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Published: March 15th 2008
Firstly, sorry for the looooong time in between blogs! Thanks for the gentle reminder from a few people, so here is the next instalment. 😊 My last blog was at the start of December, so a fair bit has happened between now and then.
The start of December was a bit sad, with Jackie heading back to Oz and leaving us all on our lonesome (well, all 8 of us) at Sisters Avenue...but fun was also had. We had a random day of drinking around London dressed up as Santa??!! It’s called Santacon, and over 1,000 people donned Santa costumes and roamed around London drinking and singing on December 15th. It was a lot of fun as you can see from the photos.
We headed up to Preston for a Carter family Christmas. All the Carter’s were fantastic to us while we were up there, and really made Christmas seem like we weren’t quite so far away from home, with lots of turkey dinners, lots of alcohol and lots of presents.
We also visited the Lakes District in the north west of England which was beautiful. The weather however, was not! Oh well!!
We came back just
before New Years, which we spent in a lovely apartment in the middle of London, and watched the fireworks from the roof like Mary Poppins!
Third day into 2008, I went to O2 Arena in London’s east, to see the Spice Girls with a girl we met whilst travelling last summer!! Haha...very amusing night, and lots of memories (hence the phone calls Jess...sorry!!) I can’t say it was the best concert I’ve ever been to, but it was fun, so what more can you ask for.
January also saw another good friend leave back for Oz - Naomi who I went to Spice Girls with, a couple of trips to the Sports Cafe in Haymarket for a ‘weekly tradition’ of Thursday Chicken Wing night...which lasted 2 weeks, and Australia Day!!
Australia Day was great, and it’s amazing how much more patriotic you feel when you’re away from home. I can’t say I’ve ever gone all out to celebrate Australia Day before, but perhaps it’s something I will start. Especially when we can sit outside and have a Barbie back home instead of freezing in London!!
Unfortunately James & I didn’t last too long on Aus Day.
After getting to the pub by 1pm, we made a sneaky exit at about 7:30pm, while the others were heading to a party close by. We went to get some fried chicken for dinner and the plan was to go home, eat it, then meet them back at the party. Um, we thought it was kind of a waste to go and meet them though after we woke up at 12:30am, fully clothed and with every light in the room on!
Oooh, some exciting news for anyone who had the pleasure of hearing about our perverted old man housemate who brought prostitutes home about three times a week...he’s gone!! Yay! So we now have a really great new couple from Geelong who moved in to Mark & Jackie’s old room who we get along really well with and actually have a few trips planned with, and the old perverted man has been replaces by another couple who are also really nice - a South African girl and an Aussie guy. So our house now has TEN people! Busy place!!
We started to get some nice weather around the start of February, and we experienced our second South African
braai with Jimmy’s old workmates, and explored our closest park down in Battersea - with a t-shirt on!!! WOW!!
We also visited Leeds Castle out in Kent, which was a great day out. We went with our new housemates and also a girl that I work with. The sun was out and it was a really clear day which was great, but it was really cold still, with the lakes around the castle frozen over with a thin layer of ice! We used most of our energy on the day trying to stop Jimmy from trying to walk on the 1cm thick ice!!
Also had a weekend away each, with Jimmy going to Amsterdam with Mark, and me going to Dublin with Laura. From what Jimmy told me he had a great time in Amsterdam...which I’m sure he did!! 😉
As for me and Laura...Diublin was good fun. The first night we were there though, the Ireland v Scotland rugby game had just been played in Dublin, and it was just madness! And to top it off, this madness was all drunk Irish and Scottish boys - a lot of who told us they were from country
towns - and they had obviously not seen (or spoken to) that many women. We were getting grabbed, hair ruffles, sung to, knee knocks...saw men getting beer poured down their arse crack, and wearing baby bonnets! It was crazy! In fact, we were a little scared!! We had also had a very big night the night before with Samar’s last night in London, and so weren’t in the mood for a whole city of dicks!
The next night was much better though. We had visited the Guinness factory, and after our first taste each, surprisingly we both got quite a taste for the stuff!! We spent the whole walk home stopping in pubs about 200m apart getting more pints of the black stuff. We bumped into some nice guys who we stuck with for the rest of the night (as we thought they might be few and far between judging from the night before). We had planned to go back and have a shower because we looked like death, but by the time we realised, it was well into the night! So...we just stayed out looking like absolute shite, but it was probably good as it might’ve kept away
the freaks from the night before! So we just kept drinking Guinness and even got a rose each from the Tongan guy who lived in Ireland to play rugby...but didn’t actually know much English. How sweet!
Been going out a fair bit in London, but working and saving fairly hard at the same time. Jimmy has a new job with AGB Nielsen - the television ratings place - and is working on the Strand which is very close to me. We say we’re going to do lunch, but reality is we probably need every penny for our upcoming travels. Maybe we can meet on the banks of the Thames to eat our sandwiches together or something instead!! Haha! 😊
Jimmy has started training with the local AFL team; the Wandsworth Demons, and they start playing in May which should be fun. They train on Clapham Common which is just at the end of our street, leaving him little excuse for getting out of training. I will also be joining their netball team, but won’t start playing until the end of May and will only get to play half the season. Oh well, better than nothing!
Next week
we are off to Wales with the housemates and Laura, on a road trip for the Easter break. It should be a lot of fun...let’s just hope the weather isn’t too terrible!
Last weekend we went a bit booking crazy!! We booked a couple of weekend trips to the Scottish Highlands and Newquay which is on the coast of Cornwall with the housemates, plus also organising and booking our whole summer trip which was very exciting.
So, our next few months looks like this:
March: Wales; Jimmy also off to Cardiff the weekend after for a footy trip; Oxford vs Cambridge boat race
April: Portsmouth to visit friends we met travelling; Mum and dad arrive!!!
May: Ireland with mum and dad; Scottish Highlands trip; Paris
June: Newquay Summer Festival; House party planned as a last hurrah!
July: Ben Harper & Powderfinger in Hyde Park; Finish work; Head off on European Adventure #2!
So we will be leaving on July 23 for Spain and Portugal, back for two nights, then head off for Turkey, the Greek Islands, Croatia, Slovenia, and Munich for Oktoberfest! We will then be back in London for another two nights, before heading back to
Australia via Thailand to arrive in Melbourne on October 3rd! And then...it’ll all be over! Awwwww!! (Not that I’m not very much looking forward to seeing you all again very soon!)
So, I will try and do some updates after a few of the next trips, but I’m not going to promise anything as I’ve been very lazy with the blog lately!
Hope you are all well! Make sure you keep me updated on all gossip!
Sarah - Congrats again on the engagement!
Madi - Mega congratulations on making the Aus Olympic team and good luck in Beijing!
Jackie - Come back for summer!
Age - Happy Birthday for Thursday!
Mum & Dad - You must be getting excited to see me (I mean, about your big trip!!) 😊
Jess - Have fun in Bali!
Jessie - Hope to see you soon...let's work something out!
Everyone - Happy Easter!! xoxo
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Adrienne
non-member comment
Woohooo
So jealous you seem like your having the time of your life Lauren!! I can't wait to travel just needa save up the dosh first!! Have fun love u lots xoxoxoxoxo