London still

"You know it's okay

I'm kinda happy here for now

I think I've finally grown up

And got myself a love of now

And if I ever come home

And I, I think I will

I hope you're gonna wanna
Hang at my place on Sunday still

Oh yeah, I hope you will

Cause I'm in London still"

--The Waifs--

Nearly a month has gone by since Dan and I arrived back in London from sunny Barcelona. As we flew through the white cloud back into Gatwick airport, I strangely felt that sense of relaxation that travellers only get when they are returning home. Over the past month as we spent more time in London, it feels more and more like home.

As soon as we arrived back and headed to our friend Bron's place, we threw ourselves straight into finding a place to live. As anyone who has looked for a room in London before knows, this pretty much means you spend hours refreshing the Gumtree and Spareroom websites looking for new rooms listed.

We really liked the South West area of London so decided to look for something nearby. The first house we looked at was definitely memorable. While it was a nice house in a good area, our prospective housemate was a 35 year old South African guy who described his social life as "um, I dunno, I spend a lot of time at home but two nights a week I play in boardgame tournaments". That conversation, combined with the whole wall of shelves full of boardgames made Dan and I unanimously decide that it wasn't the place for us. Apparently we made quite an impression on our prospective housemate though, as when I declined the offer of the room, he kindly invited us over sometime "for some casual boardgames". Needless to say we have not yet taken up that offer.

We were incredibly lucky that on our second day of househunting, we met Richard and Laura and saw what became our flat in South Wimbledon. The moment we walked into the flat and met Laura and Rich, we felt at home. Dan and I both left the flat grinning with our fingers crossed that we would be lucky enough to have the room. Later that night we received a phone call from Laura asking us to move in - which we did on the Saturday morning. So all in all, we were back in London for 4 days before we moved into our own place - which I'm told is quite unheard of. As we listened to Rich's phone keep ringing and ringing over the next two weeks with phone calls from prospective housemates for the flat, we knew how lucky we were.

Flat family photo - Richard, Laura, me and Dan

Our room

Just chilling on the lounge. One of the great things about our flat is that it is so new (almost unheard of in London). It is only a year old, and less than 5 minutes walk to the tube.

The view from our "illegal balcony" over the rooftops towards central London. We technically don't have a door leading out to this area, so we climb through the kitchen window - which should prove interesting in the summer when drinking is also involved

Our first weekend back in London was our friend James' final weekend overseas before returning to Australia after leaving in February 2011. We had a fantastic weekend, going out for thai food and dancing in Putney, followed by lunch by the Thames River in Kingston on a sunny Saturday. Dan and I also went to the Lion King on the Saturday night (thanks Jess, Michelle, Nicole and Emma for getting us the tickets!), which was amazing and a great way to celebrate our first weekend in our new home. We sadly said goodbye to James on Monday as he returned home to Brisbane. But, as he knows, we will keep hassling him until he makes the decision to move over here next year. [I think April sounds like a good time James :-)]

Friday night party crew in Putney - James, Lance, Dan, me, Sammy G and Bron

Enjoying the sun in Kingston

A cute little yorkie terrier I met in Kingston - the first dog I had patted since I left Australia. When her owner sat next to me I said how much I missed my dog, so this little one came over for some pats and attention.

Delicious lunch in Kingston

Supporting Australia while watching the Rugby World Cup at the pub - shirts courtesy of H&M

Our second weekend in the UK was spent travelling to Nottingham, the home of Sherwood Forest and Robin Hood. Deciding to travel in style, we splurged and bought first class rail tickets (which were only a couple of quid more expensive than economy) and enjoyed some extra space during the two hour trip. A highlight of our visit to Nottingham was visiting the oldest inn in England, 'Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem', built on the side of the old castle wall in Nottingham. It was very small and cramped inside, which is not suprising considering it has been around since 1068. We also posed for photos with Robin Hood, played drinking games in our hotel and danced the night away in Oceana club in the middle of town.

Group photo outside the oldest inn in England

Playing around with the Robin Hood statue

During our first couple of weeks in London, we also took a trip to the Tower of London with our friend Herb (aka Jesse), and spent an afternoon wandering around the old buildings and dungeons, and also saw the crown jewels, which are on display under tight security.

Dan and I outside the Tower of London

We spent another Saturday looking around Camden Market in north London - one of the cool things about Camden was these seats we found - it's like a big outdoor eating area with old scooters for seats.

Camden market

After seeing our first foxes roaming the streets in London, Dan and I decided to try some 'squirrel spotting'. We jumped on the tube to St James Park where reliable sources (read: youtube videos) told us there would be a good chance of spotting squirrels. We were really lucky - there were squirrels everywhere scurrying around the trees frantically collecting nuts. They were so eager they actually climbed up our legs to nibble nuts from our hands - the result was the cute photos below.

Beautiful autumn in London parks

After hearing fireworks every night for the three weeks after moving into our house, we were excited to celebrate Bonfire Night last weekend. It's the time of the year when all of London goes firework-crazy, with temporary shops springing up everywhere to sell fireworks. We went to Battersea park to watch the lighting of a massive bonfire (it was about two stories tall) and a fireworks display timed to music which lasted for about 20 minutes. It was probably the best firework display I have seen in my life - I saw types of fireworks I had never seen before. We then ended up back at the Billabong, our local aussie pub in Wimbledon, where we had a bit of a dance for the last hours of the night.

All rugged up at Bonfire night

Our first month in London has been non-stop - between settling into our home, making new friends and seeing new places, the weeks have flown by. I've been lucky enough to find a good job in Victoria, which is only takes me about 40 minutes to get to door-to-door (less than my commute in Australia). The two things that have really helped us settle into our new town are our housemates and our new friends. They have welcomed us in and made us part of their group, so we have some great new friendships. While I miss certain things about Australia, I definitely will be in 'London still' for quite a while.