Organic Wine

I'm sitting here just after dinner on the night before I fly to Colorado (see the Medtronic post) and Jo has prepared the best dinner of char-grilled vegetables seasoned in balsamic vinegar and chicken breast with asparagus & goat's cheese... so so nice. To top it all off, she bought a bottle of organic wine (who does that..?.. and who makes that...???). Very nice.
I love being married to a modern-day hippie :-)

I Did It!

I did it! I rode through London traffic on a bicycle. (and yes, mums, I'm still alive, no scratches, and we did it at a very quiet time of day...not many cars on the road at all. ;) ) Matt and I test-rode some bikes from Evans Cycles for the weekend; a Specialized Enduro for Matt and a Specialized Stumpjumper for me. We rode home from Waterloo Evans Cycles and took the route Matt takes each day...past Buckingham Palace, Green Park, London Eye, Westminster Bridge. Well, I think we did... I didn't see any of it at the time, I was holding on pretty tight to the handle bars and didnt' take my eyes off the road.

On Sunday we took the bikes out for a bit of a spin and found some stairs to try out the suspension. We stopped in Westminster Abbey, next to St Maragaret's Church built in 1412 to eat our lunch.

A fun-filled day.

Be sure to check out our photos

NOT Bollywood!

I went to another audition yesterday. And no, it's not Bollywood this time!!! I was auditioning for an acting role for an English Director, who was casting for six short films.
I was asked to prepare a short monologue for the audition. I prepared one written by Carolyn West about a soy crazed 'green girl' trying to sell tofu brains to Zombies, who 'need the nutritional value of fresh human brains'.

I'll let you know how it went.

My Very Own Bank Account

Finally. After six attempts at three banks over the last two and a half weeks, I have finally convinced a bank to take my money - and charge me for it. No more begging people to cash my paychecks at rent time or asking Jo for money (well.... maybe).

I feel like a bona fide immigrant.

Happy Birthday to Me! ☺

Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes and for all the people who spoiled me by sending gifts all the way to London, dropping me a line via email or texting me, wishing me a Happy Birthday, it made my day so special.
I successfully spread my birthday over a number of days, since there weren't that many people to help me celebrate. ☺
Matt was beautiful wishing me a Happy Birthday all day, every day for about 5 days. ☺
I had to teach at a tough school on my birthday but I am now used to being sworn at by 12 year old children so it wasn't so bad...and anyway, I wasn't going to let that ruin my birthday.
We are on the look out for a yummy Thai Restaurant ( I am craving Thai Food!) for my birthday dinner. Unlike Sydney, where we are used to a Thai Restuarant on every corner, we are yet to find one worth going to. In London, if you want take-out, it's always Indian, and always Chicken Tikka-Masala.
The flowers above are the Oriental Lilies Matthew gave me. ;) They are still going strong after a week and are making our little studio smell oh, so sweet.

Brighton, Closest Thing to a Beach

During the week, we received a call from a friend who needed some help transferring some boxes from a supplier living in Horsham (near Brighton – think: South of London, and on the coast) to another supplier in Cornwall. Yesterday we started on the first leg of the journey and took the opportunity to see Brighton at the same time.
Saturday morning Matt cycled over to the Rent-a-Van place in London while I packed an over night bag and some lunch and we headed South to Brighton via Horsham. Google-maps rather optimistically ‘suggested’ the trip would take just over an hour (more like 21⁄2 hours) but then even Google can’t really be blamed for Londoners propensity for ‘park hopping’ on summer’s days and the Gay and Lesbian Festival that seemed to happen all throughout south-east England this weekend.

After collecting all the boxes in the back of the van in Horsham, we pushed on to Brighton. On the way we saw a charming old Church, St Paul’s with head-stones dating back to 1756. Further down the road we stopped to see a community club of Englishmen playing cricket and watched one side get thrashed while listening to the England vs Portugal World Cup game on the radio. Even at the penalty shoot out time, the Englishmen kept playing their game of cricket...respect.

We finally made it to Brighton around 6:00pm thinking we’d find accommodation relatively easily. Unbeknown to us, Brighton was the capital of the Mardi Gras festivities and every 'cute little BnB', hotel, motel, pub, stable was full. We weren’t too worried though as we were enjoying walking around Brighton, exploring the 'Newtown-ish' restaurants scene and trying to find a non-gay-friendly pub (aka, one with a Ladies bathroom). Don’t get too excited about the beach though, while it is London's closest beach, there are no waves, and pebbles instead of sand.

At 10:00pm we thought dinner would be a good idea and found a cute little Italian restaurant called Zizzi. Yum!

Still with no accommodation and contemplating sleeping with the boxes in the back of the van, I managed to find a BnB we hadn’t tried – with a Vacancy!! Just as this happened a seagull flew over head and dropped a bomber of bird poo right on to Matthew’s shirt - you should see the size of the seagulls here! (Matt’s Technerdical note: for you aero buff’s out there: I think the bird came in on a strafing run – there was a glint in his eye as he creamed me)

On Sunday, after a good ol' English breakfast we drove slowly home taking tangents along the way enjoying being a tourist with a hire van.

