Now that we are up to date we are more inspired to keep up with the weekly reports :o)
I was again at the WI this last week, and it was all supposed to come to an end on Friday (as they were supposed to have run out of budget) however, the person in charge of me was able to convince the big boss that they had to have me for another week.....so yet again I am at the WI for another week (this is my 5 ½ th week there!).
This weekend just gone, Bev and I decided to brave the Christmas shoppers at Harrods! We spent an astounding 5 hours there and we could have stayed longer as there was more we hadn’t seen!
Wow Harrods is every bit as extravagant and indulgent as I imagined it would be – however the bit that I hadn’t realised was that there is quite a lot of affordable items there as well, so it’s not just for the superbly rich – however of course we were really only there to check out how the others live! And we weren’t disappointed – what with the £20,000 watches and jewellery, designer label clothing, £4,000 rocking horses, £200 little girl dresses – you get the picture. Not only does Harrods have clothing and perfume and toys like other department stores, but it also has restaurants, and ice cream sundae parlour (of which we couldn’t help but sample the goods from), a bakery, vege department, butchery (carvery), liquor store, pet shop, handmade chocolate stall...mmm yep. Each section impressively set out to the theme of the items sold there – ie the lolly section looked like Willy Wonkas factory etc
The kids section was like every kids dream (as was the lolly section), as they have some really impressive toys and it is huge – so many excitable kids! - see photos below......
Some well-fed Madagascan prawns on the left, and king sized prawns on the right....scarily impressive!Some fine examples of how much you can fork out for normal items:
Fussball table for £7995
£549 for a toilet brush!!!!!!!!....who decides on these prices!?
A bottle of 1986 wine for £650
Christmas crackers £999 for a pack of 6. Thats over £150 a pop...POP!..where'd my money go?
An example of themed layouts:
The chocolate section was like heaven!
Even the staff are dressed to suit the scene
Each colourful tube in the backround is filled with jelly beans
The rich desert we devoured in the themed bar
On Sunday, we decided to get our butts into gear and find a church, so we went to Hillsong, and man it was awesome, it was in a theatre, and it really felt like we were at a rock concert! They had really cool music and everyone was around our age. Will definitely be going back there next week! Heaps of the people involved were Aussies, so it felt a little like home – yep I’m sad to say it, but I am starting to form an affinity for our aussie mates (don’t cough and splutter mum and dad – I am just as surprised) but Renae did say that this will happen, however I was quite sceptical at the time – but she is right, we have all just grown up with similar foods, sayings, and I guess we know the differences between kiwis and Aussies already so it’s all familiar ground – and hey they dipped out of the world cup before we did! :o)
Earlier last week, after a million years of not having a haircut, I decided enough was enough, and set about finding a Hairdresser. However, I nearly died when I saw the exuberant prices they want to charge you for a haircut around here – biting the bullet, I booked in for a haircut at a place nearby. Imagine my surprise when I bowl up to find that the one hairdresser I didn’t like from my last salon in NZ also works in the very same salon I chose to part with my precious pounds at here in London! I mean, of all the chances, I honestly should have taken a lotto ticket – however at least she wasn’t the one cutting my hair! Honestly, this world is far too small!
On Sunday we arranged to have dinner with Dee and Mark (Bev’s cousin and fiancée) as Dee is heading back to NZ for a couple of weeks, then they are heading Spain for Christmas so we won’t see them both together until January.
Bev’s IT work at the bank is starting to run out, which is a little bit of a worry as they said that it would be a three month contract, however it has only been 7weeks....so that is a little unsettling, however at this stage they haven’t given him an end date for the project, but they have another project starting after Christmas, which he may be able to work on, which therefore just leaves a couple weeks over Xmas that he may have to fill with something else – one of his workmates may train him in software installation of Blackberry’s (a type of phone/email/diary organiser for the IT illiterate – not fruit haha).
In a book that we were recommended to read before we came over here, called the Big OE companion (I definitely recommend it to anyone considering their OE- it is excellent info and very entertaining), one of the things the writer points out is the difference between the way the Brits say the following three words: Beer Bare Bear, and how we kiwis say them (ie Kiwis have no distinction between all three – vowel distinction is extinct, whereas Brits pronounce each slightly different!). So we tried this on a few Brits, our flatmates and Bev’s workmates. Bev’s workmates thought this was really hilarious, and continue to tease him about it – now a common joke if there is any communication breakdown!
You can surprise yourself by giving it a go and see if you can pronounce the distinction!
That leads me to another point – there are a lot of people – mainly British that don’t understand us – yep I know –how? What? It is really quite frustrating believe us! We speak English, and so do they so how can there be any confusion – beats me! One of our friends wondered whether it was because as kiwi’s we watch a lot of British and American Telly, but neither watch any Kiwi telly, so we are therefore more fluent with their accents, so when they come across ours they are dumbstruck?? Sounds pretty plausible to me.
Anyway, that is well and truly all of what we have been up to - please also see that I have added a photo of our lounge to the blog I wrote on Monday.
Lots of Love
Jam and Bev
No comments:
Post a Comment