Steve n Jen's UK adventures

UK and European adventures. Read on my pretties, and discover what two stray Aussies can get up to on their travels.......

21 July 2009

Jul 2009 a

Sun 28 Jun 2009
Last night was just like a tropical storm with loads of lightning - but in London? Unheard of!

Today Steve and Jen do a walking tour - City guilds and livery companies. In the space of two hours, moseying along, we gawked at the outside of these guild halls: the wax chandlers, haberdashers, pewterers, insurance brokers, brewers, armourers and braziers, chartered accountants, drapers, merchant taylors, grocers, mercers, and the goldsmiths. We saw loads of fancy doorways! Here are just a few:

Above: Insurance brokers.
Below: armourers-brazier livery company hall


Above: Drapers
Below: a nice view of the Gherkin


Above: Twelve light posts in front of the Royal Exchange at Bank. These were gifted by the top twelve livery companies (in Order of Precedence, or OP).
Below: Mercers (they're number 1 in the OP) The outlines of the stained glass which is a feature in their upstairs Hall, is just visible to passers-by.


Above: a nice touch of sculpture at Honey Lane.
Below: Goldsmiths Hall.


Above: Pianos are popping up in odd places, like here in Paternoster Square, being gleefully played by an elderly gent.
Below: Such a sunny summery day, and here are Londoners and tourists enjoying the sunshine in front of St Pauls Cathedral.

Below: At St Pauls tube station, there's this little plaque on the wall:



Above: After the walk Jen had enough energy to start painting the loft's brickwork white.


Mon 29 Jun 2009
Back to work....

Tue 30 Ju 2009
Remember that purpoint for Steve that Jen was working on months and months ago? She's back on to actually trying to get it done.

Above: Some more cloth-covered (hand sewn) buttons have been laboriously hand sewn on to one of the sleeves.

Fri 03 Jul 2009
Jen's workplace had a special day out of the office - litter picking, painting, gardening and so on, of residents' homes. The company is mainly a landlord. Afterward, workmates relaxed in a local pub.

Above: Is Jen actually drunk on orange juice?

Sat 04 Jul 2009
This morning we picked up a rental Ford Transit van and helped Jenny and Nick move out and into their respective new homes. They've both moved to within the same neighbourhood. It was a really warm day and after a sterling effort, Jenny and Elizabeth can be seen here relaxing in front of the Wimbledon tournament in the late afternoon.


Meanwhile, in Australia, our good friends Stanzi and Gabs were crowned! Way to go!



Sat 11 Jul 2009
Wedding celebration of Matt and Helen (Matt is Manfred's brother). They were actually wed a few months ago in Australia but decided also to have this funky masquerade party to celebrate with their UK friends.



Sun 12 Jul 2009
Left the luxury of our B&B (which had very cute, but completely feral, kittens) and headed back to London. Jen gets energetic and finishes painting the loft's brick walls.



Mon 13 Jul 2009
We both have very sore throats!

Thu 16 Jul 2009
Celemon visits from Finland and stays overnight. Steve cooks up a tasty dinner and gets out the whiskey to relax the evening away with our guest. Jen unfortunately not feeling at all well this evening.

Fri 17 Jul
Celemon leaves early in the morning. Jen stays home from work, sick. Discovers to great annoyance that the local GP surgery last year have deregistered her without informing her. Made an appointment for getting re-registered - appointment is 29th July. What rubbish service! And, no it's not swine flu since neither of us has any aches or flu-like symptoms.

Sat 18 Jul
Jen stays home, while Steve last night drove with Edith up to Norwich and together they cooked for the SCA medieval event. The food was very well received and much fun was had! It was also announced that the SCA region of UK plus Iceland (called Insulae Draconis) will become a full principality in February.

Sun 19 Jul
Jen feeling better having rested up. Steve comes home and we went and saw the latest Harry Potter film (half blood prince). A little disappointing in that it is a 'bridging' film between other films, rather than terribly interesting unto itself.