Hanging Out With Lizzie

One thing I had been looking forward to all year (because we booked the tickets in February!) was the Royal Ascot Races. Not only was I looking forward to it because yet again it is a great summer event in London but because 1. My friend Sophie from Australia had arrived for her visit and we could go together and 2. It was my friend I met travelling Vanessa's (Ness) birthday. These three things coinciding meant it was bound to be an awesome day.

The races were on the Saturday and the preparation for it started on the Friday including - fake tans, last minute shopping for fascinators, bobby pins, stockings and food and booze. There was also an afternoon of watching girlie movies while we painted our nails and baked muffins. It may not have been the most exciting first day in London for Sophie but gave us a good chance to catch up.

After sleeping in my rollers to make my hair curly we were up bright and early to head over to Shea and Vanessa's flat (a.k.a K10)for a Champagne breakfast for Ness's birthday and more time for all the girls to put their finishing touches on their outfits, hair etc. A friend of mine Laura is a Mac make up artist so she came round a few of the girls got their make up done. I arrived feeling pretty average as I was wearing track pants and curlers in my hair but when the door was opened by Jen in her shorts and t-shirt and the lounge roomed filled with girls with their hair in rags I felt much much better.

We drank champagne and Malibu punch while we all put our finishing touches on. The rest of the Topdeck crew joined us a bit later in the day and we all tucked into a champagne breakfast with savoury muffins, pancakes and fruit before packing our picnics and heading off to the train. The queues for tickets were horrendous and the train was packed but we got there in the end. Right into the middle of a torrential rainfall.






As we got off the train we had to high-tail undercover because it was bucketing down - good ol' English weather. We waited for about 10 minutes before deciding we were going to power on - put up our brollies and make our way into the racecourse. Luckily for us the sun came out just as we were walking into the venue.

The best thing about English events is they usually let you take in some food and alcohol. With Ascot the rule was that you could take 4 cans of cider or 1 bottle of wine each as long as you had a substantial picnic. Which means all of your food and drinks for the day are taken care of! Once we got in we found a spot on the hill and sat down for our picnic. As most of us didn't have picnic rugs we ended up sitting on plastic garbage bags - still that is all you need to keep your bum dry! We soon got down to what we do best - eat, drink and chat!







The crowd behind us started making a lot of noise and we were wondering why and as we got up someone told us it was the Queen! So we ran up the hill and stood on our tippy toes and saw the Queen in her Carriage as she rode past and did her special little wave. It is the first time I had seen Royalty up close so I was super excited!

The rest of the day was spent hanging out on the hill and just drinking and hanging out. I put a bet on the Australian horse that was running but didn't have much luck. My friend Emily put a £4 bet on a random horse with the number 13 and ended up winning £90! Lucky girl! Half way through the day the rain bucketed down and we had to run for cover under our umbrellas or down near the bar. I created a make-shift poncho out of one of the rubbish bags.





We survived the second downpour relatively unscarred (hair and make up wise of course) so we continued on drinking! There was a band playing in an undercover marquee so after we headed down there for a bit of a dance before heading back to the train at the end of the day.





Very fun day out and a great first event to take Sophie to. It was also a fun way to celebrate Vanessa's birthday as she was away from the Topdeck crew last year so we had to have a big one to make her feel special!

Perfect Summer Evening

I feel like this blog should be retitled 'Awesome Things To Do In London During Summer' because I recently went to yet another awesome event (and have heaps more to tell you all about in upcoming posts). This time it was the Open Air Theatre at Regents Park.

I had been going on for ages about how I would love to go to see a play at Shakespeare's Globe which is an open air theatre that is a replica of the original (just moved a few hundreds yards across). But a friend of a friend said that we should check out the open air theatre in Regents Park because they enjoyed it more so we got tickets to see 'Lord of The Flies' and headed there on a sunny evening after work.

