Category Archives: Events

Paul and Kelly’s Wedding

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On to the show!

Paul and Kelly’s wedding reception was held at Addington Palace near Croydon in Surrey. It was an absolutely luscious venue. The Palace is an 18th century mansion set on some beautiful grounds and a lovely golf course annexed to the place. Although used mainly for weddings it is also apparently becoming popular for film, video and television recording ranging from, according to their website, music videos for Girls Aloud to historical dramas. Even The Bill apparently comes and shoots there regularly.

In any case I must admit to being very impressed upon entering the Palace. Unlike other venues which may sometimes cater for more than the one wedding in a day Addington Palace only caters for one wedding a day so that meant that Paul and Kelly had the run of the place. This included the Great Hall (where the dancefloor was located and gorgeous with the impressive giant chandelier), a Library and Lecture room, the room which had the bar, plus about three or four other rooms. It was a massive venue and quite often finding people, if they weren’t in the bar where most people ended up thanks for the free bar, meant searching three or four rooms!

The reception really was just a giant party and it kind of operated on that basis as well. There wasn’t a sort of welcome to formally start the evening – probably due to the fact that people were arriving at all sorts of time. Still, it wasn’t until about an hour into the reception that I saw Paul and probably another half hour after that until I saw Kelly. Kelly’s dress, by the way, was exquisite!

The event officially started at 7.30pm and at around 9pm people started congregating in the Great Hall for the cake cutting and bouquet throwing. This was the first time I saw Paul and Kelly together and weren’t they just so sweet. Even sweeter when they came back about 15 minutes later to dance their first dance.

Although the work people didn’t outnumber the rest of the guests at the wedding we certainly formed a large part of it (with probably around 30 people from work at least in attendance.) We were joking that it was almost like another day at work! At the very least this meant there were plenty of people to talk about but sadly not too many people were willing to brave the dancefloor and it wasn’t until very late in the evening, when everyone was well and truly sloshed, that we could get a few more people out there. (The non-work people, however, were more than happy to get out there and show the stuff.) Though the live band were good and managed to cover a wide range of songs I’m sure I won’t be the only one to admit that they were a bit scary because the lead singer was coming around and singling people out to sing on the mic and also to do dance solos!

By about 11pm people started trickling out to try and get the public transport home. Sandra, Julian and I stuck around until just after midnight which actually was a lot earlier than I thought we would be leaving but still I had a great time and was pleased to see that Paul and Kelly had a great day too. I bet they’re really looking forward to their two weeks off in Mauritius!

UK Aware

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Whilst I don’t consider myself a greenie I do think I try where I can to help out with not adding too much to the world’s current environmental issues like recycling, trying not to produce too much waste, walking where I can, and not taking showers everyday (ha ha – just kidding.) This is all of course excluding my probably giant footprint from all my travel 🙂 so I was quite interested in checking out what kind of messages UK Aware might have for me. UK Aware’s tag line is Ideas for Greener Living. Its an exhibition which showcases latest energy efficient products, latest innovations in green enterprise, and is a forum for allowing the consumer’s green questions and needs to be answered (including lots of speeches and panels and demonstrations.)

This year UK Aware also has the Morsbags Area (where you can re-use old material to make your own bag) and the Clothes Swapping Area.

I went along this morning to check it out but the thing that struck me the funniest was the paper that was scattered all over the ground (though I didn’t get any snaps of the paper) – whether it was the pamphlet that you receive when you walk in, or bits and bots from exhibitors etc. – it was everywhere. I’m sure they will re-cycle it or something but I do wonder how even an event like this can overcome such “waste”.

Easter BBQ at Nate and Caro’s

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Nate and Caroline are the consummate hosts so BBQs are their house are always a heap of fun. The weather didn’t quite come out to play but at least the rain stayed away and we were able to have a lovely lunch outside and in the fresh air. There were two funny moments that had me nearly wetting my pants with laughter – when Nate dropped one of the sausages from the BBQ on to the floor (funny because the last BBQ I came to at their house he did the same thing only that time he dropped a chicken breast only to drop it on the ground again after he’d rinsed it …) and then when, in a fit of excitement at giving a good toast to good friends, he kneeled a bit too hard on their picnic table and cracked the seat (funny also because Kia and I had just avoided doing the same thing on our side of the picnic table. Great times. Here are some photos from today.

The boys all having a go on the barbie:

The food on the barbie and on my plate including Caro’s kick-butt kebabs and strawberry and ginger dessert:

Some group shots including the broken picnic table!:

Chocolate Festival 2009

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Southbank were hosting a free chocolate festival this weekend behind Royal Festival Hall. I was looking forward to indulging in some chocolate tasting, maybe listen to a few talks on chocolates and maybe do a chocolate making session but the festival didn’t turn out to be as big as I thought it would be. It consisted of about twenty stalls which includes both chocolates, chocolate-themed foods, chocolate drinks etc. But the main thing that put me off were the people – huge hoards of people. Sometimes I really hate crowds!

Gaza Protests

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On the way back from the Ice Scuplting Festival I ran into the March and Rally that was marching to protest the situation in Gaza. I had previously heard them coming pass my house around 4pm so thought nothing more of it. Therefore when I tried to go back into the tunnel to get back to the South Kensington tube, a tunnel I’d just walked out of about 20 minutes earlier, I was surprised to find that it had been sealed shut! As had all the tubes to get home and the roads that I could walk on or catch a bus to get home! Without me going the LONG way around to get home, the closest I could get to home was High Street Kensington!

