Moulin Rouge. Say what?

My skins quite a lovely delicate shade of pink after another day spent in the sun!

After waking up at the late hour of 10.30' and finally leaving the hotel at 12, we hit up the louvre to visit... Wait for it....the.... Not a fake..... Real... Mona Lisa. You would have thought there was a rock concert on up the front, the amount of jostling and moshing that was happening. But after getting the special photo we skedattled to the bridge of love.

I'm referring to the lock bridge. There are these bridges here in Paris where couple have locked on little padlocks to the fencing declaring the undying love in a symbolic padlock and throwing keys in the river. It was extremely quirk and oh so pretty!

 From there we ventured along the path from the lourve to the arc de triuphm, in between having a go at shooting some string in a carnival!

 After finally arriving at the arc de triuphm, I made the climb alone as Jess rested at the bottom. What's view I had from up there! Honest to goodness it was breath taking, seeing all these roads connect onto one intersection. What a feat, the Paris drivers truly are crazy!!!

But then we headed home to get all dolled up for the moulin rouge!
I didn't really know what to expect, I didn't know what it was about or what it was based upon.

In summary is was breath taking,y unexpected whirlwind of bare chests of make and female kind, tight link leather pants for men, and pretty little g-strings for the women, bedazzled men, and hilarious entertainers!

We even had a lovely American family sitting at our front row table! It was a perfect evening out in Paris ith Jess. The food was delicious!

Bonjour

The day was a Saturday, 11th of August and a near life changing event happened. It went like this.

 There were two very excited girls who had a planned a long weekend get away to Paris, catching the 6.55am Eurostar train from London. A car had been booked to pick them up from their accommodation. The alarms had indeed been set for 4.30, as the car was due at 5.15. But the alarms did not go off! So at 5.05 an a rap on their bedroom doors with a "out of bed?" from Jack caused quite a stir, throwing on clothes left right and centre they dashed out the door, with not a minute to spare. And that my dear friends is exactly what happenned this morning. A near miss alright, we would have had to purchase new train tickets, new Eiffel tower tickets, lose money on our hotel. Not a very nice way to start to tart the morning.

But after a milkshake and a muffin,grins were back on our faces because we were on our way to Paris, the city of love. Be jealous.

After sitting in these deluxe seats bigger than any you'll find on the planes, with amazing head rests and falling a asleep before we were out of the station. There are worse places to wake up, but travelling through the French countryside was not one of them. I was slightly depressed that I had missed our Descent below the ocean, but i'll console myself in that, well it's just a tunnel, right?

Arriving in Paris, saw us make our way to the loos, get the hair straightener and make-up outp, seeing as we hadn't had a chance to look in the mirror yet.

 Then feeling very confident we navigated the Paris metro system (train system) to get to our funky as hotel. You need to check it out! This hotel is flipping amazing! When I can post photos I shall. It is extremely retro with bright colours, mix and matched furniture, tasteful graphics drawn on the walls. Perfectly quaint! Fantastic for our short stay!

Check it: http://www.hotelcrayon.com/en/rooms.html

We then headed about 800 metres to the Louvre. Yes, you heard me, it is that close. It is amazing, the site is simply awe inspiring. Honest to goodness the Louvre Palace surrounding the louvre museum is so impressive. The architecture, history, colour, design and vibrancy is simply overwhelming. One of the most beautiful places I have ever had the pleasure to visit.

Our mission however was to find an atm for Jess, as she needed some euros-which pleasantly had a really good exchange rate at the moment with Aussie cash.  We then caught the metro to the Eiffel tower, with help from a lovely lady at the station.

Also just putting it out there that Jess and I have the phrase 'Approachable people that will not bite you, and yes, we'd love to take a photo for you' tattooed on our foreheads. At four different times today we were asked to take photos, and give directions... Oh yeh we helped another lost tourist!

