Warmth Finally

What a great South African music themed weekend I had !! (even though i cant beleive it is already wednesday and fast heading towards the next weekend)

Friday night saw us heading off to see Plush (listen to them here) in concert at the Islington Carling Academy. I was super excited to see them again all the way in London. C and I and Fire Poi Boi headed up to Angel and grabbed some Wagamama's for dinner - Very yummy indeed! Cept as usual the portions are too big and the pixies (C) got to finish it all off.

The concert was great even though I think the Brixton Carling Academy is a much better venue due to the fact that the floor is sloped so short people like me have an easier time of seeing the stage. I sadly got stuck behind ALL the tall guys in the venue. And seriously i'm not over exagerating. I had about 6 over 6ft tall guys right in front of me right through the crowd obsuring every view for me. So there was alot on me moving back and forth to get views of the stage. but other then that the gig was awesome as Rory still has the most amazing energy on stage - it can only be infectious. Sadly the bassist and other guitarist didnt make it through customs and got sent back home :( But still it made the gig more like the Plush i know and love. It did of course bring back loads and loads of memories of back home and the past - which made me a little sad. but what can you do. I suppose i have to get a bit homesick every now and then.

Met up with a chick I knew back in Cape Town who has moved over here and her friend who has just moved over as well and I knew via a bunch of people as always tends to happen. After the gig we went stubling up Upper St trying to find the bar with the after party which happened to be right at the top of Upper St went the gig venue was at the bottom. It was a rather weird ramble up the road meeting random Saffa's heading to the place place along the way. Anyways we did eventually make to the bar and landed up in the bar next door as there was no cover charge to get in.

So a great night all around and nicely close to home and a short bus ride there! I would just like to point out that now C has decided he likes fun tequila riddled Gem!! So now tequila just seems to appear. So Saturday morning was a little rough on the head!

After an insignificant daytime and far too soon for my sore head the evening rolled around. Much debate went on as to whether we should head off to Goldfish or continue to watch Coupling (OMG I forgot how much this show makes me laugh so much that I cant breathe) But with an encouraging call from a friend of C's who was waiting for us to pitch up we went into overdrive get ready mode. And off to the club we went :)

What an awesome night ! Goldfish was amazing !! We headed to the front and loved every minute of it. Cept for the guy standing on my foot and my shoes killing my feet by the end of the night. We also managed to fight the tiredness and hang around for some Roger Goode (who is a top SA DJ and also a friends brother) We decided that once we left the club that there was a definite call for a cab as it was already 3am! So after attempting to do it the legal way, we got an illegal one and landed up with the coolest Nigerian cab driver. We talked Africa and politics and the uk etc non stop all the way home. Even once he got us to our home and had been paid he still wanted to talk...eventually we got away but of course after lots of handshakes and goodbyes.

Surprisingly Sunday morning we woke up relatively early for having gone to bed at 4am and even managed some house cleaning before I landed up sitting in the garden in the sun with my laptop - got to love wireless internet !! Was just so great to be having a summers day with warm air and sun. I def needed to stock up on that Vitamin D !!

After much waiting and hunger due to waiting for Miss Popular to arrive back in london after an afternoon stuck in traffic for her. Miss Popular is one of my very best friends and was in London for a short while and also got to go off and do some travelling. Sunday night was the last night i was going to see her. C and I headed off finally and with much coaxing of C off his computer game to Waterloo to grab some food and drinks. Sadly the evening was WAY too short with her and her bf running off to catch their train in time and C and I just making the last tube for the night. It was great to see her but of course left me sad once goodbyes had to be said! She means so much to me and I miss her alot. She had such a specific role in my life in CPT and I will not be able to fill that in London. But it wont be long before it is Dec and I will get to see her and we have already started making plans :)

This week Trendy is on holiday so it has been quiet but steadily work filled! Hence hard to find blogging time and chatting time as well - I know bad me. Cept Monday got a bit emotional ...and Tuesday was aweful as I had to deal with an entire day of agonizing back pain which is happily much better today.

But today was MUCH better - the sun was out and I got to soak up more vitamin D in the park at lunch time ! It is my dad's 76th birthday today!!! and he sounds much happier and healthier today which is fantastic! I got to have a good talk to the family back home and heard that my youngest (in his 30's) brother has just gotten engaged. Congrats to him.

