It’s been a while! Summer is well and truly here. We’ve have some fantastic British summer days and some not so fantastic British cloudy drizzly days. We have been so insanely busy! But that’s how it is over here in summer, being out and about with so many things to do, and being invited to so many things too…have got to cut down on spending!
I have been busy sport wise; I’ve been loving the cricket and hockey 7’s in England. There is something pleasant about being in England and playing Cricket, it’s nice to get away from the crowds and going to a beautiful open park with well established trees and bush and spend some time in the sun chasing a ball around. We have also been hauling ourselves out of bed too early (by our standards) to watch the All Blacks’ play on Saturday mornings…well worth it when we win though!
The week after we were in Berlin, we have had my parents come over for 2 weeks (start of June). They arrive tired with barely any sleep on the flight, and also arrived with a full suitcase of chips and biscuits from NZ! Hong Kong customs questioned why they were taking so much food towards the UK. It was interesting to see my parents’ initial reactions to life in London. They initially said that they could not believe how green the place was and how many brick houses there were here. We ended up going to Chinatown for dinner on the day they arrived, because my uncle arrived on the same day to visit his mate in Manchester. However, it was rush hour when we headed back after dinner. The look on dads face was classic when a guy squeezed into the tube next to him…I’m guessing he didn’t believe anyone could fit into that space! They had to learn quickly to hop on and off the tube very quickly too, else they would have been at the next tube stop on their own without realising it!
This gave us a chance to see more of London ourselves too. They got to see the usual London sights: Buckingham palace, Big Ben/Westminster, a ride on the London Eye, Tower of London, Hampton court, Thames boat ride, and we attempted to show them some vege markets….but we were horribly late and got lost. Their favourite place was Chinatown, where they hung out most of the time!
Bev's parents outside Westminster - Big Ben in the background
At Hampton Court with a dressed up lady
We then took them to Paris for a long weekend, because we wanted to show them that in a small amount of distance, there is a huge difference in Western cultures here, ie. Food, lifestyle, and language. We also wanted to show them another country too, as they had come such a long way. We took them to the usual tourist places including Eiffel tower, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, a French perfume shop, a boat ride on the Seine, Arc De Triomphe, and the Latin Quarter for dinner. We tried to convince them that French food was really top notch, but it was not to their tastes, a lot of the food was too creamy.
Us all at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower
Behind the shoulder of the portrait artist, drawing Bev's dad (sitting in background left of photo)
We ended up tiring them with massive walks to see sights, something that Jam and I have gotten use to. But we did have one relaxing morning in Montmarte in a courtyard of portrait artists. We soaked up the relaxing atmosphere, and while Jam and I got caricatures, Mum and Dad got a portrait done. Afterwards we enjoyed delicious crepes and an ice cream. Mum and Dad thought Paris was really beautiful, and enjoyed some of the quirky French characters. However, they did not enjoy Gypsies.
When we arrived back into London, my parents went up to visit my uncle in Manchester. When they got there, they discovered that the Chinatown was not as good as London, so they came back earlier. Overall, it was nice to have them here and show them a bit of our life in London.
Two weeks after my parents left, myself and a group of guys and gals form my hockey club went to Lille for a Hockey tournament, in France. All I got to say is: what goes on tour stays on tour, and that’s all I got to say about it…..nah, kidding. We were an invitational team of 29 teams - 27 were French, 1 Belgium team, and we were the only “English” team – and me, the only Southern Hemisphere person of the lot. A friend in our club in London is a French guy who belongs to a club in Lille, who organised us to go to his French club for the tournament. This was pretty exciting going on tour to another country, especially of one of a different language. It was a great laugh for both myself and the French people I bumped into because of the language barrier and we both were a novelty to each other. Personally it was the best trip I’d ever been on. There is something really fun about turning up to a foreign speaking country, playing your favourite sport, enjoying the atmosphere of the music and sun, a bit of dress up, and really teaming up to stick it to the foreigners! Lille was a bit different to Paris, it was hard to find someone who spoke English.
Wimbledon
On a perfect Tuesday evening during the annual Wimbledon tennis tournament, we decided to check out what the excitement was all about. We headed in after work to get cheap tickets to watch a game on court 1. We enjoyed watching the quaint etiquette of the ball handlers and pomp and ceremony of the umpires. It was a fantastic afternoon to bask in the late sun, and enjoy a very Posh British event of strawberries and cream, and Pimms. It was very amusing that every steward/ticket person/souvenir shop worker/food outlet person had a very proper posh accent. We found this very amusing because Wimbledon is only 5 minutes down the road, and we found a population of posh people pretty much next door. We found it so convenient to travel to the event down the road, because it’s probably the only place/event we’ve managed to commute to that was well below the 45minute average mark.
Strawberries and cream whilst watching Wimbledon Tennis
A few weeks on, some more kiwi mates arrived to stay with us for a week. They had been doing Turkey, Italy and Greece for the last 3 months and were here to kick off his UK visa. Their introduction to the UK was quite funny: firstly the Monopoly pub crawl the day after they arrived. And 2ndly experience of what happens when you make eye contact with tube commuters – big butch dude says to his bull dog “what’s that guy staring at!?”. The pub crawl was organised by the TNT magazine, Kiwi/Aussie/Saffa (short for Sth Africa) travel magazine. We went around 10 pubs located on the British Monopoly board. Our kiwi mates and us dressed up as cops and robbers, and a dice. We were quite disappointed that not many others got dressed up and that we didn’t get any photos of us in the magazine! But it was a great day out. With a bit of kiwi ingenuity in my costume, I was mistaken many times for a real police officer! Haha, I think I missed my calling! I made a stack of go to jail cards, to which Jam had heaps of fun handing out, especially when we walked through a market, bumping into a guy selling pirated DVDs! Jam handed him a go to jail card, which he accepted surprisingly gracefully! LOL!
A force to be reckoned with!
We’ve had a few good BBQs since the weather has warmed up, learning the difficult art of coal BBQs! It’s a horrible memory of how much of a contrast winter is every time I spot my coat hanging on the back of the door (it’s so thick it can stand up by itself!), and how we had to armour up in gloves and a warm hat!
It’s also been nice waking up at 5 (every second week I have to do an early shift for my job) with full day light and still having light right up to 10pm…..WOOOHOO! An extra few hours of light to play with. You really enjoy going out to the parks in the evening….I never thought I’d enjoy going to a park so much before! But it’s because of the well established trees that make it, and also the open green spaces are a contrast to the concrete jungle we live in. Although we have posted on our blog for so long, the amount of daylight is starting to fade. It was at its peak at the end of June, but is still the middle of summer. We’ve been for a couple of walks to explore the greater Putney area and now have discovered how swanky Putney really is! We discovered Auckland waterfront like bars and restaurants in the area….and wow!
Lots of love
Bev and Jam
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