The Saatchi Gallery

Mum is always reminding me that I should always take the time to do something cultural while I’m in London. And it’s not that I don’t make the effort to go out and do things every weekend, but when it’s raining and cold out it gets very easy to stay in and watch movies. It happened to be a raining all of the long weekend. But we took our umbrellas and went to rough it in the rain, we walked from Fulham to Chelsea Kings road to visit the Saatchi Gallery. I’m so glad we did make the effort because it had turned out to be a lovely Gallery that catered for all. The actual gallery itself was a great space, with high ceilings and masses of sunlight shining through the sky lights. It truly was a positive space to go and have a browse and clear your head.

Here are a few pieces that had caught my eye:

Rain rain go away!

So today is one of those rainy days in London, and I do feel a bit flat. Not that I hate the rain but seriously it’s been raining for nearly two weeks! I put on an orange dress today and brightened my mood up, it’s not that I hate the rain- in fact I usually love it! But enough is enough! No more frizzy hair! No more soggy shoes! No more crappy umbrellas!

On another note this is all of the stuff that you should invest in that I have yet to:

Hunter Wellies!(A must)

Cat in raintcoat... Cute

Invest some money in a good umbrella

London when it rains

There's something about Soho

Soho is where it’s at! There’s something about Soho that makes you want to put on your best dress and go for a dance. I always seem to end up in vibrant Soho on a night out and not because most of my male friends are ‘fabuooosh’,but it’s a really nice place to chill. Soho is not only one of London’s hot spots for gay bars but it’s also has one of London’s biggest film scenes what with all of the celebrities walking around (not that I’ve ever seen anyone worth writing home about). It also is home to a couple of really cool Jazz bars including one of the worlds oldest Jazz bars Ronnie Scotts(http://www.ronniescotts.co.uk/). I really I love getting dressed in my best dress and six inch heels and not feeling like your getting preyed on by a bunch of meat heads; because Kylie Minogue is pumping and the cocktails are flowing!

Soho House

So when I first moved to London me and the girls decided to hit the city for a night out on the town. We dressed to the nines and had no idea where we were going, this was weird for us because coming from the Gold Coast we knew everyone around town and the social scene like the back of our hand. We even worked at the nightclubs back home, so it was refreshing to go somewhere new. We started off at a typical English pub and had a couple of drinks. We mad our way around to a few bars, still to this day I don’t know the names or what time of night it was. We met these guys (they seemed nice enough) and they invited us to come to another bar with them. We though why not! It’s not like we have to go meet anyone as we don’t know anyone! We walked into the inconspicuous place that had a snotty door lady asking to see membership cards. I was thinking what the hell are they asking for membership cards for; we proceeded to drink and mix with people through out the night. These people weren’t your average mix of people, I kept thinking wow the Ceo of Sony BMG and this architect that had designed a famous building in China, what are they doing here? It turns out we were in Soho house, one the most exclusive member only bars in London.  To put this scenario into perspective I was stoked because of the reference to the famous sex and the city episode where Samantha gets kicked out for lying about her membership, so so cool to be invited in!

Justine and I in Soho House

Antonio and I Soho

The Village Soho

Street life.Love

So I clearly know that there are buskers in every part of the world, but when you’re walking home at the end of a hard day and have caught three different trains in peak hour and you stumble across a man playing le vie en rose it does tend to make you smile. I have always had a countless amounts of respect for people who get out there and share their talent with the world. I don’t know if these brave people realise just how much they make my day sometimes!

Here are some of the magic/buskers/street performers I have come across in London:

Trafalgar Sqaure

Christmas love from trafalgar sqaure

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Crazy street performer trafalgar

trafalgar

Notting Hill Carnival:

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The Nutcracker

How I loved going to the Coliseum to see the Nut cracker for the first time was magical. The costumes were remarkable and the live orchestra made the show! I had never known the story of the nutcracker before I had seen the ballet, and to be honest I didn’t follow the whole storyline but the story didn’t really make the show for me I was impressed with the overall experience. I would recommend anyone to put this on the to do list before Christmas.

Links:
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/the-nutcracker-london-coliseum-35-6274686.html

Have a night in

Sit down relax and have some SSB (famously quoting sex and the city ‘secret single business’).There are just a few things that you need to as a women need to do on your own! I can’t stress this enough, especially being the girlgy girl that I am, that it is so important to give your body/mind a rest. My relax regime consists of a few simple yet effective steps.

-           Hire a girly/chick flick movie

-           Paint those things that used to called toe nails!

-           Give yourself a facial

-           Eat some comfort food

-           Skype home

-           Chocolate..... need I say more

-           Go for a walk

Once you’ve completed these steps you can feel human again!

The thames walk

Get out doors-thames walkThe most invigorating walk that I have been on in London had to be the thames walk! starting from Clapham junction and heading towards south bank, don’t worry about doing up your hair nice as I did as the wind will undo all of your hard work. The thing I love about London is you’ll be walking around and stumble into a beautiful up kept garden/park, and there always seems to be a statue of some sort for a tribute to one of the pasts greats!

http://www.walkthethamespath.co.uk/?seref=adwords_Thames_Path_Walking

Here are a few of the many of statues that I have come across in London:

Start a new class

Ok so I can see how it looks like a mid life crisis thing to do, but starting a new class just showed me that I’m still a little bit vulnerable and not as good at dancing as I thought! Steeping outside of the box was so refreshing and it made me laugh like a little kid! The instructor was a typically gay spicy spanito and would not take no for an answer. He was very pushy and just the motivation I needed to get into the mood to learn, he would shout and prance around and his smile was contagious and made the whole class smile! How could I not go back!!

Tea Party

Attend an English tea party

I was lucky enough to be invited to miss Nicole’s (a friend from back home) best friends tea party. It was a lovely sunny day in Putney and what else to do but attend a tea party fit for a queen! The table was filled with little tea sandwiches made with fluffy white bread and the perfect amount of cream cheese topped with a few thin slices of cucumber. There was little darling cakes and miniature lemon meringue cakes. Tea was also on offer as it was kind of a tea party, but on my arrival I never forget to bring a bottle of bubbly so everyone opted for a glass or two. Conversation was light; the Bossa nova jazz was humming away in the background there was no foul talk and it was nice for a change to act like a lady ;) When in London make it on your list to attend a tea party!

Waterloo Bridge-My love

Take a walk around Southbank/Embankment

I’d have to say when I walk across the bridge from Embankment to South bank it would have to be one of my favourite places to go to clear my head. It has the most spectacular view of the city skyline and of the Royal Albert hall. This was one of the first dates that Joe took me on, and secretly I think with that romantic setting it scored some big points for him. I recommend stopping off at embankment for a drink at Gordons wine bar(one of the oldest wine bars in London) and making your way across the bridge and maybe checking whats on at the concert hall. As mum would say ‘a little bit of culture won’t hurt you’

Gordons wine bar:

http://www.gordonswinebar.com/default.php

a great way to find out about London music/Jazz culture follow this blog:http://londonjazz.blogspot.com/

The view from waterloo bridge

Ice skate

Act like a kid at least once a day I say! It’s that time around Christmas when you always feel like not acting your age. Back home we would put on a reggae Christmas album and cook ginger bread. Everyone has their traditions. This year was one of the first Christmases away from my close crazy family, so I kept myself pretty busy. Joe and I put on our skates and attempted to skate around the Bayswater ice rink (Queens Ice and Bowl). At first both me and Joe were a little rusty, after a few ciders we were pretty much pros!

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You can just walk in and rent some skates no need for booking; it costs about £10.50 each pp.

http://www.queensiceandbowl.co.uk/