Bonjour London, Au Revoir Paris!!

Ahhhhh, Paris!! What an amazing city!!!

Bon, Han, Lizzie, Maree, Briar and I boarded the Eurostar at Waterloo Station for an effortless 2.5hr journey to Gare de Nord, Paris. Having no desire to win the 'most sites in a single weekend' tourism award, we spent much of the weekend ambling around the streets of Paris, soaking up the atmosphere.

Despite our relaxed attitude to siteseeing we still managed to stumble across many of the city's most famous attractions - namely Arch de Trioumph, Eiffel Tower, Moulin Rouge, Sacre Coer, Notre Dame, St Germain, The Seine and the 'pyramids' of the Louvre - over the course of the weekend.

The highlight (and the reason for our visit) was the All Blacks game at Stade de France.

It was amazing!! We rocked there squished like sardines on the Metro after warm-up drinks at O'Sullivans - a kiwi owned bar right next door to the Moulin Rouge. The Stadium itself was impressed - a capacity crowd of 90,000 in a stadium that truly lives up to the hype. Someone should have a word in the ear of the folks building the one on the Auckland waterfront! After the game we ran (no, sprinted!) to the Metro, where we (in full view of about 15 Gendarmes/Police) snuck through the barriers without paying - like the crazy kiwis we are!!

We got back to O'Sullivans (which was now packed and pumping) and got to skip the queue of about 30 by letting the bouncer hear our kiwi accent!! So good!! We partied til about 4am, and even when we left the bar was packed and there was a queue down the street trying to get in!

On Sunday we walked 5 million miles around Paris - which is just as well seeing as we visited 6 cafes! On our travels we saw the Notre Dame (very beautiful, but packed with tourists), and walked along a couple of km's of the Seine. We swung by the pyramids of the Louvre (I'll do the inside next time!) and stumbled upon a cool area with markets etc and not many tourists. Paris was such a blast - had so much fun with the girls - will be sure to get back soon!

The practice round...

We headed to the institution that is the Shepherd's Bush Walkabout (or the She Bu Walkie as it's commonly known) to watch the AB's hammer the English on Sunday afternoon.
The game, with the winning team well and truly decided well before the half time whistle, wasn't exactly edge of the seat stuff - but it's always good to see our boys in black take to the field. Can't wait to see them in Paris!!!

We be pumping. Iron.

It's official, I've joined a gym. A scary prospect given that a monthly membership over here is equal to the average Auckland mortgage repayment!!

Anyways, the girls all go there too so we'll be a house of hotties in no time... provided our friends back home stop sending us king size blocks of Dairy Milk chocolate!! Can't wait to get cracking though - might even sign myself up for another fun run!!

Better.

I consider myself a bit of a Salmonella Dub aficionado, mainly due to the fact that I have now seen them live more times than I could count on my fingers, and would probably be well on to my second foot if I was to carry the counting on my toes... therefore, I feel qualified to say that their performance Friday night was their best ever. Ever, ever.

They rocked, big time. Maybe it was the venue, the great Shepherd's Bush Empire (an intimite, yet roomy Victorian theatre built in 1903), or the audience (a capacity crowd of 2000 mainly kiwis and aussies spread over the four levels), or the infectious patriotism that no kiwi abroad can remain immune to, but it went off! Everyone was so into it - there was not an unsmiling face in the crowd (apart from in the queue to the ladies, which was about 60 people deep!) and everyone was grooving and skanking to the beat. Touring with them were Concord Dawn had opened the night, and MC Tali who performed on stage with Salmonella for 'For the love of it'. The band, featuring a number of new faces, played an animated and enthralling 1hr 45m set. At 11:30pm the lights went up, and they were gone. And in my mind the reason that they are still one of my favourite live acts, nearly 8 years after I first saw them perform, is clear. Salmonella Dub are one band who are doing it all purely for the love of it. Feel free to sing along.

- The lyrics (mainly for Hannah - cos she normally just makes them up)

For the Love of It - Salmonella Dub

Simplification of skank beat
Free stylin' ourselves while we jam
Stripping it back to the roots, Virgin
Nothing else treats me like you do

We move to the music
Pushing and pulling ourselves
Feeling the drum and bass
That's why we do what we do

Unite the people we of the land
Re-light the fires we burn again
Stripping it back to the roots, Virgin
Nothing else takes me like you do

Virgin, we do it for the love of it.

Crow-ayyy-shaaa!!

