Annnnd its leaving week!

Wooo! On the Monday morning, I had an epic walk round the corner to the Kilburn Post office thing cos I had to pick up an amazon parcel I'd slept through the delivery of on Friday haha. I had to get it then cos it had Christmas presents in it for the family I was still with and I was leaving the next night!

After that, I headed up to the new family for my first day there. I got shown round the house and stuff, and then the 2yr old and I and the other Nanny/housekeeper person went down to this playgroup thing in Parliament Hill for an hour or so. It was nice to have the other chick with me as she could tell me about how the family work and how they do things, it was nice to get that from someone on the outside, as it were. After we got home, and put Stephanie to bed, I chatted with the mum and we sorted a few things out which was good. We went to pick up the 4 yr old from school and went to swimming, before taking them home for dinner and then I left to go home and finish packing! I had taken a few boxes and bags up with me so that was a good start. Ive somehow managed to accumulate 4 boxes worth of stuff since Ive been in London, whoops!!

The Tuesday I had off, which was just as well!! I had so much packing to do, friends to catch up with, all the kinda fun stuff that you need do do when moving houses/changing jobs and packing to go away for a month all at the same time haha. Tuesday night I caught the bus up to the new place with boxes and a couple of bags (and when I got there and saw the girls, they gave me a night time concert of Do-Re-Mi...perfect!) And then went back to the old place for dinner, before cabbing it back to the new place with my suitcase and a few heavy boxes. It took me a while to get there though cos the taxi driver was real suss about putting anything on the carseats in case it scratched it....*shakes head*

Wednesday, I had my first full day at their house. We went to ball games in the morning with the 2 yr old, and then the 4 yr old finishes school at 12.30 on a Wednesday, so we had to go and pick her up. When we got home, we chilled out and played and did all kinds of fun things. We ended up having to go to their friends house up the road a bit for a little Christmas do, which meant lots of cake, chocolate, mulled wine, and they even got me a present! It was super sweet of them.

After that, I left them and went to meet up with Jen in the city to look at Oxford St Lights and go to Winter Wonderland. It was pretty cool. And massive! I wasn't expecting it to be so huge! We wandered through there for ages, looking at all the rides (which we were not going to go on), playing sideshows to try and win giant Minion toys (failing) and eventually figured out that the best thing for us to do was to just go and drink some mulled wine and watch the ice skaters. There were a whole heap of stalls there too, they were pretty cool to look at. My favourite one was the fake snow that you would pour into your hand in dry form and then pour warm water into your hand and it would expand and form awesome snow. Super fun!! There were a whole bunch of rides, but naturally the only one Jen and I went on was the enclosed Ferris wheel. We went to go on, and you get your photo taken first. Obviously Jen and I primped and preened ourselves in front of the camera, and the guy thought we were super cool (he's onto the right idea) and so he told us to skip the queue and go in the VIP entrance and go straight on. Awesomeness. 

Arty shot...right?

First lot of chestnuts....yum!

After we went on the Ferris wheel, we headed down Oxford St for a bit and looked at the lights on places like Selfridges, which was pretty cool. I need to get those pis off my camera...so they are still to come. We also went down to Piccadilly Circus to look at the statue they had turned into a snow globe. Super cool!

Is it still skiing if its on Playdoh?

Piccadilly Snowglobe

Thursday was an early morning start. I was due at Marble Arch in town at 8am for another promo gig. We were "Rent aCrowd". A new store was opening up  we had to go and be a crowd to cheer when  big present opened up and sime taxi's drove out. It was bloody freezing! But it was kinda cool, there was fake foam snow and an awesome Christmas choir singing carols and it felt very christmassy. 

Once that was done and dusted, I shopped my way to Leicester Square (its an awesome thing to do haha) and went to see The Butler movie. Its a very good movie, well done, and a really good story. I recommend seeing it! After the movie, I went to meet up with Tess and we went to do more shopping around Kings Cross before heading back to Westminster and wandering along South Bank towards the ITV studios for Graham Norton!

I'd won tickets a few weeks back, and so Jen Ingrid, Tess and I went. It was a pretty awesome experience. We waited for about 2 hours before the show started, outside, in the cold. Lucky they had shelter though so we didn't get to wet! We got the wristbands, and were told that we would be very lucky to get in because there was a massive guestlist (friends and family etc) going that night. But we were reasonably close to the start of the line, so we decided to wait it out and see if we could get in....and we did, yay!!

