June 29, 2010

oh how I love summer in London

Last Wednesday someone asked me what my plans for the weekend were, my reply was something along the lines of my mind being so preoccupied with the stress associated with observations and inspectors that week, that I had not had a moment or even the interest to think about the weekend. So with that in mind, heres how the past weekend developed..

Friday night.. we headed along to Hyde Park to sit in the sun outside Hard Rock Calling, and enjoy the sweet sounds of Ben Harper (Bee you were on my mind!!) and Pearl Jam. Well....how this all changed when we were all offered free tickets (the lady very nearly took them back when she saw the questioning look in our eyes) .. Right place right time! So we downed our drinks, ate our food and proceeded through the gates...all be it somewhat hesitantly, I mean....was this seriously for real? Well, the atmosphere was unreal, festival like....happy people everywhere, the happiest of all? Probably us. Even though I'm not a Pearl Jam fan, I could definitely appreciate the talent and appreciate how much everyone around me was in awe of him. AND the fact that there were plenty more outside the gates, who would love to be in my position.Next up, Saturday....we decided to head down to Wimbledon and chance our luck at getting in there. Well after 2 hours and 15 minutes, and a massive feat by me, the lady of no lines, we were in. And well...what an event. A definitely different fan base than the football I've been glued to recently. Such a spectacle, and just thinking to myself, 'I'm at Wimbledon, the most prestigious tennis event in the world...and little old me from the other side of the world is here.' We were even offered (yes, offered!) tickets to centre court, but we passed them on to our good friends who love tennis a great deal more than I. It was only fair, and i'm sure my time will come!

This is Lindsey Davenport (for those of you who don't know) ex Wimbledon winner.


Summer in London is here, and now I remember why I love London so much.

June 20, 2010

Diamonds

I'm so sick of people writing off the All Whites without giving them a chance. Yes the odds are against them but isn't this pressure creating diamonds! (quote courtesy of Leah) I heard the commentary this morning during an earlier game, and I believe the words were along the lines of, 'Italy will beat NZ this afternoon.' The game was amazing, the atmosphere in the room was INTENSE, we were literally sitting on the edges of our seats, and that goal that NZ scored.....complete exhilaration. We scored against the winners of the last world cup. Can't wait to read the headlines tomorrow. Bet they wont be predicting a loss against our next game Uraguay on Thursday.

Another diamond. A friend who will know who he is when he reads this. He comes along to our poker nights every week without fail. He manned the bucket at our Ascot after party last night, even had it out on the street. Then he made sure it got home safely. But apart from his support of our relay team...he is quite simply a diamond of a friend. Hes that friend that you would call should you only have one call left and you would trust your life in his hands. Hes reliable and in the words of others: dependable, informative, witty, 'study as a rock' and his enthusiasm is infectious. Someone said they have never seen him angry and come to think of it....neither have I! Such a diamond (and a pretty good basketball player too).

We raised 400 pounds through our Ascot after party last night. Such a good effort by some of the girls who did all the organising, and promoting, and means we are now nearly up to 600 pounds in total, well on the way to our 1000 pound target. So pleased. So so pleased.

June 13, 2010

Relay for Life

The countdown to the Relay for Life is on.

On July 10-11, our team will be walking around a track for 22 hours.
At all times at least 2 of us must be on the track, so during the day we will be enjoying the sun, the people, the stalls, the bands and other activities, and by night we will be waking each other up from our tents...to walk the track.
All in aid of Cancer research and awareness.

We have organised 2 fundraising events.
The first this weekend is an Ascot After Party. Our venue holds 120 and we are getting buses coming back from the races to stop first at our venue......should be a great reunion of Kiwis!
The second is in the first weekend of July and is an Old School Sports Day. We are dressing up in old school sports gear (the pink and black striped unitard will come out!) and organising people into teams to compete in lots of fun events including sack races and egg and spoon races. Shall be fun!

I am completely blown away by the support from my team. Taking on this event has proved a challenge and coming back from NZ I felt slightly overwhelmed at the fundraising and rallying people along that lay ahead.....our goal is to raise 1000 pounds. But upon getting the ball rolling, some of the other team members have completely stepped up and taken on the challenge of creating awesomely fun events that will get others involved. Such good friends. And superb team mates.

Each week we are also running poker evenings at our flat...a percentage of the money going to the 1st and 2nd place winners and another percentage to our fundraising venture.

So now fingers and toes are crossed that our events go off without a hitch, people have a great time and most importantly we raise some good money for an extremely good cause.

For those of you in the UK, you can help support our team by making a contribution on our fundraising page.

http://www.donatetomyrelay.org/teamnz

June 12, 2010

new things

I imagine that in years to come when people ask me how my life was in London my reply will be "Busy...crazy busy" however in all reality, I will probably forget the busy and only remember the fun.
So this busy, its meant less time to communicate with all those people I love to communicate so often and so much with. So heres me, outlining the main events over the past month or so since I have been back from NZ.

Flights are booked- back to Sydney for Charlotte & Gareths wedding. AND I am stopping for a few nights in Brisbane to see Matt, Becssss and the kids. I can't wait. I haven't seen them since I stopped there on my way back to Korea. And that is far too long ago.
Summer plans- me, Kelly and Monique are flying to Bulgaria. We are tripping around the beaches there where there are apparently cocktails on the beach for 2 euro and soaking up the sunshine. Charles will join us there! Then the 4 of us are training/busing and whatever other means of transporting we can find...ourselves to Croatia where we will board our boat for the week. Sailing around the islands by day, pulling up to land by night. More sunshine soaking and I imagine plenty more cocktails.

Study....plodding along. I just got an A and feel more motivated now to continue but its so darn hard!!! Especially on top of school and life.

I baked a carrot cake!!!! It was a special someones birthday and carrot cake was the request. So I was busy using google to find the best recipe and remembered Maree giving me her amazing recipe when I was back home. So away I went......unfortunately it didn't rise so wonderfully but with some creative and inventive cutting and folding and icing, I had a delicious two tier carrot cake. And it was delicious! (Not in competition with yours though Maree!)

School is school. I still love my class but having had a student teacher for the past 5 weeks, I have had to hand over a lot of control and a substantial part of my heart. You would think having had this extra help school would be a breeze? Um no. Reports, Planning, Observations (both me doing the observations and being observed) covering other classes and teaches. Yip, no, not a breeze.

London Rugby Sevens. Sunshine, Beer, good quality rugby and a pirates costume. What more could be asked for. Fantastic day.


Football world cup. Possibly in NZ you could be excused from ignoring the hype, but here.....its a must to know and a must to be enthused. I'm supporting NZ of course but after discussion with Nic and Kerrys family, I am aligning myself also with England (for obvious reasons). First game for me to view is tonight. Come on England!!

I'm still playing touch rugby and netball. Loving the touch (possibly because my team is awesome) but not so much the netball (possibly for the opposite reason of why I love touch). Both good for the exercise and being outside on these beautiful summer evenings.

Apart from these majors, life is the same. And I love it.