Saturday, September 17, 2011

Markets, Mexican & a musical

We went into London for the day again yesterday. Left a bit later than last week, and by the time we took 3 underground trains to Camden Town it was already something like 11.30am. I LOVE the Camden area, it's so funky and really different from inner London. We explored the market and the stalls along the way; Janet & I both bought dresses for about £12... I tried mine on last night, it is so tight across the chest I honestly don't know who it could fit. But we'll see how we go.

Alex & I had come to Camden when she was here so I sort of knew it, and I took the others to the foody area along the river/canal, where you fill a box with whatever Japanese/Indian/Chinese you want for £4 or £5. I got a vegie burrito this time with chickpeas on the side; so filling, I was not even hungry by the time dinner came around! Anyway, so we sat in pretty much the same place Alex & I had, on the edge of the river then explored the smaller market area there. I finally bought a belly ring! I haven't taken my original out since I got it done almost 2 years ago, and I'm a little scared to in case I can't get it back in.

We headed over the road where there were more of the same food places plus lots of (semi) permanent places selling cool things. We came across 'The Stables' which you would've loved Dad, all these horse statues at the entrance to another market-y section. I'm kinda regretting not getting a pair of round tortoise-shell sunnies but oh well.

We took the tube straight to Leicester Square to find out about shows. Most of the good discounted ones were sold out (we need to go much earlier next time) and we ended up with tickets for Jersey Boys.

We sought out a Maccas to make use of a free toilet and a place to relax for a bit, then Janet went to find a park to sleep in again & we went off in the direction of the Tate. While walking to Green Park for the tube station, we turned into Regent St instead of continuing down Picadilly (sounds like a Monopoly game, hey?) and decided we couldn't be bothered looking at art and just felt like a wander. The buildings in this street seemed extra big and grand (forgot to mention, I didn't have my camera as all my memory cards were still full from Summer, but it wasn't too bad, just a little lighter than usual!). We stopped in Zara just to see if they had anything more than the High Wycombe store, then in this big toy store called Hamleys, as they had all this Harry Potter stuff in the window. The main attraction was that they sold all the characters' wands, with or without illuminated tip.

We turned up Carnaby Street, which was a bit quieter than being on the main road. We needed a coffee break so we found an expensive-ish cafe called the Garden Cafe, which we thought would have a garden out the back. It didn't but our hot chocolates/teas weren't too bad.

We headed back to Chinatown to meet Janet for dinner. Apparently the place they ate at last time for dinner was disappointing, but we ended up next door, and not even sure what ethnicity it was. I just had a soup which was nice and a little bit of Caitlin's huge fried rice (poet right here). Then we went on a search for the theatre, the Prince Edward. Greer left to go back and we sat in the bar for 20 mins or so until the doors opened.

I can't quite work out if or how much I liked Jersey Boys. It was definitely different from other musicals, as they didn't just burst into song to tell the story, they only sang songs as actual 'performances' like in their real life story. I also hated the main guy's voice, I know it's meant to be high but it was just so harsh. I'd like to know if Frankie Valli's voice was actually that unlikeable. I was bopping along by the end of it though.

We headed back as soon as it finished and got back just after 11pm, then went straight to bed.

This morning I was half planning to go for a run but I was just so exhausted I stayed in bed till 10.30am. I started work at 12.30pm, and the afternoon's activity was decorating flower-shaped photo frames, which are going to hold portraits of the girls I've been taking over the last few days. We haven't done much else, but now we're watching Megamind and eating popcorn (Caitlin brought me back some chocolate popcorn from Tesco in town which I discovered the other day when Janet & I went to see Friends With Benefits). Tomorrow we head to a safari park, so that should be good, even if exhausting.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

First weekend of final term

Had a fairly good weekend. I worked Saturday morning and for 'Saturday Morning Club' (like a creative class) we got the girls to find pictures in magazines/off the internet of things they liked and make collages, then cut the collage into the shape of another favourite thing. We were actually really impressed with some of them. Don't know if I mentioned at the start of the year, but the art done by the girls at this school is just amazing, so above the standard you would expect from up-to-14 year olds. We didn't really get up to much else, lunch came and my shift ended :)

I went down to town with Aisling, we just did a bit of a Primark jewellery scavenge and ended up with a couple of things each. Speaking of jewellery, one of my girls from last year who's now in an older house gave me a ring the other day, which she thought was 'really my style' and I love it. So sweet!

We headed into the shopping centre and came across some random fashion show. We watched a few struts then moved on. It was a bit rainy so we headed for Tesco, got some drinks in case we decided to go out (we didn't). On the way to get a taxi (hey, alcohol is heavy) we popped into a new place where everything is £10 or under and I got yet another skirt and Aisling got a top for £5 each. Score! And obviously a trip into town isn't complete without a visit to Poundworld, and I was not disappointed - came out £2 poorer with 2 packs of Halloween false nails!