Our seats were right up in the back corner, and quite a way away from the action, but we still got to see the stuff happening. It was an awesome lineup of guests too! Daniel Radcliffe, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Mary Berry (from Great British Bakeoff) and the musical guest was Cliff Richard. And of course Graham was there too. We had fun watching the taping, and then went out for dinner afterwards which was nice, because I letf the next day for Aussie, so it was nice to hang out with them.

Friday morning, I was on again with the family, and I went with the 2yr old to her little dance class that she goes too, it was so cute seeing a whole bunch of 2yr olds trying to dance hahaha. After we got home, and she went for a nap, I had the afternoon off which was cool, because I was "on" that night during the flight etc.

So I went into town to meet Oli and we went to the Disney Cafe at Harrods. It was ace. There was Mickey everywhere and it was totally awesome. The food was expensive (I mean, what more can one expect from Harrods??) but it was fun, and well worth going too. After lunch, we did some gift shopping for the family that I was going to be having christmas with, so I spent too much money haha.

Home again to finish packing and shower and get the girls ready for flying and everything fun like that. It took us a while, but eventually we all piled into the car and whisked off to Heathrow!

Weekend before I left!

So I had to get up super early on the Saturday, cos I was due at Twickenham by 11am to work for the Barbarians game. Little did I know how little (aka NONE) of the game I would see! I was stuck outside the gate, from 11-5.30, in the freezing cold, listening to the cheers coming from inside the stadium. Torture! I was serving beers, and you couldnt even double cup them cos the way they know how many you sold (therefore you hand over the right amount of cash at the end) is by the amount of cups you have left. The guy I was working with was super surprised at the amount of "knowledgeable banter" I was having with patrons prior to the game. I'm so rugby knowledgeable hahaha.....

I was meant to go out that niht, but I was still like an ice block when I got home, so I literally just jumped in for a nice, hot show, and the  snuggled down in my bed to watch, yep, X Factor.

Sunday, I went into town to catch up with Tessa, my friend who had just arrived from home. She brought me lots of yummy chocolate and biscuts and all that good stuff....mmmmm. We went out for quite a resonably priced brunch in Regent Street, before going shopping so I could get my tablet! It took a bit of walking, but we eventually ended up with one I was happy with (although over here now they are a lot cheaper, damn!). We then went out to Camden market so I could get a few more presents and bits and bobs to bring with me. So that was reasonably successful which was good.

Man, the packing thing was a mission though. I had to pack all my room up, while also trying to pack to bring things over here and decide what I wanted to unpack while I was still in London and what not. Mission I tell ya!

Its the weekend!...and the week following....

Oh god, so behind, but here we go!

That Saturday,  Ingrid, Jalae and I met up to discuss the events of the previous weekened. Ahhh so many good times.

Then I had to go and meet the family (the aussie family) and hung out there for a little bit. We crafted and read stories and  had a whale of a time! Hahahha.

After that I had a bit more christmas shopping to do so went into town to Harrods and stuff, got bits and bobs, and finished my christmas shopping! Super early! Went home and got fish and chips....omnomnom. it was a brilliantly successful day and X Factor topped it all off!

Sunday, Edward, my cousin, popped round. He was in town for work. I was a very good British host and gave him a cup of tea and a tour before we went to the pub for a roast. It was gooooooooood. I gave him most of my christmas presents to take home too, so that was quite a decent postal saving for me!

That afternoon, Jalae popped round and we watched the ABs v Ireland game, and had a great time stuffing our faces with lollies and chips and coke znd yummyness. This all came out at the end when the game got so intense and I couldnt stop shaking!! oh god, what an epic game!!

Monday was the first day I had working at other places, and to start off I was working at Lords Cricket Ground - very exciting. It wasnt much, just a lunch, but I was thee from 11-5 and had to remember a lot about how to serve tables, I havent done that for quite a long time!! It was for some cricket club lunch thing, wasnt overly exciting. But they have a staff canteen there where we got served a hot lunch for £2 so that was quite good. After finishing up and going home via the library, I was exhausted! But..... I had to get up at 5am on Tuesday.

