Adventures of Gamblegirl: St Paul's, Brighton & Jack the Ripper Greetings all, hope you are all well, laughing and enjoying the sunshine - yeah well sod you all. No need to rub it in that it's cold and dark - oh hang on, that's why I came to England. Right will shut up now. I'm still at the same job, poss until Christmas or if I get a perm job which is pretty cool. I'm happy with that. It's a good deal and they are pretty good to work for. The past 2 Fridays, I've knocked off at 3:00 and have been instructed to put my timesheet to 5:00. Sweeeet.... Now that I am back, I'm back to being out and about in London. First destination is St Pauls. As with my long standing tradition of visiting a sight and bloody scaffolding ruining a perfect picture, St Pauls is under restoration! Man, I have the crapest luck, ie my perfect picture of the White House with a £W($%&*$(%&$£(%& marquee dead set in the middle. That's the kind of luck I'm talking about. But obviously someone's got a bit of sense of humour in that in front of St Pauls is a cardboard cutout (life size of course). I think a few people thought I was a bit strange laughing my arse off at the sight of it. Then again, I do have a "quirky" sense of humour. I think the theme of my travels are castles, Cathedrals, Churches and Palaces.... oh and everything is under restoration when I get there. They wouldn't be complete if they weren't. LOL, I'm just accepting it as fact now. Mainly I think that I love these places because that's were the best architecture and all the history lies. I think that's what interests me more then anything else. So naturally St Paul - yup under scaffolding, but what I saw is pretty amazing. It bemuses me how churches / cathedrals are so glam and always have the best architecture or artwork. It just seems a little pompous and grandstanding to me. I mean the whole purpose is to pray to god right (whatever one he might be!)? Is the best looking church really gonna matter or is just a matter of priest and the "church" as a concept with greedy egos? Anyway, there you go, your next pub debate. You can follow that light hardly discussion with Mormons and Jehovous Witneses - are they annoying or just misunderstood? Hee hee. What was cool about St Paul's was walking around the cryps (oh quirky sense of humour and morbid - yep that's me!). Saw Florence Nightingale's and tried to avoid walking on the ones in the ground. Man is that so hard to do! I hate walking on them, like taking photo's of cemeteries, I think it's disrespectful and well bad luck. Eventually it got so hard, I gave up and kept doing a mental "sorry, sorry, sorry". Second controversial thought, why can't we take photo's in churches? What is there a this is mine mentality, therefore we can't take a photo because it means sharing? Ok I know that the flash can do damage but c'mon, it's killing me not to snap a photo of the alter or the roof. LOL - imagine me being kicked out of church because of my trigger finger. Hee hee - this girl looks to the ceiling, pauses to reflect - hee hee. But seriously, if you make things so stunning to look at, why can't we share them and keep them as memories? Anyway bought the cutest xmas tree from St Paul's. It's gold (yeah sure) plated wires with little decorations. Getting that home is going to be fun. And I saw the cutest tree decorations there and b***** I don't have a real tree... So my next travelling destination is Brighton. That's right, I go to an English beach in practically winter. Go figure huh? My lovely travelling companion is Miss Jane (sniff - miss you chick, say hi to Dan for me) and I headed down for the day on a Sat day. Hmmm Brighton nice, really cute. Pebbles shores which was fun to walk on. Sounds like curnching on cereal. And the seagulls - bloody huge. I'm not taking one of those on. If they want my fish and chips, they can have 'em. Side note: Anyone seen Finding Nemo? Aint the seagulls hilarious? Mine, mine, mine, Hee hee. In a cheesy toursist cliche - yup had fish and chips on the beach. C'mon, it had to be done. Also had to go to Brighton Pier with all it's carnival rides. Naturally Jane and I had to go on one of the rides and naturally it had to be the most scariest one - yes, the Merry Go Round! I got my handwriting analysed. Apparently I'm "unwilling to conform to convention (what?!?!), showing intellectual indepence, often authoritive (some may call it bossy, but I'm going with authoritive. I like it!). I love to be the centre of attention, the life and soul of the party (what me?!?!? b***** off!), although I can be possesive (yeah that's true). I suffer from nervous tension (yup), resulting in outbursts of impatience (yup!) and can show a very abrupt personality (damn, right again), anxious to reach conclusions (s***, this getting scarey now!) and not easily swayed from my purpose and am stubborn by nature (eecck!!! I'm scared now!) I am generous regarding finance (am right about that) but not wasteful (nurrrr - wrong about that!). (Here's the clinker!) the reckless side of me wants to exert itself (huh? me reckless?) by breaking away from convention (I thought I was unwilling to conform anyway?) and to relinquish my long standing inhibitions." Right - cute Kiwi dude that lives in Willie G... oh who am I kidding, dude your safe from me. Anyway back to Brighton... Next it's off to The Royal Pavillon. Built like an Indian Palace and inside with Asian influence, it's the best palace/castle I've been to so far. Another cruel place that won't let me take photo's. I so wanted to snap a photo of the dinning room and the dragon canderlier. That was just stunning. I was so b*****ed that I got home on Sat night and fell instantly asleep and slept to late the next morning. Yet oddly still tired... The Sunday, had a guilty day of being in pj's and bed - no Christina Aguilera, you don't exude a sincere personality and man I love Justin Trousersnake's style - before heading out to meet Jane for the Jack the Ripper walking tour. Good night for it too. Misty, cold, dark. It was interesting because I'm so interested in that sort of thing. Can't watch a Thriller, HATE horror, but serial killers, yes can read and devour all the information that I like and don't even flinch. Ahhh the many twists of being me. This guy knew his stuff which made things even better. Typically Americans (sorry Di and Nick) asking all the dumb arse qn's and fixated on From Hell, the Johnny Depp movie. Urgghh head slap - ITS JUST A MOVIE!! But I enjoyed it, even if I was beginning to fall asleep on my feet. Until next time Gamblegirl PS. In a recent Spanish poll, on who their fav homegrown celebrity was, the winner was... David Beckham with a winning total of 63%. Um maybe the Spanish might have had a leeetle problemo with the qn, 'cos that last I knew Becks, ain't el Spanio. PPS. Dear English Press. Congrats, your cricket team is doing quite well. I know that's something to be excited about that they are thrashing their opposition... BUT ITS BAGLADESH!!! Hardly a cricketing nation and really if you don't win, you NEED TO HAVE A GOOD LOOK AT YOURSELF Love and kisses from your neighbourhood freak!!!!