June Highlights

Michaela's visit at the start of June took a lot out of me as we had a crazy week and crammed a fair amount in so the week or so after that was pretty chilled and then I got back into the swing of things and resumed normal pace for the rest of June, Here are some pictures of the highlights : )

The 11th was Sara's (Italian roommate's) Birthday so we decided to have people around for dinner, have to admit it was a bit of a mission getting home at 6:30 and having lasagne for 10 people cooked by 8pm but we managed to pull it off and we had a great time, even moved the table out into the garden so had a nice night chilling outside (inbetween showing new flatmates around!) Two friends of her's visited from the 13th - 18th (great to meet them as Im going over for a weekend in July) so we went dancing at Roxy and Koko and cruised around Portobello Market.










I didnt have any travelling plans for the whole month of June but I managed to have a couple of amazing weekends, with 16/17 June being particularly international. On the Saturday Jess (old soccer buddy from Vic) was over on a long weekend from Hamburg for a work function so we caught up over lunch and chocolate cake at my place before I headed out to a party at Ania (Polish mate's) place with all her friends which was awesome to chill and catch up as I havent seen her in ages. And then on the Sunday it was Juliette (French friend for Japan's) birthday picnic in Greenwich Park so had a pretty amazing weekend :)










For a couple of days my cousin Tom (Paul's brother) was visiting on his way to France so it good timing that I was in London otherwise I would have missed catching up with him. We met on Sunday to have fish'n'chips at Anchor Bar by the Thames for lunch and then checked out the Refugee Festival on South Bank - I swear there's always free music and stalls and entertainment along there! After a busy weekend my evil cough came back so I had to take a few days off work but wasnt going to miss the opportunity for one final dinner with Tom and Paul. We went to Gaucho (an Argentine Steak Restaurant in Picadilly) inside was dimly lit with animal prints on the walls and we spent four hours there enjoying a delicious dinner - of course we had to order the steak! So Good! Dad would be jealous!



















On Thurs the 21st four of us when to check out the Dave Dobbyn concert - kind of hypocritical that my first time to see him perform live would be in London not back home but it was a great atmosphere. There were two opening acts - the first sung the most beautiful version of "E Papa Wiari" Ive ever heard and then "Chris Cope and Band" played some pretty cool stuff (and the lead guitarist was gorgeous!!). Dave came on and everyone knew the words to his songs, he did all the favourites and a lot of new arrangements too, and involved everybody for "Welcome Home". It was just a great Kiwi night out and gives you a lot of pride in your country, unfortunately I didnt get a pic with him to add to my "Famous Friends" list of Elemeno P and Steriogram but I did manage to catch his water bottle (with cat-like reflexes) so might have to load that up on Facebook.





































That weekend there was a free "West End Live" event happening in Leicester Square where the cast from a whole bunch of top West End shows were performing 15 minute "enticers" alongside a load of other musical acts. http://www.westendlive.co.uk/ I was there for 12-3 on Sat and managed to see Dirty Dancing, Kids Hip Hop Performance, A Midsummer Nights Dream, Fame, Mamma Mia, Chicago, Kids Chorus/Dance Groups and Avenue Q - so definitely have a few things to add to the ever growing "Must-do before I leave London" list





































Saturday arvo I caught up with and Aussie mate of mine, John to watch the NZ vs SA Tri-Nations game at the Walkies in Shaftesbury Ave, pretty tense but the last ten mins were amazing - looking forward to the NZ vs AUS game this weekend! Headed to John's mates place in Leytonstone (East London) for a BBQ party on their rooftop and had a great time hanging out with a bunch of randoms all dressed up in trashy 80's costumes (not too sure what the theme started out as but it ended up being fun)



















Back at the West End Live on the Sunday to catch Stomp, Menopause: The Musical, Wicked and Bollywood dancers, but the most amazing was an electric string quartert called "Stringfever" http://www.stringfever.co.uk/ Hunt around for some videos of them, especially the "History of Music" it was amazing. Caught up with Sara's other Italian friends who were visiting and grabbed a coffee as West End Live wound down but definitely and amazing way to spend a weekend - yay for free stuff in London!










Had been out to a Green Day cover band gig on Friday at the Swan with a Candian mate Brady (who I met on the Becks tour in Bremen and came along with a mate of his Jordan to a BBQ at Paul's earlier on in the month) who is now crashing in our lounge for a couple of weeks while he finds his feet in London so the last week on June involved quite a few late night chats (good thing I don't start work until 9:30!). It also meant I had someone to celebrate Canada Day with, good memories as I was actually in the Rockies for the last Canada Day, so checked out the live music and festivities in Trafalgar Square on Friday and finished up a busy weekend with a few drinks at the Maple Leaf in Covent Garden and dancing at Zoo Bar in Leicester Square until 3am on a Monday morning with new friends was a great finish to a crazy weekend




























I was all over the show this weekend, between Freddie's (ex-Swedish housemate) leaving drinks on Thursday after work, catching up with Ian in Cockfosters for dinner on Thur, Lunch with Juliette in Greenwich on Fri, Free outdoor movie called Monsoon wedding (entirely in Hindi with no English subtitles - awesome!) near the painted/signed guitar display at London Bridge on Fri night, up early on Sat with Katia to watch us lose the game, another BBQ and dancing at Revolution in Clapham...










Okay so now its technically July but its all part of the one weekend so our Sunday day trip out to Greenwich can slot in here, we had lunch at Slug before heading out to the Greenwich market and the Prime Meridian of the world (the rain stayed away - just!) There was yet another BBQ to attend - this time at Juliette's - she goes back to France on Sat : ( After that we headed back into town and watched our Saffa friends (Greg and Dave) in a metal gig at Tottenham and then finished off the weekend with the aforementioned Canada Day antics. Good times. If things continue on this way I may have to do more than one blog post a month though. Glad life is still keeping me on my toes - no point in slowing down now!