We've just returned from a long weekend in Paris. We had an absolute blast. Contrary to what we had heard from most people, the place wasn't that dirty, the people weren't rude, and it was amazingly picturesque and pretty. You can't help but feel a bit overwhelmed by the history on occasion, that's for sure!

We caught the Eurostar (train) over there through the Channel Tunnel, and it was quite quick and good - we unfortunately didn't get to see the countryside though as we travelled at night. It was a bit frightening at first when we got there as this was the first time that we've been to a country that speaks predominantly another language (well by ourselves anyway - when we were in Kenya we had Pascal's amazing family to help us....), so negotiating our way through the Paris Metro system was to prove to be an interesting experience....

We were standing in Paris Gare du Nord train station, trying to work out how to buy tickets for the metro, when a helpful man came over to us and starting speaking to us in English and it was quite a relief as he tried to help us with the ticket machine - he then goes on to insist that we owe him €61 (euro) for the tickets that he just bought for us (trying to claim that they would do us for our 3 day stay.... Damo said "No way mate - we haven't got anything like that sort of money on us" and it was then that we worked out that he was trying to scam us..... The very first thing in Paris - Nice!!!!

Anyway, we didn't get taken, we did end up working out how to buy our tickets and travel to Madeleine, and we also managed to find our hotel with minimal difficulty, so everything worked out fantastically.



The hotel was nice, and it was a mere couple of blocks from the Champs-Elysees and also from Place de la Concorde. It was also right near a huge church called Madeleine (Church of Mary Magdalene). Brilliant location.


Madeleine


Place de la Concorde


Champs-Elysees....


.....and again with Nik

We spent much of the first day trying to work out where we could buy breakfast (Petit Lejeuner) on the Champs-Elysees and wandering up and down trying to work out the best place to convert some of our money. We also went into a few shops (Damo says "thankfully not too many!!!") and generally had a pretty good day. We made our way up to the Arc de Triomphe (sp?), took about a bazillion photos, and then purchased our tickets to climb it - apparently it's 50 metres high, and 284 steps to climb it.


...Arc de Triomphe at night

After we'd finished with this we went and found a little cafe and had some lunch. We wandered back down the Champs-Elysees and bought a crepe with nutella off a street vendor and sat in a beautiful park while we ate it and relaxed near a fountain.


The fountain.....


Damo and the crepe.....

We were pretty shattered after a late night the night before, so we decided to go back to the hotel for a nanna-nap in the afternoon, and then we got up later on and decided to go out for dinner. We ended up in a little place called L'imperial on Rue de Rivoli (which is not far from The Louvre), and the food was amazing - Nikki got Onion Soup (otherwise known as French Onion soup when you're not in France ;-) ) for entree while Damo got Foie Gras (Pate), and Nikki got a steak with bearnaise sauce and Damo got a steak with mushroom sauce and frittes (fries). It was soooo good - we had a couple of glasses of Champagne, and also a nice red with dinner (I think it was a Bordeaux). The atmosphere of the place was lovely, and the waiter was amazing - we've definitely never seen anyone as efficient anywhere else in the world - which I guess means that they live up to their reputation.

The next day we got up and decided that we would go and check out the markets out near Bastille - this was a great move, as they were pretty much food markets, and it was far enough out of the touristy area that we more or less almost had to converse in french - which was heaps of fun - they spoke enough english, and we spoke enough french to get by. This really felt like what you would do if you were Parisienne, and we really enjoyed this heaps - a bit of a break from the usual touristy stuff.


The markets....

After this, we went and had a coffee in a little cafe and spoke to the family for a little bit. Then we jumped on the Metro and headed down to Montparnasse which had some art markets down there, and, after getting lost for a little while, we went and had a look through - they were actually a little disappointing, and we later read in the lonely planet that they've sort of sold out - they used to be good, but not so much any more....

We had a look through them anyway, and then we went and had Lejeuner (lunch) in a small creperie on a side street off Montparnasse. It was amazing - it was an entire street filled with creperies - anyway, after looking at a few of the menus and being able to discerne little, we ended up deciding on one, went in, sat down, and then realised that there were better sounding crepes in a different restaurant - so not wanting to cause a scene, we waited for the waitress to vanish, and then we did - just up the street. This would have been fine, except that Nikki had left a book behind on the table, so we walked into the restaurant that we wanted, and then a moment later, the waitress comes into this restaurant to hand us the book..... not at all embarrassing....!!!!!

