england in a word: cute

we survived the journey to janets. we only got lost on the tube a few times before realising we needed the OVERground train as opposed to the UNDERground. minor detail. its been awesome staying with janet and her family. they use funny words like kerfuffle, palaver and kagool in their every day language. crazy. james amy and charlie have kept us entertained with rounders and funny words (they think the way we say special and delicious is hilarious.) the whole family has made us feel so welcome, almost like we're part of the family. they have gone out of their way to make sure we know all the good places to go and things to see.

janet took us into london on the 23rd of may. we went to buckingham palace to see the changing of the guard. that was good... until i blacked out. how embarrassing. a policeman came over and everything. i'm fine, you can all stop panicking now. we think it was just the heat. which is funny, seeing as the hottest it gets here is like 15 degrees celsius. after buckingham palace we went on a touristy bus all around london. we saw westminster and the london eye. we got off at covenant square and went for coffee, and jess got some exciting news. after that we caught the tube to camden and went through all the markets. i love markets. janet and jess wouldnt let me buy anything though. so disappointing.

well the 23rd was definately a special day. my brother became a dad, therefore i'm now an aunty!!! woohooo!!!! We had just hopped off the double dekker bus and were sat down at a nice cafe and there was an opera singer and then my phone rang and kristian told me very teary, that Harriet Eleanor was born. i was so excited! we had a nice coffee and a toast to the new addition to the family. i can't wait to give her the biggest cuddle ever! the rest of the day was so nice, we walked around the markets, and then went to a quaint little pub with janet and had a drink. this was after we walked through the Harrods food hall...another oh my god!!.. so much food.... but i didnt get any. so all in all it was a great day, except for when ange decided to fall over in the middle of a huge crowd outside Buckingham Palace.. good thing i'm a tank and caught her!! haha

on the 24th i went back into london by myself. i got back on the touristy bus to see the stuff we missed yesterday. i saw the london dungeon and the tower of london. the latter was very impressive. i took loads of boring scenery photos which are all on flickr. i got off the touristy bus at the tower and caught the ferry down the thames. i was laughing at a thatched roof building on the south side of the river when the guy giving a commentary told us it was the globe theatre. oops. after the ferry ride i went in search of 'alfies antique market' which i read about in my trusty london guide (cheers for that, pam!) but i got hopelessly lost and ended up at a smelly fish market instead. i went back to oxford street and got bodyslammed at least 50 times so i headed off the main street into the dingy looking back streets. i found this awesome square which sold heaps of vintage clothes. i went through soho and found an awesome cafe that actually made real coffee. i was so excited to see that their coffe list had more on it than "latte, cappucino, filter coffee" woohoo! i tried to contain my excitement, but the guys behind the counter still looked at me like a weirdo. i walked past ronnie scotts jazz club to have a look, but it was full. by this stage it was nearly 7 (it gets dark at nine here; throws you off completely.) and i only got lost three times before getting back to victoria station to catch the tube home.

well while ange was off galavanting around the countryside, i went to Twickenham stadium. THE actual Twickenham stadium!! the world sevens were on, and a bunch of James' friends went and I tagged along. it was so amazing. just to be in the stadium was enough. there were about 20 matches, and i was so excited because Australia was in it. so the first few games were between places like New Zealand and Canada, and Fiji and France etc, and then Australia came on to play Portugal. every one was deadly quiet, and then Australia got a try, so i was up off my seat cheering, and then i froze, with my hand still in the air, and realised NO-ONE else was cheering. not one person in our stand, mabey 5 in the whole stadium! can you believe it?!?! i thought they'd support a team who has their flag imprinted on ours, but they cheered for the other team.. so i was a lone supporter for Autralia, but don't worry Queta, i did us proud :) it's surprising, because i usually half support england, when they arent playing Australia but being over here has made me much more patriotic, and i'd never dream of not supporting Australia now... we left after a full day of rugby, which was awesome! i am so glad i had the opportunity to go there, and i'm grateful to nick and james for inviting me.


