Hello on this rainy London-day. Just back from the Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling - a very strange tradition where people throw themselves off a very steep hill after a cheese that's just been thrown off the hill... Photos to follow and I have a brilliant video (might join U-tube or something as I don't think this blog can handle it - hint to Blogger adminstrators!!).

The kiwis and aussies always do well apparently - for example the last three years before this one, the same kiwi girl won the ladies' race. And today, in the ladies', 2 kiwis came 1st and 2nd and an aussie girl, who happens to be a friend of the Hammersmith house people (she used to live there), came 3rd. A lot of it's luck I think but for people to win years in a row must mean something. Maybe it's just that no one crazier than them have turned up. One guy absolutely flew down the hill - flying through the air and spinning over and over, it was amazing to watch - a human torpedo. A couple of injuries - one dreadlocked bloke (aussie I think) managed to knock himself out for a few minutes and a Japanese bloke that won the cheese did his ankle.

Oh, in other news, I'm (UNFORTUNATELY as you'll see) leaving beautiful old Chiswick on the west-side tomorrow. It's a suburb with small parks, trees, expensive houses, sweet little cafes, and trendy shops. Oh and a mix of Mercs, Jeeps, and Range Rovers getting around.... AND soon-to-be added: ROBBIE WILLIAMS!!! Dammit!! Why am I leaving now?!!

Oh well, I'm sure I'll be near some other celebrities in Camberwell - maybe Snoop Dogg's cronies....

Ok, so that's about it for now. Back to work tomorrow... It's been quite enjoyable working for Defra but in my opinion, there are quite a few major inefficiency issues! But the people that work in my area are all quite friendly (if reserved) and I'm looking forward to participating in the Defra Sports Day on June 15th. I'm a member of the mixed volleyball team and of course the drinking team. Should be a great day - I'm in charge of buying the matching shirts for the uniforms though, so had better get onto it!

A couple of days ago I got all dressed up in a school uniform (care of the local 2nd hand shop with £1 ties) and went along with Rez and her friends (mainly from the Hammersmith house) to celebrate her birthday.

It was a relatively fun night - except for some earlybird departures, some weird emotions experienced by a few at the sight of so many hundred people in school uniforms, and my slipping over and going A-over-T every 5 minutes. (I had some massive bruises in many parts...)

Anyway, enough talk - check out the photos!!

Some good old-fashioned handball! Ahh the memories

The attendees (or should I say 'returning students')... plus Rez (on the bottom right) with her giant blowup willy - c'mon we all need one of those!!!

Some posing in between some pre-Disco drinks

Claire and Maree

On the tube to the Forum (Kentish Town)

Staying awake...?

Being naughty!...

Getting down...

And getting lost among all the other identicals!...

I've had an absolute ball with the guys at the Hammersmith house - Rez, Az, Maree, Bridge, Leigh, Robyn, Dylan, Taafs you've all been amazing!! Thanks for your room Leah :)

My review of the first theatre event I attended with Lei, Jane & Tamsin on Friday (18/05).


After being in london for a few months I decided it was time to partake in a bout of theatre going - to really warm me up to the idea I organised three other girlfriends to see 'The thing about Men'. What a brilliant, joyous time it provided to us busy girls at the end of stressful weeks (one had just resigned from her work, one is a press officer for a company so is constantly on the go, and the other had been designing and selling carpet all week). We met at Angel tube and walked the quick 5 minutes up Upper St in search of local fare. A boystrous 'hello gorgeous... best pizza and pasta in town?' from the young lad at La Forchetta and we were up for some quick Italian. Total bill of £32 for 4 including one round of drinks saw us on our way.

The Kings Head is a small theatre, pleasingly ramshackle to the eye, but obviously steeped in history. With photos of the famous who have performed (including Dame Judy Dench) and the stage lights above the bar we felt instantly transported to an eccentric and expressive placce. The ticket lady with fluorescent hair inspired a remark from one of my lady friends 'I bet she's from Camden'... We were told that we would be in the first group that entered when the bell above the bar rang, and we could take in drinks (hey hey, my kind of place). Number one mistake - not asking whether there was interval or loos close by (the front-of house ones were underground and smelly). So we all opted for no drinking while being entertained. And entertained we were!

I never could have thought that 5 people on a stage could entertain so cleverly, brilliantly and hilariously. With a believable story-line of high-flyers having affairs and housewives feeling neglected as a backdrop, the true gems of the show were revealed - along with some moral highlights along the way.

Jokes, great directing, light-on but effective saxophone, flute, piano and guitar, and quite a few camp moments brought the audience up. And an over-the-top French restauranteur is always a good source of laughs.

The ending song 'you can't have it all' brought us back to earth with a sadness that the show was over. What a great night!!

I guess it makes sense that in such a big area as London (metropolis population ~7.5mill) there are going to be lots of loonies, fraudsters and criminals. It has been a weird week really. I'm writing this from a lovely room in west London that I was originally going to rent until the time I left for Brissie in August...

