Last Month in London

Welcome to my last month in London - August 2007

The first Saturday in August Sara and I headed to Regents Park to check out the Innocent Village Fete. It was the biggest fair Ive ever been to, the weather was beautiful and there were so many free samples that by the time we left we didn't want any more organic yoghurt or soya milk. There were loads of cool stalls and live music and it was a great day out!

Being the last month of the "official London summer" meant that Scoop had their third entitlement of free things to do and this month it was theatre so one Friday night after work I grabbed a bottle of wine and some nibbles, met a couple of mates and sat in the sunken amphitheatre and enjoyed "The Jungle Book" first and then "Helen of Troy" - it was awesome! They used the same actors for both plays highlighting their versatility and it was a great way to relax after a crazy week at work, gotta love London on nights like that when you can watch free outdoor theatre and then have the beautiful view of Tower Bridge (even got to see it opening up to let a boat through) at night : )

For my last weekend in London we managed to cram in quite a bit with one final house party on the Friday night to celebrate. It wasn't as big as ones we've had in the past (seeing as it was a bank holiday weekend a lot of people were away, probably a good thing though as I can't drink much with my current antibiotics) but I had a lot of really close friends there so it was great to catch up with them.

On Saturday I headed out to catch up with Chris (we lived together at Sam's parents place in second year and I caught up with her in Conneticut almost a year ago) who was randomly passing through London on a trip before she starts a new job. It was great to catch up - can't believe its been a year - and enjoy a new dining experience but having lunch at an okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake) restaurant.

Continuing the theme, I checked out the "Creating Beauty in Modern Japan" exhibition at the British Museum with a friend. Great exhibition and hopefuly I will have time to check out the rest when I'm back in Oct because it looked beautiful on the inside, with the architecture reminding me a little of the Met in New York.

Rather than my main focus being crazy amounts of travelling, work has actually been a really big part of my life lately, though usually things are pretty cruisy, this month an extra project has been keeping me out of trouble. I learnt a lot of new skills when I had to copy everything from the HR/Training sections of our current intranet site into the back-end of a new intranet (even got to learn some code - the boys would be proud!) and set up a system to effectively manage our new external training programme. That on top of all the normal admin my job entails have meant that just as I was understanding everything and it becoming a bit routine it all got a bit of a shake-up which is definitely a good thing. This has been a great job, a 6 month maternity cover contract turned into a 10-month one, so great to have had pretty much just one permanent position my whole time here and had some opportunities for training and development. My team are lovely, they have made my first job out of uni a lot of fun, Im sure I will never find another department like them (they're crazy in a good way!) and I will miss them a lot.

There's always a few random things that don't really fit into anywhere and this month is no exception. I went to see Pan's Labyrinth at Prince Charles Cinema, went to a karaoke bar in Tower Hill with Brady and Kirsty (everyone was pretty impressed with my "One Week" rendition), had dinner at Hell Pizza with Alistair, caught up with Karla (Caroline's old flatmate who’s visiting London on a holiday from her job teaching English in Japan) for a drink at my local. Checked out Amora "World's First Exhibition celebrating love, sex and relationships" and saw "The Vegemite Tales" with Hayley and a friend. The last show was pretty well timed (saw it just as I started my two week countdown to leave London) and so although a comedy I found parts of it quite emotional as I could relate to a lot of the characters feelings and recognised a few situations that I have found myself in over the last year

The last few days here have just been a bit of a blur really, after finishing work I went to the tax office and looks like I might get a nice little sum back (I know it was overpaid in the first place but getting tax back always seems like a huge bonus!) Caught up with Brady that night and grabbed some pub food and went to “We Will Rock You” the Queen Tribute show at the Dominion Theatre which has been playing since May 2002!! It was amazing, such a fun atmosphere with everyone standing up and clapping along and getting really into it. Interesting story line with songs and snappy references built in, the actors were amazing, I know it’s their job to sing and dance and act but wow! Definitely glad I checked out one last West End Show before I left. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Will_Rock_You_(musical)

