Curiosity killed the cat

The past few weeks have featured for myself and Nicola a range of curious experiences I wouldn't mind recounting, if you'd be so kind as to indulge me...

Lesson number 1 is that if you are going to even approach fashionable over here, you must be wearing Ugg Boots. Yes, that's right - Ugg Boots. I am a firm believer in wearing your pyjamas and related sleepwear inside your house, and crossing the threshold into the outside world either constitutes a mistake or the adoption of a persona not unfitting for an unemployed Narre Warren mother of 7. When combined with leggings that look curiously like jeans (but not enough to actually look good or even interesting), the effect is A-MAZING.

Lesson number 2 is that finding lemon juice in a bottle is tantamount to grasping the holy grail. Lemons by themselves? Yes. Orange Juice? Yes. Grapefruit Juice? Yes. Heck, even Quail Eggs in a carton? Yes. But when one assumes that one could possibly get the bottled juice of a very common citrus fruit, one would be dreadfully wrong.

Lesson number 3 is that it is always best to organise the purchase of a second hand bicycle from a Russian. Especially if said Russian has the bicycle located in a business park in a remote area near Swanwick. Anyway, it turns out that my friend "George" forgot his vehicle to take me from the train station to his business park locale, but did have his motorcycle. One challenge of this was fitting in the child-size motorcycle helmet he brought with him. Another was trying to keep my balance without grabbing hold of my Eastern associate (awkward). But the main one was preventing my iPhone from falling out of my tracksuit pant pockets while en route to our destination while not falling off. Oh yes, and not to mention trying to retrace my steps back to the train station on a bike with little/no brake pads on the front wheel. Let's chalk this all up to experience.

Lesson number 4 is that it is not uncommon for native animals to begin eating your garden, such as my friend here:



Once I got over the initial shock of meeting it within about 2-3 metres of me, I was able to take some photos, which were quite cool really.

Lesson number 5 is in the difficulty of re-enacting the Beatles' Abbey Road album cover on the actual intersection, without a) getting run over and b) not smashing the pulp out of the 39 French tourists dancing in the middle of the road.

I've also learnt how to replace the front brakes on my new bike, which links into being careful about buying bikes off Russians.

Until whenever...