 But back to the Eiffel tower, so we had accidentally when booking the tickets online, booked a 10.30 tour in the morning, and we wouldn't get in from London on the train until 10.17am. Their was no way we were going to make that right. So being slightly cruel, we played the ignorant and blonde tourists to this lovely lady at the tower, "Oh no, we thought that meant we could come any time after 10.30, oh no, what, what does that mean, oh no?" in my most whiny voice ever. The lady being a sweetheart was able to let us skip all the lines and go to the stairs entrance, we had to walk to level two. I think in her head she was secretly doing an evil laugh. Those stairs were killers! But what the heck we didn't have to buy new tickets, and we were still able to go up!

 We went up to the summit, it was spectacular! Seeing all the buildings and places that you only see in movies is so overwhelming. Not to mention the heat today, received quite a nice little bit of sun tan! We then walked down to the river and hopped on a river cruise. Probably wouldn't advise that, it was quite slow and their was no information provided on what we were seeing.

Next up we headed home, after Jess repeatedly tried unsuccessfully to use their stupid rentals bikes. DO NOT RECOMMEND THEM AT ALL!!

And then after she didn't bother saying bonjour to the train help lady, and getting the"I don't speak English go away" telling off from her. We got home, rested then headed out for yummy Italian dinner at Biancos.

 Lovely day but it's definitely nice to put my feet up now, very keen on finding a nail salon tomorrow!

Au voir.

Life's bliss when you're a royal!

Yo Ho Bo's! What's cracka lackin?

Well the last couple days here's what was achieved...

• Lazy sleep-in morning (very much deserved)
• A little shopping in Kingston with Jess
• Going to Jessie J's concert and only knowing her last three songs!
• Checking out Buckingham Palace state rooms & mews & changing of the guard & palace gardens
• Realising that today warranted a summer dress and it was not cold once! Proof that miracles really do happen!
• Lunch at Covent Gardens with the girls
• Cooking dinner for the Strawberry vale crew
• Dividing my luggage into; Paris, Europe, Karen....... A long process. 

Here's some pics!

Well I'm zonked and I've got to be up at 4.30 to go catch the train to Paris!

 Update ya later alligators!

Scared, that's not in my vocabulary.

Yesterday was a whirlwind, I'll compare it to watching the new Batman movie, every moment something exciting was happening, it just never stopped, and you didn't want it to. So lets get into the nitty gritty details, frankly because I'm sure you'll love to hear how Jess punched a London fella (he was asking for it) in the face.

We visited Madame Tussauds in the morning. It was a surreal experience, seeing wax figures, that so closely resembled their real life counter parts. My favourites would have to be the Royal Family shot! It was spectacular. Madame Tussauds has been specifically planned out to give the visitor the most information possible.


You go though a journey, posing with celebrities, then world leaders, sporting stars, the Royal family and historic moments. We then reached the "Horrible Histories" section, a more accurate name would be "A black room, with screaming sounds, mirrors, dead animals, pitch black, with REAL LIFE people jumping and screaming out at you, Hope you enjoy your stay". Each turn brought a new terror to your sight, and if there wasn't a person there ready to take years of your life, the anticipation did instead.

Needless to say Jess and I were glued together as we took the first step, I think Caitlin having experienced similar scary shows at the Royal show, was slightly more prepared than us. In our minds we were like, pft we did the London Dungeons, as if this could be worse. We were wrong.

Five metres in, on the tenth bend, Caitlin was gone for my sight, and made a run for it. Jess was squeakily edging forward as, hands stuck together we kept look out left right, in front, left right, in "ARGGGGHHHHHH".

Some idiot jumped right into Jess's face, and well, up came Jess's fist with her water bottle to boot, poor fella. But honestly what did he expect? Quite a hazardous job really.

Lucky he only had a sore nose, not a broken one. He simply said in a scary voice that had Jess and I quaking, "Hands down girrrrlll". Oh, she put her hands down, as we started almost running with our eyes shut to get out of this hell place.

Caitlin came out looking like the terminator, whilst Jess and I came out shaking, and sweating, decidedly scarred for life.