We were lucky with the weather and it was a gorgeous summer evening and we had a really nice stroll through Regents Park which is perfect in the summer because all the flowers are out and the trees are all green and everyone is out enjoying the summer sun. Once we arrived at the theatre we picked up our BBQ that we had bought with our ticket which was a yummy beef burger and sat on one of the picnic tables in the sun while we ate our meals and had a cider.




At around 7.30 we headed into our seats for the show and were amazed at the set. They had placed a crashed plane and all the debris amongst the dirt and the trees which so suited the story (as it is based on an Island). The actors who played all the boys from the book played their part so well and the way the show was directed was great. I am no theatre connoisseur by any means but even I know when something is done well and this show certainly was.



By half time the sun had mostly gone down and when we went out to the bar for our half time drinks we had champagne while we wandered through all the fairy lights in the garden that had been turned on. It was hard to believe that this awesome night out was tucked away out of sight in one of London's biggest and busiest parks. We could have been in the middle of nowhere!

The second half of the show was even better than the first (its when all the action happens) and as it had been so long since I had read the book I had slightly forgotten the ending. It was such a fun night out (and a pretty cheap one when you think about what we got for the ticket price) and once again - another awesome thing to do in the London summertime!

Too Much Alcohol, Too Much Chocolate, Rollercoasters

Things that make you puke.

Hahaha gross I know but that was how the invite started for my friend Danielle's birthday event invite. She had decided that instead of the usual dinner and drinks kind of shenanigans that usually ensue around birthdays that she would have a day out at London's closest theme park - Thorpe Park.

A group of seven of us made our way out to Thorpe Park on a sunny day all excited and ready to re-live our childhood by going on rollercoasters, eating thousands of lollies and basically causing havoc.

For those at home in Australia Thorpe Park is similar to Dreamworld where it has no particular theme (like Seaworld) but has just a whole bunch of rides. We decided that our first stop for a ride we would 'take it easy' and no go on anything too crazy yet so we went on a ride that we were swung from one side to the other at great force. Hmmm probably not the 'easiest' ride to go on but it certainly got us in the mood for more rides.



As it was a Saturday the lines were pretty hectic so sometimes there was an hour wait or more. For some of the rides you could buy express passes for £3 or £4. We were wanting to go on the Colossus which was the worlds only 10 loop rollercoaster but not keen on waiting an hour and a half. That £3 was probably the best investment I had ever made because those 10 loops made it the best rollercoaster I have ever been on. It was so much fun and actually a nice long ride - there is nothing worse then waiting for an hour for a 30 second ride.

Well actually that was exactly what we did for the next one. It was called the stealth and it went from 0 - 80 kph in 2.5 seconds and it was hiiiiiiiiiiigh! We waited in the sun for about an hour continuously watching this thing go up and down and hearing hundreds of people scream at the top of their lungs. I love rides and rollercoaster but even this one made me slightly nervous. Eventually when it came to our time I was happy to get out of the sun and have a sit down - even if it was only for 30 seconds. The ride was fun and you felt like you had left your stomach back at the starting point. I also did a lot of screaming! I think poor James and Danielle (the only other two who braved it) were deaf after sitting next to me.



I won't go on and tell you about every ride we went on (even though most of them were pretty good) because that would be pretty boring. What I will tell you was that we really did go crazy like kids - having macca's for lunch, a whole bucket of pick and mix lollies, followed by a sugar high and then a sugar crash and just basic shenanigans around the theme park. It was fun to get out of London (even only slightly) and do something that I wouldn't normally do on a weekend in London as most birthdays include copious amounts of alcohol. I would totally recommend it for a day out to any Londoners if they are wanting to be a kid again and looking for something fun to do.

Being Posh At The Polo

After a busy weekend at Zoo Lates followed by the Blitz Party its is hard to believe that we all backed it up again and hit up our third London Summer event in a weekend. This time is was the Mint Polo In The Park.


