A lovely relaxing week

So I have been unemployed since last Friday and I am proud to say I start a contract job on Monday which is much earlier than I was expecting. Sadly I only had one week of being a lady of leisure. My last day of my contract at SAS was sad as I made lovely friends and they made moving to London that little bit easier. It will be a year on Monday since leaving Brissie. Work spoilt me with lovely gifts and a voucher to my favourite store Liberty of London.

Ben and I had a very relaxing weekend last week. We went to the next suburb Bairnes on Saturday and  had lunch at a lovely pub on the river called White Hart. After lunch we went for a wander round the shops and bought up books at the charity store. They were having a sale so they were only about a £1. People read so much on the tube that the books are all the latest, no need to ever visit a proper book store. On Sunday night Melissa came round for dinner and to watch a concert with me at the Putney Common Church. A little group were playing Bach, Fasch and Haydn. It was really nice and the money raised went to the Starlight Foundation. While we were at the concert Ben watched England play football to try and get into the final of the Euros. Sadly it came down to penalty shoot out and England didn't win. I felt sorry for Ben. I had never seen him sit so close to the TV by the end of the game he could have touched the screen.

Monday, was the start of official lady of leisure. I planned to spend the week sewing, crocheting and going to Wimbledon with Benny on Wednesday. In my last week at work a fellow offered two tickets to the tennis and I could't refuse. Ben took the day off work and we headed out mid morning to see a bit of tennis. It was only about 15 minutes on the bus from our place. The weather wasn't amazing, as usual and we thought the rain might just not show up but sadly it did. The tennis had to be put on hold for 3 hours so we sat on the famous hill and watched what was happening on the covered centre court. While waiting for games to resume, we sampled the famous strawberries and cream. Kentish strawberries are amazing. While at the tennis we saw Stosur, Sharapova and Roddick play. Sharapova can definitely squeal. It must be noted that she doesn't make the ridiculous sounds while practising.

On Thursday I had one of those days that you don't expect to be so much fun. What I had planned to do didn't go to plan instead I had such a marvellous day. I rushed out of the house unexpectedly to say goodbye to my old Energex client before he flew to Australia that night. We had coffee at Monmouth which is at one of my favourite places in London, the Borough markets. After we caught up I had a few hours to kill before seeing Claire and Lindsay who had just arrived from Brisbane. The weather was beautiful, it reached almost 30 degrees so I decided to find a lovely spot on the river. While heading to the Tate Modern area I heard this man playing the piano and it was kind of weird because who would think you would find a piano player right on the river. I have learnt since living here that nothing is impossible in London. Set up as part of the London Festival, is a piano were anyone can play and it is free. I sat on the steps under the Millennium Bridge for two hours and listened to some very talented musicians. I saw a young kid, dressed as a goth play a beautiful classical piece. I listened to a boy who looked like a graduate intern, kind of scruffy with a tie on play this amazing piece of music. He played one song only and after he finished everyone clapped. As he was walking away the girl beside me stood up and asked him what piece he played. He responded with I just made it up. For those two hours I just had goosebumps. It made me realise that you can never tell my looking what people's hidden talents are. You really shouldn't judge a book by it's cover. I wished I could have sat there all day and could tell you about all the players I watched. It was just magical.

To finish the day off I spent the afternoon showing Claire and Lindsay around the London Bridge area. We went to the Borough Markets, a pub for a English Pint and walked to Tower Bridge. We ended the early evening visiting Gordan's Wine Bar at the Embankment which was recommended by a friend Claire works with. It was a quirky bar, which is well over one hundred years old. They serve only wine and for food you have a selection of cheeses and pickles and salad. I would definitely recommend it. It was great to catch up with Claire as I have really missed her.

Tomorrow is Saturday and my day is dedicated to Claire and Lindsay. We have a few things planned and fingers crossed we have nice weather.

Sailing on the Solent

So Friday afternoon I was lucky to leave early and we jumped on a train to Worcestor Park were we met a fellow we would be sailing with over the weekend. We had never met but we found each other easy and  we drove to Hamble Marina. The drive to the marina was surprisingly good for London traffic and we were there in just over an hour. Mossy and Sailor Lee turned up with the food for the weekend and we jumped on board to get ready for a lovely weekend. We had dinner at the small marina's restaurant and the food was delicious. The boys watched intently England play in the Euros while drinking a few beers. We didn't have a really late night as we needed to be ready to head off on our early morning sail on the Solent.

We work up to blue sky which lasted a big 30 minutes before the strong wind blew the clouds over. We layered up, I had two jackets, a think jumper, jeans plus waterproof pants on. I was freezy. Mossy even wore a Benny. There was Lee, Benny, Mossy and three other men from Lee's work on the sailing trip and everyone was feeling the cold. The weather conditions on Saturday were less than ideal for sailing. There was hardly anyone out. We found out that night that a competition was cancelled. Lee mentioned on Monday that the conditions were definitely not ideal as we were in Force 7 gusts with swells at about two metres. We couldn't raise the sail at all and we couldn't get to our expected destination. We were sopping wet as the waves crashed up onto the boat. We decided to make the wise decision of pulling into the harbour of Cowes to get shelter. We were in the not so fun weather for about two hours with our stomachs churning and me nervous with the conditions. Everyone was relieved with the decision. We spent the afternoon watching the other sail boats come into safety. Some had even ripped sails.

