The weekends are here, and quick as a flash gone again.

The weekend has just passed once again, and we got to explore another corner of London we've never been to before. On Saturday, in an area call called Ealing, there was a Jazz festival in the park, similar to that of Jazz in the Domain back in Sydney. It was nice lying out on the grass soaking up the precious rays, but could really enjoy the music much because too many kids were around and too many english people chit-chatting away. Worse still we had to pay an entry fee of £1 per person.....whereas something like that in Sydney is free!!!

Sunday was nice as we caught up with some friends for Yum Cha, or Dim Sum as they call it here, at a restaurant near Canary wharf called Lotus. It was a floating restaurant, you know, they typical asian kind of restaurant. The food was reasonable, and the price was fairly well priced considering. Over here they don't push the carts around for you to pick, you get a sheet that lists all the food they have, and you order and they'l bring it out... how cool is that! no more wondering if your favorite dish was ever going to come out.

Afterwards we headed for Greenwich, particularly Greenwich observatory, from there we had a great view of the London city skyline high up near the observatory. Greenwich observatory site, to most tourist is famous for one thing... and that is the imaginary line defining the centre of time, the Greenwich mean time (GMT). As typical tourist, we couldn't resist and took the touristy photo. The rest of the Observatory was intersting, seeing the history of the site, and the telescopes that were used, and my favorite, all the classic watches and clocks on display.

We ended the day with a stroll through Greenwich market, and through the streets....awwwhhh, the weekend was over!.... can't wait till next weekend, not sure yet what we're doing, but can't wait all the same!!!

searching for a good espresso in London

Lisa and I spent a day out and about in London, when we thought it was time to go searching for the mecca of coffee. We've heard about a cafe owned and runned by Aussies and New Zealanders, that makes the best coffee in London, and the only place where you can get a 'flat white' (hence the name of the cafe).

When we got there, we were drawn by the aroma of the freshly ground coffeebeans, and the ooozzzzzing espresso being extracted out of them, I knew I was close to home (well, sorta). We stepped in and can hear the funky music playing in the background, and felt the chilled out lazy sunday afternoon of the place. It Felt like as if we were in Melbourne!

What was on the menu? the flat white and Melbourne Latte, all excited, we went for the flat white. As I eagerly anticipate for the creation of my cuppa, I looked around around the cafe, looked at the Barista and was about to say "G'day mate"...... then I thought I am sure the guy would've heard it many times before and would have told me to shut it!

Well... at £2.30 a pop for a regular sized, or £2.70 for a large take away coffee (the most expensive coffee in London so far), it better bloody be a damn good coffee.... and it was! Luckily for me, I do not work anywhere near SOHO, so there is no chance of me burning all my money on coffee and having no money left for lunch. Oh well, home coffee is good too, so I'll enjoy that, just can't wait till one day, I get my ultimate home coffee machine!!!!!!!!

We'll, Lisa and I really look forward to going to Italy now, coffee, pizza, and pasta...yuuuuuuuummmm

Brussels weekend trip

Weekend in Brussels – 14/15th July posted by LP

It was our first trip away since we have arrived, so we were pretty excited. We woke up early to catch the Eurostar, great way to get to the destination without having to worry about catching a plane, and it drops you off in the city centre. At top speed it travels around 200-250km. After 2.5 hours we arrived in Brussels. We quickly worked out their metro system and was on our way to our hotel. The hotel was situated in the business district so was dead quiet when we arrived, it was weird not having so many around, but a nice change. The hotel itself was very nice. Great way to start our travelling adventures.

After checking in, we decided to hit the shopping strip as the shops were closed on Sundays. Shopping was fun (although Joe was itching to go to the square). After lunch at a brasserie (check out Joe’s huge pork roast, he only managed to finish just over half) we headed off to see the Mannekin Pis (it’s a statue of a little boy pissing, sometimes they dress him up). The Belgium adopted him as their mascot, nothing relating to their history, it’s been stolen by the French and the Germans a few time as well..

Brussels is a nice quaint town, with its beautiful gardens, cobbled streets and old architecture. We arrived at the square and Joe goes crazy with his photo taking. It is a great atmosphere with the buzz. We had decent summer weather, high 20’s with clear blue skies. Walking through the gardens, I can smell the trees and it brought back memories of home funnily enough.
Dinner was at one of the local restaurants off the square, Joe had mussels which were nice, but my seafood pizza was disappointing.

Sunday was just relaxing, browsing the market, eating different variety of good. We went back to the square just to relax, there was some competitive sporting event, bunch of boys throwing a ball around, like volley ball but with a tennis ball...I had Godiva ice-cream, so rich and creamy!!! ...by 4pm we were back on the Eurostar heading home..Great first trip.. Looking forward to Paris in 3 weeks!!

Le Tour De France

The Tour De France has officially started today, and for the first time, it has visited London. It was a great experience to see the Tour, the side shows, the festivities, and the riders in real life. I've previously watched the race on the box at home, but to be here in peron was quite a nice experience, and luck have it the start of the tour began in London.

