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

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!

Dadaaaaa

As you can probably tell by now, Mondays have become my chill out, get jobs done, fluff round home kinda days. So thats totally what I did on the 4th haha.

Tuesday was Guy Fawkes. The family went out for dinner to a mates place to watch some fireworks from round London, so I was at home alone, hearing bangs but seeing nothing. A mate who lives round the corner finally got off babysitting at 9ish, so we went exploring then for some, but when we got to the hill we wanted to watch from, the cops had closed it down...lame! We ended up just having a very long walk home, but a good chat so that was nice.

We agreed to meet at the Zoo on Wednesday, cos she nannys for a 18month old, so it was something fun to do. Awkward though that her host father came along so we had to pretend like we had just met or something, but we still ended up having a fun time, even if it was bucketing down by the time we left the zoo.

I got a call that arvo too, from another agency offering me some temp hospo work, so I had to nip down the road to Primark to get me a black shirt to wear. And on the way back, I found Abbey Road. And then I found this. (I didn't realise it was so close to where we are/quite a far walk at the same time. Wasn't quite prepared for that one)

Abbey Road Studios.

So Thursday, I had to traipse out to this hospo place to meet the guy and chat over the work. Turns out he gets people for places like Twickenham, the O2 Arena, Lords....all the fun places! Sweet! I am in! I was pretty stoked with that. He seems like a really cool guy too, and will try his best to get you into work when you really need to. Thats gotta be helpful!

On Friday, I had a bit of a chat with Emma about how things are going. I'm having a great time in London, but I'm finding that I'm getting pretty bored and lonely during the day when Jake is at school. We chatted about it for a while, just coming up with some ideas as to what I can do and how to deal with it. That was good, and it kinda got a whole lotta stuff out in the open as well, which is always a good thing! Its nice to know I can talk to her about stuff.

The rest of the day was pretty standard, went to the gym, did nothing special in the afternoon. I was going on a big day the next day, so I cooked a packed lunch to take with me and then just chilled till Jake came home.

I had to babysit that night, and so Jake and I went out to Pizza Express for dinner, that was something fun for us to do together. He had a great time! When we got back home, he wanted to play cards, so he got into his snuggly PJs and we played Uno in bed haha. It was ace!

Halloweeeeeen

So this week, Jake was on half term, still. So I had a lot more time with him - which was awesome!! Here's a quick account of what we got up too..


Monday we spent at home. Jake had the new neighbour over to play for a bit, so that was fun. But the weather outside was just super shitty, so we didn't really go outside much. Lego it was!!

Tuesday I pretty much spent all of Tuesday at the gym - as usual, and when I came home, Jake had to go off for a Dr's appointment, so I didn't really end up spending a lot of time with him, but all we really did was play lego....hahha

Wednesday was fun! Jake was going to a mates place for a play date, so I got a few hours off in the middle of the day. I managed to head into town to meet a friend (Arna) who was about to leave for home, and she gave me a whole bunch of books and things she couldn't take back home with her, so that was ace. And we had GBK, I mean, come on, YUM!

When Jake got home, Emma had been out that day and got him a pumpkin to carve for Halloween the next day. And the friend's nanny that he had just been with had given him a carving kit, so we carved!! Pulling out pumpkin insides was a messy job, but once I got my hands in there and yanked at the gross-ness on the sides, and encouraged Jake to do the same, we were all good haha. I ended up doing most (all) of the carving, somehow I'm more trustworthy than a 5 yr old with a sharp knife (when this happened, I don't know!) but I managed to get through without cutting myself in any way, so thats always a positive. I was quite proud of our finished product too! I've put some pics in of the process....

Thursday was Halloween!! I went to the gym in the morning, and I still didn't have a costume...whoops! So on the way home, I managed to pop into Waitrose (supermarket) and they had a witches hat and some black hair chalk stuff, life saver! I then went into the cheap shop down the road and got some poster paint - which turned into great face paint! I was lucky when I got home that Jake had an impromtu playdate with the girl next door so it gave me time to get my face on and all dressed up. I freaked the crap out of the 9yr old when I went to pick up Jake from next door though, it was brilliant!

