Skip to main content

Ciao for now to my favourite city in the world

Farewelling London for a year was not a hard thing to do today. And this surprised me no end. I spent my week in London with my beloved friends. I went to the Tracy Emin Exhibition at the Haywood entitled ‘Love is what you want’ - seeing her used Tampons was probably a little too much for me but the rest was quirky and intimate. I watched my All Blacks at the Temple Walkabout (yes that’s right on my last weekend in London I slummed it with plastic cups and cheap wine to see a rugby game and fortuitously  I met a Kiwi mountaineer who assured me my dates for trekking to base camp of Everest next year in June-July is a brilliant time of year to see the mountain), I cooked pancakes for my Tuscany crew on their way to SW4 and caught the end of Notting Hill Carnival for Family day, I had lunch with Liz and Pete at Peter Gordons delicious kiwi restaurant Providores and cruised around Notting Hill Carnival with my good mate Fancino running into 3 lots of friends on the day – reminding me this is a small city afterall! I ran with Holly of Holly Golightly Fitness whilst I watched ladies walk dogs and Dad’s push prams. I checked out the new BlackRock offices eating in the canteen (well sitting, the food was strictly from outside the office – thanks Fede!), shopping and some extra love from my home boys G and Andrew. 


Saying goodbye was easier than I anticipated. On visiting the office I saw the frustrations of my friends. I was right there with them 6 weeks ago and now with the markets changing peoples belief that this is as good as it gets, reminds me of the dark days of 2008 – long before we were in the spiral of a merger integration as well. Now I feel light, free and well liberated from it all. Also I have such a great desire to get home. A week in Sydney to see my buddies will be brilliant…then it’s the comfort of home. I can’t wait for the love of family and more of the goodness of nature that I have been enjoying in the Balkans.

Special Thanks to the hospitality of Holly and Harv for putting me up in palatial Holland Park one last time. Thanks to my friends for making London the city I love the most in the world. My home.
I ditched my AB's jersey by the
timethe camera came out for
drunken photo's












The Carney that Rocks and Rolls

Clapham High St
still boarded up after the Riots
Notting HIll Carnival stalls







Labels:
Location: Westminster, London, UK

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ticking boxes has never been so enjoyable

Arriving in Vienna hadn't started well. The door to the train wouldn't open. Finding another open door, I was left with a mother and 1 year old with a Trunkie, no husband, 4 year old, luggage or money. Turns out the family were Hungarian-Australian and on their way to the airport Oz bound so doing my good travellers deed for the day packed Mum, son and Trunkie off to the airport in a shuttle. I really hope they all made it home together. I found my way to the hostel and then given the bright sunshine took to the streets having missed the opportunity to take photos of every other city in sun so far! I made my way to the central Basilica and then wandered the streets finding a Schnitzel house filled to the rafters, a ornate clock, music singing through the streets, pianos being practised on and some of the most beautiful shoes I have ever seen (fit only for Elton John let it be said!). The film festival on that evening started at 9pm and with a rain shower about to hit I opted f...
1 comment
Read more

The day I saw the Polish countryside

After taking a night stop off in Warsaw to ensure I got a speed train for 3 hours to Krakow I was directed to platform 3. I got on and 6 hours later I am still not in Krakow. But I have had the privilege to see the beauty of the Polish countryside. It’s lush and green. The sun is shining and my mood has lifted along with it despite missing a day in a city I have been fascinated by since my early days in London.  The rail roads are simple and the trains and the children squealing out the windows remind me of Hollywood films depicting happy children departing for respite from the war.  Again I have been a cabin this time with the same space as yesterday but with 4 seats each side. No-one deared speak to me today! The farms are orderly and attempts at growing hay in the wettest summer the Poles have seen in years are well underway. It seems simple here and its definitely very appealing. I can see why my Polish friends speak so happily of life in Poland. Or maybe it’s the news ...
2 comments
Read more

Hills of His Holiness

The state of Himachal Pradesh is one of mountains and rivers, winding roads and toy trains. Here are a few of the famous tourist highlights I enjoyed between 10 hour bus journeys! Shimla Famed as one of the great Raj Era Hill Stations where ladies of the Raj spent monsoon summers sheltering from the heat, I had to see this. In my experience this is anything but a shelter from the heat! On arrival you are deposited in a new bus station 8 km from the town forcing you to use either the public bus (R10) or a  taxi (R250) neither takes you to the top of town or even close to a hotel. So I opted for the R10 bus. They deposited me at the bottom of the hill. Porters were waiting at the bottom but how hard could it be? Hard. I walked for 3 hours in the hot sun with my 20+kg trying to find a nice clean hotel room, eventually ending up on the ground floor of Spars Lodge. You can’t open the windows due to monkeys so the task of finding a room in Indian summer season is hard. Really th...
2 comments
Read more