Fill Me In

Guess who literally almost ran in to me this afternoon in Chelsea? Craig David!!! I headed down there on the bus to do a bit of summer clothes/bathers shopping and as I got off at the stop with a bunch of teenagers behind me, a figure running towards us starts to look familiar...there he was in a full black lycra bodysuit (long sleeves)and shorts, jogging down the pavement along the main shopping strip on Kings Road. Funniest part was as I turned to look at him go the other way, the kids behind me did the exact same thing, hissing 'Was that...?'.

Sunday at the Church was pretty good, although it was totally crazy. The place is only open from 12-4pm and we joined the massive line just after 10:30am in the morning! The place was sold out not long after we got in and was totally insane, but fun. Don't think I'll ever go back, but at least I can see I've been. About halfway through the day I was walking through the crowds when a hand grabbed me. Turn around, who's there calling out 'Michelle!' but a guy I grew up through primary & high school with! Caught up on what some people from high school are doing these days & reminisced about our Economics classes and his band the Electric Penguins. He's only been over here a couple of months and is living in Hammersmith, 5 minutes down the road. Small world!

In other news, I have my first visitor coming over to see me in a few months...Mum! She'll be here towards the end of September for a few weeks. I should have time to go to Oktoberfest for a weekend and possibly squeeze in Robbie Williams (if I can get tickets as its sold out in London) before she gets here. Now who's coming over next?

Footloose!

Thursday night I went with a couple of friends to go and see Billy Elliot the musical at Victoria Palace. It recently celebrated its 1 year anniversary where they had the 3 boys who had played the title role of Billy all on stage together, dancing.

It was a pretty good show with some memorable characters (especially Billy's Grandma who hides food around the house and forgets it; or Billy's best friend who enjoys playing in his Mum's wardrobe), but it was far too long and they dragged the storyline out with some unnecessary dance numbers & too much pointless banter.

The boy who played Billy was amazing and some of the routines wanted you to pull on a pair of tap shoes and join in. You can tell that Elton John wrote the music, it has a really distinctive sound similar to his other work.

In other news, this has been a miserable week in London. It has been raining almost non-stop for over a week and the sun has barely come out from behind the dark, grey clouds. Even scarier is the fact it is supposed to be summer next week...when we really haven't had spring yet. Decided not to go to Scotland due to the bad weather (which is even worse up there) so I'll be spending the week doing small things around here.

Heading to a place called The Church tomorrow for the first time, the place has a bit of reputation with the Aussies. You purchase raffle tickets instead of drinks and then trade them in for alcohol (to get around the liquour license rules) and you must buy 3 at a time, which end up in a bag around your waist. Its a pretty messy session and not the classiest ever place, but I keep getting told that I have to go at least once while I'm here. Will report back on Monday (or Tuesday, depending on how I feel afterwards!) about how it was.

PS: Brisbane to beat Fremantle at the GABBA!

You'll hear the mighty roar...

Well done to the Lions after beating Port Adelaide by 69 (just to rub it in) points at AAMI stadium on the weekend!

Possibly going up to Scotland next week, as it is mid-term break at school. The trip depends on the weather though, this week has been pretty bad in London (and you can imagine what its like in Scotland!). We've had rain every single day, gale force winds and the temperature has been hovering around 15 degrees. Its a bit depressing considering summer is a week away!

Get well soon Andy!

You scream, I scream...

We all scream for ice cream!

Last night Meegan took me to the famous Haagen-Dazs restaurant in Leicester Square. I had 'starved' myself since lunch for this meal, as it was going to be my dinner for the night. I ended up with a hot Belgian waffle, drizzled in maple syrup with swirls of whipped cream and 2 scoops of ice cream - caramel swirl and another with caramelised pecans inside it. Seriously good food, although its the kind of thing you wouldn't have often (even though Meegan has been 5 times herself!). The photo is of Meegan's meal, a chocolate muffin with 2 different sauces and scoops of coffee and chocolate ice cream. Hers looked far prettier than mine as mine was beginning to melt with the warmth of the waffle! The diet begins again today!

PS: No further sightings of mouse, dead or alive.

The mouse & me

Our house was in chaos first thing this morning. I had my usual routine, first one in the house up, showered and having breakfast, when I returned to the kitchen to put my plate in the sink and there was a mouse scampering for cover across our kitchen bench!

Squeals followed, with the mouse diving for cover behind our microwave which is in one corner of our kitchen bench. I bolt out of the kitchen, trying to find a torch and trying to see if anyone else is awake. Amy is (barely). Now Amy is not good with mice, at all. She's worse than me. After seeing a mouse at a bus stop in Copenhagen she was totally hysterical! Amy starts freaking out while I run back into the kitchen to see if the mouse is still behind the microwave.

Couldn't see much with our little pocket torch, but I assumed the mouse would have made a dash for it when I left the kitchen. Amy comes in after my reassurances it was gone, but refuses to let me move the microwave. Amy (slightly calmer) leaves the kitchen with her breakfast and I decide to pull the microwave away from the wall. Smart move Michelle.

The mouse was still there. I stand there, frozen, not sure of what to do, while the mouse sits there, frozen to its spot, unsure of what to do as well. In fact it looks so frozen that I begin to think its dead, from a heart attack or the sheer shock of meeting me first thing in the morning. I bump something on the bench, which jolts the mouse to life again and causes it to run in random directions across the kitchen bench again. More squealing follows. Mouse, completely freaked out at this stage, runs to the edge of the bench and does a kamikaze style jump down from the bench into the dishwasher. Yes, into the dishwasher. I had pulled the dishwasher door down when I first got into the kitchen and was halfway through removing dishes, so it was wide open.

By this time I run out of the kitchen and close the door, thinking of what we can do to catch the mouse and wondering if its going to run into my room (very close to kitchen). Down comes Steph O, who has just been woken up by Amy and the noise we're causing in the kitchen. 'If only we had a shovel!' she tells me as she walks into the kitchen. I come in behind her, asking her if she really would kill a mouse on the spot, rather than leave out a trap (to me a trap is bad enough to deal with). Mouse then leaps down from inside the dishwasher, momentarily onto the floor and then scurries between a gap in our skirting boards. Probably counting its lucky stars that it met me and not Steph O this morning.

Steph has now put mouse traps down and Amy and I are terrified of walking in one morning to see something we don't particularly want to see. I don't know what it is about mice, as much as I hate them and think they're dirty and pesky, I just couldn't stand there this morning and kill this tiny little mouse cowering in the corner.

Perhaps its because when my family last moved house we found a mouse in our kitchen, which ran behind our fridge. My Pop decided to help get it out and when moving the fridge away, inadvertently stood on the litte thing as it made a run for it. Thank god I didn't see the end result!