Big Adventures, Little World

WOW! What else can I say? The Lion King musical was simply amazing. By far the best musical I have seen so far and although I know that isn’t out of too many, but I think it will definitely be very hard for something to top it. Elese’s sister Sarah was in town and we had got some decent tickets this time to see the show. We were sitting level with the stage, but in the back row which gave a great view. As soon as the show started we were glad we got the seats as down the aisles came a number of the performers all dressed up in the animal costumes making their way to the stage. The costumes were amazing, and by far the most impressive was the giant elephant which had a person for each of its legs. The amount of work that must have gone into some of these costumes would be huge, but the end result of it was just absolutely awesome.

Not only were the costumes amazing but the some of the sets involved were incredible, including Pride Rock, Scar’s Cave, The Elephant Graveyard, and the Gorge for the stampede. This was along with everything else as well which just made it great to watch. All the actors in it were especially great and just seemed to have so much energy and put so much effort into their parts. Especially the young Simba who I thought did a fantastic job and just looked like he was having so much fun doing it, which I can imagine he was!

When I was younger I loved the Lion King movie and this took nothing away from that at all. Getting to listen (and maybe even sing along a little bit) to all the great songs was a great way to spend the afternoon. Performances of songs included the Circle of Life to open the show, I just Can’t Wait to Be King, Be Prepared, Hakuna Matata, Can You Feel the Love Tonight, among a host of others as well, then nicely round out by the Circle of Life once again to close the show. It’s fair to say that I loved every bit of the show and it didn’t let me down at all.

We arrived in Amsterdam nice and early and made our way to the hostel where we dropped our bags off then went for a wander through the city and had some food. We didn’t really do much to start with as we were all a bit tired, we just wandered really, and saw some of the buildings and walked up and down the canals before having something to eat then making our way to Anne Frank’s house where we were meeting Dung. We met Dung out the front and then we went in to go tour through the house. It was very interesting reading about the time when Anne Frank was there during WWII and hiding from the Nazi’s. The house itself isn’t anything special as a lot of it is blocked off from public access and looks nothing like what it would have in the 40’s. There is a lot of photos and information though, and it really is quite a remarkable story, but I’m sure is just one of a lot of cases. The only difference with Anne Frank was that her diary was found and therefore her story was eventually told.

That night we went out for a wander through the red light district. As Elese and I had been before we knew what to expect, but I think it was a bit of an eye opener for all the others and a bit shocking. It’s funny to watch how others react to things like that when they have no idea what to expect, but you do. There isn’t really much else to say about it all as I have seen and written about it before. The rest of the group wanted to go see a sex show, but seeing as Elese and I had both been to one before, we just wandered around the city for a bit before heading back to the hostel while the rest went to the sex show and had one of the shocks of their lives!

Out the front the Heineken Factory

Our next day we were up and out in the city looking around before we made our way onto the Heineken factory for the Heineken Experience, a tour of the factory. I’ve been to quite a few beer factory tours now and this is definitely one of the better ones. It is self-guided to an extent, but really only one way to go. You go at your own pace though and go through the history of Heineken and get to see some of the equipment that was used to make the beer. You then get to the good parts where they show you the characteristics of a poured Heineken beer, and then get to drink it as well. After that you get to go on a short 4D movie experience of the complete process of making the beers where you are supposedly the beer. It was quite cool and a bit of fun, then it was to the bar at the end of the tour for our free drinks. It really is the best place to drink the beer and is by far the best tasting Heineken I have ever drunk. It is just so cold and the taste is just perfect. There’s no other way one should enjoy Heineken after that experience.

We came out of the Heineken factory and I was feeling a little bit tipsy! Maybe the beer is stronger there too, or it could have been that I had had about 6 or 7 beers, and although small, it was in a fairly short amount of time. Not far down the street were some markets so we strolled along there for a while looking at all the different things they had on offer. It was similar to a lot of other markets, but markets are cool so this was good fun. We then made our way through the city to one of the must-do things in Amsterdam and that was the IAMsterdam sign (as you can see in the picture below). We played on that for a while and got our photos taken on different letters and in different positions. I don’t know why but for some reason climbing all over these giant letters is just a lot of fun!

The I amsterdam statue in Central Amsterdam

That night it was out on the town for a pub crawl. The bar that we started at we got free vodka shots for half an hour, which was in actual fact a guy walking around with a weak mix of juice and vodka pouring it into your mouth! It was pretty funny watching him pouring it in everyone’s mouth, or all over their faces in some cases. This went on for a while and then we had a couple of rounds of beers before we headed on to the next bar. At each bar we went we got free shots of the worst, or best, drinks, depending on the way you look at it. We went from bar to bar every half hour or so and we got to the second last bar we were going to which was a small little place which no one really liked at all so we went to wait out the front until we moved on. As we were waiting out the front the bus driver from my Topdeck tour last year came walking out. When he saw me he tackled me half way down the street. It was such a random encounter. He introduced us to another Topdeck leader who then took me to find the cook from my tour who was also in Amsterdam that night. We eventually found him and had a chat for a while before we went back to find the others and then head on to the last bar. There wasn’t many people left so the last few of us went on to the last bar where we had our last shots and before long headed back to the hostel at about 3 in the morning.

Our last day in Amsterdam we decided on a walking tour through the city with New Europe tours as I had done in other cities. This one wasn’t as good as others that I had been on unfortunately, and half way through we left the tour. Amsterdam is a really cool city, but the tour guide wasn’t really that great at selling it. He tried though, which I think just made it seem more desperate. It was still a good way to get out and see some more of the city though.

