Union Riots and No Steak!

After a pretty solid weekend we spent the start of the week working and resting. We were particularly tired on Monday evening! Another benefit of living in a dodgy hotel is that the lazy managers pull dodgy stunts some days. Thursday for instance, they decided to close the kitchen, due to guests leaving dirty dishes the night before. Ironically some of the mess left was actually the managers empty cider cans! So you can imagine how impressed Christine was when she gets home from school, with some steaks and vegetables for dinner, to find out that we would be unable to cook them! Everyone in the place was forced to head to the local takeaway joints for the evening. Apparently its too hard for management to identify who left the dishes, so everyone had to be punished!

We were very glad when Friday evening rolled around. We were meeting up with Jacinta, one of the girls we met in Pamplona, who was away the previous weekend. Not knowing exactly what the plan was, so we met in Knightsbridge. We found a cool little English pub called the Nags Head. It was tiny, heaps of decoration around the walls, old photos, newspaper articles, model aero planes and pilot hats. It was great to catch up with Jaz and hope to see her again. We had a few pints and a yarn about her travels and our travels. We then headed up the street to another pub for a feed.

Saturday afternoon Christine wasn’t feeling great, so Damien headed to Piccadilly to visit the White Cube gallery and the Royal Academy of Arts. This wasn’t as easy as it sounds. The bus stopped halfway, cancelled service. Walking from Marble Arch, it was a fight to get down the streets, as the bloody unions were ‘protesting’ (rioting). The riot was in full swing when I got to the Royal Academy, flares, sticks and bottles being thrown at buildings and police. I managed to get into the gallery which had quite heave security. Amongst the chaos, I somehow entered the gallery and enjoyed the Modern British Sculpture Exhibition, not realizing I was supposed to pay an admission fee. I then headed back out and around the riot, to the White Cube, which was cool but small only taking about 10minutes to look at.

I wandered through the city for a bit, had a stout in a nice little pub and then headed home for another party, Casey’s farewell. Casey loves the Church, the bar we went to last Sunday. So for her farewell it was a church theme with a lot of people heading to The Church on Sunday morning. Christine impressed making herself an outfit out of Strongbow Cider cartons.

Sunday was a quiet one. Just a bit of a sleep in, we watched the Melbourne F1 Grand Prix and then spent the afternoon with Chris and Kirst, having drinks in Hyde Park. Today is the first day of daylight savings! Sunday evening we finally got to eat our dinner from Thursday, Steak night Yum!