The Church

Another week has rolled by, with nothing overly exciting happening. Friday night I caught up with Nicki, from our Croatia tour, for a beer after work. Then we just chilled at home, had a few drinks and headed on to bed. Saturday morning we were up early for breakfast and then headed to the TNT Travel Show. This is where we went a but nuts last year and booked our Egypt and Croatia tours. This year we were not looking at booking anything, we have pretty much settled on our itinerary for the summer. The main reason was actually quite boring, we wanted to speak to the shipping countries about sending some stuff home in May. The highlight of the show was actually just roaming around and chatting to our mates, many of which were working on the stands. There was some old and current housemates, the Pampalona crew, our Croatia tour guide and Croatia passengers as well as MacBackpackers the company we toured Scotland with. We walked home from the travel show, through Hyde Park. After some lunch and a nap it was time to head out to Hammersmith. Chris from Pampalona was having his birthday at a pub. We were looking forward to this as we haven’t seen many of the Pamps crew for a long time. We had a good night, drinking cocktails and catching up with the guys that are still around London. At one stage Christine and the barman had a ‘miscommunication’ on the 2 for 1 cocktails, and she ended up ordering us 8 cocktails in one visit to the bar, damn English-Australian language barrier!

We were up early again on Sunday. Jacinda, also from our Croatia trip, is heading home to NZ. As a farewell party she was heading to The Church. It’s a bit of a messy bar, aimed at Aussies and Kiwis, and is only open 4 hours a week, midday to 4pm on Sunday. It is one of those things where you’re not really a Aussie living in London until you have experienced it, so we thought we should visit before we leave. Mel and Alex from DC came with us and we were meeting 6-8 other there. All of us dressed in Doctors Scrubs uniforms. The afternoon went really well, lots of drinks, entertainment and bogan rock music. At 4pm when it closes everyone piles out into the street and onto buses headed for the Shepherds Bush Walkabout, conveniently the Aussie Bar not too far from our place. We managed to stumble home at the reasonable time of about 9.30pm, dreading having to get up for work in the morning.

Disney and Beatles

Bit of a mixed week this week. Christine had a few days off with more headaches. In between she managed to cook a huge veggie lasagna and cheesecake to share with Mel on her birthday. Friday night Sarah and Mel were having a double birthday celebration. As always, there had to be a theme, and this week’s theme was Disney. Maybe because it has been a little while since there has been a big party, but everyone got into it and had a good night. Christine borrowed a Maid Marion, Roman Emperor and King outfit from school which made it easy for us. Mel dressed as the Queen of Hearts, Sarah was snow white, there were a few Dalmatians, pirates, Alice in Wonderland and even a Princess Fiona! A few of the girls who have recently moved out came back so it was great to see them as well as a few old residents. Another late night at DC! After a big Bacon and Egg feed and then a few more hours in bed, we were ready to head out into the real world on Saturday. Not that we are counting down (56 days until we leave the UK!), but there are still a few, not many, but a few things we still want to do in London before we leave. One of these was to visit Abbey Rd, the location of the recording studio used by the Beatles as well as the pedestrian crossing that they used on their album cover. So with Mel we headed out for a walk, along the canals, through little Venice, past Lords and up to Abbey Rd, not too far from where we live. It was pretty amusing actually, being a Saturday afternoon, there were a few other tourists there as well as guys selling bootleg Beatles t-shirts. We sat and enjoyed the spectacle for a bit, the same tourists walking back and forth across the crossing, holding up frustrated drivers on what is actually quite a busy road! Then of course we had to have a go, waiting for the cars to clear before parading over the crossing, kinda fun! Not unlike some other tourist attractions, Christine got quite frustrated with the other tourists, or maybe it was her hangover induced short fuse? We had intended to keep walking through Regents Park, which we haven’t visited since Mum and Dad were here, but it was getting a bit cold, and everyone was tired so we just wandered back home, one more thing ‘ticked’ off our list. Saturday night we visited Gemma, Pinks + Hollie friends who have recently moved out of DC, in rather controversial circumstances! We were joined by Brad and Alex, a couple of guys that we still live with. It was a quiet night, that turned into a really good night. The girls are now living in an apartment not to far from us. It is a lot nicer, and cleaner than DC. They were asked to leave after playing a practical joke amongst themselves, a bit of an overreaction by the owner and management. But it turned out for the best, they now have a nice apartment in the area. The night was low key, drinks take away and a real good time. Sunday after a well deserved sleep in and a feed of pancakes we headed off to the Victorian and Albert Museum. This is not too far from home, a stroll through Hyde Park. Christine had been there for a day during school holidays with a housemate and was keen to show me around. Christine’s favourite part is the Cast Room. It has full size replica’s of sites from around the world. There are also lots of art works and sculptures in the gallery, most of which have been stolen from around the world by the British.

