2 and a bit.

Here's me thinking I've got nothing new to write about, to share with you (myself).

It's not like Christmas didn't happen, or New Years didn't happen- they did- they flew by in the blink of an eye, and I actually really enjoyed myself. 

In fact Ben and I also celebrated our 4 year anniversary too. With a trip to Winterwonderland- just so I can say we've started a tradition!

I haven't blogged in a while- not that I'm even sure anyone reads this. But I had great ideas about this. I would be blogging on a weekly- fortnightly basis. Posting about where we just visited, and what we just saw- something to read through and remind myself of what we did where.

But, and not sadly, London for us hasn't worked out how I would have thought it would. I thought we would have travelled somewhere be it in the UK or internationally at least once every 8 weeks. 

Truth of it is I hardly leave East London at all. I live in E1, I work in EC4 and I spend all my spare hours between the two.

London has been so fun. We have such good friends who seem more like family. We are out every weekend, eating out, going to pubs, partying at our own place, and at friend’s places. Were always at Bricklane Market on Sundays filling up on the best food. We have a lot of fun.

Christmas was amazing, we went to a pub for a yummy but totally ridiculously priced meal. I drank nothing but Prosecco (and paid for it the next day!) and partied at a friends until the wee hours. Something Christmas at home is never like because it’s all so family heavy (something I love and miss) it was kind of refreshing, and we knew it was the last orphans Christmas we would have.

New Years was the one of the first times I hadn’t had anything planned so far in advance, and looked forward to in months. We booked a table at Pub in the Park in London Fields and drank there, with great friends. There were fireworks at midnight- not that I saw them with all my New Years kissing! Ha.

Then we went to a friend’s place and dances the night away. It’s always the unplanned nights that are the absolute best!

Everything we do now is that last time we ‘have this’ or ‘do this’ in London as home-time is looming. I am doing the unimaginable, leaving London after getting a visa allowing me to stay. I think everyone who wants to stay but can’t would hate me after reading this.

Unfortunately for me, unfortunately for Ben, and unfortunately for our travelling plans the time has come for us to leave. Ben is 30 soon, and I am 27 not long after, and being here is treading water, were not getting any closer to our 5 year goals and it’s something I struggle with daily.

I know if we move home and hate it we have the option to move back and that’s nice. But London is so expensive, and so much like Neverland and I just don’t think I can continue to burn the candles at both ends.

My goal now is to get home, get a career that affords me to come back and see the place we’ve loved so dearly for the last 2 and a bit years. I want us to come back and see the places we missed seeing- and boy is that list long!

I want to be ticking off life goals, and getting the travel goals ticked off as well. God knows London won’t allow both.

We will always have London, we will always be back- that I know it!

Winter Wonderland for our 4 years

3 year tradition!

Girlies on Xmas day

At the Canonbury with the girls

Bit of a family shot

Katie, Ben and I

<3

New Years with Annie

Classic bathroom shot

Me and Shannon

The morning of! 

New Year catch ups with my work girls

Halloween

Halloween was so fun this year! 

It was the first time I went as anything scary- if you don't count my skeleton onesie from our first year in London.

Our friend Meike was having a bday/ Halloween party. 

I went to eBay about 3 weeks out, just to be organised and brought a few bits, Lots of blood, a frontal lobotomy for Ben, and a latex next split for me.

We headed to Greg's to get ready as we hardly wanted to catch the tube, or the bus in our get ups! 

I was pretty impressed by the realness of my neck- everyone thought it was gross- success! ha.

About 8 of us all walked down to Meike and Joe's place, the place was decorated so well, and it was just so fun being all dressed up and having a good time. 

Unfortunately I left the keys inside so our early departure of 1am turned into a 3am bedtime after having to taxi around London getting the keys of Nathan.

Lon*don

London in general is filled with trips to pubs, birthdays, leaving do's and even our first crayfish party.

I always blog after every trip we go on but I feel like our weekends get a bit missed.

I had a lovely day with Daisy at the Brides Show to get ideas for her wedding, Ben and I went to Jamee's leaving party, and a crayfish party at Elin and Pete's, I went for dinner with my work besties, we had Mike and Nat visit and went to dinner for Rub's bday!

