London Calling

Saturday 12th Septmber 2009
We pull into London's Stansted airport!
The first few days in London was a crazy rush to try to find a house. We couldn't bring ourselves to stay in a youth hostel here (they are all cramped, dirty and horrible- we did one night and that was it) so using booking .com we switched between the cheap hotels in Paddington for a few days whilst crisscrossing London looking at share houses. Most of them were too far from the action or too far from the tube to be any good. Finally we found a tiny place just near where we'd been staying... we liked this area to why not? Close to Hyde park, the shops and fun of Queensway and 3 Zone 1 tube stations in easy reach. The place was a little dingy but over a cider Ricci and Trent convinced us we wouldn't find anything so central at such a good price, so we took it!

This was our little room, I was sitting on our couch when I took this photo and our loft bed was above my head, but we had plenty of storage space and our own TV! Plus we lived on Westbourne Grove which stretched from Bayswater down to funky Portobello Rd Market, with plenty of great shops in between and only a 5 minute walk to Paddington and the Park. Next task was to find jobs. I picked up a casual job across the road in a sandwhich shop straight away but Nick got the 'we want a female' rejection from every cafe/ restaurant in our local area... sexists! But the hunt continued for both of us to find 'real work' and the rent was covered by my job anyway.

Our lovely London pals, Trent, Ricci and Ricci's flatmate Emery.

Listening to the Great Western Paddington Band playing the William Tell overture...in Paddington Station.
They were so good!


We hadn't done much sight seeing in London yet so once we were settled into our flat we did a night tour of the main sights, all within walking distance of our flat....
Buckingham Palace, by night....a ghostly Westminster Abbey with a red bus speeding past...

Big Ben and the London Eye (this one is a little grainy)
Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, the Thames and me...
The houses of Parliament.


Of course theres never a shortage of things happening in London and one day we were just wondering through Soho and when we got to Trafalger square there just happened to be a massive Indian festival on- with dancing and the rest.

Looking from Leicester Sq towards Piccadilly...
Piccadilly Circus!
Before long we had our first visitor, Liam stayed for a week and it was nice to have a familiar face around.
Here's Nick walking back towards St Pauls from the Tate Modern where we'd seen the coolest big black box of nothingness and wandered around in it...


Before too long fabulous Ricci was heading home! Via Africa for three months!! So we joined in with loads of Saffa's for a big farewell & happy birthday to Ricci. It was also her sister's farewell.
We've made ourselves at home at c3 London, its a great church where just about everyone is the same age as us, although its kinda weird being somewhere with no kids... luckily the Pastors Neik and Vera are making a start and are due in March! We go to two connect groups with two great groups of people. As soon as we joined Ann Marie's connect we were invited to Sarah and Kate's joint birthday party... which was Karaoke!!! We went to this cool Karaoke bar with individual booths and had a ball.......... Nick and I sung up a storm and everyone got right into it, it was so much fun.
The birthday girls! Kate and Sarah
You leave your camera alone for 1 minute.... the fabulous Ben & Katrina
Disco!
I'm here but don't expect me to sing! Oh we do and you did! yay!
funky lamps

Not long after Ricci left Mel, Jimmy and Dean returned from their roadtrip through Italy and France. Their bags were several kilos heavier and their wallets substantially lighter, but still more frivolity was to be had! We had lots of fun taking them to our favorite restaurant Ping Pong and hearing about there Italiano adventures...
Posing on Regent St under the glow of Christmas lights...
London really goes all out decorating the city for Christmas... this is the less decorated street.
Jimmy Choo! Nick Mel and Dean admiring the gorgeous, but affordable, Jimmy Choos' at H&M.

Suddenly everything was falling into place, Nick and I both got our 'real jobs' within a week or so of each other and before long Nick was off for a week of training up in sunny (not so much) Lancaster. While there he stayed outside the city in a little sea side village. While he was away I found us a nice new place to live with friendlier housemates, just around the corner from the old place.
Nick's first experience of non-London England...
Pretty, but bitterly cold...The weather has been getting steadily colder since the 1st of December, there's no question about the change of season here... winter has arrived. And to celebrate we're embracing the winter season head on, first off... Iceskating!!
Iceskating with some pals at the stunningly beautiful Natural history museum.
I think I can put up with the cold if I get to Ice skate out in the open like this!
Nick, all rugged up.
Conga line!
Secondly, we had a big Christmassy dinner with some friends (Sarah, Kate, Ben, Katrina and us)... in our new bedroom!
The Chef admiring his feast.
Nick cooked up a storm, made a delicious pork roast, roasted veges (potatoes, pumkin, artichokes, beetroot, oinons, swedes, parsnips and carrott), smoked salmon and horseradish cream, plus all the trimmings... and a delicious dessert!
Sarah and Kate, posing with the prizes from the christmas crackers...
We also played nasty santa (like secret santa but you can choose to steal someone elses present or pick another) Nick and Ben took it to new levels and I don't think anyone ended up with their original present they chose!

Cheers!

Stay tuned for Paris, Barcelona and Christmas mini breaks!