A quiet London weekend

On Saturday Damien had to work again which was good as I also have heaps of work at the moment. It is also the first weekend we have been in London for nearly a month, so nice just to take it a bit easy. It is the beginning of a term as well as report writing time. Agggrrrgh. Our friend Mel has been away working at another hotel so we organized for her to come over to a cheese and wine dinner. Me being me, I couldn’t leave it at just cheese and wine, so I cooked a Patatas Tortia (Spanish Omelet). Sunday was a bit more fun. There was a car show on the street around the corner which was a bit random. There was Herby, the Back to the Future car, the Bat Mobile, and the Ghost busters van. After this we headed through Hyde Park towards Chelsea. This is a very fancy area of London so the shops were all designer as were the cars. We popped into the Saatchi Gallery, which is full of contemporary art. The best piece was a work by Richard Wilson called 20:50. It is a site specific ‘Oil Installation’ which basically fills an entire room with sump oil. You enter the room and notice a really strong smell of oil but it actually looks like there is a dark perspecs floor which mirrors the ceiling. On closer inspection you notice that it is actually ripping under the ventilation. We also liked an installation by the artist Tessa Farmer which is contained within a perspecs box filled with dead insects. They are suspended by fishing wire and when you look very closely you notice tiny little figures actually riding the insects. Very freaky. After the gallery we headed to the hotel where Mel was working to say hi and have a coffee. It was then getting late so we called it a day and headed home.

