London Adventures continued....

The other day one of my friends asked me whether I would prefer to live in London or in Sydney. Easy question. But for a moment I was stumped. You see I have really enjoyed going up to London at every opportunity over these past few weeks. I have managed to meet up with quite a few friends and see some wonderful sites. In the end, I decided that the beaches of Sydney made it my winner ahead of London, but I can certainly see the appeal of London.

The Globe Theatre, London

In London there are fantastic art galleries with free exhibitions, such as the V & A, the British Museum, the Natural History Museum and the Tate and Tate Modern. There is the incredible Globe Theatre on Southbank - which I visited last week but unfortunately did not go inside.Then there is amazing shopping all over London, as well as this fabulous old-world culture to London; for example on Jermyn Street or on Pall Mall where the shops date back hundreds of years and the service is impeccable. London also offers wonderful markets and vintage shops near Spittlefields and Brick Lane, as well as Portobello Markets and Covent Garden. London is full of activities. So much room for activities.

When I went to London on Saturday I met up with my cousins and we went for brunch near Green Park. We had delicious poached eggs and mushrooms and great coffee - it was fuel for our shopping adventures which were to follow. After breaky we then headed along to South Audley Street to look at the Purdey Shop - we saw shot guns that were £100,000 or more. Incredible. Coming from a family with great interest in shooting, this was a very necessary stop on our shopping tour. Next we went to Selfridges where there is literally a 'Shoe Hall'. It is full of the most fantastic shoes - Jimmy Choo, Christian Louboutin, Chanel and a great british brand I like called Kurt Geiger. I was very controlled and managed to purchase not one thing throughout. I'm at the stage where anything I do purchase becomes an extra thing to stuff into my suitcase, or means I will have to leave another thing behind, so I try not to buy anything if I don't absolutely need it.

Liberty's of London

After Selfridges we went to Liberty's, which is a department store in the Tudor style - it was very pretty and quaint and a great experience to see inside it. We also walked by Carnaby Street and that area was really cool - people are dressed as you would see in the magazines, and their hair is outrageous. Another coffee shop stop, where my male cousin insisted on smoking a pretty fantastic cuban cigar before we headed off to Gap and Zara to find appropriate clothing for our dinner appointment. And I found a shirt from Thomas Pink. It wasn't supposed to happen, but when you find a nice shirt and it is reduced that much, you can't really resist.

Above I mentioned the old-world culture of London and the club where we were going for drinks did not permit any demin, nor casual clothing. Consequently we had to make sure we were appropriately dressed by buying what we could on the High Street to save us having to go home. At the club, men are expected to wear a jacket, long-sleeved shirt and a tie. Women cannot wear jeans. No mobile phones are permitted inside and there is a ladies washroom very separate to the men's area, as women were not always allowed in this gentlemen's club. The club of which I speak is called the Oxford and Cambridge Social Club. It is very difficult to get membership to this club; just because you have matriculated from either Oxford or Cambridge, does not mean you automatically qualify. Fortunately my cousin's boyfriend was a member and so we enjoyed the amazing privelege of champagne at one of the most exclusive clubs in London.

The decor was beautiful. The ceilings were high and had gold guilding, the walls were decorated with beautiful wallpaper and leather chairs and tables were set out so as to make use of the 10,000 book library. There were card tables, bridge tables and chess boards too. Neatly ordered piles of the latest magazines were available for perusal and a bell stood in the corner of the room, should you require assistance or a champagne top-up. A terrace was upstairs though because of the rain we were unable to use it. A dining room was also available to guests and my cousins had dinner there. Unfortunately living outside of London I had to make a move for home and therefore couldn't stay for dinner. Given the kinds of interesting people that are members of the club, I would loved to have stayed and to have met more people - I have no doubt they would have been very interesting to talk to. As a member of this club you are able to arrange accommodation and any time, 24 hours a day, you can make use of the club's facilities. I wish we had this kind of thing in Sydney. I particularly liked seeing the writing desks in one area of the club, with real old-fashioned ink wells and quills, and Oxford or Cambridge stationery - depending on which university you had attended.

The street I used to live on

It was a really lovely day in London and I only hope that at some point I have the opportunity to live in London, albeit for 12 months, just to really experience what it is like truly being a Londoner. I was born in London and, during a recent visit, I walked by my old house in Wandsworth Common. Considering I was only one or two years old when I lived at my home, I honestly didn't remember it, but it was nice to come back to somewhere I had lived and to better understand my roots.

London Town

On Friday my Mum and I took the train into London for a full day (and night) of sight-seeing - after all, it wouldn't be a proper visit to England without a visit to London.

 We had a really fun time strolling through the Burlington Arcade, which is probably one of my favourite places in London. It is an arcade full of the best antique jewellery shops, featuring pieces such as antique Cartier and Tiffany & Co diamond rings, plus the biggest sapphires and emeralds i've ever seen.

We then visited the British Museum and saw the Egyptian rooms. Amongst the collection were the Rosetta Stone, incredible sphinx sculptures and enormous statues (with an individual arm spanning over two metres in length). Some of the items in the collection were dated back to 2000BC - it's hard to get your head around time when something is that ancient.

 In the afternoon we headed towards another of my favourite endroits of London: Covent Garden. I think there is a really fun vibe to Covent Garden, with buskers always guaranteed to be performing. We were lucky enough to see a string quintet that danced while they played, as well as human statues in both bronze and gold. The buskers were great fun to watch, and there were also markets we checked out, which had fabulous Banksy artworks.

We then made our way to the King's Road in Chelsea, which is probably similar to Oxford Street in Sydney's Paddington. It's where Kate Middleton is often seen and it certainly had a very distinctive 'sloane ranger' vibe. Lots of nice shops and lovely buildings too.

After a nice, quick Italian dinner, Mum and I ventured over to the Victoria Apollo Theatre to see the musical Wicked. Most of my school friends in Australia had raved to me about it, my friend Sarah Harding in particular is a strong Wicked advocate (I think she's seen it three times). Fortunately it did not disappoint. Although we had the understudy as Glinda (the good witch), the performance was fantastic and Elpheba had an incredible voice. The costumes were really fun and the music was catchy. I can now join Sarah in thoroughly recommending it.

A really fun day was had in London and, although we arrived home after midnight, the long day was well worth it!

An eventful weekend.

The Queen's birthday long weekend was fast-paced and full of fun. A friend from Scots, Claire, came to stay with my family and I, so we made an effort to pack as much into those four days as possible.

Friday evening consisted of a drinks party at my house, mainly for all of my Mum's friends, but there was good food and wine, and we stayed there until about 8.30pm, when we ventured to Neutral Bay to a friend's gathering. The crowd we were with were really nice, though not necessarily people I usually hang out with. They were into alternative music and had lots of tattoos and piercings, but it was fun getting out of my normal social groups and I met some new people.

Saturday Claire and I woke up and went for a run along Manly beach, which was a great start to the day. We then decided we would do something a little bit different, so we drove to Glebe and had a really lovely time walking around Glebe's markets, looking at the amazing stalls with hand-made jewelry and uniquely designed clothing, though there was also lots of bric-a-brac. Gypsy Kings-esque music played as we had our lunch on the grass in the markets, and it was a very cool way to spend our afternoon. We had coffee in a very chic little cafe, and next door to it was the most incredible patisserie I've seen (apart from those in France).

Sunday we walked my dog and, on four hours sleep, we were pretty exhausted. We watched a really great british movie, An Education, which I would thoroughly recommend. We cooked dinner for my family: chilli, garlic and spinach prawn tagliatelle, followed by an apricot crumble. Yum. An early night followed, as we had a very early morning the next day.

Monday morning saw Claire and I waking up at 3.20am so as to travel to Darling Harbour to watch the Socceroos vs. Germany in the 2010 Soccer World Cup. The above photo shows the crowds that were around us! The atmosphere was very exciting and there were 25,000 people there, although it was such a disappointing game and the temperature was extremely cold. We returned home by 7.30am, had a bit of a nap, and then at about midday we went for a beautiful walk from Harbord Diggers to Curl Curl, and back again.

It was a jam-packed weekend but it was lots of fun and I'm glad we were able to explore Sydney a little bit as, generally, when I am home I don't make much effort to get out of my area and explore other places.