Thursday 28 December 2006

The orphan xmas

Monday 25Dec06:
This city is weird.
The one day out of the 365 days in the year - this city literally shuts down. No buses, no tubes, no shops, no nothing. Well, with the exception of the aethiest small corner shops, there is no way to get around this city without paying exorbitant taxi fares or supplemented minicabs.

I had to stay over at Leona's place xmas eve so that we could have a leisurely hours walk to Yoko's place the next day.

This is the first christmas I've had that I haven't been around family or old friends. At first this point was a little upsetting, but I spent the day with down-to-earth people who's company I really enjoy.

It was such a leisurely start to the day. The walk to Yoko's was a route via Tower Bridge, granny trolley in tow holding the xmas food we were due to devour for dinner.

Leona, me, Yoko, Sophie and Noely just chilled, watched shows on Sky and generally mucked about. We were joined by Fatima and Noel later in the evening.





Reiterating the point that there is NO transportation on xmas day - sleepover at Yoko's.

Powered over back to Leona' s on boxing day. Helped her put down flooring in her apartment. Jigsaw, hammers, and power tools at hand, we blitzed this room which took all day to do for non-handyman girlies. Being covered in sawdust sent back memories from my previous home renovating the apartment, and the garage full of Damien's tools, bits and bobs.

Our effort in the beginning of the day

Finished result.

Monday 25 December 2006

Impromptu Marina and Phil day

Saturday 23Dec:
Thought I had plans for tonight but the dates got mixed up, so I spent a lovely day with my new flatmate Marina and her mate Phil.

Got introduced to Church St markets at Lisborn Grove. Local markets with ultra CHEAP fresh produce and general clothes and goods.

In turn, I took them to Kilburn and looked around the cheap shops.

All the while - stressing Leanne again several times on the phone trying to plan what to get to prepare costumes for new years eve.

The bus ride back home resulted in taking the bus straight to Camden to have dinner at Phils place who made a lovely chicken korma, this along with salad, gin and tonic to quench the thurst and everything is golden...




We walked back via Warwick Avenue, past the famous Randolph (Randy) Ave


Sunday 24 December 2006

Iceskating at Hampsted Heath

Friday 22Dec:
I may be disgusted by the commercialism of it all, but I like the enthusiasm they have here for christmas and the festive season. The setting is so fitting - cold weather, the reverberation of christmas carols in shopping centres, early darkness to enjoy the pretty lights which line the streets and windows aglow by the christmas tree behind the pane.

I love half days at work.

Today gave me the opportunity to finish my christmas shopping, and I spent alot of this day window shopping to get some ideas for a new years eve costume.
The quandry of deciding whether or not to go as wraped presents-convicts-smurfs-the wiggles etc lead to no decision being made. Particularly after we found out the convict idea was already taken.

It has been quite foggy the last few days, to the extent that it has affected flights in and out of London and Europe.

The fog made my experience iceskating even more enjoyable. A misty, cold night, combined with the exhaustion of trying to stay on the skates and the hilarity of falling over was quality.
The reaction from Leona when her bum was pinched was priceless, I wish I got a photo of that!
The exhaustion didn't stop on the rink. Even though I live around this area I don't really know it that well, and because of the fog it was a bit disorientating.
So with none of us having any sense of direction and not sure of the buses, we hauled our asses up through the streets, stopping at pretty much each street corner to reassess where we were at. We walked past the Heath for a good 45mins, then onto Hampsted Hight St - walking with a random pedestrian (Raj) who pointed us in the right direction, and finishing a lovely asian restaurant Dim T.

The thick mist also affect the photos:

Leona, Yoko and me.

My lovely flatmates Madelaine and Rob (Stewart)
























Work Xmas party

Thursday 21Dec:
There was an uplifting buzz in the office today knowing that we had the opportunity to let our hair down tonight and just mingle.

It was handy that a couple of my colleagues got a room at the hotel straight accross the road from the venue.

Combination of predrinks, decent dancing music and free drinks throughout the whole night (!!!) made for a lovely night with my colleagues whom I would not usually spend time with after work. (Our office xmas dinner in a previous post was an exception)


VaughanTown mini reunion

Tuesday 19Dec:
Work is winding down and the days are getting rather nippy now...but not enough to hinder catching up with some Gredos veterans!