Glasgow

Back in London for 4 days at work and then we were off again, for a long weekend in Glasgow. The week went quickly, Christine was on school holidays but managed to keep herself busy with Mel, galleries and washing! Damien was back at the office working hard for the four days.
Thursday afternoon we met at Liverpool St and took the train out to the airport for our flight to Glasgow. Our roommates from snowboarding last year were from Glasgow and at the end of the week they invited us up to Glasgow. Of course we said we would visit, but we didn’t realize it would take us over a year to organize it!
Audrey and Lorna picked us up from the airport and took us straight to a pub, true Scottish style, love it! It gets better, Lorna actually owns the apartment above the pub! After a couple of pints and a catch up on the events of the past 12mths, Audrey took us back to her place, where we would be staying (she has less cats).
Friday the girls had work, so after bit of a sleep in, we caught the bus into the town centre. It is a small city, so we did a bit of a walking tour. We started at George Square which is the centre of town, and has a number of statues. From here we wandered down to the Cathedral. This is being restored but the inside was very nice, beautiful stained glass windows and in the lower church there is a tomb and medieval arches. Behind the church was the Necropolis, an old graveyard with nice view over the city and some very grand tomb stones.
After a lovely lunch in a little café we headed to the City Chambers for a guided tour. The interior is very extravagant, marble stairways, council chambers and portraits of past mayors. It has been used in films for scenes in the ‘Vatican’. We got to sit in the Mayors seat and saw them setting up the ballroom for the ‘Sportsman of the Year’ presentations.
We had a quick visit to GOMA (Gallery of Modern Art) which has a horse statue out the front that constantly gets a witches hat placed on it, as bit of a joke. Then we got a call to be at a pub back out near Audrey’s, so we jumped on the bus and headed out to meet the girls. It was a night out to celebrate one of their friends birthdays. Sadly Lorna was not feeling well and never made it out for the evening. The night started in a busy micro brewery, The Clockwork Beer Company, where pints and pizza were consumed. Then we headed to the local Greyhound track for a night of racing, woo hoo! With only 5 dogs in each race, we were able to pick a couple of winners, roughly breaking even for the evening. Stumbling out of the dog track we visited another little local pub, an Indian takeaway joint (with fluorescent pink food, mmm…) and then back to the birthday girls place for a night cap! Strangely, Saturday morning Audrey wasn’t feeling very well! She decided to have a day in bed. Lorna, feeling a bit better picked us up, in her red mini cooper, with Candy, her puppy dog in the back. We drove north through the city and up to Loch Lomond. The drive took about an hour, through nice country side and rolling hills. We arrived in a small village, had a bite to eat and a coffee. Then we went for a walk on the Loch with the puppy! The Loch was beautiful and we were fortunate that the weather was nice, blue sky and sunny for most of the day. It was also fun playing with Candy, she loved the water and chasing her tennis ball. We had a few stops on the way home. We had a look at some Hairy Cows, coffee in another little town, climbed a mountain with views back over Glasgow and visited a friend of Lorna’s briefly. Back in Glasgow we found Audrey had dragged herself out of bed, was feeling better, but not great. After a rest on the couch and a glass of wine, we headed into town for dinner in a district called Merchant City. This is an old part of town with small buildings and alleyways, and lots of nightlife. We ate in a great little restaurant, very busy. I ate Haggis, Nips and Tatties while Christine had a Moroccan Lamb dish, When in Rome… After dinner Audrey retired for the evening, but Lorna had grand plans. We bar hopped for a little while, struggling to finish our drinks after eating so much. Then we headed to a nightclub, VIP of course, she is well connected in the Glasgow night scene. The nightclub looked amazing from the outside, it is in the basement of an old church. Sadly the interior was like any other nightclub, they had plastered over all the old stone walls and roof. We had a good night, drinking and dancing. Honestly it felt a bit like the Mt View in Melbourne (one of our locals), that sort of crowd and lay-out, although the music here wasn’t as good!
Our last day in town we headed out for brunch with Audrey. As if last night wasn’t enough I ate Haggis Bruchetta for breakfast. We then visited Pollock Country Park, Pollock House and the Burrell Collection. The house is an old mansion turned art gallery with a lot of old furniture and portraits. The Burrell Collection is a modern building which houses a museum. Lots of cool things in here sculptures, furniture, Egyptian, Greek and Chinese sections. Lorna met us in the park with Candy to say good bye, and then we were on our way back to the airport bound for London again.
We had a very busy 3 days, but loved it, there is heaps of art and culture in Glasgow as well as heaps of parks. Thanks for everything girls, from accommodation, food and drinks , showing us around and good times! See you in Melbourne next!

