Last week

I'm slowly catching up!

Last Monday it was a super nice morning when I woke up so I chatted to Emma and Ant about what I should do and they suggested I go for a walk around the Hampstead Heath. This was a fab suggestion, and so I took it! I walked up to Hampstead, around the high street and kept going up the hill. I got super confused, but ended up finding my way.

It felt odd, I had no idea where I was going and it kinda felt like I was going against all the going on the bush walk speak, but I had my phone on my and it was the beginning of the day, I had snacks and water and I was following concrete paths, I figured I'd be ok.

I took random turns along the way, it ended up being a fabulous walk too! I ended up at the Hampstead Baths which are these lake/bath things that you can bathe in. Didn't look overly appealing to me, but it made for some pretty pictures.

Generic path round the Heath somewhere

Sweet Swimming Pool

After that I came home for lunch before heading into town for an appointment with the Travel Agent for a quote for some ideas I've been having. Man, it was super weird weather, it was raining, then super sunny, then HAILING, then super sunny, then STRONG RAIN, then super sunny....odd.

Anyway I came home and it turns out I'd done something to my foot. I still can't fully explain what it was, but where the tongue of your shoe meets the body of it, that part on my foot hurt like hell! It kinda put my out for the rest of the week, I could barley wear shoes.

So Tuesday was a write off...I stayed home all day and just hung out. Then Jake had a friend over after school and we made stuff. I ended up making glassed out of pipecleaners...that was a big hit with Jake haha.

Wednesday again, day at home and hanging out with Jake after school. Although I did have to head up the hill back to Hampstead a bit later on for my first Adult Ballet Class.  I really enjoyed the class. Its a big mixture of people doing it, from ballet mums to people who have done ballet all their lives, but its fun and it will be good to keep it going.

Thursday I wandered down to the Library (with jandals on!) at one point to get out some new books. Turns out the only English friend I've made so far was also down their with the 11mth old that she looks after, so we had something to eat and a good old natter, so that was nice. And I got my new books :D.

Friday, I began to feel a little better and so wandered off down to Harrods. It was London Fashion Week, so I wanted to see who/what I could see at Harrods during that. What I did find was a health food shop accross the road that sold V....yhus!

Harrods was cool, I wanted to look at their Baby George China, and I think some of the stuff that they had there was almost cooler than the Buckingham Palace stuff. I'm gonna have to pop back there this week sometime I think and get something.

But yeah, was good to have a look around. I was meant to go to Clarance House then with Jen, but Jen had done more research than me and found out that it was closed already :(, so we met at Somerset House to have a look around, but it was the home of Fashion Week, so it was all pretty much closed off. So we wandered down to SouthBank and Jen took me to this cute little mall type place with a boat with all these moving parts, so that was fun.

I came home and Jake had a playdate with some twins from his old school, that was full on!!

That night, I had arranged with a couple of Kiwi Au Pairs to go and watch the America's Cup Race at a pub in Acton - which is a while away, but it was where the Kiwis in London Facebook page were advertising to go so we decided to check it out.

It was a trip on the Overground to get there and then an epic walk, but we made it....man what a let down. The first race was the one we "won" but then the world learnt about the 40 minute time limit, so that was pooey. Then after the second race (and a Fejioa Vodka and Lemonade...YUM!) we headed back off into London town to have a look around at night. It took us a while to get back, and we passed some dodgy crap (including a car crash and the cops told us someone had died and then we saw all the stuff strewen about over the road and the cop photographer taking photos) and when we got to the train station we had to wait for the train to pass before we could cross the tracks. Turns out that was the last train....great. So we had to cab it to the nearest tube station and tube-ed it into town.

MAN, what a laugh that was. It was just...funny....I can't describe it, but we had a good time.

Got home at like 2.30am!! So I watched some TV and then went to bed .

I'll update the rest of the weekend (EXCITING WEEKEND) later gais.

Love yas

xx

Thursday 12th - Sunday the 15th

More bloggage! I'm writing this as I'm waiting for the America's Cup to race...HURRY UP!!

Anyways, SO!!

Thursday - well, in my diary it just says "home day" so I guess thats what it was. Chillaxing round here IS one of my fav things to do!

Friday however, was another story! Jake went off to school and I went back to bed for a bit, cos Ant was taking Jake over to his parents house after school, so I wasn't needed again. I headed out around 11.30 and went down to the Borough Market again for some eats. I wandered around there for a bit, tried many pesto's, olives, teas, all the good stuff. There was a lot of this "truffle" stuff, its a very strong taste, but I don't think I'm really a fan. After finding some Fejioa's (expensive, tiny and bruised, but still YUM!) and Turkish Delight (mmmmmm) and Pesto that I liked, oh, and eating my way around the market, I walked along the South Bank for a while. I found some SUPER lovely toilets (that were opened as a dedication to the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.....odd I thought), saw some interesting sights, found some amazing sand art, and yeah.