Tuesday morning and afernoon, Wednesday morning, Thursday morning and afternoon and Friday morning I was working for the promo company I work for, doing some promo for Asda, a supermarket. They are just starting a new click and collect service so people could pick up their groceries from the tube stations. So we were there for the rush hour crowds.....joy. it actcually was pretty fun and the people I was doing it with were awesome, it was neat to be able ti hang out with some people my own age. We had lots of laughs and a generally awesome time, apart from the bitter cold!!

In between on Tuesday, I went back to the Aussie family for a bit of hang out tjme and we booked my tickets to come to Australia! I got the last seat avialable on the flights, so lucky we booked them then!

On Wednesday, after the early morning shift, I literally went home to bed! After napping, and library-ing and getting a haircut (I couldnt have long, shaggy winter hair for Austalia!) I had my last ballet lesson. Ive really enjoyed doing the ballet, and have signed up to do it again, as well as a jazz class, next year. Should be fun!

Thursday in between, well, I pretty sure I just went home and slept again haha. I was exhausted!

Friday afterwards,  I went to Camden town to get some stuff, but cos I was so early, the markets werent opened yet, so I went back home to bed haha. I slept for a bit, but then I got up and did some packing. I had to pick Jake up from school with a friend for a playdate, so that was fun. It was a pretty cute playdate and we had a lot of fun mucking round. 

Once the parents were home, I went out to Brent Cross to go out to the craft shop so I could finish my scrapbook before I came home. I spend far too much money there, but its a good store with lots of fun stuff!

Better get off now and do some real stuff.....

Ha!

Dead beat

So after Saturday nights epicness, and not getting home till about 5am, I woke up Sunday with pretty much no voice...sexy!

I kinda just bummed around the house all day. Jalae and I went out to Brent Cross for a bit to get some bits and pieces, but it was so chillaxed and casual. It was good. Just what we needed!!

Monday, I was going on a school trip with Jake to the Museum of London. I was quite excited to see how this would work, and how they would do the whole museum experience for 5 year olds.

After it taking us like 45 minutes to get there, we only ended up with 20 minutes in the gallery, and the kids had 4 worksheets to complete about the topic - The Great Fire of London. I had no background knowledge about the topic at all, and so I was just letting the kids do their own thing. I decided that we should start with the back sheet so that we wouldn't all be crowding around the same things at once, and that turned out to be a film about the fire - which was a great intro for me, and reinforced it in the kids minds. But that was the only thing we had time to do. We didn't even get to look around the gallery much more.

After that, we went up to a classroom, where the kids sat down and watched a lady talking about the great fire. She was good, and got more interactive as the "show" went on, but again, there was no new information presented and the kids just got the same old story. I didn't get the idea of going, but maybe the kids got something out of it? I think there would be a whole lot of other, funner, stuff to do with the kids that would get the same info across, but hey, maybe thats just me?

I was still feeling quite rotten on Monday, just tiredness. So after the trip, I went home and had a nice Butter Chicken from Waitrose to warm up and chill out for a bit.

Tuesday, I had my token gym day which was good. Good to strech out those muscles again after not having been a whole lot the week before. Still felt rotten though.....

Wednesday, I had an interview with another family out in North Kensington. It was for a family with 7 month old twins and a 3 year old. It was interesting to see how another family works and how the dynamics worked etc. It gave me a good idea of what kind of family I would like to work with and not work with. I then went back into Oxford St quickly and picked up some more stuff from Forever 21, before heading home because while I was walking there was a massive hailstorm and my boots have started leaking, so I had very cold toes!

Thursday, after my gym class, I went up to my mates place in Hampstead. She is a nanny also, but was off sick with a chest infection so I went to keep her company. She has 2 new kittens, who are just adorable!! I had a great play with them, it was so much fun!!

Friday was the day that I had to sit down with Emma and talk about if the last 2 weeks had changed me or not. I thought I had done a pretty good job with Jake, we had fun, done some cool after school things together and been getting on really well, but Emma said it wasn't working for them. So she gave me 2 weeks to pretty much find another job and move out. Which was quite gracious really, she didn't need to do that at all, but it was great that she did, becasue I didn't really have anywhere else I could go.

