Blues Festival in Eailing

Today we decided to head out to Eailing to go to the Blues in the park. For 1 pound it was a bargain and, of course with a lot of events in London, you were allowed to bring your own picnic and alcohol. So this afternoon and early evening we sat on the picnic blanket and ate our picnic and drank our drinks and listed to the cool Blues tunes in the background.

When Tim spilt his beer all over his wife's skirt we decided it was time to head home. With Tim pack horsed up (Louisa wasn't too happy with him) we headed to the tube station, with a few detours for photo ops, before catching the tube to Tim and Louisa's teeny apartment to then have a beer at their local.

Tim carrying all the bags - Me running an errand - Tim and Louisa on the tub

At 11.30ish we all decided it was time to head home (the tubes only run until about 12) and this is when my realisation struck, shit, I had brought the wrong set of keys out with me and had no way to get into my new house and comfy bed. I made the decision to chance it and hope that my flatmate would be home and wouldn't mind being woken up by his temporary roomie. After ringing the buzzer for about 10 minutes I had to accept the realisation that he wasn't home. So I had no other choice but go back to Hayley's and her lovely read sofa. I managed to hoop on the first bus to her house around 12.15am with no problems it was the bus after that (I missed the last bus of the night) that I started to panic. Fortunately after walking a few blocks in the middle of the night in London I came upon a bus stop that would take me to Hayley's house, phew. I am just so lucky that I have friends in London because I don't know what I would have done otherwise! Lucky also that the next day my flatmate was home and I was able to spend all of Sunday in my new comfy, temporary, bed.

Toni and Hayley walking in posh Kensington

Aside from my dramas of Saturday night the majority of Saturday at the blues festival was good.

Of course, more pictures in the album.

I've been to London to visit the Queen ... tick!

Hey all

Well another thing ticked off my list - see the Queen.

My Queenie story starts with one of my work mates saying that there were some fancy looking people at St Pauls and so we went onto St Paul's site to see if we could find out. We saw that Order of St Michael and St George ceremonial service this was on at 11.30 and she said "I bet the Queen is going to be there, you should go down at lunchtime" and I thought well ok, why not. Being a tourist I always have my camera with me it might be worth a look.

So at 12pm I trundled up to St Pauls and waited patiently with the rest of the crowd at 12.15 I was in the scorching sun (yes London does get nice weather) and thought, ok if nothing happens in another 15 minutes I am outa here and then 10 minutes later, she starts acending the steps and as cameras go up in the air, I get some pretty good snapshots. It was amazing to see her in real life. I was quite far away, but buying the pink camera was so worth it as I got some pretty good shots.

I also found this article, which has some more shots, so it definently was her - Article.

As always there are more pictures in my photogallery and please leave a message in the guestbook.

Toni

Homeless ...

After over two months living in my no hot water, mattress on the floor, window less box, miles away from no where, druggie flatmates, god awful flat (I could go on forever) ... I had finally had enough and decided to move on out. So I gave the flatties my notice, found a replacement and me and my pack horse (Hayley - thanks chick!) gathered up all my bags (I so don't have 20kgs anymore) and moved into Hayley's temporarily. What a relief and was thrilled to get all my bond and the week in advance I had paid from the new girl. So for the last week I have been dossing on Hayley's lovely red couch and tonight (yah) I move into my temporary accommodation for two weeks and for the first time since moving to London (I have been here almost three months) I will get to sleep in a "real" bed!! I am very excited and can't wait. Once my two weeks are up at this temp residence I will go back to Hayley's for a week and then venture on my adventures for the next two months and then find a new nice house in the North when I get back.

Toni

Do we live in London ...?

On Saturday night Louisa and Tim had organised (as it ridiculously expensive to go out to a "Kiwi" restaurant) for us to have our own "New Zealand" dinner at Hayley's place. Everyone was in charge of bringing something from home.

• Hayley and Niki supplied the Rashuns, Grain Waves, kiwi dip and NZ wine.



• Pam and Kev were in charge of the Pavlova (and its was delicious) and Feijoa vodka.



• Tim and Louisa were in charge of the main meal - roast lamb (yum), asparagus, mixed vegie thing and other thing (sorry guys can't remember what it they were called :))



• 
  
  And I, with the sweetest tooth of all (even Hayley is shocked with my chocolate consumption) brought the pineapple lumps, mallowpuffs and macaroons.

We started with the chips and dips and a magnum of champayne (which was consumed some what quickly for such a humungous bottle) followed by the main course and delicious dessert. Unfortunately, there wasn't room for my goodies on Saturday night but fortunately I was staying at Hayleys and they were scrumptious for breakfast the next morning.