Well that is all for now...sorry if it was a long boring post - but hopefully you'll find some cool music that you like from it :)

Missing Friends

This week has been one of the hardest weeks for me since coming to London. At the beginning of the week it just hit me hard how much I miss my closest friends that are all back in Cape Town. I just really missed having their support - I know that i'll always have their support but it is different when you are halfway across the world. I miss that certain love and affection you get from those friends that are the closest to your heart, that know you inside out more then you probably know yourself. I know that I still have them and we will be there for each other for a very long time to come (i dont like to put the pressure of forever on relationships) but i just really FELT how far away they were this week. There are def situations that i really could do with having them around and for the moment they are nothing ever serious. It is always small situations like having to pop to the shops to return something alone....

So that is basically how i've been feeling this week...Alone.

But now it is Friday and thankfully the end to another VERY hectic work week of late nights and hectic deadlines. And I just have to say that I have the most wonderful bf* who can cheer up my day with the smallest things ... And so as a sweet happy ending to my week he posted me a packet of sweets called "midget gems" with a little note saying he thought of me when he saw them. This isnt your average romantic but i'll take it anyday over your classic romantic. Just a side note for people that dont know us... we live together and work about a 2 min walk from each other (we often have lunch together when not too busy) So for him to post me sweets that he bought and hid from me while we bought luch together is jsut so impractical but the perfect gesture that has made me so very happy !!

*Sorry for making you read about this online...but you really made a crap week all better...mwah!

Fifteen

So on wednesday this week Miss organised for all of us to go to Fifteen (Jamie Olivers resturant) for dinner. Which was a great idea for Owen to go as what a 'tourist' opportunity! Since Miss M has connections there we got the best table in the 'cheap' upstairs section and free starters as well :) I must say that it was a great evening even though I was so finished from the day at work and still not feeling 100% ! Anyways am just going to post the pics quickly and then need to get going to get down to Miss M's for a braai.

Owen's arrival

Monday heralded the arrival of my friend Owen to the city of London for the first time. We’ve been preparing for his arrival for ages now by attempting to clean the house up but of course the plans are easier said then done. A frenzied clean on Sunday night sufficed with a pretty good result.

I got to take the day off as I have extra leave that I would lose if I don’t take it. Was so great to have a little lie in on a Monday morning and not having to rush off to work. As Owen and I hadn’t made set plans to meet at the airport I wasn’t keen to cut the timing fine so started off for the airport at 11:30 for his arrival time of 13:00 – damn it is a long journey to heathrow!

All I can say is thank heavens I have an ipod and am loving the blackberry. I got to shut out the noisy little children screaming around me with some nice loud music and sat surfing the web (and still dealing with work emails) while occasionally reading my book. Was great, so much better then the usual airport experience.

Then found Owen and took him back to ours to settle in and introducing to things he needs to know about London – like standing on the right of the escalators and that the open buttons on the tube don’t work ! I love it when I catch people thinking that they can use them or trying to push them sneakily.

We then did some fish and chips at Owen’s request and then after some emailing and waiting for C to get home we then headed out to meet Miss M and Kat and Tony for some drinks at Porterhouse and the walkabout in Covent Garden.

Was a great evening out, lots of fun and giggles had by all. And of course had to take some pics…see below.

Then off he headed to Amsterdam first thing the next morning and will be back in a week.

Pre Spain catch up

Well it has been ages since I've written a blog and it has been a very busy few week affording me very little time to stop and write it all down !

The last thing I was writing about was the long weekend at the end of May so will try and recall everything from then.

The Monday that was the actual bank holiday we decided to finally make a plan to go to the theater and since we wanted to see Equus and it was closing on the 9th of June we choose to go see it. We missioned off at about lunch time to get the tickets from the half price booth on Leicester square. We also decided that since it was Gary's last night with us and since Simon was also visiting we would drag them along for the experience. After getting the tickets C and I headed off to Oxford street for some retail therapy. The shopping trip was a great success and many items were bought - cept we didn't think about the fact that we would then have to take the shopping bags with us to the theatre! We braved the infamous Primark and then went and found C some nice slim fit shirts.

Laden down with all the bags we find a starbucks across the road from the theatre to wait and meet up with the others. I have definitely never seen such a busy coffee shop with loads of dressed up people all going to one of the many theaters in the area.