Here is a piccie of the one where we ended up having lunch.



The food once again was sensational, but it was smothered in butter - we could both feel our arteries hardening just looking at it.....

We went from here, to the Louvre and we were going to go in, but decided that it was a bit late in the day, and that it might be a good idea to go to the Eiffel Tower for sunset. We were at Place de la Concorde, but decided that a stroll down the banks of the Seine on the way would be nice. And it was.






This bridge is the famous one off the Nescafe ad on TV - I think it might have been black and white and used to have some french music in the background....

We walked to the Eiffel Tower, and it was amazing - the Eiffel Tower (Tour d' Eiffel) really is an amazingly impressive structure.

Our first pictures.....


and then


The view from the top (the white thing in the sky is the light that goes around on top of the Eiffel Tower - a bit like the Stefan Skyneedle in Bris.... except a bit more powerful I think.)


I hung my camera off the side to take this one....


We were at the Eiffel Tower for ages - it was about 23:00 by the time that we ended up leaving the general area, and we decided to walk home - we ended up strolling down the Champs-Elysees past the Arc de Triomphe on the way home, and we were starving - we ended up finding a place that was open, and we got some dinner - it was about midnight by the time that we got there, and the food was lovely. We watched all the people walking by, and ended up strolling home.

Woke up the next day, and it was pissing down! We were pretty shattered by this point in time,
so we slept in a bit. Got up and packed, went to check out, and the chick at the counter tried to rip us off by about €30. Damo was having none of it though, and ended up having a bit of an argument with her, and she relented and accepted the initial quoted price. (Damo says "I would've gone off my rocker if she hadn't - it was expensive anyway.....")

We put our stuff in a cupboard/small room and then headed off for the day - went to the Madeleine Church first off. This was a very impressive church, and due to the gloomy weather, made it feel quite eerie.

We lit a candle and put it in front of Joan of Arc.


This was a photo of the church in general - it was huge!


We then decided to head to the Louvre - we walked there, and then by the time that we got there we realised that we'd left the laptop in a fairly unsecure location, so we ended up walking back to the hotel to get it again.

On the way back to the Louvre (again), we were walking to the Place de la Concorde, and as we walked past the Hotel de Crillon, noticed that there was a crowd gathered, and barriers in place. We stopped to find out what was going on, and apparently Madonna was about to come out of the hotel (or so we were told.....). Anyway, an hour and a half later, she did. Nikki has got a video of it, and I've got a photo of her car speeding away with a police escort.


Madonna is in this car - ohhh I can all hear you say...... ;-)

After this we headed to the Louvre. The Louvre can't even be described, because it would be longer than the rest of this post (which is already huge......). Needless to say that we saw a few of the key items - Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo etc. etc.

You were not meant to take photos of Mona Lisa - we got one anyway! :-)


We also got plenty of photos of Venus


It was all pretty amazing - it's quite strange being there though - you know that you are very much in the presence of greatness in many ways, and even the Louvre itself is a work of art, but it's like your senses get overwhelmed - sort of like you can't see the forest for the trees. There is so much amazing stuff that it all sort of blends in to one.

We were there for about 3 or 4 hours, and I think we managed to skim through about a quarter of it, and this was certainly not paying much attention to much at all. We definitely will go back though.

The Louvre




This pretty much saw the end of our France trip. The Eurostar home was a lot slower than it was meant to be and it was delayed by about a half hour, so we didn't end up getting into London until about 11:30 and then we had to catch the tube home - we walked in the door at about 12pm, so needless to say that it was an absolutely exhausting weekend. We certainly walked a lot though!

Paris Gare du Nord


All that can be said of Paris is that, if it is at all possible in your lifetime, you must go there! We both thought that it was an amazing place, and the history of it is such that it is almost scary - buildings built in the 1300's etc. Very full on! We had an absolute blast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you read the sign on the building in the background of this fella, that's where we're off to this weekend!!!!!!

F R A N C E ! ! !

