Monday and Tuesday are the new weekend.

Now that I actually have my weekends I try to make the most of them. Therefore most weekends mean not quite enough sleep and a little too much fun. For some reason, this week we decided to pretty much have another weekend.

This is how it went down.

Monday I went to work from 8am to 4pm, then straight to Southfields to meet Jess and try our luck with Wimbledon as it was the first day of the tennis. We decided to brave the infamous 'Queue’ and try our luck at getting in to enjoy the tennis. Well, surprisingly enough, there was no queue. Perhaps this shouldn’t have been surprising thanks to the weather as the nice day had turned into an overcast and drizzly one. Basically, we arrived and got in straight away, just as they were covering all the outside courts until the rain stopped and play resumed. It didn’t. But as we hadn’t had to wait to get in we figured we may as well line up for the resale tickets so we could watch some tennis. As centre court was the only court still playing we got in that (rather long) queue and a couple of hours later had tickets in our hot little hands! Watching Andy Murray play centre court at the first day of Wimbledon…not too shabby an outcome really!

We couldn’t stay too long as we had train tickets booked to get us out to Salisbury. However on the way we wanted to stop in to where Jess was staying so she could get some more appropriate attire. Pick the Australian wearing thongs (flip-flops) in the rain! So after a whole lot of tube, bus and train rides we were on our way to Salisbury. We had met up with Adele from work, acquired some wine and settled in to get our inner-hippie happening!

Once we arrived in Salisbury, just before midnight, we then hopped on a bus to Stonehenge. The bus was full of characters, the air smelt of ganja, the sound of joyful singing rang out and the atmosphere was buzzing full of excitement! The bus dropped us at the edge of field which we then trekked over with the sight of the stones in the distance. Stonehenge was a buzz of activity, people everywhere, soooo many bongo drums and….rain and coldness and tiredness. We couldn’t quite maintain our tipsiness so may have shut our eyes whilst lying under one of those blankets they give people to prevent them from getting hypothermia (it was cold!). But we did do a lot of walking around and soaking up the atmosphere, whilst being soaked by the rain of course. There are only 2 days of the year that you can actually go up and touch the stones, summer and winter solstice, so we got right involved (putting glowsticks around the stones?!?!?) until the big moment…the sunrise! Ok so it was a very overcast and cloudy day and not being on the coast meant you couldn’t exactly see the sun. But it did all of a sudden get incredibly light at a random hour and there was lots of cheering and even more dancing to bongo drums!

After the sunrise celebrations we trekked back over the field, caught another bus, had an argument with the train guard (money grabbing scumbags), waited for a train, caught one to Clapham, walked home (why oh why do I bump into people I know after being awake for over 24 hours????) and got into bed! Jess and I both napped but not for long as we had to get up and ready to meet Roxy for her birthday. We decided to go somewhere a little different and nice so ended up in Chiswick for lunch. As it was a birthday we had to celebrate properly; hello red wine at lunchtime! After an afternoon of eating food, drinking wine and talking nonsense we all went our separate ways. Roxy went to dinner; Jess went to where she was staying and went home to Skype Thailand. Although I was incredibly tired I still didn’t go to bed early (why?!!?). But, as I said, that’s what the weekends are for…not enough sleep and too much fun!

The camera I use is not great but here is proof the above events happened.

Centre Court with Andy Murray

Wine on the train.

Me touching a Stonehenge stone. Yes I'm wearing a garbage bag.

My waterproof outfit...kind of. Lady Gaga eat your heart out!

Everyone celebrating the sunrise.

Summer Solstice.

An open letter.

To all my Australian friends who have either recently arrived or who are arriving in grand old London town soon,

First of all, eeeee!!!! That's me being excited about the fact I will see you soon!

Secondly, you may be confused as the current weather is a lot more like winter than summer. Don't worry English summers are amazing!!!

It's a shame because we had a freakishly warm spring and now we seem to be having an excessively wet summer. This time last year I was getting sunburnt and now I'm getting covered in mud!

So lets hope that the sun comes out soon and you get to experience how beautiful summer is here.

Either way it's still so exciting that you're coming!

See you all soon!

Everyone who can....

Everyone who is lucky enough to have their father, stepdad, grandpa, older brother, uncle or absolutely any sort of father figure - go and hug them. Tell them you love them.

Sometimes it's nice to be reminded how much we mean to others. And I'm sure all Dads would agree.

I am lucky enough to have been raised by a fantastic, kind, funny, intelligent man who I miss everyday.

I'm 100% sure he knows how much we loved - and still do love - him.

One Weekend in London.

If I was ever to write a list of' 'things to do in London before I die', I think I could tick a lot off after this weekend. Here are the 4 main things I did this weekend.

Party on the River Thames.

Koko, the club in Camden had their midsummer boat party on the Battersea Barge Friday night. Roxy, Ashlee and I bought tickets and got involved. This meant dressing up nautical theme (yay, matching stripes!), having shots of rum on the way in and trying to not fall over whilst weeing as the boat rocked. Nathan, Chris and Britta met us there and we all danced the night away. Apparently, I was on the dance floor, eyes closed and swaying. This was the moment Chris told Roxy to take me home. But of course someone mentioned GJ’s and so we ended up there for some hardcore dancing (on the bar!! *cringe*) before deciding we wanted a kebab and bed. Good times.

