HA...so...

I updated last Saturday's, but realised I hadn't updated last weeks at all.

Soooo

Yeah.

Monday, I went out to Angel to collect my tablet - and get my refund! I went poking around some shops for a new tablet, but *sigh* still expensy. I also headed out to Victoria, and got a coach card for £10, so I can save up to 1/3rd off a ticket on National Express trips - which was convenient considering I had to get back from Bristol to London on a coach - so I pretty much saved what I spent, which makes it totally worth it. So that was a good one, yay!

Tuesday has turned into my gym day, so I had my Funky Bums, Tums and Thighs class in the morning, then pilates, before hanging out with Jake at home in the afternoon.

Wednesday, things changed. I got up in the morning, and Emma was in bed, sick with food poisoning. Not good for her, and it meant that I had Jake to myself in the morning. It was great, he was super well behaved, and we even got out of the house before 8.30 and got him to school on time! Granted, there was a little bit of bribery with the iPad, but I think that if Jake is willing to get ready and good to go for school, all well behaved, then why not give him 10 minutes playing a game? Its what life is like! Work hard, play hard haha.

I popped out during the day to do some tablet shopping and a few bits and bobs before I went away, but I felt kinda bad being away too long incase Emma needed something or someone came by or whatever, so I came home pretty quick and ended up watching a movie haha. 

So after school that day, and we did his homework and stuff, I had the idea of making a get well card for his mum. So that was fun. Lots of stickers and glue and sellotape included - which just happen to be some of Jakes favourite things haha. And I got him writing on the inside of the card, and any writing is good writing haha. So I like to think I did quite well then!

Thursday, Emma was still no good, so I got Jake to school and everything all good, so that was super.  I had my normal gym class, and library stuff to do, so I did that. It was my friends birthday that day, so we were gonna meet up with her and the kids she nannies for, but one of them threw up just as they were about to come out :(. I had told Jake we were doing something fun after school so we ended up going to the Zoo by ourselves.

It was a bit of a mission, cos we caught the wrong bus, so there was quite a bit of walking involved, but Jake coped super well. We had a packet of Malteasers which helped us get through it! We had a really cool time at the Zoo though, and poked around the reptile house, saw some Roo's have a bit of a fight and saw the adorable penguins, before missioning it back to the bus stop and going to a cafe to have a burger before we came home. The food took ages to come, and Jake was super hungry by this point, and he had started to complain of sore feet - no wonder!! But when we were walking home he started to need a poo super bad, so we pretty much ran home hah. But we had a lot of fun - I need to start doing more things like that with him!

Friday, Jake went to school with Emma, I had my aerobics class and on my way home I had to pick up Jake cos he was going to Devon on the train with his mum for half term. It was weird saying goodbye to them for a week!! I went down to Clapham - about a 40 minute train ride - and went to ASDA down there, which is like their Pak'n'Save. So I got a whole bunch of cheap food to take with me on holiday - so all I would have to buy while I was away was the odd bit of meat and milk - and so I did!

So yeah, that was my week! Fun times!!

The Ceremony of the Keys!

Saturday night, I went to the Tower of London with a few Kiwi mates, and we went to the Ceremony of the Keys - which is where they lock up the tower at night.

It was pretty cool, we had a bit of a mini tour around the Tower, and then we went over to the Traitors Gate area, and then there was lots of marching and yelling orders at each other and more marching. It was all very ceremonious!

According to our guide, they have done it the same way every night, forever....pretty much. Or some massively huge number thats older than NZ!

The only time they have ever run late was in the Blitz in WWII and a bomb was dropped right by the White Tower (the oldest Building there, over 1000 years old....cray cray!) and a wall was strategically placed (aka in the right place) and the soliders were just blown to the side. But all alive!

The ceremony was completed, just 10 minutes late haha.

There were a whole lot of kids with us, who asked some hilairous questions (highlight - when the guards started marching towards us, one little girl of about 8 whispered loudly "are they going to kill us?) so that took a while, but we got some interesting facts, which I'm sure will come in handy for Trivial Pursuit or a Pub Quiz in the future!

Anyway, that was that. Dad's (hopefully) making the photos from outside the tower a bit more of something to look at...you're not allowed to take photos inside of the ceremony. But I took pics outside!!

So yeah, it was fun. I then went to my friends birthday drinks and got home around 1am...ouch!!

'Ello you lot

So I'm off to Bath tomorrow, super duper excited.