It'll be our first trip out of the country since we've been here, and we can't wait. It's a bank holiday long weekend over here, and we leave on the Eurostar on Friday night and get back on Monday night pretty late. The Eurostar is a pretty rockin' looking train - and it goes about 300km/h, so it'll be honkin' too!



Can't wait!!!! We've got our accommodation booked, and we'll be staying in the Madeleine district which is very, very near the Champs-Elysse and the Louvre.



Don't know if you can make out this map very well, but there's details of the main attractions, and also where we'll be staying!!! It looks great - we can't wait!

Damo went out in his lunch break the other day and these are some of the things that he saw:


Buckingham Palace


Beefeater


Damo in Green Park (funnily enough, it was green....)


Modigliani exhibition (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amedeo_Modigliani for details - I like the bit that says "Sick most of his life, he partook of alcohol and drugs, and was a philanderer; he died at the age of 35." heh heh!!!!


Puttin' on the Ritz!!!!!! This was on Piccadilly.

Anyway, not bad for one lunch hour during work. This is the view from Damo's office windows:


You can see London Eye on the horizon and Big Ben is just to the right of it. Not too bad!

Anyway, Damo had to go out to Sunbury yesterday afternoon for an interview, so he's just waiting to hear back how that went. It was an absolute mission to get there, and took about 2 hrs. The company is moving to near the Piccadilly line, so it shouldn't be too bad.

It's been a great week in London this week - the weather has been a bit more like we were expecting - cold and raining - which is funny considering it is meant to be the middle of summer....

Going home to pack for France tonight (got to go to Tory's house on the way home to drop off her SW4 ticket). We were meant to be going to SW4 (see http://www.londontown.com/LondonEvents/SouthWestFour/d62ce for details of the line up), but France ended up taking precedent on a long weekend for us naturally.

It would have been awesome though - Carl Cox, Paul Oakenfold et al.... Oh well. There's all sorts of festivals and stuff happening over here all the time, so hopefully we'll get to another one soon!

Hope everyone is well over there! We're thinking of you all!

This entry is going to be fairly photo-less as there is very little that we took photos of on the weekend just gone.

We ended up catching up with Trav and Nic again on Friday night for Nic's birthday. We went to a pub called "The York" right near Angel tube station, and then we went out to some other place that was a pool bar/club/pub afterwards not far from there - we had a great night, and ended up tying one on. Pretty much everyone was exceptionally inebriated, and we had a hoot of a night.

Even though in the last entry we were saying that we didn't want to do that on Friday night, it's what's ended up happening.... *Oops*

Subsequently, Saturday morning was a bit of a write-off, but we woke up and got ready and went to the Borough High Street markets again (went for a bit longer this time, and picked up some fresh fruit and vege's - they're heaps better than the ones that you buy at Tesco's...), and we met up with Tory there, and she ended up coming back to our place afterwards and we were meant to be going to a bbq at a friend of her's place up at Willesden Green (right near Trav's place actually), but we ended up helping her out with her Resumé, so by the time we were finished with that it was about 9:30pm and we couldn't be bothered any more, so we rented a movie and stayed home.

Woke up early-ish on Sunday and spoke to the family on the phone for a while, then we headed off to High Street Kensington to get a couple of things then we jumped on the tube and headed across to the other side of London to go to the Spitalfields markets (which is right near Nikki's work) - they are exceptionally cool - quite bohemian and you can get some excellent stuff there - it's not particularly cheap though, but is good.

Damo had a phone interview on Friday and got a call-back on Monday saying that they want to meet with him on Wednesday afternoon, so that was pretty good news.

Things have been interesting over here with all of the UK going to the critical terror alert recently. Thankfully, they caught the pricks, and also thankfully, we haven't had enough money to go anywhere!!!!! Damo read on BBC news that they had lost 10,000 bags in all of the chaos, and apparently there was pretty much looting going on at Heathrow....

We've both been paid (our first UK pay - WOOHOO!!!!) recently, so that's a bit of a breakthrough! I think we're meant to be planning our first trip abroad very soon, and the most likely destination is going to be France. Oui Oui, Merci and all that!

Damo went to a pub the other night with some work mates to a place called the Willow Walk near his work, and had a few quiet drinks and found a very cheap place to get some very decent grub. No doubt we'll be back there at some stage.

