Birthday in Amsterdam

I’m alive!

I made it to Amsterdam, I had a bloody good time, and I made it back home to Westhoughton in one piece. There was definitely one point during the trip I thought that might not happen – on a little boat, in the middle of a canal, with Traum steering and two huge tour boats coming from both directions…. But we’ll get to all that.

I left work on Friday at about 3.30pm and made my way to Gatwick. I got my EasyJet flight (30 minutes late) over to Amsterdam and the train to Centraal station. I found my hostel and dumped my stuff in my room, a cosy 18 bed dorm, then headed up to the bar where I made some friends around the pool table. Playing pool with people who’ve been in Amsterdam for a couple of days takes a while…..

The next morning, MY BIRTHDAY, I got up fairly early put my stuff in a locker and left the hostel to explore Amsterdam, first stop I went for breakfast with a couple of people I’d met the night before. I had the traditional Dutch dish uitsmijters at a place I’d read about, Letting – turns out its thick cut ham, three fried eggs with melted cheese all on top of toast. Ace! I left there and my new American friends and wandered around the city for the rest of the day. I found the hostel we’d be staying in once the girls arrived and spent a lot of time in Dam square watching the street performers (some better than others). I also stumbled upon a huge crowd of Celtic fans who were in town to see their team play Ajax in a pre-season ‘friendly’ (they suffered a crushing 4-0 defeat).

I eventually strolled up to the train station, via my hostel to collect my bag, and met Cam, Traum, Calla and Summerleigh who had arrived right on time. We jumped on the tram and set off towards our hostel where we’d stay for the next three nights. The hostel was set right on the edge of the 120 acre Vondelpark. We freshened up and wasted no time getting the beers in and cards out. We enjoyed happy hour down at the hostel bar then headed out to The Bulldog and on to a bar just off Rembrantplein. A lot of dancing and drinking later, we returned to our beds, stumbled up to the top bunks and realised it was almost 5am!

A few sore heads the next day was the least we could have expected. Luckily, the amount of bread, ham, cheese and eggs served at breakfast managed to soak a good deal of the alcohol up and meant we could go and explore the city. It was a great way to spend my birthday and Amsterdam is such a cool city. I’ll definitely be back because even after my second trip there are still things I didn’t manage to get to.

Between Sunday and Tuesday we took in a lot of the Amsterdam sites and sounds including hiring a boat (and causing chaos by crashing into a houseboat), visiting Anne Frank’s house and the Heineken Experience which was fantastic!

We landed at Manchester airport and went our separate ways safe in the knowledge that the picture would surface on Facebook very shortly allowing us to relive the entire trip.

And that's it. That's all you're getting. Because, what happens in Amsterdam must definitely stay in Amsterdam. Forever.

Dad and I headed back to Westhoughton so I could continue my week of annual leave and prepare for the start of the Games… which I will tell you all about in the next post to following in the not too distant future. I’m currently 2 West Ham station shifts into my volunteering and already pretty knackered but I’ll power through these 9 DAYS STRAIGHT and find time to blog about it too!

Until next time,

Bren x

More photos from the trip:

One Extraordinary Weekend

Friday began with an early morning birthday phone call to Australia! The BFF checked off another year and took another step towards the big 3-0 – not long now.. (Lol, I joke, I joke..)

After a busy day in work and ahead of the packed weekend I had planned I arrived home to Michaela and friends who were preparing for a night at CatFace. I said no, said I didn’t fancy it, said I couldn’t, wouldn’t, shouldn’t… then… MEOW.

And I’m so glad I did go! I had such a good night. The Star of Bethnal Green hosted CatFace for the first time. It was a perfect venue. Just the right size, reasonable drinks prices and excellent music. After several hours dancing, a slurred call from Australia (to let me know how I would feel in a few hours), chicken, chips, a drunk American who didn’t realise our lager is NOT Bud Light, and an argument with a cab driver… I was home, in bed, drunk but happy, after a crackin' and unexpected start to the weekend.

On Saturday I had to work. Which I did through a slight haze and whilst consuming as much water as possible. Once rehydrated, I got myself together and cracked on with the fun stuff. That’s right; I made my way to the London Transport Museum at Convent Garden. The only other time I’ve been to the museum was during induction in September but the main reason for visiting on Saturday was to see the Mind the Map exhibition. What?!

IT WAS ACE!

The museum was really busy but it’s so big that you couldn’t really tell. I’d definitely recommend it as something to do for anyone visiting London. Or for anyone who wants to find out more about the history of the Tube and Transport system here. And the shop!.. Ohhh the shop – fantastic! Ok, enough, now let’s move on…

I returned to Canning Town to find a full house! A group of 6 were setting off on a 2 week road-trip through 8 countries towards a music festival in Croatia. So we had a farewell dinner courtesy of Papa John’s and off they went, hoping to make it in time for the ferry over to the Netherlands – first stop, Amsterdam!

And speaking of Amsterdam...