So after that I wandered up past Westminster Abbey, had a look in the gift shop, didn't buy anything (AMAZING) before wandering up to Buckingham Palace to get tickets for me and Jen to go on the tour the next Saturday. After successfully getting that, and waiting in no lines, I started the trek up to Baker Street.

It was a decent trek, but I've wanted to figure out how Baker St fits into the rest of the city for a while so I figured I may as well walk it. So I wandered through New Bond St (which has all the GORGEOUS stores - Chanel, Gucci, DKNY, Cavalli, you name it, its there!) and went into a few stores, but was so exhausted I couldn't really be bothered looking around. Except Burberry. I looked around there a lot. Once I got to Baker St, and went and saw a Travel Agent and got some quotes, I eventually figured out where the Bus Stop was to get home.

I came home to an empty house and chilled for a bit before putting on the first load of washing. I changed my duvet, did like 4 loads of washing, vacuumed my room and tidied up. Successful night I say!

Saturday morning was an early one as I went to meet up with Ingrid for the AB's v SA game. MAN, what a game! We found a sweeeet as pub which opened early for the game and we scored a couch second row back from the screen so it was a brilliant spot. Good game, glad I watched!

I came home and when I went to make lunch, Jake and Ant arrived home. I ended up spending the arvo with them. Jake wanted to play cowboys so him and Ant got hats and masks on and I played "Bonanza" and "Rawhide" in the background haha. It then turned into a game of Epic Movie Theme Tunes and "hide the pen" which ended up being very creative and fun.

Ant and Jake had to go out again that night, so I just hung out and watched X Factor before bed.

Sunday was an early-ish morning. Chilling here before I went down to Tower Pier to meet another kiwi Au Pair. We were going on a Thames River Cruise. I was waiting at the pier for 40 minutes cos she got completely lost and confused on the underground (granted, she's not living in London). We eventually got on the boat and headed for Greenwich.

We got off in Greenwich and had a bit of a poke around but it started to rain really heavily and we kinda lost momentum. But here are a few pics from the day -

Some random old Warehouse but I thought it was pretty

There was a gorrrrgeous "Painted hall" and stunning Church place.

The markets were pretty cool too, I really wanna go back there when I have some money!!

On the way back, we went all the way up to the London Eye Pier and then back to Tower Pier where we headed home.

The London Eye is very photogenic

Oh HEEYYY St Pauls

BIG weekend, in fact a big 3 days really!!

Catch you up soon,

xxxxx

The View from Primrose Hill

I took a bunch of photos and lovely Russ Potts stitched them together for me...

dadaaaaa

A little more of an update

New, quicker, short update.

Pretty much just cos I didn't get up to a hell of a lot.

But what I did, here we go!

Monday I had to trip it out to Angel, Islington. I had to go to a store out there to get my tablet looked at and (hopefully) fixed!! There are some neat shops out there so I poked around there for a while and maybe got a few things on sale. The things here are so cheap anyway, and then when they are on sale its even better!

So after that and poking around I just came home and found the America's Cup on TV, so I caught up on that and all was well in the world.

After school Jake had handwriting so by the time he got home, it was food annnnd bed!

Tuesday, I had to go out to Brent Cross, which is quite a fancy mall, to go out to HobbyCraft AGAIN and get some money back and spend my voucher. So I did all that and I was successful, so I felt like treating myself. I went up to the food court and found a Gourmet Burger Kitchen (GBK) and went there. I was looking at the menu and they had L&P....HUZZAH!!! I looked around then and noticed little kiwiana signs everywhere. Turns out its a totally kiwi run burger chain in the UK. YAY! They had a kiwiburger on the menu - which has beetroot and eggs haha. They served their tomato sauce in a tomato squeezy pot, and had heihei (chicken) salt for their chips. YUM! I was stoked to figure this out. It was a good "naked" burger (no bun) and chicken salt on chips, yum!!

I had such a good day that day, I got my money back and I had an epic lunch and I had a really nice time looking around all the shops that I wish I could get some stuff from!

I had to put Jake to bed that night, and there were a few issues, but I think we are all good now. He just likes to play me off against his parents and we're working on making him realise that we are all on the same page!