I have a night in Bath, and then 3 in Bristol before returning home late Thursday night.

I'll update everything on Friday, gonna have a super chilled day and catch up on things.

YAY adventures!

A super low key weekend

So, as I'm now saving to go away next week, I decided I better have a super low key weekend where I spend minimal amounts of money, which I totally managed!

Saturday morning I had a "dance aerobics" class at the gym which I didn't really enjoy. It was a bit of a funny class and I just didn't get into it. Thats cool though, Saturday morning exercise is off the cards! I came to the library for a bit before heading back home and making me some eats. Yum, eats! I then (fianally) headed out to Camden Town to poke around the markets.

My god, it was CRAZY! There were sooo many people. I found this one Ponamu stall, and this guy talked to me about it for ages, showing me how it all looked under the light and all his other stuff, it was pretty neat. I got a few ideas for some presents too.

A lot of the stuff was jewellery and then just junk. I found one stall which I reeeally liked, and have to go back to as soon as I have some spare cash! I've got a few christmas presents in mind, plus a little something for me too! It was cool to have a look around, but it wasn't really my scene - especially not by myself. i reckon I will go back and have another poke around, but maybe with someone, it might be more fun.

I got home around 6ish and literally ate dinner and went to bed. Oh, of course, it was the first live X Factor Show, so there was lots of TV watching required.

Sunday, I literally stayed in my PJs ALL DAY! It was brilliant. The look on Jake's face when I told him I was going back to bed after eating brekkie at 11am, was adorable, he just couldn't understand! I read my book, watched Burlesque and did random crap that I needed to do, before going out and just hanging out downstairs with the family for a few hours.

Literally, that was my weekend. Super low key.

I'm going to Bath and Bristol next week, so I don't think I'll have much computer access, but we will see what happens! OK, this Library computer is gonna log me out in 2 minutes, guess I best get going!

Ciao!

A seriously Gym-my week

I went to the gym a whole bunch this week.

Monday, I signed up fro 2 classes, but only ended up going to one haha. It was a "Funky Bums, Tums and Thighs"  class...ahhh the lolz. It was quite hilarious, but I enjoyed it, got up a bit of a sweat, did some good stretches etc. The Leisure Centre is just across the way from the Library, so afterwards (or beforehand) I head to the library and use the computers there for an hour, which meant I could still come home for lunch and eat and then catch up on X Factor or something fun like that. (Seriously, so much X Factor to watch here people!)

Tuesday was quite a bit day, but I powered through! I had another Funky BTT (totes up with the lingo) class at 10 and then I had an hours break, and it was a reasonably nice day, so went outside onto the grass and just chillaxed and read my book before my first pilates class. The teacher for that class was really good, and totally got my whole scoliosis thing and was looking out for me and making sure I did everything right so that I could get the most out of it. I really enjoyed the class, it was super cool!

Wednesday I had my first London haircut....super poncy haha. Actually, there is a really cheap salon down the road from here and I only had to pay £12 to get it done, and it was done in half an hour and she did a pretty neat job at it too. Then I headed down to London Zoo for a day. The family got me a year pass for the zoo, so I could go for free. And its only a half hour walk away too, all on the flat, so I headed down there and poked around for a bit, saw the penguins and the otters get fed their lunch, while I sat there and ate my packed lunch haha. It was sweet. Ballet that night too (which was why I didn't go to the gym that day) and its getting even better and funner, so I'm really glad I decided to go to that class!

Thursday, I went to the step class again. I can do the stuff on the ground ok, its when I have to start going up on the step that I get super lost and confused and generally uncoordinated (which we all know I am anyway, but I can disguise it quite well sometimes). But I muddled my way through quite well, so yay me!! Jake had one of his friends over after school and they were totally cute. We played some Lego and made some random things, and then after dinner the two of them went and sat down and played chess together. It was super cute! I don't know how to play chess so I was officially useless while they were playing but it was cute to watch.

Friday, I had an aerobics class. My god, what a mission! The instructor made us get these 2.5kg circle weight things and raise them above our heads, but as I did that, my piddly little arms went backwards and as I pulled my arms down I had to be careful not to whack my head. Consequently, I got a sore head just thinking about it all very quickly and it was all just a blur really. It was a super full on class and I got a serious sweat on, but I had a good time, and I'm booked in again for this week.