We went around the corner (well, a few corners) to get to a mates house to go trick or treating, with another 5yr old girl, a 3yr old boy and their au pair. It was dark by 4.30 (WTFFF) and so out we went! It was a really cool area to do it in, cos you knew which houses you could go into, thanks to the pumpkins outside. Super good system! The kiddies loved it, I had my photo taken a few times by randoms who thought I looked great, aww shucks.

The kids got a heap load of candy, my god! We went to about 25 houses - just in 2 streets! It was awesome. When we got back to the house, I ended up giving out the candy there, while the kids ate. I only made one small child cry as I was cackling as I opened the door and she got a little freaked...fair enough. Came home to a very messy shower hahaha.

Jake was a skeleton pirate

Me! SCARY!

Friday as you can imagine, was a little bit of a chilled day. Jake had his mate Santi over, and I convinced them that we should go down to Regent's Park, so they took their scooters and we got some bread and went. AHHH the geese and pigeons down there are sooo super scary! They literally see you have bread and chase you. Santi and I did not enjoy this experience at all, but Jake loved it, so we happily gave him the bread and he chased them all around and had a great time! We went back on the bus and I went to my aerobics class, before heading out to do a lovely spot of shopping and getting of craft supplies before heading home again.

On Saturday, I was up super early to go to Reading with a bunch of people from a new agency I've joined to pick up some extra work. It wasn't much, just handing out flyers, but the bar was super picky about the type of people that it wanted us to hand the flyers out too, and super indecisive. It was just annoying. But I got paid a bit, and it filled in a day where I hadn't been planning on doing much, so that was ok.

Sunday I literally did nothing all day, but I had tickets to go and see a taping of "It'll be Alright on the Night" which is a TV show for ITV here, so a mate and I went to that, that was pretty fun. It was like a home video show, but all the videos were bloopers and gags from famous people....not that we knew who half the people were! Still bloody funny!

Thats a quick catch up on that week anyway! Not a lot really happened, but it was fun, and I probably spent too much money!!!

xx

So the Friday I was back home, and Jake and Emma were still away, so it meant I could have the day to sleep in and unpack and organise myself, and its always nice to have a chilled out time doing that! So literally on that Friday, thats all I did, just chilled, caught up on XFactor and stuff like that. And of course I had got a whole lot of new stuff so I needed to find homes for all that, and then washing.....oh the washing....I sware I do so much damn washing!

Saturday I hung out here for a tad in the morning (read: slept in and then eventually got going), so once I left I went down to Trafalger Square because there was a NFL pep rally going on for agame coming up the next day at Wembley. It was super fun! There were epic bands playing, and the atmosphere was awesome. I decided to line up for a pic with tne SuperBowl Trophy.....cos why not? Its a super cool trophy to have a pic with! While I was there imgot some "limited edition, mint condition" programmes from the SuperBowl in 1996 and 1988...I think. I dunno what Im gonna do with them yet, but mabes sell them on ebay for a tiny profit? Who kmows. For the mo, I think I'll keep them haha. I got some food to eat and my face painted and just kinda chilled at the pep rally that afternoon really. It was entertaining. I had to babysit that night, so I was home by 6 and just had a chilled night watching X Factor!

Sunday was Anthony's birthday, so they had a big family lunch thing, and I went shopping haha. The Adidas store on Oxford St was all decked out for the All Blacks game so I wanted to have a squizz in there, and I also had to go to Primark and get a few bits and bobs. Came home to skype Ness which was awesome (more people need to skype me please!!!!!)

  

So yeah, that was my weekend! I'm gonna do another post about the half term week that I had with Jake and Emma, will probs start that tonight and finish tomorrow. 

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!!

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