London Bridge Olympic Rings

I've had to stay at home this week with an injury, So I haven't actually seen these for myself. But huge Olympic Rings have been put up on Tower Bridge to mark one month until the London Olympic Games begin. 

http://www.itn.co.uk/home/48763/Olympic+rings+on+London27s+Tower+Bridge

I think they look really good.. but then they mention the price.. £300,000! 

Good investment? 

Bird Cage hat anyone?

The Royal Ascot yearly race meeting is on at the moment. Horse Racing is not something I usually take much notice of. However, The Royal Ascot has been on the news a bit recently, because they have changed the dress code slighty, (I think) to make the Royal Enclosure a bit less 'common'. They've banned fascinators and strapless dresses among other things.

However in the Grandstand, where the commoners are allowed to be, they still allow all hats and fascinators, and when I was reading The Independent online earlier, I came across..THIS...

From: 

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/grace-dent-its-class-war-at-ascot--so-give-me-aintrees-finest-fillies-and-their-38-fascinators-any-day-7866521.html?action=gallery&ino=1

I thought I would share

The only thing that springs to mind is Lady Gaga...

Our vehicle

Hi there, Clem here.

I thought I would quickly post about the car that Rox and I will be using in order to do the knowledge.

We put a lot of thought into what to buy, and did consider a pair of mopeds as this appears to be considered the right way to do things. However, we live over 30 miles away from central London, and so a little scooter starts to become unappealing when you realise that you will have to travel for well over an hour on it before you even reach the start point of your first run - add to this the famous British weather and the potential for a very cold winter, and you end up with the realisation that you need to find something else. We settled on this:

Tah-daaaah!

It's our new Smart Fortwo cdi.

Room enough for two inside, and exceptionally practical. Our one comes with a panoramic sunroof (which will be a tremendous advantage in a car with already good visibility, hopefully most useful in learning landmarks and not missing street names, etc.), Sat-Nav (to be quickly ignored whilst learning, but handy to have for other uses), and a 800cc diesel engine (which is the best part - delivering 82mpg in town, and allowing the car to be exempt from both road tax and congestion charge).

To drive, the Smart is quite fun. Very nippy due to weighing almost nothing, and can turn on a sixpence. Quite easy to park too, though it doesn't feature power steering.

We look forward to learning in this, and now the journey up to London won't be a damp nightmare before we even arrive.

Fossil Fish for sale in London

Christie's is an Auction House in South Kensington, London which sells all sorts of collectables, antiques, art, wine, furniture etc. I've never actually been (I doubt I will ever have enough money even if I wanted to). But I do occassionally look online at the crazier things they sell. I mean even if you have too much money to spend, would you buy a 17th Century Elephant bird egg? I mean what would you even do with it?

Here's a few of my favourite recent sales..

Fossil Fish for £3,750 - it doesn't even look nice.

They also sold a taxidermy Flamingo for £7,250

A pre-17th century Elephant bird egg for £12,500

A pair of curved Mammoth tusks for £15,000. 

A specimen of petrified wood from the Lower Triassic for £1,250.
(I don't even know what it is)

Childhood Naivety and the sick Doctor

As I might have mentioned in a previous post, I was due to see the GP this morning, and thought that it would be a good chance to do something productive and hand in my Health Form at reception and start the long winded process of getting the examination done. We aren't normally around the area when the practise is open because we work quite far away so this was a good opportunity I thought.

Anyway, obviously it didn't go to plan as usual and I received a voicemail at 9am this morning (20 minutes before the appointment) saying that the GP has called in sick today. So I rearranged for next week as it was nothing that can't wait and headed off to work, where I arrived 3 and half hours late. They knew I was going to be late, it can't be helped, everything is good, everyone's happy.

But.. Although this was what happened in reality. I was surprised by own reaction to the news that the GP was sick. In fact I'm still not quite over it.