From there on we went to the cartoon was section which was great. Watched a 4D film, with the water that sprays on you, and kidney punchers in your seats. Was very entertaining indeed.

With a sigh of relief and sadness, mostly relief, this brought the experience of Madame Tuassauds to an end.

Using the Tube we then found ourselves across town, outside Victoria Station having a little picnic in the park before our theatre going debut. We went to watch the production at Wicked. All I can say is phenomenal, it was amazing. The storyline itself was brilliant, showing a whole new perspective to the Wicked Witch of the West, in the Wizard of Oz. And to what a sook Dorothy was. I would most definitely recommend anyone to buy the book, or if they are lucky enough to watch the production.

The actors were brilliant, with beautiful voices! Not to mention the lead male, who I'm sure much to his delight gets to make out twice with both of the two leading ladies during each show, and they perform the show twice a day, you can do the maths. The costumes and scene settings were amazing.

From Wicked we ventured of to Leicester square to our Karaoke debut, it was most definitely a day for firsts. I've never particularly been one for sing star, let alone Karaoke. I have the tendency to sound like a dying animal of sorts. But our little booth just out of the heart of Chinatown was some of the  best fun I have had in a long time.

Little did we know, the security camera in the booth, witnessing our downfalls in singing and dancing, was coming up of the security screens in the bar for all to see.

 However prior warning should be given, that I can no longer listen to Payphone without shivers running down my back, we destroyed that song. However blasting out long forgotten songs with a  small group of friends was bliss.

From there we hit up Chinatown to get some dinner. It was a cute little Chinese restaurant, our waiter never smiled. Ever. I can announce I ate Duck for the first time.  I'm not some huge animal lover, but I just always remember feeding them bread at the pond, giving them something yummy to eat.  Not fattening them up so the local Chinese shop owner and grab 'em, pluck 'em, behead 'em, roast 'em, and serve 'em.

But I got past that and ate 'em. I think I would compare it to eating chicken stuffing. Not my cup of tea.

Then being extremely tired, I headed home with Karen and Mad's, leaving Jess and Caitlin to party up in Chinatown.

What a day.



I'll add some more pics up of this day on another blog, just can't find the dang cord for Mad's camera to get pictures off :)

It must be love.

The hectic life, is my life and I absolutely love it! I love being tired from running around a new city and experiencing new things.

The last few days have been extremely educational and interesting, as well as fully jam packed of touristy things and tea breaks!

 This is what I've been up to...


My best friend Jess arrived from the big scary world of Oz on Sunday afternoon, which was absolutely wonderful! So lovely to see great friends, especially when we're about to embark on such a wonderful adventure together! Then later that evening her cousin Caitlyn arrived, which is great! The more the merrier!

Monday saw us hit up the hop on hop off bus tours, getting a real feel for what we do and don't want to see. For instance we just had to re-visit Westminster Abbey, and need never see again the the district behind waterloo station, old industrial area thats now been revamped since it was blown to pieces during the great blitz, truly they did us a  favour by bombing it, no need to repair it....

We then hit up Knightsbridge for some shopping at Harrods and of course a shopping expedition in London would not be complete without introducing this two London shopping virgins to Topshop and Zara. The girls have been absolutely blown away by the fantastic clothes that are on sale!

Then after crawling home on the trains we got up at 7.30am this morning. Aka Jess, the coolest girl out, came and hopped into bed with me, "Time to wake up", my response "yehhhhhhhh, later bro".

However I did have my hair curled and make up done by 8, and downstair for brekky , whilst they were all still in their jammies, eating brekky, and gossiping away.

We then jumped on the train to be scarred from the London Dungeons, however huge delays on the rail network, resulted in us changing lines, and adjusting our plans, but never feared we still arrived in time to be scarred.... a lottttt....





Our group for the tour was quite stimulating in itself. first off we walked in the initial scary introductory room, where there were 'dead' rats hanging down from the roof that we would walk into, absolutely scaring the little girl who was say around 12 years old, enough that she did not start screaming, and then of course much to my delight a scary lady all dressed up, with a white ghoulish face of make make up and loud croaky voice started jumping at the young girl, which resulted in the girls screams breaking the sound barrier.

