Housekeeping
Feb. 21st, 2005 10:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skyringI've been cleaning out the carport drains again. Making progress, but there's still a blockage somewhere.
Call this morning, just as I was luxuriating in an empty house with both teenagers at school and uni. SUJIE, in town to see Peggysmum at Woden. No cars available to join in, but SUJIE said she'd drop in.
I sounded "diffident", she later said, but that's because I was contemplating the vast amount of work including shaving and vacuuming and general tidy-up required. Usually people don't get to see my work areas, but she expressed a particular interest.
Got it all done in a reasonable amount of time. Should have a clean tidy work environment as a matter of course. Yeah.
Passed on Jenny-G's first Bookcrossing registration - I'd been trying hard to think of a suitably wonderful person and SUJIE was spot on. Too heavy to lug overseas.
She was able to give me a bit of information on my Will Ashton painting. "That's Bungan!" she said, scotching the title assigned to it by the dealer I bought it from who had called it "Newport Beach".
Very pleasant to catch up with her again. And to reap the benefits of some enforced tidy-up.
I've been agonising over my accomodation in London. There are three YHA hostels available and I went hunting up reviews. YHA Oxford Street seems lively but noisy and expensive. YHA City of London seems best placed, but doesn't have a kitchen, and seems a bit pokey. YHA St Pancras has a consistently good rating and fills my requirements admirably, but I couldn't book it for less than $AUS60 a night, which is kind of steep for a youth hostel, even if it supplies a cooked breakfast.
The City hostel, hard by St Paul's (in fact it used to be the cathedral choir school) was available through Hostelworld for $AUS40 a night, and I could book it for the full eight nights, so that's a fair sort of saving right there. Going through YHA directly or the HI site limited me to six nights max, and i wasn't that keen at changing my accommodation halfway through. They both do cooked breakfasts as part of the tariff, so it probably doesn't matter too much about the lack of a kitchen - I generally eat out for lunch and dinner and it's my breakfast of cereal that I eat in.
My major concern is that I won't be able to make tea and coffee, and I plan on being a big tea/coffee drinker during my stay, which will involve lots of writing and Internet use. I don't want to keep buying cups at (say) a pound or so per. I'll see what's available, maybe they have facilities for this, otherwise I'll have to buy a mug and jug and make my own. Might do this anyway, as I doubt that my US accomodation will run to jugs like an Australian room would have.
I looked very carefully at the London Easy Explorer deal, which included two nights, Heathrow transfer, 3 day rail pass, London Eye flight and the Original London bus tour and a couple of other goodies. It wasn't a bad deal, but not quite what I wanted. Have to stay focused, and pleasant though the Eye and Bus things may be, they are optional. In the end I bought a 7 day travelpass, which will see me right for most of the time. Paid an extra five pounds to have it posted out so I can use it to get from Heathrow to my hostel, which is probalbly stupid, as a one day pass would have been less, and I won't be doing a lot of travel on my first day, but probably a fair bit on my eighth. Oh well. I'll have it there when I get off the plane and I can play it by ear after.
I'll be able to hop on any bus or train for most of my stay without having to worry about buying tickets, so that will be a big bonus. Even though I'm planning on walking the whole route, I can't see me doing it in one day and I'll be wanting to travel to and from whatever intermediate point I've reached. As well as that, if it rains and I can't be walking the board, I can travel to various museums and galleries, so I won't be wasting my time. If I have spare time and a fine day I might do the Eye and river cruise package.
All I need to do now is book accomodation in San Francisco and I'm done. The YHA at Fisherman's Wharf looks good.
Call this morning, just as I was luxuriating in an empty house with both teenagers at school and uni. SUJIE, in town to see Peggysmum at Woden. No cars available to join in, but SUJIE said she'd drop in.
I sounded "diffident", she later said, but that's because I was contemplating the vast amount of work including shaving and vacuuming and general tidy-up required. Usually people don't get to see my work areas, but she expressed a particular interest.
Got it all done in a reasonable amount of time. Should have a clean tidy work environment as a matter of course. Yeah.
Passed on Jenny-G's first Bookcrossing registration - I'd been trying hard to think of a suitably wonderful person and SUJIE was spot on. Too heavy to lug overseas.
She was able to give me a bit of information on my Will Ashton painting. "That's Bungan!" she said, scotching the title assigned to it by the dealer I bought it from who had called it "Newport Beach".
Very pleasant to catch up with her again. And to reap the benefits of some enforced tidy-up.
I've been agonising over my accomodation in London. There are three YHA hostels available and I went hunting up reviews. YHA Oxford Street seems lively but noisy and expensive. YHA City of London seems best placed, but doesn't have a kitchen, and seems a bit pokey. YHA St Pancras has a consistently good rating and fills my requirements admirably, but I couldn't book it for less than $AUS60 a night, which is kind of steep for a youth hostel, even if it supplies a cooked breakfast.
The City hostel, hard by St Paul's (in fact it used to be the cathedral choir school) was available through Hostelworld for $AUS40 a night, and I could book it for the full eight nights, so that's a fair sort of saving right there. Going through YHA directly or the HI site limited me to six nights max, and i wasn't that keen at changing my accommodation halfway through. They both do cooked breakfasts as part of the tariff, so it probably doesn't matter too much about the lack of a kitchen - I generally eat out for lunch and dinner and it's my breakfast of cereal that I eat in.
My major concern is that I won't be able to make tea and coffee, and I plan on being a big tea/coffee drinker during my stay, which will involve lots of writing and Internet use. I don't want to keep buying cups at (say) a pound or so per. I'll see what's available, maybe they have facilities for this, otherwise I'll have to buy a mug and jug and make my own. Might do this anyway, as I doubt that my US accomodation will run to jugs like an Australian room would have.
I looked very carefully at the London Easy Explorer deal, which included two nights, Heathrow transfer, 3 day rail pass, London Eye flight and the Original London bus tour and a couple of other goodies. It wasn't a bad deal, but not quite what I wanted. Have to stay focused, and pleasant though the Eye and Bus things may be, they are optional. In the end I bought a 7 day travelpass, which will see me right for most of the time. Paid an extra five pounds to have it posted out so I can use it to get from Heathrow to my hostel, which is probalbly stupid, as a one day pass would have been less, and I won't be doing a lot of travel on my first day, but probably a fair bit on my eighth. Oh well. I'll have it there when I get off the plane and I can play it by ear after.
I'll be able to hop on any bus or train for most of my stay without having to worry about buying tickets, so that will be a big bonus. Even though I'm planning on walking the whole route, I can't see me doing it in one day and I'll be wanting to travel to and from whatever intermediate point I've reached. As well as that, if it rains and I can't be walking the board, I can travel to various museums and galleries, so I won't be wasting my time. If I have spare time and a fine day I might do the Eye and river cruise package.
All I need to do now is book accomodation in San Francisco and I'm done. The YHA at Fisherman's Wharf looks good.