I tried to clean my room for over an hour then headed over to the flat to join Aisling and Rose, with my bed completely covered with piles of random crap. We watched How I Met Your Mother and Friends and just generally chilled. I stayed over since I couldn't be bothered going back at any stage.

This morning I slept till 10am then went for a run. I know! I'd brought all my running gear over with me last night to motivate myself. It wasn't my best run ever but even the fact that I'm actually out there is, in itself, an accomplishment. Came back and did some stretches, showered, put washing on and tried to fix up my room a bit. Productive morning :)

I started work at lunch time. Lunch was sunday roast as usual, or for us vegetarians, lentil/potato bake. After lunch we had a bit of a relax, the girls did what they wanted, etc. Then we went over to school and played games with the other houses. There were some getting-to-know-you games, which I needed too, considering there are so many new girls! Our new ones are settling in pretty well, apart from the occasional homesickness. They also had to mummify a member of their groups - they looked so good all lined up, wrapped in toilet paper, with jewellery/glasses/lipstick for added effect - and answer some quizzes. Hardly any groups knew the capital of Australia and even less put down Aus as one of the continents. Very disappointed.

Then we had a surprise birthday dinner for Amanda, whose milestone birthday was a couple of weeks ago, in the holidays. It didn't work quite as well as we'd hoped, we weren't quite ready when she came in but it was still good. Dinner itself wasn't that special but Sam had made yummy cupcakes for the staff for dessert. I gave Amanda my present when we got back, 'birthday biscuits' from Fortnum & Mason. A few of the girls decided to raid the dress-up cupboard and came in in scary masks/fluro construction worker vests/silly hats and I ended up with a Santa ho ho ho hat on.

Summer still to come :)

Friday, September 9, 2011

London 090911

Just got back from a day in London, I have to work for a couple of hours tonight (normally our day off) which is disappointing as the others - Janet, Caitlin & Greer - are still there & are seeing Legally Blonde the musical tonight.

We arrived in London about 10.30am and headed for Picadilly Circus, where Caitlin knew of an Australian illustrator's exhibition happening in a little studio. I took them into Fortnum & Mason on the way, where I'd gone with Mum & Dad last week, and is like a less busy/smaller Harrod's. The exhibition was mainly of Shaun Tan, who's from Perth but works in Melbourne, but also some other childrens' illustrators, my fave being Shirley Hughes, who did Alfie and Annie Rose. I got a little bit excited reliving one of my favourite book series as a kid. There were a couple of Wallace & Gromit images in there too.

We went to chinatown and ate at the first place we came across, a Vietnamese restaurant. We were all pretty hungry and were glad the food came quickly. It was really good too, we were all very satisfied. I had rice/vegies/tofu which was actually called 'vegetarian on rice'. Glad it was just a translation error. We were talking about food places in Melbourne Central & QV and this guy at the table behind was like 'are you from Melbourne?' He was flying home tonight, turns out he's actually on Angry Boys, which none of us have seen yet, and was doing promotions over here for a few days. Cool story, huh?

We headed to Leicester Square to get the girls cheap tickets for the show and on the way came across M&M's World! I'd seen a few people carrying around yellow bags from there and was keen to see it for myself. It was basically walls of colour-separated overpriced M&M's, lots of squishy cushions of different coloured M&M's, different toys like M&M's flying a plane, a slot machine, t-shirt with cute things like 'Who's your candy?', big figures of princess/royal/other M&M's, personalised bracelets/keyrings/jewellery (weird right?) and lots more. We were a bit like kids in a candy store - oh, I guess that's exactly what we were - but because of prices didn't get anything.

We realised we hadn't visited platform 9 3/4 yet so we took the tube to King's Cross. There's a little hideout kind of thing, with half a trolley sticking out of the wall so we took a few photos before a big family came. Yay!

We were all getting a bit tired so headed to Green Park and had a bit of a relax. Then we went to Starbuck's, where Caitlin got coffee and we made use of a free toilet then tried to find a Maccas for a shared wanting of McFlurry. We walked past about 5 'Pret's & 2 more Starbucks' and only found our destination when we got back to Picadilly Circus! 3 of us got the limited addition Cookie Crumble Galaxy McFlurry and then sat downstairs for a bit. It was mainly my feet in new, slightly heeled boots rather than tiredness but we all wanted to sit. Pretty sad. It was 4pm, Janet went to find a park to relax in, the others headed back to Tr. Square to get obligatory shots with/of the big lions and I came back here.

So we didn't really actually get much done but still it was exhausting. We're all agreed on making the most of our time off this term, mostly to London but next time we have to have more of a plan!

I will try and do a brief overview of summer very soon... which was FANTASTIC by the way!