Wednesday again, I slept after Jake went to school. I then wandered up to Hampstead and poked around. I'm sure I had a reason to go up there, but I can't remember what it is now...but it was a nice enough day and I wandered the shops and had a good look around. I'm getting really good at shopping when I have no money. In a way, its more fun cos you can look at everything the same way and decide if you really WOULD buy it or not if you had the money.

Ahh yeah, I wanted to see a Travel Agent in Hampstead about going to Edinburgh and EuroDisney, but she was useless...

So after poking around there, I came home again cos Emma and I had to go out to the SportsField to pick up Jake, and its a drive away, so we did that, and came home, tried to do some homework and played round a bit before bed.

Ahh I'm tired now, I stayed up to watch the live America's Cup, but its been postponed now, laaame. Guess I should just go to bed! Night y'all xxx

Thursday the 5th - Sunday the 8th

Hello!

Here we go againnnnn!

Thursday was a supper gorgeous day. My friend from Wellington, Jen came round. Her and I went and sat out in the overly hot sun and had Raspberries and Ice Cream and other treats. We over heated quickly, so came inside and looked at fun things and sorted some stuff out.

Jake and Emma arrived home and we went to hang out with them. We started spinning coins on the ground, I'm not sure why it was so addictive, but it was.....Jen then gave Jake a Danish coin she had left over from her trip to Denmark and he LOVED it (it has since been to school for show and tell haha). Then, Jake found out that Jen is a big Harry Potter fan also, and he invited her to do the Harry Potter Quidditch lego with us that we had been working on. That was cuteee, and fun. So that was done and everyone had fun.

Friday rolled around, and the weather had turned to shite :(. Literally, it changed overnight and we have not had a nice day since, sucks. I kinda lazed about the house in the morning and then went to meet my nanny friend for coffee. Was good to get out of the house for a bit.

I picked Jake up from school and then we went to Rascals, a soft play area thing, for him to have a run around. Simple day, nice and easy!

On Saturday I had arranged to meet up with Rosemary Leeke, who is a friend's sister. It was nice to meet her and have a chat. We went up to the Members room at the Tate Modern, and then noticed that there was some kind of river race thing happening on the Thames, so we went down to watch. We found out later that it was the beginning of the Mayor's Thames Festival. We watched that for a good half hour, that was pretty fun.

Rosemary then took me along the Thames, down to the Tower Bridge and we had a look around that area, before heading up to the Borough Market for lunch. Man, what an amazing place!!! It was super full on a Saturday.....lunchtime.....so I made plans to go back!!

After that, I just came home and chillaxed, after getting up early to watch the rugby, I was pretty exhausted!

Sunday morning I skyped the parentals and they met Jake and Emma. It was kinda funny, Jake went all shy until dad started making (dad)jokes.

Then I tired to go get my tablet fixed. Got to the Samsung store and was told they dont fix anything there but put me on the trail of one....but it wasn't open till Monday, so I just kinda walked the streets. Wanted to find Regent Street, and Victoria Secret...hehehehe. I found Hamley's along the way, what a cool shop!! I'd love to work in there!!!!! Some sweeet toys man, and EPIC lego sculptures!!

LEGO QUEEN

MADE OF LEGO

MADE OF LEGO

Found my family

And yes....I found Victoria's Secret....and got a Brolly!!

Dino Zoo and Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday last week

Okkk......so Dino Zoo.

We headed back to Regent's Park to watch the Dino Show. Man, I'm so glad I went. It was a bunch of Aussies and they came out explaining where Aussie is and its at the bottom, underneath etc, and then they said they would be showing Dinosaurs from the Southern Hemisphere. Sweet.

The first Dino's they brought out were from NZ...so me, in back back, put my arms in the air and go "woo!". They had a whole bunch of kids on the stage and were just making them do stuff and it was really funny and really well done. The narrator mentioned NZ again and I didn't do anything, but then she said "....that was your cue" and so I went "woooo" again.

I has such a fun time! They wanted more volunteers, and I put my hand up, but obviously wasn't picked. Jake really enjoyed it too which was awesome, cos we were a little worried about him being scared....but complete opposite!

 

 I spent the afternoon wandering around town again, I had to go to PaperChase and get some stuff, so then I came home and used the stuff for the Scrapbook that I'm making. 

I wanted to go and have a look around Covent Garden but there was a massive fire and heaps of fire trucks and it had all been evacuated etc. WTFFF. I googled when I got home, turns out Jamie Oliver's restaurant there caught fire or something....weird....

The fire engines

That evening, I went north a little to meet one of Mum's teacher Friends from St Pats for a pub roast. They were the first people I had seen from home so it was cool to talk to them about all the weird English stuff and sort out a few things in my head - and get a few more ideas!!