Me, Leanne, Fletch, Hussein and some mates (appologies for the blurred fotos again, and thanks Leanne for your pics):


Tuesday 19 December 2006

Weekend of Awesomeness part III

Sunday 17Dec:
As you can imagine, this morning was a write-off.

Glad to have a leisurely morning/early afternoon at Yoko's place. Got to see her policeman (flatmate - this time in uniform) again who she had been raving about for ages.

As we walked out the door and onto the street to start the day at around 2pm, the random suggestion to go to the flower market seemed very inviting.

Columbia Rd flower market is just a hop, skip and a jump from Yoko's apartment. A great hidden gem! Aparently they're famous markets but I'd never heard of it until today. Brilliant to see all the colours, lillies, roses, even kangaroo paw, the ornamental willows, bamboo, xmas wreaths, xmas trees - and everything was relatively cheap.

I love gardening, and being surrounded by all of this foliage was heaven






Such a pleasant deviation before taking the bus to meet-up with Leanne at London Bridge.
I've kept in touch with a few people from the amazing week at VaughanTown, and Leanne is one of them.
A sweet girl with cool ideas, with an uninhibited view and attack of the world which is refreshing to see. Anyway, after spending the afternoon reminiscing, gossiping, planning, drinking white wine we scored for free because there was such a delay in the potato wedges, it was soon time to go and part ways.

Our meet-up venue was a convenient walk to Leona's apartment. A couple of attempts to gain entry was needed, but no amount of buzzing was going to get me through the 2nd security door so a quick phone call outside was needed.
Turns out I was buzzing the wrong number - but whoever it was answering the call still let this stranger in!

Anyway, another pleasant catchup which resulted in me getting home later than I'd wished.

I'm most grateful that everything this weekend went smoothly. Keeping busy is the key to keeping sane in this fast city where at times it seems you don't have enough time to do anything.

Monday 18 December 2006

Weekend of Awesomeness part II

Saturday 16Dec:
Met up with Eva from work at Haymarket to see Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks at 3pm. I didn't instantly warm to this play with a two person cast including Billy Zane (mmmmm...), however it grew on me. A tear was shed at the end due to the sweet, touching centiments conveyed......basically I'm a sucker for sop.

Afterwards, I met up with an Oz expat group at Bunker Bierhall for their xmas drinks. I joined this group a few weeks ago when I was feeling ultra home-sick. Was glad to stay for a couple of hours. Was glad to be around the 'accent' and met some interesting people. Speaking of peoples, Fletch - a guy I met at the VaughanTown week is also in this group; complete coincidence that we happened to be on the same meetup group in London quite spooky really.

I then made my way to Jame's Art Club Xmas party held at his house.
Got the fright of my life to see 60 people in a 20 capacity flat (slight exaggeration). Again, another amazing opportunity to meet new and interesting people as well as catching up the usual 'dirty crew'.

Interesting to see Noel dance with a cane, seeing recent saucy footage of the 'crew' up to their dirty antics, and finding out that Yoko has a button phobia!! Particularly ones with 4 holes!

Approx 5am shut-eye.

Sadly, below are the only three fotos I took and all of them are bloody blurred :(

Weekend of Awesomeness Part 1

Friday 15Dec:
The company I book travel for had their Xmas party Friday night. This company is not short of a quid, and when they throw a party...they REALLY throw a party, no expense spared. This year it was at the Royal Courts of Justice. The venue was great, potential for hob-nobbing was pretty good, the food was creative ( despite the fact that at a black tie event, the main course was essentially a Pie)


and dancing on the dancefloor eventually got annoying - as it got harder and harder trying to dodge the Travolta wannabe's.


Got to capture some photos at work as well.
All in a day's work:





The par'tay....


The Shopping expedition that never was

Thursday 14Dec I had flagged to go xmas shopping after work and knew I'd be in the vacinity of Oxford St / Regent St, so I brought my camera with me to capture the Christmas lights. I must say that the West End does xmas lights so well.

To be frank I wasn't in the mood to go shopping, and dreaded the reality of dodging gazillions of people in the stores and pavement. This was all the dis-incentive I needed to just wander the two streets to capture the lights, as I was slack last year and didn't take pictures.

In my awestruck madness I walked the entire length from Marble Arch tube through to Picadilly Circus:



And just when you thought it was over, I took the bus back which drove through Regent St and Oxford St again:
.....and arrived home