Snowboarding Videos

Val D'Isere - French Alps

We had both taken Friday off work as we needed to clear out our room so we don’t have to pay rent whilst at the snow. We never look forward to this as it takes ages trying to stash everything away, and then you always find more stuff. We managed to tidy the room in record time and had time to spare. Mel was also packed and ready to go so the three of us headed out for a walk. We headed to Notting Hill and had a quick look at Portabello Rd which always has lots of nice food. I wouldn’t let Christine buy anything as we had heaps of food already for the bus ride. She settled for a coffee and brownie at one of the many cafes. Time was slipping away so we headed back to DC, got our stuff and headed to Victoria Bus Station for the Snow Express at 7pm.
The first part of the journey was ok although we missed the first ferry which was annoying. This meant we had to wait at the ferry terminal for an hour on the bus. Finally we got on the ferry found a spot and started our picnic dinner. With our combined remaining food we had a bit of a feast. Cheese, dip, olives and bread topped off by a bottle of wine, to help us sleep on the bus of course.
Once back on the bus we all tried to sleep. We were lucky because the bus wasn’t full so we all managed to get two seats to stretch out on. This was good for the first couple of hours but not so great after 18 or so hours. We did manage to get a decent sleep, partially thanks to a few sleeping pills. The last part of the ride dragged. The bus dropped people off where we got off last year, to transfer to the Chamonix bus. At this point we figured we were nearly there (1.5 hr from Chamonix). Not so we were the last stop so had to make stops at a number of different resorts dropping of a few people at each. Thankfully we finally arrived at around 3pm. We wandered around Val D’Isere a little dazed and confused until check in time which was 5pm. Finally we got into our room, unpacked, got our boards organized, showered and headed down for our first amazing dinner. Sunday we slept in, not going to get a chance to do that aging for a few days. Then after a bowl of coffee (no mugs, crazy French people), we hit the slopes. Christine and I hung out on the green slopes, but were happy with the variety of beginner’s runs. Mel headed off to find the blue and red runs, to ease herself into the week. After a picnic lunch the three of us did a few runs together, Mel on her ski’s and us face planting our way down the hill on snowboards. We attempted a blue run all the way back to town, but the lower we got it was very icy and very painful. In reality, we were both quite happy with our first day, we took it easy but seemed to remember some of what we had learnt last year.
Monday morning we were up early for our bowl of coffee, and then met our instructor, Antoine. We had a rough morning. Maybe it was the early morning or maybe it was trying to impress the instructor but we weren’t as good as the day before. It didn’t help that he took us right back to basics, about 3 levels below what we had been practicing the day before. After a big lunch back at UCPA we headed out for the afternoon, which was a bit more successful. We were getting the hang of doing turns again. Over all out of ten I felt I achieved about a 4, let down by a tough morning. The evening I spent in the local swimming pool, but Christine didn’t bring her bathers, even after being reminded. We then came home to find our neighbours were French (bad), brang a sub woofer sound system (really bad) and played shit doof doof until the wee hours of the morning! Day 2, was a really good day. More practice linking the turns and then learning switch (basically riding backwards). This came fairly easy for both of us, being ambidextrous. I actually got told off in class for doing it yesterday, I didn’t even realize I was going the wrong way! Christine also had a really good day. The afternoon we tried some blue runs, visibility dropped and it started snowing. Still doing well, until the last run, where Damien did a spectacular ‘windmill’ face plant, must have looked brilliant! A dampener on a good day followed by a few more crashes on the way home, over all about 8/10. The evening did the stretching class before heading into town for the night show. There was a light show on the mountain, trick jumps, hundreds of skiers riding down the mountain with headlights on and a fireworks show. Dinner was a big seafood cook up we had a few drinks and then headed to bed to suffer through the noisy French! Wednesday was a half day, so we slept in. Last year we headed out for another full day, but this year we needed rest, old age and I have a cold. We had a walk around town, checking out the shops, ice sculptures and ice rink.
