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Published: February 12th 2006
Happy Oz Day to All!
The screens inside the Walkabout pub.Now what a fun experience this was. London is a fantastic place in which to enjoy celebrating everything Aussie!
After work on the Thursday, I jumped on the train into London for the night.
I collected a friend of a friend Sony who was passing through London before heading on for a Contiki tour of Europe. We met Alex (old colleague from Adelaide who now lives and works in London) and her friend Amanda out in Soho and headed for an amazing Sushi dinner. I’ve been craving Sushi for weeks so I loved that idea. Was a late start to the party part of the evening but we made up for it once we got started.
Heading out for drinks, we thought Australia Day was a better day than any to hit one of the Walkabout pubs - a chain of Australian themed drinking holes that you are usually warned to stay away from - crazy drunken Aussies fill the place.
Unfortunately the one close to us had a massive lineup, so we hit a funky bar around the corner for a while. Went back to Walkabout around 12 and the party really began! So many drunk Aussies
BRRRR it's cold out here!
Please sir let us inside, it's freezing in this line-up! with Fosters hats, Oz flags, and green and gold worn proudly. It actually felt very strange to be surrounded by so many in one place after being one of the only ones around for the last couple of months. Strong Aussie accents everywhere! Lots of drinking and dancing, chatting to lots of random folk, and running from drunken losers! Australian songs played all night, and everyone in the club singing as loud as they could. The cricket on-dayer from Adelaide Oval was playing on the big screen - salute to the great ground with St Peter’s Cathedral in the background!
Several silly lads made efforts to move in to our group of dancing queens, just like they would at home. No way were they going to be successful at pulling a girl away from her mates on that dancefloor for any extended period of time! A very entertaining laugh though. The night finished with everyone in the place joining in for a rendition of “I Still Call Australia Home”. A fantastic way to end the celebrations.
Needless to say, we were all feeling completely rotten the next day. I think Alex definitely topped the suffering list! I felt
The Walkabout
An old church turned into a celebration of everything Aussie for Sony who had to get up an hour after we went to bed to catch an early flight to Spain for the weekend. Ouch!
I had some fun of my own in my attempts to get back out to Guildford for an 11am meeting on Friday morning. I got caught with no money to pay for transport back. I had a complete blank on my UK account pin number given that I had only used it once (I wonder if the hangover had anything to do with that), and my Aussie Visa card was misbehaving too! What am I going to do? Calling the office to let those I was meeting that I was stuck, they suggested I was just going to have to jump on transport and risk the fines if I got caught without a ticket. In this case, the Tube was not an option - tickets are essential for this. So, on a bus we get and after getting abused by the driver for not explaining my situation upfront, he still let me ride - amazing! Got my very embarrassed self to the train station and jumped on a slow train back to Guildford. Took much
The crazy crowd
Drunken Australians everywhere you turn longer to get back, but reduced the chances of having an inspector onboard. Got very lucky indeed as noone appeared to check my ticket (or lack of), and a bit of sweet talking to the guy on the gate as I arrived at my destination worked a charm! So, no fines or arrests for me today - yay!
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Sal
non-member comment
That looks like SO much fun! Great pics Trace.