Gidday Mate! - Australia Day in London

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Our new temporary flat mate, Rob, moved into Leah’s room on Monday night. While we were chatting to him, I missed a phone call from NZ. I gave James a call back, and while I was talking to him I tried to multitask, and didn’t realised that I had stuck a red-ish top in with the rest of my whites (including my new top from Zara), with the washing machine set to a 90 Deg wash. So my clothes came out pink!

After work on Tuesday, me and my new neighbour and work colleague, Carlo, went for a walk along the little canals in Little Venice, looking for somewhere to eat for dinner. Its a cute little area lined with canal boasts and little parks dotted along the edge.
Unfortunately, we didn’t find anywhere to eat, so headed back to my place where Carlo let loose in the kitchen, while I helped Suz and Matt store their stuff in my room while they trip around Europe for a month.
For dessert, I was forced to try a Kiwifruit for the first time! - and it was actually quite nice! .. so now this Kiwi finally eats Kiwi’s.

On Thursday, there seemed to be a storm that hit right across England. I went to check the National Rail website to find that just about all trains have been cancelled!
There was only one train every hour between Birmingham and London Marylebone, and I couldn’t find out what time (ish) the trains were mean to arrive in High Wycombe.

I managed to score I left back to Paddington from one of the guys at work, Kevin. Brendan’s train from Southampton was also running late, so got him to meet me there. We had a drink and a catch up before I showed him my few flat.
We braved the weather and checked out a little Italian restaurant, Red Pepper, for dinner that night near Warwick Avenue.

On Friday, Brendan and I caught up with Grant and Helen at ‘The Pitcher and Piano’ near Covent Garden. Brendan hadn’t seen them in a while, so he was pleased to catch up, with wants seems like, old friends.

Saturday rolled around and Brendan and I went out to Greenwich to the Royal Observatory, which we had been planning to do for quite a while.
We had a good look around the museum at all the time pieces, navigational equipment and telescopes. John Harrison had effectively created what we call and how we measure Time today.

There is a green laser beam that is projected for 15 Miles due North from the centre of the GMT, which looks quite amazing at night.

I saw Brendan off at the Waterloo Train Station, then caught up with Helen, Helen, Carlo and Matt at ‘The Gate’ in Notting Hill.

I had an overdue sleep-in on Sunday, then spent the day shopping for flat stuff including new pots and pans (yay!), with Irene, Carlo and his flatmate, Laki.

I woke up early on Wednesday to find a text saying “WAKEY WAKEY, look down the street - SNOW! SNOW! SNOW!

I looked out my bedroom window and sure enough it had snowed last night!! I chucked on my snow boots and ran outside in my PJ’s with my camera!

I made some snow balls to throw at Irene’s window and made a rather sad looking snowman. The snow caused havoc to the transport system. Tubes lines were down, and the trains were all delayed, but I finally managed to get to work.

Helen and Grant came over that night to eat Ben and Jerry’s ice cream and watch ‘The Bourne Identity’ on TV. However, when they got to the tubes station to go home, they had missed the last tube! So they stayed over for the night.

Following work on Friday, I met Beth, Helen, Grant and Khoi etc at ‘The Three Tuns’ near Beth’s work for Australia Day.
We got Aussie cork hats with our beer, so we looked quite the part!

After hanging out her for a while, Helen, Grant and I meet up with Carlo and Laki in Fulham. However, the place we wanted to go to was closed so for lack of anywhere else, we went to Belushi’s until closing and then all stayed over at Helen’s place as it was nice and close!

Handy Andy came over to do some more work on the flat on saturday, so I didn’t get much catch up on my sleep.
I spent the rest of the day … surprise, surprise, … shopping down to Oxford Street in search of some shoes.

I woke up on Sunday to more loud talking, hammering and banging.
In the afternoon I went to Westminster to meet Billie (who I used to go to school with and have not seen for years!) and Helen at 3.30pm.

We walked down to the Southbank and went to a café called Giraffe for a late lunch.
Heloise joined us there later on and after we finished our meal, we decided to go on the London Eye!

I had not been on the London Eye yet, so I was very excited! From the top you get an uninterrupted view across London from what feel like a flying glass bubble.

There was a big contrast between the high rises and fancy lit up buildings on Canary Wharf to the east, and the more urban sprawl with a few low rises to the west. Through the middle was the winding River Thames like a black ribbon trying the two sides together.

Now, its only a few days to go until Leah arrives!

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Photos

Australia Day!
Ya'd never know we weren't Aussie's! - Helen, Beth, Hannah (ps. Nice Shirt Beth)

Australia Day!
Even the Italian's were in on it - Carlo & Hannah

East meets West
Greenwich Mean Time(GMT)- Date line

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...
A sprinking of icing sugar covers the trees in a near by road

A Snowdog?
My first attempt at a snowman with what snow was around... though I think it looks more like a dog at our front door!

London From Above
Looking over the River Thames to Canary Wharf

London Eye
Hannah, Heloise, Billie & Helen hang out in the one of the pods of the London Eye

Big Ben and The Parliament Building
Looking positively radiant at night