''We're on a boat!''

Participate in a march for a good cause.

Yesterday London held their Slutwalk, a walk recognising the radical notion that no one deserves to be raped! You can find out more info at; http://slutmeansspeakup.org.uk/. I strongly believed in the message that they were promoting and definitely wanted to support it and get involved. Lee, Bree and a couple of Bree’s friends were also there so we got some placards and marched our way through London chanting, ‘Hey! Ho! Yes means yes! And no means no!’’

Bree and I - against rape and violence against women.

Head to Brick Lane to barter for a curry.

Auntie Di and Uncle Ken are over from Perth to do some travelling with Todd and Hayley so the 4 of them, myself and Jenny and Brayton met up for dinner last night. We started with wine, cheese and olives in their hotel room before making our way on the underground to Brick Lane.  We managed to score 2 bottles of red, 3 pints, free poppadums’ and 30% off the bill! Was actually a delicious late night meal.

Please excuse my sunburn and face (it was a long day!)

Spend Sunday afternoon in a fancy hotel having high tea.

Auntie Di, Hayley, Jen and I went to the Berkeley (pronounced like the bank, Barclay, not the university, Berkeley) for a fashion themed high tea, http://www.the-berkeley.co.uk/fashion-afternoon-tea.aspx. We ate some delicious food, such as; a Tom Ford light pink chiffon summer dress biscuit with rose icing and sparkly silver cuffs, a Chloe praline clutch topped with gold chocolate beads, a Marc Jacobs raspberry and lychee cream jumpsuit with over-sized chocolate flower belt and a Jill Sander coloured block dress of crème de menthe and coconut jelly with must-have sparkly sunglasses. Delicious! And so cute. A very fun way to spend a rainy afternoon.

Fashionista ladies lunching.

All in all a very lovely London weekend.

Even I was confused by this one.

''I was sad because I didn't hear from you so I want you to contact me less.''

Change!

Is happening!

And I'm excited!!

Commitment-Phobe

I refer to myself here, although I don’t mean I’m a commitment-phobe like I’m some kind of man-eater who doesn’t want to be in a relationship (as the term, commitment-phobe may invoke). It’s just that I find that I really struggle to commit to…well, anything.

I understand that other people find years and years of study worth it because of what they will have at the end of all that time. I can see that for some people  a ring on their finger, a mortgage, a career or even a baby, is actually a good thing and they get excited about these life experiences! However, right now, all of the above scares me.

The fact is; I don’t know what I want to do with my life. As in any aspect of my life. This can be a problem when it comes to making decisions. Most people will consider how  the outcome of the decision will affect  their future, what impact it will have and what the long-term consequences will be.

Sure, we are told to live in the moment and seize the day! But how many of us really do? Most people are working towards some sort of goal, even if they don’t want to admit it to themselves. As I said to my Mum earlier, I don’t want to wake up at 50 and think ‘what it?’ or regret that I still hadn’t figured out what I want to do, and therefore, had done…nothing.

I try to cut it down and focus on only one aspect of my life, or one choice at a time. I wrote in an earlier post how all I want in life is to be happy and grow old. But in moments of uncertainty, when it hits me that I don’t commit and I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future but it feels like everyone else knows exactly what they’re doing (obviously far from the truth but the way it seems in a ‘woe is me’moment!), I start to wonder am I supposed to know? Am I supposed to be working towards a goal?

I wonder if sometimes I stop myself from trying something new, or making future plans with someone I really care about, because if you don’t try, you can’t fail. I don’t want everything to go wrong, (and trust me, I feel like I know what it’s like to have the rug pulled out from under me and my world turned upside down!)  so if there are aspect of our life we can control, shouldn’t we?

Or should we just say screw it, look out for ourselves, do what we want and what will make us happy-right here, right now???

As you can see I find it hard to reach any kind of answer – I can’t even commit to a thought! Or a point to this blog post for that matter…

Basically I don’t know what to do. How do people know that what they’re doing is the right thing to do? Maybe I will never know….maybe it’s just not me. Maybe, I should stop going on about this and realise how lucky I am and tell myself everything will be alright.

But! What if…..just kidding. I can actually commit to ending this ramble!

Lynne Dowdeswell

Needs to get a backbone.

Monday.

Was the kind of day where commuting from where you live in southwest London to where you work in northwest London (and therefore through central London) just makes you want to cry.

No trains running from Waterloo meant my trip home was 2 tubes and 3 buses - it took about 2 hours!

Totally worth it though. :)

Despite the fact I now sleep alone.

I still don't wear pajamas.

Not the response I was expecting.

There is an Australian girl in my office called Ashleigh and yesterday I asked her what she missed most about home...

Her answer: Dim sims!

I gave her a Tim Tam to compensate.

 Dim sims. Tim Tams.

Decisions.

I have a lot on my mind right now. No part of my life feels concrete or secure and my head is a jumble of thoughts! Everything could change in an instant and I'm trying to enjoy this....but I'm actually expected to make a decision and that is something I'm not good with. I wish someone had a crystal ball and could tell me how everything was going to work out. However that takes the fun away! So I need to just chill out and go with the flow.

But I also need to actually be a grown up and decide. I realise how lucky I am in regard to my problems (someone wants to hire me, I want to travel etc) and I'm not complaining. I just do not know what to do!