In the afternoon Mossy and I hit the shops while the boys did something different  – watched sport. Mossy and I were lucky to get a booking at a lovely restaurant called Three. Mossy and Lee had been there previously. Most of us opted to have fish for dinner. Benny and I tried halibut for the first time and it was delicious. We all decided to have desert as well after such a treacherous day on the seas. Everyone had sticky toffee pudding except me. I had the most amazing ice-cream i think I have ever eaten. It was made at restaurant and it was salty caramel. I highly recommend trying this interesting combination.

On Sunday we work up to perfect weather. Mossy and I still had plenty of layers on and Benny opted for a British outfit of shorts and no shoes. I should mention quietly, that we are in the start of summer and today was the first time it hit 20 degrees in over two weeks. We had 10 knot breezes and a sunny sky, just not enough warmth. We put the sails up and sailed across to a World War 2 fort to anchor up and have some lunch. We were supposed to go here on Saturday. We sailed for about 5 hours on Sunday with all the other people that had missed out on Saturday. It was such a wonderful weekend and we met really nice people. Hopefully we can squeeze in another sailing trip before Mossy returns back to Aussieland in a few months.

Saturday at the polo

We started Friday night with a trip to north London to go to Alexandra Palace to watch a British band called The Maccabees. It was a great gig, a long trip home but a lot of fun. 

On the weekend Benny and a group of our friends walked the very short walk from our house/the pub after the Australian rugby game to go and watch polo. After a week of rain, I had no idea what to wear and was surprised that the crowd don’t dress up as much as they would for the horsey races. So on a very overcast day I chose a winter dress and convinced Benny to wear chinos instead of his good suit. It was a good decision as Benny had a lot of mud on his shoes and trousers. Some friends secured a table early in a prime position at the Polynesian Bar wear they served pina coladas, treasure chests (Emily you know what I’m talking about) and coconut cocktails. While admiring our prime position I saw in the corner of my eye someone that I thought looked like someone from the bridal party from Dianne and Rick’s wedding. I thought for sure it couldn’t be Geoff, he lives in Perth. So on closer inspection I discovered it was indeed Geoff and his friend that I had met once on a trip to Perth. It was so great to see them. Geoff was in town for a training course in Aberdeen and Mike is working for the Olympics. We ended up having a great day watching the polo with them followed by dinner at the White Horse in Parsons Green.

The boys from Perth

I’ll admit we only really watched the first game with intent. The others were more quick glimpses. Sydney had a team at the event, I think they won. They looked lovely in green and gold.  We were watching one of three days of competition. It was an interesting game.  I would recommend going to the polo, it was a lot of fun. 

This weekend we are off sailing on Friday evening to the Isle of Wight with Melissa and Sailor Lee. We are looking forward to it, even though it might be really rainy. 

So long Nan & Pop

So for the past few weeks we have had Nan and Pop staying with us. Sadly they left of Wednesday morning. Whilst they were with us I was too busy to update on a weekly basis. Here is a short snippet of what we have been up to since the last post. Nan and I went to the Chelsea Flower Show together. For two hours our world was filled with flowers. Flowers that you could never find or even think of growing back at home.

Another highlight was a trip to Brussels for the weekend. We stayed close to the Grand Place in a beautiful hotel. The weather was beautiful for a quick short trip. We went to the main sights which included the Grand Place, Manneken Pis (the statue of the boy peeing), the Royal Palace and the Horta Museum. Brussels is famous for their cartoons. The Smurfs and Tin Tin were created here. On some sides of buildings cartoons have been painted on them to celebrate this unique feature of Brussels. Nan and Pop particularly liked the waffles and hot chips. Something that Melissa recommended that we try.

Last weekend the Queen was ever so kind to us and gave us a four-day weekend to celebrate the Jubilee. It was so nice seeing houses with bunting and flags in the Queen's honour everyone round London.  It was a busy weekend as it was the last weekend with Nan and Larry Lamb Eyes. On Saturday we went to Richmond Park and successfully found some deers. After walking through the park we had lunch by the river in Richmond. It is such a lovely place. On Sunday the pageant took place on the river for the Queen. The weather was in typical British fashion miserable and cold. Nan and Pop decided to stay at home and watch it in comfort. I think they had the best seats in the house. Ben and I went down and fought the crowds and just missed the rain and watched the Queen and the other 1000 boats. After we watched the boats we had a great English pub meal for dinner.

On Monday good friends of ours had a garden party. Thankfully no rain but it wasn't too warm. I finished my dress in time with Nanna's help. The party was so much fun, the host's Josie and Stuart did an amazing job. The theming was fantastic. We all bought a plate either savoury or sweet. The food everyone baked was incredible. We have had lots of recipe sharing this week over email.

Tuesday, Pop and Nan took us out for lunch at the local pub Spencer. It was a lovely lunch and sad at the same time. The time with my grandparents was great. Ben had a great time being able to watch football with Pop who was a bit more interested in the game then myself. It was nice for us to show and share with my grandparents everything we love doing in London. We will really miss them. The flat has been quiet since they left. Ben is missing afternoon drinks, cheese and biscuits with Larry and Jan while waiting for me to come home from work.