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Monday 5 June 2006
Goodness me, it’s June already. Six
months until I’m scheduled to return home to New Zild. And it’s going
to go very, very quickly, I can tell. Already June’s diary is full (four
birthday parties on four successive Saturdays!); I am planning a trip to Africa in September/October sometime; I want to go
on another diving trip, perhaps back to Egypt and then, well, it will be about time to go.
Scary stuff.
I had quite a nice, quietish week last week which was a relief after all the travelling. Eram and I caught up for a good goss on Tuesday evening and then I had two nights
in a row at home! Unheard of. On
Friday night I went with Marie and co to a gig at Brixton Academy
– Fat Freddy’s Drop, a NZ band. It wasn’t really my thing but
it was fun to try it out. Saturday was a lovely day and I was up and walking
to the gym by 10am! After a killer workout I braved the crowds at Asda before
sunning myself for a couple of hours on Clapham Common. I finished my book and
then just lay there watching the innumerable plans flying overhead towards Heathrow.
On Saturday night Anthony came around for dinner and then we went down the road to Tanya’s
30th birthday celebrations, just before she heads off the Mexico
and NZ for 5-6 weeks. I was well-chuffed to take Anthony out and show him off
a bit and wow, he can dance! We spent Sunday lazing about and then we went to
play snooker with his mate – I wasn’t TOO bad at it!
Monday 12 June
I am hoping that it’s safe to say that summer is here! It has been hot, hot, hot for the past few days, around 28-30 degrees.
Fabulous!
Last week was a good social one with me catching up with Nerissa on Tuesday, Jen on Wednesday
and cousin Lauren and Julian on Friday at the comedy club, along with Anthony. On
Saturday I was out for a boogie and a drink with Toni, who’s back in town for a few weeks. It was great to see her. On Sunday Anthony took me to a local
park (a proper one with trees and things, not just a “common”!) for a lovely picnic. We lay on the grass late into the afternoon without even thinking about it getting cold, which is such
a treat.
So in all a busy week socially but dead quiet at work still. This has given me the chance to do some serious research on some more holidays – namely Africa! I am planning a three week trip to Kenya and Tanzania in October and I think I’ll be ready
to commit and book (and probably pay, damn it!) later this week. The primary
reason for choosing Tanzania in particular is that I have a World Vision
sponsored child (a little girl called Anna) in Tanzania
and I hope to go and visit her. My visit to Silesi, my sponsored girl in India, was one of the most memorable and incredible experiences
of my life, so I really want to do it again!
Thursday 22 June 2006
Last week was a funny sort of a week. Eram
cancelled our dinner plans on Monday so Anthony and I decided to try out his new BBQ seeing it had been such a lovely day. And yes, we enjoyed our charcoaled vege kebabs and oven-grilled sausages at about
10pm….. I then took the day off on Tuesday as I awoke with a sore
throat, headache and that raspy cough that I so dread. I still have a cold at
the moment but hopefully it will go soon (isn’t that what I hoped last year when I was sick for six weeks?!)
I did nothing much for the rest of the week and then met with Toni on Friday night for
memory-invoking drinks at the Tattershall Castle and Temple Walkabout. On Saturday night Anthony came with me to Bianca’s birthday drinks and got rather overwhelmed with
the sheer number of kiwis all in one place I think!
This week Eram and I met for our rescheduled catch up and last night I went to my first
Ceroc class! Ceroc is partner-dancing in the style of jive and salsa (so they say)
and Anthony has been doing it for a few months. I love it! Anthony had given me a private lesson last week and so I had some idea of what was going to happen. I think
I was quite good! I am really looking forward to lots more dancing! Who would have thought?!
I’ve booked my holidays to Africa (three weeks to Kenya
and Tanzania, including visiting my World Vision sponsored child) and a
week’s diving in the Canary Islands in September.
I’ve also booked myself on a dry-suit diving course so that I can get a taste of cold-water UK diving before I go home (where NZ’s water is also
quite cold I’m told!). I would like to fit in another mini break or two
between now and September but I’m not really sure if it’s going to happen.
In many ways I’m not too bothered now as I have seen so much of Europe, so we’ll
see what happens.
Tuesday 4 July 2006
You know it’s got too hot when you’re looking forward to the forecast thunderstorms! I know, I really hate winging about hot weather, but it is really quite unpleasant
right now! It’s gonna be 32 degrees today and while it’s not too
bad here at work with windows open, blinds down and fans blowing, my little flat is not handling it at all well. I have three lovely big windows that face the sun all day and the air just does not circulate. It’s rather grim at home right now.
But I’ll try and make the most of it! I
met Eram and Susannah for a picnic in Green Park last night
which was a lovely way to enjoy the heat. Tonight I’m off to dinner on
the water front to catch up with Laura who is town for a couple of weeks.
Anthony and I went to Cardiff and South
Wales at the weekend, taking Friday off work to travel there, and taking a ridiculously long time to do it! It does seem that journeys west take a lot longer than they should. We left on Friday morning and eventually made it to Cardiff
in time to shower and head to the town to see CATS! That was the main reason
for the trip; I did see CATS last year but I loved it and thought I’d take advantage of the chance to see it once more. It was worth the journey.
