Week 12 - Twenty five degree heat and T-Swizz

Week 12: 22 - 28 June 2015

The warm BBQ weather of Sunday was just the start of Summer weather to come. Feeling a little more like Australia, Thursday reached 25°C. Roslyn played her first game of netball at Clapham Common in the heat. 

On Saturday, it was finally time for British Summertime Festival in Hyde Park. An early birthday present from Roslyn's family, with Taylor Swift as the headline act as part of her 1989 world tour. We arrived at the gates around 1:30pm prior to them even having opened, and from there stood for the next 9 hours straight. 

Getting there so swiftly secured us a piece of prime Taylor real estate, and in the meantime we had support acts to entertain us. Australian Vance Joy (of "Riptide" fame http://bit.ly/1HsS80y), and English stars John Newman (made famous by "Love Me Again" http://bit.ly/1CHqPu5) and Ellie Goulding (most recently associated with 50 Shades Of Grey http://bit.ly/1CHr7RG) all out on great shows, although we thought John Newman loved himself a little bit too much. Emma Watson (aka Hermione from Harry Potter) was also spotted in the crowd, enjoying the blistering heat. Brendan thought he spotted Jeremy Clarkson walking past, but as it turned out the reason everyone was screaming was because it was Taylor Swift's dad. Awkward.

Roslyn hasn't missed a Taylor Swift tour in the last 6 years, whereas Brendan went along with limited knowledge or expectations. Taylor Swift proved to be a great entertainer, with numerous wardrobe changes, vibrant sets, interacting with the audience (from stage), and an unexpected glimpse into her original country roots, playing guitar and piano. Much to the delight of countless young girls, between songs when explaining inspiration for her latest album, Taylor hinted at her love for current beau Calvin Harris, although never specifically naming him or dropping the L word.



There were further screams of excitement when she invited 6 of her friends to join her on stage during "Style". Tennis star Serena Williams, plus models Martha Hunt, Karlie Kloss, Gigi Hadid, Cara Delevingne. In a slightly odd twist, she was also joined by Kendall Jenner, aka Kanye West's sister in law. For those who haven't kept up with celebrity gossip in recent years, back in 2009 Kayne interrupted Taylor's acceptance of a VMA award. Stranger still, Kanye West was playing at a rival festival in the English countryside, Glastonbury, on the same night. Awkward again, that except for Serena Williams, neither Brendan nor Roslyn knew who any of these "famous friends" were.

After a straight 9 hours standing, with no breaks to get food, drinks or use the toilets for fear of losing our position, Taylor ended the evening with "Shake it Off", drawing the show to a close a little before 10:30pm.

Standing for so long definitely took its toll on us, the next day we were both absolutely exhausted and unable to walk without pain in our feet and legs. Eventually we managed to make it out of the house, and expand our cultural palate, visiting a nearby Vietnamese restaurant.

Highlights for the week:

- Shopping on Oxford Street for Taylor Swift

- Roslyn's first netball game on a 25°C day
- British Summertime Festival
- Vance Joy
- John Newman
- Ellie Goulding
- Headliner... Taylor Swift!!!!
- Vietnamese for late Sunday afternoon lunch

Week 11 - a day at the races

Week 11: 15 - 21 June 2015

This week the one thing we were looking forward to was heading to the Royal Ascot races on Saturday. Roslyn had a haircut in preparation for getting dressed up and being accessoried with a fascinator.

Touted as Britain's most valuable race meeting, with many of the worlds finest horses competing for over £5.5 million in prize money. Australia's own Black Caviar won the Diamond Jubilee Stakes in 2012.

We had booked our race day experience through a tour operator, which provided us the benefit of coach transport to and from the races, tickets into the races and complimentary prosecco on the ride there. We were also lucky enough to have celebrity (cough) appearances from former Australian Big Brother 2013 housemates Matt and Xavier, who were holidaying in London.

The rules at Royal Ascot are a little bit strange in that if you have Silver Ring (Brendan referred to it as the peasants area) tickets, you're allowed to bring in your own picnic, and a bottle of prosecco per person. With rainfall throughout the day, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip passed through on the Royal Procession during a brief period of fine weather, marking the start to the race day.







We placed bets on the Australian's Brazen Beau and Wandjina, making a small win on Brazen Beau but losing on Wanjina. 

6 races, 2 bottles of prosecco, £10 poorer on the bets, £38 poorer from 2 umbrellas, and it was time to board the bus back to London, taking us to the after party at The Slug in Fulham. 

