Work Christmas Party

On Fri the 5th Dec I attended my work Christmas Party. It was held at the Royal Hosptial Gardens in Chelsea where we had a Marquee. The theme was Moulin Rouge and we had a wonderful eve, with a live Band and delicious meal. Attached a few pics of the evenings festivities.

Kings of Leon Concert ....... woo hooo !

I'm so excited I've been struggling to get tickets to go to The Kings of Leon concert next Thurs 11th Dec. The show was sold out ages ago and I've been hunting the web for tickets, but people have been selling them privately at 3x the cost of the original ticket, just way too expensive ! So have been keeping my eye's peeled on certain sites hoping someone will try sell some last min sue to a change of plans......Anyway I went onto a Site Called Gum Tree today which is great for all sorts of things expecially tickets to show's. Someone placed a post on there saying Quick Quick go to the Kings of Leon's Website they have just released some extra tickets ! I jumped onto the site quickly and very pleased that I managed to buy two tickets really cheap. So yay I'm really excited that I'll be able to see them live ! It'll be a great night out.

Brrrrrr.......it's Cold.......

Hi All,

Just wanted to say these last few day's in London have been FREEZING !
Every morning on my way to work I've had to scrape the Ice off my Windsheild and on my way back home as I get to my car have to do the same. Bbbbrrrrrrr Winter is definitely here !

Happy Birthday Johno

This Saturday I'll be joining my friends Kerryn and Johno for a Birthday BBQ !
Yes even though we're due to have snow this weekend and it's going to be around 3 degrees us crazy South Africans.....(well Johno is an Aussie we'll forgive him) will actually be having a BBQ to celebrate Johno's Birthday.
A number of us will be heading down to their house in my Old Neck of the Woods Forest Hill to enjoy some great food and great company. I'll also be taking down my Poker set for some serious gambling.....ha ha.
Anyway will update my blog on Monday with some pics and all the news of the day. See you soon and have a great weekend. x

RIP Reece I will miss you

On Sunday the 16th Novemember my beautiful Reece passed away from old age. I bought him as this gorgis 6 week old puppy 13 years ago. He was the most adorable dog and my most faithful friend. Even as a young pup I rememeber how I took him to the beach for the first time and if anyone approached me he'd stand on guard and bark at them to protect me, he always made sure he was by my side. As he grew older the trips to the beach became so enjoyable and entertaining. Reece was a total water baby, and I could never keep him out of the swimming pool at home ..... so when we went to the beach I always had to laugh as he'd run straight down the ocean bark at the waves for a minute before running full speed into the waves. As the ocean was usually quite rough he'd get dumped by the waves, and then get washed back into shore....He absolutely loved it, I don't know how many times I was worried he'd get washed out and drown, but nope Reece always came swimming back and would get washed up and would just get straight back up, shake off his shiny coat from all the salt water and sand and was ready to go for it again with his tail wagging furiously ! He was such a gentle soul and had the most gentle nature. He would obediently always be at my feet and if I was seated his paw would be placed gently on my lap so he could get some love and affection, but if he had the chance he was so sweet , even in his massive size given the chance if you were seated he'd want to give you a hug. He'd slowly try kreep up on your chest and want to place his head on your chest and rest with you like he did when he was a pup....This obviously got harder as he grew into a full size Lab but that didn't stop him trying to snuggle up to you if he could. He was always just a few feet away and if I ever got up to go anyweher he always followed me and kept near, he was such a beautiful companion and will be very sorely missed. My Family loved him so much and we will all miss him dearly. May he rest in peace. xxx

October Update

Hi Everyone,
I am the worlds worst person at keeping my Blog up to date, and again have to apologies. From today going forward I will make more of an effort in keeping my Blog up to date.Work has been crazy and life so busy.A lot has happened in the last few months.My lovely friends, Sisters Kerryn and Tarryn came back to London after living in Brisbane, Australia for the last three years. It's wonderful to have them back in London again. Kerryn returned with her Australian Boyfriend Johno and don't live very far away from me which is fantastic. It's even better that Johno is an amazing chef in the kitchen and has cooked up many storms which we've thoroughly enjoyed ! Attached is a Picture of myself and Kerryn taken recently at a lovely little pub on the River in Greenwich. We all met one Saturday afternoon for some lunch and a catch up.

During October sadly my lovely friend Leanne Moore left England to live back in Sunny South Africa. Prior to Leanne leaving we had a lovely evening out and a farewell party for her. Us Girls had a day of pampering, by getting our hair done by The Amazing Kingsley, and our nails done by my friend Jamie. Then later in the eve, we all met out at a great bar and restaurant called Las Iguanas for cocktails and snacks. Whilst there we presented Leanne with a beautiful Necklace which we bought her from Tiffany's. She was very touched by our gift, it was called the eternal circle and felt it was a perfect gift for her to represent our circle of friends and how much we love her. A few tears were shed but that didn't stop us from then heading out the door and going to a Night Club called SE1 in London. We partied the night away and had a fantastic time. Soon after Leanne headed to Italy on holiday and on her return we had a lovely dinner together the day before she flewout. She's now back in SA and miss her loads. Our group of friends wont quite be the same without her. Attached are a few photo's of her Farewell party at Las Iguanas.

