Posts Tagged ‘London’

Easter cont’d and Teneale’s Birthday

// April 21st, 2009 // No Comments » // Trip information

The London Eye

The London Eye

The Monday (13/4/09) was Teneale’s birthday. YAY! The day started with a Skype call from the Parentals. After a couple hours on the phone, we journeyed down the South Bank of London for a day of walking around the big London attractions. We got up close to the London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral and Trafalgar Square. It was a really nice day out.

We got off the bus at South Bank and it felt like we had stepped out into a carnival. South Bank had all the buskers out performing for money. There must be something about painting yourself a solid colour, standing still for a couple of hours and getting money. I Might have try it out at some point.

After a good day of walking around, we decided to hang around to see London at night. We stopped into a pub for about 30 minutes while we waited for it to get dark. But instead of being in the pub for 30 minutes, we were in there for about 2 hours. We met a really nice couple from the States and we got talking.

London @ night

We’ll after our 2 hour chat we left the pub and we were met by the London Eye lit up with all the colours of the rainbow. It was brilliant (as they all say here). I’m glad we hung around for it. I took a ton of photos, and got to play around with the manual settings on my camera. I will upload the photos shortly.

The Easter long weekend

// April 21st, 2009 // No Comments » // Trip information

Easter Bunny

Me and the Easter Bunny

Well Friday (10/4/09) was the start of the Easter long weekend. But it didn’t make any difference to those unemployed. The long weekend started with a visit to the Imperial War Museum. The Museum was fantastic, really well laid out and excellent parts of war history all over the place for visitors to interact with up close and personal. The “Pièce de résistance” would have to be the Holocaust exhibit. It details the entire WWII from the Nazi perspective. It was fascinating; the museum staff have done a brilliant job. It took about an hour just in that section alone to get through all the information. After a while your brain is too overloaded and you have to take a break. Definitely check out the Museum if you’re in London.

A lighter subject

The next day we decided to take in a subject a little less serious, shopping!

Teneale, Mel and I went down to Shepards Bush to the largest Westfield in the Northern Hemisphere. The mall was massive. We were lucky enough to catch the Lindt Easter Bunny in the Easter maze. Teneale did the most of the shopping that day. She picked up a few bargains in Sports Direct. In fact she was able to buy a Jumper, skirt, singlet and 5 pairs of socks for the price I paid for one t-shirt from Henleys.

Let’s go Walkabout

After we finished at the Mall (about 6 hours later) we went to where every Australian goes on a Saturday night; The Walkabout. Actually, I think we were the only Aussies there. We had a good feed there and hung around for the band. They were awesome, really good band. They played a variety of all music styles from Nelly to Killers to Cold Chisel, and the best part was that they remixed the songs so there was no silent gap in between songs, they were really really good.

Snake Bite

After a few ciders and a lot of vodka Red Bulls’, Teneale and I decided to risk our health and we ordered a pint of Liquid crap Snake Bite each. OMFG! How can anyone drink that crap? It was disgusting! Nuff said!

Oh another thing to mention is that there was a guy in the toilet who gives you soap, paper towels and gum. How nice…however I did give him money, and it can get annoying when you drink a lot..

Recovering

Well Sunday was the recovery day from our near death experience with the Snake Bite. And from one near death experience to another one we move onto dinner and drinks at Soho for Teneale’s birthday.

The dinner was fantastic. Teneale chose a really nice place to eat at Emm’s Cafe. Teneale, Gemma, Mel and I really enjoyed our meals. It was good service and great food.

After dinner we decided to involuntary give our organs away go out for a few drinks. We were met outside by a lovely Russian man who gave us a voucher for 2-1 drinks at a club in Soho. We took the voucher and he led us down this shady street which resembled King Cross back in Oz. I feared for my precious kidneys; imagining myself waking up in a bath full of bloody ice.
The guy was very pushy to get us into the club, but once we were inside and it looked like the other people in the club had all there major organs intact, we stayed. Gemma, feeling like a few cocktails, got the orders underway, and 10 minutes later we had a table full of cocktails that nobody wanted to drink, except Teneale, but she’s an alcoholic. After drinks we parted ways with Gemma and left for home.

