Roller disco and birthday in Bath

Well - I finally made it to 23 - what a year being 22 has been; finishing off uni, backpacking through Canada and the States, getting around some of Europe and now making a life for myself in London (at least for the next 6 months) so I decided to celebrate by going to a Roller Disco part-ay! The moral of the story is dont drink and roller disco as I had a couple of spectacular falls but it was awesome. A bunch of us got together and hired roller skates and danced/tried to skate around the rink until the wee hours of the morning : )

Early the next morning, Paul and I were up and ready to go - after a full English breakie at the pub in Paddington station (people had already started on the Guiness!) we took the train to Bath. Arriving around lunchtime we had time to have a walk around the town, along the River Avon and check out the Royal Crescent and Circus before the last three games of the Six Nations were showing at the pub below our hostel.

7 pints each, 2 bowls of chips and 3 games of ruggers later we were ready to hit the town (but it was only 7pm so had another few quiets at Revolution). On our St Paddy's day out and about in Bath we met heaps of people - two Canadians, the Penn State Uni Girls Rugby team, a hens party and a girl called Ruth, a birthday party and a girl called Ruth, chatted to a couple of English birds and then a guy called Dai at the student Bar, challenged a group of uni girls to a game of Snooker, and finally met crazy Ed at Moles where we danced the night away. Great thing about travelling with my cousin is that he's so confident to just go up and start a random conversation - it meant we had a great time!

On the Sunday we figured we should actually do some of the touristy stuff we had come to Bath for, so wandered around the Roman Baths, checked out Bath Abbey and even had a 3 course lunch at Sally Lunn house - the oldest house in Bath and the place where Sally Lunn's were originally invented! It was a great day and we still managed to have time to chill in the pub in the afternoon!

Really enjoyed travelling with my cousin Paul, so much so that we're planning to head up to Edinburgh for 3 nights for Easter which should be a lot of fun. Thanks to everybody for making my 23rd birthday (and my first away from home) really memorable!

A friendly face

Simon and Nina visit London (9-15 March)

So crazy to see Gow over here but also really awesome to give him a taste of my life in London. Visiting with his girlfriend Nina they crashed in my lounge for a little under a week on their way to Germany so we had a lot to cram in while still trying to give Gow a bit of a chance to get over the jetlag. Friday was relaxed with a full on cooked English breakfast as a welcome, wandering around town, and then a bunch of mates over for lasagne that night!

The weather has been beautiful the whole week (Im sure Simon stole it from NZ and bought it here as Ive heard its been getting worse back home) So we got out and about on the Saturday, getting a sense for London and checking out all the big sights; Picadilly Circus, Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, The London Eye, St Pauls, Westminster Abbey, Houses of Parliament and the South Bank, finishing off with a well deserved pint at 'The Wellington'.

We celebrated the start of this crazy week by introducing them to Snakebites with a night out at our local, The Slug, in Fulham and even ended up crashing a random house party on Bishops Road on the way home. Went out with Nasa and Katia and the 5 of us had a great time, everyone ended up crashing at my place as we had an early start the next morning. Didn't realise there was a Chelsea game on so the place where we had breakie was pretty crowded but still all good. As Simon and Nina were in London for a Sunday we decided we had to introduce them to the church, stumble through Camden Town for great market food and finishing off the night at the Redback - good times! Had to do some real work on Mon and Tues but Paul just got his Visa extended for 4 years so we had to go out for celebratory drinks, a few too many rounds at Waxy and we managed to start a dance floor at O'Neills on a Monday!

But it wasn't all crazy drinking (although we went through a couple of bottles of rum on their last night in London) but we also managed to get out of the city and check out Stonehenge. Chris drove us out in his convertible, a lot of fun when you're driving through the city in the sun but it can get chilly on the 2 hour drive out there through the countryside. Definitely worth heading out to see, we got a pretty good day for it so even took a picnic lunch and sat out there which was great : ) Awesome to catch up with Gow and meet Nina - thanks for visiting guys, hope you have a great time in Germany - alles gute!

A Weekend in Wales

3-4 March 2007

Okay so we were a couple of days late to celebrate St David's Day but it was a weekend so what better excuse to head to Wales with a mate! Cardiff is about a 3 hour (£10) bus journey from London and we were greeted with some pretty nice weather : ) When we arrived around midday we checked out the market, checked into the hotel and headed down to Cardiff Bay to have a look around.

Cardiff Bay is a really pretty area, defined by a few prominent buildings, namely the Wales Millenium Centre, the National Assembly Debating Chamber and the Pierhead Building. Definitely nice to wander around the bay with an ice-cream! They also have a Leisure Village out there with air hockey and bowling etc but it was so packed with kids on a Saturday that we just decided to chill at a bar for a while










Sat night was pretty crazy, there is one main strip in Cardiff (reminds me of Courtney Place back in Wellies) so we headed down there. Best thing is none of the bars had cover charges and the drinks were heaps cheaper than London so Denis and I had a great time bar-hopping until the wee hours of the morning. There were heaps of people dressed up too, must have been out for the night for stag/hen nights or even just birthdays! We saw groups of cowboys, fairies, bumble bees, mexicans and pirates!










