Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum

Fans,

It seems like ages since the last blog update. But only a week or so. On Tuesday night we caught up with Colin and Rachael for a few beers before they went north to Scotland, where they will be living for a few years. It was great to hear that we had a place to stay when we venture up that way, and likewise for them at our place when they come back down to London town.

We had a very full-on weekend. On Friday night we checked out another couple of pubs in our hood. The "White Horse & Bower" and "The Speaker" were both solid choices, good atmosphere and excellent service at the White Horse. I'd say we'll be back there before long. We then went 0/2 on London Indian. We were full of hope that the Indian restaurant round the corner from our place would be better than the crap we got from Tower Bridge a few weeks ago. It was, but not by a lot. No flavour, no spice. Kinda just coloured porridge-like goo posing as Indian. Disappointing.

On Saturday we went to Madame Tussaud's wax museum. Apart from the queue for over an hour (which we expected) it was amazing. We had a great time admiring the stunning likenesses of the dozens of wax figures and snapping plenty of cheesy photos. Some of the wax figures are incredibly life-like and almost a little creepy! Favourites...hard to say, but Megan was quite a fan of Sean Connery! Check out the photos below, but other stars not to make the cut here were Brian Lara, Shane Warne, Jonah Lomu, Pele, the Queen, Queen Mother, Diana, Princes Charles, William and Harry, the Beatles, and various other British singers, Hollywood stars, world and religious leaders etc etc and so on.

Worthy of a mention was Megan's stepping up to the penalty spot and slotting a goal past a virtual goalie, which gave her the right to lift the replica soccer World Cup! Frank Lampard should head down there and practice...oh and also worthy of a mention was the pole-dancing Britney Spears, whose chest actually moved to simulate breathing...

After taking about 50 photos, we headed to Chamber Live, where we had to negotiate our way through a series of dark rooms and corridors where several real life actors posing as serial killers were waiting to scare the crap out of us. It definitely worked, especially on Megan, who screamed the house down. Tim was worried she may faint or worse! There were loads of props of things like cages and body bags hanging from the roof etc and plenty of gruesome noises playing in the background and every now and then a "serial killer" would jump out from nowhere at us. Amazingly we survived!

We then went on a little trip through London's history in a little black cab, which was a lot less scary. Then our work was done. Later on Saturday afternoon, we managed to track down the now elusive old Routemaster double-decker red bus and we took a ride through central London. There are only a few of these traditional double-deckers left now and they only work two routes, mainly for tourists. It was a little bumpy, but we sure thought we were King of the Castle sitting upstairs.

After a spot of shopping we met up with Simon, Anthea and Pete, another Kiwi mate of Simon's, for some drinks and dinner in Kilburn. Very nice pub, although we were a little concerned with Pete's tales of being mugged and burgled on a regular basis.

On Sunday we headed north to Hampstead Heath. Hampstead Heath is a massive area of bush with the odd pond and grass clearing thrown in. It seemed to be a very popular spot too! We went on a big walk but probably still only saw half of it. Another place we will no doubt return to, perhaps with a frisbee. The shops in Hampstead also caught Megan's eye...







The Fresh
Prince












Brad
liked
Megan's
zip












The Beckhams














They put
Tom on a
step
so he wasn't
too small












Samuel L
Jackson
looking cool














Spidey
offering
Tim some
advice










The King
of Pop

The
Termin-
ator...

Megan's
favourite
















The
King












Jose Mourinho
looking happier
than normal















Tim
showing
Tiger how
it's done












Lance


















World Cup
winner

















Float like a
butterfly...
Sting like a
be-artch
















JT














Pole-
dancing
chest-
moving
Britney












Nelson
















Tim in
the
middle of
Hitler and
Churchill









Hopping
on the
"Route-
master"











Proud as
punch












The old
warhorse












Megan in
Hampstead
Heath










The
Heath












Big old
tree in
the Heath

Changing of the Guard and Hyde Park

After last weekend in Paris and a busy week at work for both of us, we decided to take it easy this weekend. After a big sleep-in, we had some shopping to do on Saturday. We still needed a lot of kitchen and bathroom things that the flat didn't provide us with, so we explored the many shops around Victoria Street and it was a big success. Megan was particularly stoked with the wok.

In the afternoon we took turns choosing a new pub in our area to try out. We had already tried The Royal Oak on the Friday night, which was quite small and cosy but very nice and about 12 steps to our front door, so it got a solid B+. On Saturday afternoon, Tim chose the Albert, which the fans will be pleased to hear, won The Standard Pub of the Year in 1984. It was also very nice, although there were a lot of old people there, possibly many of whom remembered the glory days of the Albert in 1984. Again a B+. Then Megan chose The Cardinal, which was very good. Slightly tacky decor, and a rougher crowd, but on the up side, they did have a dart board and a great selection of beers!!! Probably a B.

