so last thursday i had an interview at colchester zoo. Its about 3 hours from my house so happily if and thats a big IF i get it, i'll have to move back out of London.
Just getting to the interview in itself was a drama, the train in front of mine, hit someone at Romford Station so we got held up somewhere past Ilford for 40 minutes and then when i was preparing to leave the train at Colchester, a well dressed man stopped me.
"Excuse me" He said. "I dont feel very well, can you help me please."
So i had to help him get off of the train and found him a seat and called a member of the station staff to come over and he then got an ambulance for him and I waited with the man for the ambulance to arrive.
Putting my first aid skills right to the test there!
The interview was to become a park presenter, doing pretty much what i did at the Aquarium, but paid this time! I'm hoping it went well, but they havent got back to me yet, which is always a bit of a boo.

So when we returned from Venice we headed back to FLorence to see "David" and then took a bus up to Michaelanglos Piazza which overlooks the entire city and has amazing views.
Then we caught a train down to Rome, sadly we only had the afternoon there really, so didnt get a chance to see much, we got a bus to the colusseum and braved the queues to have a look inside. It reminded me of some of the new football stadiums, you go inside and head up to your seat in the covered section adn then head outside to the pitch side as it were!
it wasnt hard to imagine how it must have been then. We then headed off to the vatican city, we both wanted to go see the sistine chapel but it was massively expensive and a huge queue so our next port of call was the trevi fountain.
which we missed and got side tracked by this lovely big fountain in the middle of the roundabout, which mother insisted we stop and risk life and limb crossing the road and posing for photos with!
The next day we caught a coach to Naples and Pompeii, Mother got bored with the speed that the group was moving at and encouraged me to come explore with her, which isnt a good i dea! all the streets look pretty much the same!
WE explored in the ruins of some houses/shops and saw the towns Brothel! Not sure that was on the tour and some lovely frescos, and was only late back finding the group by a few minutes!
So thats the end of my Italian adventure, and I have to prepare now! I have an interview tomorrow for Colchester zoo so i better do some research for that!
TP and TJ are moving back to Derbyshire" Hurrah!

i'll put the last set of pics up tomorrow maybe when i report back on how it went!

the Duomo, Florence.

St Marks Square, Venice.

Gondolas!

So on the 3rd day we headed to Florence.
We spent most of the day just pootling about and booked tickets to go see David at the Accademia when we returned and visited the Duomo, which is an absolutely beautiful church, we went into it and lit a candle and put it on a tealight tree for Dad and then went into the catacombs and saw lots of old roman and religious relics and icons and sainty type things.

Then we headed to Venice the next day, I cant even begin to explain to you just how amazingly awesome that place is. The water is a lovely blue, the streetlights are pink and give a lovely glow, there's canals and bridges and gondoliers everywhere, although it kinda spoils the image you have of them in your head when they whip out their mobile phones!
And of course the novelty of riding a water busboat everywhere and getting onto floating platforms to wait for the bus can never ever grow stale! Although I admit for the next two days afterwards everytime i closed my eyes or stayed still i was swaying!
Venice is also famous for its Murano glass, which is awesomely pretty and very expensive. I got a pretty multicoloured photo frame and a little blue bird thats all cheeky looking and a multicoloured parrot.
We spent two days in Venice before going back to Florence where we went to the Accedamia and saw "David" Who is fantastically good looking even if he is a statue. Although he has almost scarily large hands, as apparently he's supposed to be on a mountain top so he'd look in proportion then.
Whats scarier is that like at my museum photos of David are banned and I was off duty and still found myself yelling out "No Photos please" at tourists hiding round corners to take pictures!

Blogger is being a bitch and not uploading my photos so i'll try again tomorrow when i tell you the final part aboutr Rome and Pompeii. ooh i bet you're quivering with excitement!

Hullo!

I'm back from Italy. It was a strange little place, rather rainy and dirty grotty cities with graffiti. So much like London then!

I did like Italy though, all the streets are narrow and dark and rather scary on a dark night. I loved wandering down odd streets and coming across ancient churches or ruins.