The Polo had been organised as a fun international competition that tried to generate more interest in the game as previously it has only been something watched or played by the exclusively rich posh toffs (or so I am told). We were lucky enough to snag half price tickets so there was a group of 12 of us that went. I hosted a champagne breakfast at my place to get us in the mood with champers, croissants and fruit as we all got dolled up and ready to go. Most of us were nursing hangovers, blisters from our heels and overall general tiredness to really make a go of drinking in the morning on a Sunday but we gave it our best shot.

About five seconds after we left my house to get the bus up to the Polo it started POURING down with rain. Fantastic. So our nicely curled hair and make up got ruined, it instantly became cold in our dresses and the mood of the day immediately deflated. Still we soldiered on and got to the polo where we picked up some drinks and some more food (crazy really since we just scoffed breakfast) while we waiting around for the polo to start.

The event was pretty cool with heaps of different little market stalls and a Harrods Food Hall and even a few pop up bars including a Vervue Clique private posh area. Most of the fun was the people watching with many of the posh people in their jackets and suits and also many of the chavs in their short dresses, chunky heels and hair extensions. There were also lots of people looking great in between.






About 20 minutes before the first Polo match the rain started to pour down again so we took cover in the closest bar (how convenient) which had a tropical theme so we helped ourselves to a Pina Colada that was served in a pineapple. After standing around huddles in the bar chatting for a few minutes we braved the elements to go and watch the first polo match. Unfortunately we couldn't see very much due to most people in front of us standing under umbrellas. After a few minutes of this someone casually suggested maybe going back to my local pub for a drink and a roast. The idea of standing in the rain while our heels sunk into the mud while we can't see the polo versus the idea of sitting in a cosy pub eating a warm yummy roast was too good of an idea to refuse so we gave up against the rain and decided to head off.





Just as we were heading off they made an announcement that we could all go onto the field to put in the divots back in as was the tradition at polo matches. We had been talking about in the bar how we would love to do it like they do in 'Pretty Woman' so we ran out onto the pitch to find some divots to pop back in like ladies. We pretty much just started stamping on the ground as we couldn't really find any that weren't already done but it was fun to do all the same.




With that little bit of excitement over we headed back to my local pub where we settled in for the afternoon with a warm yummy roast, couple of drinks and a few rounds of rummikub (or however it is spelt). Sadly the weather put a fast end to us being posh at the polo but it was still a fun day out overall. Maybe next yeah I will go again with the hopes that it will be sunny and I can actually see a whole Polo game!

1940's Blitz Night

A few post's ago I wrote about the 1920's Prohibition night - well the same company who organises those also organises a 1940's Blitz Night so me and a few friends went along to check it out.

After raving about the last one She and I recruited a few more people - including some guy friends into dressing up 1940's wartime era and going along to the event. When we got there we saw that the place had been set up to match the era - sandbags up the walls, cocktail bars made out of rationing materials and of course several jazz bands on stage. Everyone looked amazing and I spent the night pretty much telling everyone they looked fabulous because everyone scrubbed up so well.

There isn't much I could write about to describe how amazing the atmosphere was at the party and how much fun I had dancing, chatting and waving my British flags. So like the 1920's night I've put together a slide show so the photos can speak for themselves.

Like Animals

As soon as summer hits it seems like London throws some amazing events to try and coax its residents out of hibernation. One of them is Zoo Lates at the London Zoo. During a couple of months in summer they open the Zoo hours up until ten at night and put on some more food and entertainment.

A big group of us booked tickets (and even dressed in animal print)so we met there one Friday night to tick something off the London to-do list as well as having a fun night out. We were lucky that the weather was in our favour and we had a nice warm sunny evening to sit around in the gardens and drink some Pimms before heading off around the exhibits. To be honest I was a bit surprised we got to see as many as the exhibits as we did but we had a good chance to walk all the way around the zoo and see heaps of the animals.







After about an hour we gave up on watching the animals and headed back to the main area where we sat for a while and grab some food before heading into the silent disco. I had never silent discoed before but I am telling you it is my new favourite thing. For those of you who haven't done it - go find one!