The next day we Skyped our families for the first time, with the Peters family going on a virtual tour of our cosy flat. Later on, we purchased a small charcoal BBQ and gave our walled London patio it's first al fresco dining experience.



Highlights for the week:

- Roslyn's first haircut
- Roslyn's first Mimco handbag
- Royal Ascot races for the Diamond Jubilee Stakes
- Saw Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip
- Won from a bet on Aussie favourite, Brazen Beau
- Skyped our families
- Had a BBQ on our patio

Week 10 - The Royals and other "Crown Jewels"

Week 10: 8 - 14 June 2015

After having spent Sunday in Brighton, we returned to work on Monday with sunburnt skin and our English colleagues saying "but you're Australian?!?!". The rest of the week was relatively cruisy and delivered a wide assortment of weather, from uplifting warm sunshine, to grey and drizzly days, with a few overcast, cold and windy ones as well.

Roslyn discovered, by chance, that an Aussie we had met at drinks back in week 5 was temping at her work. She then went out for after work drinks on Friday at a pub located just footsteps from her desk, yet it looked like a pub you'd expect to find in the English countryside. Brendan came across, and we then went to Brick Lane. Substitute Italian for Indian and (to compare to Australia), Brick Lane is a bit like Lygon Street Melbourne. Indian restaurants line the streets, and each one has staff standing outside trying to coax customers in. 

The following day was Trooping the Colour, the celebration of the Queen's birthday. Tickets to the official Trooping the Colour ceremony are balloted, and have to be applied for months in advance, which we were not lucky enough to score. Fortunately for us, the general public are able to watch as the ceremonial party parades down The Mall from Buckingham Palace en route to the arena where proceedings take place. After a squirrel running down the middle of the street nearly stole the show, we observed several marching bands and guards before the Royals passed in coaches.

After the Trooping the Colour ceremony had finished, we were treated to the same parade in reverse as the party returned to Buckingham Palace. Back at the palace, we were able to see the Royals as they stood on the balcony for the Royal Air Force fly over, decorating the sky with blue, white and red smoke.

Following on from those formalities, at nearby Hyde Park a group of cyclists were gathering and disrobing for the World Naked Bike Ride. Watching hundreds of naked or semi naked people (men, mostly) riding bicycles from Hyde Park down Oxford Street, was a weird combination of intriguing and repulsive. Judging by the crowd who had gathered, we weren't the only ones who thought so.

Highlights for the week:

- Roslyn had after work drinks

- Bargained for dinner at Brick Lane

- Stood on the side of The Mall (where nearly every iconic Royal parade takes place)

- Trooping the Colour

- Spotted the Royals

- Royal Air Force fly over

- Cycled and strolled around Hyde Park (fully clothed!)

- World Naked Bike Ride

- Visited Westfield London in preparation for the Royal Ascot races

Week 9 in London - Brighton on Sunday

Week 9: 1 - 7 June 2015

This week Roslyn had another event, this time at Imperial War Museum at Duxford, in Cambridgeshire. It is a museum based out of an aircraft hangar, that explores the history of aviation through times of war and peace. Visitors are invited to enter and view inside the planes on display. 

On Friday evening, we visited Walkabout at Temple, one of the last remaining Australian themed bars operating in the UK. 

Although our night out at Walkabout was not an overly big or late one, half of the Saturday had already gone before we finally departed home the next day. We stopped outside Australia House on our way to the original Twinings tea store. This store reputedly has London's smallest shopfront, being only marginally wider than its doorway, and the neighbouring buildings also tower above it.

Given the prospect of warm weather, on Sunday we boarded a train to one of Londoners favourite hang outs, Brighton. We experienced first hand the discomfort of pebble beaches but enjoyed the convenience of leaving the beach sand free, and admired the wide range of cafés, bars, art and gift shops lining the ocean front.

We strolled out to the iconic Brighton Pier (historically known as The Palace Pier), which dates back to 1899 and features countless fairground attractions. Brighton previously had 2 piers, with the nearby West Pier once hosting a theatre and concert hall. West Pier was closed in 1975 due to safety concerns, and since then has been ravaged by storms and fires and left to decay into the mere skeleton of its once grand self that can be seen today.

The spectacular, former seaside home of George IV is also nearby, a palace reminiscent of the Taj Mahal. Today, visitors are free to roam the gardens and can pay to enter the palace.