After the tour, Kate, Lucas, Elese and I decided to venture outside of Amsterdam a bit and out in to the country site to a cheese and clog factory. It was a little farm run by a small family where they cows to get the milk to make the cheese, as well as some chickens and goats as well, but not for making of the cheese. They also had the equipment to make clogs, which we were shown, although we go shown the old fashioned way when they were made by hand. These days it is all done by machines and doesn’t take anywhere near as long to do. Seeing as we went in the afternoon, we didn’t get to see them making cheese as that was done in the mornings, but we did get shown a video of how it was normally done. Then came the fun part as we got to taste the different flavours of cheeses. They were delicious mostly, so we even bought some to bring back with us. They were little cheese wheels, covered in wax so they keep for ages as well. After spending a bit of time at the farm though we got the bus back to the city where we met up with the others so we could all grab our gear and start the journey back to London. We all had a lot of fun for the few days and it was a great way to celebrate Kate’s birthday!

My Snowboard Setup

After snowboarding for a week back in March it become evident that I was pretty much a pro at it. It was the end of the season though, and this meant that I didn’t get another chance to go and show off my skills again. However, being that it was the end of the season, this meant that there was end of season sales. So what did I do? That’s right, I went out and bought myself a snowboard, as well as the snowboard boots and the bindings. So now I’m all ready for the new season to get out there and shred through the snow.

I went for a Burton board as I had read good reviews of it and I loved the look of it as well. A lot of other boards seem to have crazy drawings all over the board whereas I like the more minimalistic look. The board I got was the Burton Process V-Rocker in the 159 size, as well as the Mission EST Bindings in white and red, and the Burton Ruler boots in white, black and red. Not only did I like the look of all of it though, it was all made for more intermediate to advanced snowboarders and is good in all conditions, which means that it should last me a long time and I won’t be looking to change boards soon when I get a bit better as well as not needed to change to different board depending on conditions I am riding in. Check out the picture to the right of all my gear!

Up close of the Burton Mission EST bindings & Ruler boots

In the meantime though, while I wait for the new snow season, there is a couple of places throughout the UK that have indoor snow slopes. So we have been looking in visiting one of them to test out the new boards. Elese also bought a snowboard, as well as our friend Jimi not long before we did. Of course, we are all pro’s, with about a week of snowboarding under our belts. Now we just need to get out there and use them, and we cannot wait to do so. Bring on Winter!

Have a look below for another picture up close of the boots and the bindings sitting on the board. Just beautiful isn’t. I just can’t wait to actually get out onto the snow and use it all. The time will come.

On Friday the 29th of April there was a little event in London that was The Royal Wedding, of Prince William and Kate Middleton. The hype leading up to it all had been huge and so many people were so excited about it at all. I wasn’t too fussed about it, but it was prbably a once in a lifetime oppurtunity for me to be around when it happened, so we all figured we may as well go in to Central London to Hyde Park and be as close to it all as possible.

The atmosphere in there was amazing! We got in and found a nice spot of grass to sit back and watch the big screens while drinking some cider. Everyone was buzzing with excitement and most people were sitting or standing around drinking as well. I’m sure that many people were just excited about getting the day off and to have a long weekend (made even longer because of Easter and the May public holiday on the Monday).

It finally got to that time when Kate Middleton came out in her dress and made her way to Westminster Abbey. The crowd went crazy. It’s a very surreal experience. All these people cheering and elated for people they have never even met, but they do love their royals. Everyone watched in anticipation of the ceremony and once it was all over, people could breathe again.

Instead of waiting around we made our way down to a pub in Brixton, The Duke of Edinburgh, where we could drink some more and have something to eat. We arrived just in time to see on the TV’s William and Kate out on the balcony to share their first kiss as a married couple. It was official. There was now a brand new addition to the Royal Family. The celebrations continued!

After nearly 12 months since arriving in London, it was about time for a change. That change happened to be moving to a different house. For all of us we all had different directions we wanted to go in so we decided not to renew the lease to the house and all go our separate ways. There wasn’t anything wrong with the house at all, and Southfields was quite a nice and safe area, but it was just so, boring. There was never really anything happening there and even just to get to some decent shops we would need to get on the bus or tube and this is one of the main reasons we wanted to move somewhere else.

Elese and I had thought about it a bit and after going out in Clapham one day we thought that we might like to live around there. We eventually started to look for places to live as it closer to the end of our lease and all we could find seemed to be quite expensive. We kept looking though, and after checking out a place in Balham (not too far from Clapham) we then found a place in Brixton (also not too far from Clapham) to have a look at. I went to have a look at it one night and really liked it. Sharing with a few other people, but also a few more rooms to fill, and the landlord seemed good too. The house was a 3-storey town house on a nice little street where all the buildings where pretty much the same, and it wasn’t too far from Brixton tube station and only a couple of minutes more to Stockwell and Clapham North station too, so we were around there area we wanted to be. The room was a big double room with an ensuite which was a massive bonus. The place had a big kitchen and even a small backyard which was perfect for barbecuing. It was great! I went home and told Elese about and organised for her to go see the place the next day before work and after seeing it, she loved it too.

It wasn’t too long after that and we were packing up the old house and getting organised so we could make the move to the new place. We didn’t think we had too much stuff, but it turns out we had a lot more and ended up getting a man and a van to help us out. What a great concept! It was Sunday the 24^th and we started and finished moving everything we had acquired over the past 12 months to the new room and got all settled in. We went back to the old place to finish the moving and then went out for a bit to eat before heading back for our first night in the new place. We are both really happy with the place and the people too. We have a lot more room than we did before and a lot of room for people to come stay (hint hint) as well as a roof cavity for storage for all our crap. All in all it’s a pretty cool place and there is a lot more to see and do and give us better access to Central London so we can go wherever we please whenever.