Wednesday week ago, I got a text from Kiersten saying how she was disappointed that everyone that was going to the Wallabies v Barbarians had pulled out due to how cold it would be, as well as a few other reasons. “Spare tickets then?” 
I asked. And so with a bit of rushing around, in the space of time between work finishing and kick off, Kiersten had met up with her brother to obtain one of the other tickets and I’d flown home on the bike to then get myself to Wembley in more appropriate attire to brave the single figure temperature of the night.Kiersten was looking forward to this game as “payback for you lot beating us last week”, which for those in the know on rugby union will know, the Wallabies beat England. We had great seats being only 9 rows back from the field, as we watched and ribbed each other as each side scored. As it turned out the Wallabies won again this night, so she didn’t get her payback as hoped. Still, once the game was over we hightailed it to a warm pub for a few drinks to thaw out. ;)
Thursday night and it was a chance to see another band whose music I really enjoy. Almost never heard off back home in Australia, Coheed & Cambria, are a band I discovered purely by accident several years ago. I was also very lucky to discover that they were playing in London this week too. They’ve recently released their fourth album, which is actually the 'first'. Confused? Don't be. All four albums tell the one story, however, the first album released was the second part of the story. The shows they were doing this week were all four albums in order of release (ie; story parts 2, 3, 4 & 1) with each album performed in full on each night. Unfortunately, I only found out that they were doing the four shows on the night of the second show, and the third night was already sold out. Not to worry. While I like the third album (part 4) the best, I still like the fourth album, and considering it would be the final show there was a high chance that there would be that bit more for the final show.
I wasn’t wrong and they played more than just the final album for us all. An absolutely awesome show from what I thought was a small band from New Jersey. Their sound was superb and far better than I thought it would be after seeing a live recording of them on a dvd a few years ago. It also helped that I met nice woman from Brisbane on the night as well.That’s two of my favourite bands ticked off in less than a year now, and with neither of them ever likely to make it to Australia.
On the way home I was treated to another small musical show by a pair of buskers - one drummer using only buckets and plastic containers and a saxophonist. Very good too.
Friday night turned out to be a fun evening that was truly unexpected or planned. A text from Shar and I met up with her and Sam at a pub near Westminster for several afterwork drinks, before moving on to Leicester square for dinner. After that we were walking through the actual square itself that is now the winter fair that it has become. A bit of maniac driving on the dodgem cars had us having a good laugh with the next ride to prove even funnier, although not for Sam. Wurlitzer or something similar it was called and basically had the three of us in the one rotating ‘carriage’ that also went around the ride as well. Both Sam and I were rather apprehensive about this one, but I ended up having a ball, as did Shar. Sam actually videoed the ride on his camera, which is impressive considering that the longer it went, the worse he was feeling. A bit of a breather afterwards for Sam as we made our way up to Soho to be joined on the way by Kiersten.
Bar Soho was the venue eventually chosen, probably more for the fact that they let us in and didn’t charge us, and we kicked on into the wee hours. We even met some of the folks there, as you can see in the pic with myself, Kiersten and Shar - unfortunately I've forgotten the other two fellow's names...
Naturally Saturday was both a very late start, but one in which the flu decided to show itself, which meant that both the Santa Run in Battersea had to be abandoned as well as the Santa Crawl later that evening.
The week following was a work free week. Why? Well, I was saving my annual leave up for next year so that I could use it both for travelling Europe but also have a decent visit home. Unfortunately, the English don’t work that way and you can’t carry over your leave to the next year. Rather annoying, but I only found this out when I was told to take this week off. Starting it off ill wasn’t a great plan, but it worked for the first day anyway - sort of.
Monday afternoon I got a pleasant surprise when my housemate Paul came up with a spare ticket to the Spurs v West Ham game that night. We caught up at Liverpool St station that evening and ran into Petter and a few others on the way to Upton Park. A great entertaining game to be at in which Spurs won 2-0 in style.
The real fun, however, began on the way home. To say that the West Ham fans weren’t happy would have been an understatement. They really don’t like Tottenham at all, and we were rather happy for the multitudes of police in the area on the way to the tube station. One problem being over 30,000 football fans all trying to use the one tube station. We escaped this chaos and the few ‘spats’ that we saw the police break up, by heading further up the road to a curry house for dinner. Once finished, we made our way back to a now far quieter tube station for the trip home.
Up early the next day to help Shar get all her bags to the airport for her trip home. They were a “little” overweight, by about 10kilos, but we still managed to get them checked-in and on board with plenty of time for breakfast in one of the airport cafés before "til we meet again".
Friday night turned out to be a fun evening that was truly unexpected or planned. A text from Shar and I met up with her and Sam at a pub near Westminster for several afterwork drinks, before moving on to Leicester square for dinner. After that we were walking through the actual square itself that is now the winter fair that it has become. A bit of maniac driving on the dodgem cars had us having a good laugh with the next ride to prove even funnier, although not for Sam. Wurlitzer or something similar it was called and basically had the three of us in the one rotating ‘carriage’ that also went around the ride as well. Both Sam and I were rather apprehensive about this one, but I ended up having a ball, as did Shar. Sam actually videoed the ride on his camera, which is impressive considering that the longer it went, the worse he was feeling. A bit of a breather afterwards for Sam as we made our way up to Soho to be joined on the way by Kiersten.
Bar Soho was the venue eventually chosen, probably more for the fact that they let us in and didn’t charge us, and we kicked on into the wee hours. We even met some of the folks there, as you can see in the pic with myself, Kiersten and Shar - unfortunately I've forgotten the other two fellow's names...Naturally Saturday was both a very late start, but one in which the flu decided to show itself, which meant that both the Santa Run in Battersea had to be abandoned as well as the Santa Crawl later that evening.
