Aimes arrives at one of life's crossroads
In fact, a couple of weeks ago the Super 14 final provided us with our first opportunity to partake in the fabled 'beer before breakfast', as we joined hundreds of young kiwis clutching our plastic pints of beer at the very respectable hour of 8:30 in the AM. While there was something initially off putting about taking our first mouthful of the amber nectar (as Fosters likes to pretend we call it ‘downunder'), as the bar rapidly filled with smoke and the footy kicked off... we started to get the handle of it...
After this we have become much less discerning and the idea of entering a smoke filled pub and downing a beer before lunchtime now seems all part of the sacrifice you have to make for footy!
Portobello Road
Importantly for our ability to eat we have both had some success in the job market, with Hobbes signing his life away to a cold heartless multi-national and Aimes doing some temp work until the head of marketing at Universal decides the time is right for the hand over of power. This in itself has been an interesting experience as it required Hobbes to complete his first week of work in 9 months… although on the up side this also resulted in his first pay check in almost 12 months.
Aimes at 0 degrees longitude
View of a grey London from Grenwich Observatory
As we have arrived just in time for the commencement of summer we have been fortunate enough to witness the very English method of embracing of this new found warmth. We had our first introduction to the English love affair with the sun when we were blinded by something very white and very bright while wandering through a park in Dollis Hill. As we continued we noticed that these brilliantly white domes were scattered all over the park. It was to our horror that we eventually discovered that the source of this was numerous locals who had decided that 25 degrees was too good an offer to not strip down to your undies and sun yourself in a park.
Subsequently we have been witness to numerous similar efforts whenever the sun decides to peek out from behind the clouds for more than 10 seconds. Even the lovely Shepherds Bush Green, located perfectly between three main roads and usually the private retreat of numerous wino's (and surely countless used syringes) fills to overflowing with near naked pasty white bodies at the slightest hint of solar radiation.
Who's a lucky man?
Aimes, Gerg and Rohie, London Field
In this context it was much to our delight that the BBQ we recently attended was located in the East End where it appears they have a more conservative approach to their park activities – sticking to the proven recipe of alcohol only! On this subject, another English past-time we have embraced is the park. While initially seeming a very poor replacement for a beach, on a sunny weekend the London park experience really is the goods. As people pack every corner armed with their disposal bbq’s, beers and footys it really has a strong community feel and ends up seeming like one big backyard. And to think we haven’t even had to survive a winter to enjoy it!
When the BBQ's over...
8pm, London Field - Love that Day light saving!
Being over here has also given us the opportunity to catch up with heaps of people we hadn’t seen for ages, in fact there are so many people over here it feels like there can’t be many back home? Perhaps our view has been skewed by having lived in Vietnam and not being used to having so many people around?
Overall people don’t seem as rude as we were expecting, people have offered us directions a few times, we’ve seen at least one person offer their seat to a pregnant woman on the tube and what’s wrong with sitting at the bus stop while some paramedics wait for an ambulance to take a body away anyways? Going by the tabloid newspapers and police statements posted at the tube stations you would think it was an every day occurrence – it probably is!
City Hall and Tower Bridge
Just to prove our first impressions wrong, London did finally decide to turn on the sunshine for the past week. Though this in itself has caused problems as they definitely are not set up for the heat, on the news they refer to 26 degrees as ‘hot’, which is probably quite accurate as the buildings and tube are not able to cope with even this – bring on the rain and cloud! In place of aircon, even the newest of buildings just have ‘cooling’ which seems to be what we call a ‘fan’ at home. Though it does present the city in another light, everything looks much nicer, and you have to get used to colour rather than just shades of grey.
Aimes in Richmond Park
Not sunny
Although it has been hot, when you find yourself on a balcony of a bar by the Thames in the warm sun of the afternoon (or evening since it doesn’t get dark until 10pm), the hot and sticky tube ride home doesn’t seem like such a bad thing. Yes the brown Thames is starting to seem like a second rate substitute of Sydney Harbour…
Some of Borough Market's produce
More from Borough Markets
Another of the London-must do’s that we have knocked off is a trip to Fabric, where a line up of Freestylers, Stanton Warriors and Plump Djs is the kind of thing you can only dream of in Sydney but is a weekly occurrence over here. Freestylers live has got to be one of the greatest things we have ever seen! On the music front Aimes also made it too Foo Fighters in Hyde Park, we did a Cuban Festival on the Southbank and have Massive Attack back in Hyde Park this Friday. By the time that’s over it might be about time to start lining up for next years Glastonbury?
Daz.
Anyways, June offers to be an interesting month with the Uber-nationalism associated with England’s efforts to repeat their greatest (or perhaps more importantly, sole) effort in the world cup. This will add to the upside of living in Aussies-ville as we can to some extent avoid the constant coverage of St George’s cross without standing out too much.
Tower Bridge
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