A Little Less Snow

Time for another update of what’s been going on over here. It’s snowed a bit since early the week before last, but nowhere near as much as you’ve just seen. This was from the bus stop on Friday morning last week... (yep, they’re my footprints)

So, since my last post, it’s been a bit of a festival for Row’s farewell from London for the next four months as she heads to trek South America (including the Antarctica). Man, I wish I was going too!!
Anyway, there was a drinks night after work one evening that was a bit of fun with her workmates. I do know several of them already as I’ve played 5-a-side with them on quite a few occasions.
The next event was a surprise dinner at a Mexican restaurant in covent garden, before heading out to a live band night club in covent garden. Like nearly everything in Britain, we had to queue to get into the nightclub, and as you can see (with Marty n Troy on the left), we managed to pass the time in a rather unorthodox way thanks to John visiting an off-licence on the short walk between the restaurant and the club. The band was excellent, and we had a great night as we kicked on until around 3am (or there abouts).
A few days later, and there was a breakfast on Row’s last working day, which was quite good as well, so she certainly had quite a send off before what will no doubt be a fantastic adventure!

On the Sunday after Row’s farewell dinner, it was Tottenham v Arsenal at White Hart Lane - the biggest home match of the season. I got a call before the game from Petter to let me know that he had a spare ticket, so it was off to White Hart Lane post haste to meet up with both him and several other folks in one of the nearby pubs.
A bit of a farce at times during the game as Arsenal had players sent off and also removed due to injury. Some of their behaviour did spoil the match and the ref really should have been onto it a bit more, but it worked for them as the score remained at 0-0. Admittedly their goalkeeper had a brilliant match and was the main reason that they didn’t lose to us.
Back to the pub afterwards for the what turned out to be a fun night with the usual gang as well as meeting up with some visiting Norwegians who were friends of Petter’s girlfriend. I’m not sure how I’m going to manage it, but it looks like I’ve committed myself to visiting Norway in a couple of months time to see Janne and Bente...
As they say: “Always do sober what you said you’d do drunk. That way you’ll learn to keep your mouth shut.” Not that I’m adverse to trying to keep this commitment to go riding in Norway, it’s just that it will clash with another trip I have planned...

Speaking of plans, Friday night was a rather hastily put together one by a friend (and some of her friends). It was a fundraising event to raise funds for the Red Cross and Bushfire Relief. Support was amazing with sponsors coming on board for Belinda & Co. and the night was very well supported. Cousin Zara and Jarrett joined me for this one, and we happily splurged on raffle tickets, but not for the expensive prizes like you might think. Twenty of the prizes were cartons of Vilis pies! Unfortunately, I didn’t win one. I did win a voucher to the Gourmet Burger Kitchen, while Zara did win one of the boxes of pies! (as you can see her delight at hearing her name here!). There were plenty of other raffle prizes, as well as quite a few amazing items auctioned (both silent and normally). The ex-Wallaby coach, Eddie Jones, was the auctioneer for some of the items, including a bottle of Grange (as you can see here on the right). And no, I didn’t bother him for a photo as it just didn’t seem right to do it at such an occasion.
All up £13,500 was raised, which is a little over A$30,000.
Zara, Jarrett and myself then headed out for a bite to eat and ended up in the same restaurant that we’d been in for Row’s dinner. No complaints at that as the food was very good.

Saturday was an early start and a trip to the airport to meet my returning housemate, Paul. Understandably, he needed a little help getting back to our house because he had my mountain bike (MTB) with him as well as his cricket bag. It also meant that the day itself was rather subdued having only had about 3 hours sleep. So with the arrival of my MTB, I am now looking forward to discovering off-road riding here in the UK.

Sunday saw me back at Camden Market with Karyn n Marty. Friday night had yielded an invite to a party next Friday night, and the easiest and cheapest way to sort out the appropriate way to be attired for its theme, was to go through the bargain stores there. [You can find out about the details of the party after we've had it and there are pics.] We started the morning off with ‘brunch’ in a nearby café before heading off into the maze of stalls and shops. Marty headed off to a nearby pub to watch his Celtic football team play Rangers. Like Spurs/Arsenal, the Celtic/Rangers game is the biggest match for those two Scottish clubs. Karyn n I enjoyed ourselves going through the market as we hunted for costume and birthday presents for people we know.
Marty returned after the game and we all continued our trekking of this vast and varied market. Another good day out.

As for the rest of the last two weeks, work has been it's usual busy self, but with the usual pub visits afterwards and a few lunches here and there...