Palaces, Moving and Hangovers
I know I've been slack in updating this thing, but you'll all get over it I'm sure.:)
Last weekend was Casey's last one in London, so we decided that rather than spend a fortune getting to Stonehenge, we'd do London-ish things instead. Saturday we met up at London Bridge and, as the weather was quite nice, wandered across the city to Hyde Park. Along the way we got caught up in a big anti-war protest, but we got there eventually! We fed squirrels (SO CUTE!!) and hired one of those paddle boats and went around the lake. Some horrible little cretins decided to throw rocks at us from the bridge, but other than that it was nice. We then wandered off and found ourselves outside the Royal Albert Concert Hall and the massive statue dedicated to Prince Albert.
Sunday we again started off at London Bridge, but this time took the tube to High Street Kensington and, after some geographically-challenged walking (on my part!) we made it to Kensington Palace. Kensington was the home of Princess Diana, and is still used by the royals today. As such, like Windsor and Buckingham, only part of the palace is open to the public. It costs 11 quid to get in, but the audio guides are free. The first part of the tour is kind of disappointing - only a handful of rooms had displays in them. One room had a collection of Diana's dresses, two rooms had collections of the Queen's dresses and her memorabilia. The other rooms, however, were just empty rooms with little plaques describing what they were used for. The second part of the tour, however, was much more interesting - from the amazingly decadent King's Stairway you enter the state rooms which are just lovely. It was quite funny - one room had four massive chandeliers and, according to the audio guide, these are just copies. The original four were 'lost'. How, I ask you, do you manage to 'lose' four great big bloody chandeliers?! And even if they were stolen, how do you get them out of the palace unnoticed?! I wonder about some things...
From there we went and explored the gardens around the palace a bit, which are absolutely beautiful, complete with hedges and a lake and more squirrels (which we hand-fed again!). Very pretty indeed.
Tuesday night Casey headed off to Dublin and from what I've heard so far she's enjoying it.:)
In other news, I went out for a couple of drinks with Laura on Thursday night after work, then Friday night we decided a decent boogie was in order. As such, I met up with Laura after work at Victoria station and we went to a pub - the Royal George. The pub is quite famous because during WW2, the nazis were trying their best to bomb Victoria station. They bombed the bejesus out of the surrounding area, but never actually hit the station. The only buildings that survived that particular campaign were the station and the Royal George. During the day, World War 2 vets come in with their uniforms and medals on and drink there, very cute. Anyway, Laura was having drinks with people she used to work with at Westminster City Council, so we joined them for a few hours, and we all eventually moved on to a very funky cocktail bar around the corner.
From there, Laura and I went to meet up with Dave at a big club called Scala at Kings Cross. We danced the night away there and got home about 4am.
Come 8am Saturday morning, and I'm not feeling too pretty. And I had to get up to move. Moving + hangover = very delicate Mel. Justine, my editor, was a gem and her and her boyfriend came and helped me move. Justine has a car, a very rare commodity among my connections here! Eventually, after a slight hitch on my part, all my stuff was moved. Needless to say, by yesterday afternoon I was not in the mood to go out, but Nicole from my netball team is about to take off travelling for three months and was having a little celebration. So we went bowling at a place called Funlands in Piccadilly Circus. My bowling-fu is not best, but we had a great time just chatting away. I was home and in bed by midnight, though, I wish I could've stayed out longer...
Today I'm tidying up Jody's place and then going to do some grocery shopping. Food is always a plus when you're living somewhere. Unfortunately, one of my new flatmates went on a total cleaning spree while I was out last night and threw out my vegemite, thinking it belonged to a previous flat mate:(. No vegemite for me, so I'm going to have to get to the Australia shop at some point.
Anywho, my next update I promise to put up some pictures of my new room and of Kensington Palace. This week not a lot happening, which is good given how crazy the last week has been... Melanie needs a rest!!
Last weekend was Casey's last one in London, so we decided that rather than spend a fortune getting to Stonehenge, we'd do London-ish things instead. Saturday we met up at London Bridge and, as the weather was quite nice, wandered across the city to Hyde Park. Along the way we got caught up in a big anti-war protest, but we got there eventually! We fed squirrels (SO CUTE!!) and hired one of those paddle boats and went around the lake. Some horrible little cretins decided to throw rocks at us from the bridge, but other than that it was nice. We then wandered off and found ourselves outside the Royal Albert Concert Hall and the massive statue dedicated to Prince Albert.
Sunday we again started off at London Bridge, but this time took the tube to High Street Kensington and, after some geographically-challenged walking (on my part!) we made it to Kensington Palace. Kensington was the home of Princess Diana, and is still used by the royals today. As such, like Windsor and Buckingham, only part of the palace is open to the public. It costs 11 quid to get in, but the audio guides are free. The first part of the tour is kind of disappointing - only a handful of rooms had displays in them. One room had a collection of Diana's dresses, two rooms had collections of the Queen's dresses and her memorabilia. The other rooms, however, were just empty rooms with little plaques describing what they were used for. The second part of the tour, however, was much more interesting - from the amazingly decadent King's Stairway you enter the state rooms which are just lovely. It was quite funny - one room had four massive chandeliers and, according to the audio guide, these are just copies. The original four were 'lost'. How, I ask you, do you manage to 'lose' four great big bloody chandeliers?! And even if they were stolen, how do you get them out of the palace unnoticed?! I wonder about some things...
From there we went and explored the gardens around the palace a bit, which are absolutely beautiful, complete with hedges and a lake and more squirrels (which we hand-fed again!). Very pretty indeed.
Tuesday night Casey headed off to Dublin and from what I've heard so far she's enjoying it.:)
In other news, I went out for a couple of drinks with Laura on Thursday night after work, then Friday night we decided a decent boogie was in order. As such, I met up with Laura after work at Victoria station and we went to a pub - the Royal George. The pub is quite famous because during WW2, the nazis were trying their best to bomb Victoria station. They bombed the bejesus out of the surrounding area, but never actually hit the station. The only buildings that survived that particular campaign were the station and the Royal George. During the day, World War 2 vets come in with their uniforms and medals on and drink there, very cute. Anyway, Laura was having drinks with people she used to work with at Westminster City Council, so we joined them for a few hours, and we all eventually moved on to a very funky cocktail bar around the corner.
From there, Laura and I went to meet up with Dave at a big club called Scala at Kings Cross. We danced the night away there and got home about 4am.
Come 8am Saturday morning, and I'm not feeling too pretty. And I had to get up to move. Moving + hangover = very delicate Mel. Justine, my editor, was a gem and her and her boyfriend came and helped me move. Justine has a car, a very rare commodity among my connections here! Eventually, after a slight hitch on my part, all my stuff was moved. Needless to say, by yesterday afternoon I was not in the mood to go out, but Nicole from my netball team is about to take off travelling for three months and was having a little celebration. So we went bowling at a place called Funlands in Piccadilly Circus. My bowling-fu is not best, but we had a great time just chatting away. I was home and in bed by midnight, though, I wish I could've stayed out longer...
Today I'm tidying up Jody's place and then going to do some grocery shopping. Food is always a plus when you're living somewhere. Unfortunately, one of my new flatmates went on a total cleaning spree while I was out last night and threw out my vegemite, thinking it belonged to a previous flat mate:(. No vegemite for me, so I'm going to have to get to the Australia shop at some point.
Anywho, my next update I promise to put up some pictures of my new room and of Kensington Palace. This week not a lot happening, which is good given how crazy the last week has been... Melanie needs a rest!!
posted by Melanie at
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