Week 24 in London

Week 24: 14 - 20 September 2015

Australian politics was shaken up once again on Tuesday, with Malcolm Turnbull replacing Tony Abbott as Prime Minister. Our new housemates, Lauren and Adam, arrived on Wednesday and London put on a less than welcoming display of rainy, grey and gloomy weather.

Ahead of the flu season, on Saturday morning we went for our flu jabs. Afterwards, we went across to Oxford Street trying to find some new threads for work. Anytime we have been to Oxford Street on a weekend, it's complete mayhem. On the streets, there are people pushing everywhere and dragging their shopping bags over your legs; inside, the shops are equally chaotic with items strewn across every possible surface. It is for this reason we generally try to avoid Oxford Street on weekends - we aren't even sure if anyone other than tourists shop here.

In the evening, we went across to Hackney in East London for Hot Tub Cinema. When we arrived, the jacuzzis we were anticipating turned out to be merely a slightly enlarged version of an inflatable kids paddling pool, with a heating element. Apparently each tub could hold 6 people.



When we booked, there were options to book either single tickets or your own private tub. The price of an individual tub was £110, versus the £30 per person that we paid. This meant that the organisers had sold the other "spots" in our tub to other people (also at £30 a pop), so we spent an interesting evening sitting in a small pool of warm water, with 4 other people we'd never met before.

The next morning, we managed an early birthday Skype-ing with Brad before hitting the shops once more. We found a mall only 20 minutes bus ride away from our place (surprisingly we never knew it was there!) and had some success with finding Roslyn a work dress at a designer clearance outlet.

In preparation for Christmas we "researched" one local venue, The Falcon at Clapham Junction, and had a traditional English Sunday roast for dinner.

Highlights for the week:

- New Australian prime minister
- Lauren and Adam moved in
- Flu injections
- Oxford Street shopping
- Resting dogs created out of sand on Oxford Street
- Hot Tub cinema
- Skyped Brad for his birthday
- Shopping at Southside, Wandsworth
- Sunday roast at The Falcon

Week 23 in London - weekend trip to Bath

Week 23: 7 September – 13 September 2015

After only a week out of summer, we were already feeling the chill of autumn. The ugg boots came out, along with the duvet (must remember not to call it a doona) to wrap around us on the lounge. On Friday night we went over to Russell Square for sushi, seeing this part of the city in a different light to when we stayed there in our first few weeks.

We had a bus day trip out to Bath and Stonehenge on Saturday. Bath is today recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and its most famous former resident was Jane Austen. There were plenty of locals dressed in Victorian attire wandering the streets.

Bath is also the only place in the UK where you can bathe in naturally hot, bubbling spring water as discovered by the Roman’s over 2,000 years ago. These days you aren’t allowed to actually touch the water at the historic Roman Baths. There are other modern spas nearby, although we didn’t have enough time to go there. Alongside The Roman Baths is the impressive Bath Abbey, where first King of England was crowned. Fudge seems to be another of Bath’s trademarks, and of course we were willing to have a try.

Following on from lunch, we boarded the bus again and traversed the English countryside around an hour southeast to Stonehenge. Since we’d already been there on the weekend that we hired a car (refer to Week 8 http://bit.ly/1V0qhb3), we spent our time in the visitors centre café while the rest of the tour group went to check out the stones.

After having limited interaction with animals over the past few months, on Sunday we visited Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium. Set up by an Australian lady around 18 months ago, the ‘emporium’ is a café home to 10 cats. We entered the café, but before we could interact with the cats had to go through an air lock and wash our hands. Inside the main area, cats are able to wander amongst the diners or rest in numerous hiding places. There are plenty of shelves, cat hammocks, beds and houses for the cats to rest in. Because these are rescue cats, they are a little standoffish – happy for you to pat them while they lay there, but they don’t come up seeking attention from you.

The novelty of the cat café concept has ensured that the café is regularly booked out, Roslyn made our booking more than a month before we went. Each booking attracts a £6 per person cover charge and is allocated an hour and a half on site.

After eating our brunch and patting the cats, we went across to Westfield Stratford City to further stock up on winter wear.
 
