Oop the Toon

As I sit here again on my way out of London yet again, tis time to add the next post.

A bit of a football week this one with the Russian team, Spartak Moscow coming over to play Tottenham in the UEFA Cup competition on the Thursday night. A win or draw would see Spurs through to the next stage of the competition and a loss could see them knocked out altogether, so when they went 0-2 down by half time, things weren’t looking good. A very entertaining second half saw the comeback to level the match at 2-2.

Friday saw four of us; Husky, Kels, Andrew and myself packed into a Peugeot 206 with Gibson (Kel’s King Charles spaniel) and all our bags for the trek to Newcastle for the weekend.
We would be staying in nearby Durham again. Arriving at Jools n Andy’s at around 7.30-ish we relaxed with them over a few beers and a late night game of scatagories.

Saturday saw a lazy relaxed start with everything gearing up for a big night out on the “Toon”. Newcastle is renowned for its nightlife, previous times up there did not disappoint. This trip was no exception. Jools, Kels, Husky, Michael, Andrew and myself headed out to our first stop - Shearer’s, where we warmed up and were joined by Debra and a bit later by Petter. We finished up there after a couple of games of pool where the Aussie showed that we’re better at pool than English or Norwegians!
On to The Gate, which is one of the major nightspots. It is a large complex full of shops, restaurants and clubs/bars/pubs. As the night progressed we ended up going through about four of the clubs/bars/pubs for what was a great night out before crashing back at Andy n Jools’ place. The Newcastle folk are a hardy bunch as the one thing that is noticeable on the night out was that no one wore a coat or jacket, and I mean no one! (that's Petter, Jools, Kels n Husky in the pic)

Sunday started VERY slowly as we prepared for the trip back into Newcastle for the main event of the weekend - Newcastle v Tottenham. With both teams level on the league table and not really as far from the relegation zone as they’d like it had the makings of a good game. Usual pub gathering before the match saw many of the same faces from other away games as the number of Spurs fans increased in the Ballantynes pub. I even met a fellow who had brought his son over for the game - from Chicago of all places!
At the match, both sets of fans were in fine voice although it was only a small section of the Newcastle faithful as they have a fair bit of political issues at the club and many are still boycotting their matches. A very entertaining match with the scores locked at 1-1 for most of it until (unfortunately) Newcastle scored a winner with only two minutes left in the game. Back to the pub for the post match lamenting, but that continued on for a fun evening that continued on back at Andy n Jools with a couple of their neighbours dropping in to make a bit of a night of it.
One of the fun things about staying with the locals is the neighbourhood community that goes on here. Everyone knows everyone and the kids all just go over to whoever’s to play. It really does remind me of growing up back home before all the ‘stranger danger’ type things made life very different in the city suburbs today...
Monday was yet another slow start before eventually making the drive back to London...

Work continued for the next two days including christmas eve, with the usual work 'party' carry on for that afternoon, which soon led to the pub next door. Shortly after that and I'm here on the train to suffolk for christmas with my cousins.

Have a good, enjoyable and safe christmas people!!

Better Late Than Never

Now, where was I...

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".

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.

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.

Where'd the Last Week Just Go?

Ah, Monday, that perennial day that let's you know it's back to working life after the weekend. With the temperature in the single figures for the day it was a sudden crash back to reality after a top weekend.

Not a lot on during the week thankfully, except to help Shar move to her new temporary place where she'll stay for the next week and a half before heading back to Melbourne.

Thursday turned out to be a fun afternoon after taking out the "brokers" that I'm involved with looking after out at lunchtime. Liquid lunch, and an hour and a half late back to work. And after about five pints in that time, the remainder of the afternoon was pretty much a write-off. Entertaining though, and I used one small trick to avoid copping any flack over the late (and state) of return - bring along one of the senior folk from our office.

Friday and after a good lunch time run with one of the guys from work, it was back in the pub with some other workmates after 5 before heading off to catch up with the 'new friend' I mentioned in the last post. As she wasn't feeling like heading out for the evening, we made do with a quiet night in with takeaway, an open fire and some good entertainment from her cat's antics - and people think only kids have ADD! (and that's not 'add', it's Attention Deficit Disorder)

Saturday and I returned to South Bank to walk from Waterloo to Tower Bridge and the Tower of London itself. Thankfully it was only overcast and not raining or drizzling, although it was still "cool". As I mentioned in the last post, there was the "German Xmas" market stalls along south bank near Waterloo, and it was here that I was returning to in an attempt to finish off my Xmas shopping. A little early you say? Not really, as I need to get it sorted within the next week and a bit to send back to Aus. With all sorts of things to see along South Bank, including some interesting people watching, it made for a pleasant exploration even if I have been along here numerous times - you'll always find something different. It turned out to be worthwhile for myself as well - poking through one of the book stalls, I found a near mint condition copy of Steve Martin's book 'the pleasure of my own company', and for only 3 quid I grabbed it. Well, purchased it might have been a better phrase. Quite good so far having read a good portion of it on the bus home later.

Continuing on to Borough Market was definitely worthwhile for a fresh ostrich burger and a good poke about before a bit of time getting out of the weather in a nearby bike shop. From here it was over to nearby Hay's Galleria which links the river bank to nearby London Bridge station. Not only is there a rather bizarre looking iron sculpture of a 'ship' in the fountain there, but a very large sparkling Xmas tree. Along the sides are all the shops of this 'laneway' and I discovered the small book shop in the corner of the galleria. It was here that I discovered what promises to be quite an interesting book - "The Philosopher and the Wolf". About a professor who obtains a wolf cub as a pet, who in-turn proceeds to teach the philosopher a great deal about life, death and quite a lot in between as they spend nearly all their time together. But I digress...

Back out on the river bank and it was across Tower Bridge, up past the Tower of London and onto the bus home. Oh, and with the obligatory taking of two tourist photo's for people. Interesting that I pass for a local and not a visitor or tourist nowdays.

Sunday afternoon and evening was spent with Kiersten in Hyde Park at the Winter Wonderland. You may recall me mentioning this last year when I did it with Matt Beale and you-know-who. Well, this year it was bigger again, with more rides and stalls and much more to see and do. The large ferris wheel was back again (luckily it was because I didn't have my camera with me so this is one of last year's pics). The Funhouse's glass walled maze provided some good entertainment as people went all round in circles trying to work their way out of it, and with the occasional person walking straight into a glass panel. I'm sure the one guy who managed to do it twice wasn't too pleased that those on the outside could see everything going on in there. Yep, we had to give it a go, and it wasn't as easy as we first thought it might be! We did manage to get through it without leaving the imprints of our faces on the glass panels too. Continuing the 'lets just be a pair of big kids' bit going, it was onto the two storey ghost-train before going through the market and food/drink stalls. After reaching the large outdoor ice rink, we headed into what you could call 'inside' by a roaring pot-belly stove that was inside a small group of makeshift wooden huts. Hot mulled wine it was as we warmed ourselves on both the inside and outside.

We rounded out the day by heading in to Leicester Square and a nice little Italian restaurant before having 'one for the road' in a nearby pub before they closed.