Well my first trip to the UK! It was quite scary getting here and the trip was exceedingly long – I managed to watch three complete movies (“Walk the Lineâ€Â, “Yours, Mine and Ours†and “King Kongâ€Â) and walked around Bangkok airport for about an hour! Thank goodness we were flown Business Class - at least we were able to lie relatively flat and get some sleep.
Heathrow was very, very hectic! The queues to get through customs were horrendous! It took us at least 45mins to get through and we were in the "Fast Track" line because we flew Business, the other queues were 10 times longer! From there the trip Jersey was a short one but was delayed for 30-45mins.
The first day was a shocker, miserably cold weather (rain, overcast, wind), meetings and jet-lag, yuck! By 5:30pm here (2:30 am in Oz) I was well and truly ready for bed but I managed to stay awake until 9pm here – an absolute miracle. Since arriving in Jersey we have been flat out at work! The project we are working is complex on so many levels it is not even funny. We are in meeting from 9-5 each day and then have heaps more work to do before and after they are over.
We have been eating out every night. The food over here is very tasty but heaps of oil. I’m sure I’ve put on at least 5 kgs! I’m definitely going to have to do some serious exercise when I get back. We have also been drinking way too much wine! My gout has flaired up again.
We managed to have most of the weekend off which happened to be a long weekend here. On Saturday I spent my time exploring the city (St Helier) and doing heaps of shopping! Pretty scary actually the conversion rate will mean I have spent way, way, way too much money. Oh well! Sunday we spent exploring more of the island (via hope on and hope off bus) and went to the Jersey War tunnels, the Zoo and walked around Mount Orgile Castle (on the other side of the Island). Quite a pleasent day out. On Monday, being the Bank Holiday here we caught the ferry over to St Malo (France) – very exciting. I wasn’t feeling too well for the first part of the morning, had a pounding headache, so bad that I felt nauseas everytime I moved my head. Once the Paracetemol kicked in I started to picked up and managed to enjoy the rest of the day. We spent our time walking around the old fortified city of St Malo, walking along the top of the wall, a little of time on the beach of of course through the cobble-stone streets. Lovely.
The last week of my trip was even more hectic than the first but we managed to catch up with Donna (used to work at CPASS with us) which was lovely and then I began the long trip home, solo this time. On the way home I also managed to watch three movies (The Last Holiday, Casanova and ?). I also did a little more work before the battery on the notebook ran out but by the end I just wanted to get off the plane and back home to my Matty, girls, a nice hot shower and bed.
All in all the trip was pretty good and certainly gave me a taste of what to expect when Matt and I go over later in the year for our REAL European Holiday. Can’t wait!
