London

14th April

Our first day in London saw us do washing, lots of washing. We also decided we better find out where we were supposed to go for the several recruitment agencies interviews we had planned for the next few days. So we headed out with our newly purchased oyster cards and found our way round London. We have found that the Tube is quite deceiving and a couple of tube stops can only be a few mins walk, but we were grateful to be in the warmth most of the time so we didn't mind.

Over the next several days we focused on the job hunt but managed to squeeze in some sightseeing too.

On the weekend James and Emma took us a whirlwind sightseeing tour of the main hotspots in London. First up was Harrods. Wow. It was pretty unreal, and hard work walking around looking at all those expensive luxury items. Lucky there was the Veuve Cliquot bar where we could refresh ourselves (see pictured).

We also found a replica of a British solider....made entirely of plastic....we were soon to see the real thing.

From there we toured round Hyde Park  (where people were paying for sun loungers to sit in the sun - we also found out that it costs you to do pretty much anything in London) and saw the Princess of Wales memorial. Unfortunately our camera had gone bung by this stage, so here is a nice photo courtesy of the interweb.

 

Highlights: The sun!

Lowlights: Our camera being screwed

Interesting fact: It costs 2 pounds to sit in a deck chair in Hyde Park.

Natural History Museum

We hit the Natural History Museum up along with half of London and their push chairs. The building itself was pretty amazing, probably more impressive than the exhibits.
We only managed to get round half the museum but plan to go back to finish it off.

The Museum was completed in 1880 and is now home to over 70 million different species of plants and animals. 

This was also the day we had our first TV appearance in Britain, we were approached and asked if we would like to join the TV audience at a kids nature show that was being filmed in the Museum, after Hamish spending 25 mins in the bathroom doing his hair, we agreed.

Overall, we felt that the building itself was far more impressive than the actual exhibits.

Highlight: Being on TV

Lowlight: Prams - these should be banned from all public spaces

Interesting fact: The famous blue whale in the large mammals hall is 25 metres long. I've seen longer.

National Gallery

 
One painting of Jesus and Mary does tend to blend into the 6,000 other paintings of Jesus and Mary after awhile, but it was pretty cool to see an original Van Gogh, Monet, Da Vinci, Michealangelo and Raphel. The Gallery was commissioned in 1824 and houses over 2,300 paintings.
Again the building itself was the winner on the day.

Victoria Embankment Garden
On a random walk around the city we came across the Embankment garden which is full of spring flowers just coming into bloom, this garden seemed to be where people got given monuments and plaques as recognition for civil service.

We also experienced our first West End show - Oliver. The show was amazing, great props and costumes and the little kids were awesome.

Highlight: For Louise - the spring flowers. They are so beautiful and they are everywhere!

Lowlight: Hot chocolates costing 2 pounds at the Gallery....and was average

Interesting fact: Oliver originally premiered at the West End in 1960.

Changing of the Guard

A crowd favourite in London, we attended the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace along with 10,000 other people. It was a beautiful day, and the spring flowers were all out in force. We have noticed that London does take great care with its parks. We waited for over an hour to get the best spot to see the guard change, there was a lot of pomp and ceremony that involved lots of people dressed up to the nine's.

Buckingham Palace itself was great, we discovered that 2 of the 4 statues surrounding the one of Victoria in the middle of the roundabout (affectionately known as the wedding cake) were gifted from NZ. We also plan to go on the summer tour of Buckingham where you can go inside. Louise even got to pose with a real life soldier! - way better than a plastic one.

Highlight: Lou getting a photo with a guard

Lowlight: The waiting round....for ages

Interesting Fact: The palace was bombed 7 times during World War 2

ANZAC Day

Along with about 3,000 Kiwis and Aussies, we all got up at the crack of dawn to attend the dawn service at the New Zealand Memorial at Hyde Park corner. The memorial itself is awesome, it consists of 16 cross-shaped vertical bronze 'standards' set out in formation on a grassy slope. Each standard is adorned with text, patterns and small sculptures.

British Museum

After visiting the Natural History Museum we didn't have huge expectations when we rocked up to the British Museum, we were to be proven wrong. This place was awesome.

It holds pretty much everything that Britain plundered over its time forging the Empire. We now have about 35 photos of weapons, which Hamish found fascinating.

The Museum holds more than 7 million objects including this marble statue of a bull which I thought might look good in the turning circle at Croft Lane?

What is this? A Parthenon for ants?

Highlight: The whole museum - especially the Greek and Roman stuff

Lowlight: Not being able to afford the awesome high tea at the flash cafe

Interesting fact: The British don't seem to care that most of their exhibits were stolen from their natural homes. In fact, they seem to think they saved most from vandalism.

Squirrels

These guys deserve their own paragraph. As we are at home looking for jobs most of the day, we take great pleasure in watching these little dudes run up trees, rip up people's garbage bags, and generally carry rabies and fleas. We still think they are cute though. Pictured below is our local pest - Sheamus (the crazy Irish squirrel). He lives in the roof and is pictured here eating something he ripped out of the rubbish bag.