As usual I was pretty nervous about seeing the play as it had been alot of my decision on which one to see and I was taking 3 guys into a play that had Daniel Radcliffe running around nude for some of the play and topless for alot more. But it was a success all round with Simon raving about it since he has never done anything like that in his life. It was a very powerful play with a very heavy but well put point. I really enjoyed it and am so glad we got to see it before it went off. It was also cool when I heard that it was the play that my mom had seen when she came to London in the 70's.

After a gloriously long and busy weekend it was back to the grindstone. I think that it was in this week that the design director of the company that I was temping asked to have coffee with me and to see my portfolio. Basically we had coffee and discussed what i wanted and he told me that the team liked me and they are impressed with the quality of my work and would like me to stay on permanently. I was like so happy - a permanent job -yay. I did still feel like I should think it over. So on the 1st I told him that i was keen and would he just let me know what package he would be offering me. Once he told me I have to physically hold myself in the chair i was on to stop myself from jumping up and screaming at the top of my lungs...ok so maybe not that dramatic - but I was seriously shocked and pretty much said yes on the spot. By Monday afternoon (after I had to go mission off to the local job centre for an interview to get a national insurance number - basically so that I don't pay the maximum tax) I had the contract all signed and sealed !

So back to that weekend (1 June) on the Friday we went and met C's work mates at a local bar/clubby venue, Alibi, for drinks and had Simon join us as well. Drinks went on to dancing and then moved over to a club called Bedouin Bar (bed bar to the locals) causing C and I to head home alot later then we hoped, and caused usage of the night buses to get home! Not always a pleasant thing depending on your state of soberness.

Sat morning had us up relatively early for me and off to the borough market to meet up with Simon. I absolutely love borough market - i mean a market with loads and loads of yummy food - what more could you want...alcohol, it has that too! We got young french wine straight out of the barrel into a bottle that you can bring back and reuse. Its a litre of either wine or rose wine for a fiver !

After partaking in loads of little food tastings and buying a few choice things including the ostrich steaks for the braai we were invited to down south (Wimbledon), we made our trek down. Miss M and housemates were having a braai and invited us. It was really good catching up with her and getting to meet more people - loads of saffas in London type thing. We sat and talked and ate more and braaied of course - the ostrich steaks were fantastic ! Then there was a call to go play around in the park across the road. So there C and I sat and watched them play soccer ..oops FOOTBALL! (it is def NOT called soccer here) and some touch rugby as well. Then once it was getting later and all the little kiddies had gone home we went to play on the playground equipment....lots of monkeying around was done my all - but mostly by C. I just love the little child in him as he jumped around and played. And then scaring all the others with his what seemed daring jumping off of tall jungle gyms and his attempts to dynoing off the rings. Which helped him find a fellow climber in the group of people. I would like to comment at this point about the lovely squishy tar that they have in the playgrounds here - not like the hard tarmac like back home...it is basically little bits of rubber put together as a tar looking surface ! SO cool. Had me bouncing everywhere I went! anyway - pics to follow as the pics speak louder then my words. Finally C and I had to make our way as there was the long trek home north again.

So the next work week - I've said that the contract was signed and then I started to get some of my own projects to work on which was great! It turned out to be a week of serious steps forward with the new job and also opening a joint bank account with C. So on Thursday night I took C out to dinner to celebrate. He found this great restaurant in Camden called the Camden brasserie where I had the most stunning lamb steak and creme brulee - was a lovely evening - just perfect :)

And suddenly it was another Friday night which of course meant drinks with C's workmates. It was a certain mates birthday celebrations at a bar called the fence. Was really nice evening with me getting to meet more people that work with C and having to relate again and again our story ...and having more of them telling me he is LOVELY !!! Lol, like I don't know that already !!! :P

We had decided to throw a bit of a dinner party while the housemate was away in Palma in reciprocation to the dinner party Paul and Alice invited us to. So we had a plan ... clean the flat and make bedroom into lounge /dinning room and go buy tuna steaks and fresh produce from the borough market (yes we love that place) All the plans came together perfectly with us all ready and unstressed when Paul and Alice arrived. We had a whole load of picky things for starters including a variety of olives and nuts etc from the market. As well as the most awesome snack that I've been missing out on all my life...DOUGH BALLS --- yummy balls of happiness as Alice calls them :) So good ! Then we had the tuna steak cook beautifully if I say so myself since I cooked them. And finally trifle for desert. And then ending the evening with a whiskey and chocolate (well no whiskey for me) We, as we seem to always do, over catered and sent home very stuffed guests and ourselves with bursting tummies where left to stash the dishes and make up our bed again. It was great to see that our bedroom can do the whole lounge thing really well. And it was also good to give it a clean and organised...cept it is back to utter chaos since this last weekend.

