Easter bunny, Easter eggs, Easter!

It’s hard to believe it’s already April!
But here it is and for the first time, this Easter weekend, it really felt like spring and summer are on their way in the UK!
On the Good Friday of the Easter weekend, I had an extremely lazy day! I woke at 9am, had a good lie in with my novel and a cup tea. After a breakfast which included hot cross buns (of course!), I decided that I was being far too sloth-like and had better do a bit of exercise, so I did a brisk long walk along the Thames. It was a lovely spring day (about 18 degrees), and most Londoner’s and tourists seem gathered on the edge of the river. So it was a matter of dodge the tourist/Londoner/performing artist as I ‘power walked’ along!
The rest of the day was spent watching movies and pottering around the house.
I was on a train up north the following day as I went up to stay with my brother and his family for the rest of the Easter weekend.
That evening we went to a pub/club in Ilkeston (where my brother and his family live), with my brother’s friend and girlfriend (Brent and Carla).
I am embarrassed to say that after 4 drinks I was rather ‘jolly’ and even proved to the good people of Ilkeston that I was perfectly capable of dancing by myself on the dance floor when none of my party would join me….
(Not my finest moment – hopefully they weren’t all giggling too hard ;-)

The next morning was Easter, we had an Easter egg hunt in the garden for Kai and Sian, which caused great excitement!
They loved looking around for the little eggs, even if Sian had no idea at that point that they were indeed chocolate.
The rest of the day was spent in the garden as it was another lovely sunny day. We had a lovely braai/barbeque of chicken, potatoes done in the fire, salad and roles.
Things got rather competitive when the adults played badminton and soccer while waiting for lunch (and after).
Monday was another lazy day, and before I knew it, I was back on a train and off back to London.

Easter really is great fun when there are little children around, one begins to look at it through new eyes again!

Picture 1 and 2 – Even the London Eye was decorated for the occasion
Picture 3 – Sian’s first Easter egg discovery
Picture 4 – The family on the Easter egg hunt
Picture 5 – Sian and I lazing in the sun

Weekend visitors – Number 2

Last weekend I was lucky enough to have my third set of visitors!
My sister in law, Sharon and Kai (my nephew) came for a weekend visit.
They too arrived late on Friday night, after the long evening train ride from Nottingham.
On Saturday we took our time eating breakfast and getting ready and then headed off to fashionable Chelsea to a restaurant which has a children’s indoor play area in the basement. There we spent a fun afternoon with Sharon’s friend, Sandy and her children eating lunch and chatting.
I nominated myself to take Kai downstairs to the play area before and after lunch.
He was a little overwhelmed at all the noisy children and the huge play area which is like a large padded jungle gym with lots of slides and tubes to wiggle through.
As a result, he insisted I come with him. So it was off with my shoes (to embarrassingly find I had a hole in one of my socks) and the afternoon saw me wriggling through the tubes, sliding down slides and wading through plastic balls. I felt quite stiff and exhausted after my thorough workout!
After that we rushed off to meet another friend Sharon’s and her husband for coffee near Trafalgar Square.
We were terribly late meeting them. The London tubes were very busy and it took three tubes on the Piccadilly line passing us by before there was enough space for 3 more to fit on.
We had a lovely time drinking coffee and chatting, before wondering through Trafalgar Square and looking at the fountains. The fountains were spraying water sideways all over us tourists because of a brisk wind!


The next day had us off to Regent’s Park to visit the London Zoo.
Kai was totally in his element, and loved the big fish in the aquarium (will he grow up to be a marine biologist I wonder? ;-)
We also visited the gorillas, the tigers and lions, the farm animals and the wriggly snakes. It was really fun!


Once Sharon and Kai were safely on the train, I made my way to Richmond and met a friend for a very late lunch and a walk along the Thames.
I was so tired from my excursions earlier in the day at the zoo, I was practically too tired to talk!

All in all a wonderful weekend!

