Weeks 14-17ish? - Toast & Ponds

After some technical difficulties we are back up and running again. Blasted hard drive crashed. Fingers crossed we can get back some stuff that we had on there....As you can see we aren't exactly sure how long we have been here either so posts might get a bit less frequent from now on anyway.

We decided it was time we finally made the trip to the world renowned department store, Harrods. To be honest we didn't know what all the fuss what about. Sure there was some expensive things you could buy there but it didn't seem to be much flasher than loads of other department stores in London (none that we can afford to shop at of course...).

During the week we were able to celebrate Jess getting herself her second contract. Great news as it will keep the pounds coming in so that we can stay here. We celebrated with a trip to Battersea Park along with some tasty picnic food and champagne...the real deal isn't quite as expensive here...It was this week that the heatwave kicked in too so it was great weather to be out and about picnicing.

As the weekend came along we headed down to Clapham Common with Robin, Mary and Ralph who was visiting on holiday for Toast New Zealand. It was a big festival with loads of New Zealand wine and beer and entertainment. The weather was scorching! We were treated to a display of polo, which we never quite got our heads around....We also got entertained by James Someone (from Wellington I think) with the day coming to a close with everyone rocking out to Dave Dobbyn. The place was full of New Zealanders so the atmosphere was great. We saw loads of people we knew. There can't have been too many New Zealanders in London who weren't there and it was a great day to be there too.

The next week was a good opportunity to enjoy the outdoor weather although those tubes sure get scorching in the heat. The following weekend we joined Tom and Gini at another park, Hampstead Heath. This was a bit less manicured than some of the other parks, having been allowed to grow how it wants to, which made a nice change. Cider in the sun was the best way to spend our time. We then went for a swim the Hampstead ponds. They actually have ponds you can swim in which are basically duck ponds. The water wasn't too clear. Marcus didn't much enjoy it but Jess had more of a go of it all. I think we will stick to proper swimming pools, the sea and maybe rivers and lakes.

Unfortunately the weather didn't stay as hot so we stayed home over the week, but come the weekend it was looking good again so we went down to Battersea Park for Bastille day celebrations. We had high hopes for french wine, pastries and other curiosities. Unfortunately the celebration was only small, but the attendance was big. Lines to buy food and drink were really long so after spending over an hour lining up we weren't particularly excited about Bastille day anymore.

We decided to make the most of the week again and enjoyed ourselves with a picnic in Hyde Park which we still haven't even scratched the surface of and a trip to the National Gallery to get cultured. There was plenty of art to take in and our previous lessons were to take it in manageable chunks.

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