At the end of October my lovely friends Justin and Kelly and their two children Ty and Eiyla, also left London to live abroad. They initially headed to South Africa for four Months but will finally settle in New Zealand which is where Kelly is originally from. Prior to leaving the UK they had a small Farewell get together at their home in Gallions Reach East London. Many friends arrived, and I got to see some old faces that I've not seen in a very long time. It was wonderful to catch up with old friends but also a sad day to say good bye to Justin, Kelly and the children. Attached are a few pics of us at their home. Mark and Hayley were there too and I got some great photo's of us all together.

October workwise was an incredibly difficult month for me. Due to some serious fraudulent transactions that took place at my Company I was required to urgently work on some database area's. This was needed to assist the company in better monitoring unusual activity in order to recognise fraudulent activity faster, when these transations occur. This involved a lot of work for me and a lot of long hours. It was great work , but extremely mentally draining and was hard I must admit. Thankfully all that work is out the way now as of last week phew....I'm now working on other projects. As a result of this hard work I haven't been able to keep by blog up todate but hope that I can keep on top of it now so once again want to say a BIG SORRY :)

The V Festival

In August I attended the V Festival held at Chelmsford in Essex.

http://www.vfestival.com/

This is an Annual Music Festival that's held in a couple locations in the UK and the best of the best bands come and perform, so you're able to go for a day or stay for the entire weekend and watch a lot of artists perform, and of course have a great party at the same time.

I went with my friends Justin, Carly, Kris and Stacey. We drove up in two vans on the Saturday morning and headed out to Chelmsford fairly early. There was a fair bit of traffic on the way there, but wasn't too bad fortunately. On our way we popped into Asda and got our groceries for our little camping adventure and off we went to the Festival. We stated in the Yellow Camper Camping Site I think it was or maybe it was Red not sure anymore he he..... We had a great spot and a lot of space around us.

We set up camp and once all ready we headed off to the stages and main festival area.

This was a bit further away from the campsites but the weather was wonderful so enjoyed the walk there. There were a number of different stages to chose from so we purchased an Events Itenarary and then selected which stage we wanted to go to and which artist we wanted to see.

There was so much choice that one really was stuck having to choose.

I ended up seeing some fantastic bands and artists such as Lenny Kravitz, Sterophonics, The Verve, Muse, Kings of Leon, The Chemical Brothers, The Script, Amy Winehouse and many more.

We had a fantastic time there. I must admit it's probably the best weekend I've had this year so far. I was with wonderful people and we had such a good laugh together, I enjoyed every minute of it.

Of course the whole Porta loo experience is never one to write home about , but all in all I LOVE IT !

We left late on the Sunday evening and headed back home.

I definitely intend on going back again in 2009, it's now become one of those events that I wont miss if I'm in the UK that's for sure !

Would love to go again with a big group of friends and camp it will be a blast !

Here's a few pics of the fanstastic time we had.

The O2 Wireless Festival Sunday 6th July

Yesterday Sunday the 6th July I went to the O2 Wireless Festival in Hyde Park. The festival has been running all week and I joined my friend Claire to enjoy some of the artists playing.
The weather however was much to be desired. It was so windy and kept raining on and off.
We arrived there at about 2.30pm, Claire and I headed to a lovely beer garden at first, ordered some food a lovely big jug of Moscow Mule.
We sipped on our lovely cocktails whilst the sun popped out a couple times and enjoyed chatting and catching up, although we were blown away on a few occasions.There was loads of entertainment and activities on yesterday , a number of different marquee’s , bars , food stands and various companies selling goods. There was even a tent doing Rock-a-okee which was very funny, you could go and sing a karaoke song but with a live rock band playing behind you ! It was very funny to watch and amazing at how well a lot of people sang.
Claire and I headed to the main stage arena and then watched The Goo Goo dolls, after that the Australian band Powder Finger came on, We also nipped away to a Marquee for cover from the rain and watched a Band called The Delays but I had never heard of them before, they weren’t too bad. Later on we were then joined by Joris and his two friends (oops can’t recall their names I have a memory like a fish when it comes to names !) The five of us then enjoyed more drinks and watched Ben Harper play on the main stage. At this point I think we were rained on a few times and I had to get out my sexy blue poncho !
During Ben’s performance I had a call and turned out that a friend of mine Justin and some of his friends were also at The Festival, and were really close by to where we were standing.So Justin and Djuri came over to say hi. As the evening progressed Claire, Joris and I headed over to Justin and his friends and we hung out together to watch The Counting Crows play.We were standing next to a cordoned off area where staff were working , doing lighting and sound etc….however there were some private porta loo’s for the staff. This area was being covered by three security staff. At a certain point in the evening I was busting for the loo as you do when you’re drinking all day and the thought of walking really far to go to the loo’s on the other side of the park becomes a very painful mission….
So it was really quite funny, Djuri and I were standing together and he was watching security and there was a brief moment where they all had their backs to us, so I jumped over the fence and used the private loo’s !
I was thinking ok when I come out they’re going to catch me….but I snuck out jumped back over the fence again and none of the security saw me ! Bonus :) I was so lucky and all my friends were laughing waiting for me to be taken away by security on my way out. Naughty Naughty :)
Anyway so I started something and a couple guys not from our group tried their luck and they all got caught and were whisked away by security !he he…. So I was rather lucky, soon after they placed a security Guard at the Loo's to stop us naughty folk from using them.