After the gym and all that fun, I picked up Jake from school. We went to the Tiger store, which is pretty much just a fancy $2 shop, and picked up a whole bunch of baubles and pretty things to decorate some christmas decorations. He thought that was pretty cool, and we spent the afternoon decorating them, and listening to christmas carols. We had a great time, and its going to be things like that that I miss about this family.

My time at the library computer is almost up, so I'll have to try and update this later this week, we will see how we go! I might even just do it on the plane to Australia!

WOOO!!1

TWICKENHAM

So, man, what a weekend this turned out to be!

I left home in the morning around 10am, and walked down to Primark in Kilbirn quickly, cos I needed a black scarf, and a small black bag, and a coffee! I caught the train, got hassled by many English Supporters on the extremly squashed train, was offered beers and ciders on the journey there, and finally made it to Richmond, where I met Ingrid.

We had planned on going to get some food, but that never happened cos we found the cheap shuttle to Twickenham, so we decided to get on that and see what happened when we got to the stadium. We got there, and it was like a massive party, fanzone type area. With a big band, trailers of food and drinks, big promo activities, all kinda of fun stuff! We found ourselves a somewhat less shady looking burger trailer, got something to eat, marvelled at the crowds and the atmosphere before we went into the stadium.

The stands didn't open for another half hour or so, and there was quite a big crowd gathering on the concoursey bit, so we decided to go check that out. Turns out that was where the teams came through. They didn't get a seperate, private entrance like at Westpac, they have to walk a gauntlet of people to get to their changing rooms. So we made a few friends while we waitied for the teams to turn up. It wasn't much, but the band played, and we cheered (but most of the AB's had massive doof doof headphones on) and then we went to find out seats.

I don't quite get why England wore purple

RICHIE

SEE! DOOF DOOF

 We found our seats, which were in the lower tier, so it meant we could pretty much go and stand pitch side while the teams warmed up. Again, somehow we happened to be right down the All Blacks end, so we watched them warm up, saw Justin Marshall, and the Sky Guys do their cross, and were just generally in awe of the fact that we were at Twickenham!

The Sky Cross to Kiwiland

We went to our seats for the anthem and Haka. The Anthems were ok, nothing special, at least they had a decent person singing them and they did both languages. For the Haka though, it was DROWNED out! We couldn't hear anything. The stupid English were singing "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"....grrr. Also, we need a song to sing back at them. Po Karekareana just isn't quite right (Plus, no one really knows the words!).

This is what was on the field for the anthems.....

And we settled down to watch a game. It was a great game for the first half, of course cos we were down the AB's end. Kieran Read scored right in front of us, yay! We had an equal lot of Kiwis and Poms round us, so there was a lot of banter which was fun. I even saved the spider on the Pom's rugby shirt, much to the digust of many of the girls around!

I went to get drinks at half time, my god the line for the male toilets wasn't even a line, it was like a bloody mosh pit. I didn't walk past the female toilets, but I just hope it was a little more civilised.

Anyway, game pics -

After the game, we went halfway round the stadium, cos thats where they were giving Dan his 100th cap and all the exciting presentations. I thought it wasn't nice that the English team just went straight into their changing room and didn't wait around for the presentations. But we did, and a whole bunch of Kiwis, and thats what matters!

I was pleased with these numbers.

Again, I saw TJ and he was walking back into the sheds, gave him a call and he saw me, waved and went it. Very important for later on!

The bars at the stadium were open for 2 hours past the game finishing, so Ingrid and I went to get a drink and then we went back out to where the teams walked in eariler on.

We were just standing there, chatting away to each other and this guy (Tongan/Kiwi) started to talk to us. Obviously, we started talking back, cos us Kiwis are too cool not to. He was great. And this is where I shall finish this blog, and start the next one, for the real big story starts here........

Australia?

So, I suppose the big news of the week (before I continue with my epic All Blacks storytelling) is that I've got a new job.

The job I was in just wasn't working out. It wasn't the family as such, it was that I was bored during the day, wasn't really happy in that I was lonley and just listless pretty much. The mother and I chatted about it a few weeks back, and decided we would give it 2 weeks and then chat it out again.

We did that, and as much as I had put in a lot of effort and really tried, it wasn't working out for Emma, the mother, which was fine with me.

She gave me 2 weeks to stay in their house, which was lovely, because I really don't have anywhere else to go!

