the weekend been

FRIDAY

We went to Leceister Square (and passed GO to collect $200) to find something to do. We stumbled across a comedy show for GBP5 ea starting at 9.30pm. so we went for dinner first, gourmet burgers...YUM. although i got so ripped off with my fries...2quid for about 15 of 'em. I wasn't happy! u all know how I like me fries!!! haha anyway...Comedy show was in a random room in a hotel, about 100 ppl there. The main guy Inkey Jones (http://www.inkeyjones.com/) was a crack up. Although anything u could possibly get offended over he had a joke about... nothing was sacred! Had a lot of laugh out loud moments, and a few tense when audience members became quite "involved". Then there was another comedian guy who was blind (well I don't think that was part of the act). He spoke VERY loud and I didn't find him funny at all, Seemed to tickle Niki though as he was laughing alot.

SATURDAY

Niki got up at 8.30am to watch the All Blacks with a few of the keen flatmates whilst I slept. thankfully they won so Niki was in a good mood for the day :) During which he received numerous texts from drunk mates back home! We had a bank appointment at 12 to change our account etc... took us an hour to get there and then they went through a fricken long as interview, filling in the computer system thing (and the lady could not type so it took forever!) with us and ended up not being able to offer us a different account!!!!! GRRRRR Everything is so backwards here. We have to go back in 3 months when they can see money's regularly going in.

After that we headed to brixton to catch up with Lee-Ann and Spence as the Brixton Country Fair was on. Then it rained and rained... needless to say i wasn't in a good mood! Luckily it cleared so we decided to give it a go and went up to the park. Awesome "fair" not very country though! was a massive area, stalls for everything, lots of carnival rides, saw a "birds of prey" presentation (awesome vulture, who got bored and flew off into the crowd!) and a big music stage...more Bob Marley :) but hey it does seem like 80% Jamaicans there! so we had a few drinks, food and i went on a ride (Niki was too wussy). We also had to run for cover 2 or 3 times when the rain decided to come back. Lee-Ann had to shoot off to work at 6.30pm but the fair finished up at 8 anyway. so we called into the pub for a drink on our way home. Got home at about 10.30pm and then read our books! haha Nannas we are :) It was nice to relax

SUNDAY

We headed out to the Tower of London. Of course we were running later than we had planned to be, then decided to go to the tourist office to grab some info on other activities...then couldn't find it! so hours later...we finally got on a ferry down the Thames to The Tower (awesome views). Then waited 40mins in line for tickets!! we are silly, there are plenty of opportunities to pre-buy tickets but we're unorganised! Anyway so we finally got in at 2.30pm. Took part in a free guided tour which was headed by one of the Yeoman Warden, theu guy with a funny outfit (yes they actually live there!). We saw the resident ravens which are massive. The highlight of the visit was seeing the Crown Jewels! WOW bling bling :)

It then took us hours to get home as we soo didn't know where we were and a few tube stations in the city were closed! We are quick becoming like Londoners..impatient when we have to wait 4mins for a tube :)

Catch-up...another one

Sorry guys, time keep flying by and I never seem to have time to up-date our blog.

FLAT:
The flat is going well, settling in nicely. It’s quite cool to be around NZrs to hear the ‘accent’ and talk about stuff that they can relate to and share places they’ve been etc. We have a diverse bunch aged from 22 to early 30’s, including a lawyer, IT something, pharmacist, architect, hospitality, science….etc and everyone gets along. It only take me 30-40 mins to get to work which is awesome…takes Niki usually at least an hour (haha).

WORK:
Still temping at the same place, it’s really busy here so I’ve been doing an extra few hours a week per week which is good for the money situation! Niki seems to be enjoying his job too, hooning around on the forklift in the warehouse and weaving through London traffic in the work van on a daily basis. His boss’ seem really nice, he often finishes at 4.30pm and they provide lunch etc as part of the job.

CLUBBING:
On Saturday 14 July we went out ‘clubbing’ with Sheree & Marty and Lee-Ann. We were going to go to Ministry of Sound but apparently they had crap music on that night so we went to Turnmills instead. We went to Sheree’s uncle’s house (where they are staying) in Covent Garden (which is right in the middle of the city) for a few drinks. Leonard who I knew from JAWs was also there with his fiancée so it was cool to catch up with them. We arrived at the club just on 11pm and had a 'voucher' so got in for £8 rather than £15...well the girls did! haha The club had 5 different rooms, each with a different DJ and décor. It was a really fun night. I thought it would be scarey going to a ‘super club’ but as there was lots of room it didn’t feel any busier than a club back home. Same amount of gross boys thinking that they’re cool pinching your butt or trying to dance with u as back home. Eww. But we had a great time & danced the night away. Niki had a ball mocking people, there were a few crazy-cats around that's for sure. Niki, Lee-Ann and I decided to leave at 3am… a combination of missing buses and silly decisions later… we arrived back to Lee-Ann’s place at 5.20am! The next day we found out that Sheree & Marty didn’t get home until 7.45am! (and they only lived 15mins from the club…so it was all partying) Crazy kids!

Catch-Up

Friday night Niki met me in town to go see the Opening Ceremony of the Tour de France… unfortunately EVERYONE else was there also so we could only see what was going on from the big screen. It was still cool being there though, then we ran into Marty & Sheree and decided to go to dinner (mmm Steak!), and after that had some drinks on the 7-dials monument (cos u can drink in public places here!)

