Doug & Jodie

Drinks and Dinner…
On Friday night I invited Gary and Matt out to drinks to meet Jodie. It was time she met some of the people I work with. What started off as a few drinks all All-Bar-One on the river, ended up as a lot of drinks and dinner in the Indian restaurant around the corner. It was a great night out… Cobra’s included !

Spitalfield Markets
Jodie and I got up this morning and headed toward Liverpool street, to discover the Spitalfield Markets. It has a great array of food, fresh cheeses (if that make sense), Thai, Indian, Vietnamese and local foods… the desserts are amazing. It doesn’t feel dirty like most markets, which makes me want to go back.

Gumball 3000
The Gumball 3000 is a rally which… oh click the link !!! It was a spectacular display of the worlds greatest supercars. The highlight for me was the Bugatti Veyron with a top speed of 407km/h, and 1000 horse power… say no more!!! Pall Mall was blocked off and a massive display of Porches, Farraris, Astin Martins, Jaguars, Zondas ..etc. lined the street. XZibit was there too… along with a host of other (in)famous people… playboys, dukes and rich kids. (Entry fee is £28,000)

Now that Scott is thousands of miles away I can pay him out freely – not that ever stops any of us! No seriously, it doesn’t seem like we are so far away from home when so many of our friends either live here or are passing through frequently. Last weekend we caught up again with our jetsetting friend, Scott. This is the second time he has been in town since we arrived (6mths ago) and it’s always a good excuse to get the UQ gang together. Saturday night while Doug was out playing golf and at a party with work mates, Scott, Alicia, Dana, Ian and Tamara came over to our London Bridge flat for wine and cheese. A few hours later we walked along the river to a pub for dinner. Mean Jodie didn’t warn the girls in their heals and a few blisters, a bit of posing in front of the bridge and some bandaids later we said good bye. As always it was great to catch up with old friends (girls we have been friends for over 15 years!!!)

We’re famous … well our street is. Last week a production crew spent an entire day shooting a 5 second scene in front of the building next door. Massive cranes stretched out over the street which simulated pooring rain – I felt like running out with buckets and sending the water home! So, sometime in the future you will see a new Kia in the rain, a guy drives up, stops and runs through the rain to buzz his dates door – that’s our street! (p.s it’s still an ugly car)

Two weeks ago I was the coldest I have ever been in London, I forgot my gloves and my hands went blue at the bus stop. It’s a different story now. Last week I stopped wearing a coat, the office heating is still on so we’ve had the doors open in our 10th floor office with a breeze blowing through. Walking home along the Thames there are people everywhere sitting on every square inch of grass and at lunch time the parks are full of business people soaking up the rays!!! The other day it brought a smile to my face as I walked home and an ice cream van came by, there were kids everywhere and I realised that the city was waking up … everyone truly disappears indoors over winter.

We have just had a lovely warm weekend, apparently this is as warm as it usually gets in summer. Friday night Doug met me at London bridge tube after work and we went to Wagamamma for dinner – yum noodles. We enjoyed beers as they should be drunk, when it’s warm! Walked home at 8pm when it was still light!

Saturday Doug had to work, so I took myself off to the High Street for a spot of shopping! Dressed in my summer dress I hit the town (with the millions of other girls in their summer dresses) – it was fun to have a girly day and I was as thrifty as I could be….. That evening Doug and I splurged in a London Taxi when we were running late for my friend Alicia’s Birthday dinner in Covent Garden. We met Alicia, Graham, Tamara, Peta, Kelvin, Shareen and Tom at Souk Medina – an authentic Moroccan restaurant in Short’s Garden, they had the traditional smoking pipes on all the tables and fantastic food and belly dancers – it was heaps of fun, later we kicked on to a nearby pub.

Today was even warmer and I kept saying, ‘I love living in London when it’s like this’ and truly understand now why people say they came home because they couldn’t survive another winter … I’m glad we came when we did so we appreciate being here even more now! We packed our back packs with picnic food and champagne and headed to Primrose Hill north of Regents Park for a picnic with Alicia, Graham, Tam and Scott (who was passing through London on business again). We had a lovely day lying in the sunshine and taking in the views of London. We have saved all the photos about Portugal, Ireland and the weekends to our album – just haven’t linked them here because we have to put these blogs on at work until we get the internet at home, so check them out

Lisbon
We arrived in Lisbon on Thursday night, after leaving work early. We got through customs and collected the bag, before reading that the bus into town had stopped running. We caught a crazy taxi into town, who dropped us off in (what seemed like) a dodgy area of town. We got to our room, which was small. Not small in square feet, but small in volume… basically I could only stand up straight, in about 30% of the room/bathroom. We woke up to realise we were in the centre of the city and decided to have a look around for breakfast, after seeing the breakfast area in the hotel. We found a great place in the main square, in the sun. Breakfast in the warm sun, was great after being in the UK for nearly 5 months.

We headed up toward the Castle, negotiating the windy streets, which were all created using tiles. The old architecture was amazing throughout the entire city. We missed the castle, but ended up at one of the viewing points near an old church, where we stopped to take some photos.

The whole day we were walking around commenting on how nice the sun was. We toured the city, catching the tram down toward the waterfront, where we caught a bus to the Belem region. Belem is famous for (among other things) Pastrie De Nata ! We grabbed lunch in a great little restaurant, with outdoor seating. We sat in the sun and enjoyed fresh seafood and an ice cold beer.

After taking in some more of the sights we walked along the water front, where we took a break and Jodie took a nap in the park.

Sintra
Sintra is a beautiful district, west of Lisbon. It’s a very hilly region, densely populated with castles, palaces and tiled streets, winding between quaint cafes and souvenir shops. We had a fantastic lunch in the village centre, with sounds of the clock tower striking. We had dinner in a tiny little café, then sat in a port/wine bar sipping 80 year old port.

The next day we took a walk around the National Palace, which is like an adventure playground. We climbed the hill to visit the Moorish Castle, which was quite spectacular.