Mikey's Birthday Monday

Monday saw us all heading into London and doing everything that is possible for tourists to do (or so we felt by the end of the day) for Mikey's birthday.
First we headed into the Tate (museum of contemporary art) and saw some amazing works by Picasso and some really crap ones like the pile of 120 bricks and the flashing lightbulb.

The Tate got a bit crap (actually it was cool) so we headed down the Queens Walk to the London Eye, it was a beautiful day and we decided that today was as good as any to see London from the top of a huge ferris wheel. The experience was fantastic.

We then headed out for a great dinner at a local resturant and rolled home.

CARNIVAL!

Sunday bought the Notting Hill Carnival and our first time amongst 1 million people, sweating dancing and generally soaking up the amazing atmosphere.

Whilst it does look like a riot in progress everyone was having a ball, the smoke in the second photo is from cooking fires

The costumes were amazing though by the time the parade got to us the performers were a tad tired.

We enjoyed the day and spent the evening sitting in an awesome bar in Notting Hill watching the crowd go by.

And so it begins...

Mikey is in London - and so begins a week of madness, drinking, laughing, crying and general shinanegins.

Mikey arrived on Thursday and was met by Wes (who was waiting for him for about an hour at the wrong station). The boys then met me after work and we did a pub crawl home...

Being the responsible worker I am, I went to bed at a reasonable hour leaving the boys to polish off the majority of the duty free bourbon Mikey bought with him. Needless to say, the following evening at dinner Wes was not feeling that crash hot:

But that did not stop the three of us from going to see Les Miserables at the West End later that night and having an absolute ball! I sang and bawled my eyes out (musicals make me emotional) through the whole thing - Thanks soo much to Mum and Dad who supplied the tickets for my birthday!

Yesterday we decided to do the toursity thing. We visited Shakespere's Globe Theatre, wondered about Borough Markets (cheese mecca) and then strolled around the Tower of London! What a day!!!

Sunday lovely Sunday

So after a fabulous bacon and eggs and a read of the paper in our (very small) backyard, we decided to fight the Heathrow injection and go for a stroll...

We wondered down Fulham road and stumbled across Bishop park:

Next, turning a corner we saw the fabulous view over the Thames:

We then found Fulham Palace where scores of albino-looking poms literally lie around in their undies in the park in an effort to soak up the last sun of the summer. I am sure we will do the same as them next year.

Meanwile, Mikey arrives in two days and we are sooooooooooooo excited!

More Culture than a Tub of Yoghurt

Yesterday was looking like a London day we had been told to expect, cold and rainy. So Marg had the great idea that we should head into the British Museum for a look around at some old stuff. Wes has always wanted to go to the British Museum where he knew they had the biggest display of Egyptian artifacts outside Cairo not to mention the Greek and Roman ones.

We thought the view from the front was special but the view from the newly refurbished interior was breathtaking.

We pretty much headed straight for the Egypt section and were quickly rewarded, as soon as we walked into the hall holding the Egyptian art we were stopped by a tight knot of people gathered around a large glass case. The Rosetta stone must be the most popular exhibit at the Museum and we quickly found this out whilst trying to see it ourselves. A group of very rude Japanese tourists arrived at the stone just as we did and literally pushed us out of the way to get pictures. After a bit of reciprocal elbowing from Wes we were able to get a shot ourselves.
Click here to find out about the Rosetta Stone (if, like Marg and Jodes you don't know what it is ;).

(1)The Shabako Stone. (2)Statue of Ramesses II in Egyptian Hall

Next we saw more beautiful Egyptian artifacts including the The Shabako Stone (1) and a huge portion of a statue of Ramesses II (2). The Shabako Stone is amazing as it was written about 500BC and tells a creation story very similar to the one from the bible. The hole and radial markings were the result of an ancient farmer who thought this would make a good grind stone, which is a shame as it has ruined most of the hieroglyphics.

Carving of Assyrian King Ashurbanipal on a Lion hunt

We saw many, many more amazing things in our trip including Greek vases and busts of Augustus (Wes' favorite Roman Emperor) we were utterly exhausted in only a few hours and have vowed to return to see more treasures soon.

On the way home we stopped at the amazing Covent Gardens to wander around the markets and enjoy a coldie at the Punch and Judy. We returned home completely exhausted and decided to have a quiet night at home watching Finding Neverland and eating pizza with Jodes.

What a day!

Stopover

I finally managed to get the internet setup at our place today after only 4 hours of trying. We can now surf Google on the toilet if we want, it's set up that well, but I digress...
After a 24 hour delay Kate finally was able to make it to London.
She arrived and it was like a little ray of sunshine into our lives. Suddenly Marg was speaking at American tourist volumes in the street and I looked like the luckiest guy in the planet walking around with two such hot chicks.

Most of the night did involve Kate and Marg taking photos of themselves.

We went to a cool bar for dinner called SoBar (which regular readers will recognise from earlier posts) and had the 5 platters for a tenner deal. we then proceded to the Brogan for a sneaky bottle of wine and then to bed.

The only way to drink Italian wines

Or so we thought...
As we checked out mail we noticed several of our friends from home were just coming on line. A quick phone call from TMD turned into an hour long catch up with all our friends (Well not all, but a lot of them). It turns out that not only will Tom and Jo be in London soon but Kev is coming as well. Add that to Jiri's visit in early Sept and we have a full month coming up!

All this activity only really cements how much we miss everyone a home, we've loved having Kate visit and wish she could stay longer.

Next up is Mikey, if we can prise him from his new girl that is...

Wine Tasting at the Camel

Our lovely flatmate Kylie took Marg and I out to a wine and cheese tasting night at a local pub called the Camel last night. Up to now our only experience wine and cheese tasting was in Tasmania. It was with the most pretentious bunch of losers you have ever met but it was also great fun and we have been keen to try again.

It is on the way home from work for Marg so Kylie and I headed off to meet her at about 6ish. We were a tad early so we stopped in for a beer at another great bar called SoBar. Then we all met up at the Camel, quickly filled our bellies with some really good bruschetta then headed up stairs for the plonk.

(1)Marg and Kylie (2)The guy offering the cheese to Marg does not realise how close he came to losing that arm!

The guy who was talking about the wines was really good and the cheese guy was a little nervous but also good. We had a great time drinking Australian, French, South African, Chillian and Spanish wines and a nice white Port to finish. We learnt a bit more about drinking wine and were inspired to watch Sideways again.

(1)The Cheese, before Margie got to it ;) (2)The Wine guy and some ohters

All in all a great night out (though it was a bit tough to get up this morning)

Caillin

Yet another birthday for the Harris clan (what was 9 months ago that could explain all these birthdays? Christmas maybe?). Caillin, my littlest brother, turns 16 today so look out ladies! He has scored an iRiver mp3 player that you can listen to the radio and view your photos on, great haul Caillin! We are VERY jealous of the huge dinner you must have had to celebrate (we miss lamb so much).

Meanwhile in other news Kate comes to stay with us tomorrow night on her tour home to Aus while it's only days until Mikey arrives.

We get the internet on tomorrow so we should be able to do something special with the blog to celebrate, stay tuned.

In the meantime here are some shots we haven't put up yet. The first one is of the outside of our little house and the second is the Thames at night.

Missing everyone