I think thats all last week, it was a very full on exercising week! And I had a nice, long, hot bath on Thursday night - I think I might have to do the same this time round too!!

EEEE exciting weekend

So, so so so, Jen and I FINALLY got around to organising our Harry Potter walking tour that we got some wocher for a while back, yay! It started at 12 in Leicester Square, so I made a little packed lunch to take with me and headed out, it was totally exciting.

We walked all over London, past the place where they had all the prems, to some of the places that inspired Diagon Alley, down to Trafalgar Square, heard all kinds of stories. For example, normally, the top floor of the National Portrait gallery is reserved for the Royal Family, except for when 7.2 came out, then Ron, Harry and Hermione had their portraits hung up there...well the actors did at least!

From there, we wandered down to Old Scotland Yard (oh, also, Gringotts, filmed at Australia House....sweet!!). They shot the scene of them arriving at the Ministry of Magic (MoM) down here cos apparently thats where she described it being in the books (under the old defence building?) and saw where they shot the bit in 7.1 where Harry, Ron and Hermionie turn up to the Ministry to get the horcrux off Umbridge...make sense? Apparently they photoshopped (movie shopped?) that lamppost out and put in the telephone box too, where Harry went to have his hearing in OOTP. Yep. I know all this cool stuff now. 

Theeeen we headed down to some Pier and caught a boat to some other pier, and ended up at SouthBank. Apparently, down the alleyway is where JK got her idea for Knockturn Alley. Past Wagamama, as the guy said Knockturn Alley did not have a Wagamama when I asked him. From there, we wandered down, past Borough Market, where we had a quick, non-related HP stop - for a Bridget Jones tidbit.

Apprantley this is her front door in the films.
I don't remember that bit too well.

Anyhu, while we were at Borough Market, the guy showed us where they shot the leaky cauldron and told us all the amazing tricks that they did, just cos they wanted to and couldn't be bothered actually finding the right kinda place. Silly filmmakers. It was pretty cool.

We then headed down, across some bridge and came to another market place. I can't remember what its called, but it was in the Financial District and it was inside. Its where they shot Diagon Alley. Fun fact - Ant's Dad owns/works in an optometrist down there. Kinda cool.

Then we caught a tube from Bank station to Kings Cross. And then this happened.

And all was well in the world.

After our epic photoshoot at Kings Cross, I nipped off to go meet another friend to watch that epic rugby game between NZ and SA. MY GOD, it was quite full in the place we went, but I had booked a seat for us so we were all good, food and drinks etc. It was a bout half Boks fans, half ABs fans..and VERY LOUD!! What a game though!! When we walked out, it was like getting out of the movies, we had massive headaches and it was so bright.

We headed home, before a massive night out. It was the closing night of the Walkabout in Shepherds Bush. Walkabout is a chain of Aussie (and Kiwi by association) places that show Southern Hemisphere Sports and general Kiwi and Aussie fun! It was PACKED, like super packed. It was sooo sweaty and yuck, we had to go outside every half hour or so just to cool down and get up the courage to go back into the sweat pit. But it was fun, there was a group of about 6 or so Kiwi Au Pairs, and we all get along really well and we had a really good night....I got home at like 2.30am!!

Sunday, I still had to get up really early, cos I was going up to Watford to meet Lilla - who is a friend from Camp last year. Its about an hour away by train, so I made sure I took my book with me!

It was fun catching up with her, we went for lunch and then just wandered around Watford City Centre for a bit. Its a nice enough place, but nothing new there that we don't have here really, just a lot less busy! Its where they have the Harry Potter Studios though, so it was good for me to get my bearings around the place reasonably well so I can get there and back safely.

I must say, I was pretty exhausted Sunday night, so I crashed after Downton and X Factor!

Watching 2 X Factors (UK and USA) is very time consuming haha, but I'm loving it!!!!

Catch yas later xxx

And then this happened

So, after my super busy Saturday, and not so busy Sunday, I did stuff on Monday!

I skyped Mum and we chatted over me joining the leisure centre down the road, as something to do but also to try and get a little more fit. So I went down and joined up on Monday, cos they had a first month half price thing going on, and I needed to get in on that! Yay! Successful cheap entertainment!

After that, I wandered down into West Hampstead, which is a little village just down the road. Its pretty much full of food places (restaurants/bars/takeaway places/supermarkets), charity shops and beauty places. So it didn't really take me very long to look around haha, but on the way back, I swung past the new Jewish Community Centre to have a squizz inside, its pretty swanky, and only a 5 minute walk up the road. I likey. They have a heap of cool events on there, and dance classes etc, and they are totally cool about you not being Jewish. Huzzah!