Back on the slopes we had a mixed afternoon. I was struggling early but the instructor helped, by challenging me to go faster and do smaller tighter turns (5/10). This helped, as there was less time to think about what I was doing! The rest of the class was attempting to do 180 jumps. Struggling with standing up I was busy with my turns, but Christine gave it a shot, and came off second best, landing awkward on her hip. The snow was good today after 12 hours of light snow. Mel, who can ski, but hasn’t had lessons before has been doing the black runs and traversing the whole resort. She says she is enjoying the lessons which is good to hear, and is learning new skills, going off piste and through saloms and moguls. Dinner as promised by Helene, our friend in the kitchen, was a local specialty. Bread, cheese, cured hams and traditional stew. This is to go with the Salad bar, cheese table, buffet mains, dessert table and ice cream fridge that is on offer each night. The food in this place is amazing, you always walk away happy but wishing you hadn’t eaten quite so much. Thursday was a fun day. We headed to the top of the resort and snowboarded on the Glacier. There was fresh powder everywhere, nowhere near as icy as you expect the glacier to be! This part of the resort you can ski on all year round. Finding a bit of confidence in the soft stuff (yesterday I just sank), and taking the instructors advice to ‘embrace the speed’ I provided the class with another spectacular stack. We were boarding from off piste onto the piste for a bit, building speed and then off up into powder. That bit was fine, but seeing the rest of the class had stopped on top of a 2m lip of powder snow, I maintained the speed to get over the lip, planning to stop on the other side. I didn’t realize that it was a sheer drop on the other side of the lip and ended up sliding 10m down the mountain, on my face. I was fine, it was all soft powder, and everyone was laughing when Christine pulled up and asked, ‘where’s Damien’. Overall it was a good day prob a 7 out of 10.
We had lunch in a restaurant in a cosy little ski town, it was so nice. Sadly we didn’t take the camera that day, possibly a good thing given my big slide earlier in the day. It was a shorter afternoon, Christine stuggled again today feeling a bit sore. Afternoon at the UCPA helped cheer her up, Crepes and chocolate sauce. Mel and I headed to the pools again for a recovery swim. The girls then hit the town and didn’t make it home until late. Friday was our last day of classes and was exciting as we were boarding from Val D’Isere to Tignes another resort nearby. It was no surprise that Christine struggled and only boarded for about an hour. After some narrow runs to get to Tignes we headed up and spent the morning dong blue and red runs. Lunch was at the UCPA Tignes. We did a few more runs after lunch before heading back to Val D’Isere. Definitely the best day yet possibly a 9/10 and no major stacks to report back. Friday night everyone from the boarding classes gathered for drinks before dinner which was fun, nice to mix with everyone off the board. Then it was another great dinner, drinks, its Christine’s Birthday. She was very surprised when Helene, our friend in the kitchen, brought out a birthday cake and everyone in the UCPA sang. After dinner we headed out on the town for a few drinks to celebrate. The decision was tough, sleep in after a night out or hit the slopes for a few hours, possibly the last time we will do so in the French Alps. After possibly our last bowl of coffee in the French Alps, we braved it and hit the slopes. Christine joined us minus the board, which meant we had our own personal photographer. Mel and I did a few runs, modeling for Christine before heading off to some of the easier runs with better snow, for one last blast. It was another good morning, just cruising. At the end of the week I’m definitely happy with where I finished, but am a bit disappointed that I didn’t learn to jump and didn’t get to ski home. We then rushed back, returned our gear, cleaned or room, ate lunch, had a last walk around the town and boarded our bus for the long ride home. It wasn’t too bad on the way home. The drivers put on two dvd’s for us and we slept ok again.