On Friday this week I’m flying out to Amsterdam for a few days of shenanigans with some of the Manchester gang. Cam decided that she deserved to treat herself as she graduated (today, in fact!) and when I heard the dates of the trip I just could say no – Oh hai BIRTHDAY IN AMSTERDAM!! I’ll be telling you more about that in the next post. Or maybe what happens in ‘Dam, stays in ‘Dam...we'll see.

Anyway, back to Sunday. I’d seen via Twitter/the news that HMS Ocean was arriving in London on Friday evening and would be moored at Greenwich. The Royal Navy were holding a public viewing of the ship between 10am-3pm and I thought I’d go and have a nosey around a bit. I was just going to see what was happening and head home. I didn’t. After being ferried to the ship from Greenwich Pier I was on the ship, talking to sailors and looking at all the cool stuff for well over an hour. It is MASSIVE. The biggest ship in the Naval fleet in fact. I couldn’t count them all but I’d guess there were at least 8 helicopters, 4 JCBs and a tractor on board. I did everything – although I did draw the line at getting my face painted this time, because I thought I might stay out in London in the afternoon to take advantage of the LOVELY weather (don’t be jel, it’s turned crap again now).

Once I got the little boat back from the ship to the pier I had decided I was going to head into town to catch up with Surprises: STREB and their One Extraordinary Day. A gymnastic/dance group of 32 were running around London appearing at secret locations every couple of hours and the locations could be found first on Twitter (of course). I made it in to town in time to see surprise 3, 4 and the warm up of 5 but the day began at 7.30am at Millennium Bridge where 16 of the gymnasts threw themselves off in the ‘Waterfall’. Then at 10am they walked down the outside of City Hall in ‘Sky Walk’ - pretty spectacular too. But realistically, it was all about the grand finalé at the London Eye. There were a lot of brilliant photographs taken and you can read more about what other event London has planned for this summer at the MOL Presents website.

And then it was Monday again. But not just any Monday, oh no. This Monday was the first Monday of the 9-week Olympic Shift Rota period, during which time TfL's IT department is going 24/7 to support the increased demands during the Games. Luckily for me, my volunteering and annual leave was agreed before I took this position permanently and so I won't have to do any of the 12hr night shifts(!) and only have another few days in the office then I’ll be out for over two weeks!  Friday to Tuesday in Amsterdam then on to Manchester and back here just in time for the Opening Ceremony…which I’m still deciding whether to head to Hyde Park or Victoria Park to watch on a big screen to avoid returning housemates. I like ‘em and that and I really do want to hear about their trip but, COME ON, I’ve been waiting for this for SEVEN YEARS. And now there is only 10 days to go…

Until next time,

Bren x

Ps,      (Highly) Recommended Reading:

1)      35Reasons Rain is Better Than Sunshine

2)      London2012: An Etiquette Guide for Olympic Visitors

Enjoy a few more pictures from the weekend:

A Wonderful Wedding

I can’t imagine this’ll be the longest of rambles. I’m exhausted. But I had such a good weekend that I don’t really mind.

On Friday night some of Michaela’s friends came over and we all headed out to Soho for a few drinks and a bit of a dance – a warm up for ‘World Pride’ that was held in Trafalgar Square the next day. I’m told it was a good do, but not for me. No, I was uncharacteristically restrained and caught the last tube home on Friday so I could be up, packed and on the way to Euston to catch the 9.20am train(s) to Hale.

I was on the way to a wedding! Nat, a friend from Uni, was getting married. I met up with the group of guest I knew at the church – we were all surprisingly well behaved (in the church at least). It was a lovely big church, in Bowden, Cheshire and the sunshine even came out so that the confetti pictures looked pretty. The reception was held in the Mere Golf Resort & Spa, preeeety nice! As we arrived from the church we were greeted with a Pimm’s and asked to head outside for some group photos. We returned inside to the beautifully decorated room to enjoy the meal, speeches, cake cutting, and finally the dancing. Ooooh the dancing! There was so much of it – and I bloody loved it. In fact I loved the whole day. We all scrubbed up real nice and the happy couple looked wonderful.

The next morning I felt a little – delicate. And a four hour journey back to London was the last thing I needed, but on I soldiered listening to the Wimbledon final on BBC 5 Live – tennis commentary is incredibly fast and really quite funny but I managed to get home in time to see the final three (disappointing) sets. Better luck next year Murray.

Some good news on Wednesday – I collected the last set of my Olympic tickets! With all the tickets in hand, the free travel cards and the spectator guides, I have started putting together a plan of what Naomi, mum and I will be getting up to while they’re down for a visit in August.

I’ve also found out I’ll being doing even more shifts than I expected – some of them at the London Media Centre. I’ll be advising journos about the quickest way to get to certain venues and events – looking forward to fucking over a few Daily Mailers…

In other news, I’ve started looking into how I can turn these posts into a book. And I guess this sentence will be very weird to read once printed in said book… I’ve downloaded the software and started the editing – If I’m honest, some of these posts are awful! So it’s a pretty big job and I’m getting a head start.

That’s it for now. I told you it was a short one!

Over the next week I’ll be working. And working. And probably a bit more working. Good job I enjoy it!!