Friday in-between the dentist/doctor and the travel agent I got the chance to spend the afternoon with Dave and Kate on the last day of their big UK tour. Haven’t seen Dave in ages so it was a great chance to catch up. We had lunch and Leon and then headed up to Camden Markets (gotta love that place!) to check out the shops and buy more stuff I don’t need : P Pulled an all nighter packing my boxes on Friday as they were picked up at 7:30 Sat morning so just had a relaxed day before my bus to Paris that night.

In retrospect I’ve had a great year here, done a lot, met amazing people and just enjoyed this crazy city. I would love to be able to stay here for a few years living it up but there are big challenges ahead to look forward to as well. Keep checking this for updates on my 7 week trip around Europe starting this Saturday, my 4 days back in London, a 2 week Hill Tribes and Beaches Tour in Thailand and catching up with a friend from Japan in the Philippines - so guess I cant really be sad about leaving with all that to look forward to right... : )

"It is not the days we remember but the moments"
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Christina visits London

25-27 August

Well, just when I thought my time of being based in such a central location in the world and having the pleasure of friends from back home and around the world come and visit me was over - I was wrong! Christina (an awesome mate from who I studied with in Japan a couple of years back) came over for the weekend as part of her speedy but awesome Europe trip. It was amazing to catch up especially as she was back in Japan when I was in Vancouver last year.

Seeing as I was leaving in a week, Sunday was the perfect chance to catch up while checking out some of Londons amazing touristy sights in the first dose of beautiful weather we've had in weeks. We did the Tower Hill Exhibition (cool to be able to go up to the top walkway and the lower bridge even raised while we were up there!) and saw City Hall etc before enjoying a Sunday Roast at an English pub near Southwark Cathedral.

Wandered through weird and wonderful Southbank (one of my favourite places to spend a Sunday in London along with one of the many markets), played in the fountain and then checked out The Eye, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey before heading into town and doing some shopping along Oxford St (gotta love the new huge Primark!) We finished our night off back in Kensington catching up with an old flatmate Cameron for a pint.

Monday was just about as crazy, if not more so, because it was August bank holiday we went to check out the Notting Hill Carnival and it was an amazing experience (so glad I was in London for this!) We checked out the parade in the morning, picked up Christina's friend Michelle from the hostel and headed back to dance through the streets and check out the amazing floats and dancers crowding the streets and ate jerk chicken for lunch - awesome!

Once we eventually made our way though the crowds to a tube station that was actually open we went back into town and wandered down Carnaby St, took photos at Piccadily Circus, and grabbed a well deserved pint at Waxy's before heading down through Leicester Square, Covent Garden, The Strand, Trafalgar Square, Admirality Arch and along Downing Street to check out Big Ben and the Eye at night. One final night view of Tower Bridge to squeeze in before walking back across it and heading home. At least noone can say Im not making the most of my last days in London

Despite the fact that we did so many amazing things in the two days that Christina and Michelle were here the best things were the conversations. Its hard when you meet amazing people and you're not sure when you'll ever see them again but now I know that with the real friends you can pick up the conversations just where you left off even if its years between meetings - thanks for visiting babe!

Two Days in Brighton

20- 21 August

After being really busy at work I wanted to take a long weekend to relax so took Monday and Tuesday of this week off. I had originally planned to go to Prague but being summer (altho it doesn't seem like it in London) the flights were really expensive and all the buses full but I had already planned to have days off so thought I may as well use them and headed down to Brighton for an overnight trip (one more thing crossed off the list!)

