WEEK 13 - LONDON - sunday 18 july - monday 19 july 2010

sunday today, and we met up with my friend Leanne and her boyfriend, she has been living over here for the last few years. we enjoyed a lovely stroll to the london eye, big ben, and westminster, then headed back to the waterfront to enjoy a stroll. 

it is so stinking hot, and we were forced to stop for cider [yet again another place that doesnt accept visa, travellers beware - the whole of europe will hate your credit card and demand cash. when you try to get cash out, the machines are few and far between, and when there is one, if its not out of order, it may just decide to hate you and not work for your card. we take the amount of cash machines in nz for granted! and the fact that everyone accepts visa]
we discovered this really yummy swedish cider, and we were hungry, so after another short stroll, we found another eatery and had snacks with more cider. yum!

we headed off at 5pm to go and meet another friend that i havent seen in aaaages, the lovely Alison, and we went to a nice bar and had iced coffee frappe thingys with kahlua in them, yum! hooray for happy hour. its been so nice to catch up with friends and just chill out. we cruised home and pigged out on scrummy sushi that hiriko made for us and just had a nice quiet evening :)

monday, last day in london! the time has gone so quickly! i spent the morning emailing, working and colour correcting travel piccies, and getting a few more pics of karika

then we headed out with hiriko for a frappe, then cruised over to hyde park to meet jo currie for a walk in the park, which was super lovely! then cruised out to aaaages away to the apple store to get me a new battery, cause my current one swelled up and became useless, so were able to swap it for a brand new one, even with no warranty or proof of purchase, just needed to make an appointment to take my laptop in! hooray! and they said if this new battery does the same thing, to take it and the receipt into apple, and swap it again for a new one. hooray! go apple! :)
then home, with the trains being delayed due to a fire at one of the stations, so a 45min journey took us an extra hour, not cool!, but we made it home in time to do our packing, hooray! new york tomorrow woohoo! :)

WEEK 12 - LONDON - wednesday 14 july - saturday 16 july 2010

today we left holland. henk and marina took us to the train station at 6am, where we caught the train to schiphol, then brussels, went through customs easy as pie, chilled out for an hour in the nice cafe, the caught the eurostar to london. we arrived at 12.30, then caught the tube to josephs friends alex and hirikos house in wimbledon. its a really nice area. we caught up with hiriko, then went and met jo currie at the mall for a coffee and to watch eclipse. oh my gosh, it was so good to see someone from home, and to drink a flat white for the first time in 3 months [the cafe Sacred is run by kiwis], and go to the movies. we headed home and hung out with alex which was cool, since we havent seen him since we went to japan last year.

on thursday we went with hiriko and their baby karika to the mall where we went with jo [westfields london] and spent the day there looking around. its so huge! we enjoyed nice coffees, pretzels, lunch and window shopping, and they had great mothers rooms for hiriko to feed karika, which was really nice]. she is such a good baby, and charmed all the commuters on the commute home on the tube.

friday today, and we spent the day sorting out our trip to new york and trying to find accommodation, which is proving tough, but we managed to find something apparently half decent in the city for $800 for 5 nights, so we’ll see how it goes. ive got a splitting headache, so im feeling rather anti-social today :(

saturday today, and with headache almost gone, we are off on a family outing to the portobello markets. goodness me they are crowded! its like christmas in downtown auckland but worse! 

we inched down the street, then gave up trying to navigate the stroller through the crowds, and went to mini china town and had shanghai food for lunch, yum yum, wonton soup and satay beef [which had chillis in it - whaaaaaaaaaat!?!]
we spent the afternoon strolling through hyde park and enjoying the sunshine and the gorgeous scenery.

and stopped to take a few quick family snaps :)



we cruised home and had a snooze [still trying to shake the evil headache], then headed out to cam and michelles farewell drinks, our kiwi friends who are heading back home after living here for a while. [and i get to shoot their wedding in january, exciting!] :)