On Sunday we wandered over to Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guard. We had to get there about half an hour before it started to get a good spot and the actual changing of the guard takes almost an hour itself, and if truth be told, we were a little bored by the end of it. Good to have seen it, but I wouldn't imagine it's one of those things where you go back for a second look. Still, quite funny when one of the 'beefeaters' couldn't stop sneezing!

Next up we went for a walk through Hyde Park...or about a third of Hyde Park, as it is massive! We grabbed some lunch and walked around the pond/lake thing, where they had paddle boats for hire (we are definitely going back to try those puppies out). We stopped for a look at the Diana Pricess of Wales memorial fountain, which is actually a man-made stream rather than a fountain. Megan dipped her feet in and informed Tim that it was very cold. We also had a look at the new New Zealand memorial in the corner of Hyde Park. Slightly less impressive than I had imagined. But still quite cool to see some 'Kiwiana' in the heart of London.

Then we had a relaxing afternoon, Megan reading and Tim cursing Roger Federer for ruining another multi. Honestly, you would expect the so-called greatest player of all time to be able to hit the ball OVER the net...

Two weeks til we head off to Valencia...very excite!




















































































Hyde Park


























Diana
memorial
'fountain'












Megan at the
NZ memorial

Paris, France

Saturday

Our weekend in Paris was brilliant. After an early start on Saturday morning and a slight hiccup, as our train broke down for half an hour just before Paris, we arrived around lunchtime. It wasn't long before we got to put those high school French lessons into use when we had to ask a local how to get to the street that our hotel was on. Success.

We quickly dropped our bags at the hotel and headed for the Champs-Elysees. We didn't realise how massive it was, it took us ages to walk the length of the famous avenue. Although we were stopping in at a few of the massive stores along the way.

Tim got beaten up by a cake from a little patisserie. We stopped to check out all the chocolate and sweets in the patisserie and Tim decided to buy a French tartlette. It was delicious, but it crumbled, collapsed and then pretty much blew up in his hand, leaving him with chocolate all over his hands and face...very amusing. Once we finally got to l'arc de triomphe, Tim managed to convince Megan that it was a good idea to climb the few hundred steps to the viewing platform at the top. We are glad we did, as the views of Paris were amazing.

We then headed to the Eiffel Tower, and we had already decided that we would not go up the tower on this trip, which turned out to be wise, as the queue was a few miles long. After lazing on the grass beneath the Eiffel Tower, we got some dinner at a nearby restaurant and then headed to the Stade de France. Another train breakdown meant we were kept about 15 minutes longer than necessary packed in like sardines in about 35 deg (they don't seem to do air con in Paris) listening to a girl with the most annoying American accent you have ever heard, go on and on and on and on...

The Stade de France is a fantastic stadium (other than the fact they don't serve alcohol inside). It has a capacity of around 85,000 - 90,000, and on Saturday night it was almost full, with 80,000 screaming French fans and about 16 Ukranians. This is the venue for the Rugby World Cup final later this year, and it really does put Eden Park to shame. Despite no Thierry Henry or Patrick Vieira, it was still a strong French side that took the field and Frank Ribery (the next big thing in French football) had an amazing game. He was everywhere and he scored the first goal in a 2-0 victory for the home side. France now top their group and are well on their way to qualifying for the finals of Euro 2008! We also acquired a French flag. The stadium had left about 20,000 French flags on the seats for the fans to wave, and wave them they did. It looked awesome.

Sunday

Sunday morning started with a bit of a sleep in, as we were both knackered. After a croissant and juice for breakfast, we went on a one hour boat cruise on the River Seine. It was great way to see some of the sights and to get our bearings. After a very French lunch (filled baguette and pain au chocolat) we wandered past Notre Dame (again massive queues) and walked around the two islands in the centre of Paris. There were hundreds of little boutique shops from chocolatiers and ice cream parlours to second hand bookshops and craft stores. Very cool. We must say that our French speaking skills were pretty good. Tim wore his French football shirt on Sunday, which meant the shopkeepers all assumed we were French. Most of the time we could figure what they were saying, but we got caught out a few times!

We then walked past Le Louvre (that place is enormous!!!) and got a photo by the glass pyramid. There is a big garden right next to Le Louvre, and we lay on the grass there for a while enjoying the sunshine (it was beautiful weather the whole weekend, almost too hot at times!).

Then we had a final walk down the Champs-Elysees, checking out a few more shops, before we picked up our bags and headed to the train station and back to London. We are already planning our next visit!!!

Champs-
Elysees

l'arc de
Triomphe

View from
the top

French supporters
at Stade de France

Monsieur
Ribery

Magnificent

Our river
cruise

French
Parliament

Notre Dame

Le Louvre