Some English expressions I like:

1. Proper. As in 'He's proper minted'. Or 'She's proper ugly'. Pronounced like proppa. 'E's made a right proper mess of this asn't e?'

2. 'Orright?'. Used like 'How's it going?'. 'Orright Tom?'. I don't tend to use this one much but everyone else does quite a bit. I still haven't quite worked out the right response to this one. 'Orright?' 'Yes, I'm well.' or 'Uh-huh'. or 'I'm alright, how are you?'. I don't think any of these are correct.

A similar one is 'Howz it?' or commonly 'Howz it bro?' (with the bro pronounced brew). This is a South African term not an English one but there are so many saffas over here it might as well be a London term. A good response is 'Lakka, bro'.

3.'I'm not being funny, but...' This is usually followed by a complaint. 'I'm not being funny, but would you get off your arse and do the dishes??' But this phrase always prefaces a mild complaint. If you were making a serious complaint, and you were really angry, you would drop the 'I'm not being funny'. 'Get off your arse and do the f***in dishes!' So, you would be being funny, even though you were angry. Get it? Good.

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So what really has been going on over here. I guess I haven't written a great deal because England, and London in particular, are jam packed with Aussies. Jaf(f)a's...Just Another F***ing Aussie. In India I felt like I could write about what was going on because I was doing something unusual, but over here I feel like I am doing the same thing as half of Australia.

None the less, I've decided to bore you all and write something.

I moved out of the Duke of Wellington around Christmas, for a variety of reasons, but I guess in general the atmosphere was getting a bit hectic (plus I was picking up too many South Africanisms, hectic being one of them). There is only so long you can live with between 12 and 16 people and get along with everybody, and towards Christmas the atmosphere changed for the worse. To be fair I think it was time to go anyway. I didn't really want to spend all my spare time partying in my own house, although it was quite good fun for six months!

Unfortunately I have moved in with a bunch of over the hill Englishmen and woman who are about as much fun as daytime TV. Well they're not all bad, I guess we all have our own things going on and its just the overall house atmosphere which is a bit of a let down after my previous digs.

I'm beginning to get a bit over Brixton itself. What a hole. You can feel the difference even on the tube...the Victoria line ain't too bad south of Victoria station, but as soon as you reach the home stretch between Stockwell and Brixton, the noise level jumps about 50 decibels as you listen to 100 year old rails screeching in pain. As the train hits the station it jerks violently just as you stand up to get off. And classical music is piped loudly through Brixton station itself to keep out the pimps and ho's (although I'll put my hand up as a bit of a nerd and say I don't mind their selection!) (the music, not the selection of ho's).

The walk out of the station is a gauntlet. I have never made it through without being offered skunk, (in that hideous loud whisper of 'skunk, skunk, hey man, skunk), and I've been asked for spare change by the same bloke with the same bloody story around twenty times. My street itself is quite alright, but the station is a zoo. Still if you are looking for the best crack in London, I have been assured time and time again that I'm at the right place.

Any more observations on the English? Class differences are larger and more obvious than in Australia, from the accents through to where people live. I'm starting to notice that sort of thing a lot more. They even have different classes of supermarket, and I'm not talking about Coles vs Bilo, its really graded over here. I'm learning that London is a completely different kettle of fish to the rest of England - sometimes it feels like you never meet anyone in London who's actually from the place - but some things remain the same throughout the country, eg, chavs and the weather.

Reading over this I worry that I am picking up the English knack for complaining. There are plenty of good things over here...the English countryside is beautiful. It lacks the feel of real wilderness and space you have in Australia but is less harsh and more picturesque. I even found some beautiful beaches over the weekend, and I struggled to believe I hadn't crossed the channel into France or Italy.

I was planning to do some European travelling over the summer (well ok, I still am) but am also hoping to spend plenty of time exploring Britain.

The English people remain a decent lot, once you get to know them, although having said that one of my housemates got knifed over the weekend in a club that I was at the other week, and he's had 36 stitches to put his ear back together. He's not sure, but thinks he may have looked at somebody the wrong way.

The last six months in photos...

A trip to Amsterdam I don't remember too well
Seeing Dita Von Tease ...

John came to visit:I don't remember that too well either

We went to Stonehenge

And Bath

I finally moved out of the legendary Duke of Wellington


And into 'Sunny' Brixton

I received a rousing welcome




Me and John spent two weeks travelling through Dublin, Rome, Florence, Paris & Amsterdam (again!) with Mum, Dad and Dan - great to catch up with the family.

Spent New Years in Paris with John



The other highlight was watching Dan attack Eurodisney mascots:
And voila! Six months gone like that.

Hope everyone is well back in Oz. I'm planning on writing more regularly in my blog now that I live in a normal house with my own space and time.

Right now the only vacation photos I have are some pictures I took with the intention of making John look as ridiculous as possible. See the results for yourself here. The rest of my photos should be up in a week or so.

Update - the rest of my photos are up now at http://www.flickr.com/photos/lamoney/