 THE DOCTOR HAS CALLED IN SICK!!?? WHAT IS GOING ON!? HOW CAN A DOCTOR BE OFF SICK!? SHE'S THE DOCTOR, THEY DONT GET ILL, THEY MAKE YOU BETTER! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT, MY DOCTOR IS... SICK! WHAT IS THIS WORLD COMING TO WHEN THE DOCTOR IS SICK? WAIT UNTIL I TELL EVERYONE ABOUT THIS HAPPENING!! I WILL HAVE TO SAVE THE VOICEMAIL, OTHERWISE NO ONE WILL BELIEVE ME!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not being completely naive, and I wasn't annoyed about losing the appointment or the waste of morning. The sensible part of me was thinking, Of course any person can get sick. Maybe a Doctor has more opportunities to catch horrible contagious illnesses off of snotty, rashy, pukey people. They're still human, with the same problems as the rest of us.

But, every now and then, the "Wow, the Doctor is sick" thought would come back. Which I could override with the sensible explaination. No one else seemed to be as surprised as I was about this, a few people even said "oh yeah that happened to me a while ago" like it was nothing unusual.

It was like fighting the truths of childhood naivety all over again at the age of 24. When things you thought could never happen, happend, or nice things you believed suddenly become not so nice. Of course as a child these include everything from death and illness to Santa and Tooth Fairies etc. But has anyone else had this again as an adult? Maybe it's just me...

Roxie

Aladdins Cave. Lewisham, London

So we were leaving London Sunday afternoon because I was working in the morning, and accidentally we went via Lewisham because of the amount of roadworks and traffic on our usual route home. This is when we passed this interesting place...Aladdins Cave Lewisham...

There was a young couple walking down the road, carrying an extra large Starbucks sign, presumingly from this shop which was quite a sight. This and the interesting, antique looking furniture, mannequins, and a large model camel outside, we decided to make a stop and have a look. we can't resist having a nosey in these kind of shops. There's a couple of shops in Crystal Palace, South London that look a bit like this, and we can spend ages looking around them. But we found this shop was different..

I've been wanting a mannequin in our flat for ages, but it's proving difficult to convince Clemmy that it's a good idea. Something about you will wake up in the middle of the night with one at the foot of your bed looking at you, or when you're looking into the bathroom mirror brushing your teeth and seeing one behind you.

There was a LOT of chairs. We weren't even sure how you choose and buy them..

Or how about some outside chairs....?

Outside they had a lot garden furniture that looked like it was from pub gardens, a pile of radiators, lots of catering equipment, sinks, toilets, fireplaces. I don't know how much damage can be done with it all sitting outside, but I guess that's the only place to keep it.

Then there was the more grand looking things inside..

I wish I had a use for a traffic light, I really do...

  

 

There was much more items then what I have mentioned here.

If you are ever passing through Lewisham or live nearby I would recommend giving this place a visit. You probably won't buy anything (well you never know, you might find something you never knew you wanted), but it's still worth a visit, or knowing its there if you ever do need to buy an over sized Santa.

We never bought anything in there, and there wasn't prices advertised so I wouldn't be able to comment on how much anything costs. But if I ever do convince Clemmy to let me buy a mannequin and decide to go there I will let you know how pricey or reasonable it is.

...Actually a Mannequin wouldn't fit in a Smart Car without sitting in the passenger seat, and that would be a funny sight!!

Roxie

I need to boil my eyeballs

London World Naked Bike Ride!!

I was at work this morning, and on the way home I looked out of the window near Victoria Coach Station and got the shock of my life... I saw a bunch of FULLY naked cyclist. Well that woke me up.

You will be pleased to know, I didn't even have time to get my phone out to take a photo to share with you. Apparently it's something that happens every year all over the country so watch out there might be a crowd of naked cyclist around a corner near you....

---> http://www.worldnakedbikeride.org/uk/ <---

As a quick note on our progress on The Knowledge application, I am handing my medical form into the GP on Tuesday, where they need to then ring me a few days later with a price (even though I and they already know the price) and then I can book myself in with a specific GP a week or so later. So we're edging closer. Slowly.

Roxie