Sunday it rained a bit, started off lightly but got pretty strong by the time we left the Millenium Stadium. After a really nice buffet breakie at the hotel we headed back into the St Davids Centre to have a wander around the shops before checking out the Cardiff Castle - it was pretty amazing and so elaborately designed inside with one room themed with the passing of time it had representations for days of the week, the zodiac signs, months of the year, sunrise/midday and sunset all displayed in the paintings and figures on the four walls and ceiling - it was awesome - even got to go up the keep and have a look over the grounds! Killed the last hour or so in Walkies having a beer before catching the 7:15 bus back home. Was nice to get out of London for a little bit and would definitely reccommend Cardiff as a weekend trip for any of you who are over this way, really enjoyed this funky little city and the people are lovely!

Happy March!

Wow can you believe its March already - 2007 seems to be flying by, hope you are all having as much fun as me in your respective corners of the world! February for me was a little bit quieter than Jan but still had enough going on to keep me out of trouble. Gosia's friend Ania and her mate Luckasz arrived from Poland to set up a life in London so stayed with us for a couple of days at the start of the month. It snowed again on the 8th of Feb which was nice to wake up to and was actually pretty heavy by the time I got to work, it makes the cold that much more bearable. It was Cris (my Spanish roomate's) birthday on the 10th so a bunch of us went out for drinks to a funky club called Oxygen in Trafalgar Square - great night out!

Have checked out some really fun things in London this month - finally made it to the Tate Modern which was awesome, especially the exhibition with slides that you can actually go down! Checked out Hamleys, managed to spend a couple of hours in this 7 floor toy store on Regent Street and went bowling in the arcade at Piccadilly Circus. Danced the night away at Koko with Sara (Italian roommate) and a bunch of her friends and even managed to get to a musical out in Greenwich with Juliette (French friend from Japan) called "A Model Girl" which was really good but meant getting home really late the night before leaving for Madrid on the 23rd.

The Chinese New Year Celebrations in London started on the 18th, there was an awesome parade through the middle of the city, fireworks in Leicester Square, performances in Trafalgar Square and celebrations all through Chinatown, had a great day out! With the roads closed there were soo many people wandering around the center of London it was a great atmosphere!!



















Have started doing some casual hospitality work on the side (saving up for tickets to the Glastonbury festival in June!) where I get to look like a penguin, smile and serve nibbles and drinks to fancy people at parties - its a lot of fun! Did one night at the Royal Institute of British Architects, and another in the restaurant and the third floor of the National Portrait Gallery (which has a beautiful view out over Leicester and Trafalgar Squares) for the unveiling of a beautiful triangular building (there was an ice sculpture of it!) that is going to be built in London.










Had an awesome Feb enjoying London and taking 5 days off for a long weekend to Madrid (see my previous post). No month would be complete without a couple of visits to Camden Town - there was live music in the street last time I was there which was awesome until the police shut it down because so many people stopped to watch and dance that it spilled out onto the road! Finished off the month going to see Strassman which was awesome! Probably the best £10 I've spent in London - he's even better live than he was on TV back home with Mike King - much better than I expected! Hope you guys had a great February and are looking forward to an amazing March. Love you all xx

Madrid (23-27 Feb)

Hola de Madrid! What a funky little city (well I guess its the capital but still) We stayed in a youth hostel in Gran Via, walking distance to Sol where the whole city sprawls out from. We had an amazing break here, leaving my house super early (3amish) to make sure we didnt miss our cheap flight on the Friday morning and getting back home at 2am on Tuesday morning meant we got 5 full days to spend there!

On the Saturday we went to watch a Seattle band who were playing in the Autorium of a Museum somewhere for 1 euro but when we got there it was sold out and in the end quite a few mothers and young children were inside (crazy!) so we watched it from the hallway instead. All good because in the evening we ended up coming across a random Romanian concert in Plaza Mayor and even discovered that the free hugs (see January blog) extend to Spain too!!

Sunday I tired Katia out by dragging her around the Market - when she suggested it I bet she didnt know it would drag into a 2.5 hour ordeal, started spitting just as we were leaving - perfect timing. Ended up getting caught in an absolute downpour between there and the Museo de Prado although the weather was gorgeous when we got out and it continued like that for the rest of our stay! On Monday we decided it was probably time to actually get out and do some real sightseeing. A lot of the architecture in Madrid is pretty amazing but here are the four main sights; Plaza Mayor, Palacio Real, Plaza de Cibeles and Puerta de Alcala.

Spent our last day sunbathing by the pond in Parque del Reitro in the morning and then in Plaza Mayor in the afternoon. Had a great time travelling with Katia (we're even thinking about doing a short trip to Greece in May) It was awesome to catch up with Gosia before she heads off to Argentina at the start of March for three months. Lots of getting together for Sangria, tiny beers and tapas - ate REALLY well while we were here - sandwiches with fresh ham and cheese, lots of roasted chestnuts and sweet potato from street vendors and meals out with paella, tortilla, and of course who could forget patatas bravas! - at least walking round for a day with a 15kilo backpack helps burn off a few of those churros with hot chocolate!

Had a great time in Madrid - Even if the ice-cream are shaped like feet!