Photos from our flat:
When Shaun cooked lasagne for everyone
One of the cats that sits/lies on the roof of the shed
Our favourite cat - a particularly angry looking grey cat.
Notting Hill Carnival photos:
London Bus Tour photos:
We know it has been even longer this time, so now for an update of the last month in London:
Our Flat:
Life in our flat has been going well, surprisingly well considering how many people live here! But everyone is easy-going and friendly. The other flatmates include 2 guys, one an electrician from Australia who loves the Broncos and Darryn Lockyer (which leads to some lively rubgy league debates) the other an engineer from Te Awamutu, 2 aussie girls - one works at Harrods, the other works in a travel agents office, and a lone South African - a girl that works in a hotel. At the moment we also have a dosser sleeping on the couch - an electrician from Christchurch. The other occasional inhabitants include the many neighbourhood cats that like to sit on the roof of our shed, and the kids from the surrounding houses that play on the communal grass area and like to try and sneak into our garden to see what they can 'borrow', eg bikes. Another aspect that adds to the atmosphere is the prison over the wall (it is a very big wall), where we hear the occasional yell coming from. Also, in the 1970's, down the road from us, 3 policemen were killed and there is now a monument to them on the side of the road. But it is a safe area, really! Just on the other side of the prison is a hospital, so the prison can't be too bad.
Work:
We have both now started work, which has proved a bit of a struggle after 3 months holiday.
Shaun is working as a rectruitment consultant, which is a bit of a different career path for him and quite an interesting one in the London market-place. I am working in a pharmacy close to where we live, as a pharmacy dispenser, which is like a pharmacy technician. So far I have worked for 1 week, and am gradually learning new things each day about the British Health System - one of the main points I have learnt is that a lot more people get their medicine for free over here! However, if the person does have to pay, it is quite expensive. They also have quite a few drugs that I haven't seen before so I am quickly trying to familiarise myself with these!
So in our spare time between working we have managed to fit in some.....
Touristy Stuff:
One of the first 'touristy" things we did was to go on a bus tour around London, to get an overview of all the main sights around central London. This included Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, the Tower of London, Harrods, St Pauls Cathedral, the London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Marble Arch, Madame Tussauds, the London Dungeon and many more. The ticket for the Bus Tour included a River Cruise, which went from the London Eye to the Tower of London and back again (it is only meant to be one way, but they didn't check our tickets on the way there).
Another event included going to the stage show of the Lord of the Rings, near Covent Garden. This was on the night of my birthday, the tickets were Shaun's present to me. It was a great experience, going to Covent Garden at night-time, a lively and bustling area, then on to the huge theatre where the show was. The set was amazing, it looked like tree-roots had grown out from the stage and covered the surrounding ceiling and wall, including over some of the boxes. The show was awesome, with the hobbits and Gandalf and Aragorn, and the costumes and scenery were very impressive. One of the best parts was Shelob, the giant spider - it was pretty scary, and huge! The legs were controlled by people on stage but they were barely noticeable, all you could see was this huge spider. The actors were amazing to last through a pretty energetic 3 hour show.
Yesterday we went to the Notting Hill Carnival, a Caribbean-style festival where the streets of Notting Hill are closed to traffic and covered with music stages, heaps of food stalls selling 'jerk chicken', coconuts with holes carved into them and straws stuck into them, sugar cane, rum punch, and lots of other exotic foods. We were brave enough to try the jerk chicken, rice with beans, an interesting salad, and coconuts to drink from - all pretty tasty actually. There was also a parade that snaked through the streets, the day we went was "Family Day" so the parade consisted of kids dressed up in some pretty amazing costumes, all led by a music truck playing lively music. On "Family Day" last year there were about 600,000 people and it felt like that many this year as well! We managed to wander around the streets fairly easily though,and see street after street of stages and stalls and people.