on sunday we caught up with liz. we met her and her boyfriend, blair, at clapham junction. we met up with another one of their friends, gemma, and went to 'a country affair' at clapham common. it was so cute. we watched ferret racing, chicken racing, sheep shearing and "dancing", dog diving, falconrey displays and a crazy lady who looked like she was still on a trip from the 60's doing a mayfair display. she was insane. *shudders*. we ate delicious fair food and jess had soft serve iceceam that was like pure cream. the weather was so weird. it rained and was freezing, then it was so hot i got sunburnt (yes i had suncream on. jess didnt and she didnt get sunburnt. how does that work??) and then it was freezing again!! i could never live here just because of the weather. after the fair we went to a cute little country pub for a few beers. the pubs here are so cute and homely with random beatles music playing. completely different atmosphere to aussie pubs. after that we caught the train home and went to bed.

The monday (the next day) was a bank holiday, so the weather was rough. apparently this always happens on a bank holiday. we thought it was pretty cool but, because then we could experience some 'typical english weather' this excitement lasted about 5 minutes after we went outside. it was FREAKING FREEZING! though there were still poms walking aroud with t-shirts on..
janet, nick, charlie, ange and i piled in the car and drove down to colchester, essex. it worked out really well because we were going to go down there to see uncle kit and where my mum was born, and they happened to be going to the same place because it was aunty berts (janets mums) birthday. this was double good because i know aunty bert because she knows granny and grandad and i wanted to see her too!
we got there after a very long drive on a famous road that was very long and famous. i think it is called the M25. we got lost on the way to uncle kits, but eventually found it down a country track full of blind corners. nick drove cautiously but then kit drove like a rally driver! we found ucle kits place and met pat and debbie and sarah and the dogs that never ever stop jumping. thats right. never. we looked around the garden and saw pats 12 rabbits and then we drove like rally car racers to suzies house which is the oldest house in colchester. it was awesome. we found mums house and then went to brightlighsea, and found north rd, and took pictures of the wrong house....we thought it was 27 but it was 28... but thats ok becaue we got it inadvertantly in a photo. we asked a thousand people for directions (grandad, is it possible to get lost in brightlingsea?) and found a pub where we ate a delicious hearty meal. mine had lots of steak. mmmmm steak..
after that we went to colchester and went to stevens house where janet was. steven is janets older brother who apparantly told mum he'd wait for her when she left (at 11).. only when she came back he was married.. when we got there, aunty bert rushed out of her chair and pinched my cheeks and gave me the biggest warmest hug ever. she gives great hugs. we all celebrated her birthday (kit too) and talked lots about lots of things.. as you do.. we then had a huge drive home after an awesome day :)

we've been taking it easy the past couple of days. kit gave jess some money for her 21st so we went into london for dinner on tuesday night. we went to soho and wandered around until we found somewhere that looked nice. it was an italian restaurant and it was delicious! jess had chicken with asparagus and mushrooms and i had canneloni that was actually made out of a pancake. weird, but nice. after dinner we went to 'jazz after dark' which is a little bar in a back street in soho. it was a tiny little room crammed full of people listening to a live band. it was awesome. the singer was really entertaining and it was such a great atmosphere. the musicians were great. there were some swedish students there with their teacher who kept asking to sing. the singer let him sing a few only because she didnt know 'can't buy me love'. the set went on til 1.30 but we had to catch the last train home and (surprise surprise) got lost on the way home. it didnt help that it wasnt raining when we went in but it was bucketing down when we came out. how were we supposed to know they closed down the victoria line station from oxford circus?? ah well. we got home in the end. and it all adds to the adventure, right?














today we tried to send stuff home, and that turned into another adventure. we couldnt make it more than two kilos because it was too expensive so we spent the whole day trying to re pack everything. at least our packs are lighter now. hooray, more room for shopping!


off to colchester again tomorrow, to hang out with kit some more. then off to ireland on saturday. yay!