Took the bus down from Victoria (took a couple of hours but you cant complain when its only £8 return!) and spent the afternoon wandering around town getting an idea of what I wanted to see/do in my couple of days there. Walked along the Pier (opened in May 1899!) which has a whole pile of "fruit machines" (the gambling ones where you have to get the apples to match up), tacky carnival rides accompanied by carnival food stores, games and the odd souvenir shop specialising in "Brighton Rock"

The be honest the pier was a bit disappointing so I wandered away from the beach up into town via an area called "The Lanes" lots of narrow streets, alleyways and squares brimming with boutique stores and eventually made my way up through North Lane (kind of like a mini Camden) and was very impressed by the vibrancy of the stores, all the colours and of course the graffiti

That night I went to see the circus - never been before so figured it was a good chance to go and see it on a Monday night. Walked from Brighton to Hove (only about 5kms) to the circus ground along the waterfront which was really nice and stumbled across the remains of the West Pier. IT was built in 1866 and has been closed and deteriorating since 1975. In a storm in 2002 the walkway between the concert hall and the pavilion fell into the sea and in Jan 2003 another collapse saw the destruction of the concert hall in the middle of the pier and in March the pavilion at the end of the pier caught fire. Despite the setbacks they were adamant that restoration work would begin in 2004 it was decided to build the i360 - a 183m observation tower in the tradition and spirit of the west pier substituting the idea or walking on water with rising into the air. "The Eye can be seen as a unique vertical pier matching in quality and spirit the horizontal old West Pier" There were also some pretty cool boathouses along the waterfront, a recurring theme in Brighton seems to be a real mix between old and new

Well the circus (the main reason for my venturing out in the rain) was pretty interesting, there was a young girl (6ish) dressed up in a cowboy outfit with three little ponies who did tricks, a trapeze artist, a girl who juggled 5 soccer balls and tennis racquets, a gorgeous guy with silk knots, tight rope walkers, comedy skits involving the audience in food fights and air guitar showdowns, cheerleaders dressed up like Pocahontas, the ringmaster (about 60 years old) with trained budgies who climbed stairs and went down slides, 4 big horses prancing around the tiny ring, a ring acrobat and dancing girls in-between acts who had very little purpose. Bit tacky like the pier but a fun night out nonetheless

Tuesday I was up early for hostel breakie (with coco pops - nice to have a hostel right on the beach!) and headed off to check out the Royal Pavilion - now this place is amazing and it's definitely worth coming to Brighton just for this. There is an audio guide included in the entrance price and it gives you sooo much interesting information about the palace - not even going to try and include all the history in here but this was a great supplement to my day at Windsor on Sunday, for more info check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Pavillion. Indian in style on the outside the inside was almost Chinese in design, I walked through the most magnificent dining rooms with huge chandeliers hanging from the dome in the roof, a gianormous kitchen, dancing rooms and more - such a shame you can't take pictures inside but this place is definitely worth checking out!

The Brighton Museum and Art Gallery was right next door (and free) so checked that out, stoked to find some pretty cool modern art and views about what its like to live in Brighton and the history of the town. The even had some Maori carvings in the "World Art" section and some information about body modification and creating positive body images for women - pretty interesting place!

Took a bus open double-decker bus (my first! and just like taking Chris's convertible out to Stonehenge it got pretty cold pretty quickly but you stick it out for the experience) and headed out of the city through the countryside up to a small pub at Devil's Dyke for lunch, it was a pretty cool view but didn't stay long as it was quite chilly up there. But noticed that they had zorbing - crazy that something that originated in NZ had spread all the way to this random place on the outskirts of Brighton - I guess they thought it was a lot of fun!

My last afternoon in Brighton was pretty quiet, checked out the aquarium - there was quite a line to get in and lots of crazy kids and young mums trying to control them inside as its still school holidays here so a bit mental but enjoyed it as I haven't been to an aquarium in ages.

Sat on the beach and read a book for a little bit, although weird because its a rocky beach instead of a sandy one and I didn't see one soul swimming! Took the bus back to London at 5ish for a quiet night at home - nice to get away for a couple of days out of London and the craziness of work for a bit!