We went out on Australia Day Friday Night here to a pub in Covent Garden, and then proceeded onto a nightclub afterwards. It was a large night, and the venues weren't particularly spectacular, but we were stuffed if we were going to go to a Walkabout again so we just decided to go along with whatever was happening. We had a pretty good night, and ended up getting home at about 4.30am! It wasn't quite as Australian as this.....
but it was close!
We started off at a pub at Covent Garden called the Nags Head, and we stayed there until closing time. We went out with Janine (girl from Damo's work) a couple of her friends, Elliott (Damo's mate from work) & Antony (Fella whose car blew up on bonfire night). Then we headed off to an underground club underneath Covent Garden itself and stayed there until about 3am... We were exceptionally inebriated in true Aussie spirit!!!! :-)
Needless to say we ended up sleeping in until pretty late the next day.
Us out and about on Aussie Day (Note the green and gold....) :-)
A group of the usual suspects... (Damo, Elliott, Janine, Nikki, Antony)
The next weekend we ended up going to Hyde Park and sitting on the bench for a while and then going for a walk around the Serpentine (The lake in the middle of Hyde Park). It was very relaxing, however it was quite chilly. On the way home we ended up going to an Art Exhibiton in a gallery that is in the middle of Hyde Park and there was all sorts of crazy stuff pretending to be art, however there were some items in there from Andy Warhol and they were pretty cool to be up close and personal to....
Rollerblading in Hyde Park (not us... yet!)
Damo in Hyde Park
In the middle of the next week, we had another snow day! It was excellent once again, and this time Damo wasn't sick and was able to get out amongst it - for some reason though the snow around Hammersmith melted quite quickly, and even by the time we were heading off to work it was getting quite slushy however once Nikki got to work in the city it was still snowing, and once Damo got out to Ealing Broadway it was still very much snowing! And this time, Nikki got to see snow FALLING for the first time ever!
Us on the way to work.....
Snow falling at Ealing Broadway train station
The day after snow day at Damo's work... (What look like ripples on the lake are actually ice...)
The following weekend we had a house-party at our place. This followed on from a very tasty lunch that we had at a pub called 'The Hampshire' down on Hammersmith Road. It was quite strange - very impromptu, and only a few people as we don't really want to trash our place - we had Nikki, Damo, Paula, Olivia, Travis and one of Paula & Olivia's flatmates, Kristy, come over. It was quite bizarre, and the girls proceeded to get thoroughly trashed (Nikki didn't though), and Trav and I couldn't bare the flat being overrun with a cacophony of babbling females, so we headed down to the local for a steak and a few pints.
Damo & Trav in our flat looking exceptionally enthusiastic.... ;-)
Paula, left, and Olivia
The next day we headed out to Greenwich Village to check out the Meridian at the Royal Observatory and also the Cutty Sark. We went over there by DLR (Docklands Light Rail) and it's sort of like a tram system. It was very good actually. Unfortunately once we got there we found out that the Cutty Sark is closed until late 2008 for overhaul, but we did get to check out the Royal Observatory. We also went to a couple of markets that were around - didn't buy anything though - and hung out in the excessively large park at the bottom of the Royal Observatory drinking tea and eating scones. It was an excellent day, and I would definitely add this to the list of the Jack the Ripper tour of 'must do' things in London.
What we got to see of the Cutty Sark...
Avast, ye scurvy scoundrels - off to the plank with ye.... (Otherwise known as Damo looking like a dick...)
Central London from the water at Greenwich
Nikki outside the University at Greenwich
The main street of Greenwich
The Royal Observatory Park on an uncharacteristically nice day...
The old building at the Royal Observatory
We found ya's back home!!!!! :-)
The meridian line
And again... - 16:06:49 when this picture was taken.... :-)
The Millenium Dome as viewed from the Royal Observatory
The following week during the week we went out with a group of friends to see Cirque de Soleil, Allegria at Royal Albert Hall. The hall was spectactular and the performance was amazing - Neither of us had ever been to see a Cirque de Soleil show, and we both enjoyed it immensely.
The stage at the Royal Albert Hall
We're not sure if this news has reached any of you in Australia, but recently there was a mail-bomber over here that had sent something like 11 IED's via post to a whole lot of different authority figures over here, and a spate of them had to do with vehicle control - ie. DVLA (Department of Vehicle Licensing), Congestion Charge operators, Speed Camera operators etc.
Anyway, Damo rocks up to work on the Tuesday of the following week at Stockley Park, and what does he see? A Police Line perimeter was established at 20 and 30 metres around the outside of his building at about 9am.
After speaking with one of the guys out the front, he finds out that there was apparently a suspicious envelope found in the lunch room that wasn't there the night before, but was found by the canteen staff when they went to open up the next morning. Our mailroom x-rayed the package and found wires inside it and tin-foil hanging out the top of it. This was when they decided to evacuate the building. As it turned out, they later on found out that it was a hoax...
Anyway, Damo turns up, finds out there's not much he can do, so contacts a few others and they decide to head to the pub for breakfast. BP shouts breakfast, and then the decision was made to work from home. By the time he got home, it was about 11:30 so half the day was gone already. Sweet!
Our next weekend we got up early on the Saturday and decided to go for a run along the Thames because, shock-horror, it was actually a nice day! We headed out from our place and ran down to the Thames which isn't far from us and proceeded along it a fair way. On our way home we decided that we'd grab some breakfast from one of the pubs along the river (This one was called the Old Ship Inn or something). It was a thoroughly pleasant morning.
The view from where we were having breakfast...
The view the other way...