I love food from home, although, don't love paying exorbinant prices for it a the NZ/Aussie shop.

Toni

Latest

Well .... a lot has happened in the last couple of days.

TRAVEL
Well just in the throws of booking my trip around Italy with Debra and her friend Michelle and somehow my trip around Italy has turned into

ITALY
Milan
Florence
Pisa
Tuscany
Rome
I THINK!!

and then Debra had extra time off work so is now also

SPAIN
Barcelona
Valencia for La Tomatina (sorry Zac, was spur of the moment)

and then because I had an extra weekend and its was cheaper

IRELAND
Dublin

And then probably back to London for a week if I can get some work and a place to say and then am away for my big trip.

Wow, just typing that is pretty full on!!!

What a mission it is to book a trip yourself with plane, trains, cars, hostels, etc am glad my big trip is already organised for me!!

And now all I need to do is manage to afford it, having accounts in three different countries is going to come in handy for extra funds!!

HOUSE
My next piece of news is that tonight someone came to look at my room so if things go well will have moved out of my place on Sunday, so MAKE SURE you don't send any mail to my address.

Until the next update.

What is this? Answer: see picture below

Can anyone guess what this might be?



Leave your answers in the guest book.

ANSWER





How grose is that?? !!

See below for my post on British Museum.

Toni

Trip to the British Museum

Today I ventured out to soak up some culture and headed to the British Museum. Admission to most of the museums in London is free so its a good thing to do when you don't have a look of moolah to spend.

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than 13 million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its beginning to the present.

I personally didn't find the museum that interesting but its was good to have a wander around and see bits and pieces from other cultures. I even found something from NZ.

The Rosetta Stone is an Ancient Egyptian artifact (حجر رشيد in Arabic) which was instrumental in advancing modern understanding of hieroglyphic writing. The stone is a Ptolemaic era stele with carved text. The text is made up of three translations of a single passage, written in two Egyptian language scripts (hieroglyphic and Demotic), and in classical Greek. It was created in 196 BC, discovered by the French in 1799 at Rashid (a harbour on the Mediterranean coast in Egypt renamed Rosetta by the French during Napoleon Bonaparte's campaign in Egypt) and contributed greatly to the decipherment of the principles of hieroglyphic writing in 1822 by the British polymath Thomas Young and the French scholar Jean-François Champollion. Comparative translation of the stone assisted in understanding many previously undecipherable examples of hieroglyphic writing. The text of the Rosetta Stone is a decree from Ptolemy V, describing the repealing of various taxes and instructions to erect statues in temples.

Toni

Eat at a Celebrity Chef Restaurant - Tick

I was always planning on going to either Jamie Oliver's or Gordon Ramsay's restaurants in London as felt it was one of my "Things to do in London". As I was browsing TNT online I came across this Taste of Italy.

Sit back and indulge in an evening of Italian delights at Fifteen London, the charity registered restaurant founded by Jamie Oliver. For the first time, 12 lucky readers can be a part of TNT's exclusive Taste Of Italy event on Sunday, June 29. Not only will you be able to experience the food and wine culture of different regions of Italy without even stepping out of London, we'll also give you the chance to learn how to make pasta, the Italian way. Tickets cost £40 and include:

*Pasta making demonstration

*An extravagant three-course meal with wines picked by Fifteen's own sommelier.

*Each guest will also receive a wine matching menu, a TNT goodie bag and a Fifteen apron.

Jamie Oliver founded Fifteen with the ambition to open a top class restaurant that would give disadvantaged youngsters the chance to create great careers in the catering industry. Five years on, Fifteen has earned the reputation as one of London's finest eateries and this is an evening not to be missed.

So with my fingers crossed I put my name in the draw for one of the lucky 12 to get picked, because at £40 it was a lot cheaper than going to the restaurant normally and with everyone on such tight budgets saving for holidays I didn't really fancy going alone. Fortunately I got an email back to say that I was randomly selected. Yah!

So on Sunday night I headed up North a bit and went in search of the restaurant, Fifteen. As you will see above, Fifteen is Jamie Oliver's restaurant founded to give young disadvantaged chefs a go. Its in a bit of a random spot near Old Street tube but is quite popular with people having to wait up to three months for a booking.

Upon arriving I met all the other drawees, mostly Kiwis and Aussies and we settled in for our pasta making demonstration, including chocolate pasta. The guy that was showing us the pasta was from Australia. He was explaining to us how he got his job in Fifteen. He had just arrived this side of customs in London and was telling customs (i think) about his plan to come to London and find work as a chef when the manger of Fifteen overhead him and asked him to come to Fifteen the next day for an interview, how about that for luck! So he has been working at Fifteen ever since and with Jamie Oliver.

