrets and stories that had harboured queens, kings and even napolean…

My breakfast of salami, cheese, sour dough, yoghurt and creme fraiche awaits. So does the eiffel tower, notre dame and the eurostar through the country side.

Creativity awaits exploration…the ancient meeting the modern with a french accent is my favourite of all time so far in my limited travels.

Merci Paris, your reputation has not dissapointed…

A

Place: Heathrow

Poison: Flat White

Favourite Things: Entertainment Systems on the back of aeroplane chairs.

Well, the adventure has begun, and after a few long flights, I will be on French soil, for the first time of my life.

I am so looking forward to many things, Notre Dame Cathedral, The Louve, Croissants, Brie Cheese from the motherland, french kissing and of course the Eiffel Tower.

For those playing at home. If you were in Paris for 3 days what would you do?

Not the corny, everyday stuff. I want to capture moments and experience Paris in its fullness. Moulin Rouge, Parisian Pride and all.

PS- I hope it snows

Keep an eye on the posts, I promise they will make up for my slackness towards the end of last year

Au revoir!

ampster

Place: Qantas Club Singapore

Poison: Chardonney Victoria

Favourite Things: Travelling to new places

We have a tradition in our family of writing plane letters, and as I flew off on this short dalliance, my mother drove an hour to deliver me mine.

As I read it, I am quite overwhelmed at how much I am grateful for the small things in life, such as families, letter writing and the tales of people from days gone by.

Mum included some writings of different saints, so I could read about their lives and the pursuits that they have engaged in. The one which held my attention the longest was the life of Saint Augustine of Hippo.

His persecution and life was so interesting. What captured me the most was the poignant writings that still inspire thousands today.

Saint Augustine wrote ‘God has no need of your money, only the poor have. You give it to the poor and God recieves it!’

Also ‘This very moment I may, if I desire, become the friend of God.’

One more for the road ‘Conquer yourself and the world lies at your feet…’

Augustine of Hippo born 13 November 354, died 28 August 430, you inspire me.

You inspire me to be a better person, to live a bigger life, to abandon the smallness of thinking that holds me to the boundaries that others have placed on my life not God.

‘Our hearts were made for you, O Lord, and they are restless until the rest in you…’ My quote of the year…2007.

You did not die or live in vein!

Inspired already and I’ve not even left an airport yet!

A