London Days Out!

Last weekend was jam packed with all things to do with London. Saturday was an early start as we were heading into Leicester Square for 'West End Live' (a free event), unfortunately our bus was running a little behind schedule so we didn't make it there until half an hour after the start, which seemed on the bus not such an issue. But upon arriving at the Square we were to find 2 giant lines of people waiting to get in. Bugger. Luckily, Emme and Kit were also late, unfortunately thought, Chris and Kat and 2 friends of theirs had been a wee bit smarter and had arrived early and were already in! However our line up (45 mins!) was fine as there were screens all around and we could still see and hear what was going on inside. And I can hear you saying, Nicky what is West End Live? Well my dear friends, it is where some of the musicals in West End get up on stage and sing a few songs from their wonderful productions and us, the public who are too poor to go and see them all, can feel like we're not missing out. Some were a little disappointing due to their lack of costume and song choices (Sister Act) and others were fab (Jersey Boys, Thriller). All the good ones finished by 1pm and so we all left and headed off for lunch where afterwards we hit up the National Portrait Gallery (one of my last things to tick off my London List) and I finally got to see the portraits of the Tudors whom I have been reading up on since being over here, such a scandalous bunch they were! We did head back to the West End Stage to see the London Men's Gay Choir, the biggest in Europe for an entertaining 3omins. We also got to see Stomp which was freakin' awesome...I want to be like them, they're so buff!

This then brings me to the next adventure of the day, catching up with Kimmy and Emme with quite a few pints and £1 burgers. Could you ask for a better end to a day?? Kimmy had been travelling around Europe for the last 6 weeks so we had lots to catch up on. We all left that evening for our night trains before they shut suitable tipsy. Well I was anyway!

Sunday we were up early again to meet Kimmy in the city for a full day of sightseeing! Kimmy had already seen most of it when she had arrived at the beginning of her 6 week trip but the one thing she hadn't done in which I needed a partner in crime for....the London Eye! The line up was huge but it moved quite quickly. Liz left us in the hope that she had 3 hours of freedom but not so! We had lined up, got our tickets, lined up again and went for our flight in just over an hour! I can't say that it was the most exciting thing that I have done in London, it moves quite slowly and there are about 15 other people in your capsule so you don't get a perfect view the whole time. But we had a lovely clear day so we got to see everything and as much as all cities look the same from up high, it was still fantastic to be up there.

We caught back up with Lizzie and decided our next stop was Harrods where our highlight was the luxury toilets (that's right, luxury! and not up to Kimmy's standards at all, hehe) and Oxford St. Since it was a nice day, we walked to both places. It was quite a walk as we went past Buckingham Palace and though Hyde Park. This was much preferable to the stinky, dirty, old tubes. By the time we finished we were buggered and stopped in at a pub for a roast dinner. Delish! Another great end to a fabulous day. Thanks Kimmy!!

Punting in Oxford

One dreary Sunday morning Em, Kit, Liz and I left London and set off for Oxford. Our first stop (well mine and Liz's) was a freshly brewed coffee before boarding our train and Kit being so lovely and organised had bought the paper to be divided up among us for the short train trip, the sport pages of course being the most sort after! Oxford as most of you know is a University town and is made up of lots of different colleges and we were so lucky as to have our very own personal guide of the town as Kit had gone to Oxford for his studies.

The main event for coming to Oxford though was to go punting. This is a boat which is kind of like a canoe cross gondola and it has a huge long metal pole - the punt - which you use to push and steer you through the canals. This was so much fun! Kit of course took the pole first to give us all a lesson on how to punt then it was Emme's turn, she did a pretty fine job and managed to only run us into a few trees. I had a go and my forte was not running into trees but into the banks of the canal, but I have to say with the pole being more than twice my height I think I did a pretty good job. Liz had the crucial job of actually stopping Em and I from crashing more than we did by using the oar in the boat to guide the boat...I dare say, without her help Em and I may of had more run ins or worse, ended up in the canal!! And we actually had beautiful weather there, as I mentioned at the beginning, it was a miserable rainy day in London and the same had been predicted for Oxford but as luck would have it, the clouds were left behind and we actually got quite a fair bit of sun, especially for our punting expedition which was lovely as we were able to relax in the sun while Kit did all the hard work of moving us around the canal :)

We also managed to get a squiz inside one of the colleges as Kit showed us around his. They are so nice.My favourite are the lush green lawns that they all have, it made me want to go to sleep on them (unfortunately it had rained that morning and instead of being just soft and inviting they would have been cold and squelchy). And get this, at Oxford you are tutored on a one on one basis or sometimes two on one. No wonder they produce such smart cookies, unlike good ol' QUT and UQ with a twenty five to one ratio!!

The rest of the day was spent wandering around, having lunch and coming across a boost juice which made our day, especially Em's who could finally show Kit what a real smoothie was supposed to taste like!! haha All in all a great day out with great mates and some sunshine.