Beautiful weather in London

I really wish this weather will last forever.

The first week in our flat was great. We have one of the best landlords around that delivered us a brand new mattress and a coffee table to try and make our place feel more like a home. When we moved in the mattress we were given was too small for the bed so you had to make sure not to roll to far off the side as you would end up on the planks. The downside to the new mattress is on Saturday morning we needed to venture to House of Fraser again. Unfortuately the sale was over so my amazing 'hotel collection' sheets were not available. The lovely man gave us a discount on Sheridan sheets for our bigger mattress as he felt sorry for us missing out as all the stock had sold.

On Saturday night we went out in Clapham to a nice pub to catch up with a fellow I worked with at Clemenger. He has moved over here for the second time with his fiance. We had a great time and met lots of lovely people. A highlight was meeting a couple that live not too far away and they gave us some inside knowledge on how to get directly home on the bus instead of the three tubes we took to get there.

On Sunday, we explored a street in Parsons Green which is about a 20 minute walk from our house, just across the river. We went to a very cute, small farmer's market and bought a few things for the weekly shop. I also discovered much to Benny's disappointment a nice secondhand dress shop that stocks high end fashion brands. I will definately be going back there to find some amazing finds. Some things still had tags on them. Apparently the journalists and fashion buyers sell their stuff to the store for a bit of extra pocket money.

To end a nice weekend we went for Sunday afternoon drinks on the river. Sadly the sun had gone away when we sat down after such a lovely sunny weekend. I think I wore my summer sandels for the very last time.

Tonight we are off to a quiz night as a few of Ben's friends are in town.

Home Sweet Home

On the weekend saw us successfully trek across the other side of town to a new home in Putney. It was so sad to say good-bye to Lee and Melissa's which we had called home since arriving in July. We will miss our weekends outside doing DIY with DIY Lee and I'll miss my shopkeeper at the local store. We were going to hire a car but it all seemed a little difficult and a bit too costly. Instead we used the trusty tube. It was funny you could tell other movers from the people going on holiday with their suitcases. The movers including us had a look on our face which was make this be over soon. It only took three trips with Ben making the final voyage across town after work today. I would like to say I played 'domestic goddess' and made Benny dinner. I can hear the gasps from here. It was the second night running for me cooking dinner. For my birthday mum spoilt me by ordering groceries for our new place. It was such a great idea. So dinner was on mum last night so big thank you Jules!

Our new little area is lovely. It is very leafy and on the river. On Saturday night some friends by shear coincidence organized a night out in Putney so after Saturday moving we celebrated with 2 for 1 cocktails. We are definitely going back as I had a sip of an espresso martini and want to have one all on my own very soon. We went for dinner in a lovely pub on the river which was very tasty, followed by a rather interesting visit to a night club. The dance floor was lit up with some weird square lights that you see in a gaming hall, when you have to stand on the squares that are lit. There was definitely a lot of dancing by many. We were just glad we could walk home and not suffer another trip on public transport. 

On Sunday I had the delivery of groceries followed by a trip to the grocery shops for the necessary items like toilet paper while Benny was doing another trip back to Lee and Melissa's. After Benny came home we rushed down to the local pub I had discovered on the way to the supermarket the Coat & Badge to watch the Liverpool verse Tottenham game. Sadly it wasn't Benny's weekend for sport as Australia lost to Ireland and Liverpool lost as well. While Benny was drowning his sorrows in beer I went down the road to inspect the coffee shop that had been listed in London Coffee Guide. Once again they weren't wrong the coffee was great. It is run by a New Zealander and they sell Anzac biscuits and scones. They say you can always trust a coffee shop run by the Antipodeans. 

This morning we both got up a little earlier as we went to bed very early as we have no TV. There is not much else than read your book and crochet. We walked to my newly discovered coffee shop and across Putney Bridge to the tube. After a tube hold up we finally arrived at work. This afternoon it only took me an hour to get home from work including going to the supermarket to buy a lettuce for tacos. While walking across the bridge I saw three swans swimming. I wish I had my camera to explain how truly beautiful it was with the sun setting. It made Putney feel like home for the next year or two. 

We'll post photos of our apartment once we get a bit more furniture an an internet connection that can handle me uploading photos. 

A bit of British Spirit

This week I celebrated my first birthday away from my family. I received lots of lovely presents in the post and many messages on Facebook. We went to dinner with Lee and Melissa to a lovely Moroccan  restaurant in Covent Garden and had three courses of great food. My new work spoilt me with gifts and afternoon tea with champagne. We kept our fingers crossed all week praying for good weather this weekend.

