Random thoughts on London

I am finding myself becoming too used to the way things are over here, and I often forget how different, even small things, can be over here as opposed to at home in Aussie Land.

Some of the things I have noted to date...quite random are;

- bathroom plugs are always on chains, there are always drains in the bowl so you cannot flood your bathroom and if people have baths, they are just huge!

- hotels never seem to provide face cloths and are renowned for providing super flat pillows

- hot water radiators and they are simply the best for drying clothes indoors quickly

- the choice of papers to read on a Saturday (or any day) is astounding, though I have been drawn towards The Guardian and the Observer on a Sunday.

- English comedies - Peep Show, Catherine Tate; Two Pints and a packet of crisps; Green Wing

- Boots the Chemist - the UK equivalent of National Pharmacies

- Pubs on every corner, though this is quite annoying where we live - especially for the boy - as there are none nearby that have Sky Sports, which is crucial for those Arsenal games (not me of course...as I have decided to support Everton, though they currently suck more than Arsenal)

- Riding bikes without helmets - i nearly bought a bike for this reason alone, but people drive like mental heads over here so its probably best that I am on the bus with the psycho driver rather than being hit by him

- The number of times I have been down at Oxford Circus and while I was there someone has been hit by a bus astounds me (3 times to date), and I really truly only go down there about once a month (shops are too tempting otherwise)

- An interesting find was Barcardi Breezers on tap in a Tex Mex restaurant in Doncaster (up North near Hull) where I had the pleasure of spending 4 days for work. (note - there will be no pictures on this trip and this is as big a mention as it gets, because showing any would be the equivalent of showing pictures of visiting Wingfield!!)

- ridiculously uneven paving; this is a grandma grumble this one, and its why Londoners always look at the ground when walking, if you don't you're gonna fall over.

- having to have my shoes re-heeled on a regular basis, I am talking once a month, if I don't where boots or sneakers (trainers for the English) when walking to and from the station to work. I am unfortunately not the only one with this problem and its damn annoying!

- everything's in pints....drinks, milk, yogurt

- they don't have Delis, they have Off-licences, and you can buy alcohol in pint sized cans

- chavs (whom are the equivalent of ferals) people who wear pony tails to the side, lots of fake gold (bling), fake Burberry and consider trainers and tracksuits to be the height of fashion

- the toilets are impossible to flush....you cannot just push the button you have to hold it down to make it work

- so much on-line shopping it is just amazing - but I love it!

- pedestrian crossings (like the Abbey Road one) are everywhere and you just walk up to them and the traffic all stops for you. We tried this at similar ones in Brussels, not realising they worked on lights and nearly got ourselves killed, though I blame Danni, I was following her!! :-)

- damn the deciduous trees, makes for a very grey London in the Winter time

- I love the multiculturalism...you name the country and you'll see a person from there on a daily basis. Our Deli people are Indians, the shoe repair people are Polish, our cafe guys are Turkish and they are the best!!

- Blackberry mobile phones - people are obsessed with phones like these over here, everyone has them

- MSG, why oh why must this be in food. Its banned in Aus and the US, but I am allergic and it means I cannot eat Chinese food or Indian food without stomach issues the next day

- front loading washing machines, they don't do top loading, and I know they are meant to use less water etc, but none that I have seen allow you to wash in cold water. This means the savings of water is offset by the electricity use required to heat the water!

- Supermarkets (in order of quality) - Marks & Spencer, Waitrose, Sainsbury's, Tesco, ASDA, Morrisons, Aldi, Somerfield, and other random ones such as Iceland and CostCutter. Mark is a food snob and only shops at Waitrose, but our bread (since most grain/brown bread sucks here) comes from Marks & Spencers.

- Organic everything...love it.

- Black cabs, love them too, except at 3am down Oxford Street on a Saturday night where they are no where to be seen for love nor money.

- Guest lists at clubs and pubs, it makes you feel that little bit special when you go out that you are on a list to get in

- The congestion zone, should be extended as people don't need to drive in London, really!. They think they do but really they don't. This message must be conveyed to the convoy of practically stationary cars that I pass every morning on my way to the station.

- Muppet; my new favourite word for stupid people.

Ok well that is enough for now I think, must go and do something useful like take a nap!!!

