Was that Martin Lawrence? I don't think so.

Star-spotting is a favourite passtime of most visitors to London. Nothing thrills a tourist more than the prospect of running into Jude Law coming out of a seedy nightclub or catching Hugh Grant and Liz Hurley making out in a dingy back-alley. Maybe that's why people in London spend so much time hanging around seedy nightclubs and dingy back-alleys ... but that's beside the point. Since I'm still very much in tourist mode, it's no surprise that I've been doing some star-spotting of my own. Well, actually, it was completely by accident that I stumbled across the red carpet premiere of the very art-house new flick "Wild Hogs", but what a happy accident it was. I saw all the stars of the show ... well, I saw a tall bald guy who I thought was John Travolta, but it turned out it wasn't. And I saw another guy that I thought was Martin Lawrence, but I later found out that he was just a security guard. And I probably saw William H Macy, but he was so nondescript that he blended into the crowd. And then we got bored and went to get dinner.

Answer: Not as sweet

Well, in my first ever blog posting I wondered whether the traffic noise in London would sound as sweet as the noise of Dandenong Rd. The answer is no. In London, there are lots more buses, vans and wailing sirens than I ever heard along Dandenong Rd and most of them seem to like driving up and down my street - I didn' t realise that Upper Tollington Park was part of the "scenic route" to just about every destination in this city, but apparently it is. As a result of which, I've had very little sleep over the past week or so (notwithstanding the fact that I've bought Boots chemist's entire stock of earplugs). So I'm moving. Next weekend in fact, to a nice mansion flat in Maida Vale - different side of the city and potentially a little staid (there's very little funky urban grit in Maida Vale from what I've seen), but at least it's quiet (I'm on the fourth floor facing a one way street - gold). I'll post some photos when I can. In the meantime, if you want me to show you the sights of Finsbury Park, you'd better hurry up, because the last tour leaves on 31 March.

School fuel

I know a lot of people my age who are still struggling to decide what they want to do with their lives. Everyone wants to do something that they feel passionate about, but sometimes it can be hard to find that passion. Me, I'm lucky - I found my passion at a very young age ... breakfast cereal. I love the stuffy - crunchy or soggy, sugary or plain, with fruit or without - it's all gold as far as I'm concerned. But for a little while now, I've had the feeling that something was missing from my cereal diet. I mean Weetbix was great and Just Right had its moments and nothing beat Mini Wheats as an after dinner treat, but somehow something was still lacking. And now I've found it ... SHREDDIES. This stuff is GOOD. In fact, as far as I'm concerned, it's the king of all cereals and I've been shovelling down boxes of the stuff ever since we landed. Do yourself a favour and try some. You won't regret it.

No longer homeless

The housing market in London is so ridiculous that it takes about 3 generations of saving pennies in order to buy a property here - the only way to shorten the process is to make a windfall by winning the national lottery or scoring a football contract. Even renting is hard, but I've managed to break my way into the market by securing a room in a nice flat in Finsbury Park and a reasonable price. Now the word on the street about Finsbury Park is mixed - apparently there are some parts of the suburb that are a bit dodgy - but I like it and having to combat a bit of street crime on the way to and from the tube station should make a man of me. Anyway, check out these pictures of my new place ... I'm moving in on Sunday so feel free to come and stay any time after that ... just make sure you bring some capsicum spray and a personal alarm to make sure you get here safely.

Hello, London

Well, I've just arrived in London - just two hours ago in fact (and I'm blogging about it already ... now that's commitment). Obviously I'm excited to arrive, but the welcome was not the warmest I've ever received. For a start there's the weather - grey skies and rain. But I was expecting bad weather ... more worrying was our driver who welcomed us with these words "Well you must have really pissed off someone in Australia if they've sent you out here." I wasn't sure whether or not to tell him that I'd actually chosen to come to London, but in any case I didn't have much chance as he quickly proceeded to reel off a long list of things that he personally dislikes about London (from minicab drivers to the gay population of Earl's Court) ... at least it helped pass the time on our drive to Kensington, where we'll be staying for the next few weeks.