Anyway back to meal, after the demonstration we headed to our seats and was served our entree of sauteed vegetables and cured meats, followed by pork belly, this was delicious and so tender, then the best part dessert, yum! Three choices to choose from including the chocolate pasta.

I had a really good night and the food was fab, unfortunately didn't see Jamie Oliver but went home with a Fifteen apron and a tick on my list of things to do in London.

Toni

Wimbledon 2008

Since Hayley knew how much we all loved tennis :) she had organised us to come to this once in a lifetime event - Wimbeldon

After much debate and decision making we decided to head to Wimbeldon around 8am to queue for general admission tickets. The website said that you have to queue hours in advance and there were only 6000 general admission tickets. So I awoke at 5.30am and made the 1.5 hour trip there, bumped into Sheree on the way and we even made it there early. Some people who shall not be named were a tad late !! :) !!. So at around 8.15am we headed to the line to start our, what was it guys, around 3.5 hour queue line wait. Fortunately, we had all brought a picnic, drinks and cards so the wait didn't even seem that long. We got our queue tickets 7435 for me and our heart sank, we weren't in the 6000 people, fortunately the helpful stewardess said that usually the first 9000 get in before 1pm. Yah!!

So at around 11am with our queue cards safely put away (if you lost them you would not be able to get it) we walked the mammoth board walk, with various advertising materials being confiscated (I am sure Hayley will expand on that), x-rays, body searches, misplaced wallets and finally got our tickets and were inside the gates of Wimbledon.

We were separated for a while so Sheree and I headed up to the hill to watch some of the tennis on the big screen. Because we only had general admission tickets we were not privileged to the Centre Court or Court 1 (where all the big names play) so we watched Jankovic on the big screen and then headed down to the practice courts to see if we could see any big players practicing. Whilst heading down there we found an HSBC tent which did photos for free. Bonus, so me and Sheree had photos of us holding the plates and then hung around to get the autograph of super sexy Mario Ancic who was honoured to have his picture with me (honest, he told me so, we so had a conversation).

We then met up with Hayley who was purchasing some used tennis balls for souvenirs. We then thought we should actually watch some live tennis, that's what we were there for right!! So we watched some men's doubles, then headed to court 2 (us plebs were allowed to stand here to watch this court) to watch some men and then ended up in court 3 watching some female doubles.

Lucky for us the weather was fab and may have even got a tan. Had a great day and thanks heaps for organising Hayley.

And of course as usual, more pictures in the photo gallery.

Toni

Horseriding in Wales

I saw an advert for horse riding in Wales in the TNT magazine. At the time I thought it was a bit expensive and thought if I could afford it, would do it later in the year.

During the week my flatmates were being grizzly so I thought I would just have another look at the site, bonus, they were offering it for 90 pounds off, score! so I booked it and packed all my gear to take to work on Friday.

On Friday night I tubed it to Eailing Common and was was picked up by Tony the owner/operator of the business. I was joined by Cath & Craig and Clayton & Heidi where we piled into the van and headed off to Wales.

After 4.5 hours we were in Wales at a small village near Brecon Beacons National Park. Usually there are 16 people but this weekend was a bit quiet and they were only the five of us and two other ladies from somewhere in England.

On Saturday morning we woke up to not so good weather unfortunately, but had a fab cooked breakfast before heading to the horseriding. I got a horse called Reece who loved being up front and was relatively good. Unfortunately, this was another follow the leader, can't talk to anyone, sit on the back of a horse for five horses horse trek, but I was luckily enough to be able to go for a canter, although my stirrup came out as Reece was so excited so was holding on for dear life more than enjoyment.

After the horse ride we headed back to the house for a nice soak in the hot tub. We were all very sore and that really was the best medicine. On Saturday night we had some drinks and some drinking Jenga but we were all exhausted from battling the elements and the horses so headed to bed around 1am.

On Sunday morning we had a nice sleep in and another cooked breakfast this time with pancakes, we had a quick look around the village (which took all of about 10 minutes) and then headed back to London, somewhat uncomfortably as we were all sore from yesterday.

It was a nice relaxing weekend away and the pain went away... eventually.

Check out more picures in the gallery.

Quick Update

Hey All

Just letting you know my latest news.

1. I have my job until 18 July 2008, possibly longer, woo hoo!! (I soo need the money)

2. I am going away to Wales for the weekend on a horse riding trek . Will let you know how it goes.


Toni