Night Out - Blag Club, Notting Hill

Danni's Advertising skills need to be worked on...
Jazz hands....I was having no part in this
More Jazz hands...
It is just me or is it sunny in here!
Do I look sexy like this...Danni posing!
Sarah cleans up, mmmm Sambuca
Sharmila and Tom (the DJ) displaying the side effects of too much clubing, ie the tendency to look becoming in pink hats!
The Belgian boys...lets call them Pete and Bob

Our Little Flat

Well some of you have requested pictures of where we live and so I have assembled the few pictures that I have of our flat.

When you see how tiny it is you may not be so jealous of us in your big fancy Australian houses!!!.

The West Hampstead Tube Station

Our Street

The Front door to our flat

View from our lounge

The kitchen/laundry/dining room

The lounge room

Muscles in Brussels

Our second trip away in 2007 involved, books, costumes, brains (hence the muscles) and beer. So where did we go...to Brussels of course!

We were part of a group of 40 people taking part in Pete and Kev's Brussels Book Festival of 2007, which for those of you vi sting London its not something you find on http://www.londontown.com/ hahahaha

The adventure started well before that weekend, as we met our hosts and other participants at a drinks get together at a small Belgian bar near Farringdon a bit before Xmas. We also had team consultations on costumes, which was a very serious business.

Our team was made up of Mark, me, Michael, Danni and her friend Libby and we were "The Ladyboys", which was our cryptic team name for Ladybird books...with a twist. The twist being that we were cross dressing children's fairy tales.
Mark was Hansel, I was Gretel, Michael was Red Riding Hood, Libby was an Elf from Elves and the Shoemaker, while Danni was our Ladybird (cross dressing only by means that ladybirds are actually boys).

The other teams were "Down after the Watershed" - The Famous Five; "Away in a minger" - The Bible; "If we only had a brain" - The Wizard of Oz; "Pooh Goes Bonkers in Brussels"...well "Pooh" books and a few others, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Playboy Bunnies (its literature...not for everyone but its published).

We headed out of London on the last Eurostar on the Friday evening, after fussing about getting from work to a pub near Waterloo. I tell you Marks directions are appalling, but he will just tell you I went the wrong way!

On the train down we had a quiz to keep us entertained. However, despite on train nibbles, after all the drinking that had been going on and the fact that we'd all just come from work, we performed atrociously despite the look of concentration on the teams faces in the picture. The trip which was only just over an hour and half just zoomed by.

Once we arrived in Brussels, it was to the hotel post haste where Libby got to try her costume on for the first time. She was suitably impressed and very cute too. It was getting late, but in the spirit of fun we headed out with the other teams for a nightcap at the hotel next door that had Parisian style outdoor tables, chilly yes, but soon warmed up after a Belgian beer. (we don't normally drink beer, but recommend the Kriek cherry beer for non beer fans)

The next bright and sunny Belgian morning after a hearty breakfast, which at our lovely hotel was just a massive buffet extravaganza and it even included Belgian waffles - yummo - we were given our team briefing, question papers and we were off.

First stop was the Military museum, so obviously the boys were in their element, we had an hour and a half to run around a freezing (it was free entry - you don't get that and heating) plane hanger hall trying to find answers to vague questions where the answers were the names of books.

I think we bombed out on those ones, some were just ridiculously cryptic, like one leading to a picture of Winston Churchill and the answer was Winnie the Pooh (are you shaking your head...well so were we).

After a quick coffee stop, or beer for those keen, we crossed the plaza to the auto-mobile museum, again for the guys..."come on already" us girls were saying. Though these questions were much easier, the museum warmer and the cars more interesting to look at.

Next was lunch in an Irish pub, in Brussels still, but it was a crucial stop to get one of our collect ables, which was a Guinness beer coaster. For extra points and to gain time points we had a serious of collectable items, which included "The Grapes of Wrath" amongst other things.

We also got given a disposable camera and had to collect photos too, which included taking a photo to re-create a story of our choice - we did Sleeping Beauty, and consequently it was the most creative and we won prizes (coffee mugs) too. We actually managed to do all the photos and all collectables after much running around Brussels, with a short stop off for waffles....again yum!

The third and final stop was the Beau Arts modern art gallery, where again the questions were again just too ridiculously cryptic we had our last couple of attempts at guessing books from questions about paintings.

We got about 3 I reckon and we were very much working on the bonus points we planned to get from collectables and photo collection.

From there it was a crazy mad dash across Brussels to save as much time points as possible to hand in our answer sheets. The only problem with that is smack bang in the centre of Brussels we were halted by a real life crime scene investigation, so we dashed around that through the Grand Platz (say "cheese"), handed in our answers, dashed back around to finish our pictures, back up to the photo lab, back over to buy chocolate (as you do) and then we stopped off at another Irish pub to watch England vs Scotland in the rugby. Whew...we had mere seconds to spare to get back and changed for the costume extravaganza.

All the teams met in the lobby bar, so we could all check out each others costumes before dinner. They were hilarious, see below for some of the teams.


Wizard of Oz

Peter Pan

Asterix & Obelix (aka Pete & Kev)

Pooh and crew

After that we all just pigged out on lots of food, the buffet was just crazy and then put on our dancing shoes and headed next door to a pub/club called Le Corbeau. There we went a little silly and danced the night away in whatever space was available (including much table dancing), as the place was packed. There are just way too many pics from this, so the link will take you to see all of them - http://picasaweb.google.com/WeekendTourists/BrusselsTreasureTrip.

The next morning still very much nursing sore heads, some how I escaped this, we all had a short wander around Brussels before our presentation lunch at Le Virge Noir (opened especially for all of us on a Sunday when they are normally closed).

It was quite funny and despite our fairly poor attempt at being literary geniuses (despite the fact I read at least one book a week even) we actually made it to 5th place (out of 12 teams). Poohs team (Toni, Ching, Ching 2, Lon and Dixon) came 2nd (woo hoo), but alas The Wizard of Oz, lived up to their name "If only we had a brain" and were last - but all in good humour and they did win best dressed, which they rightfully should have!

I think the funniest prize went to Mark and Michael, who won the Xmas prize (being a 1976 brochure for Italian Xmas tinsel decorations - don't ask), but not for dressing like girls, but for wearing bras all night!!

Michael & Mark - Xmas prixe winners







"Ladyboys" win for Best dramatised story created using only 4 photos" - Snow White...

And there that ends another fun holiday, and what a weekend it was, we cannot wait for the Brussels trip next year... the theme.. we think is Popular Music!

More snow in London

Just some pictures of last weeks snow...which was way better than the week before, because we woke up to a white blanket outside and it was still snowing very heavily. It then continued to snow till about 11am, and it was just lovely!! I had no trouble getting to work, but Mark had to catch the tube because 3 of his trains had engines blow up from the slippery tracks.
The carpark behind our flat
The Park
West End Lane
Walking down the street
Me in the snow
The view from my window at work.....

Australia Day Celebrations

For Australia Day it was a work day - what a bummer, so no BBQ and no cricket but after work we made the most of it. We also both wore our Australia Rugby shirts to work for the day so it still felt like Australia day.

After work we first headed to Bar and Grill for a couple of drinks celebrating with Michael and Laura, before we headed to Covent Garden to meet up with Danni. We ended up in a bar called Dial, where while celebrating the day our main aim of the night was to plan our costumes for our, then up coming, Brussels trip.

The fun part was getting to Dial where Michael decided that a Rickshaw race was in order, with me, Mark and Danni against Michael and Laura. We won, but only just! See pictures.
Mike & Laura
The race

Happy 1 Year in London to us....

Well its actually gone past that now, we arrived on the 3rd February last year on a very crisp gloomy zero degree day with little baby snow falling. I remember it was so cold and I had to wear thermals for weeks to get used to it.

Now...pah thermals schmermals, its just not cold enough and I never thought I would find myself uttering the words "my god its 10 degrees - its just too warm!"
Us in Brussels...our most recent adventure











I think my body has become very adapt at acclimatisation, which I think comes from the fact that I can deal with less than zero and up to temperatures in the 40's. When we eventually go home, the pair of us will wander around in winter with tee-shirts and flip flops!! Anyway - totally off the topic.

My lord our year has just flown by. We have done so much, met lots of people, made new friends and all of it is recorded here on this blog forever, to eventually become a best selling blog book - hah, not.

We have been to (not in any order) - Paris, Brussels, Edinburgh, Ireland, Athens, Santorini, Isle of Wight, Brighton, Goring, Canterbury, Dorset, Whitstable, Istanbul, Gallipoli, Australia, St Anton and done loads of things around London. Winter has currently sent us into hibernation with no trips planned for a while, but there is plenty to do around here.

Yes, so hooray, Happy 1 year Anniversary to us... to us ....Happy 1 year Anniversary to us!!!