All is all the show was really great and I had a good laugh with my friends for the day.
Got in at a reasonable time last night and did have a mini hangover this morning but it wasn’t too bad. It was a fun day out.

Jack Johnson Concert - Hyde Park

On Wed the 3rd July I took a half day off work so that I could meet up with my lovely friends and go watch Jack Johnson in concert. I headed to Hyde park and got there about 1.30pm, the gates opened at 2pm and the show started at 4pm. I met my friends Claire, Michael, Guilia, Chris and Leanne. As we got there early we were right at the front of the que, so after getting through security we made our way to the front of the stage and found ourselves a great spot where we had to basically sit and wait in great anticipation for the show to start. On the way in I bought a couple Poncho's because the weather wasn't looking great and it turned out to be a good buy ! After about an hour the rain came down luckily it wasn't too heavy and lasted a short period of time, we also had
Claire's big green umbrella which we hid under. The skies were the typical lovely grey however by about 7pm the skies cleared and we were so pleased that the Sun came out for us. At 4pm the show started and we were entertained by Mason Jennings who I personally didn't like too much, Then G
Love and Special Sauce came on and they were really great ! They have a very Southern Funky Jazz sound but very upbeat, I had never heard of them before but loved them and definitely going to look up their music. We then listened to Ben Harper who too plays a Guitar like Jack Johnson and has a very distinctive voice. He was very good I liked him too. Then the main act came on around 8pm , Jack was dressed in a casual T-shirt and jeans and of course looked goooood ! The man is very easy on the eyes I must admit...ha ha :) Anyway Jack Johnson played many fantastic songs from his various albums and played till about 10pm. He was joined by the various different acts that had played before him and was also joined by Jimmy Buffet to play a song which I thought was great. Jimmy Buffet I know from when I lived in the Caribbean and he is very well known in the US for songs about Pirates, Island life etc.... He's very well known for a song called Margarita-Vile so it was quite a nice treat. Hyde park was completely jam packed and being at the front of the stage had it’s uncomfortable moments and entertaining moments….. Heading to the wonderful porter loo’s and back was a mini adventure. Luckily we had this extremely tall man next to us wearing a hat and he became our Land Mark so to speak, he towered over everyone so it was great that we had him next to us otherwise we’d have really struggled to find our friends each time we had to leave. The show all in all was fantastic we danced , laughed and really enjoyed ourselves. Chris took loads of wonderful photo's on his camera which I'm dying to see and will hopefully have them tomorrow so I can upload them for you. In the meantime I've attached a couple shots taken with my mobile phone.

House on Fire....

On Tues eve (01/07/08) I was at home getting ready for bed it was about 10pm and I heard a bit of commotion coming from outside.....I just assumed it was possible road rage as unfortunately I live on the A205 South Circular and it's a very busy road 24 hours a day. I do have double glazing and you don't hear the traffic much but I could hear people shouting and then some car hooters going. I walked into my living room and could see this orange light coming through the frosted windows, I jumped up to see out the window and was totally shocked to see huge flames across the road.
I dashed outside in a hurry and luckily could hear sirens approaching ! The house across the road was up in flames, and I was just so worried if there was anybody inside. The Fire truck arrived so quickly and started hosing down the home which was engulfed in flames.
Amazingly the fire was put out very quickly and the Fireman and got a ladder to enter the building through the upstairs window. Soon afterwards a Fireman came out holding a Black Cat which they handed to this lady outside and another Fireman came out with a little staffiture bull terrier who was so pleased to see the Gentleman outside in the road, So thankfully it seemed that the owners managed to get out the house without harm. I took a few photo's but they weren't very clear and will upload them when I can. But was just grateful it was a happy ending to an incident that could have been tragic. The emergency services were there within minutes and I was very impressed at how fantastic they were. So here's to the wonderful Fireman we have working in London !!

Emelie's Birthday Sat 28th June 2008

On Saturday 28th June I went into Piccadilly to join Emelie for her Birthday Celebration drinks.
I headed over to Tiger Tiger where I met Emelie & a number of her friends. I arrived around 8.30pm and it was surprisingly busy, I had never been to the Bar section of Tiger Tiger only the restaurant section and was surprised at how many people were already there to enjoy the evening and party away.
I arrived and met many of Emelie’s friends and had a great time. We moved from our area at the Blue Bar to a private area downstairs which played many old songs and a lot of old disco.
So after a few drinks which included a number of shots…..we were up dancing and having a great time.
You’ll see a few very funny pics of us doing “YMCA” which the DJ played and we had a good giggle….
Later on in the eve we headed back upstairs to the main dance floor where we stayed dancing until early hours of the morning.
It was a fantastic evening and I had a wonderful time with Em and her friends.