Nikki went over to Tory's house on this night and caught up with her - she'd had some dramas getting back here from Australia as she was on a flight in the middle of all the security crap that was going on, was sick, and I think she wanted someone friendly to talk to, so Nikki went over there and looked after her. This is Tory (obviously the one in pink at the front):



Forgot to mention that this photo above was taken on our first weekend in the UK - we went down to Brighton to check it out and hang out on the beach (or rocks).....



and



We'd heard from a bloke at the 3 Kings the other night that we picked a pretty difficult time to try and get work because every one goes on holidays when the weather is good, so you never hear back about jobs and stuff, and he said he was surprised that work turned up as quick as it did. Ah well - guess that was good news....

Nikki got stuck on a tube this morning - she was in between stations, and was stuck there for about 45 mins - it was absolutely mortifying, because she's a little claustrophobic, and after a while with no ventilation the air started getting very hot and stuffy, and then the driver announced that they were going to evacuate the train, but nothing happened for 15 mins - absolutely horrible! Bloody tube! Not far from here....



Damo went to Buckingham Palace at lunch time today - his work pretty much almost backs onto it, so he went and watched the Beefeaters standing there for a while. Would've taken a photo, but didn't have a camera with him. Funnily enough, we didn't even get a piccie of Buckingham palace from when we went there on Tory's Tours either! Damo will have to slip over there one lunch time and get some!!

And while that might all be nice, we're missing this already....


(Piccie taken at Coolangatta about a week before we left to come over here)

We've been invited to catch up with Trav and Nic tomorrow night (Friday), so that could be on the agenda for this weekend - not sure what else yet, but due to a big Friday night, last weekend was a bit wasted, and we're determined not to do that again!

OK - it hasn't been too long since the last update, but we're trying to get back on top of things properly here...

Last couple of weeks have basically involved trying to get set up - e.g. buying a clothes airer, pots, pans etc. Pretty boring stuff really.

We caught up with Travis and Nic the other week - it was great to see a friendly face over here! We went up and checked out their pad, and went out for dinner with them to a bloody beautiful restaurant. It was heaps of fun to catch up with them both!



We went to Harrods recently - very, very full on - it was SOOOOOO expensive - certainly the place isn't really designed for plebs like us, that's for sure. In the toy department, there was a fuel-powered Hummer that would have been big enough for about a 12 year old or so, it was 10 hp and it had a CD player in it - a full on kids toy - and it was ₤23,000!!!! Yikes!



Here was Nikki's favourite section:






These were Lollies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!↑

When we walked from Harrods, we walked past the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum - we think we'll probably go back to them - they looked very cool.

The weather has turned a little into something like what we expected London weather to really be like - ie. not that hot, and raining often..... Oh well - it hopefully makes people smell less on the tube anyway!

We went out on Friday night with a guy from Damo's work - his name was Steve - we went out at a pub called 3 Kings near West Kensington tube station - we ended up having a pretty good night.



Also - GUESS WHAT!!!! We went and saw Madonna at Wembley last night! Saturday Night over here - IT WAS HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!! We were both surprised at how small Wembley was though - we think that it might only hold about 12,000 or so - we were pretty stoked to get tickets - we ended up buying them off someone on the Gumtree (www.gumtree.com) and got them for about ₤120 each (which is obviously crap-loads, but the face price of them was ₤173), so we were pretty happy. When we first got there, people were sitting in our seats, and we thought that perhaps we'd been gipped with dodgy tickets, but those people were sitting in the wrong seats - it was pretty funny - the people sitting next to us saw our tickets in an envelope and asked us if we bought them off gumtree - seems like they did the same.... We were all sitting there right up until the performance started chatting about how we were waiting for people to come and sit in our seats..... Our seats weren't that great, but they were pretty good. Nikki ended up standing on Damo's feet to try and get a bit taller to be able to see.

The concert was bloody brilliant! They had the air-conditioning turned off in Wembley though, so by about 1/2 way through the performance it was pretty hot, but it didn't matter - we had a sensational time!!!!!! Here is a piccie of our tickets.......

Today (Sunday) we're off to High Street Kensington to buy a Doonah (Duvet as they're called over here), weather is starting to cool down a bit at nights, so we're starting to need it - we've been sleeping with towels over us to try and keep us a bit warm....