Monday rolled around, and it was Jake's first day at his new school!! I got the morning off while Ant and Emma took him to school (which is literally, a 5 minute walk from the house, its awesome). Once I got going, I headed up to Hampstead - walking - to get a few things. It was suuuch a nice sunny day! I wandered around there for a bit. Its quite a nice area with some really nice shops! So I did a bit of dreaming while wandering around the main street. 

I came back here for a bit before I caught a bus out to Primrose Hill. I had heard a lot about how nice it was and I'd Wikipedia'd it a bit and wanted to go have a poke around. So I just got off the bus and just wandered around for a while. I'd find a street I liked the look of and just wander up there. I was wandering for like 2 hours, and found some cute little places. I ended up the top of Primrose Hill in the park and took some photos so that was lovely. I managed to find my way back to the house, walking so huzzah! 

 Jake had his first handwriting lesson that day too, so he came home exhausted around 5.30 and I had made him dinner, so he literally went to bed straight after that. 

Tuesday, I hung out here in the morning and theeeeeen I went to the One Direction Movie! It was so cool, I loved it and really glad I went. But after that I pretty much had to go get Jake and then hang out with him until bed. 

Wednesday was Jewish New Year, so I had to get Jake to school and then the day off! So I headed into Londontown to meet Ingrid! She's a great mate from home and had just spent 6 weeks Nannying in Italy and France! It was suuuper cool to see her. We went to Hyde Park and had some food at the cafe, before finding out that Matilda does 5quid tickets for 18-25yr olds! So we headed up to the theatre to find out if any tickets were available. Man, it was a decent walk up there! We did a bit of shopping and stuff on the way which was cool. We got to the theatre, and they had sold out, not a surprise considering we got there at like 3. Bummed. But we decided to go and see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory....We got to that theatre and tickets were only 25pound for quite a decent seat. We decided to go to that. 

Ingrid then had a job interview back on Oxford St, so we walked back down there (more walking!) and had dinner at Marks and Spencers opposite Selfridges. Ingrid went to her interview and I poked around for a bit, which was fun. We tubed it back up to the theatre and got to our seats JUST in time!

It was such a COOOOL show! The kids were pretty neat and the sets were Brilllllliant! Ingrid was pretty much in love with the Willy Wonka haha, and he was amazing. Its one of those shows that you just can't really explain without gestures and facial expressions and dance moves. I will happily recreate it for all of you haha. 

You're probably over reading by now, so I'll write some more tomorrow and hopefully will be a bit more caught up!

Charlette xx

Kew Gardens SUPER picture heavy.

So, I'm back at the Library, still Tablet-less. Its in at a Samsung fixit store, so hopefully something can be done sooner rather than later! I've found I can get the 10.1 Samsung Tab for £229 though, so its not too bad if I do have to get a new one...

Anyway, last weekend, I went to Kew Gardens. I'm glad I went when I did because I had a stunning day while I was there, and had a really good poke around and stuff. It was ace. There isn't a lot you can really SAY about this place, just look at pictures. So I've included a whole bunch of pictures for your enjoyment. I'm lovely like that :D.

When I got there first up, I went on this carriage thing around the gardens (cos they are MASSIVE!) and I got off at Kew Palace firstly to poke around there. Its quaint. I wanted to find the kitchens and stuff, but couldn't figure out where they were. Anyway, photos from the palace-y bit.

I want this bed!

At Kew, it seemed their "theme" thing for the past summer was food you can eat from trees. DADAAAA FEJOIAS!!

 And a whole bunch of other things, which turned out to be HUGE!!

And then I found the Palm House. MAN, it was hot in there, but there were some cool plants, like cocoa trees, rubber trees, coffee trees, Papaya trees!!

It was all very exciting.

Now, just some generic pretty plant pictures. I took a few....

Ironic....the best picture I take of Cabbage Trees.....is in London...

And generic pretty Kew Gardens Landscape pictures

The Palm House, it was like SUPER hot!

 

I'm so tall!

This is looking across the Thames to some Duke's house, but its pretty!

 

And then, there was this pineapple thing. I didn't really get it, but they had rigged it up so you could touch the leaves and depending on what leaf you touched it played a different sound. It was reaaally cool. See a video!

VIDEO TO COME!!!

Annnnd yeah. It was a fun day. I spent like 5 hours there, wandering around etc. Had fun. Very tired by the end of the day. Man, this was long. I have to run home now to catch the America's Cup Race 5 (delayed coverage, but better than nothing!!) so I'll try to update more tonight!

Catchyas!

PS This tree below, it was used as the cast for the Whomping Williow in the Harry Potter Films. WINNAGE!