Pisa, was dark and spooky though, and rather run down. We went to the tower and climbed up it which was the oddest thing ever, you lean with the building and start walking up one side of the staircase and find yourself on the other! And at the top with only a thin bar stopping you from slipping off of the steps and falling does odd things to your centre of balance!
THe place we stayed at was odd though! It was basically a B&B set up by a rather enterprising woman in the spare room of her 3rd floor flat. who spoke no english. and my italian is limited to "Hello" "Bye." "Thanks" "Excuse me" "Welcome" "ice cream" and "How much does that cost?"

She got rather excited by the fact i was travelling with my mam though and pinched my cheek lots which hurt. And hugged me loads. And offered me what looked like Liver on toast. I opted for the nutella at breakfast time. Which they all seem obsessed by. Its everywhere, in ice cream, in cakes, on the breakfast table.
Needless to stay I spend much of my time hiding from her.

On the second day we went to Lucca, which is a lovely little medieval town about 40 minutes away on the train from Pisa, its exciting cos its mostly pedrestrianised (which is a good thing considering the driving skills of most italians!) We got a tandem and rode it the 4km around the city walls, which was an experience! its horrid not being in control of your cycle and i was at the back all the time and feeling like it was gonna tip over!
Anyway here are some pictures from that part of my adventures and I'dd do the rest tomorrow.

Me at the Tower!

Climbing to the top!

Lucca

So Tomorrow I'm flying off to Italy! Hurrah! My plan is to fly into Pisa, spend a day in Lucca, then head to Florence, before going onto Venice, returning to Florence, for the night before we go to Rome and then down to Naples and Pompeii before returning to Rome to fly out. In the space of 9 days! Phew!
I'm kinda nervous about it, its the first time i've back packed in a country i dont speak the language of, I'm worried that me and Mam'll fall out and can i negociate my way around Italy's train network without speaking a word of italian!

I like ducks, always have done, i like the way they waddle and the way they wiggle their feathery arses and i like the sheen on a mallards head.
OF used to have a mallard, it lived in a small pond that it shared with a rabid goose.
So when i saw two mallard drakes and a duck crossing the road on the way to work, i was entranced.
"Hullo Duckies." I greeted them. "why are you here? You shouldnt be here, not in the middle of a road, you belong on the pond"
They wiggled their arses and quacked cheerily at me, as if to agree that yes they thought they should be there too.
"quackie, quack, quack." I chatted happily back to them, and then prepared to cross the road, which was when the cyclist pedalled past giving me the strangest, and in my opinion completely undeserved look.

Hurrah I'm back! Hullo mr internet how are you?!

i've been disconnected thanks to those cunts at tiscali, who took it rather badly indeed that i was changing over my internet provider, cut us off, and yet refused to free our line so we could change provider.
it took a month of harrasing them, speaking to a lovely guy called ryan in their accounts department (indeed i think he might now be on my christmas card list!) and phoning up OFCOM who threatened to sue their asses before i'm back here, right now!
Except i'm not, cos i'm currently about to catch a train to Wales to see Welshy for 4 days.
So what's been going on in my life? Not a lot, apart from realising i CAN live without the internet, works still the same boring fuckery that its always been, except some mad cunt decided to donate 20million to us, which is apparently the largest donation ever made to a british museum. We all got summoned to a meeting after work (with free booze) to hear this, and i think one of my proudest museum moments was the pantomine gasp at the announcement and seeing how we then all started edging backwards towards the bar, before the speech ended and then how we all turn and ran to it, my boss leading the charge!
I also managed to disgrace myself fantastically by being caught by Lord Stirling who is head of our trustees with 6 glasses in my hands and in the attempt to smuggle them into my locker and take home.

Other news.... Hmmm, oh I got an interview at London Zoo to be a temporary animal keeper, however i didnt get the job cos "i didnt have the experience" So what spending 6 years of my life during the weekends and school holidays clearing up horse shit means i cant then clean up monkey shit? fuck that.
Applying for a job at another zoo now, we'll wait for that rejection letter!
Oooohhh. Speaking of stables, the sale of the land fell through, which is good, cos the man who brought it was refused planning permission, which means it'll be up for auction again soon.

And finally before I really must go and pack is that I'm away on holidays again soon. Last night in a rather supreme acto of boredom me and Mum decided to go to italy, so we have a flight out booked to Pisa and a return one for Rome, as to what we do inbetween that for 9 days is a mystery! Hurrah!