Girls weekend - Milan and Lake Como

While John and some mates took off to Austria for the Nova Rock festival, MC, Rachael and Kelly jetted out to Milan for a far more luxurious weekend (although that wouldn't be hard, the boys were camping in the mud with no showers...).


The girls arrived in Milan on Friday night to a welcome of torrential rain, thunder and lightening, all of which proved too much for Rach's 'luggage' (a TM Lewin carrier bag) which split in the taxi on the way to the hotel and was a source of much amusement for the equally drowned rats MC and Kelly. However, this did give Rach the perfect excuse to buy a new bag in the fashion capital of Europe! Saturday was spent exploring Milan, while on Sunday we took a day-trip to Lake Como before our flight home that evening.

The pretty town of Bellagio on the shores of Lake Como.
We took a train to Varenna on Lake Como (pictured above) from Milan and then...
took a boat ride to Bellagio.
Bellagio from the boat.
The view from the lake-side restaurant where we spent a few hours relaxing in the hot sun.
Yummy pasta and refreshing (or in Kelly's case, highly alcoholic wodka sorbet...) desserts were on the menu for lunch.
Rach and Kelly admiring the view.
Lots of ferraris.
Bellagio.
Villa on Lake Como (maybe George Clooney's??)
And some more pictures of pretty Bellagio.


The majestic entrance to Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II - an elegant shopping arcade.
For Nadine!
The girls on top of the Duomo.
Gargoyles on the Duomo.

Rach and MC outside the Duomo.
The other side of Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. Unfortunately our budgets didn't extend to the Prada, Gucci and Louis Vuitton on offer! However the city was not all expensive as Milan is home to the 'Aperitivo', like a happy hour where if you buy a drink in many of the bars around the city you get access to the free all-you-can-eat buffet spread!

Meanwhile, the boys were slumming it in their tents (once they finally arrived at the camping ground at 3am via Bratislava and some dodgy taxi drivers) but loving the music on offer (Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, Placebo, Chris Cornell, Faith No More, Kaiser Chiefs, The Living End and the list goes on). MC, however, was not loving the smell of John arriving home after 3 nights camping with 4 other guys, lots of mud and no showers...

Placebo
Chris Cornell (with cool beer-man in foreground)
Tent city
Nine Inch Nails. Yeah
The Living End

The month of May

Woop, woop - summer has arrived early in London! The last few days here have been fantastic - hot and sunny and got to 27 degrees today -long may it last!

May was quite a busy month (and also a sad one - RIP Grandpa xx), we have been to a few concerts and comedy gigs (including Ricky Gervais, Jimmy Carr, Stephen Merchant and Simon Amstell) as well as enjoying two bank holidays in one month - too bad we have to wait for August till the next one!

The unemployed bum hard at work.
Although, to be fair, he has been getting into the kitchen a bit more lately - here he is mastering the art of pancake-flipping.
Sadly for MC, Ally and Jake went back to NZ to await the birth of their wee girl, this is the fabulous baby shower/farewell do cake from Chinatown. And it's all edible!
We saw Reel Big Fish which (despite MC's reservations) was a pretty cool show. John definitely enjoyed seeing one of his favourite bands live.
Practising the night shots - London Eye.
Hungerford Bridge over the Thames, with Westminster and Big Ben behind it.
View over the Thames.
We saw Romeo and Juliet at the Globe theatre. MC thoroughly enjoyed it, although John was caught napping occasionally! Surprisingly there was a Kiwi in the cast - Rawiri Paratene (from Shorty and Whale Rider) who did a great job playing the Friar.
MC saw Pink in concert at the O2 - she was amazing!
That's Pink hanging from the ceiling - she also sang perfectly (no lip-synching!) while swinging on a trapeze and being dunked in water then spun round while suspended from the roof... Awesome concert.
We took a daytrip to Stratford-upon-Avon earlier in May with Krystal, Dan and Rachael. This is Hall's Croft - the home of Shakespeare's daughter Susanna (married to Dr John Hall).
Good recommendation for lunch from Mum and Dad - the Garrick Inn (the oldest pub in Stratford). Yummy pie.
Tudor houses.
John in New Place, where Shakepeare's home used to stand.
Rachael and Krystal in New Place.
The gir's outside Shakespeare's birthplace.
Krystal and Dan at Shakespeare's birthplace.

In other news, MC has become the star of our touch rugby team - opening the season with a hattrick, repeating her feat in the second game and grabbing one more in the third! Woo hoo!

Long weekend in Lisbon

For the second May bank holiday we went to Lisbon in Portugal. It wasn't one of our favourite cities - a bit run-down, lots of graffiti and cooler than we expected (unfortunately it turned out that London was hotter than Portugal that weekend!) but still nice to get away and see a new country.

MC getting eaten by a frog in the park.
The lovely wee town of Sintra, about 40 minutes from Lisbon.
Pena Palace in Sintra, very cool-looking castle on top of a mountain.
Turrets and countryside.
The palace again.


We walked up the hill to the Palace, this was probably one of John's "shortcuts".

Nice view once MC finally climbed to the top of the rocks.
Sintra with castle on the top of the hill.
Pastel de Nata (Portugese custard tarts) from the famous Antiga Confeitaria de Belem in Lisbon. Their recipe is 170 years old and apparently only known to three chefs at a time! So yummy!
The Monument to Discoveries (commemorating Portugese explorers like Magellan and Vasco da Gama) overlooking the River Tagus.
The impressive sprawling Jeronimos monastry in Belem.
Rossio square, Lisbon.
Umm I think you should put that guidebook away John?
One of Lisbon's famous rickety old trams in the Alfama district.
Narrow streets looking out onto the coast in Lisbon's Alfama district.
Up on the hill in Alfama with a view over Lisbon.

Only three weeks now till we leave for NZ, we have one night in KL and four nights in Langkawi on the way over and then a week and a half in NZ itself - will be sad to swap the glorious UK summer (!!) for a chilly winter but very excited to be heading home for a wee while and looking forward to Chris and Erins' wedding!