The week following was a work free week. Why? Well, I was saving my annual leave up for next year so that I could use it both for travelling Europe but also have a decent visit home. Unfortunately, the English don’t work that way and you can’t carry over your leave to the next year. Rather annoying, but I only found this out when I was told to take this week off. Starting it off ill wasn’t a great plan, but it worked for the first day anyway - sort of.
Monday afternoon I got a pleasant surprise when my housemate Paul came up with a spare ticket to the Spurs v West Ham game that night. We caught up at Liverpool St station that evening and ran into Petter and a few others on the way to Upton Park. A great entertaining game to be at in which Spurs won 2-0 in style.
The real fun, however, began on the way home. To say that the West Ham fans weren’t happy would have been an understatement. They really don’t like Tottenham at all, and we were rather happy for the multitudes of police in the area on the way to the tube station. One problem being over 30,000 football fans all trying to use the one tube station. We escaped this chaos and the few ‘spats’ that we saw the police break up, by heading further up the road to a curry house for dinner. Once finished, we made our way back to a now far quieter tube station for the trip home.Up early the next day to help Shar get all her bags to the airport for her trip home. They were a “little” overweight, by about 10kilos, but we still managed to get them checked-in and on board with plenty of time for breakfast in one of the airport cafés before "til we meet again".
Having the week off also meant that I could finally finish off all xmas shopping/wrapping/packaging as well as almost all the cards. A ‘quick’ trip to the post office turned out to take far longer as I didn’t realise just how many cards I’d written out. This didn’t really register when I paid for all the stamps despite paying nearly fifty quid for them. What did make me realise it was the fact that along with the air mail stickers, I had to put three stamps on each envelope! It took a while...
Thursday evening I caught up with Kiersten and we headed along Oxford St amid the crowds and Christmas lights, which I must say are fairly ordinary along this street. Kiersten led me down St Christopher’s lane, which you can see here, where the crowds were less and the lights much nicer. Plenty of restaurants and cafés here, so we settled in to while away the evening in the casual atmosphere of the place.
Friday afternoon and it was time to finally get back on the bike again. I headed north up to Enfield at stopped off at the Waterstones book store. It was here that I met another old player for Tottenham as he was signing copies of a new book. Steve Perryman IS a club legend, who captained the side through several cup wins, in a career that went from 1969 - 1986 and saw him play 866 matches for the club. He was also a really nice guy to talk with in the few minutes that we chatted. No photo this time as I felt the signing of the book was enough. The ride home proved interesting enough as well thanks to both the rain and forgetting about two rather steep hills in that area.
A good bit of rest that night and Saturday had me heading back to one of the pubs near White Hart Lane for a bit of a xmas gathering before the match against Manchester United. A truly typical (and miserable) English day, which was still the same rain from the night before. But the pub was warm and full of folks I knew so it made for a good afternoon. It was almost a shame to have to brave the cold to go and see the match, but that was very entertaining thanks to a stellar performance from several of the Tottenham players to keep Manchester to a draw.
Thursday evening I caught up with Kiersten and we headed along Oxford St amid the crowds and Christmas lights, which I must say are fairly ordinary along this street. Kiersten led me down St Christopher’s lane, which you can see here, where the crowds were less and the lights much nicer. Plenty of restaurants and cafés here, so we settled in to while away the evening in the casual atmosphere of the place.Friday afternoon and it was time to finally get back on the bike again. I headed north up to Enfield at stopped off at the Waterstones book store. It was here that I met another old player for Tottenham as he was signing copies of a new book. Steve Perryman IS a club legend, who captained the side through several cup wins, in a career that went from 1969 - 1986 and saw him play 866 matches for the club. He was also a really nice guy to talk with in the few minutes that we chatted. No photo this time as I felt the signing of the book was enough. The ride home proved interesting enough as well thanks to both the rain and forgetting about two rather steep hills in that area.
A good bit of rest that night and Saturday had me heading back to one of the pubs near White Hart Lane for a bit of a xmas gathering before the match against Manchester United. A truly typical (and miserable) English day, which was still the same rain from the night before. But the pub was warm and full of folks I knew so it made for a good afternoon. It was almost a shame to have to brave the cold to go and see the match, but that was very entertaining thanks to a stellar performance from several of the Tottenham players to keep Manchester to a draw.From there it was back to the pub for one more pint, before making my way to Suki’s cocktail party down in Beckton in east London. 
This, however, took several hours to get to thanks to the many parts of the London tube and light rail systems being closed for upgrade work over the weekend. So, after 4 bus rides, 3 tube rides and 2 trips on the light rail, I finally made it for what was a fun night (even if I was late). I met a guy that night who was a film director, who was most interested in the short film I wanted to put together several years ago, and told me that if I ever resurrect the project to get in touch and he’ll help put it together! Time will tell I suppose... Oh, and that’s Suki dancing with Troy, if you’re wondering who that is in the pic.
This, however, took several hours to get to thanks to the many parts of the London tube and light rail systems being closed for upgrade work over the weekend. So, after 4 bus rides, 3 tube rides and 2 trips on the light rail, I finally made it for what was a fun night (even if I was late). I met a guy that night who was a film director, who was most interested in the short film I wanted to put together several years ago, and told me that if I ever resurrect the project to get in touch and he’ll help put it together! Time will tell I suppose... Oh, and that’s Suki dancing with Troy, if you’re wondering who that is in the pic.
1 comment:
This blog was good,pubs,lights and matches. Go Spurs
Joan
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