Coming's and Goings!

Carly, our Canadian house mate, is heading off to OZ, so she decided for her last hurrah to have an international dinner. This was pretty cool as everyone bought a dish from a different region. We were a bit slack and made nachos, but the problem was we had been online booking stuff for the way home and lost track of time. We basically missed the mains and have the nachos ready for the dessert course, opps. No one seemed to mind although we missed out on Chris’s stella pork chops which smelt amazing.

Sun - Spitalfield Mkt, brick lane with New Mel
We headed to Spitafields markets with with Mel2 who is new to the house. She is friends with one of the other girls and is from Malasia/New Zealand. We had the intention of getting some sort of memento of our time in London. Spitifeilds generally has a bit more arts and crafts stuff than a lot of the other markets. The only problem is that Christine is so fussy! She likes lots of the clothes, handbags and jewelry but not the art works. Very frustrating! My favorite part of the market trip is always lunch. We headed over to brick lane where they have a food stalls with Moroccan, Thai, Indian, Vietnamese, Japanese, Greek you name it. The problem here is there is too much choice and everything smells great. It takes ages to decide what to have and then your never sure if your happy with what you have or if you should have got something else. Sampling everyone else’s is always good though.

Chinese New Year – Mel (new) Sun 6/2/11
London’s celebrations of the Chinese New Year is supposed to be the biggest outside of Asia so we decided it was worth having a look at. Mel came with us to Trafalgar Square where there was an opening ceremony with crackers and a lion dance. We unfortunately stood downwind of a homeless man, a mistake we won’t make again, but this was the only place we could see from. The whole square was packed! There were lots and lots of speeches of notable people in the London Chinese community saying how fantastic it was to have so many people there, boring! Finally the firecrackers began, lots of cracking and smoke. There was another ceremony of dotting the dragon’s eyes then a dragon dance which was kind of cool. The best part of the whole fiasco was the Lion dance. This consisted of a couple of guys under the one costume jumping across raised platforms. It was quite impressive.
We left Trafalgar Square and headed to the stalls to try and find some Chinese food. After fighting through the crowds we managed to find some awesome Chinese Pork Buns. These tasted home made and defiantly filled a hole. We continued on our way and got stuck in the crowds. There were just so many people, including mothers with massive prams, that it was hard to move. There were people pushing to get through but there was nowhere to go. We decided that Chinese New Year in London was way overrated and started to try to head home. We finally made it out of the masses and onto the tube ready to head home.

Mon – Mel (Brisvegas) arrives Heathrow
Our friend Mel from Brisbane who went home before Christmas last year decided she wanted to come back to London to see out her Visa. Christine’s B’day trip to the French alps put a bit of a firecracker under her and she made the decision to come with us. Christine, working near Heathrow airport, was able to surprise her at the airport so they had a long catch up on the way home. I had made a huge Curry the night before so it was leftovers and wine for dinner. It is great to have Mel back as we have been missing her heaps. Deans Court wasn’t the same without her.

The Missing BBQ!

On Sunday, Christine had to complete a risk assessment for the Natural history museum as she was taking a group of students there the following Thursday. We were lucky enough to go to the David Attenbourgh Theater for a talk and an interactive presentation. These were pretty cool especially the interactive one that looked at the ‘tree of life’ and showed how we are actually related to bananas. The museum is very interesting and has lots of specimens from all over the world so it is always fun to spot the Aussie. We found Wallabies, a Tawny Frogmouth Owl and Kingfishers. The dinosaur section was packed as usual but we managed to do an express tour and run past the animated T-Rex.
After a couple of hours it defiantly time for a coffee as Christine dragged me over to the Victoria and Albert Museum. The coffee shop there was the first museum coffee shop in the world. The rooms are all decked out in designers from back in the day. Christine wanted to sit in the William Morris room but it was full so we had to sit in the massive Gamble room. It looks like it could be a ballroom. After coffee and of course cake, we headed back to DC.
Australia Day – No BBQ!
Sadly London (or at least DC) put a dampener on Australia day this year. Last year we had a great night and hearty Aussie BBQ which was enjoyed by all the residents including the Frenchies and token Kiwi Chris (who did his best in green and gold)!
A few Fosters were consumed as well as Christines hamburgers (not allowed to be BBQ’d) and a few salads and other dishes in a communal feed. It was a night for reflection and counting down the days until we will be home, or at least out of London! It was also a bit more subdued, possibly as there are less aussies here at the moment. It was a nice night but the BBQ taste of the burger was missing!

The highlight of the week was definitely Friday, after work I had a beer with Sam, a guy I work with. I then met Christine at Covent Garden to see Blood Brothers. This was another musical that we had got tickets to. It was one of the best shows we have seen. Based on a story of a woman with a number of kids, who has twins. She gives one away at birth. The story is about how the two boys grow up and cross paths at different stages of their lives. It had great singing, high energy acting and a great story line, leaving you on the edge of your seat.

Cambridge

We have a list of places in the UK that we want to visit before we leave, and the good news is that it is getting shorter and shorter. Some places we have come to the realization that we wont be making it to, such as another trip to the parts of Cornwall that we missed and the Lakes and Peaks districts up north, simply as we are trying to work as much as we can, and these places require at least 4 days and a car. That said, we did Oxford recently and this weekend we made a day trip to Cambridge.