On Saturday we did some shopping in Cardiff town, did a
tour of the rather cool castle and then drove off to explore some of South Wales. It was really fun to be travelling by car for a change and to be able to just stop off where we pleased. We discovered some cute little villages although there was one that we just couldn’t
seem to get out of, which started to cause some frustration after a while! The
Twilight Village
we called it… After some good old fish and chips for tea we drove back
up into the hills and found – a lovely flat sheep paddock in which to pitch our tent!
It was so fun to be “wild” camping with just us, the view of the hills, some sheep and an awful lots of
flies (?) for company. I had the best night’s sleep I’ve had in a
long while, which I’m attributing to the air mattress and the complete silence outside.
I last wrote on 22 June – since then I caught up with Toni again at the Slug in
Fulham for her birthday on Friday and then went to Marie’s birthday drinks on the Saturday (what is it with all the
kiwi birthdays in June!?). Anthony took me to a fabulous country pub for a long,
late lunch on Sunday and we enjoyed the empty garden bar while the football was on!
Last Wednesday I went to my second Ceroc evening and enjoyed it, although typically of me, I got very frustrated when
I couldn’t get the moves right first time! Practise, practise! I’ll go again this Wednesday and see how I go!
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Tuesday 11 July
This past weekend was spent in the Lake District for Kat and Andy’s wedding. I
travelled up to Manchester by train on Thursday night and
stayed with their friends who then took me across to Ambleside on Friday morning. The
wedding was on Friday. Although the weather had been stupidly hot down south
all week, it was unfortunately (or fortunately?) overcast on Friday although the sun came out just minutes before the ceremony. It was just a lovely ceremony, held outside, with some lovely readings including one
from Winnie-The-Pooh! The afternoon and evening were taken up with the party
which was great, with fabulous food and tear-jerking speeches.
On Saturday it was a chill-out day. Some
of us took a short walk up the Langdale hills and earned a snooze in the afternoon!
I came back to London on Sunday afternoon and caught
up with Anthony for dinner on Sunday. I have been totally spoilt by him as he
took me out for dinner again yesterday! I don’t think he realised at the
time that it was three months yesterday since Anthony and I met at speeddating. Who
would have thought?! I don’t have too many plans for this week, other than
Ceroc of course on Wednesday (I’ve been the last three weeks and thoroughly enjoyed it and am really quite pleased that
I seem to be not-too-bad at this dancing thing!) Anthony has suggested a night
camping at the weekend after we had fun doing that two weekends ago, so I’m looking forward to that, on the South East coast. Work is really busy at the moment as
I am preparing for a seven day High Court hearing that starts next week, regarding the shaken baby case that I have. It will be interesting to see it come together finally, 13 months after the injuries
occurred to the baby.
Monday 17 July
It’s gonna be another hot week, with up to 35degrees the next couple of days. Bah! I don’t like having to be
in the office when it’s like that! Or in the High Court where I hope to
be most of this week, on my shaken baby case. It should be an interesting week
of hearing some detailed expert medical evidence about fractures, haemorrhages and skull swelling…
I spent this past weekend with Anthony. We
headed down to Hastings on Saturday where he had a job to do and then had a late lunch with his parents. Yep! Met the parents! Then we went further along the coast and camped for Saturday night.
Sunday was glorious and I had my first day at the English seaside. It
was much nicer than expected and the water was even almost warm!
Sunday 30 July 2006
It’s been a fairly crap week or so, as Anthony and I have
broken up. It was short and sweet but not to be, so I am once again single. I have been trying to keep busy and keep my mind off it and luckily I had a busy week
planned last week anyway. It’s also all the more reason to get myself organised
for my remaining four months here – I’ve still got loads of things to cross off my List of 100 Things to do in
London. It’s been so hot here in the last couple of weeks that I am really not feeling
much like doing anything but hopefully the weather stay a little cooler, like today.
Last weekend I went to the IMAX cinema and saw the 3D movie Deep Sea, which was
just fantastic. I really had to sit on my hands to stop myself from reaching
out to touch the fish! Keeping with the theme (!), I also went to the cinema
and saw aussie film Little Fish.
I was in the High Court again most of the week, as our seven day
hearing turned into a ten day one. We got the findings we were seeking (that
mother had shaken the baby) so I guess you can say we “won” although it isn’t really like that. Our barrister took us out for lunch on Friday, so that was a win at least ;-).
On Monday evening I met up with Jennifer and Laura and her boyfriend
in Putney for a comedy show. It was quite funny and it was good to see Laura
who was visiting from Australia. On Thursday
Ben and I had a good old catch up here in Clapham Junction, sampling the local noodle scene, downing a few pints and having
a great goss. Yesterday Jennifer and I met again at Borough Market (on my list
of things to do!) and wandered around there and then had an early dinner on the Southbank.
On Wednesday night and again today I have been continuing with my
diving and have now just completed PADI’s Dry Suit Diver Specialty course. We
did the pool dives on Wednesday night and the two open water dives today in a very murky, and rather warm, reservoir in West London called Wraysbury. It’s a bit different
diving purely for the purposes of a course (rather than to see the sights), but it was good nonetheless. The best bit was
that I was able to put to good use my new pieces of dive kit (purchased on the internet this week) – a very nice ladies’
BCD and a gorgeous baby blue dive computer. Cool!
I am also hoping to book myself on another diving holiday tomorrow, for August.
I’ve saved some cash what with no longer taking Anthony to the Canaries in September, so I figure I’ll
treat myself to a second holiday for myself instead!
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