Last Week in London: Wednesday

Tuesday was somewhat of a lazy day at home; Anni started to attempt to pack... By the picture you can see it was going to take all week.

Wednesday was not just another day in the last week of us being in London, it was Anni's 25th birthday! So to celebrate we went on a beautiful outing to Richmond Park. It had rained the day before so Anni got to wear her wellies, and along with Timtam's little girl we jumped in all the big mud puddles.

We also had some tasty toffee ice cream, and then fed the ducks and swans. Ungrateful little creatures came and chased after us when we ran out of bread. Eventually we found the elusive deers, and some of the young bucks were practising their fighting (well, that's what it looked like anyway).

Then we went shopping in Richmond and Anni bought some really cute boat shoes, which fit in perfectly with her birthday outfit!

For dinner we went to Anni's favourite Mexican restaurant, Wahaca, at Shepherd's Bush. Her friends bought her some very funny birthday presents, including some personally decorated rubber ducks and some fake poo. Ha ha ha.

All in all, I thought Anni had a very good birthday

Last Week in London: Monday

Anni has been lazy in updating my blog *makes angry face at Anni*

So for the last week Anni and I have graciously been put up by Timtam's boss (Timtam is a live-in nanny) near Northfields, which makes for easy access to a lot of the parks that we haven't yet been to. Today we went to Kew Gardens, and it was amazing weather for it. We took Timtam's little charge and had a fantastic time chasing the peacocks and taking photos of flowers. When it came to lunch time, Timtam bought this lunch pack thing for her little girl, and told her to dip her carrots in what she thought was a dip, which turned out to be peach yoghurt! hahaha.

Other than that the day was pretty uneventful. Sorry.

Last Week in London: Saturday

So we flew back to London, and whilst being delayed by over an hour, we made it back to the city we have called home for the past 18 months in two pieces. And the immigration line at Heathrow was the longest we have ever been in. As always, the air conditioning wasn't working at Heathrow, so the next 55 mins was agony for Anni, especially seeing as her supposed best friends frapped her and changed her facebook profile shot to be the Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard, whom she absolutely detests. Why was being patient and allowing the borders of the United Kingdom be protected so annoying for Anni? Because we were running late for her BIRTHDAY party!

The "Fantastic Nerdy Party!" was held at the King's Arms, in Fulham. This pub is fantastic. On the corner of New Kings Road and Fulham Road, right next to the Putney Bridge, it was the perfect place to have a great party. It was really quiet that night, but Anni and her mates managed to fill up the place in their lab coats and school dresses. Her mates made some lovely cupcakes, complete with a rubber ducky made from rice krispies!

So that completed day 1 of the last week in London.

claim token and Notting Hill

I'm not sure if this is what I'm supposed to do, but I'm trying to get my blog rated by technorati, and I'm supposed to put my claim token (YRA64W3YCZB8) up on a post? So hopefully this works.

On other matters, Anni, Biheng and Courtney braved the awful London weather and went to Notting Hill Gate today. Despite the cold and wet the tourists turned out in their drones, trying to get a unique antique or piece of jewellery. And of course there was the incredible Hummingbird Bakery. Amazing Red Velvet cake... drool. Anni didn't have time to grab me before going because she ended up in the hospital again last night after falling on her sore wrist again. It's okay, she hasn't broken it, but she does have an appointment with the soft tissue injury clinic just to make sure that there's nothing too serious. But that won't stop us going to Paris!

Time and Longitude

Hello! Yesterday Anni, Maria, Indy, Anne and I stepped across time. We jumped from East to West. We crossed over the Greenwich Meridian Time Line.

Again, the weather was perfect for an outing, clear blue skies and crisp fresh winds. The Greenwich Information Centre is cool; lots of toys and games for you to learn about it's rich history. My tip; go during school hours when school is actually on. Then you don't have annoying children trying to play with the games when you are obviously trying to learn!

The walk up the hill to the Royal Observatory is decent, but so worth it. You can see right across London, complementing the view you get from Primrose Hill to allow you to appreciate the awesomness that is London.

So it's going to be a bit quiet for a week; Maria and Indy go home today, and Anni is off to Varese to see her bisnonna (I'm not allowed to come because she doesn't have enough room in her hand luggage). But then on Friday we go to PARIS!

Walking in Westminster

Finally, after living in London for 18 months, Anni and I went back to tourist basics and did the New Europe London walking tour, along with Maria, Indy and Anne.

It was the perfect winters day to go on a walking tour; fresh crisp wind, gorgeous blue skies, lovely lovely sunshine, and a tour guide with a fantastic Irish accent (yes, Anni was incredibly happy). We covered Hyde Park Corner, Buckingham Palace (where we got to see the changing of the guards), Trafalgar Square, 10 Downing St, St Stephens/Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament where we saw a fantastic rendition of the hung, strung and quartered.

There is still a lot of tourist places in London that I haven't been yet, but I think Anni has done a pretty good job of getting out there whilst keeping under a tight budget also. Next week we go on our last hoorah tour, including PARIS! Oooh la la. Am definitely looking forward to that.

