Time Starts to Slip Away... Goodbye to Portsmouth & Central London and Adventures at Hampton Court

I somehow found myself in my final weeks in Portsmouth, the last three months have flown by at a ridiculous pace. Not too much happened apart from trying to see everyone as much as possible, numerous nights out, lunches etc. I finished work on the 19th November at 11pm with a couple other people so we decided to stay for drinks and naturally ended up staying until close. Sunday was my last proper day as Monday was for packing so Jimmy held a BBQ at his house and invited everyone over, including the Yates's boys and we drank, ate and enjoyed each other's company before hitting Guild Hall to drink at the Lyberry one final time. Monday I just packed and did washing, Tuesday I made my goodbyes as quick as possible as I didn't want to get too sad about leaving, which I was, and Vinnie walked me to the train station around ten so I could go and meet Kirsty in Guildford for ten thirty. I am really sad to be leaving Portsmouth, I had such a fun time there and will miss everyone a lot, especially the ones I, in reality, probably won't see again. However Vinnie and Kerri are planning to visit in the next year and Sarg is moving to New Zealand so hopefully it's just see you later and not good bye to a few of them.

I met Kirsty at Guildford around eleven and we then drove to Hampton Court, the royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, which was built in the 16th Century. I've always liked English Royal history and in particular the history of Henry VIII and his wives so going to Hampton Court, King Henry's home during his reign was really exciting for me. After meeting up with Elspeth and having a quick lunch we set off to explore the different sections of the Palace, half Tudor from Henry VIII's time and part Baroque from King William III's changes a century later. Firstly we looked around King Henry VIII's apartments and then his kitchens, then we moved to the Baroque sections of the palace and learnt about the rooms in which King William III resided during his reign, and then explored the gardens. We used the audio guides to learn about each room and I definitely learnt a lot, I especially enjoyed learning about the lives and infamous fates of all Henry's wives, especially Catherine Howard who's ghost is said to be seeing running through the grand hall screaming and begging for forgiveness...creepy or what! It was hard imagining these people, including such a monstrous tyrant such as Henry walking through the rooms we found ourselves in but it was clever how they designed the audio guides to talk you through exactly what would be happening in each room as if you were there when the palaces were inhabited by the different Kings and the King's people.

We then headed back to Elspeth's place for dinner and had a relaxing evening before saying goodbye to Kirsty. Wednesday was also really chilled out, we went shopping and had dinner at a curry house in town which was really nice. Thursday I said goodbye to Elspeth and set off for Old Street to meet up with Joe, a friend we'd met originally in Miami but had caught up with over the year. Old Street was a really trendy area, a little jealous of his location! We had tickets to go see Friendly Fires play in Brixton but first we decided to go and take a look at the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. Let's just say there's nothing like a chilly winter evening in Hyde Park lit up like day with lights, atmosphere and bars on carousels to celebrate and get into the spirit of Christmas. I love having New Years during summer but I always miss a white Christmas. While it wasn't exactly a snowy night, it was still nice to celebrate part of this years Festive Season in London. It was kind of a mixture between a cold Oktoberfest..with definite German influence with the stalls of food and drink, a town fair with the rides and then of course the ice rink in the middle which, honestly, became a big source of entertainment due to the number of people who perhaps were skating, or should i say bum sliding and falling over, everywhere around the rink. The carousel turned into a bar was a definite highlight for us! Got a bit dizzy though :)

After exploring the colourfully lit Christmas labrynth we then caught the underground to Brixton. Arriving at the arena we were immediately stopped and interviewed by camera about why we were there, what music we liked etc. Joe did really well, I unfortunately being pretty uneducated when it comes to Friendly Fires looked like a bit of a, [insert rude word here] but managed my way through without embarrassing myself too much then we headed into the arena. The concert itself was outrageously fun, I realised I did know a few of their songs and the ones I didn't know I liked. The lead singer Ed Macfarlane was an amazing performer, I have to admit I fell a little bit in love.

Leaving on a high we decided it would be best to get back to Old Street before the underground stopped at eleven thirty and hit some bars there. Old Street was a pretty trendy area and we didn't have any trouble finding somewhere fun to drink. We tried a cocktail bar/pub first and got into some creative shots, some swing dancing, hilarious people watching and some good old conversational banter. Next we went to this club, Mother Bar, that had no windows and from the outside looked like a creepy giant black box but inside was like a trendy, grungy lounge bar. I think we got home around four, so good effort by us, was definitely a great night to end my London experiences for 2011 with!


On Friday I battled a little bit to get to Jackie's due to deciding it was a really good idea to try and tackle the London Underground at peak hour, a hangover and a massive suitcase. People are very good at showing how unimpressed they were, on the last leg of the journey - the train from Victoria to Shortlands, I ended up having to make an apology announcement because it seemed I'd pissed off most of my surrounding fellow travellers. My last days abroad were to be spent in Shortlands with Jackie and Lucy. Although Friday night was very quiet, Saturday was action packed as we attended a Crystal Palace verses Millwall football match. The experience was so memorable I've decided to dedicate a separate blog just for the event. So stay tuned!