Jul 2008 b

Wed 16 Jul 2008
Tonight we enjoyed a small dinner party. We were: Steve + Jen, Soph, Kev and Bonnie. Kev is a friend we've known for 15 years, and has very recently moved to London with his band 'Lord Byron' hoping to build a fan base over here. Bonnie is an ex-work mate (of Jen's) from Brisbane who has been living in London for about a year.

Above: Steve, Kev and Soph enjoy some mild weather in the garden.
Below: Bonnie and Jen



Thu 17 Jul 2008
Tonight Mistress Rowan and Jeremy arrived; they stayed with us for the next week.

Fri 18 Jul 2008
Jen does last minute prep for a basic costuming class she is to run tomorrow at the local Revel.

Sat 19 Jul 2008
This morning we all set off to the Museum of London for a specially arranged behind-the-scenes white glove tour, hosted by Fashion curator Hillary (an Aussie, from Rowany). How amazing! Here we all are, before the frenzy of "ooohs and ahhs".

Then, one after another, ancient items of treasured clothing and accessories were revealed.


Above: look at the glee on Elaine's face (far left) - costuming laurel heaven! Elaine, Edith, Constanza and Geneveive are looking at tudor flat caps. Because several of the items we saw today have never been published, everyone with cameras had to sign to say our photos of the items will be only for private research and will not be passed on to anyone else. So you will all just have to use your imaginations. Suffice to say, it was a very exciting trip.

This evening Soph went and saw 'Lord Byron' perform on stage. Steve, Jen and Rowan went to the local Revel. Rowan did a fab job of inspiring the Thamesreach crowd in how to go about making medieval clothes, and very cleverly filled in the gaps in Jen's rushed handout notes. Jeremy caught up with Kiriel who was also in town.

Sun 20 Jul 2008
This morning Steve took Soph to IKEA to get a proper bed and bedding of her choice. Here she is saying "yes I'm excited about the bed" and get the camera out of my face already :-)



Mon 21 Jul 2008
Today Soph started working at Steve's workplace (school). She will have 1 month of work to do, helping the preparation work for the new 6th form build.
Tonight Steve and Jen went to shire meeting, as usual in 'Ye Olde Watling' pub in town.

Thu 24 Jul 2008
Today Steve booked his flight to Australia. His mother will be turning 80 in August, and Steve will be visiting for 6 days. Unfortunately we can't stretch the budget to both go.

Fri 25 Jul 2008
Kev came around and took Soph out for a night on the town.

Here they are pulling a silly pose for the camera (Kev putting on his best 'rocker' face).

Sat 26 Jul 2008
Today Jen worked as a photographer on a "show home cruise" showing potential customers up to 9 show homes / apartments. After work, Steve and Jen went to Dan and Elizabeth's place to catch up for a couple of hours with their guests from Lochac, Sebastian and Jo. Great fun to catch up with them again! Afterwards, we swung past home and picked up Kev and Soph to go see the latest Batman film.

Sun 27 Jul 2008
Kev stayed over for the weekend, in part to escape his band members who he's been sharing house with, and also to hang and chill out with us.
Breakfast was good but morning tea's summer fruits plus ice cream was to die for....

Below: Cooks playing around in the kitchen


Above: YUM! Summer fruits pasties.

Wed 30 Jul 2008
At last, the cheque arrived in the mail. Our ex-landlord has finally returned our bond rental deposit money plus the court fees we paid to make him return our money. Excellent.

Fri 01 Aug 2008
Tonight, after a hard and long week of work, Soph and Jen took to an east London "pub, turned into live music venue" where we caught up with Hannah, one of Jen's work mates.

Below: there was a pair of professional dancers dancing constantly up on either end of the bar.


The evening had the theme "dress to express" ie to express yourself. There were some pretty interesting revellers! For example, a guy with a spiky punk hair-do in a cow suit! The host for the evening had little mirror bits glued to his head so his head looked just like a mirror ball. All good fun, and a very friendly atmosphere, where you felt like you were at a party but just didn't know anyone.
Steve came and picked us up once we'd had enough dancing. What a sweetie.