The next day, all I have in my diary is "Library" haha. I remember I tried to sign up for some gym classes, but they were all booked out already, so I think I went back to bed that morning and eventually got up and went to the library and chilled.

After School though, Jake and I made some of Pamma's chocolate chip cookies. om nom nom. I think we ended up with 63 cookies? Emma had been out and got the ingredients earlier on in the day, but had forgotten condensed milk, so Jake and I ran up the hill to Waitrose in our uggs to get some. He felt very important as he carried it back down the hill in his little backpack, it was super cute.

Wednesday, I had a few jobs to do out a Brent Cross, so I went out there early on. I had to take some stuff back to Banana Republic and TopShop, as well as get some new shoes from Clarks - for hospo work and stuff. It took me a couple of hours to get that stuff done, while I perused all the shops and stuff too of course! I got me some nice boots which I just have to wear in and then hopefully I can get me some sweet hospo jobs.

 Jake had his friend, Eden, over after school, and they had all kinds of plans to do devious little things, so I had fun trying to thwart them, muahahahaha.

Thursday, I had my first class at the gym - a Step and Sculpt class. I remember going to a step class with Mum and Hannah at BodyWorks in Porirua, so I vaugley knew what to expect. We did half an hour of aerobics and then some step, my god I was exhausted by the end of it! And super hungry....So after the class, I went to meet my friend down in the cafe and ordered me a nice large bowl of fries. Honestly, its the only decent place I've found round here that serves chunky fries, and they don't do takeaway and are super expensive. I need more chunky fries. Even KFC does shoestring fries....KFC here fails FYI.

Friday, I just have down as a home day. I did a few jobs, posted Ness's birthday present, ordered some stuff online, got my internet banking working etc. After school, Jake went and found his friend Sante who lives across the communal garden thing, so they had a cute little play, including wrestling me to the ground haha.

Yeah, that was the week before last. I'm over typing now, and I've got some insurance stuff to do for my tablet, so I should probably get onto that!!

Catchyas later xx

Saturday was a full on day!

So yeah, as you may be able to figure out, Jen and I went to Madame Tussauds last Saturday. It opened at 9am and I was in teh line from 8am. Yep. We were the geeky first people in line.

It was quite fun though, we were the first people up the stairs and we ran up and gave the lady at the top a big fright, but she was coool.

It was weird being the first people in though, we could go to any celeb we wanted and it was easy pie to get a pic with, no waiting. We managed to do the whole thing in 2 hours, which seemed really quick, but then cos we didn't have to wait to do/see anything it seemed a bit more resonable.

We got chatting to the guy in the One Direction Booth, he was pretty neat. I got my photo taken with them, and then half an hour later I went back cos I wanted one with just me and Louis (and he was in the middle...grr) but the guy was super cool about it and cos we had talked to him eariler and he remembered us, he got really into it and took his camera off the tripod to get the right angle, it totally worked too.

I liked the figures in this Madame T's a lot better than in NYC, but I think that cos of the Royals and the general British-ness of it. It was super fun.

After that, we headed down to Kings Cross, cos there was a Victorian Fair thing on to celebrate the opening of the newly refurbished station. Jen went home on the way, so I was exploring by myself. It was super fun though. They had all kinds of games and stuff going on, and it was all free! Kids could get their faces painted like they were a chimney sweep, or like they had small pox, it was brill.

I even got to throw a ball at some crockery and it hit and smashed! Amazing!

Firstly, a panorama of the scene -

Kings Cross Station

General theme setting carts

I failed at this one

 

Yeah, didn't try this one

SMASHED some crockery

Making peg dolls, reminded me of my time at TP

 

Shoe polisher

Oldest Ferris Wheel in the UK

Mmmm......

 

Oh, and I found this too -

I then headed home for some lunch, after which I went ot my mates place to dye her hair...that was a first! But I think I did a pretty good job. It was fun too, we just hung out and nattered about nothign haha.

I then decided I wanted to go into Regent St to have a look at the NFL stuff that was going on. They had a game at Wembley the next day and there was this big pep rally type thing. It was fun to watch the happenings, and the games, the music, the cheerleaders, and the superbowl trophy was even there, but I missed the line cutoff to get a pic with it, lame-o!

