Christmas Lights - Oxford & Regent Streets

Lights in the main shopping streets...

Regent St












Oxford St












Oxford St








Front of Debenhams department store.

Palace Theatre - Monty Python's Spamalot playing.

Spanish Riding School of Vienna at Wembley

I'm in no way a horse person but this was pretty cool.... Nic's friend had half price tickets to see the dancing horses of Vienna which also included a display from the British Metropolitan mounted police. Forgot to switch my camera to sport mode at first though, so some are a little blury...
British Metropolitan Mounted Police jumping through rings of fire.


Spanish Riding School - horse jumping.

Standing on hind legs - & they could hold it for a little while.



Horses were trotting/dancing in time to Mozart & other music.


Wembley Stadium

Socceroos vs Ghana LIVE SOCCER MATCH!!

Well this was my first every real live soccer match & we saw no less than the Australian Socceroos! Atmosphere was awesome... sat in a stand of Australians so were surrounded by green & gold & heaps of Aussie chants!
Socceroos were training right in front of us before the game!


Claire, me & Nic in the 6th row just in front of corporate boxes - fantastic spot.



Kick off at 8pm.



Some fans get fully decked out, we felt very much at home!
















Ghana trying to block an aussie attempt at scoring. See all the green & gold in the stands behind.



Well final score was 1-1 so everyone left feeling happy!

Oxford

Had to go up to Oxford for what turned out to be a 2.5 hour job interview - had an offer at the end of it so worth it but not the one I'm going with. It was very nice & will definately go back for a weekend sometime.
So many georgeous old buildings.






Most common form of transport is push bikes & tonnes of them.

Madame Tussauds - photos coming!

The famous wax museum that has been going since the late 1700s is fantastic.... have left the photos on my laptop though, will update soon.

Walkabout Pub near Covent Garden markets

Apparently these pubs are all around the world so had to see what it was about. Very Australian meals & drinks and good prices so will definately be back. Nic & I got stuck into cocktails like Screaming Gala & Bondi Beach, didn't try the Kangaroo meat though, maybe next time!

Hyde Park & Speakers Corner

It's so big you need a map!






Symbol of the Peace Tree
(an intersection in the park with directions to various areas).
















None of these photos even go near how big the park is!





Speakers Corner - seems if you've got a box or ladder you can just stand on it & talk/argue about whatever is on your mind - whatever!


'English is a language not a communication tool - food & wine are communication tools!'
'I was more intelligent when I was 6 years old'









This guy has had some kind of life changing awakening experience & thinks we're all capable of a bit more love, fair enough.





... and one of many speakers sprouting about religion.

Day out with another Claire from Brisbane

While Nic was busy painting, I met up with another friend of her's Claire also from Brisbane who's been here since start Aug for a day of walking around the city sights. Georgeous day but a bit cold (like an icebox!). We had planned on going on London Eye but queue way too long so maybe another day.

Borough Markets that have been on every Sat since the 13th century in same spot.




Heaps of taste testing - everything from bread & cheese to nuts, different teas, jams & all kinds of sweet & savoury delights!

I never knew there were so many varieties of olives!

Full size replica of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre built almost on original spot (think Shakespeare in Love movie) in 1997 - has an open air roof so the theatre season has closed now for the winter, reopens in May.

London Eye - like a giant bike wheel with pods on outside - takes about 30-45 mins to go around.

Looking back at London Eye from a bridge with sausage sizzle setup on footpath in the middle!

Big Ben

Buckingham Palace - will go back sometime when they're doing Change of the Guard.

Harrods - WOW... this place is amazing - groceries, gourmet food of all sorts, takeaways, tea room, clothing departments, fine jewellery (spare house deposit anyone?), egyptian escalators with real life opera singer while you go up & down and MORE!

Leceister Square & Picadilly Circus at night

Went into town & met Nic after work, checked out the theatre area (they were just rolling out the red carpet for world premier of Tenacious D but didn't hang around for it) in Leceister Square & shops around there & Picadilly Circus. We found a 3 storey games arcade with bumper cars & everything, battled it out in air hockey & I won by 1 point... will be going back there for sure!

Picadilly Circus digital billboards












Horses statue in Piccadilly Circus



















A shop named after me near Leceister Square!

Oxford & Regent St, Green Park

Here's a few photos from my first day out & about in London doing a few initial arrival things like waiting around for 1.5hours in visa first office to organise bank account, getting phone cards, travel card for tube & bus, had a drink & meal in a London pub, etc.

Oxford Circus intersection













Regent Street - where the Apple Mac shop is - lots of cool gadgets to play with! Palace.

















Green Park just off Piccadilly & not far from Buckingham Palace.











First drink in a London pub (at Battersea)!

No, I will not be converting to beer, they have smirnoff premixers!















Clapham Common intersection where I'm always getting the tube.

Hi & Welcome to my new blog!

Just setup this blog so everyone can keep track of my working holiday stint in the UK. Hope you find it interesting, I'm aiming to update it regularly so keep an eye out. If anyone has any suggestions on places to go/things to do while I'm over here please shoot them through.