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Published: August 28th 2008
Another two months in London has flown by, but not without its trail of destruction. I’ve been fortunate to keep up with a few games of rugby, including the privilege of going to Twickenham for the first time and in a Corporate Box to see the England vs Barbarian game. Which was a far cry from the more recent early Saturday morning awakenings to head to the Walkie to see the games in NZ (some of which we’ve been wondering why we got out of bed!).
James took me to see Wicked, the musical, as he had only seen it four times! I had heard so much about it from James and Leah, I was surprised it lived up to the hype - so totally recommend seeing it: just once would be a good start. We also went to see the Foo Fighters at Wembley station (another landmark stadium ticked off the list), which needless to say was FAN-TASTIC!
Opshop and Shihad were also really good concerts, it’s always exciting to hear Kiwi music being blasted out of the speakers so far away from home. Plus you’re guaranteed to bump into someone you know in the audience!
Summer is
Ladies Man
Brent's Birthdayhaving a slow start this year, but at least it decided to actually turn up, which is more than I can say for last year.
I had been eagerly awaiting the arrival of my parents all the way from NZ to Europe for the first time. There was so much to show them of where I live and all around London and also for them to meet a lot of my friends who they’ve only seen in pictures on my blog. I was also particularly delighted that they had brought the sun with them on my day off work.
However, there was no rest of the wicked, they arrived from Singapore at 6am that morning, and my lunch time I had taken them through Hyde Park, including the NZ memorial, past Buckingham Palace, St James’ Park, Horse Guard Parade, Downing Street, the gorgeous Big Ben and along South Bank to my favourite restaurant, Giraffee.
If nothing else, it made them get used to the new time zone.
Bad news was, dad got food poisoning from another restaurant I had taken them too that evening, and the chemist said they couldn’t give him anything because he’s only just arrived in
Foo Fighters
Another big stadium, another AWESOME concert! the country
… so that meant mission to the hospital, with the motorway closed and all traffic diverted down the same route we want to go.
We heard other people on the bus say they had been waiting for over an hour for that bus to turn up. And to make things more fun, it terminated before the end of the route, so in the end dad had to walk most of the way to Charing Cross Hospital - I’m surprised he survived. I guess the thought of missing out on their three week Europe tour which was leaving the next day kept him going!
And while they were holiday, I was partying. First up was one of my work’s balls: the 4D Ball (yep I get two this year)…What an amazing night. It was more like a festival than a ball! They had loads of entertainment including a Jamaican fire vs limbo guy, carnival rides - including a ‘magic carpet ride’!?, Henna painting, cultural dances, a caricaturist, a games room and a full on casino, which they gave you money with to play. And if all of that wasn’t enough they put us up Opshop
Supporting some homegrown kiwi talent - James, Hannah, Ben in a flash hotel and gave us a goodies bag full of fancy-smancy cosmetic stuff. All in all, a very good night!
Then came the arrival of Cara, who had come to visit us all the way from NZ! Queue pre-birthday surprise cocktail party, and major sightseeing itinerary. She was also here in time for Ange’s birthday!
My local MWH work ball wasn’t expected to live up to the 4D Ball, but with a decent fireworks display (it was the 4th July after all!), casino, lively dance floor and a professional cocktail-making-man, it was a very good night!
More parting was with the Monopoly Pub Crawl: what a crazy day! and also for Beth and Brent birthdays, two very rowdy nights, requiring a nice relaxing day BBQ’ing in the sunshine of Hampstead Heath.
Mum and dad had come back after a multitude of trips around Europe and Britain, for once last look at London. We went to see the Lion King musical, thanks to their neighbours in NZ, and also managed to catch up with Aunty Di and Garry before squeezing in a last few sights, oh, and a bit of shopping at Harrods!
For them the holiday was almost over, but for holiday season is just starting! The weekend after they left I was on a plane to Copenhagen, to start a long listed travel itinerary that’s shaping up for the summer, but more on that next time.
Between weekend travel and mid-week work travel I was busy catch up with other friends, Sarah & Michelle, and also Steve some of which I had not seen in many years…was it 9 years Steve? A long time anyway!
My flat mate, Florence, has a whole tribe of her French friends over for dinner, which was a great experience, but not as funny as when Florence and I went to go and see Mamma Mia at the movies: We’d planned to go to the Notting Hill Cornet (cheap Tuesday don’t ya know!?).. but it was sold out! -> I think the first time this has happened to me there! .,. so we carried on down the road to Shepherd Bush, to see it there. However, when we got to the counter to buy our ticket, they said that the movies wasn’t showing at that time -> we double check their flyer, and yep we Cara in Lodnon
Clay, Ange, Kate, Jono, Ange, James, Hannah, Cara! had the right time ... so they put us in a large movie theatre all to ourselves and gave us a private screening!!! Awesome! …. And we were pretty much literality dancing in the isle!
Anyways.. it’s time for another holiday…
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