Dad does London...first days...

Us at Tower Bridge

Paddington Station with Paddington Bear

Dad at St Pauls Cathedral

Dad and Lisa at Buckingham Palace

At Wellington Arch

Dad at very top of St Pauls Cathedral, with view to East London City and the Gerkin

Fish and Chips on Brighton Beach...mmm

Our first tube ride in from Heathrow
First ride in a London Cab
Me and Dad outside Dominion Theatre where we saw We Will Rock you - amazing

At Covent Garden before dinner at GBK (Gourmet Burger Kitchen)

Starlight....Starbright....or Meteor Shower

Last night was the peak night of the Perseid meteor shower and I was determined to get a glimpse. I am not really that into astronomy and certainly not since I have lived in London , as you can barely see the North Star on clear night let alone any stars, let alone shooting stars. The best view I have ever had of the star system was on a clear night sky was in 2003 in the South Australian desert where I headed for my honeymoon, with Mark (obviously) and some Canadian friends Bob and Shawna. We were staying near Wilpena pound in a tiny one pub, and nothing else, town called Parachilna.

One night we drove a couple of miles away from the pub, so it was completely pitch blackness once we turned off the car, to sit on the car bonnet and watch the stars. I must say it was very beautiful and every star in the southern hemisphere was clearly visible. The moment was shattered when we saw a light coming at us from the highway and thought a road train was going to hit us, as we could see its headlights coming across the plains from about 20 mile away, we had a good 20 minutes before it was anywhere near us.

Sigh. Well no bright starlight skies in London at all. Last night it was still a bit cloudy after some evening rain but lots of breaks in it so I thought I’d have a try to see if I could have a glimpse of the meteor shower. I went outside our flat to the back car park and looked towards the north eastern horizon.

I must have been out there about 15 minutes craning my neck and starting to get a bit unsure if I had seen one or not. I kept seeing an occasional flicker of light, but could never be sure if it was a plane or a star peeking out from the clouds, but just after that my patience was rewarded when a meteor shot out of the Northen sky, all doubts faded and I was chuffed that I had finally seen one. It was easily spotted and was like a very large close shooting star, impossible to miss. I waited in the hopes of seeing more, but alas the clouds folded in thicker and well that was that.

For some information;

The Perseid shower occurs each year when the Earth passes through a stream of debris shed by the comet Swift-Tuttle, which orbits the sun once every 130 years or so and last passed through the inner solar system in 1992. According to a report in National Geographic News, this year, from any vantage point in the world, you might see more than 80 meteors an hour streak across the sky during the best viewing time, when the moon’s glare will be weakest-late night on August 11and into the wee hours of August 12, local cloud and lighting conditions permitting.

http://blog.taragana.com/n/perseid-meteor-shower-may-yield-80-space-rocks-an-hour-136337/

Team Bowling

Our team doesn’t get out much as we all live all over the place, so it’s hard to arrange a night out. We had a good excuse this time as work was paying to reward us for our hard work over the year end, which is March here.

The Team

We had previously been bowling and given there was a bit of fierce competition last time, those who were not there then wanted to have a go. I was given the task of arranging it, which was not as straight forward as you like. I had to consider, part timers, holiday’s, half days, people who don’t work in our office and a tube strike. It was worth it in the end and we got the venue we wanted on the right day.


We headed to Bloomsbury lanes, an old fashioned basement bowling alley near Russell street and Holborn in London ’s east end. The place has not changed since the 1960’s when they put it in, but it makes for a really cool atmosphere. It has a diner, karaoke rooms, a small theatre and 8 decent lanes.

Me Bowling...not too badly

We’d booked 2 of them for 2 hours and managed to squeeze in 2 ½ rivalry fuelled games over that time before we settled for our American diner meals, of hot dogs, burgers, apple pies and banana splits. American sizes too, they were huge! Was a fun night out and we all really enjoyed it, that much so the team bought me flowers for organising, unnecessary, but thoughtful all the same.

Guildhall - Sunday Outing

Sunday, after a leisurely and well deserved lie in, Mark and I went down to Moorgate to visit the Guildhall Art Gallery (English Heritage) and view the photographic work of John Gay, who in his day was known for his architectural photographs and celebrity portaits (inc Agatha Christie), he also took pictures of cows - moo!! This is the Guildhall and below are some of my pictures of London
St James's Park grasses on a picnic day!
Love Lane....Love it!
Bollards for the City of London
The Gerhkin, you can see this from my bedroom window too, but not quite as well.

These are not my best works, but hey there are no people in the photos!!

High Drama!! Jewellery heist!! £40m!!! Update

As per Yahoo News!

WOW these guys certainly knew what they were doing, am intruiged!!

