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Published: December 19th 2005
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Busy night out
A very busy Picadilly .. & very proud to see the animals form Madagascar feature in the Christmas street decorations! Having visited London for several days either side of a European Contiki Tour last year I have previously covered all the main sights that are central, like the Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, a couple museums, Piccadilly & St Paul’s Cathedral, so there has been no need for special trips into town to see them again as yet. However it did take a couple months before I actually made it back into Central London and this was done on a Monopoly Pub Crawl (for Janelle Booth’s heading home party) which was fabulously organised and had to run on clockwork in order to get through the waterholes on the list. Heading through Regent Street, Bond Street, Leicester Square, Trafalgar we made our way through all the colours that appear on the board and ended in Piccadilly, which was an array of colourful Christmas lights, massive TV screen advertisements on the buildings, the roads buzzing with London black cabs, people everywhere and treated to fireworks being let off from the Thames which was a brilliant sight after the initial shock of the first bang that made everyone in the pubs head turn and a blanket of silence fall over the place!
There have
Portobello Rd Markets
Quite an eclectic mix, some good bargains, although not as eccentric as what Camden Markets offer. been a few people from back home and that I’ve met travelling that have kept my weekends busy hitting the town as well as special guest appearances from my buddies that have relocated to this cold nation!… On a regular basis, we tend to move away from the name dropping locations mentioned above and move a little closer to home, being sighted predominantly at the infamous pubs around London frequented by antipodeans. A huge thanks must be handed to the ever present Walkabout chain for providing the much loved Snakebite (a pint consisting of Fosters, cider & grenadine which tops up what influence the £2 bottle of wine made before heading out!) and keeping the Aussie population together, as well as the Redback which falls well within stumbling distance from our house.
There has not been too much on the shopping front as I’ve still been keeping to budget, however an eye out for cheap bargains is always there and the people watching at places like Camden Markets, Portobello Rd Markets, Oxford St and High St Kensington have provided a bit more of a substitute for spending money!
A little taste of home has been experienced.. the first
dockers on top!
the scoreboards says it all!.. within a few weeks of arriving with a fantastic game of 'real' footy (being AFL and not soccer!) between the Dockers and Eagles where the Dockers triumphed! Woo Hoo!. Both teams largely consisting of rookies it is a great sign of things to come for Freo!.. and a great night was had afterwards at the Temple Walkabout in town not only with a few of the players but with both my cousins too!!.. ;-) The second was heading to see a lad named Xavier Rudd blow into a few didgeridoos and strum out a few tunes… The little venue looked as though it could have hosted a blue light disco the night before but just as he had done at the Blues & Roots Festival in Freo puts on an amazing performance and it is obvious that he really enjoys what he does and sounds just he does on his album…. which is fantastic!……
A highlight at work that truly only got the one Aussie in the office excited was the chance of seeing the Queen as she opened a grammar school next door to work!…. and as always she was wearing a lovely feathered hat that we spotted
A bit of Aussie tunes
Bright lights of Xavier Rudd!.. an awesome show among many aussies and kiwis! as she drove by in her entourage which was escorted by police.
As mentioned previously, working for the private sector has its bonuses!.. and one of those has been the Christmas Party that has just been had at the Marriott Heathrow Hotel, with a luscious 3 course meal, drinks, a night in the hotel with a full buffet breakfast to help us through the hangover and full use of all the facilities on offer!..
One thing that is extremely different from anywhere else that I have been must be the weather!.. I am freezing my cotton socks off already and switching to thermals and the worst has not even hit yet so I am certainly not looking forward to February! However I must admit that each morning it is a bit of a realization that I am actually away from home and experiencing life in just a different way to how I would at home (and how I would preferably like to spend it.. in a warm environment!) although I still have an appreciation for the beauty that autumn also brings. With our backyard, the rooftops and vegetation covered in frost, the trees in Gunnersbury Park a vibrant
Gunnersbury Park on a clear day
Amazing colours of Autumn can be seen in our local park of Gunnersbury ... array of orange through to yellow and fog that settles in any depression in geography making the environment extremely eerie it does look very pretty!
A word of advise to anyone that has a couple of drinks the night before and not used to the early morning chill do not get onto a crowed train carriage!…There is the possibility that you may faint, and this is not the most pleasant of experiences! hee hee.. ! ... another thing is to be sure that your first Yorkshire Pudding is a good one.. i have been put off them and think it is gross to eat real fatty layers of pastry covered in oily clumpy gravy!.. not a fan!. ..
Well, that's about it and I'm looking forward to Christmas in Paris with my fab housemate Kristy, where the possibility of a White Christmas is more on the cards than in central London...! after that we're heading through Germany to catch up with Stephanie (from Scene2Believe @ the Zoo) then off to welcome in the NY in Copenhagen with a couple of friends that i met at Phnom Tamao Zoo in Cambodia... so until then, I wish you all a
Gunnersbury Park fog!
again beautiful colours, however somewhat a little bit eerie! very merry and safe Christmas and Happy New Year!.. Love you all, Bec.
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