Wednesday, August 30, 2006

bonding!

We visited the Four Lanterns Greek restaurant to farewell Rosemary tonight - she's been here for her summer visit and is now off to Turkey for three weeks en route back to New Zealand for her tenth summer in a row!

From left is Charlotte, Rosemary, Nicki, Annie, me, Alex, Colin and Simon - photo taken on Simon's fancy new Cyber Shot phone!

Sunday, August 27, 2006

reflective!


Leeds Castle
Originally uploaded by MhairiT.
Went on a day trip to Leeds Castle, down in Kent, today. Castle itself wasn't anything special but the setting was lovely - green grounds (they'd been using the water from the moat for irrigation rather than flouting the housepipe ban) and gardens. There was even a falconry display which was fascinating! The Castle also houses an aviary which has lots of exotic birds including toucans and a disgruntled looking kea (no windscreen wipers for it to tear into!).

Thursday, August 24, 2006

scenic!

My first blogged YouTube video! This is a short panorama I took of the Alhambra earlier this year.

groovy!

groovy!/b>

For those of you who haven't seen this, this is a video from a group called OKgo! Great dancing!

awesome!

awesome!

This video shows a guy solving a Rubik's Cube one-handed in 20 seconds -amazing!

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

familiar!

Went to see 'The Vegemite Tales' on Monday night - it's a play about a group of Australian flatmates living in London. It's been playing for a couple of years in fringe theatre in Hammersmith but has transferred to the West End for a short time. It was all very familiar and well observed, including the set design (including a travel library, photos all over the walls and fairy lights) and the jobs the flatmates were in. There were some bits that were a bit crude and childish but there were also some scenes that were very affecting - I think the whole audience had all had the "I want my Mum!" moment.

Sunday, August 20, 2006

rockin'!


Radiohead
Originally uploaded by MhairiT.
This is a not very good photo of Radiohead last night at the V Festival - hopefully soon I'll be able to post some much better ones from Simon's camera (this one was taken on my phone).

Had a brilliant day yesterday at V in Chelmsford - highlight was definitely Radiohead, but also enjoyed Bloc Party, the Magic Numbers and Beck. Beck had some marionettes of the band on stage with him that were very amusing and well done. He last played at V97 nine years ago which was the last time I went to the festival, with Simon. Radiohead played some new material but also a lot of the old favourites as wel, including, unusually, Creep.
We even went to see Kula Shaker for old time's sake.

Site was kind of muddy, especially the walk up to the entrance from the buses. None of us had gumboots on but loads of people did - very colourful pairs as well.

Travel home was tiring but surprisingly efficient (apart from getting back to Liverpool St when the tube had stopped and no cabs in sight). We had some very drunken Essex teens on the train with us which was particularly delightful.

Sunday, August 13, 2006

entertained!

Visited two new venues at the weekend - on Friday night visited the Dean Swift near Butler's Wharf for my colleague Owen's farewell drinks. He's off to India for a couple of months to work with our Indian counterparts (India is a big priority for EY at the moment not surprisingly). The Dean Swift was a good pub - it even had Bundaberg rum, probably courtesy of the Australian bar staff! And on Saturday Li-Ann and I went for lunch at Canteen in Spitalfields - a modern British version of Wagamama, real comfort eating food with benches. Had a really nice pie and then some chocolate brownie sundae - yummo! Paid a visit to Montezuma's chcocolate shop afterwards - some lovely chocolate combinations!

Thursday, August 10, 2006

connected!

Wow, Skype is absolutely fantastic! Have downloaded the Skype Video Beta for Macs successfully (its not supported with any instructions at the moment as it's still a trial version) and have just had a wonderful video conference with Mum and Dad. Brilliant quality and a wonderful way to communicate. Got to show Mum and Dad what the skylight in my room looks like!

Saturday, August 05, 2006

picnic in the box


picnic in the box
Originally uploaded by MhairiT.
Kt and I went along to the Serpentine Gallery's Open Air Film night tonight - they were showing Performance (which was quite strange, but meditative in tone).

We ordered a Carluccio's hamper to eat with our meal - it arrived in a huge box (Kt had to get a cab to transport it!)

picnic out of the box!


picnic out of the box!
Originally uploaded by MhairiT.
even better! The picnic contained different salads, bread, chicken and jelly, not to mention a bottle of wine. Fantastic value and too much for us to eat!

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

champion!

Last night, I was part of a winning quiz team for the second time in a month! We had a CBK Quiz night at a local pub and my team (Quiz Team Aguilera) was the winner by a fabulous ten points. It was a very enjoyable evening. Can't say I had any input into the sports round though. We won a lunch together at a local restaurant.