After constantly checking the weather app we decided on Thursday to risk it and buy tickets to the Proms in Hyde Park. This event is a must do while staying in London. It was so much fun. It is an open-air concert with high-profile British artists and presenters.

The night was amazing, nothing like anything we have at home. You are encouraged to bring picnic blankets, food and drink into Hyde Park. Everyone lines up in a very orderly fashion to enter the gates. There were over 44,000 people at the event. People were carrying round flags of their home countries and lots of POMs dressed in festive dress.

The night was split into two parts first was entertainment at the Hyde Park stage by acts such as BBC Symphony Orchestra, as well as Japanese drumming band from Scotland, The Overtones (Motown band), West Life, Katherine Jenkins and our very own Aussie Rolf Harris. All the Brits love Rolf Harris, he has been living in London since he was 19 years old.  His Aussie accent is still very strong and he played wobble board and sung 'Tie me Kangaroo Down Sport'. The second part was a live cross to the Proms in Royal Albert Hall. 

The second part was sort of like a Somerville House Choral festival and a Carols in the Domain. Everyone sang lots of national songs, they had the lyrics up on a screen like a karaoke night so no one had an excuse not to sing. Benny and our friend Cam sang 'Never Walk Alone' so proudly. It is the Liverpool football song so Benny sang it very passionately despite Liverpool loosing that day to a very ordinary team. We waved British flags and felt like a real POM for one night only. 

This night was a night to remember for a very long time. It was so lovely seeing people so proud of their country songs like 'God Save the Queen'. I had shivers every so often not from the cold but just how proud everyone was of their country. There were people of all ages sitting with family and friends sharing glasses of wine and food they had cooked at home. You can see from the pictures that we all had a lot of fun singing and dancing and getting to experience all the weather London can throw at you. 

Today we slept in recovering from singing our hearts out and ventured to a big Westfield. We had to buy all the final things before moving in next weekend to Putney. So everyone book your tickets as we have room for people to visit us. It is days like today that you love being a car owner. It was not fun traveling on the tube with a doonah, doonah cover, two pillows, blow-dryer and the groceries for tonight's dinner. Next weekend we are hiring a car and driving to the other side of London to our new little home. No way would I attempt moving using the tube. Sorry Benny!

Maybe the last weekend of summer dresses

This week was nice and short, we only had to work four days. Ben enjoyed his new job at the University of London. We were told the sad news on the morning news that the last day of summer had past. The autumn jackets have started to be be advertised in the stores. We have this fabulous app on our phone that tells us what the weather will be like each day. It breaks it down every three hours. It is about 99% right. The girls at work says it is a saviour from deciding what to wear each morning. Friday it hit 26 degrees. I was so excited I put on a very summery dress. After work we met Lee and Melissa at Canary Wharf to drink sangria beside the river. It was such a beautiful sunset.

To celebrate the good weather that was predicted for Saturday we decided to venture out of London. We hopped on a train heading to Cambridge. Once we hopped off the train we were hit with the sight of hundreds and hundreds of bicycles. We even saw a sign advertising secure bike parking. Cambridge is incredibly flat and filled with students so I am not surprised they opt for this cheap form of transport. We didn't really plan our day for Cambridge, Melissa just told us to follow the crowd that left the station. It was such a beautiful city filled with amazing university buildings. Students are on holidays at the moment so some of the buildings were closed for maintenance. We were both shocked with how many people were visiting despite being uni holidays. We headed towards the river and we were bombarded with quite good looking university students promoting punting. We didn't partake in punting as it was a little bit too crowded. We had lunch at a lovely cafe beside the river, followed by a rest in the park were we watched a tiny rowing competition. We did so much walking yesterday, I sort of wish we hired bikes to explore. Along the river there was lots of lovely, cute little boats that people must live on or just take out for the weekend. We will definitely go back hopefully to explore a bit more.

Today was a not so sunny day. We went into town to have a look at the Spitalfield Markets. It is filled with mainly clothes and leather goods. I found a man that makes tailored 'Autumn' jackets that are very well made. He does alterations during the week and you can return the next weekend to pick them up. It was nice to meet someone so passionate about sewing. After he fitted a jacket on me and we spoke a little bit about sewing, he offered me a job on Sunday's sewing on buttons. I'm considering it over night. I just have to now save up for the jacket.

Plans for this week is to pray for nice weather for the coming weekend as we want to go to the final night of the Proms in Hyde Park. Fingers crossed.