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Okey dokey. I reckon’s we’ve left the blog update long enough. We’ve copped enough abuse from people about lack of blog action that I thought I’d better write another one.
Lots has happened over the last month or so, but we still haven’t really left London, so our adventures have been limited to this crazy city. I’ll try and cast my mind back over the last months and tell you some highlights. I’ll leave the best highlight for last - otherwise the rest of the blog will not be worth reading.
I’ve just had a haircut, which much to Jenni’s amusement, has caused me to look like a scuffy wally. There’s a chain of ‘hairdressers’ here called Mr Toppers, that offer supposed haircuts for £6. I got it Thursday night on our way to see Ash Grunwald (Melbourne muso) play. Jenni was in hysterics watching some guy cut my hair like he was cutting a garden hedge or something. After a while, he said ‘all done’, but I had to point to my fringe and remind him that he also had to cut my fringe! The guy was not going to cut my fringe! By this point Jenni was
audibly laughing at my misfortune and bad haircut, so I paid my £6 and scampered out. Cheap? Yes. Quality? No. Please do not laugh at my misfortune if you think my hair looks silly in some of the photos.
We’ve certainly become accustomed to London’s culture and learned a few things:
- Take a brolly with you EVERYWHERE. No matter what the weather is like when you leave the house.
- If the sun is shining - get outside immediately! As it will be gone shortly.
- Do not talk loudly or be happy on the tube. People will think you are weird or on drugs. Be straight faced and don’t look other people in the eye.
- It is OK to snarl at people who stand still on the left hand side of the escalator… even if they are tourists. They MUST learn the hard way from someone, so it might as well be you.
- Catching the last tube home is fun yet gross. Everyone needs to get the last tube at about midnight on Saturday night, otherwise it’s a £50 cab ride home.
There have been 2 people arrested at the front door to
our house over the last 6 weeks, both on Saturday nights, both at 2am. Nothing like a bit of a domestic violence punch-up out the front of your house while trying to sleep. Police and ambulances seem to be hurling around everywhere here, not just our neighborhood, but everywhere. But overall we feel very safe here, especially during the day, it is very safe which is good.
Work for both of us is going OK. Jenni is very busy with her job, they have high expectations of her, but she is delivering on what they want, and she is enjoying her work. I have been at BHPB for a couple of months and will be finishing there in 2 or 3 weeks, so I'm starting to look out for something else now. I'd be happy with anything really - I don't really know if I'm looking for a real ''career'' role, I'm quite happy doing odd temp jobs without the responsibility, and just work 9-5 while I'm here... but if a good opportunity came up then I'm sure I'd take it.
Onto what we have actually done now... We caught the train down to Brighton for a day
trip. Great weather, lots of walking, lots of eating! It was our first day trip out of London, so it was great to see a bit out of the city. We ate an amazing meal at a place called Bill's. Organic, fresh food to die for and desserts that looked so extravagant.
In mid June we went to ''Trooping the Colour'', which is a major parade around Buckingham Palace of all of the queens guards, horses, and of course the star of the show, the Queen herself! We had a fantastic day, got lots of pictures and even managed to snap the Queen. It really reminded us that yes, we are most certainly in England. The sun was shining all day, and the parade was fantastic, amazing colours, huge Union Jack flags, polished armour and perfection of routines were all highlights of the parade. I am not a fan of the monarchy, but the day did give me an appreciation of the unity and and pride that the royal monarchy provide to the English people.
The next day we ventured to Camden Markets, just North of central London. Very cool markets, and lots of very different people. You
Brighton
I reckon this photo rocks.can walk for hours through the back streets, hidden markets, food stalls, cafes, underground markets, river side markets and never really know if you have even seen all of the markets that the Camden Markets have to offer. As an example of a wacky shop, there is a shop that is sort of in a cave type area, that sells rave clothes (fluro crazy clothes, fluro fluffy leg warmer things etc) and it was HUGE. I found out that they turn it into a nightclub at night and people are still dancing in there in the morning when the shop opens again sometimes So apparently if you get there at 9am, sometimes you will see people still dancing around in there while you are buying clothes, which is pretty cool. But we were buggered after a few hours, overwhelmed at the size and diversity of the people and satisfied that we had done another of London's ''must dos''.
Last weekend was most certainly our best day in London so far - Wimbledon Tennis Championships.
People camp out overnight, or even for 2 nights, to get Centre Court tickets. Not many people know that you can (if you are
VERY lucky) buy some online 2 days before each day of play. I was VERY lucky and got 2 centre court ''return'' tickets online on the Thursday for the Saturday, not knowing where the seats were in the stadium, but we didn't care, they were Centre Court!
So we jumped the queue (over 1 mile long) on the Saturday morning, turned up at 10.30am to collect our tickets. When the lady got out our tickets she said with a big grin ''WOW, you guys are VERY lucky, you are going to have a great day, you have front row tickets!''. Well we were over the moon with excitement that we had somehow ended up with Centre Court, front row tickets with minimal effort!
So we took our seats right behind the 'serve speed' box, not believing our luck! After getting out our bottle of wine, and cheese and crackers a security guard indicated to us that we are right where the players enter and exit the court! This meant we possibly had the 2 best seats in the entire place, right where the players sign autographs, and where all the action happens. And there was action alright! We
were the first people that the players came up to after their games to sign autographs (Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal, Jankovic, Nicholas Keifer, Tommy Haas). We were able to congratulate Andy Thomas after his 3rd round win.
Spotted on live TV and then on BBC World News by a number of friends here an in Australia was pretty cool! It will certainly be a day that I will remember for ever as one of the luckiest and enjoyable days of my life. Just to have only been here for 2 months or so and have that kind of experience was very so lucky. Of course we did the classic Wimbledon thing - Strawberries and Cream too. Check out all the pictures! We have certainly been the cause of much jealously here of friends and work colleagues who have lined up for 6 hours or more just for ground pass day tickets! hehe!
Oh yeah, nearly forgot, Jenni got hit on by Pat Cash! He was waving at her from the commentary box, right behind us, when I tried to wave back, he pointed at Jenni to indicate he is waving at her and not me.
Last night
we had a bit of a dinner party with Jenni's friends and friends of friends. 12 people or so - Jenni cooked up a massive pasta that everyone loved. Turned into lots of drinking games!
This coming Thursday is Jenni's birthday, so on the Friday night we are going to see the play Dirty Dancing live in the West End theatre. district. That should be great, its Jenni's favourite movie (from years ago!), so she is looking forward to it.
We've got plenty of trips booked over the next few months, Amsterdam in a few weeks, then Paris 2 weeks after that, then a week in Spain (Toledo and Alicante) with Jenni's friend from Oz Belinda, which we are REALLY looking forward to. I'm sure that will be many stories to report after those.
There are 60 or so photos to keep you amused also. Hope everyone is well, we are missing people, but having fun. Please comment as always to let us know you are reading this! Let us know what you've been up to too please!
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Mrs Stunell
non-member comment
wow wee!
Yes, I had been wondering where the blog had gotten too. Great to hear all the news and WOW, the Gods have been shining on you two! I saw the BBC shots. Bloody brilliant! I LOVED the Camden markets -aren't they cool! WE've got a cousins night planned for start of August so will pick up a phone and give you a group call. Hair cut looks like normal Luke, or can't we tell from the pics? All is well here - just finished Uni exams and will no doubt have it confirmed I'm a retard (no offence to retards). Hoping to so a Stunell Report now they're done so stay stunned. Much love, XK