The weekend just been was sunny!!!! (this is very exciting as every other day there was rain or hail or thunderstorms…Brilliant). Saturday I went shopping in Oxford St… WOW! Massive shops, sales everywhere…as well as people. I thoroughly enjoyed myself though and it was nice to buy a few things for me. Saturday night we were meant to go to Spence’s gig but the tickets had sold out, gutted. So we ended up going to Anna & Derek’s house for a BBQ & drinks. We stayed the night as the tube stops at 12am and apparently would’ve taken us nearly 2 hours to get home on the bus. But anyway that ended up being fun, and good to be able to sort something with short notice!

Next morning we had a good ol’ fry-up and then Niki, Lee-Ann and I missioned back home, got organised and then dashed to the nearby park to soak up some rays. It was lovely, read books, had a wee picnic, generally just relaxed!

Niki started his new job today. He’s doing a packing/distributor job, so that means driving around London!!!!!

We’ve found a place to live, Niki was getting sick of searching so we took the second place he looked at. I haven’t seen it yet, but I figure it’s only for three months so however bad it is I will be able to cope J. There are 7 others in the flat, 6 kiwis & 1 Aussie. We move in tomorrow night (10 July). Have to pay £660 bond (incl 1 week rent) and then pay a month in advance rent in about 1 week (ahhhhhh!!) Just as well I get paid weekly!

It’s been awesome staying with Lee-Ann, catching up lots and saving rent money! We’ve just got used to Brixton and know our way around, so it’ll be another adventure trying to figure out the new place plus it’ll be strange not seeing Lee-Ann and Spence every day. Now when we want to do stuff we’ll have to arrange in advance and then it will take an hour to meet! Oh well the joys of London!

Theatre Daaarling

Monday night (2 July) we had our first London theatre experience. Anna had found a ‘Last Minute’ dinner & ticket deal. I got sick on Sunday and had to take Monday off work, but managed to drag my butt along to the show as I didn’t want to waste a £27 ticket!

Six of us went, although Spence got so bored he left half way through! I really enjoyed it (apart from not being 100% healthy which made me uncomfortable). The acting and singing was superb and it was just super exciting to be in a theatre in the West End! It also enlightened me on the origin of some famous songs “Match Maker” and “If I were a rich man”. I can’t wait to go again… There are sooo many theatres, each just has one show going for however long the season is…this is sometimes years! So that’s really cool we’ll get to see inside many different theatres. There are posters all through the tube stations advertising the different shows, and generally you can get a ticket for under £25 - which, now I’m earning “the pound”, is a bargain!

Photos...at last

I have kind of figured out how to do a web album. Please see "Photos" link on the right of the screen. This will take u take Picasa and hopefully from there u can navigate around our albums...I'm sure there's a better way but I can't figure it out! They're not all there yet either... working on it in my lunch breaks!

Pannekoeken

Thursday (28/06) night we went out to dinner with Sheree & Marty who are friends from Hamilton, NZ. It was soo great to see them and quite surreal wandering around London with people from back home. We went to a restaurant called “My Old Dutch” which serves savoury and desert pancakes. The pancakes are massive, but lovely and thin. We all managed to get through our savoury ones and later tried a desert one between two. It was awesome, heaps of different ‘flavours’ to choose from eg. mango curry, smoked salmon, roasted duck, chilli con carne etc.

No Woman No Cry

Monday we started the job hunt. I rang up the 2 agents I’d been emailing and arranged appointments for that afternoon and the next day. First time on the tube by myself and I’m pleased to say it was a breeze J T appointment went well and I was offered my first temping assignment to start Wednesday. A Big sigh of relief! I’d heard it would be easy for me to get legal secretary work but until you actually do, you still have doubts. So this job is for 8 days, could be longer and in the meantime they keep ringing me about 3 month contracts that are coming up, but nothing I’m keen for so far.

Monday night we scooted off to the O2 stadium to see Damian & ?? Marley (two of Bob Marley’s sons…I think!) perform. It was a free gig outside the stadium. It’s not really my type of music but it was actually fun and it was neat when they did some of Bob’s songs: “Buffalo Soldier” and “No Woman, No Cry” so of course I hollered along to those. We brought takeaways for dinner which cost £14 for both of us…unfortunately I was still in the “converting” stage so nearly had a cow when I realised our meal had cost us the equivalent of NZ$40! I really have to stop doing that, it’s actually not that badly priced over here…once you’re earning the pound that is! I plan to go shopping with Lee-Ann this weekend as I need a few more work clothes and other stuff. I’m really looking forward to it as I haven’t been shopping for me since Christmas. I still can’t buy too much though as it won’t fit in my backpack :(

Lost & Found

I forgot to include this neat story that happened to us in Rome. We ventured out from the hostel one evening around 8pm and knew that buses finished at midnight but that there were some Night buses running…long story short we missed our stop and ended up somewhere random with the driver telling us in very broken English that it was the last stop and that there were no more buses that night! We wandered down the street, not having a clue what to do and saw a gelato shop that was open so decided to ask them if they could ring a taxi for us, they couldn’t speak English but pointed down the road for a phone. We then realised even if we found the phone we didn’t know a taxi no. or, more importantly, where we even were. I asked a couple sitting outside the shop if they could speak English, the guy could a little and whether they knew a taxi ph no. They didn’t! But next thing, they were walking us down to the bus-stop to double check and when they confirmed there were no more buses, through a mixture of half English/Italian and hand-signals they told us to wait there while they hopped on their scooter and went home to pick up their car so they could give us a ride back to our hostel!! They drove us the whole way and wouldn’t accept any money. Lovely aye.

Perugia

Blog to come