Loving London

Ok, you might be a bit confused because I am actually in Buxton, and have just finished my second day of work (sight of relief - it's all a bit different over here!). But being the slightly OCD person that I am , I feel I need to write a bit about London before I can go onto everything else that has been happening!

We got back to London 2 weeks ago on Thursday, and I had some business to do on the Friday, which involved going into Regent St, then walking past Pall Mall, a teh changing of Guard was happening, bypassing Buckingham Palace, to end up just near Big Bena nd the London eye, at the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS), where I was officially registered (can't call ourselves doctor over here, but we can but MRCVS after our names which is nearly as cool!). I had another appointment out in Buckinhamshire to set myself up as a Limited Company, then it was back into London to go to the Theatre, where we saw Mama Mia just near Picadilly Circus! It was a really fun musical, and my brother has organised a bottle of Champagne for interval, so we just walked out of the theatre and sat down at a table beside the iceed bottle and poured ourselves a glass - all very classy!! (except the interval was only 10 minutes, so we had to take the rest into the theatre in plastic tumblers!!).
On Saturday we went to some awesome Markets just near Tower Bridge, which has so much yummy gourmet food, it was hard not to salivate just walking around! There was lots of cheese, olive oil, balsamic vineger, pate, and the like to taste as we went around. There was anything from goose liver pate to organic gluten free chocolate brownies (for £4.50 a piece, which is about $10 Aussie!).
After this, we went to a party at the house of a workmate of Tim Porter (a friend from Cromwell College who we stayed with). We met up with another Aussie girl on the way there, and when we got there, we realised we recognised each other and after a lot of thinking, realised we did ballet together in Townsville, and also were in debating teams around the same time!! I knew it was a small world, but it seemed pretty early in the piece to coin the phraze!
The party was for the first England match in the world cup (v Paraguay) and I really quite enjoyed it, to my surprise (I think I was still getting used to the fact I was actually in London watching it I think).

On Saturday night we went into Soho, which is the clubby/alternative part of London (some very interesting fashion trends and body decorations to be seen!) and went to a Pizza cafe that had a Jazz club downstairs and saw a fantastic spanish Jass trio with a great singer and guitarist and bass player. We wandered around Soho for a while, then decided that the best place to be was by the river just near Tim's place, where there is a great view of Tower bridge with St Pauls behind it. So we went there and chatted till the sun came up! (which was 3am, and it only set at 10:30!).
Sunday we checked out Covent Garden and saw some great buskers (a great sting quartet and another guy dressed up as a troll type creature, with crazy facial expressions that were a bit scary). We had a lovely dinner at TIm's place that night. Monday we saw the Tower of London, with a very theatrical tour guide who told us all sorts of interesting stories about the people who died there (Anne Bolyne, and Lady Jane Grey amongst them). It was a bit of a rush to get organised, then I said goodbye to my Bro and Marielle, as they headed to the airport to catch a plane back to Oz. (*sniff*!). I stayed at another friend's place a bit further form the Centre of London for the next couple of days and caught up with a friend from uni and another friend from school who I haven't seen for about 13 years which was great.
I went about an hour south to visit Will and Isa, a friend form uni and his wife, and caught up with Tim, who I flew over with, then he and I went back into London the next day to see another friend from uni who has just got married.
Tim and I ended up in a Pub in Angel, Islington watching the second Football match (england v Trindidad and Tobego), which was great! the atmosphere in the pub was electric, and we got chatting to a few locals, one of whom donated England hats and flags (I told him I wouldn't use them till Australia was knocked out!).

London is great for a visit - don't hink I could live there though. It is really easy to get around on the underground - I wasn't as nervous about it as I thought I would be, and it is so easy to use. They have buskers in some of the stations, but they sound like professionals, anything from opera to cool blues, to mexican to dixiland, it really sets a cool atmosphere as you walk along the tunnels between platforms. the history is amazing (for a colonial such as myself), and the people are really interesting.

So then I caught the train up to Buxton (pron. Bookston) last Friday. I have a lovely housemate, Caroline, who is a nurse at work. I met some of the people form Work on Friday and we have been out to couple of meals already. They are a very sociable bunch which is really nice. More about that later......................