Friday, July 30, 2010

From Perth to London

This week has been rather lovely so far. Not only did I manage to score a whole four day's worth of work (at Top Shop, in the fraud prevention department - mind you it's not all that exciting - I'm doing receipts reconciliation and the most exciting part of my placement was when Jordan was spotted in the store... My response was to keep working on the receipts!), I got to have dinner with a friend from Perth!

Keryna was on the tail end of an extensive, "I've got long service leave and I'm using it!" European trip with her man-friend Matt, so we decided to celebrate our both being on the other side of the world by eating at a little French restaurant in Earls Court called The Little French Restaurant! My big brother had suggested it was the very best value meal in town, and I would have to say I agree - three delicious French courses for 10GBP on the proviso that you have a glass of wine is not a bad deal at all. (Thanks bruv! xx)


The restaurant is gorgeously quaint, and we even had a French waitress - I was impressed. We also got to enjoy a little old(er) couple snuggling and canoodling outside our window for a while... It was actually quite sweet and romantic. Of course, that's based on my imagining they've been married for 60 years and are still madly in love with each other after all this time. In reality, they may have each knocked off their original spouses and met in prison where they married just a few short weeks ago, prior to their release, and are still in the honeymoon phase. You never know.


Thursday, July 29, 2010

To market, to market

On Sunday I ventured over to Brick Lane and explored both the Sunday Up Markets and the Spitalfields Markets - in hindsight, wearing my heels wasn't the best idea... these markets are huge on their own, let alone combined!








In true HTR fashion, my only purchases for the day were a cupcake and some fudge! Mmmm....

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Devonshire Tea me!

One of the things I was looking forward to the most with coming to England was to be able to eat scones slathered in jam and dolloped with cream absolutely everywhere I went! Alas, it turns out that Devonshire Tea's are not that popular here Putney/Fulham...

After much frustration and many apologetic looks from cafe owners, I eventually managed to stumble across some scones! Albeit, in a Waitrose supermarket... The pre-prepared variety with whipped cream that are slightly stale no matter how quickly you get to them...

But, beggers can't be choosers! So, Waitrose scones, plus "super jam" (a jam made with only fruit and fruit juice, no added sugar - yum!) to add a bit of extra deliciousness are my bed buddies tonight as I lounge in Mara's room, watching Dr Who and looking forward to an early night...




Oh - and note the sunshine through the window? That's 7:30pm sunshine. It's quite similar to 4:30am sunshine... I saw both today - hence the quite night!

Friday, July 23, 2010

Pottering around Putney

I'm having a little trouble uploading photos at the moment, so here are just a few from my little walks around the area I currently find myself in...

        





There are so many flowers out in bloom at the moment - I love the flower pots hanging from lamp posts all around Fulham - so pretty!

Oh - and Anonymous who commented on my last blog - thank you, but who are you??

As soon as I get more joy with this internet connection, I'll upload some more pictures - promise!

xx

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

London

I feel like I have been flat out since arriving in London! Hence the severe lack of updates here...

I'm still flat out - I had an appointment with a bank this morning, and I have an interview this afternoon, but I thought I would quickly share my business class experience!


I had to try and be sneaky with all my photos in the plane, because I didn't want to be easily spotted as the poor girl flying on frequent flyer points who doesn't really have the financial position to *really* be there!


Despite having already had dinner in the supper room in the First Class Lounge at JFK (ahem), I couldn't resist having a second dinner on the plane as it sounded so yummy!! Entree of bocconcini and salad, bread roll, main of steak and vegetables, desert pie, glass of scotch, all brought to you as if you are in a restaurant ie - not on a trolley! Oh I loved it!! Plus I chose to get an entertainment unit and watch a movie which meant a very late night and only a few hours actual sleep on my flat bed... Bliss.


I never want to fly economy again...

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Things I have learned in NY

  1. You can ignore the pedestrian traffic lights and laws and cross whenever and wherever you feel like it - even if it's right in front of a couple of NYPD blues!
  2. Hot dogs aren't that big.
  3. Anthropologie is the best shop in the world*!
  4. New Yorkers are friendly! Some of the friendliest people I have ever met. Period.
  5. American coins are as annoying as a toy that comes without batteries.
  6. Perthites don't know what quince paste is... in NY you can get it by the bucket**!!
  7. Most meals come with a complimentary pickle.
  8. Things are exponentially more expensive on 5th Avenue!
  9. The darker the bar, the cooler the bar. Unless it's a rooftop bar - that's cool too.
  10. No one in NY is from NY.

