So, the 52nd English prime minister is now in office. A big goodbye to Tony Blair after 10 years.

You've probably seen some of the footage of the flooding in the UK?? Pretty terrible stuff really - some areas got a month's worth of rain in 24 hours and it is apparently the wettest June on record!!! Johnno and I saw some rain on the weekend in Worcestershire and Gloucestershire but nothing like the chaos some have experienced in Sth Yorkshire and the Sheffield areas... Anyway, Johnno and I took a weekend out of London just gone. And what better plan than a roadtrip in the Mondeo. Yes, Lei was sadly missing but I don't really care to mourn that much coz she's off having a brill time exploring the UK, Russia, Latvia, Spain etc. with her sister... lucky woman!

Anyway, after Johnno managed to find his way from East London (East-17 actually - yes where the band got their name from... 'Everybody... everybody in the house of love'...) to south London it took another hour to get out of Central London. Too many traffic lights! Then headed north-west towards Birmingham. Not before stopping off at Stratford-upon-Avon - a touristy town, sure, but lovely!! Obsessed with Shakespeare. JT and I enjoyed our chuckles in response to the 'informative' signs about the possibility that John Shakespeare's father's dog might have done such and such at some time.
People people everywhere....

Yes, a swan and it's cignets... Don't get to close or it'll go ya!

As we drove out of Stratford-upon-Avon, we saw signs for Mary Arden's house - William Shakespeare's mother's childhood home. It's basically a few buildings that have been restored to some degree, farm animals, people dressed up in Elizabethan-style clothes, and (THE HIGHLIGHT) a falconry display. Apparently falconry was something supported by royalty as entertainment as well as a hunting technique. Even with Johnno constantly nattering about him buying a falcon or training up some Aussie peregrines, I really enjoyed seeing the show. The falconer sent the bird off who rapidly caught a thermal up, up and up. Then after some coaxing, the bird (a Saker falcon, IUCN Endangered - for those who want to know) slowly circled above us before embarking on his amazing descent. Basically he tucks his wings in and drops at high speed (I'm talking like 300km/hr... Is that right Johnno?) towards the ground and smashes his prey - birds, not ground-dwellers, as he'd be in trouble if he went shooting towards the ground for a rabbit or something.... Anyway, it was very impressive and the bird is gorgeous!!
The very informative falconer worried about the grey skies...

Saker flying past after trying to get the 'prey' on the end of the falconer's rope.

What a gorgeous animal! particularly as it tears apart the corpse of a day-old chick...
Johnno and I then continued north to the city of Birmingham, the UK's second-largest city. Apparently it's somewhere that doesn't have many tourist activities but it's a great party place. And, we found an awesome Indian restaurant!! I can never remember what my dishes are called but I had some lamb and spinach sauce thing. Johnno almost choked on his first mouthful due to the heat but a couple of beers helped with all that... Afterwards, our stuffed bellies and the rest of our bodies finally found a backpackers which was actually rooms in a pub that is open during the week... Not the cleanest room I've been in and I had to have a shower with the largest spider I've seen in the UK bouncing around in the cubicle (ok, he wasn't that big, but still, I don't like spiders that much!). The only 'party' place we went to was a very scary pub - full of very strange people... What else can I say? Anyway, the music was good!

So the next day, we were off south to Tewkesbury - stopped off in town for me to buy some souveneirs and to go to the small local museum. My grandma's family lived for a bit in Tewkesbury (and my Dad was born just west of Birmingham too - in Wolverhampton). Tewkesbury Abbey was great!! Founded in 1100ish to house (Benedictine) monks and then after the dissolution in 1540 most of it was quarried for materials but the Abbey Church was sold to the parishioners for £450. My Dad used to sing here when he was a chorister as a young boy. Lovely!
In the choir pews

The inside of the Abbey

Out in the (very) green garden.

The Abbey and the lovely herb garden.

After Tewkesbury, we headed to Evesham (where my Dad went to school), Broadway (where he lived before he came to Australia), and Bourton-on-the-water (just some pretty town along the way)... Broadway is a lovely little town - VERY TRENDY though. Felt a bit like a really English Maleny... or maybe not... Anyway, great to see (& hear the posh accents).

Outside the Prince Henry's school where my Dad went to school

Broadway High Street

Johnno on one of the Roman bridges in Bourton-on-the-Water.

Anyway, after all that site-seeing we headed back to London. I was pretty tired so didn't mind Johnno reciting Adam Sandler's 'Medium Pace' song...

Off to Wales for a horse riding weekend next. Looking forward to it! Except for this crazy weather....

Yo, yo, bit tipsy. Mid-week too! Great! Something a bit different from the normal 'working' life. Eh... Great night at a club called Pause - their 3rd birthday party and they celebrated with free drinks and food and Cuban music and salsa dancing. Brilliant !!!!!

Anyway, what's new? I have joined Facebook, so if you're a member, bloody well get in touch!!! Facebook is seriously taking over London!!! http://www.facebook.com (Maybe I'll delete this post before anyone sees it :P)

Michelle, congrats on your pregnancy! Can't wait to see you and to be at the wedding, when it happens! So happy for you babe!

To those who are newly single, rejoice in the fact you have time for yourself and you can choose your path in life without being held back :) And you can dance with whoever you want!!

Trevor, the Indian Ringneck, if you're out there reading this, particularly in the Bridgeman Downs area, your owners want you to return home.

Righto, we all know that London is now the 2nd most expensive city in the world after Moscow... so now here are a few things to compare.

