May 2011

While we were away London had the hottest weather so far that year, with temperatures up in the 30s. With the royal wedding and the normal May Bank holiday giving people a four day weekend, there were street parties and BBQs happening all over the city. We couldn't help but be a bit jealous that we had missed out. Sure enough, by the time we got back to London the weather had settled down and was back to normal May temperatures. Still, it was spring and lovely to come back to after autumn in NZ. The Friday after we got back, Shapeshifter were playing at their usual hangout - SheBu O2. we went along and caught up with Nick afterwards. This time it was just Rob and I, Simon was off exploring Europe still.


On Saturday we went and watched our flatmate Matt play AFL in South Wimbledon. It was Ladies day, which meant they were selling tickets to girls for £10 for 15 tickets, then massive jugs of Pimms were 5 tickets. Needless to say, I was pretty sleepy by the time evening rolled around and didn't manage to go out dancing with Jen like she wanted.


The next weekend, Si and Mon were having their joint birthday party at Camden Pride. We headed along on Saturday night and found ourselves in an extremely trendy slice of London. The pub/club (or whatever it is) is situated in the old Camden stables. You can book a "stall" if you are rich enough and get it protected by a bouncer so the plebs don't crash your private party. We had a table in the main part, we weren't quite special enough to have a stall. Because we got there early so we could get the table, the dance floor was empty for quite a while, but the dry ice machine was in overdrive so it was like a smokey warehouse with some really dodgey music. It was a shame that the smoke made it impossible to get good photos. Maybe its because I'm on the wrong side of 30, but I didn't really feel like it was my scene. I also felt like the staff were completely over the top - before you could even enter the place you had to line up for ages, then write down your name and email address, then once you were in, you couldn't leave unless it was for good. There was a small outdoor area out the back, where they were cooking a BBQ, but the bouncer kept making us move up the stairs. Flynn ordered a burger but found out after waiting for an hour that they were only cooking for the restaurant next door. So we didn't stay too late, but it was an experience. It reiterated that the cool places aren't necessarily the best places to hang out. But it was great to see Mon and Simon.


The next day we had the London Sevens, for the second year in a row. We went with Si, Mon, Flynn, and the rest of the usual clan. It was a beach theme, so we dressed as Pirates.
Luckily as it turned out, as it was not a very warm day (unlike last year - the hottest day of the year!). As usual, it was entertaining seeing the lengths people went to with their costumes.
Again, NZ did not win, and didn't even get into the final, unfortunately. To console ourselves (not really, we were going to go anyway) we went for a good Pirate dinner at Bodeans, and scoffed more meat than we could handle.

I had been booked to work the next Saturday, but as it turned out, they didn't need me. It was a bit of a shame as it was a long weekend, with the 2nd May Bank Holiday, and we hadn't arranged to go away or anything. So we just had a bit of a quiet weekend. On the Monday we went to Richmond and met Georgia.

We people-watched by the river, then the clouds came in and it started pouring, so we ran and sheltered in a shop that happened to be a great gelato place. We went and met Mon and the crew and had a drink before going home and cooking dinner for Georgia - it was the first time she had been to our flat!