We flew out of Luton on a rather unremarkable London day to the sunny port of Split, Croatia. Our hostel was located in the south-west corner of Diocletians Palace, a huge fortified palace built by the Roman Emperor Diocletian sometime in the 3rd century. From this central location (with tips from the fantastic Australian hostel staff), we explored the restaurants, bars and markets of Split until we boarded our boat 'Aneta' at midday on Saturday.

We spent the majority of the 7 night 'Sail Croatia' tour lounging on the huge sundecks, reading, swimming and chatting with the 25 or so kiwi and aussies on the tour. We stopped at a different port each night, and had the afternoon to look around and sample the shops, bars and cuisine before heading to the next port early the following morning.

Each port held it's own attraction; the ancient fortress perched above the bar lined promenade of Hvar, the national park of Mjlet with a 12th century monastery located on a island in a picturesque lake, or Markarska's breathtaking backdrop of stone cliffs. The history you felt in each city was impressive. A highlight for me was getting lost in the narrow worn-stone alleyways and stumbling upon a glimpse of the rickity washing lines and vegetable gardens (normally hidden from the passing tourist), that signalled true croatian life.

Although the touristy things - like the bar perched on the rocks between the ocean and Dubrovnik's city walls, or the cocktail bar atop a turret in Korcula were pretty cool too.

By the time we arrived back in Split we had four memory cards full of photos,vastly improved summer tans and a strong aversion towards bread (we were served it every breakfast and lunch for 7 days!) With our new found 'boat buddies' (and Maree) having flown home to colder climates on the Saturday morning we were left wondering what the hell we could do to fill our remaining 3 days in the seemingly compact city of Split.
We needn't have worried.

What ensued was some of the best days that you could imagine!! We spent sunshine hours at the beach, rolling off our towels and into the crystal clear water at regular intervals. The afternoons were spent eating pizza, seafood and pasta overlooking the ocean with a Pina Colada in hand. We attended the Split Film Festival where we watched Babel, a beautifully shot inter-continental movie by the director of '21 grams.' We lost out somewhat in the translation, or rather the lack of it, though. The entire movie had subtitles in Croatian only - regardless of the language being spoken by the characters!! This was fine in the American scenes with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, but hearing people speak Japanese etc in the scenes set in Morocco, Mexico and Japan while trying to decipher Croatian subtitles was pretty interesting!!

The high point of the holiday was the football game we attended on the Sunday before we flew out. A home game between Split (Hajduk Split) and arch rivals Dinamo Zagreb, this was not football - but war! In my untrained eye both teams were fairly crap, but bar a couple of major punch-ups (one almost involving the referee!) the majority of the action was not to be found on field. The fans were mad - crazy, rampagingly, stoically patriotically mad!! Dressed head to toe in team colours they sang and chanted, stamped so hard we thought the stand would collapse and threw maritime flares onto the field. The rival supporters were no better, chanting insults and setting fire to not only the Split team's flag, but at one point a part of the stadium too! Although it was pretty mental it was hardly dangerous - although we left right on the final whistle feeling pretty pleased about the 2-2 scoreline. I can't even imagine the riots that would have ensued had the team experienced a home ground loss!!

We flew out late afternoon on Monday, into a London that was much colder and wetter than we had left it!!

A little bit of kiwi in the big smoke...

In true kiwi style, despite moving a million miles away, we still clutch desperately to the traditions of home.

Ahhh... the London BBQ. Not one to let the lack of a lawn (or an actual BBQ) get in the way of a tasty chargrilled steak, the folks at Aldershot Rd (or 'The Shot' as we lovingly call it) have perfected the art of the roof top BBQ.

The disposable BBQ's (who knew such a thing existed!) are purchased for £2.99 from Tesco. Capable of handling a couple of descent sized slabs of steak and a half dozen cheeky snarlers, the disposable BBQ surpassed all expectations.

Definitely the highlight of the rooftop BBQ, apart from spying on the neighbours, is the act of climbing out the window... This involves climbing up a wobbly step ladder, manoeuvering through the window - which requires tilting the window up with your head to get your torso through, and then down again to get you lower body safely over the sill. Depending on weather conditions, wind speed and the like, an optional assistant may be required to steady the ladder on the outside, which you then climb down backwards. This entire operation is best performed with a bowl of salad in one hand, a glass of wine in the other, and bottle of tomato sauce tucked under the arm for good measure.

The other day...

... I got a blog!!! How very geeky of me!

Despite a sudden urge to pull my pants up to my armpits, discuss the metaphysical make-up of everyday objects and get a pair of stylish horn-rimmed glasses, I will continue as a 'blogger' as I reckon it'll be a great way to keep in touch with you chaps back home!! Yay!