I thought I could get around the protest but somehow ended up doing some sort of circular pattern that brought me back to the spot I started! When I was confronted with the police line I actually started to get a bit freaked out, especially when this big cop started shouting at me and waving his shield and baton!

I made my way around that particular road block only to find that a group of protestors had stopped and refused to move. I approached one of the policemen who could only tell me that I had to go around unfortunately. He was much nicer and patient than the last scary police man.

Eventually I got around the road blocks but it took me through the depths of High Street Kensington and who knows where else! It only took about two and a half hours to travel 700m!!

London Ice Sculpting Festival

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London hosted its first Ice Sculpting Festival this weekend. This international festival featured a competition between five teams of ice sculptors with each having to carve their own interpretation of the theme: ‘Wildlife in the City’. Hosted at the Natural History Muesum and located next to the ice-rink you couldn’t ask for a more picturesque setting.

I first visited them last night to see how the teams were progressing:

Then decided to check it out again tonight. I was joined by heaps more people this time:

Fulham v Boro

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Yep its that time of year again when Fatkins, Lofty, Jules and I head to Craven Cottage to check out the Fulham v Boro football match. I can’t believe at nearly 4.5 years in London the only Premiership matches I’ve seen in my time here are between these two teams! Ha ha.

We started off with a lovely lunch from The Coat and Badge. Not unexpectedly for a game day it was absolutely packed and when combined with a big Christmas party it meant that at one stage they had to shut the kitchen until they caught up on orders. We managed to get our lunch in on time but sadly we couldn’t get any dessert so we stopped at a corner store where Jules bought us some chocolate bars.

Both Leah and Caz were also coming to this match which was good timing and we found out we were even seated in the same section though they ended up on the other end of the row about a couple of rows in front of us so I didn’t catch up with them until after the match when we went and had a few drinks at Fulham Broadway.

Being winter the day moved slowly from a lovely Saturday afternoon, followed by a gorgeous sunset and then dark just like that!

The game was actually a really good one for once. Lots of goals scored and even though we didn’t get to the predicted 7-3 score line (Lofty’s prediction) the game did get pretty close. More goals scored today than at the total of the three games we’d seen before! Most of the action ended up at our end too so that was quite cool.

Race of Champions 2008

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We so enjoyed the Race of Champions last year that James arranged for us to go again with a few more people along for the ride. It was a freezing cold day though and with both Pauline and Sandra still recovering from cold it was only the very strong-willed of us (D, and three of James’ friends and I) who stayed until the end. Ha ha.

Because of the rubbish weather leading up the event the track was very slippery and oily so the big event we were looking for: Chris Hoy on his bike versus Lewis Hamilton in his car (I don’t even know how that could possibly be competitive) was put off. We were very disappointed but I guess with two cars crashing, including professional drivers, within the first few races I could see why Chris Hoy was hesitant to get out there and race. In actual fact the oily wet track made the race much more exciting the last year with chances of a crash being very high!

The format wasn’t different from last year with the Race of Nations, followed by some tricks by the dude who spins cars and then tricks by the bmxers, followed by the Race of Champions. In between Lewis Hamilton also came around and did a few laps around the track in both of his cars including his F1 car. Those F1 cars sure are noisy!

I had a great time but I sure was glad to get back into the relative warmth of the tube. Despite the fact I enjoy the colder weather in England today was even a bit too cold for me and my toes! It took a while to defrost them that’s for sure.

Stadiums of Happiness: Canary Island Exhibition at the Emirates Stadium

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A poster on the tube caught my eye and it mentioned some thing called the Stadiums of Happiness and the Canary Islands. Intrigued I checked it out online and saw that the Canary Islands Government had launched a campaign to attract visitors from the UK, Spain and Germany. The Stadiums of Happiness in this case where the football stadiums: the Emirates Stadium, the Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid and the Alliance Arena in Munich.

As I had an afternoon free today I decided to check out the Emirates Stadium to see what it was all about. It was clear that the campaign had not received enough publicity as I was only one of about five visitors. I felt a bit sorry for the employees working the stands that day as they must have been a bit bored! They were very friendly though and encouraging all visitors to try out the cool toys.

The area was set out like the Canary Islands with little information counters representing the different islands focusing on such topics as the beaches, the volcanoes, conferences etc. but the real interest lay in the things that weren’t really anything much to do with the Canary Islands though they found a way to link it as follows:

Relaxation unit. The relaxation unit had the “Medyjet Massage” system. The link was that by lying on the bed you could sample the relaxing feel of the Canary Islands. The “Medyjet Massage” is a bed that you lay on (clothes on) which massages your body using jets of warm water. It was amazing – I could have lain there all day. When I got up I felt so relaxed I could barely stand!

Food tasting unit. This are consisted of small samples of juices (all produced from the natural fruits of the Canary Islands.)

Leisure and virtual activities area. In this area they had a virtual hang glider (you sit in a hang glider seat and don a pair of glasses which takes you on a “virtual” flight over the canary islands, jet ski simulators and even a windsurfing simulator.

It was fun to play around but I think that as there weren’t many visitors the employees weren’t really pushing the Canary Islands as a destination. As I said earlier they were mainly just encouraging us to have a play around!