* at this current point in time.
** well, almost! It's a bloody big tub at least...

Currently sitting in the First Class lounge of British Airways at JFK waiting for my business class flight to London (thanks HTR!!), three wines and one port down, trying to pretend that I'm rich so that the real rich people don't realise I'm here on frequent flyer points! Shhh! :-)

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Happiness is an art

There are few things that make me feel as happy or as at peace as an art gallery or museum do...




















I wander around art galleries and museums for hours on end, gently stretching my day across wishing trees by Yoko Ono, cows by Pablo Picasso, giant bundles of hay, silhouettes with two pairs of legs, advice on sleeping straight, electronic art, works by Lee Bontecou that just make you want to jump into black holes to see what's in there, self portraits in reflections, self portraits in gold reflections, self portraits in relfections next to Frida Kahlo's self portraits... I love it. I love yo MoMa.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

A spoon full of sugar

A few evenings ago, right after sushi and the spiciest bloody mary that ever existed, right after the Sex & The City Tour, Donna and I did something else that was utterly brilliant... We saw Mary Poppins on Broadway!


As soon as the orchestra starting playing I was right back in my childhood (which would've been better if I had actually shrunk down to child-sized me - the distance between the seats was almost non-existant!), shuffling around and singing chim chiminee with soot on my nose and riding on magical ponies sprung out from a carousel! Although, they didn't do the horses, which I was a little upset about. They did however have the bird lady, who steals my heart every time!

Friday, July 9, 2010

Sex & The City!

Today I went on the Sex & The City Tour!!! Any of you who know me vaguely will realise I am a huge, HUGE S&TC fan, so this entire post is dedicated to this tour.

For those who don't like S&TC, here are some horses:


Now, the tour starts off in front of the Pulitzer Fountain, opposite the Plaza Hotel.


The scene where Carrie says goodbye to Big (her Hubble) was filmed right here! "Maybe some women aren't meant to be tamed. Maybe they need to run free until they find someone just as wild to run with."

Also, some of the 80's flashback scenes in the second movie were also filmed here. Plus, of course, Big's engagement party to Natasha was at the Plaza, and Miranda's interior decorator married Miranda's friend in the Plaza! Miranda was in charge of the guest book and Charlotte wore the amazingly sexy black bridesmaids dress.

The Plaza Hotel is also the home of the Oak Bar - where Samantha meets her old millionaire after work one day.

Right across from this is the corner. THE corner ladies! This is the corner where Carrie gets splashed by a bus in the opening credits. Carrie in her pink tu-tu stood right here!


On this corner is Bergdorf Goodman - absolutely amazing department store to the rich - this is where Charlotte and Trey had their wedding registry.

Coming up next we have the park where Charlotte and Harry let little Miss Elizabeth Taylor off her lead... and she was gang-banged by all the boy dogs!



I loved that the tour combined both scenes from the series, and the movies. We got to visit Buddakan, which was the amazing restaurant where Carrie and Big had their rehearsal dinner in the first movie, the night before he left her standing in the NY Library...

The table where everyone was waiting for Big and Carrie - I took the photo
from where Big and Carrie stood when they first arrived.

The bar where Carrie asked Big for her last single girl kiss!

Me standing under the sign out front - this is where Samantha and Big
were standing, smoking cigars, when Steve arrived to speak with Miranda.

This is Aiden's furniture workshop and store:


This is the exclusive roof-top pool that Samantha desperately wanted to get into! So much so that she ended up stealing another woman's identity to get in there:


This is Charlotte's art gallery:



And finally, this is Scout Bar! This is the bar that was used as Steve and Aiden's bar - it's actually called O'Neal's Speakeasy, but this is it. The white awning to the left is where Aiden fed Carrie her piece of cake after she dropped her fork, on the bar's opening night. The awning wasn't there at filming though.


Ahhh... Love it :-)

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