Big Adventures, Little World

We all had the day off for Australia Day one way or another so we started nice and early with drinks at home with the 6 Aussies from the pub, including myself, Elese, Kate, Dung, Thom and Katie, as well as Katherine and Steve who were visiting from Adelaide, as well as a few others who had joined us to help us celebrate our country’s day.

We tried to make it a little bit like home and the celebration we normally have. So with a little bit of help from Katherine and Steve in the way of a table tennis set birthday present, we turned the dining table into a beer pong table and mustered up our range of glasses and mugs to use and then play began! There was of course plenty of usual things missing, the biggest being Triple J’s Hottest 100, but with the time difference it made it kind of difficult to listen to by the time we started celebrating. We made do with what we had though and eventually we made our way down to Wimbledon to an Aussie pub, The Billabong who had a sausage sizzle, Aussie beers, Ashes cricket on the Wii and were replaying the Hottest 100.

We spent the rest of the day there drinking and partying just like usual on Australia Day. We wanted to devour the sausages, but the first problem was that they were pork, not beef, and the next problem was that they were only cooking a few at a time. We only asked for 12 or so of them, is that too much to ask? We didn’t think so, but they did so it took 20 minutes or more before we all had our sausage sizzle, and then they decided to pack the BBQ away, at about 5PM. Clearly these guys had no idea how to run an Australia Day party. They did however have £2 Australia beers, and not just VB either. They had Tooheys Extra Dry and Adelaide’s own Coopers Pale Ale. Heavenly! I hadn’t really drunk Pale Ale for a long time back in Australia but after not drinking it for such a long time you realise how great it actually is!

Like I said earlier, they were playing the Hottest 100, but once again they showed their inexperience in throwing an Australia Day party as at song number 5, they decided that it was time to turn it off and bring on some live music. Ridiculous! Though all in all it didn’t really matter. We spent the day with some great people and had a lot fun regardless of the inexperienced party throwers! Our day turned into night and before long we had decided to call it a night with most of us working the next day, some of us earlier than others, so Elese, Katherine, Steve and I made our way home via KFC in what was a great substitute in lieu of leftover barbecue which would normally be the way. The day finished not long after that and what a great way to spend our London Australia day, although, it couldn’t really compare to the celebrations of back in Australia, but who really expected that?

This year, I celebrated Australia day a couple of times, and celebrated my birthday over two days as well. Celebrations began on Sunday the 23rd when Elese and I headed to a club in Clapham called Infernos, where TNT Magazine where hosting an Australia Day party. It was pretty crazy for a Sunday morning. It was a huge club and there was people dressed up everywhere in all kinds of Australian paraphernalia, not to mention the shorts, thongs, football guernseys and anything else that reminded people of back home. In addition to this they were serving VB, Fosters and Bundy Rum & Coke. It’s a sad thing when Fosters is the pick of them all, don’t you agree? I think the best part though was the fact they had meat pies (although not quite the same as home they were close enough) and Villi’s lamingtons as well as Burger Rings, Twisties, Shapes, Redskins among other things people seem to miss from back in Oz.

We moved on a bit later in the afternoon to go meet some other friends to a small pub where we got to drink Little Creatures Pale Ale. And how delicious it was. They were supposedly going to have Coopers Sparkling Ale but ended up with the Little Creatures, which isn’t a bad trade off at all. We also got the luxury of having a lamb spit which was cooking out the front as we came in. Once we had it, it was a little something like Jesus had decided to have a party in our mouths, and it had been going all day with all the delicious foods we had been spoilt with! We spent the rest of the afternoon sitting around, drinking Aussie beers, and listening to some good (and bad) Aussie music. There was even an appearance from Channel 10 News, though we didn’t want to be in their cheesy segment. Alas we decided to call it a day and we made our way home and cooked steak for dinner. A great end to the day and our pre-Australia Day partying!

