Photos

Have added some Sicily photos but for some reason they're smaller than usual. Not sure what's going on there, sorry.

Celebrity sightings

Last night at the Barbican I hung SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH'S coat in the cloak room! I got a bit star struck! Vivienne Westwood was also there. Some la-di-da London Symphony Orchestra performance for their sponsors.

I promise I'll put some photos of my Scotland/Sicily trip up soon.

East London

I've been here long enough now that I feel qualified to write about my reflections on my local area.

Bethnal Green Rd is a wonderfully down-market high street. There are street stalls selling everything from fruit and veges, to CDs, to bed linen, and the street sellers are out every day, rain or shine. Bought myself a hat from there when I lost my other one. It has a pom pom.

Apart from the standard shops - Tescos, banks, post office, traditional English cafs etc - Bethnal Green Rd has some odd stores, such as the pie and mash shop (which ONLY sells pies and mash. They do tea and coffee, but you're not allowed to buy a cup unless you also buy a pie!), the hot sarsparilla shop (they must sell something else as well, but that's all it says out the front!) and the many sari shops.

Bethnal Green Rd meets up with Brick Lane, so the Indian/Pakistani influence on this area is strong.

Been to a few restaurants on Brick Lane, and so far my pick is Sheba. Good food, cheap (we had 2 beers, 2 sofdrinks, 4 small vege dishes, rice & naan for about £20) and pretty good service. They were even nice about the fact that I left my purse, a pair of gloves and my Barbican shirt there (don't ask...!) The worst I've been to was Clipper. Fliss and I went there for lunch, it was a set menu and there were only 2 other tables there and it took more than AN HOUR to get served! Even the first course (samosas!) took 45 mins. Shithouse. AND they had a bottle of water on the table when we entered, which we assumed was complimentary, but NO! The most expensive water ever bottled. Must have been done by some holy men atop India's highest mountain. Or squeezed out of diamonds.

Brick Lane is also very trendy, lots of great bars, especially up the Bethnal Green Rd end. And a market on Sundays. My perfect area!

So come and visit me! Not that I have any room in my tiny apartment. But I'm going to be rich any day now and will have at least 2 guest rooms...!

And in terms of news, the short film I made last year is on the shortlist for the Guardian Youtube competition! So that's pretty funny. The Guardian article is here and you can watch the video here. There's even a nice comment from someone I don't know! At least I don't think I know them. The other comment (robg56) is somewhat less mysterious...

Not such a big town

Had 2 bizarre experiences in the past week which make London feel like a small country town!

Last week we went to see 12th Night with Derek Jacobi (I know - DAHLING! So posh) and were sitting literally 2 seats away from Pete & Thea!! This show runs for about 6 weeks, with 6 performances a week, in a 2,500 seat venue... and we were at the same show sitting basically next to each other. What are the chances? (I'll let you figure that out coz I'm no good at Maths!) But great because I'd been meaning to call them and so we had a beer afterwards.

Then last night I was working at the Barbican selling sweets etc in the foyer for a concert of American folk/roots music and I recognised 2 people over at the ticket desk... Ollie Browne and his Danish girlfriend Metta! Ollie was playing in the show (with CW Stoneking) but was running late and sadly only here for one night so I didn't really get to talk to them. He really was running late too, I saw him on stage about 10 minutes after we'd been speaking!

Such a small world.

In other news, I have my first paid filmmaking job, which I got through iceandfire! The co-artistic director of iaf was asked to make a film with kids with substance abuse problems in Cornwall, but Sara's never made a film before so I'm going to do the filming and she'll run a workshop. So a week in Cornwall in Feb plus some good extra cash. Quite a coup.

PS: I know I usually write initials for people so as not to identify them too much but that wouldn't work for these stories! So I guess that technique is pointless now!

Swinging Sicily

In summary, if you're going to Sicily my advice would be to spend more time in the smaller seaside villages rather than in the capital, Palermo. Palermo is a weird city - it's not very welcoming or friendly as a place, and although it is on the coast it is quite industrial so there is no waterfront area or beach. There's a working port, a marina and then a concrete pathway along the water. No restaurants or anything. I guess it's just not a town that is set up for tourism.

However, they know how to rip tourists off! The cab driver from the airport charged us 60 euros!! Even though, seconds beforehand, the metre had read 34.50. AND he drove around and around in circles, pretending he didn't know where he was going. So actually the metre should have read 28 euros. Mofo. Ben also got pick-pocketed by three men on the same bus! A crowd of people got on, pushing and shoving, and Ben felt 2 men put their hands in his pockets and I saw another. Thankfully he didn't actually have anything in there, so they achieved nothing. Then a Sicilian woman started to yell at one of the men (who acted very innocent, but she wasn't fooled) and all three of them got off after one stop.