All sorts happens, and while its boring to talk about all the little things.. a collage of good times hits the spot!

And so you see the below..

We have a Halloween party this weekend, and on Friday were going out for a swanky lunch.

The only stress in life is our visa, well my visa, its currently been processing for 3 weeks, out of a possible 6 months. Fingers crossed its back soon, and approved of course so Ben and I can continue our life in the UK!!

x

Guests

Last, last week Katie arrived. 
Its been pretty cute having a little bit of family around again.

With my mum visiting, Jack visiting and now Katie moving here to live I haven't felt quite so far from home.

We've taken her out the last two Friday's, shown her a bit of London. Her arriving also meant the count down to our next holiday. 

We are off to Barcelona in 2 sleeps, and I cant wait!! We have an amazing apartment booked right in the city close and close to the beach. Its a bit of a Bright clan holiday with Ben, Katie, Jack, Emma and Dwayne and me.
Jack is coming to the end of his holiday, and Emma and Dwayne just starting theirs, it should be interesting! 5 days of sibling love :)

Once we get back from Barcelona its crunch time, its time to post my visa application so we can stay. Here's hoping they let me back into the UK to apply for it though, will have to look for the friendliest border officer when I land. 

London has been pretty good to us lately, the sun has been shining, and the weekends have been great, so we've been making the most of it before the snow and cold comes. 
We had Jared and Pip here last weekend so caught up with them on Saturday for lunch and a few drinks with Mike and his gf Christina.
Yesterday Ben and I rode around London on the Barclay's bikes- played half an hour of tennis and rode home. 
And last Sunday it was a boozy brunch with a beautiful friend, with wedding planning chat. 

I often swing between wanting home, and not wanting to leave. They say London takes a piece of your heart when you leave, and though my heart is at home in NZ, I can tell you I will be leaving some of mine here.

2 years since we moved us just around the corner, and though sometimes hard I wouldn't change a thing.

26

I've been 26 for a week and a half.. 

It was a really good bday to be honest, Ben and I went out to Flesh and Buns in Convent Garden. Dinner was delicious and drinks were fun. Earlier in the day I'd had a great boozy lunch with some of the girls from work and sat in the sun with Phoebe in the afternoon over a bottle of sav.

Ben got me a couple of beautiful Swarovski rings and made me the happiest girl ever.

As we had a joint bday party the weekend before, I thought I would spend my bday weekend having a sober quiet (guilt free) weekend. I watched movies, took naps, walked to Broadway Market in the sunshine and got yummy food with Jamee, and it was beautiful.

It's summer here and we have been busy, we've had some reason or another to be out and drinking every weekend for the last couple of months- which has been amazing but last weekend was bliss and I needed it. 

Mum came back from Croatia and only had 2 days before she was off, so we had a bit of a farewell/ bday dinner with our Tunbridge Wells fam. It was nice catching up, and I really feel like I have family here, and it's such a nice feeling. 

On Thursday this week I left work early, and took mum out to the airport. It was not as sad as I thought, having mum here has been amazing but she has been coming and going the whole time so I feel a little like she's just popped somewhere else. I wonder when it will hit that she's not coming back. 

I can feel that summer is starting to leave us, and I am not looking forward to the cold again, though last winter wasn't too bad I'm not sure we'll be so lucky this year. 

Enough of thinking about the cold for now.. This weekend we are off to Brugge, and them 2 weeks later we have Barcelona for 5 days. 

Bring in more holidays I say!

Xx

Mumma Bear is here.

It’s been just over a week since mum arrived, and it’s been pretty nice I can tell you.

After the debacle that was a 24hour delay- seeing mum spend another night in Hong Kong, and me head to work on Friday after swapping my leave to the Monday so not to waste a day.

Ben and I met mum at Earls Court on Saturday morning, it was all a rather unemotional affair- I mean yes we were both so happy to see each other but there were surprisingly no tears. I was a little ball of stress the 48hours before her arrival so I was definitely expecting tears.