Snow

So Anni and I have been caught up in this massive kuffufle that is London and snow... Seriously inadequate response to what simply just frozen water falling from the sky.

Anni's friends Maria and Indy were suppposed to fly in from Australia on Sunday morning and then we were going to fly to Munich, but Heathrow decided to close and so they finally arrived yesterday after being deposited in Athens for two days (I wouldn't complain too much about free 5* accommodation and food in Athens...)

So instead of wasting away, Anni's friend Tam generously took us in and made us feel so at home, keeping us warm and fed and having lots of fun. We made snowmen! And the cats are really cool.

Now that Maria and Indy are here, our attempts of getting the trip back on schedule has massively failed; instead of flying to Munich we fly to Frankfurt on Christmas Eve, arriving in Chemintz Christmas day... At least our awesome Berlin New Years plans are still looking awesome!

Will keep you updated!

Where's Wally?

Through the miracles of facebook, Anni and I were invited to a friend of a friends birthday party which involved dressing up as Wally from "Where's Wally" and traipsing our way around London following a set of somewhat redundant instructions that partially resembled the Monopoly board. That's right, we went on the famous Monopoly Pub Crawl.

Starting at Elephant and Castle tube station at 10.45am, we hit our first pub, The George, near Old Kent Road by 11.15. No, it shouldn't take 30mins to get from A to B, however, relying upon London Public Transport is like relying upon a 450 year old termite infested house to continue to stand upright.

Despite the slow start, the day went along well. We went across Tower Bridge, collecting a few stares from the brave tourists in the rain seeing a bus full of Wally's and wondering what on earth was going on. Then meandering around Tower Hill, we passed Vine Street on our way to Fenchurch Street Station. Due to a myriad of things, including the fact that there was an ever increasing amount of Wally's, the slow start continued throughout the day. By 5pm, we had only hit 8 out of the possible 26 pubs. Yes, the Duke was closed at King's Cross station; Yes, there was a large group of us so being served was somewhat difficult, however, I believe that we should have been more organised and disciplined. 30 mins at each pub is a long time.

However, the day was a success; people got drunk, looked silly, had a great time, tried out new places and overall attempted the Monopoly Pub Crawl.

And the most exciting part? Anni bought me a new jumper.

London-Town

The other weekend Anni and her friend dragged me along around London in order to complete this "list of things you should do before you leave London"... This weekend it included a delightful coffee breakfast in Putney, a foodie-haven Borough Markets, a ride in the old-school Routemaster bus, and then a trek up to Abbey Road... pha-yew!

So here's some pictures of my antics. Anni is hilarious, I ended up getting some strange looks from a few of the market stall owners... But the pictures are awesome. Feel free to suggest some more places for Anni to go! November is looking pretty bleak, in fact there's no real trips before Christmas. Oh, and check out my awesome hat!

Hillsong Conference Europe

My life has been a bit quite full of staying at home time of late, and Anni has been very lazy in updating my blog, so you will have to forgive her and allow her to backdate with the blog entries of the fantastic cities we've visited.

But to keep this current, I just got back from attending the Hillsong Conference Europe at the 02 arena here in London. It was huge!

Anni was volunteering at the conference this year (our home church is Hillsong London, which meets at the Dominion Theatre every Sunday and I have actually been to a few services!). Her team of "welcomers" were really friendly people and willing to go that extra step to make people feel... welcome! It was amazing to have my photo taken with people from so many different countries and see so many people in love with God.

So keep coming back, Anni will get around to posting some blogs about the rest of our Europe jaunts post Vienna, and in two weeks we're going to the Diksmuide Beer Festival... mmmm, beer!

Christmas 09

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Praying you had a very blessed and peaceful time, as did I along with Anni.

However, our christmas plans did not go as planned. 'Twas supposed to be in Italy, however, thanks to snow being more fluffy in France than usual, we were unable to get to Paris, and thereby missing our connection to Italy. So we were stuck in London...

Thankfully we we rescued by some wonderful people, Andrew and Jono, and had a great day of eating and laughing and lazy TV watching. I got to try some mulled wine, and ate some great minced pies. Oh so very Christmassy...

I even got a present from Mum in Australia! Now my feet will be nice and toasty roasty.

All in all, our first Christmas away was pretty sweet.

End-of-October Party

The fact that Anni doesn't have a computer and has had to hijack her housemates is the reasoning behind this extreamly delayed posting, and trust me, I'm not happy.

However, from what I remember, the End-of-October party was brilliant!

Although a lot of people didn't rock up, those that did got into the full swing of things and dressed up incredibly. We had a couple of Vampires, Spideyman, a 60's Go-Go dancer, Little Dead Riding Hood, a Fat Stipper and I turned up as Ian Thorpe in my little budgey smuggles and wimmers cap.

Anni's Vodka jelly was a hit (literally) and many puddles were created from it. Laughter was had by all in the various exposing drinking games, and silly actions pursued as the night went on.

Overall I enjoyed the coming of the end of october, and although I am a little worse for wear, it was a great night.

My next adventure is to Edinburgh this weekend!