In the mean time though, I have found a new job. Its about a 10 minute walk away from where I am now, which is good, cos I know the area. Its for an Australian family, but both their kids were born over here. They have a 4.5yr old and a 2.5yr old, both girls. They are a lovely family. I've spent a bit of time with them recently, and I think because we are from pretty much the same part of the world, they will understand where I am coming from a lot more with how I live and work.

I'm super excited about starting the new job! Also, because on Friday next week (the 6th of December) I'll be flying with them to Australia for Christmas!

Both the Dad and Mum's families still live in Brisbane, so I'll be going with them there. Its a trial while I am there, so fingers crossed it all works out!

I'm hoping I can get a trip home in there somewhere, so I will keep you all posted on that. But I'm excited that I get to have some summer, and some hot and some fun in the sun! And all the good stuff that goes with it! (Like seeing all my mates in Brisbane!!)

So I'm currently trying to pack up my life at the old place, as well as packing for Australia at the same time. All of a sudden I have so much to do!!

I hope to see most of you soon! (Fingers crossed!)
xxxxx

Bit of an exciting week - LOTS OF RUGBY!!

So after my amazing weekend, I ended up being quite sick - which was not so much fun. Just coldy, but feeling real yuck and blocked up and gross.

So on Monday, I literally slept till 12.30 and then was super hungry - so made some super slimy pasta which felt amazing going down my scratchy throat. When I went to pick Jake up from school, we went on a bit of a box hunt after school. He had to go as something number related to school on the Friday coming up, and Emma and I had talked about it on Sunday night and decided we should try make him a dice costume. So for that, we needed a box.

Once we took it home and I managed to cut it down to size (again, no injuries people, can we all marvel at this?) we gave it a nice coat of white paint. It was a huge job. Only because Jake made it so difficult. As Emma put it, Jake went way to Jackson Pollock on us, and managed to get paint everywhere, even under his armpit (I don't get it). But once we had tidied up, and the box had dried a bit, it looked pretty good.

A pre dotted di(c)e

Tuesday, I was meant to go to the gym, but I had missed out on booking the early class, so decided to catch up with a mate for coffee who I hadn't seen in a while, and we had a lot to discuss! So by the time I got to the gym for my pilaties class, I was feeling full of yuck, so I went back home again, and had another nice afternoon sleep, which left me feeling a lot better! That afternoon, I cut out a whole lotta circles out of cardboard and painted them black. Jake wasn't so into that, but once I stuck them on the dice he loved the final product!

Wednesday, I still wasn't feeling great, but I'd booked in for a personal shopping thing at Forever 21 in Oxford St, and I really wanted to go, so I did. I had a great time shopping with this lady, she had picked out some outfits for me and then after trying them on I went all around the store showing her what kinda stuff I liked and she was great at helping me put it all together into an outfit and showing me what works. It was awesome!

It was a super nice sunny day, and Jen and I had agreed to meet up and go and eat some lunch in the park. So we went to M&S. As we were going in, I saw a rather large, tall, familiar looking man walk out of the store. It took me a few seconds to place who it was, but then when I looked around his mates, I realised it was Jeremy Thrush, and Ma'a Nonu, and a whole bunch of the All Blacks! I went a little giddy, and was just talking to Jen being all "OMG Its the All Blacks" and kinda moving forwards a little before I was just like, Oh wtf, and I went up to them and asked for a photo. They were kinda surprised to be recognised I think, cos they all looked a little stunned, but I eyed up Jeremy Thrush and just said "Oh come on, I'm from Wellington" and all the guys did that little "oh she actually knows who we are" kinda laugh thing. So I eventually conned them into taking a photo with me. Liam Messam didn't wanna be in it, so he took the photo while Jen just stood by awkwardly watching, cos she didn't know who they were! It was all very surreal, running into the All Blacks in the middle of London, but it was also super cool, and I got very excited! After the photo, Ma'a Nonu asked me where the nearest Nando's was, I had no idea and I tried to direct them in the general direction, but I got it completely wrong. But then I tweeted them about it and I think they found it eventually. When we went into the shop, the security guard pulled us up and was like "who were those guys?" and when we said the All Blacks, he had no idea who they were, lolz.

Jen and I had a great picnic in the park after that and then I had to mission it up to the Sports Fields to pick up Jake and then he had a play date, so I pretty much had the evening to myself.

