After a lot of researching, emailing, visiting flats (about 15 in total) and a little arguing we found a lovely flat in Fulham, sharing with 5 other people – Irina & Olivier (French), Peter & Sile (Irish) and Luca (Italian). We have a cute little courtyard with a BBQ area and our own little balcony. We have a massive room with a double and a single bed so visitors are most welcome. Disclaimer: Usual dossing rates apply and bookings while not essential are recommended.
In terms of location, we are about 12-15 mins away from the nearest tube stations and have heaps of cool bars and cafes round our area. As well as being 10 minutes away from the Chelsea and the Fulham football stadiums! “B” is the flat.
Living in London has had its challenges such as negotiating stinking hot tubes to get to work stations crammed in with way too many people. It’s usually about 30+ °C and you work up a sweat just standing there!! Food shopping also turned out to be mission especially given the amount of food Hamish eats. There is a distinct lack of proper supermarkets and a severe oversupply of little corner shops. So after a few Sundays of hauling a weeks worth of shopping for the 20 min walk home we (Lou) decided we would stump up the 3 quid and do online shopping and get it delivered. Phew.
It also took like 3 ½ weeks to get the internet as there is no such thing as customer service over here hence the distinct lack of blog activity (sorry team).
Highlight: Definitely finding a place and not sleeping on the floor - BONUS
Lowlight: the flatmates in our room before us - learn how to vacuum!
Interesting fact: You have to pay the council to use your TV in the form of a TV license…..another thing they have thought of to weasel money out of you.
Mountain Biking in Wales / Hay Festival
Last May Bank holiday Dan asked Hamish if he wanted to go mountain biking in the Brecon Mountains in Wales with a few of his work mates. This was a massive honour as none of Dan’s work mates had meet any of Dan’s friends and Hamish and Clint (Dan's twin brother who also shared the honour) had Dan reputation to protect.
After being warned that this was going to be pretty “hardcore” by Dan and his work mates Clint and Hamish started to get a little nervous. Turns out that mountain biking in the UK is pretty tame. Basically involved carrying our bikes for a couple of hours up a steep grass hill (not mountain) and riding down in the freezing rain. Still Hamish managed to buckle the wheel of his rented bike using his skills from the Tantragee in Nelson. After mountain biking and a hot shower we met up with Clint’s girlfriend Hannah and went camping English style (involves pitching a tent in a farmers paddock on a hill).
Next day we went the Hay Festival of Literature & Arts. Not something usually on Hamish’s list of things to do but the festival was described by Bill Clinton in 2001 as "The Woodstock of the mind”. It was alright. We also cruised around Hay-on-Wye which is the second hand book capital of the world thanks to Richard Booth. The village has about 1,900 people yet has over 30 second hand book shops including the largest second hand bookshop in the world with supposedly over 1 million titles.
On way home on Monday we stopped at a small castle and had an archery competition with a longbow. Dan and Hamish decided to let Clint win as we were feeling a little sorry for him. Enough said really.
Highlight 1: Sharing a small tent with Dan. Who said spooning was gay?
Highlight 2: Seeing wild ponies in Brecon Mountains.
Lowlight: the weather – cold and rainy.
Interesting fact: The Brecon Beacons range consists of the mountains to the south of Brecon. The highest of these is Pen y Fan is only 886 m. That’s a hill in NZ terms not much more than the Sugar Loaf.
Hampstead Heath
As the London weather showed us what it was made of, we had to get out and find a body of water to cool down in. Unfortunately the Thames is gross and we aren’t near a fountain so we jumped on a tube and did the mammoth trek up to Hampstead Heath to meet up with Hamish’s mate Dan aka Little dog.
This is a gorgeous part of London with a small village feel but with massive expensive houses. In 2008, Hampstead had the most expensive properties in the London area.
We met Dan outside the tube station and headed up past the rolling green hills to the swimming ponds (yes ponds) where they were handily divided into males, females and mixed. Hamish spotted a diving board at the men’s pond and made the call to set up camp there. Camp would prove to be a good choice of words…
Needless to say that we three were the only heterosexuals in a 2-mile radius. We later learned this is a popular “cruising” spot for gay men and where George Michael was caught and convicted doing…well you know what with another man.
Not to be intimidated the boys braved the water while Lou sat on the grass with a couple hundred men all wearing Speedos and drinking champagne and oiling each other up. It is fair to say that society is much more accepting of gay men in London - we haven’t seen so many men in Speedos since 1983.
After cooling off we headed to a pub and had an amazing Sunday roast and a pint at The Bull & Last. We had the hugest Yorkshire puddings we have ever seen, good times. We then watched England get spanked in their World Cup game which left the pub in a bit of a downer really.
Highlight: Seeing a part of London that kind of reminded us of home (the Heath, not the swimming ponds!)
Lowlight: how long it takes to get everywhere, especially on a stifling tube
Interesting fact: C.S Lewis was inspired to write ‘The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe’ after walking on the Heath on a snowy day.