Picture 1: A fantastic display of sea anemone in the aquarium at the zoo.
Picture 2: Sharon and Kai on a gorilla
Picture 3: The sunset over the Thames in Richmond

Life in the home of Big Ben

I think I finally decided I was a real Londoner when, the other day I was walking over the Westminster Bridge with lots of (heavy) shopping bags, and got annoyed with all the tourists who were stopping willy-nilly on the sidewalk to take pictures of Big Ben! :-)

I’m slowly starting to feel more at home in London.
My job is getting more challenging and stimulating and I’m starting to feel part of my team.
I offered to be the team social organiser for the year, and it’s my job to organise quarterly team events for our team of 10.
We had our first team social evening about three weeks ago.
We went for a curry in Brick Lane. Brick Lane is a long road that would be any curry lover’s idea of heaven. It has about 2km’s of Indian restaurants!
We went to a restaurant called Bengal Village, starting with Cobra beers (an Indian beer) and moving swiftly onto poppadoms and chutney. I had a lovely chicken curry with naan bread for my main course.
There was a lot of eating with your hands and chatting and giggling. The evening was declared a success by all!
The next events coming up for our team are a social being held by the bank, a Pub Quiz night. We’ve entered a team aptly called ‘The Smarty Pints’ :-) (It took me ages to get everyone to agree on just one name!)
Half the team will are also entered into the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge (London) for June. It’s a 5km run. I’m going to have to start training soon ;-)
I think being the team social organiser has definitely made me get involved with the team and team life, which is great.

I’ve also had a taste of a bit of culture in London.
One evening I went with some work colleagues to a play. It was Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. The play was held in East London in the Wilton Theatre which is this magnificent, crumbling 150 year old theatre. The theatre itself is terribly grand inside with wooden carvings and colour giving it the feel of a Spanish or Mexican hall.
(We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside but I was sorely tempted to, it really was beautiful.)

In the same week I went to a Jazz charity evening with a friend at Hampstead Hill Playhouse. It was organised by an organisation called African Revival. They’re a charity who sends money to African countries to build schools and other community based projects.
We were spoilt with a live band of extremely talented youngsters and their music teacher who entertained us with jazz music. There was also a husky voiced singer who joined them for a couple of numbers.
That evening I finally had my first English fish and chips for 2007 :-)

I find that if you don’t say no to any invitations, you can pretty much be busy every night of the week in London (thank goodness the TV here is terrible ;-)
This week I’ve been to after work drinks on two evenings, one evening to a trendy bar in Piccadilly called Cocoon (it was so trendy, I almost expected to bump into some English TV star there) and last night was at the Slug and Lettuce (still love the name) a pub near work, I have a supper tomorrow, an am meeting up with a friend, Anthea for a quick drink tonight.
Last week was filled with dinners out, lunches and coffees.

It feels really good to be social. I do however miss my Jhb friends terribly! :-)

Picture 1: My unruly work team
Picture 2: Breakfast with a work colleague Nameetha at Giraffe (a restaurant on the Thames)

Picture 3: A chilly day out in Greenwich with work buddies

Weekend visitors – Number 1

When living in a big, colourful city, you expect to frequently have visitors who wish to sample the delights of the place.
My dad came visiting first, and in late February my brother, Richard and my little nephew Kai came for a weekend visit.
They arrived late on Friday night after a long train journey from Nottingham. After a quick snack and the making of a traveller’s bed in the lounge we were all fast asleep.
On Saturday morning we woke early and after breakfast, rushed down to the river to take Kai on a short boat trip on the Thames. Unfortunately, we were a little too enthusiastic and got to Embankment (one of the boat stops) about an hour too early, none of the boats were operating yet. It was so cold that the only sensible thing seemed to be coffee!
So it was off to Nero’s (a coffee shop chain here) for a long slow cuppa.
Finally we were on our boat trip, which Kai loved.
After that it was on to a very family filled afternoon. We caught the train to my cousin’s house in Surbiton (a suburb, in south west of London near Richmond) where he lives with his wife Kerry and their little sprog, Louie. My other cousin Emily, her man, Ashley and their little one, Leo arrived shortly afterwards from Cardiff. They were on a stopover before jetting off to sunny South Africa for a holiday.
It was a lovely afternoon - catching up, eating lunch and playing with the 3 little ones. The boys tried to appear interested in our girly chat, but spent a lot of time eyes glued to the tele (the 6 nations rugby was on).
Later Richard, Kai and I wound our way back to my place for a relaxing evening.

The next morning saw us at the Science Museum where Kai was terribly excited by all the touch and feel children’s learn about science areas.
We quickly popped into the Natural History Museum on the way home to look at the dinosaurs (Kai loves them!). I was impressed that he could easily identify a heap of bones as being a dinosaur shape.
After that, they rushed off to catch a train home and I plopped onto the sofa with the tv remote for a much needed break after a fun, if busy weekend.

Picture 1: The cousins and little sprogs
Picture 2: Kai and Richard playing with water at the science museum