Thursday I attempted my gym class in the morning, but it didn't go down to well, I was a sweaty heap of mucus at the end of it - yuck! I came home, and slept the arvo away haha.

Emma's Mums' were here for the Weekend, her mum Jen and her partner Soo. It was cool to have them here and finally meet them, and have them look after Jake! We hung out in the afternoon, and I spent the evening cleaning my room, while they were all down here chatting. I think thats something I miss a lot from home, is just hanging out and chatting with people at night, I need to start to get out more!!

Friday, I missed out on booking my gym class this day, which turned out to be a blessing!

But first up, Jake had to go to school in his costume. He was super proud to be wearing it, and it seemed to get a really good reaction when we turned up at school!

One of my friends over here was slightly gutted that she missed out on seeing the AB's in town the other day (I don't know why, she's not really into rugby) and so she wanted to go to try and see them today. So I manged to find out which hotel they were staying at (which wasn't too hard, because of all that press about the English Journo that snuck in, all the papers printed the hotel name) and we hung out there. We were the only females there for most of the time, although a few more showed up when the AB's emerged. They were in and out all morning for the first few hours we were there, but we just kinda watched. There were a couple of older guys there who were actively sourcing AB's signatures for their rugby balls, and we just watched. We did try tweeting Cory Jane a lot, but we got no replys....amazingly! So we started tweeting Dan Carter, and Jim Kayes, and anyone else we thought might actually reply...

But when the team bus turned up and they started coming out, we got all excited and started getting pictures!!

The first guys that came out, I didn't really know. One of them (the guy in the pic with just Lexi) we talked to him for a bit about how we could get a photo with all 3 of us in it cos he was so tall and Lexi was so short. But we ended up with this....

Then the next guy started coming out, and no one was going after him for photos or autographs, so I felt sorry for him and got a picture, so we ended up with this.....(Looking at it now, I'm wondering who took the photo....)

And then the mayhem started, because I spotted Cory Jane. We went over to him and started chatting with him about why he didn't tweet us back (apparently he fell asleep, typical) and we just had a good ol' chat. Hes so much fun! And then we asked him to follow us, and he said "you never know your luck"....ohh....ominous.....and then we got a picture. Cos he has a big ego and likes getting his photo taken. I love Cory. The guys who had been with us all morning said to us that they wanted to be sure we got to see Cory cos they knew we had been tweeting him all morning and wanted to see him, so that was sweet.

See, this is my STOKED face

Annnnd then I looked up to the hotel, and I saw TJ coming out. TJ's club back home is Norths, which is the club Dad takes photos for. I mentioned Dad, and TJ totally remembered me (At the time, I wasn't sure if it was a good thing or not, but it turned out to be brilliant...more on that later). And of course, I got a photo. I had to get two, cos the first one was blurry, and Rusty wouldn't be impressed. I told TJ that it would go up on the Norths FB page and he laughed and said cool. I'd lost Lexi by this point, she got lost in the crowd!!

And then I turned around, and saw one of my other favourite Hurricanes - Beudan Barrett. He was carrying some Rice Crackers and I told him they would be better with Nutella on them. Him, along with me, lamented the fact there was none in the team room. sucks!

Then Richie came through, but he just barged through everyone :(, no one had a chance. By this stage there were about 20 people there, mostly wanting autographs. There were some guys there who were after the big guns, Richie, Dan, etc, cos if they could them to sign a pic of them, then they can onsell it for a massive profit, so that was a little unfair I thought.

And then there was Aaron Cruden. I don't really remember what happened with him, but he was there, so a picture was taken.

And then I managed to catch Julian Savea just before he got on the bus (hence the pole). I personally thanks him for staying with the 'Canes. He appreciated it, I could tell.

And then it was the moneeeeeey shot! Dan was signing a whole bunch of autographs but I managed to wheelde my way in to right beside him, and asked him for a photo. He said yeah, and then motioned for the camera while he was signing, quickly put his head up and smiled, and then got on the bus. I was GIDDY!!!

 I turned around from that, and it was Steve Hansen. He's really not much of a looker, but hes pretty neat, so I totally asked for a pic from him too!!

So yeah, all in all, it was a great adventure.

I found Lexi, we both geeked out for a bit, and then I saw some media guys. Turns out it was the sky TV guys (found that out the next day) and I asked them where Jim Kayes was. They said he was down at the market and they gave me a whole lot of details about what he was going to eat haha.

