June 2011

I had bought one of those deal vouchers a while back for a B&B in Bournemouth. I had looked into the city on its website and it looked promising, with a beautiful sand beach. We had booked it for Friday the 2nd June (naturally being a great deal we couldn't book it for a Saturday night!). We took the train and got there early afternoon. It was already sweltering. We went down to the beach and walked along it on the way to the hotel. It was packed, and we were tempted to strip off and run into the water but were worried our bag would get pinched so decided to check in first. The funny thing about Bournemouth is that the beach is down a big cliff and its a bit of a climb. By the time we climbed back up and found the hotel we were sweating buckets. We decided to get into our togs and head down to the beach, but got waylaid by the hotel pool. It was so nice that we never quite made it to the crowded beach that day...


On Saturday I was very excited to have a dream come true and visit Monkeyworld. I'd watched the TV show on Animal Planet for years. It was like meeting some famous TV stars. This is Gordon:
We visited the memorial statue of Jim Cronin, the founder of Monkeyworld, and Charlie, the face of Monkeyworld. Jim died from cancer a few years back.
We saw the Orangs, Chimps, nursery chimps and Sally, Woolly monkeys, Capuchins, Lemurs, Gibbons... The funniest thing was when the Chimps got their evening meal in their bedroom and this guy gathered up as much as he could carry and took it up to his nest.
It was a really lovely weekend. For me Monday was going to be something new, as I had a new job. No more locumming, I'd decided to join the 9-5 crew. It is for an online veterinary pharmaceutical company. The first couple of weeks were a steep learning curve, but the people all seem really nice and the job seems to suit me so far.

After my first week of work we had another exciting first lined up. Rob had a conference in Paris for work. He went on Thursday, and I joined him Saturday morning (which meant a really crazily early morning for me!) I was apprehensive as so many people had told us they had had bad experiences in Paris. My first hurdle was to get a train ticket from the airport to Garde Norde. There was a massive line at the ticket office so I tried a machine. Unfortunately it didn't take debit card or Euro notes, but a kind guy behind me who spoke English pointed out a change machine nearby. Ticket bought, I got on the train and took in my first sights of Paris. Fortunately Rob and I eventually found each other at the station, and set off for our B&B.

We figured out the Metro system, but when we got to the address, we couldn't find the B&B. After standing there looking lost for a few minutes, ringing the B&B lady and not getting far due to language difficulties, a lady stopped and asked us if we were lost (first in French, then in English when we looked at her blankly). Rob rang the B&B lady again and the nice lady spoke to her for us, finally coming to the conclusion that we were on the wrong General de Gaulle road - there's a Rue and an Avenue, and the one we needed was on the outskirts of Paris... We finally got to our lodgings, and got a bit of a surprise when we realised it was just a lady's apartment, in her spare bedroom. She was lovely, but didn't speak great English and we spoke way too fast for her!


We eventually got ourselves together and headed into town - First stop: Le Tour d'Eiffel!

We got some photos of the towering steel tower, but decided we'd come back later to climb it and see if the lines had abated somewhat. We did take in some funny sights - one of which was cops on bikes chasing guys that obviously didn't have a licence to sell their crappy little Eiffel Tower statues. We headed to the Arc de Triomph and had a bit of a look before going to Montemartre to find the cafe that Amelie was filmed in. We took in the Moulin Rouge then found the Deux Moulins - Amelie's cafe.
It was exactly the same as in the movie, apart from the drug counter was missing.
I had to get l'escargot. The waiter was hilarious, showing us how to use the little snail utensils and telling us about his passion for eating them.
After the entree I got beef tartare and Rob got salmon, then we both had to have Creme Brulee in homage to Amelie. After our scrumptious dinner we went to the Sacre Coeur, and climbed the 225-odd steps to the top of the basilica. There was a magnificent view, and unlike the view from the top of the Eiffel Tower, this one includes the Tower!
The steps below the Sacre Coeur are host to buskers and puppet shows... this guy does tricks with a football while hanging off this lamp post - very impressive! This park in front of the Sacre Couer is also part of the Amelie movie.
After climbing all those steps we decided to take the lift up the Eiffel Tower. It was still very busy (we had asked the lady at info earlier when the lines would go down and she said with a completely straight face: "Tuesday"), but we thought nowhere near as busy as earlier in the day. As it turned out, we had timed it perfectly, as we reached to top as the sun was setting - how cliche is seeing the sun set from the top of the Eiffel Tower with your soulmate?We saw the moment the Eiffel Tower lit up from the number of camera flashes going off all at once down below. When we got down we took some photos of our own.

We got back to our B&B without incident and tried to be as quiet as we could as it was after 11pm and we'd been warned!

The next day we planned to go to the Louvre as early as we could. We got there just before it opened, and joined a short line that rapidly expanded behind us.

We managed to see most of the big famous pieces of art, the Mona Lisa, Madonna on the Rocks, but probably only managed to see a tiny portion of the works in there. It is much, much bigger than I ever imagined.

After the Louvre Rob had a surprise for me. He took me to the Pont des Arts. This bridge is famous for lovers coming here and putting a padlock on the bridge to symbolise their love. We didn't have a padlock to put on so decided to come back for our next anniversary.
From there we wanted to go to the Catacombs, but when we got there it was closed. We were disappointed but went to the Jardin de Luxemberg. Along the way we saw so many Parisian families out enjoying the sunshine and having picnics, and even a couple of guys playing ping pong in a park. In the Jardin itself there was a big pond with little sail boats that the kids could hire.

We left Paris having had such a good weekend, and for me it is one of my favourite places in the world now! The food, the people and the beautiful city itself, have a big place in my heart.

After the excitement of Paris we had to try and recover, but for me the next weekend started with a bang when I went out with my new workmates and we had a few too many Sherbet shots and Jaegar Trains at a Barvarian Beerhouse...

Keren was here the next day from the Isle of Wight for Fat Freddies drop, so she stayed at ours on Saturday night. Rob and I decided not to venture out to Brixton for Fat Freddies, but instead went to a movie and had an early night. On Sunday we had a nice cruisy day having a yummy brunch at Moomba with Keren, then meeting up with her friend Aaron and sitting at the Jolly Gardener drinking strawberry beer (well I did anyway... the others had normal beer!)

I was extremely looking forward to the next weekend, because we were going to The Killers!! Sure enough, it was the most amazing concert, even though it rained the whole time...

The next night was Jen's birthday party, Tight and Bright. It was a fun night with some hideous outfits showing up.

And then before we knew it it was July already!