My Brother has Landed

Brother Nath arrived a week ago. Time has flown by. We have taken the FOPs (Fresh Off the Plane) around London, re-doing the Southbank walk and including a few other stop off's including Westminster Abbey and The National Gallery. Whilst having a quick wander through the mammoth national art gallery we came across 3 Van Gough originals!! Crazy. Just hanging on the wall, no big deal.
Nath boyf (this could get confusing with 2 Naths around) and I have two weeks til we head off to Vienna for Zane's (Naths bro) wedding. Will be good times, and Nath will get to meet his 5 month old niece for the 1st time, which he is looking forward too. We have also bought tickets for the All Blacks v Scotland in Edinburgh on 13th November. What a great reason to visit Scotland. Go the ABs. While Nath as been 'busy' at work he manages to serach for cheap flights on Ryan air and Easy jet. Hopefully we can get away for a weekend in October. Last time we looked there were £5 flights to Hamburg.
Today we indulged in London park culture and met Alicia and Rob at Putney park and hung out for the afternoon. While it seems like a good idea to drink beers in the park, the practicality of not having a toilet close by ruins the buzz. A 10min walk to the nearest pub to pop in for a cheeky whizz soon puts a halt to the afternoon drinking.
While on school holidays I have been busy creating an online photo album of our South America trip. Its a massive 62 pages, and I found it really hard to keep the page numbers down as we have so many amazing photos. The total cost of my creation is $82 USD. Will wait til I have an income to purchase it!
Sorry if some of the pics aren't clear in quality, they are taken from my cell phone.

The Bowler - but not the Dunedin student variety

Following the Millennium Bridge to St Paul's

Westminster Abbey

The Household Cavalry museum

Looking out over Trafalgar Sq from the National Gallery, with Big Ben in the background

Flashing nipples, a vibrator or pheremone cream!

Greenwich

So the weekend ended up being action packed and full of fun. It started with us + Amy watching the All Black's kick kangaroo butt at a pub in Greenwich. By the time the second half began we figured it was a respectable time to have a beer. After the game we went to the Greenwich observatory, where the lines of longitude and latitud are zero, the beginning of time.



We then headed to the Greenwich market where we caught up with Bhav, Emma, Kat and Sam and did some taste testing. We parted ways and our crew headed to the Old Royal Navy College. Lord Nelson was laid in state here in The Painted Hall from 5-7th January 1806. The Painted Hall was incredible, as the name suggests every inch of hall was painted! Nath was keen to check out the maritime museum located on the same site but I think he got the hint that Amy and I were bored so we left after only looking at the ground floor (thankfully).

After our big day out it was time to head home and crack into the drinks as our flatmates decided we should have a flat warming. I hit the hay at 2am when the play station/sing star was busted out. I had an early start as my brother and his girlfriend flew into Heathrow at 5:50am! Needless to say I was pretty useless on Sunday, very low key indeed.

Pram Coll represent

South Bank Walk

After our pigging out at the food market we decided we were in need of a drink and we were off to the nearest pub! We started to walk along the South Bank of the Thames to find a pub. After a couple of drinks we continued our walk til we came across a better pub with views over looking the Thames to St Pauls Cathedral. We walked past Shakespeare's Globe on the way.




At a late stage in the arvo we decided to leave the bad influences of Bhav and Emma and continue on our way. Our walk took us to the London Eye and we crossed Westminster bridge to Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.



From Westminster we continued on our merry way (after a much needed pit stop) to Trafalgar Square, St James' Park, Buckingham Palace, and along Pall Mall to Piccadilly Circus. By then it was time to head home.

Archway at Trafalgar Square

London Borough Market

Nath and I met Emma and Bhav at the London Borough food market for a look see. It was jam packed and a very popular place to be. On one side of the road was food to take home such as meats, fish, fresh produce, breads, preserves,and on the other side of the road was food to eat now like holloumi cheese vege burgers (yum) and ice cream.
Below are some pics of the array of food for sale.

Cheese toastie sandwiches chocka full of cheese!

Massive wheels of cheese - each one weighs approx 36kgs

Chocolate brownie - it was pretty good (missing chunks of chocolate though!)

Dishes of Malaysian curry

Birthday Fun

Nath got me tickets to Oliver for my birthday - awesome

Clare and I discovered strawberry and lime cider - YUM

Before dinner drinks

Nath and Emma with their random looking rice!

Smoking a shisha pipe

I had a fanatstic birthday. The day started with a huge long chat to Mum and Dad through skype, during which I opened the presents they gave me. Awesome. Met up with Clare and had a yummy lunch and a shop along Oxford St and Covent Garden/lLeicester Square area. I met up with Nath after he finished work and he took me to see Oliver the westend show. It was fantastic. A much more classier production than the version I remeber being part of with Heretaunga Intermediate. Yesterday Julia, Bhav, Emma and Clare came around for afternoon drinks and dinner at a local Persian restaurant, the food wasn't great but we had fun smoking our shisha pipe afterwards. My throat hurt this morning so I think thats the end of my smoking days.
This coming week is the last week of the school year then its 6 weeks of nothing for me. I am looking into summer coaching jobs - to keep me occupied and keep a little bit of cash rolling in.
Nath is enjoying his job - there has been a lot more interest in their products and hits on their web page.
Not long til bro Nath and CJ arrive, 1st Aug. Their flight arrives at 5:50am so its going to be an early start if I go to the airport. So early infact that the tube wont be running.
The summer weather has gone away for the moment, I think Clare bought the shitty NZ winter with her, hope my summer weather comes back soon.

Cock for dinner!

Update

Beautiful wedding dress - Anna you can have dibs on this one!

Transport for London - Underground set up. Candace you will think this is so much fun - and it was.

Bus scenario

Zane and Nath - notice any similarities?

My work at TfL has finished, back to supply teaching for two weeks before summer holidays begin.
Nath had a big work sales pitch yesterday. Hopefully it will lead to some sales. I'm heading along to meet his boss tonight at work drinks. I have painted my nails for the occasion.
Zane stayed with us for a few nights, we went out a bit and met some of his mates that live in London. Will see Zane again at the end of Aug in Vienna for his wedding.
Not long til Nath number 2 arrives. His flight gets in at 5:50am so Im not overly keen to meet him at the airport, but I will cause Im nice.
Amy stayed the last 2 nights. She bought me a jug to mix my pimms in, so quintessentially English -a jug of pimms on a summer day. Pimms is fortified wine, drunk with lemonade, and cut up fruit like cucumber (yuck - mine never has cucumber), lemones, oranges, strawberrys. Anything goes really. We nearly polished off a bottle in one afternoon! Nice set up with the nibbles too :)