Hello hello hello!
I've been lazy again and there's so much to say that the thought of sitting down and actually writing it all down is quite intimidating. But here goes! And I'll try to keep it short (which means make a cup of tea / coffee, relax and enjoy the show - you'll be here for a while).
Firstly work - it's actually been a few weeks already but for those of you that don't yet know, I've been made permanent at Fallon. Hooray!! Working on my previous accounts + one other (Asda George - their clothes range).. so slightly crazy at the moment to say the least but a few of my current projects are finishing up so it should all become manageable again. Which will be nice!
On the house front - one of the flatties (one of the boys) moved out, and another guy just moved in on Sunday. Another Aussie, 25.. will fit in great I'm sure. Right on time, too - our slightly belated housewarming (Ella's and mine) is now doubling - tripling - as Grant's farewell & Ben's housewarming as well. We're having a relatively major bash (between 6 people it's hard not to) next Saturday, 14th July. If any of you feel like swinging by for the occasion... :)
Actually a few of you already are - Jodes will be staying with me for that week, and Rich (Apps) will be in town literally for a day or two over that weekend and is coming along which is awesome! Lou and Dave are around but I think up in Scotland on Saturday. Will be lots of fun.
So I think I'm up to Ireland, and everything since?
Ireland feels so long ago (well I guess it was). If I go into too much detail I'll be here forever, but in a nutshell it was brilliant - probably didn't see as much as I thought we would overall (or maybe I just don't remember it :) but it was all one big party town - party country - and loads and loads of fun.
I went with Christine - we flew to Dublin on a Friday night after work, did a 3-day tour of the South, and then had another day in Dublin before flying back to London that night. The three day tour went (in terms of big towns / major attractions) from Dublin to Galway, where we spent the first afternoon and night out - heaps fun. Then the next day we went onto the Cliffs of Moher (gorgeous) and onto Killarney that night which was another massive one - lots of traditional Irish music & Guinness (and Baby Guinness shots - big fan!).
Went on a horse & cart ride around Killarney national park the next morning which was gorgeous and then on to Blarney to kiss the Blarney stone! God knows who picked the most unreachable stone in the entire castle but hey, I've now kissed it and officially have the gift of the gab. Anyway saw a few monasteries, gorgeous lookouts, etc. along the way as well but that was basically it. Oh and we drove through Limerick at some point for lunch - aka 'stab city'. That was fun?! At least I can say I went to stab city and came out alive. Surely that's an achievement.
So that was the tour and then Chris and I spent the next day in Dublin sight-seeing.. well at the Guinness factory anyway, and in a tourist shop trying on stupid leprechaun hats. Then we flew home!
So that was Ireland. Really cool / lovely place but the nights out really made it, so much fun! Weather was cold but sunny at least, in contrast to my Lake District experience :)
So all good!Think I had a weekend or two in London after that, then in early / mid June I had another two days off work and went to the Isle of Wight music festival.
Now THAT was amazing, and a truly memorable experience for a festival virgin! (thank God I didn't get tickets to Glastonbury is all I can say). I went with Kim, Nuals & Bron - and we ended up having a spare ticket at the last minute so Pete came along as well. Token English guy with four Aussie girls.. he loved it! He's well versed in Aussie vocab now and even says 'thongs' instead of 'flip flops', it's great :)
It was actually really good - the music was AMAZING but onto that in a sec. Given I'd never been to a 3-day festival before (and am quite high maintenance, let's face it) I think I did very well sleeping in a tent for 3 nights, surrounded by fields of 20,000 other people in tents (loud, drunk other people so not much sleep to be had), not showering for almost 4 days, and using port-a-loos that are only emptied once a day (!) and don't flush (actually have no flushing mechanism). And all this whilst being up and about / dancing / squashed in a moshpit for most of each day.. I did very well!
So anyway the music - brilliant. We saw (in semi-chronological order) - Groove Armada, Snow Patrol, Wolfmother, Ash, Kasabian, The Feeling, Amy Winehouse, Paolo Nutini, James Morrison, The Fratelli's, Keane and.. the Rolling Stones!!! (and heaps more that I can't remember - a full 3 days worth). So much fun.
So anyway the music - brilliant. We saw (in semi-chronological order) - Groove Armada, Snow Patrol, Wolfmother, Ash, Kasabian, The Feeling, Amy Winehouse, Paolo Nutini, James Morrison, The Fratelli's, Keane and.. the Rolling Stones!!! (and heaps more that I can't remember - a full 3 days worth). So much fun.
The Stones were officially the best - i.e. fireworks, travelling stage, the whole shebang - and it was amazing to see them live, but my favourites in terms of music were probably Snow Patrol, Wolfmother & Keane.. amazing to hear that many people singing along to all of the songs. Really really cool. Will leave that there but on another music-related note, I'm off to Live Earth this Saturday!!! Line-up link below for anyone who feels like a bit of jealousy:http://liveearth.msn.com/concerts/UK Can't wait!!
Other than all of the above, London life in itself is quite busy.. constantly catching up with people (seems like another person arrives here every week) - recently have seen Kirsty (Angus), Ryan, Bec Campbell, the Diskins (are any other ex JWT-ers on their way - we have enough for our own agency I think) as well as Bec Oxenbould... can't think who else but there seem to be heaps of people over here. It's awesome!
Also went to the Royal Ascot races last (?) weekend which was great - a good excuse to get dressed up, steal some random guy's top hat and see the Queen do her royal wave... all very posh.
What else... the weather is ridiculous. It's been averaging about 15 degrees for the past few weeks and raining non-stop... and this is summer?! Looking forward to sailing in Croatia - I'm off for 10 days with Ella (flatmate) at the end of the month... can't wait!! Need some sunshine.
On the bomb stuff, thanks for the concern but it's fine for now - the one they found in London was actually near work (a few blocks away) but they found it early in the morning and it was all under control. Only impact on me was that my closest work tube (Picadilly Circus) was closed that day as the area was still being searched. Related to that are a million bomb scares (but not actual bombs) - i.e. they keep finding 'suspicious items' everywhere and evacuating tubes, etc. to carry out 'controlled explosions' whatever that means, but they end up being random fire extinguishers, etc. left lying around. Again, no impact on my life other than painful 2-hour trips into work when stations near me have scares. Annoying but I guess I'd rather them all be too alert than not alert enough to that sort of stuff. So all ok for now anyway.
Think I should REALLY leave it there. Hope you are all well, keep me updated with all the latest goss - would love to hear what's going on with each of you guys.
Luv u all,
x
Jas
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