Rain rain go away!

Once again its been a couple of weeks since I blogged last, here's the update! The last few weeks have been true London weather. Rain, clouds and more rain. Oh well I am coping, I have an umbrella and have bought a cheap jacket.

Way back on Friday 11 August, Keryn, Romana and I went to the Trafalgar Square festival. It was a free thing which had dancers, acrobatics, and other unusual performers. It was great to finally see Trafalgar Square, which is very picturesque. We watched the shows from the platform under the.. umm.. big tall monument with the lions, which was a little tricky to actually climb up! We didn't stay for the whole show as it was raining and we were all freezing! So we headed back to Clapham and went to Revoltions! (this may well be the last time) - Mana and I had some flavoured Vodka shots (don't worry mum they aren't full strength) and left after we started getting hassled by preppy English guys.

On Saturday we all headed over to Oxford Street for a spot of shopping and then to Borough Markets for some yummy food! I bought lots of goodies - olives, cheese, cake etc :-) We actually bought the most stinky brie I've ever encountered in my life. It was so smelly that we were all looking at each other on the tube because we thought that somebody farted, but didn't put two and two together until we got on the bus and the smell followed us!! Surprisingly I still ate a good half of it, despite the housemates disgust at stinking out the fridge and house (they eventually snuck it outside when I wasn't looking). I made a trip down to argos to buy a poker set, which was the theme for the evening! We had a good game of poker and drank way too much wine and vodka and I was violently ill on Sunday with one of the worst hangovers of my life. No more vodka for me! :-

Next outing was the Clapham Fun Fair which we thought sounded really cute. It was actually really lame. It was heaps smaller than we thought it would be, was actually aimed at kids, and might not have been too bad if there had even been any kids there, as it was like a ghost town. So we left pretty quickly! Instead we found a really nice Italian restaurant on Abbeville Road that half price meals, so we spent the evening there and ate some awesome authentic Italian food.

On Thursday night we headed over to Hammersmith for the first time and met Charlotte after work for dinner. She took us to an amazing English Pub. It felt like we were stepping through an elderly couple's front door and found a gorgeous traditional english decor pub, there was cute little lamps and rustic furniture, dried flowers, pictures on the walls, a quaint beer garden and an awesome menu to boot! Once again I ate till I could barely roll out the door (hello Heathrow injection), it was really good. Mental note: this is a place to take the boys at Christmas!

Out again on Friday night, well a bit later on anyway.. we had drinkies at home with the boys (housemates) and they talked us into heading out with them to Clapham. We went to one of the cheesiest clubs in London........ *drum roll*...... INFERNOS!!

Yes it was so terrible that it was really fun. We danced for a few hours to Baywatch, Madonna, Belinda Carlisle to name a few... it was empty when we arrived and we blinked and it was heaving to the rafters. A very interesting experience!

On Saturday we had the plan of going to the theatre to see Mary Poppins, but we went in and checked out the prices to find out it was a bit more exy than we thought it would be, so went shopping around oxford st and had dinner at a really nice Thai restaurant, then headed back to Leicester Square to go the movies to see Brick. I liked it, but I dont think the girls were blown away.

On Sunday I got a swanky new phone! A new wizz-bang Sony Ericsson that takes photos, video, plays mp3s and washes the dishes. I love it! I also got some new converse shoes they're so cute! They've got little flowers and flies printed on them. We also had a wander around Covent Garden, discovered some really cute little laneways, cafes and shops. We also found a cool Moroccan restaurant were we're going to have my birthday dinner this Sunday.

This weekend we're heading to a festival on Saturday and Notting Hill carnival on Monday so I'll have heaps of photos up next week! For now, I've added just a few more to my smugmug...

Fruitstock

Well its been a big weekend!

I had my first minted chocolate vodka shot! After work on Friday Charlotte took me to Revolution - a vodka bar in Clapham - where they have dozens of flavours of vodka!! I've never seen vodka shots like these before - they're like jelly bean flavours and don't even taste like vodka - mmmmmmm!! See the menu :-)

Keryn, Romana and I went for a cheapie meal at SW4 before heading home to get some beauty sleep before the bbq. We hung out at the house on Saturday and had a bbq before heading to Fruitstock - a free festival in Regent's park. Christian came along with us as well and we made it just in time to see Arrested Development! They were completely awesome!! I finally got to see them play Tenessee, Mr Wendal and Everyday people!! Yaayyy.... Here's my photos!