The next blog-worthy mention was when after hearing about how surgeons use to high grave robbers to steal dead bodies so they could explore the human body. Here's some prior knowledge you need to understand this. A Nana had brought along her two assumed grandsons, the younger of the two was already freaking out, so Nana being as good of a nana is that brings their grand kids to a scar show, says just don't look, come here as he huddles into her chest.

A yound man (qute a looker actually) 'voluntered' to sit in the torture chair, he was starpped in- simply his hands- and the utentials surgeons used to extricated bodily organs, such as slicing of hands was demonstrated on this guy, lets call him Ted. So when the scary surgeon went to chop Ted's hands off, the lights went dark, and all of  a sudden a light spray of water was squirted from the walls onto us- it was meant to be the blood, you know.


The next thing, lights are on, and we hear, "I think he fainted, yep, he fainted".

Absolutely made my day! The little squirt had flat out fainted on his Nana. Poor Nana, she looked terrible, as if she'd just committed treason.

Above: The hang mans noose ride. It was pitch black and we'd just watched people get hanged. Not a nice feeling.

But otherwise it was on the up from there, learnt a tonne of interesting history, hit up the London eye and saw some terrific views, and then attended the Westminster Abbey tour.

Now let me just tell you Westminster is and absolutely MUST see for visotrs. Honest to goodness there is simply so much history to remember. Breath taking.

Then of course we then went to The Ritz for afternoon tea, which was absolutely scrumptous. i had orange and passionfruit tea, delicious!!


Now here I am tired and sore but so excited for tomorrow. You'll hear about that another time! x

Images, photos, pictures, graphics, illustrations and all that jazz,.

You should all very happy reading this, I finally have my laptop back, therefore my blog updates will now have paragraphs! (yay paragraphs), and secondly I should be able to bombard you with photos!


However about that later, crazy stuffs been happening! I caught up with my Air Force buddy Warlum last night, which was delightful. Hearing what he's been up to and also new goss he's in the know about. Fantastic way to spend an evening!

I shall let the pictures speak for themselves.

Just some stones that have been baffling human kind for thousands of years.

 

Rain makes hair frizzy. Plastic stops rain. Plastic rain jacket = God's present to women.

My local hangout back in the day. 

This is just such a stunning photo my Mum took. 

Ahhh you know when you watch those border security shows and see people sitting on the ground looking like homeless people. I joined their club. Repacking at Heathrow. 

My fabulous Mum conquering her fear of heights (We were on the roof of Trim Castle)

The Amsterdam Pancake. Tthe best thing I have EVER had. 

Being a tourist, and ticking off all the corny photographs. 

CarnabySst in London, cute not so little globe, just incase you forgot which planet you were on. 

My future Sister and Brother-in-law at Hamleys.

Hampton Court. Quick little culture observation here, England has the loveliest parks in manors, however none of it is mowed. it's like someone thought, we own these lands, why do we need to mow them. 

Olympic rings.

Next up Warlum is amazing, because he gave me two tickets to the sailing in WEymouth ( down south) on Monday! So very excited to go watch and cheer on the Aussies and Kiwis!

ALos the australian girlies Jess and Caitlin arrive tomorrow! Which shall be fantastic! So much to see and do in such a  little bit of time. 

Peace out homies.

The merry life...

Here's what's been happening. I changed accommodation to this amazing home with a lovely family in London. It has been a marvellous week of relaxing, and getting to know local londoners and London spots.

 I've been biking,  walking, kayaking down the thames, watching the olympics- and admiring the amazing gymnasts- Kristian Thomas can marry me any day!

Reading books, exploring covent gardens, and making some small purchases!

I should hopefully get my laptop back from my cousins house down south tomorrow or Friday, and then I shall blast you all with photographs!

For now I am going to continue reading books and relaxing!