Until next time,

Bren x

Ps, If you’re struggling for any decent TV program at the moment I can’t recommend Line of Duty highly enough – BBC 1 iPlayer. Treat yourself. 

Track Walk and Toulouse

Piccadilly Line

Summertime fun things happening all over London at the moment means I’m finding it tricky to get these posts written and published at reasonable intervals, but I’m just about keeping it weekly at the moment – and this is week 41. FORTY ONE WEEKS?!... In fact it was exactly 10 months yesterday that I arrived in Canning Town, unpacked the car, wiped away the UmmBop-tears and started my London-Life. And actually, it’s going pretty damn well so far. This paragraph would have been ideal as a conclusion for week 52 but it’s written now and I’m really trying to let you (mainly Dad) down easy…. There really won’t be any great cliff hanger or climax I’m afraid. I may continue to write but I won’t be publishing after the year is done. Thought I’d get that out the way now…

But anyway, where were we?

When I posted last week I was just off out to do a track-walk down the tube tunnels of the Piccadilly Line to the disused station, Brompton Road. Brompton Road station sits between South Kensington and Knightsbridge, and closed in 1934 when a new entrance and the Harrods end of Knightsbridge station opened rendering this smaller station just 400m away, redundant. I got to the LU Track Access Control Centre offices at around 10.30pm. The small group of us had a safety briefing from the Protection Master and heard about how the crews of engineers and other workers sign on every night and how we keep track (pun not intended) of the people on our network – primarily so we don’t switch on the electricity whilst they’re still working! It’s all very interesting and is a system that has been evolving and improving over recent(ish) years and continues to do so.

Engineering train rolls through

At just after midnight we donned out hard hats and (orange) hi-vis jackets and headed down to the platform to see the last passengers train depart. After that we had to wait for several engineering train pass through heading off to various areas of the network and at just after 1am we got the signal that the power had been turned off and we were able to get onto the track. I obviously wasn’t about to offer myself to head onto the track first (just in case) but I didn’t want to be stuck in the eerie tunnel at the back either!... I positioned myself nicely in the middle of the group and we set off in single file, carefully avoiding various cables, big steel girders and surprisingly few mice. In short, it was great! We got back to the offices at about 2.30am and started the long and somewhat horrendous nightbus journey back to east London. By 5am (after some ridiculous roadworks at Trafalgar Square and a detour around the Isle of Dogs) I was in bed trying to get a few hours of sleep before…

The Pool

…dashing to Gatwick!

REALLY French

The View

I booked flights out to Toulouse a few weeks ago. Mum and Dad were off to my uncle’s place in Saint- Clar for a week so I thought I’d tag along for the first weekend. The great twist in the tale being, mum didn’t have a clue I was going and as she turned to face me at the baggage carousel I thought she might pass out and she told me later, she thought she already had! So that was funny. France is brilliant. Really…French. All of the boulangeries, pâtisseries, boucheries, charcuteries, crémeries, poissonneries, and épiceries – wonderful! And the countryside and the wine and beer and the swimming pool – all ACE! We explored Moissac (one of the towns on the many routes of The Way of Saint James) and a couple of other areas, although we didn’t manage to get over to THIS PLACE – randy old bastards! Only 80 minutes from Gatwick – I’ll be back!

TA Uniform

After a delayed EasyJet flight and a missed last tube home I only got in after 1am so first day in work was pretty tough going. I did finally receive my new contract and my official starting date was Monday 2nd July - hurrah. On Tuesday I was over at West Kensington all day for Travel Ambassador training. I learnt a lot about all our different ‘business areas’ (modes of transport) and about the iPhones/iPads everyone will be using. That evening I met up with Jane and Matt for a few drinks, a catch up about our current placements and another chance to ride the Cable Car. On Wednesday evening there was more socialising with the Manchester crowd. I went to a very busy Covent Garden to meet up with James, Devy, Rich and Amy. We spent a few hours reminiscing about the good ol’ days of MMU Course Enquiries and having a laugh. We saw Murray win his quarter-final game and agreed to do it all again in a few weeks.

And here we are at Thursday. Today, I’ve been getting used to my TfL issued iPhone and coming to terms with the striking pink hi-vis I have to wear during my Travel Ambassador shifts. I also visited West Ham for my familiarisation of the station and met some of the people I’ll be working with during my ICSA shifts.

The Shard:
shot from Tower Bridge
(NOT my image)

(via TimeOut London)

I was going to go into town this evening to see the opening of The Shard. We were promised a spectacular laser show… we got a few twinkly lights. I streamed it from their website and I’m so glad I didn’t make the journey up to Parliament Hill!!

One day left in the office then I’m off to Cheshire for a wedding on Saturday – but I’ll tell you more about that soon.

Until next time,

Bren x

Ps, I'll be putting more of the Toulouse photos on Facebook fairly soon (once I've weeded out any taken from below the chin!)

More photos from the week:

Checking the current
is off...

Love a plane window photo!

Pool pavillion

Vineyard

Driveway up to
the house

Euro 2012 cup final.
Huddled around the terminal's only TV like damp refugees!