Anyway, while we were sitting there having brekky, Damo decided to text one of his mates (Elliott) who was having some work done at his house that morning. Nikki was already scheduled to go out for a girly lunch with some friends, so Damo asks him what he's up to. Gets the reply 'Just about to head down to Shoreham (near Brighton) for a Helicopter lesson. Do you want to come along?'
'Why not???' thinks Damo. Texts him back, and as it turns out, Elliott was sort of dating the girl that Nikki was going to lunch with so we tell him we'll meet him when he drops off Mel up near Lancaster Gate.
Elliott isn't exactly a stricken man - he's got a 2006 model Lotus Elise, was heading to his helicopter lesson, and we'd later find out, has quite the decent pad in a very nice area too.
*Damo Speaking*
So Elliott picks me up in the Lotus from Lancaster Gate and we head off for Shoreham. (http://maps.google.co.uk - type in Shoreham Airport).
Little did Elliott realise that there was a Chelsea game on this day, and while it would normally take us about 15 minutes to get from Lancaster Gate to Clapham, it ended up taking us 2 and half hours.
We drove at some incredibly ridiculous speeds on the way down the M1 after we got out of London (Pretty sure I saw it going 150MPH at one stage - it may have even been faster....), and his lesson was scheduled to be at 15:30. We end up getting there at 17:00. An hour and a half late! Anyway, the instructor was still able to take him, and it looked like there would be enough light, so after some debate about whether we would pay the extra 160 pounds for the hour for an R44 so I could go up (I was never keen - Elliott was....) he decided to just go for the R22.
In the meantime, I was starving, so just went to the Aeroclub and grabbed a bite to eat, and wandered around the aerodrome for a while just checking things out. Surprisingly, the 1 hour lesson went incredibly quickly and it wasn't long before he was back on the ground.
Once he landed, he threw me the keys to the Lotus and said 'You drive'.....
'Sweet', thinks me. Anyway, after driving it a bit gingerly for a little while whilst we waited for it to warm up, and also me remembering how to drive since I hadn't driven a car since last July (2006!!!!!!), Elliott says to me 'Drive it like it was meant to be driven!'.
I didn't need to be asked twice. We were only able to drive it around the Airport slip road due to crazy insurance issues over here (they insure the driver, not the car - it's a strange setup). There were speed bumps all along this slip road - nevertheless, I got it up to 100MPH between two speed bumps, got it sideways through a corner (and if you've driven a rear-engine car before, you'll know what this means....) and drove it like a race-bred car is meant to be. It was great to be back behind the wheel again, that's for sure.
This thing was pretty zippy up to about 6,000rpm, but once you hit that, it feels like a power-ban kicks in - apparently it's some sort of trick cam that causes it (standard on Lotus though), and you are just sucked back into the seat. I'd dare say it's probably one of the quickest cars I've ever driven.
*end Damo speaking*
Elliott in the R22
The Lotus (0-60MPH in 4.7 secs!!!!!)
Anyway, we finish up the day, and head home. The girls decide that they want to keep kicking on, so we make our way back to Elliott's place and meet up with them in a bar at Clapham, just around the corner from his place. We stay for a couple of drinks, and then we decide to head back to Elliott's place for some Thai for dinner and to watch a movie. His place was sensational. Very stunning pad. The thai was very nice, and we started to watch a movie, but the girls had been on the booze since about lunchtime-ish, and were starting to get a bit tired. Elliott and Mel nodded off, and we decided to head off home ourselves.
We woke up on the Sunday and got ready and headed into Central London as it was Chinese New Year. Naturally we headed to China Town. Holy Cow - it was paaaaacked. There was one time where we were so jammed in that we felt the air get expelled from our lungs - yes it was THAT crowded. We wandered around China Town for a while, grabbed a bite to eat, and bought a box of fortune cookies. It was quite a good afternoon. We were meant to meet up with Paula and Olivia, so we did, and we went to Trafalgar Square to watch some Chinese Dancing up on the stage, and then we were all feeling a bit rough from the night before so we headed to the pub not far from us for a Sunday Roast. It was great.
The crowd thinned out a bit at Chinese New Year
This weekend just gone, Nikki went over to Mel's place on Friday night, which left Damo at home to watch Clerks II (if you're a Kevin Smith fan - it's more of the same great stuff....) and order a pizza - as if that was ever going to be a bad night! Nikki was organising her girly trip away with Mel and Andria to Spain in June on Friday night, though how much organising got done is a different story...
Saturday we just did some chores around the house in the morning, and then went shopping to TKMaxx to try and get some clothes for the housewarming party we were going to that night at Andria and Steve's place. Their place was amazing, and very big - it was also located in Notting Hill. They're also not stricken.... :-) Steve works for Google as a partnership manager. It was a great night really. The only downside was when we headed off to go to a bar called Trailer Happiness, and it was unfortunately closed - no idea why, because it was a Saturday night, but that's London for ya! Also, by this time it was absolutely pissing down so we decided to call it a night.
Damo and John in the Notting Hill apartment
Andria, Nikki and Mel at the Housewarming partay!
The next day we woke up at a leisurely hour and headed off to the Notting Hill Brasserie for Sunday Roast for lunch. Wowee - it was a fairly fancy place, and the food was to murder for. Company was brilliant too - we went with John (the guy in the picture above), Mel, Alistair (One of Mel's mates) and Ali (Alistair's girlfriend). We had a great time, a few bottles of wine and a sensational meal. We both had Roast Beef, and it was exquisite.
That about gets us back up to speed with what we've been up to more or less. Stay tuned for more regular updates!