Saturday, we kept everything pretty casual, I was waiting for mum’s jetlag to get in the way of my plans- not that it ever happened. We took mum home, then went out for a walk to Tower Bridge, had a walk along the river, to Borough Market and then home for a rest before we had drinks and nibbles, with Cecelia- Ben’s cousin, and Mel and Rob. It was a lovely evening and a good introduction to what was to come.

Sunday, Mum and I went to the National Gallery, we spent hours there soaking in all the paintings- some over 500 years old. It was a great day, and all free. I highly recommend it to anyone in town! After we couldn’t focus anymore we went for a walk down to Big Ben, we walked past Downing Street, stopped to pat the horses and then headed home- before heading to Vietnamese for dinner.

Monday, we got on the hop on hop off bus tour. The first hop we saw Shakespeare theatre, Tate Modern, and then got back on the bus for a ride to Westminster Abbey, and House of Parliament. We decided we couldn’t pass up the chance to go into the Abbey. We ended up spending hours in there. It was more than I ever could have imagined so much history, and such a calming place we didn’t really want to leave. After lunch we wandered to Buckingham Palace- which looked rather boring in comparison to where we had just come from.

We jumped back on the bus and headed to Harrods. By then it was the afternoon- I think we hadn’t quite accounted for the time we had spent in the Abbey- so after a purchase of custard donuts and a walk through we headed home, for some spag bol.

On Friday Ben and I headed to Tunbridge Wells for the weekend, mum had gone down on Wednesday and there was a family get together planned, the sun was out, and the weekend was great. We had dinners and lunches out with my poppa’s family and relaxed big time.  Ben and I got to go out for a lunch and few drinks just the two of us which was lovely and much needed.

We left feeling so relaxed and felt like we really got away from the Hustle and Bustle that is London. Only to be off the train and in the middle of the London marathon crowds, and back to our house to get straight back into the tenseness that city living gives you.

Tonight mum is meeting my work mum, and Phoebes mum for a few drinks before dinner. Should be cute getting together all the mummy's, to finally meet each other, it’s not like they haven’t already heard enough about each other.

Only a 3 day working week for me too, as we are off to Paris on Thursday for Easter. Can’t wait to get away again!!

here are a few pics so you can pretend you were here :)

 

Tower Bridge in all its glory
 

Mum at the National Gallery

A Sneaky Photo of a painting I loved

 
 and a few more...










 

Old and New

Big Ben






The Family at Pizza Express



My Sunday roast at the Huntsman pub

One of the pigs (piggly or Wiggly) at the Huntsman pub

 

Mummy is coming!

At the moment, my Mum is enjoying her last day in Hong Kong.

She said good bye to my family and left New Zealand, on Monday and headed to Hong Kong for a few days to break up her trip.

Now the time has come for her to board another plane and make her way to me!

This time tomorrow we will be sitting down having breakfast after collecting her from the station 2 hours earlier.

It will be 18months to the day since we saw each other last so I am pretty sure it will be a rather emotional reunion, if only Ben could come and hold my hand! haha.

Mum arrives at 5:25am, so becuase the tubes dont start until 6am and the airport is an hour away, mum is being brave and getting on the tube to Earls Court where i can meet her half way and we can continue the journey back to my house together.

Might put out a public service announcement to all commuters tomorrow morning, 'Ignore the crying ladies on the platform and continue with your day' who am I kidding no one in London stops for anything during rush hour!

So for me, this Thursday is my Friday and tomorrow I get to explore London a bit with mum. I am hoping the weather is nice so we can go to Buckingham Palace, and wander through Hyde Park. Before Maybe heading to Camden to show her the most interesting sides of London, and then walk over the beautiful Tower Bridge to meet Ben for dinner.

I am bursting with excitement, I could barely sleep last night, hoping this evening goes slightly better considering my 5:15am wake up call!

I'll probs be posting a bit here while shes around.. becuase I'll be having so much fun!

xxx

Settling in..

We have lived in Aldgate East for 27 days.

Such an upgrade from our crappy Mile End house! I found a roof top last week when I was off work... just in time to enjoy summer to the fullest, as I know we need to make the most of the sunny days we will get!

