Carnival weekend

It was the 'end of summer' long weekend this weekend - and time for the annual Notting Hill Carnival. Although we didn't go this year, we did go last year and it was great fun (despite the rain, although they had clear sunny skies this year). The drumming was very loud and the costumes were amazing. There were also sound system displays, where every man and his dog chucks his huge sound system out the front window of the house and plays very loud bassy music right from the front lawn. There were also heaps of stalls selling Carribean food and we sampled out first taste of plantain, black beans and jerk chicken. Below are a few more pictures from this year's Carnival.


The Notting Hill Carnival parade

One of the drumming groups

Bird food

I think I may have gotten a bit carried away with my most recent purchase - a 1kg bag of sunflower seeds.

OK, now first off, they were on special at Holland and Barrat and secondly, Kim, one of the girls who works part time at my work and is training to be a nutritionist, reckons that sunflower seeds are actually very good for you. Probably not if you eat the whole bag at once but I'm not planning on doing that anyway.

And according to a website I found about squirrels, they like sunflower seeds so if I don't eat them all, at least I can fatten up the local squirrels before winter. Apparently squirrels also like pine nuts but considering they cost an arm and a leg, I'm keeping them for me (yes, they were on special too).

It's Friday!

The sun is shining and it's Friday. I might have to pop up to Borough market for a brownie to celebrate.

Last night was Myles' birthday - he had drinks at a pub near Liverpool Street station called the Drunken Monkey. Most apt.

We've booked yet another holiday... this time back to the Big Apple for a long weekend in November. Hopefully it won't be completely freezing yet and we might even catch the Thanksgiving sales.

My friend Bec's hen's weekend is coming up fast (it's in September). A bunch of us girls are heading to Paris which should be fun and an opportunity to practice our dodgy high school french. Someone really needs to take the idea of the Eurostar back to Australia. It's quite amazing that you can jump on a train from the middle of London and then be in a city in the middle of a completely different country in just a few hours. Much more civilised than the old rickety trains I used to travel on between Adelaide and Melbourne that went overnight for about 12 hours and used to get overtaken by ancient cars driven by little old ladies.

Things I like about London - part 1

The amazing documentaries on TV.

Forget Lost and Big Brother. What's got me hooked here are the great documentaries. We watched a really good one last night. It was the last part of a three part doco following the lives of several disabled children and the impact that constantly having to care for them had on their families. The first episode was about when they were born, the second when they were about 2 or 3 and last night they were about to turn 5. Some of their parents never thought they would see their kid reach that age.
Born to be different

We also watched an amazing one about 2 boys, one of who stabbed the other friend because he believed that he had been recruited as an undercover agent and his mission was to kill the other boy. It turned out that he had received his instructions from a woman in a chat room who purported to be another secret agent but was, in actual fact, the boy who was stabbed. In fact, the boy who was stabbed invented a series over 100 different characters who interacted in the chat room with the boy who believed he was a spy. Completely compelling viewing.
Psycho - Kill Me If You Can

Things that still puzzle me:

Why people insist on asking 'are you alright' when I first meet them. I always have a panic and think that the reason they are asking this is because, clearly, I don't look OK. My first reaction is to think that I must look incredibly clumsy and have just tripped over something and hurt myself, or that I look ill or that something dramatic has happened and I've just missed it. Weird.

All in a good cause

Breakfast this morning was pancakes cooked in a "skillet" with strawberry "jelly"... all to help us with our pub quiz general knowledge. Each week, without fail, there is a question about American words and usually they are related to cookery so we're studying hard.

Mayflower quiz

Last night we received a call from Karen asking us to join her down at the Mayflower for their pub quiz. The Mayflower is a pub near us that's been around since 1620 under various names and now takes its name from the first ship to go to America with the Pilgrim Fathers on board, which was launched from Rotherhithe Quayside near where the pub stands today.

We came 6th in the quiz which wasn't too bad. My knowledge of English general knowledge is fairly lacking, but credit to the rest of the team - especially Luvena who knew quite a few!

Farewell Kev!

Last night we said farewell to a colleague of mine and long friend Kevin Phillips. He's off with his sweetheart Katie to see what life is like in her home country, Australia. All the best Kev and we'll probably see you at Christmas time! We had drinks for their farewell last night, so hopefully I'll get some photos of that up soon.

Lu and I have been pretty busy with work the past couple of weeks. Earlier this week I played in the advertising league softball quarter finals. We came very close to winning, but lost in the last inning by 2 runs.

As we have done quite a bit of travelling in the (almost) 2 years that we've been here, we have some catching up to do with our photos. So, every week I'll try to put up a few photos from each of our trips.

New York (first trip)



Luvena and my good friend Al in a restaurant around the corner from his pad.





Luvena and I inside the United Nations.







A large brass woman that just won't leave New York.





Me overlooking Ellis Island and Jersey City.







Us in Times Square






Luvena and Marion (and some strange guy wearing goggles)
outside the Rockerfeller Centre.





Luvena, Anna and Arthur on the Statton Island ferry over to visit the statue.





New York (second trip)
I managed to score a trip to New York with a colleague and good friend, Barney, for some training. Here's some of the sites we saw. It was much colder than when Lu and I went (-18C in the wind at one point).

Barney and Al in Central Park. This was during an exhibition called The Gates.








Barney in his hotel room (yes, our eyes really did look like that most of the time)








Barney and Al having a cuddle (I'll leave you boys alone next time! :-) )






Barney and Al taking a stroll through The Gates.

The forgotten holiday

We had a really lovely holiday in Florence, Rome and Pompeii during July, but when the bombs in London went off 3 days before we were coming back to the UK we spent most of our time letting people know that we are OK rather than sending our holiday snaps out. So, belatedly, here are some of our pics:

Here is a picture of the Duomo (cathedral) in Florence. Our hotel was right near the square it was in. It was quite amazing, bright white during the day while the afternoon and evening light brought out the darker green colours.

And here's the beautiful view from the Ponte Vecchio bridge across the main river through Florence.

To the left is the view from the hills in Florence looking down on the town.

Some of ruins just in the middle of a street in Rome. When we were wondering around we kept stumbling across such amazing sights.

Left is the view from the top of St Peter's Basilica at the Vatican. The walk up to the top is long, hot and claustrophobic at times but well worth it in the end - the view, as you can see, is spectacular.

The next two pictures, right and below right, are inside St Peter's Basilica which was far and away the most amazing of all the churches we went to.

To the left is the Colleseum in Rome. It is amazing to find it and the Roman Forum right in the middle of a street.

The Roman Forum as the sun sets. The ruins are remarkably intact for something that old and are proof that the Romans really just didn't bother building anything small.

Some of the amazing frescos in the galleries surrounding the Sistine Chapel.

More frescos near the Sistine Chapel.

James in the hot ruins of Pompeii