Photos are here (finally)

Italian in England with an Aussie

Simon and Suse Angus came through London last week. :) Matt, Suse and I shared dinner together, though unfortunately, due to a speaking conference in the US, Simon couldn't join us.
Suse made the trek (and I mean trek...she walked over half of London to get to Bayswater ☺) and we went to an Italian restaurant just down the road.
A short visit, but it was a fantastic evening sharing what has been happening in our lives, reminiscing about ol' times in Sydney and whingeing about silly Londoners.
Hint: as Suse was reminded, if you come over here and catch the tube, or even walk down the street: don't talk to anyone, don't look at anyone, don't smile at anyone, and absolutely do not talk to anyone. Londoners are not friendly people and do not understand the genuine friendly nature of the Aussie. ;)
We really had a great time and miss you guys lots and lots.
xo

Correction

The film I shot yesterday is called "Bagham Bagh" which means "Running" in Hindi.
And.... in true Bollywood fashion when they said a week of shooting, they really meant one day. :)

So... a fifteen hour day and it's a wrap.

Visitors

As you’ll see from this enormous Vegemite jar, we’ve had visitors!
Matt’s cousin Ben and his fiancé Wendy (hi guys!) stayed with us recently during one leg of their round-the-world tour. It was great to get some Aussie love – albeit at pretty close quarters – and catch up with them. Ben and Wendy spent the day seeing the sights (while we worked) and then spent the evenings recounting tales of epic proportions about Big Buses and equally big lines at the Tower of London while we sat around eating lentils or Steak&Ale pies at our local. Good times.

Not Quite That Easy... ☺

Matt was right about the 'rounding up the girls' thing, but getting the part wasn't quite as easy as asking for the role: we ended up having about a two hour dance audition for one of only eight dancers in the film.
It was a fun audititon, though a little stressful when the Choreographer said "Ok, one-by-one we'd like to see you improv please". As you can imagine, most girls stressed out: "what are we supposed to do, no-one said anything about having anything prepared..." so reluctantly as the Choreographer played the music we performed solo at the drop of a hat.
After the couple of hours we all left and waited for a call from Select Casting. I received mine a couple of hours later informing me I was selected and that I would be dancing in the film "I See You', location "The Old Vic Theatre" starting tomorrow. Shooting will run for all of this week.

To borrow Matt's expression: Happy Days ☺

You Know You've Been to a Stack of Auditions When...

Jo just recieved a call from Select Casting - the casting agency that has been hooking her up with the recent Bollywood movies - asking if "when she came to the audition this afternoon, could she please round all the girls up and bring them up to the casting room...?"

Jo said, "arh... so that means that I've got the part then...? Yep, no worries..."

I understand this role will be slightly different from before, but I'll get Jo to give you the details ☺

Happy Days, I've got my own Bollywood Princess - albeit a reluctant one ☺

I See You

This is the title of the next film I am in. :)
And yes - it is another Bollywood Film. This time, I actually feature in a scene with two other girls and the main actor. It's so much fun and totally OTT, but I love the cheese!
The shoot was mainly on Millennium Bridge and a little on The Globe stairs.
The Story line...well you'll just have to wait.

I went to a casting for this role and it was a three step process.
1. Say name and shake hand of director
2. Director looks you up and down
3. Walk out and wait for the call

There's no business like it. :)
(photos coming)

Some Aussie Love...

We had the pleasure of Geoff Lucas' company a couple of Sundays ago; he was in London for his Aunt's wedding. We had a great day trooping around London; doing more touristy things in one day than Matt and I have done so far. :) We met at Camden Town to go to the markets - think Paddy's Markets meets Nimbin; huge and hippy. However, when it comes to Punks, Camden puts Sydney to shame.
From there, we caught the tube to Covent Garden. We hit the most 'traditional English' looking Pub we could find to grab a bite to eat, admiring the West-End through the window.
Next stop was The National Gallery where we took our time walking through the oldest paintings at the Gallery. We could have stayed there all day. I loved seeing the originals of the works we have so often seen as prints such as Van Gogh's Sunflowers. The National Gallery also has a crazy number of impressionist originals. There is something quite satisfying about seeing the brush strokes of their works.
We met Geoff's family at All Souls Church (where John Stott used to preach, and still attends) and went to the evening service. It was a great service, and a huge amount of people there; some locals, though many were tourists checking out the church or checking out John Stott. :)
It was a fun filled day and fantastic for Matt and I to get a good dose of Aussie love.
Thanks Geoff!

Job Applications for Matthew

Just a quick ongoing update on the Career Front:
I've gone for a couple of interviews for 'career' type jobs - the type of jobs that will bring in enough money to keep Jo away from teaching (!) and have a second-round interview for a technical sales role with Medtronic - the firm that developed the first implantable pace-maker - tomorrow.
I'd appreciate any prayers. ☺ 

Wired

We're connected. It's only taken about 300 years, but we're now officially connected to the great unknown with 24Mb DSL (that's ADSL2 in Australia, or approx 428.57 times faster than the dial-up connection we were using).

Yep, that means we can also Skype. If you don't know our Skype usernames then please just email us and we'll reply back fast.

It remains to be seen if this means we'll post to the blog faster now.... ☺

Flat Tyre

A chap came into the store this morning, noting that his "tyre had gone flat and didn't seem to roll too well". Ed leaned over the counter, saw that the tyre was indeed flat and processed the service order as normal. The customer left - to return and collect his bike later today - leaving Ed to carry the bike upstairs.

Ed found the cause of the puncture after a quick, cursory look: