As per Monthly Review tradition (it’s tradition now, because it happened twice), I’m going to first update on the weather before hitting the highlights of August. The month of August was a lot cooler than previous, still sunny and warm at times but we had a little more rain and cloud. The grass is now green again but we won’t have much more time to run around in the grass as Autumn is approaching quickly. The days are getting shorter and the mornings are darker. But Autumn is beautiful in London so I’m not too bothered, just yet.
Notting Hill
As you know, I love a good morning walk. So one Saturday morning I went for a bit of a photography walk through Notting Hill. It was great to capture the streets empty before they came alive with people for the day.
Friends
The second weekend in August we were super stoked to have our buds Emma and Matt back in town, whoop! We did another escape room in Clapham this time, unfortunately, this one got the better of us, and we didn’t quite manage to escape in time. But again we had lots of fun and a little bit spooky. The whole room was darkened and we had torches each to look for clues and creepy voiceovers with clues. We then spent the rest of the arvo showing them the local pubs, playing cards, drinking the odd beer.
Paris
Months ago, James and I bought cheap Eurostar tickets for a weekend in Paris, so this weekend was a long time coming and it was super exciting to finally go. We spent just a weekend there, but it was really nice. We did the touristy thing of climbing the Eiffel Tower, which was fun and even better than expected and drank wine chosen by the waiter and ate madeleines and wandered the streets. It was a lovely weekend escape.
More Friends
I was super excited for the end of this month because my great friend Vikki was coming over from NZ for a bit of a European/UK tour. Like a good host, I met her at the airport and the hilarity began right away. We had an awesome day catching all the London sights. We even managed to get to the Sky Garden, a wonderful central city viewing spot, but only for 10 minutes. As we wandered around taking in the views of London an alarm began to sound and some muffled voice-over, we weren’t too sure what was going on so we continued to take photos of St Paul’s Cathedral from above. But the alarm continued and the other patrons appeared to be heading for the elevators. We descended the steps to see what the commotion was. Turns out the announcement was a fire evacuation and we all had to leave (bearing in mind we are 35 floors up at this point). Being the fire-safe kid I am, I was concerned about going down the 35 floors in an elevator because that’s not safe fire practice. I was quickly informed, not to worry as we (and the 100 odd others in the Sky Garden) we going to be exiting via the fire stairwell…..35 floors worth of stairs….70 flights of stairs……about 840 stairs. Needless to say, our legs were pretty shaky after that. We were later informed it was a drill. I am happy to say I now know how to safely exit a fire 35 floors up.
This month I’ve been enjoying:
Listening to: Re-Root Podcast with Eamon and Bec, two van lifers from Canada, who have branched out from youtube to podcasting. I’ve really enjoyed listening to their stories and advice. Their podcasts aren’t too long and they’re fun and helpful. They are van life goals.
Watching: Dark Tourist on Netflix with New Zealand documentary-maker David Farrier. He takes you into the crazy world of Dark Tourism, to places of murders, suicides, radiation and dictatorships and talks to the people who make money from these sites and the tourists that pay for it.
August was a lovely month spent with friends. September is going to be a big’un, heaps of travel and fun activities planned. So I’ll keep you posted!
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