Saturday morning we were up early and out the door before breakfast was even served. We had train tickets from Liverpool St. After the hour and a bit journey we strolled from the train station toward the centre of town. Along the way we had a brief stop in a nice old church and at Downing College, which is one of the smaller colleges.
Our next stop was at Christs College. This is another nice old college, bit bigger. All of the colleges have nice buildings and gardens. This one had a Charles Darwin garden, as he studied at the college, which Christine enjoyed.

The next hour or so we strolled around the town. There were a number of art stores that Christine had a look in, we found some markets bought some Spanish Meats for dinner. The art shops we were half looking to buy an art work as we have been in the UK for so long. It was also just an excuse to warm up as it was pretty cold. We discovered some nice pieces but they are all so expensive when you are in a tourist town. We stopped in a nice café for lunch.
After lunch we headed out along the river and ‘The Backs’, which is a series of gardens and parks. These were nice, although it was a bit chilly. It would be very nice in the warmer months. We saw lots of bridges, and punts on the river. We decided it was a bit cold to give this a shot.

Christine’s favorite part of our time in Cambridge was Kettle’s Yard house and gallery. This is the house that Jim and Helen Ede lived in during the 1920s and 30s. Jim had been a curator at the Tate Gallery in London and collected lots of art from many of the artists he met there and became friends with. The house has been left as if they were still living in it and people are welcome to explore or sit and enjoy the many rooms. It was full of interesting furniture, ceramics and glass ware not to mention the paintings and sculptures. Some of the most famous artist represented were Miro and Henry Moore.
Partially so we could go to a nice Cathedral and partially so we could go to Kings College, for free, we went to Kings College for the Evensong. This is a Church service with a full choir in the evening. The cathedral is very big, old and very nice. The service was lovely.
With the colleges, galleries and cathedral out of the way, we headed to the pub to finish our day. We spent some time and ate in the Eagle which is an old pub with 5 or 6 cozy rooms. During WWII it was a popular hangout for the air force, and they have preserved graffiti and signatures on the walls and roof from the soldiers. On the way back to the train station we stopped for another beer at the Bear, a really small and a bit dingy pub.

Off to Chicago, for the Night!

After a busy week working, we were happy to see Saturday roll around. We had tickets to see a West End play, 39 Steps. Unlike most of the shows we have been to, this one was not a musical. It was a comedy with a small cast, only 4 actors, but very clever as there were many characters.
The story follows the main character who meets a lady at the theater, who turns out to be a spy. She warns him about the 39 Steps which is a weapon for world domination. The next morning she is found dead in his apartment. He flees from London to Scotland, running from the police, whilst looking for a doctor that the spy had been going to see to pass on her message. The doctor turned out to be helping the people who wanted to use this weapon, so he then had to escape from this doctor. It was very clever and quite funny, in a slapstick sort of way. After the show we headed to a pub for a few pints and then dinner in Soho which was nice.
The following week after a few days back at work we were off to another show. This time it was Chicago, which I had been looking forward to seeing for a while, as we have heard a lot of people enjoyed it. All of the tickets we bought were cheap, £25 for second row seats at Chicago and £15 for the other shows.
Unlike 39 Steps, Chicago is a musical and a big production, 20 odd people in the orchestra and probably 20 odd in the show. It was amazing and had a bit of everything, singing, acrobatics, dancing, comedy. It’s a true story about the 1920’s, in Chicago obviously. Show girls that end up in prison. They get a good lawyer and escape with lenient punishments. But it really is the amazing singing and dancing that makes it so good.
With their yearend still not complete, Damien had to work another weekend. We did manage to get to Jade’s 30th birthday at her place in Angel. Damien worked with Jade in his first contract role, and we see her every now and then. She is really sweet, originally from Mornington way she says (really Frankston). She has been in the UK for over 5 years and is quite settled here. We had a really good night, and met a few new people which was nice.