Highlights for the week:
- Dinner at Russell Square
- Bus trip with Aussies in London
- Bath
- Roman Baths
- Bath Abbey, where first King of England was crowned
- Ate fudge
- Stonehenge
- Brunch at Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium
- Westfield Stratford City

Week 22 in London - Cambridge on Saturday

Week 22: 31 August – 6 September 2015

Our weekend continued onto Monday, with another bank holiday. The last day of summer, and we had planned to spend it in the sunshine at the Notting Hill Carnival, an annual Caribbean festival, the “largest of its kind in Europe”. Unfortunately, it poured with rain all day and so the transition into spending cold winters days indoors came early. We made our own version of a Cheesymite roll to get us through.

Onwards into Autumn, and on Saturday we went for a day trip out to Cambridge, approximately an hour and a half outside of London. Cambridge is a pretty country city, and most noteworthy for the University of Cambridge. It was evident looking around that the population generally seemed a lot younger than usual.

Cobbled streets, sandstone buildings of impressive architecture, green open spaces and the River Cam are all trademarks of the city, creating its appeal.

Many of the colleges for the university are built around manicured central courtyards that the public can enter and view. Kings College and Trinity College are 2 of the largest and most impressive colleges, although those 2 aren't open for general admission. 

For a relatively small city, there are also a significant number of churches, 2 of the more interesting ones we saw were the Catholic Church of Our Lady and the English Martyrs and the Round Church. 

As we walked closer to the river, more and more people try and convince you to go “punting”, which doesn’t mean the same as it does in Australia. Here, punting is basically the Cambridge version of Venice’s gondola rides. We went for lunch, and then wandered around the Market Square.

On Sunday we waved goodbye to our housemates of 4 months, Nathan and Michelle, who moved over to Streatham.

Highlights for the week:

- Last day of summer

- Missed out on Notting Hill Carnival due to rain

- Start of autumn

- Day trip to Cambridge

- Catholic Church of Our Lady and the English Martyrs

- Round Church

- Original Hardys Sweetshop

- Punters on the River Cam

- University Colleges, Kings College and Trinity College are 2 of the most impressive

- Market Square
- Nathan and Michelle moved to Streatham

Week 21 in London

Week 21: 24 - 30 August 2015

On our final full week of summer the warm weather was fading fast. Soon our shirts, shorts and skirts will be retired indefinitely. 

In Australia places like Grill'd are reinventing the humble hamburger, although the Brits are a little more advanced. In recent years, gourmet burger shops have been popping up on nearly every suburban street across London. Gourmet Burger Kitchen and Byron are now two of the biggest burger chains in London, but in addition to them pretty much every cafe, restaurant and pub sells their version of the glamorised burger. Brits love burgers so much they've even dedicated a day to it - 27th August is National Burger Day. 

Coincidentally we didn't have anything out or planned for dinner on this night, and so ventured down to Northcote Road for a burger at a cafe we hadn't yet tried, called Brew. As it turns out the Brew chain of cafes are owned by Australian Jason Wells, who was recently also dubbed Britain's Angriest Driver (http://bit.ly/1Nccy02), and Vegemite is featured both on the menu and as decorative jars on the wall. 

On Friday night we attended Kiwis in London drinks at The Chatsworth aka "The Chatty" at Acton. Although we've heard rumours of rodents in London, until this night we'd still never seen one. Whilst on the walk from the station to the pub we saw a dirty fat rat sitting on the side of the footpath, hoeing into some fresh garbage. The rat was completely unfazed by us walking near it, which as ridiculous as it sounds, was a bit unsettling and we crossed the street to avoid it. 

On Saturday, we went across to Hyde Park for a picnic with Gabby and Jarrod, friends we'd met at Aussies in London a few months earlier, and their friend Georgia. We sat around for a few hours until it started raining, after which time we made a move for Covent Garden.

The Market Building at Covent Garden had been filled with 100,000 glowing white balloons as part of a pop up art installation titled Heartbeat. The French artist Charles Pétillon's installation stretches 50 metres across the ceiling. It does stink of latex a bit (but hey, what can you expect from 100,000 balloons) but the sight is amazing.

Highlights for the week:

- National Burger Day

- Kiwis in London drinks at The Chatsworth "The Chatty", Acton

- Saw a freaky, territorial rat

- Picnic in Hyde Park

- Covent Garden balloons