Having said all that, the place we stayed in was amazing. A 14th Century converted paper factory that this old couple now lives in. High ceilings, slate floors. Admittedly the house was pretty cold! Sicily is not set up for winter, many of the cafes only offer al fresco dining and when it's pissing with rain and 14-15C that's not how one feels like eating!

Outside of Palermo we went to Cefalu, which I would definitely recommend. A small coastal town that features a great sea-front walk around the old city wall, a 12th Century Cathedral and a huge rock/hill (La Rocca) which provides not only great views of the terracotta-rooved houses, sea and surrounding mountains, but also has an Ancient Greek temple and numerous 6th-9th Century Byzantine forts. So something for everyone!

Ben also made us trudge up to Alistair Crowley's house, which is run down and overgrown and tourists are discouraged from going to visit. I suppose that's because they expect lots of occultists to go there and conduct rituals and have sex. But if there's one thing that's going to add to the mystique of a place to occultists, surely it's banning it! They probably wouldn't go if it was glossy and done up and pristine! Anyway, Ben felt brave and snuck in and took some photos. I sat nearby and kept a look out.

That'll probably do for now. We saw heaps of other churches (as you can imagine) and so on our trip up north to Scotland tomorrow I might make Ben go and see the Brontes' house as payback! So many churches. Some pretty amazing mosaics though, I must admit. Just don't tell him that.

Will upload some pics shortly.

And congratulations to my friend Johanna, who has had a baby girl named Sylvia!

London on Ice

This is a new level of cold for me. I've never experienced anything like it. Apparently temperatures are 10C below what they usually are at this time of year. Yikes. It's face-hurting, ear-burning, lip-numbing, foot-stamping cold! The Bacon reckons it will be -10 in Feb, I'm hoping she's wrong! She has no meteorological expertise as far as I'm aware.

We're going to Sicily on Fri - hooray! Working 2 jobs over Xmas/NY I'm quite ready for my holiday now. Although there is so much that Ben wants to see in Sicily - I hope we get to sleep in some days! I just want a little bit of sunshine and some nice food. You can get good food in London, but you have to pay for it and it's harder to find than in Melbourne. Think I've always taken it for granted. My REAL beef with London food (as it were! Although of course I don't eat beef!) is that the tomatoes are tasteless! I eat tomatoes with almost every meal but over here they're just not as good. I have discovered how to cook curry with paneer though and that's yummy.

We are also hiring a car to visit my aunty in Yorkshire. She is house-sitting somewhere in the moors, a town called Settrington.

Then we're up to Dundee (Scotland) to see Ben's cousin... which I'm assuming will allow me the pleasure of discovering a whole new level of cold!!

S&M Drama

I should point out that S&M is a chain of restaurants, not what you might be thinking. Gourmet sausage and mash (really yummy! Good vege sausages!)

Went there on NYE for brunch with sis (to hear gossip about her boy that she has been on a few dates with - it seems to be going well! Oooooo!) and I somehow managed to get some of my mushroom omlette stuck in my throat. Tried to wash it down with Ben's OJ but it just seemed to swell up more. I jumped up to get some water, but sipping the water made it worse - I don't think the OJ or the water could get past the omlette so it all started to back up and I basically had to run through the restaurant towards the bathroom choking and starting to spew up a delicious egg/OJ combination. Thankfully I got past most of the customers before it happened and made it to the toilet before most of the damage was done.

The waitress asked my sister if I was OK and she said "I think Charlotte is choking on something", at which the manager's ears pricked up and he started to stress out that I would sue them! Not sure I can really claim compensation for choking on an omlette. Who does that?? Omlettes are soft!

Anyway, terribly embarrassing. I've got to learn to eat more slowly.

Then working at the Barbican from 1:30pm - 9:30pm, which was fine. No real dramas. Ben came and we went to the Thames to watch the fireworks. We stood out on a bridge in the freezing cold (coldest NYE in London for 12 years!) but we couldn't even see the damn fireworks because the Tate Modern was in the way! Bloody art. Always interfering. Using my tax dollars...!

So that was my eventful NYE. Now on to 2009, which I'm a little apprehensive about. Especially because I won't see Ben for the majority of it! If we can get through this year though things will be great.

See all youse Melbourne people in March.

xxx