West End Shows
One of Louise’s many objectives when moving to London was to introduce Hamish to some “culture”. One of the ways of doing this was to go to some West End shows. So far we have been to Oliver, We Will Rock You and The Lion King.
All have been really good for different reasons although Hamish took some convincing. Oliver had a great set and the singing was pretty good, We Will Rock You was amazing, all the Queen songs sound so good live - and even with a female singer in some of them.
Louise was a little disappointed in The Lion King, the costumes were awesome and you did stop noticing that the actors were trying to play animals after awhile. But what annoyed us was that the cast spoke in British or African accents and the movie is clearly an American movie. They also butchered the opening number and they added in a few new songs which Lou wasn’t too happy with - why mess with the best musical score ever written??? Needless to say Hamish enjoyed them but all mostly but was ready to leave at half time.
Highlight: How cheap the tickets are…20 pounds for a meal and a trip to the theatre.
Lowlight: tour groups - they won’t be quiet!
Interesting fact: Don’t buy discounted tickets from fraudulent websites, you will get kicked out! (happened to a couple sitting next to us).
The London Eye
Thanks to the mint Christmas gift from James and Emma, we headed up the giant Ferris wheel on the Thames called the London Eye. It was the perfect day with the sun shining and little cloud so we joined the thousands of other people who also thought it was the perfect day to do it.
After queuing for ages we got into a little glass capsule as it slowly rotates in a full circle, taking about 40 mins in total. You do get to appreciate how massive London is and also the contrast with old buildings like Big Ben and the Parliament Buildings and the newer ones like the Gherkin.
Highlight: Making it into a ‘pod’ - apparently you can pay more to skip the queue and we obviously didn’t do that…
Lowlight: the queues….and the heat (never thought we would complain about that in England)
Interesting fact: The London Eye was only meant to be open for 10 years as a monument to the Millennium, but the council decided to make it a permanent thing after it was a huge success.
Toast NZ
Along with a group of girls Lou attended the 10th annual Toast festival in Richmond one sunny Saturday. The festival is meant to celebrate all things magic about Kiwi food and wine with a little bit of polo thrown in. In true Kiwi style, no one watched the polo and everyone just sat on the grass with a glass of wine and steak & cheese pies.
The Feelers played a great set and got everyone missing home. A fantastic day topped off with Lou sampling the best curry in London from the shop across the road. Result!
While Lou was enjoying Toast NZ Hamish played for the Kukri Badgers in the London league of the Rugby Rocks series. Sevens is massive over here and there are so many tournaments to hit up and prize money to be won.
Highlight: The stall selling Burger rings…how Lou has missed you
Lowlight: The massive trip there and back - it felt like we were in another city
Interesting fact: People will actually pay $10NZD for a tiny glass of Lindauer when pushed.
Jobs
We both started on our jobs on the same day (7th June). Louise is working for John Lewis (John Lewis is kind of like David Jones). Her impressions of the marketing industry here is that there is one person to do each different job and so everyone is a specialist, whereas back home, people do multiple jobs. But the team she works in is really lovely and a nice bunch of people.
The best thing about working at John Lewis is the staff benefits - 25% off everything in store and the staff canteen downstairs which is like an amazing buffet of everything you could ever want all for about 30% of the retail price.
Lunch for a pound!
Hamish is working for Royal Bank of Scotland as a credit manager. RBS have recently hired a few Kiwis and Aussies so there are a few familiar accents in the team.
Highlight 1: how everyone goes and has a cup of tea and a freshly made cake at 3pm (John Lewis)
Highlight 2: Getting paid again albeit monthly.
Lowlight: Getting up early again.
Camden Town
London is famous for it’s markets, namely Camden and Notting Hill. We hit up Camden on a stinking hot Saturday (30°C) and were confronted with a range of cheap sunglasses, tacky souvenirs, and lots of leather, tattoos and piercings. The markets themselves were huge with a canal and locks running through it.
Highlight: The range of people that call Camden home. Very alternate crowd.
Lowlight: The amount of junk being sold to tourists.
Interesting fact: The markets are London’s 4th most popular tourist attraction and attract more than 100,000 people each weekend.
Sevens
Hamish has played a few sevens tournaments most notably for the Susie’s Saloon team. The team is a mixed of Kiwis, Aussies and English run by the spiritual leader Holmesy. The two tournaments Hamish has played in Kinsale (Ireland) and Nivelles (Belgium) Susie’s has won.
Sevens is massive over here with tournaments all over Eurpoe. So far the team has picked up 10k euro from Kinsale for winning and 1k for Nevelles. Would love to say more but "what goes on tour stays on tour..."
Touch and Lous “lessons”
We have started playing touch rugby with a few of Hamish’s mates from sevens. There is a mixed team (Little Horse) and Hamish has been schooling Lou on how to play touch. Lou is fast improving but would improve more if she actually listened to Hamish expert advice more. Although yet to score a try Lou did make an appearance in the Men’s semi final because Men’s team was short, and didn’t embarrass herself too much…. Picture below of Hamish in the mens final which we won.
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