The Sunday was Mom's birthday and so of course started with a call back home to wish her a very happy 60th birthday. I still cant believe that she is 60! She just doesn't act that age :P

We then missioned off to the docklands to the Grand Designs Live show. Which is basically a big design exhibition like design for living back home but centred alot around the self build house projects. But there was still a huge interiors section and a shopping section too. We spent the afternoon wandering around there - me getting loads of idea and inspirations for designs at work and just see what is available here. And C was a very good boyfriend and didn't complain at all :P

We had then been invited to a pub in the old street area by Miss M for a small little Sunday afternoon gig by a friend of hers which just happened to be on the way home. So we stopped by and had a couple of drinks and social time with Miss M, her housemate, Tom and the artist...Tim Kay who happens to be guy behind the title song for Jamie Oliver's new show - Jamie at home - On tv screens in August. Tom was one of the guys that was one of the 'fifteen' graduates, very cool guy. These are all Miss M's friends as she worked with them! Really great down to earth people.

Finally last week was just a crazy crazy week with me having to complete 2 presentations for the end of the week causing me to work late most nights. C was great and stayed late as well to come home with me (we work 2 blocks from each other btw) and cooking me dinner cause I was too exhausted - plus I had a bit of a flu things going on but refused to let it take hold. I must say I was really happy with our decision to have a chill weekend doing nothing since our time has been constantly filled everyday. Thursday saw us having drinks at the castle with his mates and then an early night.

Friday consisted off me rushing my ass off to get to the bank in time to collect our bank cards and then heading home to crash into bed. C worked late to make ready for a new guy starting under him at work today. We then cuddled up and watched alpha dog (brilliant movie! even more hectic that it is a true story !!!) and another early night :)

While lazing in bed on Saturday morning there comes a knock on the door and its the delivery of C's new server that he bought that week...So Saturday was spent setting up new server and then heading out to buy a sound card for it to become a media centre for watching movies, series and listening to music - and now we also have tv channels on it. But he is still figuring out the codex for the video with Linux. So the rest of the weekend was me watching series and playing computer and Callum playing with computers and lots of little naps in between - it was a really great weekend. But now our room is chaos with boxes and stuff everywhere and laundry everywhere and 4 computers (!) and us still having to pack for Spain leaving first thing, bright and early on Wednesday morning! it is a very early start so want to be packed today so that we can get to sleep early as we have to watch up at something like 2am for the train to the airport!!!

well, that is it for now ...I would just like to say that I cant believe that I am where I am. That One night a year ago I firstly told my brother that I would make a plan and def come and visit in a year and that was the night I met C and how that set off the chain of events that got me where I wanted to be - and I still have to pinch myself and wonder how everything could have fallen into place so easily and that I could be in such a different place within a year mentally and physically.

So that is finally it until I'm back from Spain...

Another Bank holiday weekend

I have no idea where the time is flying to. It seems like it was just yesterday that I wrote here but it is already the next weekend is upon me before getting to write about the last. And the last one was def a notable one full and busy and a long weekend as well. With the aim not too ramble too much but not seeming to skim too much either here is what went down last weekend.



The friend that we met for drinks was Gary and his arrival in London a week and a bit ago (that Tuesday night) created even more excuses to get out and about and explore London. The Tuesday night had us wondering around the area of his hotel for a bar and then for somewhere to eat (which happened to be another bar - go figure) Finally got to have a traditionally fish and chips and mushy peas for dinner and then we toddled off home.



By Friday we knew we had to take Gary out for some good partying in London. The plan was to go to KOKO in Camden but I'm still waiting for a night there. We started off at the worlds end pub in Camden which is a wonderfully alternative pub with such a wide variety of people. Think Obs on steroids. After a few calls we found out Paul and Alice were up the road at the Dublin castle (there are 4 pubs in the area all called 'so-and-so' castle each representing England, Ireland, wales and Scotland - we were at the Edinburgh castle if you noticed in a previous blog)

So off we trot up the road - I say trot cause I have on my most killer heels for a night out :)



Drinks were had with Paul, alice and her friend as well as a bunch of people that Alice's friend had met online and this was the first time she was meeting them in real life. Finally Gary made it through to us (he made a habit of getting lost plenty in London) and we all then follow the crowd off to a club on oxford st called Metro for what we were promised was some good alternative/rock music. The music wasnt exactly what it was cracked up to be as per the flyers promise and the evening seemed to just been what I can only think of as being very british pop rock punky stuff. Didnt know half of it - think alot of it was old school re done punk stuff. But never the less I'm always the one to try make the most of the situation and off C and I went to the dancefloor where we found a step for me (so i'm not so short -lol) and danced away. Then the others came to join us and we all got to have fun time anyway despite the music.



