May - Rolling and Rugby

With winter well and truly a season of the past May was a month of social get togethers and outings. We started the month with Beverley's birthday. It was at what turned out to be a great pub in Hampstead. They had an amazing selection of international beers and a very good roast. Marcus was in heaven. They even had a heated outdoor garden area with live music. Was almost like being at Zebos...(although I think it is all called the Southern Cross now isn't it Wellingtonians?)

We also made the journey back down to Earlsfield for Freedom Day. That is South Africa Day. Dana from Marcus' work had invited us down and Chris from Marcus's work was there too. We tried some South African beer and cider and of course the obligatory Boerwoers from the braai.

With two flatmates, Anna and Jeremy, celebrating birthdays in May it was time for one of the all too rare flat outings. Funnily enough we were off to somewhere we had passed every day near our old flat but never managed to get to...the Vauxhall Roller Disco. So with our fluro clothes (Marcus is never going back to Primark) and wheels strapped to our feet we were rolling around the floor in all our 70s and 80s glory. There were some people there who clearly spent far too much time roller skating but we stumbled and tripped without falling and even got confident enough to throw in the odd dance move. Good clean fun.

We were also lucky enough to manage to score tickets to go see Flight of the Concords at Wembley Arena. We met up with Tom and Gini and Abbie and "Murray" (Dane) and after the debacle which was getting into the new event were sufficiently amused with the thousands of other Kiwis and other non-Kiwi hangers on, who had come along. It was amazing to think that these two guys from Wellington who we saw 10 years ago at Downstage theatre are now selling out Wembley Arena night after night. AND they are basically still doing the same material. Good old Kiwi ingenuity.

It was also good to catch up with Pip for her 30th up in Stoke Newington. It was a horsey theme so we did our best to dress up for the races. Marcus even managed to score himself a blue ribbon. It was also a nice surprise to catch up with Michelle and Amrith who we didn't even know were in London.

Another highlight of the month was our first trip to Twickenham rugby ground for the London 7s. Anybody who has been to the Wellington 7s knows that the event is full of people dressed up as everything under the sun. Well London 7s was no different. In fact there was a world record attempt going on for the largest number of people dressed as Superheroes in any place at one time. Naturally we had to get in on the action so Captain America and Wonder Woman were joined by Catwoman (Bex), Zorro (Riki) and Summer Captain America (Tom). We got some funny looks on the tube but by the time we reached Twickenham we were each one of many. Twickenham itself is an impressive stadium. The place was probably only a third full but was still plenty busy. We were joined by Abbie, Jon and Dan, although they wussed out on the costume front. May have been the smart move because the day was scorching and with the huge stadium there was no wind to cool us down. Marcus managed to hold out until the direct sun struck us and then it was too much and time to change. Luckily the world record attempt was earlier in the day. The actual getting everyone together took ages and was a real shambles, but you get used to that in England, and all our patience paid off and we managed to break the world record! (Alas Melbourne broke it again the following week but we won't worry too much about that...). Alas New Zealand didn't make it to the final but at least they beat England. Overall an excellent day out. Jess even managed to watch some rugby!

https://picasaweb.google.com/JessicaLMcMillan/May2010#