The Capital of England....circa 828

Well it used to be Winchester, as you all obviously know its London now. We had heard much good things and how lovely Winchester is so we decided to head down on the train after being couped up in London for the past couple of weekends. When I heard that the cathedral has the longest nave, and is the longest in the country, I was SOLD!! I didn't do too much research as well it would spoil it if we did. Must say thanks Amy, it really was quite lovely with sweet treats and all.

Winchester Cathedral

Its only an hour away from London in the heart of Hampshire, which for some reason I think with the name should be North, like Hampstead, Hamptons...all North... Nope not Hampshire...quite South, near New Forest and Southampton actually.

The highstreet view up to St Giles Hill

We weren't 5 minutes out of the station when we found an English lolly shop - yum. I stocked up on Sherbert lemons...mmmm, before we wandered down the quaint little high street, complete with Tudor style buildings. Then we found Winchester Cathedral. It simple appears out of nowhere, in a lovely park full of families enjoying picnics, and it is indeed rather grand. We weren't sure where to start, so we started with a guided tour.

The Nave, very Long

Our guide took us around over the space of an hour, starting with the Chantry chapel of William of Wykeham, who as Bishop remodeled the cathedral to Gothic style; he also was involved in Oxford university and each year students come to pray for his soul - spooky. The Quire is the very original dating back to the 1300's and the oldest medieval quire in England, with amazing carved woodwork. Antony Gormley's work - Sound 2 - occupies the crypt and creates a very peaceful space, which is neither cold nor damp. In keeping with my love of anything relating to the 15th century and the Tudors, I was delighted to discover that this was where Mary Tudor married Prince Philip II of Spain in 1554.


Anthony Gormley's Sound 2 statue in the Crypt.

The cathedral is the resting place of a woman whose knack for literature gave us the stubborn Elizabeth Bennet, self absorbed Emma Woodhouse and of course the dashing, sigh, Mr Darcy; it can only be Jane Austen. She also lived nearby in the years before her death, even though she lived most of her live in Bath (visiting there soon with Dad). It was definitely one of the more interesting cathedrals I have visited, it even has a place in movie land, staring in Elizabeth and in the Da Vinci code, as the Vatican!

Jane Austen Memorial

Following that Mark and I took a walk around the outside and back up the high street, past the Westgate and the very naked man on horseback - go figure (yes a statue) - to the Great Hall. The great hall is all that is left of what was once 13th century Winchester castle and it has housed THE round table, of that great man King Arthur for 700 years. It also has a recreated garden that once would have been that of Queen Eleanors.

West Gate .... well Gate, it was also a prison for 150 years too

The Great Hall - Queen Eleanors Garden

King Arthurs Round Table...yes the very one

Skip ahead 2 hours of my life - we watched Australia lose to South African in the rugby in a very dreary O'Neils pub - we find ourselves back around via the cathedral so we could continue our walk. We took a lovely stroll, the weather was superb, past Cheyney court (gorgeous half timbered houses - Tudor style), Jane Austens house, Wolvesey castle ruins and up towards the lovely St Giles Hill.
St Giles View back to the Cathedral

Mark was sure we were going the wrong way, despite significant signage to the contrary- yea of little faith - as it was too residential, when out of nowhere we were at the entrance to a park with LOTS of steep steps. Ugh, but the view of the town made it worthwhile, a spectacular view to end the day.

Quote Me!

"He never understood that women like to complain for the sake of it, to get things off their chest, and they don't want to be fobbed off with practical solutions and course of action. They just want sympathetic attention, and lots of it"

As said by the Mum in The Bad Mothers Handbook by Kate Long

High Drama!! Jewellery Heist!!

Yesterday evening Sophie I were just making our way through Mayfair to our dinner destination Benja near Carnaby street. We were just winding our way past Old Bond street, where all the posh jewellery stores are, including Tiffanys when we noticed an abundance of seeming random car directing and police men.

Then whoops police tape, more police, milling tourists. We were intruigued but like they were going to openly be chatty with us about what had happend, que we move on - if it was anything, well it would be in the papers Friday.



And you know what it was... a massive jewellery heist...humm humm, and we missed the drama, though gladly given guns and shooting being involved, not so exciting if you get a bullet - not at all!

London Lite - Jewellery Heist

So check it out...will put up a pic of the London lite, it made front page! You heard it here first, up to the minute news...right...er here...

Stop Press! Celebrity Spotting! Kentish Town

Finally it’s my turn. This morning whilst lining up for my coffee (despite the queue), as I was desperate for a decent coffee, I saw the guy from Love Actually who confesses his undying love for Kiera Knightly, because it’s Christmas.

I believe the line goes, as written on big cue cards, “without hope or agenda... to me, you are perfect, and my wasted heart will love you till you look like this - displays a picture of a corpse”….Andrew Lincoln is his name and he was also in “Enduring Love” with Ryhs Ifans and a couple of English shows one called “Teachers” and another “This Life”.