Then after walking miles down the closed off section of oxford st to deposit Gary on the best night bus we head off to find ours. Thanks to the closed off roads etc and after waiting for ages for the elusive 390 bus (which was saw numerous ones later in the weekend) we landed up cabbing it home and crawling into bed at 4.



Saturday 'morning' (we only surfaced at about 13:30pm) and set off on the mission of finding me a hairdryer since my now old hairdryer decided that it wanted to do the impression of a fireball by glowing orange it was so hot and being seconds away from bursting into actual flames in my hand. So we missioned to Argos, the strangest shopping concept i've come across so far. You walk into the 'shop' that just has banks of counters with big laminated books (which the housemate calls the laminated book of dreams) and little machines that you type in the code of the item you want to see if they have it in stock. Then you got to the payment counters (or self service payment counters - which is very cool and I got to use now that I have my chip and pin card), you pay. then get a number and collection counter number. You then sit down and wait for the number to be called, you go to the collection point and there appears your item/s and you walk out. It very strange system and even stranger buying something that you havent actually seen or felt. But then again they are seriously cheaper. Think i'm actually going to stop by there again soon to get us more bed linen and towels :)



Ok i've gotten off track a bit. By this stage it is late afternoon and we hadnt eaten yet so we decided to head off for an early dinner or late lunch which ever way you want to look at it. After some debating we head off to pizza express in kentish town which was in a lovely converted hall of some sort. We hit the lull between lunch and dinner and were one of 3 tables occupied. We had the most stunning meal of dough balls (why we dont have these in SA I have no idea - they are devine !), pizza and tirumisu with a lovely bottle of wine. Was a really wonderful 2 hours completely wrapped up in our own little world talking endlessly as usual :)



Then off to Leicester Square to see The Pirates of the Caribean 3 with Gary and his other friends. Which was good entertainment to end off a Saturday night.



After feeling like it had already been a full weekend we were very happy to realise that there were still 2 days left of the weekend...



Sunday ! Finally our plan to wander around spitalfields market came to fruition. This is a very cool indoor market that has been around since 18something or other - read as very very old ! There are stalls with clothing and shoes and second hand clothing and anything retro, food, bags, etc etc. We wondered around taking it all in enjoying the atmosphere, had some lunch from the famous square pies place and bought the most stunning chocolate from the most stunning chocolate shop! We also wondered around the other markets in the area like petticoat lane and bricklane as well as taking in all the galleries and the shops and the vibe of the area. C had really wanted to show me the area as he would love to move therebouts - but those are decisions for later in the year. AND what we can find in our price bracket.



We then got a call from Gary to do something and so we all landed up in Camden again at a cocktail bar called Fifty Five which was just off the main road so nice a quiet. Then we find out that it is 2 for 1 cocktail happy (2) hours. So we all pick a cocktail and get 6, then pick some more, and then more, and so we always had a pile of different drinks on the table and are sampling and drinking from them all. Was a great way to try new cocktails and share the love - LOL. I must say that whoever came up with the cocktail that was ice cream, oreo cookies and alcohol was a genius !!! what a yummy cocktails! So now that we exhausted the happy hours we head off in search of FOOD :) and luckily (or most likely evilly planned from the beginning by C) Wagamama's is right next door. It is one of C's favourite restuarants and I think he was just having withdrawl symtoms from the lack of spicy food in his life thanks to my tastes.



Wagamama's was a very cool resturant where we got to sit at large bench tables (i.e right on top of the people next to you) and since we were all in hyper active drunken states we landed up having to befriend the 2 females sitting next to us. We def brought amusement with us and I think scared the waitress a bit. Especially since we were attacking each other with the menus. At one stage Gary asked her for empty coke bottles and he really was no only cause she had visions of use attacking each other with the glass bottles. Eventually Gary did get to pull off his tower of bottles trick and she was very impressed until she whipped them away and was pretty much like leave already, well it was closeing time and we were some of the last people left there.


OK looks like i have to work now - will post again about my monday later :)