They give you some headphones that have two different music channels so you put them on and start dancing to whatever song you chose. Everyone else around you is dancing too but you don't know what they are dancing too. Half way through a song someone will tap you and be like 'listen to this song' so you would change and start dancing to that one. Or you could be jamming out to some new Rihanna song and and turn around to see half of the people doing the YMCA. The best part was when you would take your headphones off and hear everyone singing out loud.







Sadly the night ended too quickly and as the sun set we danced away to the last song before having to hang back our headsets and make our way home. It was such a great chance to see one of London's attractions in a different way. Will definitely be heading back there next year1

Girls Just Want To Have Fun

What I can say about England is that they have no shortage of public holidays - or what they call 'Bank Holidays' which is lucky for me because I love days off work for no real reason. This time it was for the start of Summer - I think so me and mhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gify close girlfriends from my old work decided on a girls trip away for the weekend.

A few places were tossed up - mainly somewhere with a beach and that was relatively cheap as none of us had the cash to be jetting off to somewhere exotic and somewhere we could get to within a day as we didn't really have THAT much time. In the end we decided on Bournemouth which is a beach side city to the south west of London.

We decided we would hire a car and drive down to have a bit of a road trip so once we were there we could drive around to the surrounding area and explore a bit. We set off from just outside London on the Saturday morning in our cute little car and started the scenic drive down to the coast. We passed lots of little cute villages and big green paddocks and immediately it felt good just to get out of the city. Don't get me wrong - I am a city girl at heart but I do appreciate a bit of fresh air. Ahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifs we kept passing pubs we realised we were all pretty peckish so we decided to stop at the next spot for lunch - and of course it ever came. We drove on for about another 45 minutes before we gave up and pulled off the motorway and into a little town.

As we checked out some options for lunch we stumbled across a pub that served fish and chips and local cider. Well you can't really argue with that. The food was really nice and fresh and definitely hit the spot (as did the Cider) and the action of eating and drinking set the precedent for the rest of the weekend - as that was pretty much all we did!

We finally got down to Bournemouth at around 2pm and checked into our hotel. We stayed at the Croham Hotel that we had got a deal of Late Rooms for and as there were five of us we split up into our two rooms. When Laura, Claire and I checked into our room we were pleased to find that the room looked pretty clean and fresh and had obviously been recently taken over. We wandered down to Caitriona's and Kate's room to see where they were and what theirs was like and nearly died of shock and then began to keel over laughing. Their room had obviously NOT been renovated and there was in fact gaps in their roof tiles, worn carpet and hideous furnishings. They even had to walk down a set of stairs from the hallway just to get into their room. I didn't actually check out the bathroom but the stories that were told led me to believe it wasn't exactly exquisite either. Oh well in the end it did the job - we got a roof over our heads and a place to relax!

After a quick freshen up we decided to wander through the town and check out 'down town' Bournemouth. Unfortunately for us the weather over the whole weekend was pretty horrible (I don't even think I saw the sun once) so our walk was a fairly overcast, windy and cold experience but we powered on and wandered down to the city centre, through their main park and then down along the beach where I still walked through the sand despite the frostbite I was feeling in my toes. A few windswept minutes later someone casually suggested going to a pub and we all agreeed hastily with that offer. We found a cute little bar tucked in a side street somewhere and had a few glasses of wine or Sangria while we continued with our girlie chats.






These drinks were the beginning of many as we picked up a couple of bottles of wine to have while we were getting ready for dinner and going out. We decided to splash out a little and have dinner at a nice restaurant set on top of a hill over looking the park. The food was delicious and of course there was lots more wine. After dinner we decided to try and check out the Bournemouth Nightclub Scene as we had seen lots of bucks and hens parties around and heard there were a few clubs around. We wandered around for a bit but couldn't really see much so decided to duck into a 'Slug and Lettuce' but got denied as we all didn't have ID. We ended up going around the corner to a pub at the bottom of the hotel and had a good yarn over even more drinks.