Then off to Tesco's to get some stuff for dinner, then we may head into Covent Garden for a look around... Weather's a bit crap today though, so don't know how far through all this we'll get.

Apart from that, nothing much else.

Oh - I forgot to mention - Steve! We bumped into this guy, and he said that he was lookin' for ya! ;-) We didn't say anything, mate!

We hope everyone is well, and we miss you all!

Well alrighty - it's been a while since we posted here, so it's time that we finally posted a bit more and got you all up to speed on what's been happening with us recently.

Things started off a bit slowly on the job front, so we decided that we were at a point where we just wanted to start earning £, so we came to the conclusion that we'd ask for bar work all around Earl's Court - the funny thing about this was at each pub that we went to to ask for work, Damo had to order a pint, so by the time that we got to about the 7th pub, he was well on his way.... ;-) Here is a pic of Damo half way there:



First things first - Nikki has got a job! Temping at the moment because the money in the Hospitality industry over here is beyond a joke. The money for temping is a fair bit better, so that works out pretty good - first contract is a few weeks with a small engineering company, however it's about an hours commute from our place (We're in South-West London, company is in North-East London), just for something different.

Damo's got a job too! Working for a company called uSwitch.com and doing cross-browser web testing for a website redesign. Pretty cruisy work, and it's only 4 tube stops away and money isn't too bad - can't complain really.

We've got a nice place to live too - we're living at Earl's Court - about a 2 minute walk from the tube station, and a 5 minute walk to the biggest Tesco's supermarket we've ever seen.



Our flat mate is hardly ever home (and particularly rarely on weekends - she goes over her boyfriends flat on Friday nights and usually only returns Monday morning), and the place is relatively quiet and seems like it's in a good neighbourhood. Here is a picture of our flat from the street.



And one inside:



The apartment ended up being a fair bit nicer than we were actually after, but we've ended up getting a pretty good deal, and after seeing some of the other places that friends live at etc, we have got an absolute bargain!!!!!!

We've been eating out for dinner quite a bit since we found out that we had work (YAY - we can eat something other than Baked Beans on toast or Vegemite on Toast), but we've finally just started trying to get things sorted out to start eating from home a bit more. We had our first home cooked meal last night, and while the produce isn't anywhere near as good as home, it was good not to eat out anyway! Here is a pic of our pantry PRIOR to being paid.......



So for the moment, all the important things (i.e. Jobs and Accommodation) are sorted out, which is good news.

Now we're just waiting to get paid, and hopefully we can start doing some travel. However with the arrests overnight of the terror cell and the subsequent closing of Heathrow today, it might be a while before we're flying anywhere, so we're considering things like Eurostar to France or hiring a car and driving to Scotland or something..... We'll just wait and see once (if) we get paid!!!

It's all been pretty big news over here, but hasn't affected us at all really for the moment but we suspect that things will change when we do go to travel.

We haven't been out a huge amount, except we've been exploring Earl's Court quite a bit. We had one big night out in Fulham, which happened very much by accident - we went to Fulham just to check the place out, stopped in the pub on a Saturday afternoon, and this was what happened (Well these were the people that we met......)


From left: Noddy, Peter and Mel

The next thing we knew, we had missed the last tube home - this was while we were living at London Bridge, which is MILES from Fulham, so we were a bit worried, but Mel showed us how to get a Night Bus to central london, and then the driver of the bus was particularly helpful and showed us how to get back to London Bridge. Here is a picture of the legend driver - one of the only friendly people we've met over here so far (well almost)!!! ;-)



Apart from this, we've been going out on weekends to check out the sights, and also to find the good places to shop for when we eventually might have some money - we went to the Borough High Street Markets which is the same place that Jamie Oliver shops for fresh produce, and it was awesome.

Oh - forgot to mention - here was something that tickled Damo's fancy the other day - we passed it as we were walking from Harrods to High Street Kensington....



Anyway, we'll have more that we've forgotten about for sure, so we'll update again very soon.

Apart from that we're both doing well, missing everyone heaps, and if we don't have your Skype user name, please email it to Damo or Nikki so that we can have it and hopefully catch up on there!