September 2007

September was a more pleasant month than the last, partly attributed to my further adjustment to life in Sweden, although, most likely the result of another trip to London!

Without a doubt this trip was the highlight of our summer, and a heavy reminder that living in Europe has very big perks!!! The weather was mostly gloriously dry and sunny for London at that time of year... however, occasionally those nasty grey clouds would come out in an attempt to thrawth my plans of ensuring Hakan fell as deeply and as madly in love with London as I am! The weather was playing a leading role in my desperate attempt to ensure this, in the hope that Hakan would whisk me off away from the evils of viking ancestory, pickled herring and foreign languages to bask in the land of warm beer and mushy peas.

Whilst i sit here writing from Sweden some almost 3 months later we can all safely assume that while yes, Hakan most definatly has a love for London, no there will be no wisking, and no basking - and well, there never would have been any consuming of mushy peas! (and in all honesty I am actually ok with that!)

Our trip to London was one of the most pleasant and EASY weeks we've had since living in the Northern Hemisphere together! I say easy and i mean of the carefree variety - anyone with visions of redlights and Kings Cross need read no further!

While this point may not be solely connected to London, I will however repeat myself - It is a luxury to be able to order food and have complete faith in knowing what you will recieve. and it is a luxury to be able to converse with strangers - trust me stranger danger need not always apply! Now I dont mean to sound like i'm galloping away on my hobby horse, however, I mostly write this mostly to ensure that, I, myself, will always appreciate how wonderful living in an english speaking country can be (when I have that opportunity again) and to never take this for granted.

So as usual I digress - Back to the details of London. I am as I have said before - in love with London. It would seem as though she (my london is always a she!) has grown up a little since i called her home. She takes much better care of herself these days (which i believe is due to the presence of recent Lord Mayors of London and the impending 2012 Olympics). She carrys a newfound sense of modern elegance and perhaps a little wisdom which she displays in the least likely of places. I speak not of the cobble stones and wealth of SW1 but of the inner east around Shoreditch, Hackney, Islington and Stepney Green - and I am certain that the renovation and innovation extendeds far past my visible eye! I felt a mixture of admiration for the new grown up version of my beloved east end, and sense of loss for the inner east I remember, loved and called home. The place that still exists in my memories and of course on Eastenders, but it would appear not in real life!

I am not sure quite how this new grown up version of inner city London has been achieved, as I doubt that addiction, crime or poverty have disappeared, and I wonder if the current and former mayors has simply done a little reshuffling of the masses, in the same way that Sydney moved their poorest and most disadvantaged away from Redfern (i.e. sight) prior to the 2000 Olympics??

Again I digress, without sharing any details of our actual trip. So, as quick as I can.... We arrived on Friday and took our bags to our gracious hosts (Laura) home and managed to find her flatmates home watching the cricket and drinking Fosters - HOW AUSTRALIAN IS THAT!!! so we joined in and they spent quite some time not only patiently teaching Håkan the rules and aims of cricket, but also explaining the difference beetween 20/20 matches and test cricket!!
A little later and we were in Waterloo to meet Lib, Laura and Kell!! Laura and Håkan had box seats at Festival Hall to see Brian Wilson - the lucky buggars.
Seeing as it was a very mild september night, Lib Kell and I got a table outside at The Waterloo Firestation (for old times sakes - I used to meet Jess, Nickers and Scotty there as it was half way to our houses!!) It was a wonderful night, and it honestly felt like it was after work drinks on a friday for me...
Saturday we of course went to Camden, often we left Håkan to the vintage shopping while we went and had Mojito's and tapas :D
The Swede loves his vintage shopping as we all know, however, we were devestated (or perhaps financially relieved) to find the vintage stores by the arches have shut for what we thought was renovation - however it seems for good!!!
www.camdenlock.net/fashion/vintage.html


Lib cooked us all a great dinner and of course spoilt us rotten as only Lib can do.
Sunday we had a lazy brunch at Providores followed by Regent's Park, Spitalfield Markets (also being partly renovated) and a drink with Fran and Steve (fantastic to see them!!!) before we headed to Southbank again for The Coin Street Festival and fireworks.
www.visitspitalfields.com/osm.html




Monday we did a red bus tour - which I am so glad we did, for there is so much of London's history I had forgoten (and well have forgotten most of it again!) and because it felt so wonderful to look at London through tourist eyes again, rather than as a local or ex-local rushing to work or dinner or wherever.

Ok there was a lot of other things, such as a lomography exhibition, tate modern, harrods etc etc but I will leave it there as I have babbled on for more than long enough and I havent even mentioned that September also say Hakan's bday - which he happily got a cigar box guitar for (earlier in sept) and he also did a little bit of busking with Johannes during september. There is some great money to be made in busking let me tell you!!!
Oh and I got a job!! But I will elaborate on that in October's blog!!!


oh yeah... and Håkan and I got asked to pose for a photo for fashion/media students doing an assignment of Fashions of London!!!