Cambridge it is

I was a total Londoner today... total. Well it was completely due to Ian, my true London friend. (Everyone at the hostel is jealous that I have been here the least amount of time yet I have a true London friend... it's a rarity.)

Today was the Oxford vs Cambridge rowing race on the Thames. The universities compete in London because it is neutral territory. Ther are 2 races - the first one is the 'B' teams (crowd warmer really), the second is the real deal. I think Cambridge won the first race, or they were leading when we saw them at least. Oxford won the second. I was apparently wearing Cambridge colours though. Unplanned of course.

The race goes from the Putney bridge to the Chiswick bridge ... not sure how long that is in distance, but Ian claims the record for time is 16 minutes. These guys are motoring. Barreling through. And the entire river along the way is lined with spectators. Drunken spectators. But they're having fun.

After watching the race we went out to Richmond - Ian's neck of the woods - for a wander... into a few pubs... and a restaurant... and a few more pubs... Richmond's really lovely - extremely expensive but so nice. it's along the Thames as well and the tide was in which meant the water was coming right up to some of the buildings. We wanted to go in one pub but couldn't get to it without wading ankle deep!

Other than that, i've been working quite a bit this week, picking up extra shifts (and money!!) and hanging out at the hostel quite a bit. The girls in my room are great and there are a bunch of wicked long-termers here that are so fun as well. The staff is fantastic - there are 3 other receptionists (from Sweden, France & Estonia) who I will share a room with starting this week, and 6-8 cleaners from France, Spain, Italy & Slovakia... and maybe more. Everyone is just up for a laugh and a good time.

Anyway, other than that, what have I been up to? Friday I just worked 3 hours so I went to the Camden market for a few hours - very cool, hippie type place. With about 39 shoe stores. honestly. It was heaven. So to follow that up I went to the Portobello Road market in Notting Hill ( no Hugh - I checked). Came back & worked for a few hours nad then went clubbing with a crowd from here. Very fun but made me strangely homesick for ... Christchurch. So Saturday I got up after very little sleep and worked a 12 hour shift, listening to my fave Chch radio station online all day. It was even better than I remember because of the time change there was no commercials or interruptions. Nice. (www.rdu.org.nz if you're interested).

I keep intending to write more because I can use the hostel computers, but I never get time when I'm working. And when I sit behind the counter at any time of day, people assume I'm working and it takes 3 hours to write an email. So that's why I've been crap at writing. It has nothing to do with the fact that I am just plain crap at writing.