Lexi and I were hungry anyway, so we headed down to this Natural Food market to poke round and see what it was like. And it was expensive haha, so we left and found an M&S for some food. Om nom nom.

After that, I quickly had to pop home to get changed, cos I was working a Harlequins game that evening. Its like the British Super Rugby. But it was all the way down in Twickenham, so I had to mission it down there, and work.

I was behind the bar in a beer trailer thing, and it took me a while to get used to saying pounds instead of dollars, and all the drinks and their weird requests, but I got used to it, and was working with a lovely Aussie girl and we worked out a system so we were on FIRE! I also gave a lot of banter about the AB's. A couple of people picked me out as a fellow kiwi so we had a little bit of a natter, which was fun!

Didn't get home till after 11, so I was knackered!! But straight to sleep because it was to be a MASSIVE weekend......

Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, Bath, and other fun adventures!

YAY! Time to be a tourist.

I'd booked a bus tour a while ago, when a voucher came up on a site, so it was a little cheaper to do things. We still had to pay for the attractions, but getting there was a little easier.

It did mean a super early morning though, I had to get up at like 6.30 and be out of the house by 7.30 to get to the coach in time. Don't know how I managed to do it, but I did and even got to the coach on time. Hurrah!

I went with another Kiwi Au Pair, she had to travel a bit to get to London first up, but it was easy enough for her. 

First up, we went about 45 minutes away to Windsor. I've wanted to go there for a while but haven't made it, but now I know I really wanna go back!

We had a bit of time to kill before the castle opened, so we just wandered round...again, super pretty!

But once the Castle did open, it was a whole bunch of fun! We met another Kiwi nanny who was on our bus trip and her and I got along really well, super glad to make another new friend!

We got some audio guides which were quite helpful. As usual though, you weren't allowed to take pictures once you were inside, so you will have to settle for the pretty outsdieness of Windsor Castle. 

The entrance to Queenie's bit

That's the Queens bit

A very very very wet changing of the guard.

After spending about 1.5hours looking around the castle (which wasn't nearly long enough, but I got my ticket converted into a One Year Pass, so I can totally go back again for free!!), we went back to the coach for a long drive to StoneHenge.

You can see it from the road, so we saw it, passed it, got into some heavy traffic, just to get onto a road to double back ourselves to go up to it. It was silly. I knew you couldn't touch the stones, or get too close, but it was still cool to go and look at them. The Audio Guide was great, but it was so damn cold that I didn't want to stay outside for too long! I'd love to have a day there in summer and just play with the sun on the stones taking photos, it would be fun....Rusty needs to come and give it a go! Anyway, here are a few of the photos I did manage to take -

Get one photo of the stones, got them all. They don't change much....

It was nice to get back on that bus!

After StoneHenge, we drove to Bath, which again, was a bit of a drive, but worth it - even though I had already been to Bath! I purposely didn't do the Roman Baths when I was there last time, because I wanted to save something for this trip - so we did the Roman Baths. Man, its super amazing the kind of stuff those people got up too, and how clever they were about doing it. I still find all that historical stuff fascinating and they way they worked out how to use what nature was giving them to their advantage - amazing.

pics? K

Theatre mask from Roman Times....no wayyy

Ahh, the good ol' Immersion pool

I want a baaaath

Drinking the water

So after Bath, we had a big adventure back to London. No surprises, I slept most of the way!!

When I got back to London, I came home, dropped off all my stuff, and had to head to Clapham for a friends leaving do. It meant I missed the ABs-France game which was annoying, but the night we had made up for it! It was so much fun. We just hung out at a pub which played some really fun music (I may have screamed and stamped my feet in glee a little when One Direction came one....) and I managed to meet a whole lot of new people and make some really cool new friends. I ended up staying at my mates place, cos I wasn't quite sure how I was gonna get home, haha, so we had pancakes for breakfast and discussed the nights events on Sunday morning, and it was briill.

By the time I got home on Sunday, it was midday, so I pretty much just spent the day tidying up and chilling out at home. The family went out to more fireworks stuff, so I just pottered round and did my own thing. It was quite nice really, and cos it was such a lovely sunny day, I felt amazing. Its amazing how sunny days make you feel all the better!