Living in a house that's only a year old is amazing, everything works, there are freshly painted walls, and nothing is grubby. About time I lived in a nice house, I'm not 19 anymore!

I have been walking to and home from work every day, its such a nice bit of exercise and saves me £100 a month on travel- win win!

I have a good feeling about this new house, should be a winner I suspect! I'm already planning my summer rooftop themed bday party. I love living in a country where my bday is in summer. No more rainy cold bdays for me!

Since moving in, a lot of good stuff has happened, Ben and I are both exercising more, and its making us happier, whether its a walk in the weekend sunshine to a pub for an English breakfast, or a little shopping trip here and there. Its really made a difference. You don't realise how crappy the Tubes are until you no longer have the stress. Ben's grown a beard, just in time for summer- looks pretty good though I have to admit!

Ben's settling in at his new job well, and well mine is speeding on at the usual ridiculous pace. We are spending more time at home too, as its a nice place to hang out, nothing like falling asleep on the couch in the afternoon sun.

Such normal things we didn't realised we missed are back and we are loving it. like the dishwasher!!

We have loads of exciting times coming up too, just this morning I booked our flights to Boston for Greg and Dee's wedding in June!

Its only 8 sleeps till my mama arrives, and after being away from home for what will be 18 months to the day its going to be pretty emotional.

Just glad we have a nice home to bring her too now! Which reminds me, must purchase airbed for her to sleep on.

We have Paris over Easter, Ben has Lisbon in May, and with the US coming up.

Fingers crossed we can afford another little trip away at the end of summer. Before we have to give up our passports for 6 months!

I'm getting a residence card to stay in the UK longer. My visa is up on October, and we just aren't ready so have to apply to stay. Though it means no snowy Christmas holidays for us.

Will get my passport back just in time for us to head back to NZ in February hopefully. Cant miss my besties wedding that's for sure!!

Such a whirlwind.. to think I started this blog before my travels, and never expected to be posting her for 3-4 years that's for sure. Makes me realise though, I need to travel much more if we want to see this side of the world..

xx

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

The week before last Ben and I got the chance to go to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory the musical,

It was a pretty fun little evening, just a little bit of something to do on a Wednesday night.

Obviously this appealed to me much more than to Ben, but he was a good sport, he always is.

It's a shame you cant take any photos inside, the theatres are so pretty and so grand, I tried to take a few sneaky ones but they didn't turn out much.

It was so fun knowing what was going to happen next, and then wondering how they would do it. Overall a great show!

Even better when it was free! Thanks Annie!

 

Now to book the next one, maybe take mum to Matilda.

This Week..

Its funny how much a week can change things, this last few months here have been so tough, there have been more than a few times Ben and I have wanted to pack up and leave and just go home.
There are so many things waiting there for us, a career for Ben, best friends with babies I am missing grow up and, our entire families. 

But on the other hand there are some pretty great things happening over here right now, we have just signed a lease on a new apartment which I am super excited about!.. It's a beautiful place and living where we have  for the last year has really depressed us so this will change a lot!
I have finally got the pay rise i have been asking for, with more to follow later in the year- so to leave in August just dosen't make sense anymore. Ben has been interviewing loads so is about to secure something great and we can enjoy 2014- looks like hopefully it ll be our year!

Our new plan is to stay here until September 2015.. So we can have another summer. We haven't seen enough of the world, so whats another 10 months in the grand scheme of things if we are enjoying ourselves.

Its only 9 weeks until my mum comes over, and we are off to Paris, so the next few months are going to be good ones! Now i just have to get my visa sorted so i can stay!

This week I also got to go to the Lion King Musical with my friend Stacey which was amazing! I am going to be going to more things like that, I'll be making sure we make the most of not just using this place as a base but really enjoying ourselves.



The rather gorgeous Lyceum Theatre


Here's to more Birthday dinners, nights out and enjoying our friends, who become more of a London family.