Today is my London birthday and my first birthday I have spent away from home and I have been receiving texts, emails and Facebook messages all day! It’s been great. Thanks to everyone who has made it great for me so far.

It’s a very different birthday than the usual party on Australia day back in little old Adelaide though. We still plan on partying on Australia Day as usual, but there will be no 30+ degree day, no kiddie pool full of ice in the back yard, no where to play beer pong and no beer bongs. The biggest thing that will be missing is all the amazing people, but at least I still have some of them and some new ones as well.

I’m sure that no matter what it will be a great couple of days of partying even if it’s not the same as it is abck home. That’s what this whole adventure is about though, new experiences right? So come one and all and help me celebrate my inaugrural birthday in London!

Today was a good day as we finally got our trip to the snow booked. Elese, Kate, Lucas and I will be boarding a plane to Toulouse in France on the 13th of March and then transferring onto Soldeu el Tarter resorts in Andorra. Andorra is a tiny little country with a population of about 85,000 people that is located between the South border of France and the Northern border of Spain.

Here is the piste map (ski and snowboard runs) of the Grandvalira are where the Soldeu resort is a part of:

As you can see it is a pretty big area and from what I have read has some good snow and great atmosphere and ‘apres-ski’ which means after ski. So that means that the nightlife and parties are great.

We fly out to Toulouse airport in France on the 13th of March and then make our way to the resort by coach transfer and get there that night, ready to party and some big days on the slopes. I’m really looking forward to snowboarding, and can’t wait to get out there and learn and try it out so I can get out there more next snow season!

Christmas Day in London was going to be very unique for all of us in a lot of ways. First of all we were all at The Alexandra bright and early by about 10AM so we could all get together for compulsory champagne and sausage and bacon sandwiches. Not really a very Christmassy breakfast but interesting nonetheless. Definitely a great start to the day, that’s for sure.

Then it was off to work. We only had the Lounge Bar and the Green Bar open for Christmas, with the girls looking after the lounge and the guys taking care of the Green Bar. By taking care of the Green Bar we of course meant we spent most of our time on the other side of the bar drinking with the customers. There isn’t much space behind the bar and it can get crowded with just two people behind it so having five people wasn’t going to make it easy so it made sense for us to be on the other side. As long as we served when people needed to be served then all was great. We started work at about 11.30AM and we had downed our first pint by about 11.35AM. A great way to start a shift!

Our day flew by with the majority of our time spent on the opposite side of the bar and a number of customers buying us drinks as Christmas ‘gift’ for serving them throughout the year as it was mostly regular customers in the bar. It seemed like no time at all before we were closing up the bar then getting ready for our giant feast at the pub for the 20+ of us that were there. While some went upstairs to change and shower, the rest of us stayed downstairs to help setup and chat with a few drinks. There were plenty of drinks there for us which some of our regulars had given us money to buy as well as bringing us in a whole lot of chocolates for us too. They really do appreciate what we do for them sometimes.

Finally we all sat down to our meal which was turkey with cranberry sauce and gravy and roast vegetables all cooked by our resident chefs. They had done a great job of it all and once again, just as I was the night before, I was ridiculously full again after the meal. Once again it was worth it though and exactly how Christmas should be. Once we had cleaned up it was present time with all our Secret Santa presents being given out to the people who were there. It was a lot of fun and there were some really great presents that people got and some people putting in a lot of thought to them. I got a nice bottle of wine which isn’t too shabby at all.

The rest of the night we spent watching the NBA on TV, followed by the cricket, which was disappointing for us Aussies and really should just be forgotten. Other than that we also got a poker game going, where I got screwed by the way, and also some games of cricket up and down the pub where I at least got a little bit of redemption for us Aussies by taking a hat-trick. We had the music going all night and danced, drank and generally were merry, which is what Christmas is all about right? All in all, it was a completely different way to spend a Christmas Day, but very, very fun indeed and who knows if we will ever spend another Christmas like that again.