We figured that if we were just sitting around chilling out we should go back to our hotel and drink the drink we had there. We were joined by a few random hotel members who had been out for a buck night so we had a bit of a yarn and a few laughs with them before a knock on the door from the hotel staff asking that since it was 3am and we were making lots of noise would we mind going to bed. So after a few attempts to quieten down and a few more complaints we finally got into bed at around 4am.

The next morning Kate and Caitriona forced themselves to get out of bed and go down to the cooked breakfast where as Claire, Laura and I just slept most of our hangovers off. The rest of the morning was a bit of a struggle with the five of us feeling a bit worse for wear. We went down to a cafe down the road to fill up on caffeine and greasy food before attempting a walk along the beach again. Laura was feeling pretty ill so she decided to back up to the room and sleep it off. The rest of us went for a wander down to the water and decided to check out the pier.





The pier in Bournemouth is pretty different from the one over in Brighton as it is not nearly as big AND you have to pay to get onto it. 60 pence hardly breaks the bank though so we decided to pay up and check it out. It had some really awesome photos all along the pier of it 50 or 60 years ago and how it is now. At the end they have a restaurant and some carnival games. Kate decided to try her hand at winning Caitriona a toy so had a go at hooking some ducks. She won two prizes and picked a goat stuffed toy who then became our mascot - Frank.




After our short lived adventures on the pier we wandered up to the Marriot Hotel that was set up on the cliffs over looking the beach to have a tea. We ordered two cream teas and spent the afternoon shielded from the wind but looking out over the ocean and eating lots of yummy sweet things and talking about everything from our adventures the night before to our favourite novels.



By the time we had finished Laura was feeling a bit more perky so we met her in the city centre and went to a bar to meet a friend of mine James who was also down in Bournemouth for the weekend. We had a couple of drinks there with him before heading out to dinner at Mexican restaurant where we consumed some yummy food and some yummy margaritas (I told you all we did was eat and drink). As we hadn't had much success with our clubbing adventures the night before we asked the waitress who was a local where the best places were to go. She directed us to a place called 60 Million Postcards which was a place that had live music, grungy interior covered in posters, post cards and random crap and some very cute bartenders. We were pretty happy with the local and the bar but overall we were all just still tired and recovering from the night before so we didn't stay out too long.






The next day was the last day of our girls holidays and after getting up for breakfast and faffing around we didn't really have much time for anything else. We had planned to go visit Corfe Castle and actually see a bit of the surrounding area but the weather was just too miserable to be bothered hiking along the coast or driving through to get to a Castle. We decided we would drive home via the New Forest and stop in at Claire's house to see her parents before heading back into London.

All was going well with the plan until halfway home we were driving along and our tire burst causing us to have to pull over on the side of a highway with very little room to stop. Claire kept her calm through the whole thing and got us to the side of the road safely but it was still a bit of a shock to the system. We got out and called AA and had to wait about 40 minutes on the side of a highway before they came. We amused ourselves by making daisy chains and chatting away but it certainly put a dint in our day. The mechanic came and changed our tire (we would have attempted it other then the fact we were on a highway and didn't want to do battle with the rest of the cars) and we were soon on our way back to Claire's house.

When we got to Caz-a-lan we were treated to fresh tea and scones made by her mummy (oh I love going to family homes) which continued our tradition of eating and drinking right up until the weekend end. I love our little girls getaways and had such a great time checking out another part of the UK. It was such a shame the weather was so miserable as we may have been able to explore a bit further - although in saying that our hangovers prevented that as well. I am so lucky to have found such a good group of girlfriends and always have such a great time with them. The unlucky part about is that we are all so busy with work and travel and our other groups of friends that we very rarely get the chance to have a proper long catch up. We even tried to set a up google calendar to work out when our next free weekend was - it took us about 6 months to find one - the next one is in November! Hopefully we can schedule something in then!