(*Damo speaking*)First and foremost, Vale Brocky! You were a hero of mine for my entire life, and this was only enhanced many years ago when I got the opportunity to meet you.

We were walking around outside the circuit down at Indy one year, and I spotted Peter sitting in a gutter talking to what I think were a few of his mates. Anyway, we went up to him, excused ourselves for interrupting, and asked whether he'd mind posing for a photo with us. I was soooo nervous, because I was worried that one of the few people on the planet that I idolised would turn out to be a complete dick by saying something like 'get stuffed' or other, but instead he replied 'Of course not! You guys are the ones that make me who I am. I wouldn't exist without you'.

I think this story sums up how much of a legend he really was, and also sheds light on not only was he one of (the?!) best Australian racing drivers ever, but also that he was a real human being with a very down-to-earth outlook on life. Notwithstanding the polariser times, he was a shining beacon in Australian motorsport, and I have no doubt that his legacy will live on.(*end Damo speaking*)

The last week has been a combination of busy and not so. Damo had a work drinks thing organised by his Agency on Thursday night. Needless to say that it turned very shabby - out of about 20 people, they drank £1500 of alcohol. They were smoking £20-£30 cigars!!!! Damo ended up in a terrible state of affairs by the time he got home, but he obviously fared a bit better than others because there were a number of them who didn't even make it into work the next day!!!!


This was early in the night - it went downhill from here.....

We went out on Friday night for dinner to Zizzi's at Earl's Court and then we went and saw another movie - it's funny - we very rarely went to the movies when we were back home, and here we have been 2 weeks in a row! Anyway, we went and saw The Break Up with Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston. We thought that it was only ok, and not quite as side-splittingly funny as we would've hoped! Well that's 2 from 2 now - we might leave the cinema go for a while perhaps!

Ended up going home after that on Friday night, and we woke up Saturday morning with the intent of starting to look for accommodation (we've got to find a new place in the next month or so), so we had a look on the Gumtree and went up to Kensington (Olympia) to have a look at a Lower Ground floor flat, and Wow! What a dump! We were intending to try and get our own place, but based on what we saw, we may end up sharing again yet - we'll have to wait and see. We did a spot of shopping on Saturday morning at an Oxfam shop (an op-shop) near where we live, and Damo picked up a brand new shirt (from an up-market store over here called Zara - it still had the label on) and a pair of almost new Merrell shoes for a grand total of £14!!! Bargain. Of course, Nikki got nothing!!!! :-( We also ended up buying a heap of travel guides for about £0.99 each too, which was a hella bargain!

After this we headed into Westminster and got out of the tube station. It's right where Big Ben and Parliament are, and just across the river from the London Eye - which was our ultimate destination for that afternoon/evening anyway! This was after Nikki had realised that she had bought her spare phone battery instead of her camera battery and we had to head home to get it.....




We took the opportunity to take some more photos of Big Ben and Parliament and also of the London Eye itself.



We wandered across the bridge and Damo queued for tickets for the London Eye for approx. 1/2 hr.

Once we got the tickets, we went and lined up (again) to get onto the Eye itself. Thankfully this line wasn't that long. We were quite amazed to see that after the capsule's are emptied of the previous passengers that the capsules are security screened prior to boarding again - some security guys go around them with mirrors under the seats etc. It was pretty cool. The ride itself takes about 1/2 hr (All up we were in line for longer than what the ride went for),
and we managed to watch the sun set while we were up there - the timing ended up being quite good - as we were coming down the lights on Parliament were turned on, and it makes the building glow like it's made out of gold - it looks spectacular.


The view from the top



and a nighttime view of the Parliament building....




After we finished here, it was about 19:45 at night, and we had heard from Tory that she was heading out to Putney Bridge a bit later on and that we should go along - we headed home, got changed quickly and caught the tube down to Putney Bridge. (It's only a few stops further out on the District line than where we live.)



This is what we though was Putney Bridge, but actually turned out to be the Putney Bridge rail crossing - no wonder we were curious as to why people had been saying that it was a lovely bridge (well as you can see above, the view is quite nice, but the bridge was nothing to look at)..... We were in the wrong place - little did we realise. Anyway, after much confusion we ended up finding the place we needed to go to (It was a club/restaurant called Thai Square) right on the banks of the Thames at Putney Bridge, and by this time, we were both starving, so we met up with Tory, but we pretty much headed straight upstairs to get a meal. The food was quite nice, and the wine was sensational. Finished our meal, met up with Tory and Dave and a few others next door at some bar, and by this time is was getting on to be about 11:30 so we thought we'd better try and get the last tube home.

Damo had to work on Sunday, so Nik ended up doing a heap of housework and went out to the shops to have a quick look around.

We hope everyone is well over there, and we're always thinking of you all!