Sphereing Shananigans

After months of planning, it was finally my sister's hen night yesterday. As chief bridesmaid, the onus had been on me to find a fun afternoon activity and evening event for her and her 15 or so best mates to enjoy...no pressure then! A while ago I came across sphereing, aka zorbing, on t'internet and, lacking any other good options, i signed us up for that. Had been feeling pretty nervous, seeing as its a bit of a random thing to do and i didn't know of anyone else who had experienced it, so had no idea if it would be rubbish or not. As it turned out, it was awesome! We went along to the site in Stevenage, in a beautiful location out in the countryside. After getting kitted out in harnesses, we each took turns climbing into the giant inflatable balls and being rolled down a hill, just for the fun of it! You can either do dry or wet sphereing, and the wet one is like being in a washing machine and was definitely my favourite. I'd really recommend it to anyone looking for a fun afternoon activity that's a bit different from a walk in the park. Zorbing is definitely going to be the next big thing...

Glasto Gloaters

Those jammy dodgers at Glastonbury  must have been feeling so smug all weekend, knowing that the usual mud wash out was not on the cards for them this year. I was put off going to Glasto because I just didn't think I could hack the messiness of the mudbath, but now with the amazing weather and the fact that The Metro reported that 1000 spare tickets were being sold for only a tenner, I'm feeling really rather jealous...to say the least.

Taste Of London

A great event is going on in London tomorrow. Taste of London is an anual event, being held this year at Marylebone Green in Regents Park. It brings together a selection of world famous London restaurants in a unique outdoor food and drink festival, showcasing cuisine from some of the country's best chefs. Go along and taste some of the best dishes and most interesting and original food you've ever had. 

Taking A Break

Does anyone mind if I take a break from waxing lyrical on life in London and talk about Greece for a minute? No? Good. Because I just got back from a week of doing absolutely nothing in a beautiful resort in Crete, and it was so much like heaven that i want to talk and talk and talk about it. The aim of the holiday as simple - get a tan.  Shallow i know, but there was a deeper meaning behind it. My sister is getting married in 3 weeks and it's fairly crucial that she is bronzed and beautiful for the big day...as the bridesmaid my tan is less important, but i feel it still warrants close attention. So months and months ago we hatched a plan to book a week's holiday preceding said nuptials, so that we would not have to rely on the British summer to get our skin to the colour it should be (And thank god we did - have you ever seen a more rainy June??). Because we booked so long ago it was cheap as, and all we did was wake up, lie by pool, eat yummy food, lie by pool, go to bed. Like I said, heaven.

Oh, and it sucks to be home.

Red Sky At Night

Just wanted to bring to your attention Shepherd's Market - a great part of London that until last night I hadnt really given the attention it deserved.  What's great is that it's got lots to offer and it really isn't as expensive as you'd think, in fact you can get quality deals at restaurants where starter and main course will only cost you £8.50. The pubs are really buzzing round this area so it's a great place for going out and meeting a new certain someone...  

Flug what now?

Just wanted to draw everyone's attention to Flugtag - it's the second annual Red Bull sponsored event that takes place next Saturday 7th in Hyde Park. It's an event where crazy showmen and Jackass wannabes have made their own man-powered flying machines, and they compete to find the best one by flying them off a 6m high ramp.  It will take place throughout the whole afternoon, and although all tickets have been allocated, it doesn't take a genius to realise that even if you are just near the Hyde Park area, all you have to do is, er, look up and you'll be able to enjoy the spectacular as much as anyone. It's definitely one of the more unusual things that goes on in this town, but then that's the beauty of London - there's always some crazy new event or activity to go along to and be entertained...

...things took a turn for the worse...

I had arranged to go and meet my friend Tash outside the cinema 10 minutes before the 7.30 start because I had to give her her ticket that I'd pre-booked on my card. By half past she still wasn't there and I couldn't call for an update because she'd left her phone at home.  I started to get a bit anxious when my friend in the cinema texted to say the trailers had started, and when she still wasn't there 10 minutes later I was really getting annoyed. You must understand, I'm not a horrible person or anything, but when you've been waiting to see a film for about 6 months, it's kind of annoying to miss the start. I went back in to check the progress of the film, and to my horror saw that opening credits had been and gone and the film was well under way. I ran back, ditched the ticket with the cinema attendee and prayed that Tash would be smart enough to work out what I'd done with it...if she ever arrived. She DID finally arrive, and we all enjoyed the film together...I won't go into details for those unfortunate souls who haven't seen it yet, but it didn't disappoint, which was impressive considering all the hype.  It wasn't an incredible film, but then the programme wasn't the best thing on tv either - it was always just a guilty pleasure that made you smile, and that's exactly what the film did for me. I'd really recommend it to everyone (well, ladies only probably), although if you do go, make sure you get your friends to by their own tickets... ;)

Yes it's Ladies Night

I took it upon myself at the beginning of the week to contact all my lady friends (via the medium of facebook obviously, what else...) and start a dialogue about the best day, time and place to go to see the must-awaited Sex And The City.  We've all been talking about it for months and I've said to about five different sets of friends that we'd see it together, so in the end I decided the best thing to do was to combine everyone for a big ladies night.  The date was set for thursday; location: the o2 centre on finchley road.  It was a 7.30 performance but not wanting to take any chances I went there straight from work, had a pre-performance hot chocolate with a friend and then we placed ourselves in the queue for the cinema 40 minutes before start time.  We were pretty happy that there were only a handful of people in front of us, and within a few minutes we were feeling throughly pleased with ourselves when the queue all of a sudden grew to stretch all the way through the lobby and out the door. Wearing smug smiles, we were soon let into the theatre and carefully selected the best seats in the house - not too close to the screen, not too far away. We sat chatting and eagerly anticipating the start of the film. With all the reports about sold out performances and people elbowing and tripping people up to get good seats, we couldn't believe how lucky we'd been.  But then things took a turn for the worse...