Spent the afternoon today with the girls shopping in Covent Garden. I love it around there! So many cute little shops! I wish I had money to spend!!!

Clapham, festivals, sunshine, heatwave!

Okay okay, I know I've been soooo slack and not updated my blog for yonks!! But here it is! I'll try to take it from where I left my blog last - at Paddington.

Basically, after we stayed in the hotel in Paddington, Romana and I went back to Charlottes to stay for a couple of nights before Romana moved into her new place in Clapham (near Abbeville Rd - a very sought after street). I believe that weekend we went to the Rise festival in Finsbury Park - a free festival against racism, which was huge - there was loads of bands, including the Wailers. Romana and I went to a bbq at Emily's house, it was great to finally catch up with her. She lives in Finsbury Park, really close to where the festival was held so we had nice toilets etc to go to :-) The festivals here are really cool. They have a great vibe and always a great turnout.

Romana then moved into her house, a cute sharehouse with 7 other people - which can be cool but also has its downsides, but it is a lovely house and is quite close to me! During that week we went to Harrods (gorgeous), Greenwich (also gorgeous - so quaint), the London museum (very cool and very relevant to London obviously, follows the history of London the ice age, including when it was inhabited by Romans and called Londinium), St Paul's Cathedral (just amazing, incredible architecture), the Tate Modern (good if your in the mood for art), we had more picnincs in the park and I ate more bangers & mash :-) Too many piccies to include here - see my smugmug.

I went out for drinks with my new housemates, which was fun, although I had a bit too much vino and actually couldn't remember meeting their partners the next day when I actually moved in - it was incredibly embarrassing!!

So I moved into my house, in Clapham South, very close to the common which is totally AWESOME, and really convenient for the tube and supermarket, and only a 10 min walk to the high street. I have 4 lovely housemates - 3 english and 1 kiwi who moved in last week. So everything on the house front is going well. Our house is really cute, its been refurbished only 6 months ago so everything is nice and new, which you don't find here very often. It's in a lovely street lined with beautiful Victorian houses (our house is the non-Victorian house at the end of the street haha, but I love it anyway). There's also tennis courts and a bowling green at the end of my street! So I'm going to coordinate a bowls afternoon with the crew, a perfect summer afternoon activity!

I started work about a week and a half ago, as a web communications officer with the Association of London Government. It's very similar to my role at DET except much easier, so I'm still looking for another job with the hopes of something more challenging.

We've had a couple of picnics at Primrose Hill - which is beautiful. Here's my infamous burn mark in the grass, which I feel really bad about. I have to go back soon to see if its still there (of course it will be). I just love the parks here, and being able to sit in the park with a picnic for hours in the afternoon, even after work, you can really get the most of each day with so much sunlight!

Last weekend I went to Ben & Jerry's Sundae on the Common, a festival in Clapham Common put on by Ben & Jerry's icecream. It was really cute, basically there was heaps of free icecream (you walk around and try all the different flavours and collect stamps to enter a competition), there was a baby animal farm, a helter skelter, and lots of other fun & games, as well as bands and Pimms and dancing cows!!

After the festival we headed over to Pete's housewarming party in Fulham, which was fun and he put on an awesome bbq. I met some lovely people, and then we headed out to Turnmills to see The Presets play. They were really good and we had such a fun night! The club was massive and I actually got lost a couple of times. They're not like lil' old Brissie clubs!!

Today mana brought me some new clothes! She landed a job with Mosaic fashions, who own Oasis, Coast, Karen Millen, Whistles - some UK high street labels, so she gets to go to the sample sales! So cool. You can 70 pound clothes for 3 pounds each. Woohooo! So Romana is getting all of us girlies new clothes gradually. I'm so stoked!

Oh also we are organising to go and stay in a castle in Scotland for an orphan's christmas! We are hoping to get together a group of about 15 of us and have xmas day and the week following in the castle (with it snowing outside!!) and then we're heading up to Edinburgh for Hogmanay at New years!! So I can't wait! We have a lot of fine details to work out in the meantime - so little time and so much to do. So that's the plan so far :-)

I think that just about brings me up to date!! I will try and blog more often in future :-) Hope everyone is doing well - and you enjoy reading my blog! I have been a bit better with updating my smugmug piccies so check there regularly. Ciaoo!!!!