February

We started out February with some of the Chinese New Year celebrations in Chinatown. We went and saw a Chinese Lion which brings good luck to all of the shops and restaurants. It goes from shop to shop, dancing along the way and at each doorway it gobbles up a lettuce. As long as you feed him a lettuce he will bring you good luck. It was pretty packed as everyone wanted to see the Lion and there were times we couldn’t actually move. You come to expect that at any big event in London though.

For Waitangi Day we decided to have New Zealanders around to our house for some Kiwi As celebrations. We decorated the lounge with all of our expired NZ calendars and Scarface and R2 D2 even got in on the act. All the usual suspects came around. We invited some non-NZers but Liam was the only one game to show. Time was passed with some headbands, some circle of death, some NZ tunes, some Tongan Ninja and Marcus even managed to score himself a free haircut from cuz Beverley. Chur.

Soon thereafter Marcus settled himself into his 30s by turning 31. On the day of his birthday Jess took him out for a secret surprise dinner at 13 the Jamie Oliver Restaurant in Old Street that he did a TV show about where he took kids who were failing at school etc and made them successful as chefs. It is still staffed that way. We had a tasty meal of Italian food. Mamma Mia! Wasn’t he lucky?

He sure was because that weekend he got to go out with all his friends for Yum Cha. It is common in Wellington but there aren’t many places in London that do it with Trolley’s and everything. There was a big group, which is the best way to do Yum Cha because it meant we all got to order random things and eat plenty. After that we stopped in for a drink at the Dutch Bar in Chinatown (not sure how that works but it does) and then it was everyone back to our place again for some more drinking and shenanigans. Although early start meant early finish which is all good for the old man hangover.

February also brought a new addition to the McMillan household. We bought ourselves a 2001 Peugeot Boxer Campervan in anticipation of travelling around Europe. We duly christened him the Iceberg. He is big, white and, with Marcus driving, there is a good chance he will crash into things. Can’t wait to take him for a proper spin.

The next week was one we had been waiting for for a while. Marcus had managed to score tickets to the NME Big Gig at Wembley Arena which was being headlined by the Foo Fighters!! Dave Grohl had won an NME Rock Legend award the week prior so this was his chance to prove that to the crowd there in a one off show. As Liam and Jen had recently gotten married in Canada in an unplanned ceremony we decided we would take them with us as our guests. We met them for some tasty Nepalese food before the concert then made our way to our seats to check out the pre-acts which were Band of Horses some cowboy rockers from the US and Cee-Lo Green of “Crazy Fame”, which Liam was even more excited about seeing than the Foos. He is a pretty talented singer but that is one seriously fat man. We were all warmed up by the time the Foos came on and they were awesome. Dave Grohl is a rock god, along with the rest of the band. It was particularly surprising to see Pat Smear, who has not been in the Foo Fighters for a number of years, back in the band again. They played all their awesome songs, including a few new ones from their new album which we hadn’t heard. It was great fun to have a night of sweaty headbanging to such an entertaining band and we were sorry when it all had to end. We certainly enjoyed ourselves even if the typical London crowd was too cool to rock out.

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