Photo c/o www.geocities.com/

I was absolutely certain it was him, and proceeded to stare at him until he had gone past me. Then when I said at work about it my boss – Amanda – confirmed it for me. She said that his 3 year old daughter Talia does kindy gym with her daughter and she usually only sees the Mum (uber glamourous) but last week she saw him too. That also confirms with my story as when I saw him he was pushing a pram. So they definitely live around Kentish Town near me.

Happy August....

Well sort of, as its the last month of summer and officially the last month of Summer for me and Mark living in the UK. Its been pretty good so far, lets put it this way it did not rain at Wimbledon. I got a tan sitting in St James's park, the sunshine to rain ratio is about 80:20, I have been able to walk through St James's park on my way to Embankment and not even get dripped on for ages (though the squirrels have attempted to trip me up multiple times, run right under my feet - probably since I won't stip to admire their gorgeous swishy tails and silly antics) and I have not left the house wearing a jacket since the beginning of June; AND its been mid-20s for well ages, so I think that's a pretty good summer.

Its set to be 27 on Thursday so I am ignoring significant media hype of forecasted MET office...stuff ups... after all they are predicting the future based on the past, and well even the most famous future teller, Nostradamus, was a bit hit and miss on his predictions!

Blame, blame....why do they have to blame someone in the first place, blame God if you must, but not the MET office. I have gripes with them, but hey sometimes I want the weather to be good and when I pray it is and its not I get a bit grumpy with them, I move on, I don't hold grudges. I secretly think people blame them because they have a Twitter account and God doesn't.

Anyways, was walking home tonight from gym about 7.30pm and it was lovely light, balmy and warm, kinda reminds me of an Adelaide autumn evening, warm days and balmy nights. Autumn is my favourite so that is probably why. So again, I won't be disapointed if we don't get a massive heat wave. Yes I remember summer 2006 - brilliant - but I also remember summer 2007 & 2008 - they were bollocks.

So Happy August, Happy Summer, Happy last summer living in England. Oh and its England it doesn't have to be sunny to be beautiful, but when it is sunny its AMAZING, so hopefully we get a handful of AMAZING days, but if not I am content to say its been a great summer.

Toast to Australia

On a lovely sunny, sort of, Sunday in June we had tickets to Toast Festival, the Australia day (there is a Saffa and NZ day too). It's as close as we get to the real Australia day, and as for the trimmings it did stack up.


We were there with a friend from work Jon and his wife Neoma, who is also an Adelaide gal and now also works with us too.

Us toasting to Australia.

Mark and I got there early to make sure we didn't miss out on the Polo match, a bit of England vs Australia going on there. So we started with champagne and strawberries, why not. Neoma and Jon, as I now have discovered, are notoriously late - yes even more so than me, I am either spot on time (most of the time...) or several hours late, so I can sympathise. By the time they had arrived the polo match was done and dusted, with each side scoring 3 goals (not sure if they call them goals) and we'd moved on to the food.

Yippee we scored..

We wandered round and eventually decided to eat from the Smiths of Smithfield stand, you may know the owner - Jon Torode - if you watch Masterchef, where we got yummy salt and pepper squid, roast lamb and chips. Jon Torode was there and cooking out front on the BBQ, as you can see in the picture. He commented on my fine choice of chips, not seeing that I had the salt and pepper squid in my other hand.

Jon Torode and the rather impressive BBQ

There was some wine tasting, but nothing particularily exciting so after Jon and Neoma joined us, we ate more, wandered a bit more, had some rather delicious and monstourous slabs of Pavlova, before positioning ourselves ready for a bit of Sneaky Sound Systems.

Super sized Pavlova, and it was two for the price of one!

By the time they were on, we were right up front. Miss Connie and Angus were brilliant, and I really enjoyed them, even better the second time around, as we saw them at the good ol' Sheperds Bush Empire a few months back.



Whew after a rather relaxing, but exhausting day, we had a couple of pints with Neoma and Jon before heading back home to Tufnell Park, it could have been a late one, but as Sunday is officially a school night it was not to be.

No hairs were harmed in the posting of this blog

Nope, they all now safely live for eternity in a landfill site, well somewhere like that, though I Googled "where rubbish from London goes", and got details of the band Garbage, so Shirley Manson must be stockpiling in her back garden - go figure! Alas its no longer on my head.

Lisa, now with mid-length boring (?) hair....

I have had my long hair for over 2 years now, right middle back length, and it was time for a change. Not because it was unhealthy, its never been better, but am just bored and I don't think I have had a hairstyle for that long before.

However, further change might be imminent, put your votes in peoples (email me if you don't have access to comment) for me to go further than what you see in my post chop picture. I was looking to go for a long bob, so middle neckline length at the back but just longer than chin length (to thin out my chubby round face) at the front...my hairdresser said he'd do it for free if I did it within to weeks...so am humming and hawwing incessantly now...what to do!