back in London for the finale,

And so, I arrived back in London, for the finale. I got a little bit of a hard time at customs, as the guy saw I only had less than a month left on my visa, basically told me I would struggle to get back into the UK after my visa expired, even if I had an onward ticket, as just because people have onward tickets, doesn't mean they will use them.

Anyhow, any negative feelings were quickly forgotten several minutes later when I got outside the arrivals gate and was met by my totally awesome girlfriend Adessa, whom I had missed like crazy.

The following 3 weeks were a series of small adventures and hanging out. The first weekend back we went to Canary wharf with Merinda to see the Ice carving festival (below) and followed that up with dinner at Jamie's Italian (as in Jamie Oliver) - which ticked off another London must do - go to a famous chef's restaurant (eg Jamie Oliver or Gordon Ramsay).Adessa & I also ticked another thing off - Going to a filming of a TV show - 2 in fact. The first was a children's show called 'Dick & Dom' which was kind of funny, filmed in a small studio on the outskirts in a place called Teddington. The other show was about Favourite books of famous people, which was to be shown during book week. The host was the lady who also does 'The Weakest Link' and 'Rogue Traders' (like NZ's 'Fair Go') in the UK, So I was expecting her to be a total grouch, however, she even had a bit of a chat to us, the audience beforehand, and gave us a background, such as this was episode 6 of 10, rather than doing what she could of, and been posh and not talked to the plebs.
In the second week back I went to the Brixton Academy and saw the Manic Street Preachers - which was good - I didn't really know many of their songs, only the one "If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next" - so was surprised to see how different their other songs were - i.e. that song made me think they were like a sad REM, but they actually were more like a band like Petra (80's rock ballad-style, although not actually an 80's band).


The following week I joined my Aussie friends on an excursion out on the town in Clapham for Australia Day. That Saturday night Adessa and I went along to a meetup - someone's Chewing gum art project - basically we got free gum, and just had to chew it, and put it on a board. Later the artist would paint on it I think.


Another major event was the Waitangi pub crawl. My mate Scott who had gone to Kuwait to teach had come back for a fortnight, so he was there also. It was nice spending the day with my 'crew'.

The next day was Adessa's and my 3 month anniversary, as well as being Chinese New Year, so we went into Chinatown and checked it out, and naturally had some Chinese food - which was nice, and authentic - not the budget generic stuff.

Unfortunately, the following Friday I had to board a plane and conclude my London adventure. But the adventure continues... and I will be back...