• Rent: £350-465/month. This is the range I have paid since renting rooms. Least expensive = flat in Camberwell, most expensive = house in a share-house in Hammersmith.
• Sandwich: Tesco = £1.50-2.50, Sandwich shop = £2.50-350
• Burger at a pub = £8ish
• Pint of beer = £2.60-3.20
• Litre of diesel = £0.98
• Pint of milk = £0.30-0.50
• Bus ticket = £1 (£2 if no Oyster card <-- note get an Oyster card if you come to London, even for a few days as a tube journey that could be £1.50 within zone 1 only would be £4 without an Oyster card)
• Loaf of bread = £0.50-1.50 for posh bread
• Cheap shoes = £5
• Contact lens solution - maybe $13 in Aus is £8 in London
• 200g of no-brand chocolate = £1

Ahhh another Sunday, recovering from little sleep a bit of a Heineken hangover... So what's been happening in my London life...

Yesterday, after a lovely sleep in after the tiring Sports Day, Tash and I went shopping for some new clothes. I bought 2 dresses, a pair of pants and a pair of high heels. The main goal was finding an outfit for Saturday night's activities - namely visiting a reggae and RnB club.

Katy, who lives with Lei and Johnno, came over for a few drinks before the club and she headed home about 12:30am and then it was off to the club... Eventually... didn't get there till 2am! Not the preferred time for me as I was thinking my bed looked quite enticing actually, but it was a pretty cool club. I think most people were from Jamaica - I only saw 2 other white people in the whole club (a couple of women). It was good fun grooving to some reggae and receiving the occasional invitation to dance. This was via a very subtle tap to the elbow and a nod of the head rather than the more outlandish Redback (read: sleazy/loud Aussie/Kiwi bar) way of coming up and yelling out 'hey what's up gorgeous' in sync with somewhat unappealing close dancing... Ok, so that's my honest description :)

And of course some pictures of us looking fine follow... I'm confident I looked awake for a few hours at least... that was until we dragged ourselves out of the club at 5am (in the broad daylight, it was)!!

My (very tall and stunning) flatmate Tash and I (in new dress).

Chilling out on the club couches...

This afternoon, after the sleep in of course, it was off to the Cuban Festival in Southwark Park. Kind of the same as Paniyiri (Greek Festival) in Brisbane except more people, way more party, and LOTS of sexy dancing (Kim, you would have loved it!).

One of the bands getting into it. These guys had never played in the UK before and they went off. Although I had no idea what they were talking about in their Cuban version of Spanish. Although I did very much enjoy the 'One ton Rodeo' song...

The crowd & the smoke from all the barbeques cooking chicken and fish.

What a poser - this bloke loved lifting his shirt and gyrating around the stage!

Hey, back from the Defra Sports Day now where my team won!!! (more below).
Gosh I've had a great couple of weeks!

Settled in at my new flat in Camberwell, on the southside. Very close to work. Living with one girl, Tash, who's brilliant. So then just work, work, work... And of course trying to make the most of what London has to offer.
Some pics from my new place... My room...

View from the kitchen - train line in foreground who's often-running trains surprisingly doesn't bother me, and Big Ben and the London Eye. (Big Ben is about 3 miles away as the crow flies.)

The London Eye lit up at night. Camberwell in the foreground.

Went to A Midsummer Night's Dream at the open air theatre in Regent's Park. Got £13 tickets on lastminute.com and it was brilliant. A great story that we all roughly know, but to see it live with great singers and actors was great. And there were some very funny moments including old mate who got turned part-donkey!!
Look at all those fairies...

Fairies lazing around...

On a weekend, I went to Brighton - on the southern coast of England and the very popular weekend destination. The beach is stony but there are beach chairs for hire. Along the boulevard are small food and market stalls and a couple of pubs with live music were going off. AND I found the beach volleyball court!! What a brilliant afternoon I had playing a bit of beach (with my ad hoc partner Luigi) and amazing myself that I still retain some beach fitness :)
The Pier with the famous rides at the end.

Ahhhh, idyllic!

And other during-the-week activities have included seeing live music and catching up with ex-flatmates. Below Chris, Chris and Steph - from the Chiswick House.

And now... Onto Defra Sports Day. It was on Friday, started at 12pm. It's basically an afternoon of government employees playing games, eating burgers, drinking LOTS of beer. And they get paid for their time (which Agency employees, such as me, don't :( unfortunately). But I truly believe in it being a great day for bonding. Sports included: running, shot put, rounders, soccer/football, netball, cricket, high jump, long jump, tug of war... Anyway, we had a volleyball team put together of men and women from 4 different offices in London. I think we looked pretty smart in our uniforms! £2.50 bargains :) Love it! (Yep, that's what you get when Claire buys the shirts :))
View from the club house towards the volleyball courts.

Woohoo get over that bar!!

The team!! (Minus Surjeet at this stage)

The team (minus Mischa) after collecting our medals and the trophy from Helen Ghosh (permanent secretary).

And another one! thumbs up :)

And now, the much-awaited (yeh I'm sure... all you busy bees!!) pics from the *CRAZY* Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling!! Muddy, silly, kinda pointless but all-in-all very entertaining!!

The view of Coopers' Hill from the bottom

The view down from about half way down... Lovely Cotswold countryside (well the bits you can see in between the cloud and rain).

What an interesting way to survey the quality of the turf...

See, I was definitely there (being sensible).

And lastly, the rose I fell in love with... I've never been a fan of roses (mainly because in Aus you need so many pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, fertilisers, careful chemistry tests, Myers-Briggs tests etc. etc. for roses to grow). BUT these ones (at the Pricknash Abbey) were absolutely gorgeous and I can only describe their smell as citrus cheesecake.... mmmmm heavenly (divine intervention perhaps?)...

Ok, enough about the flowers already - Introducing my first You Tube video - the original looks better on my computer screen but eh, I guess that's the compromise for being able to put it on the web...


And for those of you who have about 6 minutes to spare, I highly recommend viewing this crazy Aussie girl telling Americans how to 'not think - just eat'...