2014 should be a beauty and I am certainly looking forward to it. Especially this months pay where I get my Xmas Bonus, and can pretend to be rich! ha

Life Lately

I have been slack lately, I haven't updated anyone on anything since our blissful holiday in Palma!
A few things have happened, being Christmas and all! So this post will be all about updates, and then I will be writing another to tell you about how life really has been lately!

The first exciting thing that happened was the 5th of December rolled around so Ben and I celebrated our 3 years being together. It was nice to get out and have a yummy dinner and just celebrate us, where we are now, where we have been and where we hope to be.
We went to Burger and Lobster, both getting lobster seen as we are total seafood fiends.

It was a really nice night, just us (and Ben's Mo)

 

2 weeks after our anniversary dinner it was my Christmas party at work, we headed to The Gable for a 3 course meal and drinks, it was a pretty tame night, the food was yummy we all got a bit drunk, some more than others but there wasn't really any office gossip on Monday morning which was a bit of a let down!

Ben and Nathan came for a bit once we had finished eating and we drank there till the bar closed and headed home. It was a nice night out and more fun than I had thought it would be!

 

 

Bunch of Beauties

Roxy and Kim

Verity, Phoebe and I

Megan and Phoebe

Kim and Badge





A few days after our party, I was in my last week of work before getting a lovely 2 week holiday and half way though I got hit with a pretty horrible flu, I ended up having the rest of the week off, and spending 13 days in bed/ on the couch watching tv feeling like I was close to death, it was definitely not the way I usually like to spend Christmas that's for sure!

 

We had a pub lunch planned, and I was feeling so ill I almost didn't go, but who wants to spend Christmas alone!?

It ended up being an awesome day, the flat woke up at about 7:30- 8 and we all came down to the lounge and opened presents, sent from home and from each other, we then had a yummy breakfast of salmon, scrambled eggs, bacon, bagels, croissants and champagne, I stuck to the orange juice obvs.

 

Ben, Nathan and I got ready and headed to a friends house to all head to the pub together, it was a nice lunch, they were late, and dessert didn't come out by the time the taxi's were booked but it was a nice enough day out, though everyone got pretty rowdy and I wasn't feeling it, so at 4pm when my taxi arrived I went home to bed while everyone carried on at someones house- good decision on my part as I started to finally feel better on the 29th!

 

Just in time for New Years, we were heading to a party called Blitz, it was a 1940s dress up so I headed out and found myself a cute wee outfit and off we went..

Ben and I in our 1940s outfits.

 It was a great night, we went to a friends for drinks first, and the taxi's picked us up at 9. We stayed until about 2am, it was such a fun night, and it felt like we were only there for about 5 minutes.
The venue was cool, with hair and make up stations, live bands and loads of separate dancing rooms etc.
Afterwards we ended up at home to continue on, until I called it a day and went to bed.. took me a few days to recover, and what do you know I have come down with another sickness... note to self no more massive nights in winter!!

Shameless selfie

Ben and Nate

 

Lads,

Lads

Ladies,

Ladies

Bathroom shots begin

The Gang

Even just looking through the photos again, makes me excited, and happy to reminisce on the fun night we had!

Unfortunately it meant that my holiday was coming to an end, in fact I am back tomorrow.

 

On the Friday just gone, Ben and I thought a nice day out was in order, so we headed to Winter Wonderland before it closed. The last day was Sunday, so we thought while all the poor sods were at work we would go while the crowds were sparse.

 

We had a great few hours, got bratwursts, lollies, hot chips and wandered around. Ben even played a shooting game and won me a toy. So I got to take Larry the Leopard home with me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 
 

 

 

 

Its been so nice having these two weeks with Ben at home, I know I'm going to miss him when I go back tomorrow, but hopefully he will be out working so I wont be too jealous!

 

I was going to write another post about how life has really been lately but this post, has made me realise I do have fun here, and we are kind of enjoying ourselves!

 

Here's to Ben getting more work, here's to saving for holidays and making the most of our last 9 months.. though ask me tomorrow and I will probably be right back at the wanting to pack up and move him stage.

 

London is a toughy that's for sure. But I think that if we can stick it out and enjoy what we can we will be happy with our decision once we do get home to start our exciting new lives.