Thursday, December 3, 2009

Speed Flatmating and Sightseeing

After not having a whole lot on during our first few weeks in London, our diaries have filled up of recent. We have been half hearted in our search for a new home. Where we are at the moment is in a great location and not too bad. Tuesday night after work we met up out at clapham, not really where we want to live but we thought we would have a look. There was an organised Speed Flatmating night at a local pub. Sounds a bit sleazy hey, but wasn't too bad. Everyone has a sticker with their name on it and its got a different colour based on if you are looking for a room or a housemate. A few of the places sounded ok, but we haven't followed any of them up.
Christine had Friday off work as Brendan and Sarah were coming to town to meet their father, Malcolm and Irma. The 5 of them spent the day catching up and doing a bit of sightseeing, looking at Hyde park, Buckingham palace and a bit of shopping. Damien met them in a pub after work and we all headed out for dinner at an asian restaurant near their accommodation.
After breakfast on Saturday, Brendan and Sarah had to leave, they had rugby tickets in Cardiff. The four of us walked through Hyde Park including the winter wonderland, which is an imitation German Christmas market. Bratwurst and mulled wine for lunch, but not too much exciting apart from that. The Ice rink is surprisingly small and a few other carnival type rides.
We spent the evening in a nice little sports bar attached to the Holiday Inn, watching the Australia v Wales rugby union game. All morning Sarah had been so confident, but Australia wiped the floor with them, 33-12, or something like that.
Sunday we had the best intentions, again, of being tourists. We met Malcolm and Irma at Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard. Typical, soft, poms, they cancelled it due to the weather (light rain). We then spent the morning walking through St James park and along the Thames, feeding the birds and squirrels as we went.
Thinking it would be drier, we spent the afternoon in the Tower of London. Bit of a waste of time, but I guess its one of those things you have to do! Nearly $40 Aud each, we got in there and found out a few of the outdoor activities were cancelled, you guessed it, rain. We saw some jewels and had about a 30 min tour of the tower which was interesting. The four of us then headed back to their hotel and out to a nearby chinese restaurant, which was better than the one from Friday.
Monday we were supposed to be catching up with Julia again but she had a cold so we skipped that. Tuesday night we had greek for dinner in Bayswater with Malcolm and Irma and then Wednesday they took us to a local casino for dinner, drinks and a flutter. They were then heading off to Paris for a few nights but we should get to see them again on Sunday night.

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