Big spend up in Harrods £ £

// April 20th, 2009 // No Comments » // Trip information

Photo-Shoot for BBC

Photo-Shoot for BBC

Tuesday (7/4/09) was another really nice day. Mel had an interview at a Nanny agency in Notting Hill, so Mel, Teneale and I went with her. Teneale and I left Mel at the agency and walked a little bit further down the road to find a place to grab a morning coffee. (Geez I miss my morning ritual coffee in the morning whilst working back in Australia). We managed to find a place just down the road and we had one the roughest latte’s yet. YUCK! Anyway moving on. Mel rang shortly afterwards and we went and collected her.

Our plan was to go to the Natural History Museum for the rest of the day. We walked from Notting Hill through a part of the lovely Kensington Gardens, and popped out at the King Albert Statue. Whilst we where there, we caught the shooting of a new BBC show “Fashion”. There was a car on top of another car just out the front of the statue. We hung around a bit to see if anything would happen, and just when we were about to leave they let loose with the flames and they begun the photo shoot. I took a few photos of the cast with flames bellowing out of the cars behind them. We then continued on to the museum.

Well little did we know that it was school holidays in London, and the line to get in was absolutely massive. It pretty much went across the front of the building; there was no way we have gotten in before they closed.

So, we had to reschedule for another day when the school holidays are over.
We decided that since we were close we would check out Harrods.

Harrods

Upon arrival I felt very under-dressed for the occasion. I knew I should have brought my tux with me.

Well Harrods is massive! I couldn’t believe the awesome array of clothing to furniture to music to restaurants. It is about 5 times the size of Myer. We ended up in the CD/DVD area and I bought a game for the PC. I bought PES2008 for the massive amount of £2. I thought it was an excellent purchase. Who says Harrods is expensive…

After we had finished wishing we were millionaires we ventured to the food hall, which is funny because even in the food hall you are not allowed to eat. Mel, Teneale and I splashed out a whole £2 each on 3 miniature cupcakes. We consumed them across the road in our favourite coffee place (NOT!)Starbucks. The cupcakes were very sugary and rich for such a small thing, so I ate the rest of Mel’s.

Picadilly

After our snack we went to the massive sports retailer in Piccadilly, LillyWhites. We managed to squeeze our way around the store, and I resisted temptation and bought nothing. All the Premier League shirts were on sale, but I’ll hold out until I make it to Old Trafford.

Once we finished there we made our way home and stopped off at a local pub for a quick cider.

Exeter to London & Greenwich

// April 18th, 2009 // No Comments » // Trip information

Greenwich

Greenwich

Sorry for the delay in posts. You will soon be inundated with posts from now on :)

Mel and I left booking a car till the last minute so we missed out and had to catch the train. Sunday morning we left Lympstone and caught a cab to the Exeter train station headed for Waterloo. The train ride was really good. We were on there for just over 4 hours but it was way better than catching a bus, and I preferred it to driving. The train only got busy as we were heading into Waterloo, so Mel and I were able to stretch out a bit before hand and managed to get some sleep in the sun.

We arrived at Waterloo and we met Teneale and Gemma there, so we could all cab it there together. The cab driver at Waterloo was absolutely useless. He didn’t offer to help us load all our massive bags in the cab, nor did he open the front door so we could put some smaller bags on the front seat. Instead he watched the four of us struggle into the back of the cab with our luggage. Jerk.

We made it to our new house in Bermondsey, which is really nice, met the landlord, drop of our luggage and headed to where everyone goes when it’s sunny, Greenwich! (Pfft call this a sunny day, you should see Bondi on a sunny day.)
We trotted around Greenwich and saw where all time is measured from. We also saw the line that divides east longitude from west? No idea what it is called? Meridian?

After that I ate some undercooked chips, we left Gemma on the tube and headed back to Bermondsey. Along the way I was able to drop in to a few pubs to grab the score from the Man Utd, Aston Villa game. I was extremely surprised when I got home to see that Man Utd won in stoppage time after being down 2-1. Woohoo (sorry Harley).

Off to London

// April 3rd, 2009 // No Comments » // Trip information

Well the three of us have manage to secure a place to live in London. Big thanks to Teneale who did all the work for the last 2 weeks looking for a place.

Mel and I will be driving back up to London on weekend, which is really good timing as it looks like I have at least three interviews the following week. Hopefully Mel and Teneale find some long term work as well.

I will have more details and photos soon