However, the day I was due to move in I got a text saying that the landlord had decided the room renter wasn't allowed to sublet (with the majority of my stuff already in the room mind, coz I'd moved it over the weekend). Now this was very strange considering I'd been told about the room months before and the landlord had even asked for a reference from my work to move in... Anyway, the short of it is that the landlord is apparently some 70+ year-old crazy Indian who is known for making snap decisions, yelling at his tenants, and then forgetting about the whole thing the next day.

So here I am... Still here, a sitting duck, just trying to find another place to move into, with nice housemates and a NORMAL situation... Don't really know if you get that here though... It's Saturday night right? Why am I blogging? Because I was due to leave in ten minutes to meet Lei in at Oxford Circus for dinner and then we're going to her friend's birthday party in some fancy club... But I've just been told we'll have to catch up a bit later because Lei and her housemates are having a house meeting - I dont' know the full story yet but it involves one housemate, who's currently (allegedly) in Ireland for the weekend, leaving his room suspiciously empty, and missing possessions from other housemates...

What is with this crazy place?

Some more photos from Seville....
The busker. One of those guys who plays then expects a euro in return... He was pretty good though and obliged me with a photo :)

Beautiful Plaza de España. There is a tiled alcove named after each of the provinces of Spain. According to a few websites, people like to get their photos taken in front of their home province. I did notice as I started off at 'Z' and had to keep moving up the alphabet as keen Spaniards identified their provinces!

These ladies were looking fantastic for the festival and they asked me to film them riding around in the carriage with their video camera. After I'd done my service they offered me a pic in their carriage. Lovely!

Yes, they do make a good photo!

The festival grounds - lovely lights and many dressed up people parading around.

More parading... lookin gorgeous...

More of the awesome rides. Is that a kangaroo??

Another pic from the Alcazar.

Alcazar garden... I really wished I lived here!

The owner of the bar 'Glassy' and Pat, a Canadian bloke I met lost in the streets with me...

The boulevard around Cadiz, a town south of Seville, on the coast. Goes on forever, you can walk by the sea for hours...

Getting some sun :)

The lovely cathedral in Cadiz. Not sure of the red ramp though. I had a lovely coffee and toast deal from Ben and Jerry's here while listening to a guy play the guitar and sing... Loved it.

Hola from Seville, Spain. Yep, another go at a country I´ve been to before (c´mon it was about 6 months ago!).

Got a few days off work so booked a cheap Ryan Air flight (just under £60 (~$150AUD) return) to Seville. Right in time for a flamenco festival called ´la Feria de Abril´. Its a festival held in an area of Seville called Feria and it´s in April... Anyway, lots of drinking and eating and people all dressed up heading to marquees to dance flamenco and drink and eat... and drink some more. I booked a pension from the airport (30€/nt) and headed into town. My Spanish is non-existant and English-speakers in Seville seem to be too, so it was great that an American student showed me where to go when I got off the bus.

It was lovely and warm and I was enjoying the thought of sunshine for a few days!!! Miguel and I walked past the cathedral and the gates to the Alcazar - the Spanish Royal Residence reputed for its fabulous gardens - it was a beautiful walk punctuated by the click clack of horses hooves on stone from the numerous carriages getting around.

Found my pension (eventually - believe me, the streets here are as challenging, if not more so, than Venice!) and then found a cafe for some lunch.

I reminisced about Greece as I ordered calamari and had a couple of Coca Colas in the gorgeous sunshine. The waiter apparently liked me because he had various conversations with me in Spanish while I said 'non ablo Espanol' - who knows what he said to me! He presented me with a courting gift of a bowl of olives, which I non-graciously asked the price of. 'Free for you..' Then with questions about whether I had a phone, I discovered what the time was and that I had better be on my way...

Back to my cute single room, glass of wine, fresh strawberries and then BLISS - had a nap! I´m in the land of seistea after all right? Then being Friday night it was out to La Feria to check out the dancers. And what a wonderful atmosphere! There were hundreds of rides too and frankly I will never look at the Ekka again and think it´s any good in that department!


After a late night and a couple of lovely red wine and lemonade mixes I eventually found my pension. A brilliant sleep-in and it was time to wander some more around Seville and I went back out to the flamenco festival on Saturday night.

I tried a few more conversations with people with a Spanish 'hello... do you speak English'... but I didn't get very far. If I didn't know before that I like my own company - I definitely know now. I am even good at making myself laugh... But let's not go there (no matter how I explain it, I can see the smiling and slow nodding with a 'rightio then..' going on right now).

On Sunday I lined up for ages to go into the Alcazar. I overheard some 20-something girls speaking English in front of me so I piped up with a super-cool 'so I heard you speaking English...'. They must've forgiven me for any weird behaviour they noticed because we ended up getting on like a house on fire. Lucy grew up in 'a little village north of London'... 'yes?? which one' - ABBOTS LANGLEY it turned out to be... Where I stayed with my great-aunt. Crazy.. And Sharmila lives in Turnham Green - where I am going to live!! How very coincidental!

Right, so onto the cultural information - the Alcazar is the royal residence for the Spanish royals when they stay in Seville. I bet they must get annoyed with the 100s of tourists checking out their mosaics, gardens and fountains though! It really is a lovely place.

More pics coming....