The trophy. Thats as close as I'll ever be to it I think.

 

I was exhausted that night, so I literally went home and passed out haha.

Sunday wasn't overly exciting, I slept in in the morning and then in the arvo headed down to Regent's Park for a wander round, and read my book. It got cold though, so I went home pretty quickly! Honsetly, I just chilled a lot that day, I was so tired...and poor haha.

Hope to update the rest of last week tomorrow though, keep ya posted xx

PICTURES. Enjoy.

We were the first ones there.....

Sick Child...eugh

So this week was an interesting one....Jake came down with what we thought at first was Tonsillitis, but turned out to be Scarlet Fever (or, as he likes to call it, Charlette Fever).

It meant a pretty slow week really.

Monday we all chillaxed at home while Jake just moped around. We wrote a letter to Mum to thank her for the All Blacks poster that she had sent, but apart from that we just read books and hung around on the couch. Nice for a change.

Tuesday was much of the same. Although I did go out Tuesday night to Hammersmith, cos Ingrid had managed to get tickets for Live at the Apollo which was pretty swell. We lined up for ages and got through the door JUST in the nick of time to get 3 seats together, and watched some pretty neat comedians. I can't remember all their names, but Jack Whitehall was there, and some other people who were very funny. They taped 2 shows. The first one wasn't so good, but the second one was hosted by this Aussie guy and it was awesome. Brendan Cole (remember him, from Dancing With the Stars??) was in the audience so the Aussie guy started making jokes about NZ, we cheered up the back and he was like "and I see we have an apt representation of NZ's population here tonight". Yay us! He started going on about how cool Air NZ's Safety vids are (and we all know they are) so that was fun. He also made a "boyband" on stage, and, well, I might be a bit of a fan of boybands so I enjoyed this sketch very much. I don't know when it will be on TV, but it will be worth watching. If they don't edit us out!! We were right up the back though so I HIGHLY doubt we will be on TV. Maybe next time?

PICS To COME

Wednesday, I had arranged to meet Jen to go to the Aquarium - cos I had a 2-4-1 voucher. We got there and were told the voucher didn't work for that aquarium...SUPER lame! So we decided to use the voucher for Madame Tussauds instead, so we tubed it up there and lined up for half an hour to get tickets for Saturday, and just because we are super annoying customers the lady at the ticket desk had to get the manager to do our tickets cos she didn't think we could buy advance tickets with a voucher, super duper lame-o. But we got there and then we went to GBK for lunch and all was well in the world - except Jake, who had been to the Dr that day and been diagnosed with Scarlet Fever and was now on Antibiotics and wouldn't be going back to school for the rest of the week. Poor kid.

Thursday, I had my "personal shopping" experience at Top Shop. Ohhhhhhh...fancy! Its a free service, so of course I was gonna do it! I went in and they had picked out a whole bunch of clothes for me, so I just tried them all on and mixed and matched. Walked out with one Skivvy. hahahhahaha. So many of the clothes they had out out for me were wool, and I'm allergic to wool, so I made it tough for them and they ahd togo change half the clothes hahaha. But I had fun, got a few ideas, maybe when I get a little more money I'll go back and get a few more things. There was a really cool playsuit thing that I really want, but it was £50....ouch!

Friday, I was going to meet up with a friend at Westfield, but she got her flights confused and ended up leaving Friday morning instead of evening haha, so my day freed up a bit. We came down to the library in the morning with Emma and Jake and he got a few books, and really enojoyed his library experience, yay!!

We went home to SUSHI for lunch...om nom nom and then I headed out to go meet up with Oli (British mate from home) who had come up to London for the weekend and we went to MacBeth at the Globe. It was a pretty sweet show. I'd never studied MacBeth or anything so I didn't really know it at all, but managed to follow it along pretty damn well. Billy Boyd (Pippin from LOTR) was in it, so that made it super duper cool. Oli had got some sweet seats too, second row from the front and right on the edge, so we were pretty much centre stage, huzzah! It was a really cool show and really well done. They did a little highland dance at the end and I geeked out over one of the guys GORGEOUS pointed toes hahaha. Ohhh me.....

So yeah, that was last week, and then there was last weekend, but thats gonna be very picture heavy, so I'll leave that for another day (maybe when I actucally have my flashdrive on me and I can uplaod the pics haha...)

MEE!!!!