It was amazing to see all the custom built racers, worth tens of thousands of dollars wizz past you. All the riders were in their colourful team Jersey's with the team car hot in persuit behind them.

Thousands of spectators all lined the streets of London to watch the event. The event today was the individual time trial where it's a race against the clock for the riders, as they race around the 9 mile circuit through the city of London. The atmosphere was like the Sydney Olympics all over again. With what has been going on the past weeks in London with terrorism, thankfully, nothing happened, thanks to the heavy police presence.

Tomorrow, the first Leg of the race departs from London and heads for Canterbury, while taking in some of London's most famous landmarks.
I am beginning to enjoy London, because if the special city it is and for all the events that is organised, which you can only dream of if living in Australia.... although... I am missing the good food terribly.

Finally.. a place to call home!

We have finally moved into our permanent unit!! Finally a place to call home! It’s a one bedroom unit with neutral furnishing, lots of natural light, and a bit more spacious than the other units we saw. Actually this was the only one, we could consider being able to live in, we inspected around 12 properties in one day. I am so glad we had a relocation consultant to organise all the viewings for us, otherwise it would have been a nightmare! Another painful experience was forking our almost 10 week’s worth of rent to the agent (6 weeks bond and 4 weeks in advance). To write out a cheque for over £3000 was painful and left my bank account barely on the credit side!

We’re in an area called Chiswick, closest tube is Turnham Green, and it’s in Zone 2. It takes me approx 30mins on the tube to get into work, so travelling time here takes abit longer. Chiswick is very similar to Leichhardt/Drummoyne/Chiswick!! Although a lot more boutique shops, the high street goes on forever. It’s very leafy and in a nicer part of London. It does have a familiar feeling about it and Joe even catch the 440 bus to work!! [There is a 440 bus from Rozelle into the city we use to always catch in Sydney]

Now, Viet restaurant here are OK, edible, but not something you have cravings for. We’ve tried 4 now, one in Hackney, and 3 in Shoreditch, of which only 1 I would return to. Joe has tried pho in almost all of them. Far from the standard in Sydney, but seeing as it’s something I can’t cook, we have to live with it. I’ve tried a few others banh cuon, bun bo hue x 2 and bun thit nuong. The bun thit nuong is the only thing I’d go back to have again.

Other restaurants, we’ve tried a few Japanese, we’ve been hooked on Japanese food ever since our trip to Tokyo last year. We’ve tried Kobe Jones here in London, pretty good but still not as good as Sydney. There are a few we will go back to.

Food I do enjoy here is their roast, and baked veges, it’s yummy, but quite heavy, not use to eating it too often. We’ll be trying more of the French restaurant but again, that’s pretty heavy as well.

Travelling updates, we’ve got a trip to Brussels booked in 2 weeks time… we’re going to stay at the Raddison, so that would be nice, and catching the Eurostar. Looking forward to eating the mussels, and the Belgian waffles. In August, we are going to Copenhagen for a long weekend, the accommodation there is so expensive!!!

For to my favourite part!! Shopping!! I am getting over the shock of how expensive everything is!! I think rent and getting around London is ridiculously expensive.
I have been fairly disciplined with shopping, I have only added 2 pairs of shoes to my collection, black going out heels which I forgot to bring (brought all black work heels) and a pair of cream and white flats (which are really cute). We’ve bought a fair few Burberry stuff as we’ve found the outlet, but still not that cheap if you convert to AUD, a pink checked scarf, a wind jacket, an umbrella (it rains often here so I could justify the $90 I paid for it!). Joe has picked up Burberry pants and shirt (you can’t tell it’s Burberry, but the fabric is of excellent quality). I also picked up an MP3 player which acts and looks like a USB stick…

My shopping list to search for: is a nice red coat, willing to spend top $$ for it if I find the perfect one and a vintage cocktail watch, both of these items, I have been searching for almost 2 years for! I am hoping to find something here. There is so much more tripled mill French soaps here, I love the creamy lather and the smell of them. I would highly recommend the L’occitane Lait or Verbena soap if you haven’t tried it. This is my little luxury in life!! What else? I’ll be picking up a little red Longchamp pilage bag when we visit Paris later this year and stock up on L’occitane handcream, surprising not much cheaper than Sydney’s price.

Joe and I are such snobs when it comes to coffee, my prayers were answered when our espresso coffee machine arrived in the air freight. At the moment, Joe makes the best coffee in London [however I have been told of a café called Flat White in Covent Garden, and guess what? Owned by Aussies!!]

Anyway, gotta go, take care!!

Britain on high alert!!!

The past couple of days has been interesting, and a little scary for a bunch of Aussies like us. We're experience terrorism right at our doorstep, unlike when we were at home hearing it only on the news. Then we here about an attempted attack of a Glasgow airport, where a Jeep was driven, while on fire, into the airport. So it's been quite am eventful weekend in the UK.

The past weekend was all about seeing a hearing Police and Ambulance Sirens all over the City. The city did have less people around Picadilly Circus, but there were still a lot of people. Now the city is on high aleart, luckily for us we're living on the outskirts of London, so hopefully we're safe.