Highlights for the week:

- Roslyn visited Cambridge for work

- Aussies in London drinks at the Walkabout Temple

- Visited Australia House on the Strand

- Shopped at the original Twinings tea store 

- Day trip to Brighton

- Pebble beach 

- Brighton Pier and wheel

- Remains of the West Pier

- Royal Pavilion (Taj Mahal of England!) 

- Beach huts at Hove Lawns

Week 8 - watch out we're on the road!

Week 8: 25-31 May 2015

It seems as though Brit’s like their public holidays more than Aussie’s, because in the relatively brief period of us being here there have already been 4! Nevertheless, we are more than happy to take them, and started the week with another bank holiday Monday, awaking in Edinburgh.

Departing Edinburgh and arriving at London Gatwick airport, we made our way home before heading down the street to Northcote Road, a popular strip of restaurants and bars just a short stroll from our front door. We decided to see how the Italian here compared to Griffith (and our recent visits to Italy…) with a visit to Franco Manca, a chain of sourdough woodfired pizza restaurants boasting a simple menu of only 6 choices. From there, we went across to Oddono’s Gelati. Both venues left us impressed and gave Griffith Italian and Italian Italian a good run for their money!

On Wednesday night, Brendan attended a fund raising event organised by his work, at a venue called Bounce. This venue is unlike anything we’ve ever seen anywhere else. A funky cocktail bar and restaurant, filled with bespoke ping pong tables. But this isn’t just casual ping pong, for Knight Frank they had teams divided into groups, with multiple elimination rounds to finally crown an ultimate winning team, and umpires watching and keeping score.

Come Saturday, we made our way across to Buckingham Palace for the Changing the Guards ceremony, which we had so far not managed to attend. The ceremony was running close to an hour late, we suspect because they were at rehearsals for another royal event, Trooping the Colour, that will be occurring in the next few weeks. For an event that happens every day, we were amazed by just how many people had turned out to watch.

On leaving the ceremony, we were surprised to randomly bump into friends we had met a few weeks earlier at Aussies in London drinks. In a city of over 8.6 million people, spotting some of the limited few people we actually knew on the street was quite amazing and made us feel a little more at home. We then hired Boris bikes and cycled the leafy streets of upmarket Belgravia and Chelsea, to Chelsea Farmers Market for lunch.

Sunday brought weather that London is most renowned for, cold and wet. Fortunately, we had booked a hire car to collect from Gatwick airport and were presented with a bright yellow Fiat 500. Roslyn named it Fifi. Brendan jumped behind the wheel, for the first time outside Australia and first time since March, and we cruised down the motorway towards the village of Salisbury, arriving in time for lunch at a local hotel.

After lunch, we did a brief exploration of the village and stopped by the huge Salisbury Cathedral. From here, we continued around 20 minutes down the road to Stonehenge. The lush green pastures, hedged roadsides and rolling hills along this stretch of road, were so wonderfully English and felt so far away from the bustling city.

Since 2012 when Roslyn had previously visited, Stonehenge has undergone significant redevelopment. Visitors now park at the huge visitors centre 1.6 miles from the stones, and are required to pay an admission fee for tickets, and there is a daily limit on the number of visitors. There is then the option to board a shuttle bus to the stones, or brave the freezing winds and walk. We chose the bus. This at least provided us, Fifi the hired Fiat, and the ancient stones security that we were not going to encounter any Griswald family type mishaps http://youtu.be/DewEKz9TzmM

Having heard many varying reviews over the years, suggesting anything from that Stonehenge is an awe inspiring mystery to that it’s just some rocks in a paddock, being there in its presence we felt somewhere in the middle. Having come all this way to such a significant landmark, it feels as though you should spend a decent amount of time taking it in. Without a doubt, the history behind the stones is an interesting and intriguing mystery but when you are standing there in the freezing cold wind, it is easy to see why some people think it is overrated. Our total time spent at the stones, including walking around the perimeter on the designated pathways was probably 20 minutes. From there we boarded the shuttle bus back to the visitors centre, with the typically designed exit via the gift shop and café.

Highlights for the week:

- Returned from Edinburgh

- Franco Manca and Oddono’s Gelati

- Brendan went to a ping pong bar

- Buckingham Palace, Changing the Guards ceremony

- Rode Boris bikes through Belgravia and Chelsea

- Lunch at Chelsea Farmers Market

- Road trip, first time driving since March!

- Yellow Fiat 500 hire car, “Fifi”

- Salisbury village for lunch

- Salisbury Cathedral

- Stonehenge