#10 Wimbledon!

9 Jul

The world famous tennis tournament right on our doorstep! This is our second year living in Wimbledon and we missed out on tickets last year. The ballot process is complex and there is no favouritism for residents of SW19. Boo.

BUT, this year we managed to get two Centre Court tickets! Six rows from the front and next to the Royal Box! I called Nick with the amazing news, only to be told that he was in Paris that weekend because his friend got four tickets for the Euros. So my friend Sarah inherited the second ticket and we were excited!

Wimbledon is much more sophisticated than I thought it would be. I’ve been to the US Open and it was a great day out, but this was something different. Staff in pristine uniform, immaculate grounds, and it just had a feel of grandness and history.

And the proof we were there? Check out the lady in the black hat… yours truly! Sarah is sitting in white to the left. Yep, that is Roger Federer! 🙂

We also got to see Novak Djokovic, see if you can spot him in photos below!

FullSizeRenderIMG_0133

IMG_0146IMG_0145IMG_0170IMG_0180IMG_0289IMG_0224

IMG_0249IMG_0233

#28 Photo with a Celebrity

23 Jun

Last year England hosted the Rugby World Cup, and I found myself wanting to get tickets,  because why not! But tickets were allocated by ballot and tickets on StubHub were extortionate. I couldn’t justify spending a week’s wages because I’m not enough of a fan.

So, when I saw a Facebook post from MasterCard with a chance to win tickets to Australia vs England I rushed home to enter straight away. I work in social media and run competitions regularly so I know what the judges are looking for in an entry. Long story short, I won and of course Nick was the recipient of the other ticket.

What is funny about this situation is that we thought it was two tickets to the match and it advertised that accommodation was included for three nights. We thought maybe the Holiday Inn Express in Twickenham? Maybe a small B&B walking distance to the ground. It would be cool to check out Twickenham’s local town and pubs or the weekend! When we were told it would be a five star hotel in central London, this prize suddenly got interesting. Ok, what cool things could we do in central London? Let’s be tourists in our own city for a weekend! A bus tour, sightseeing and nice restaurants! YAY! I was informed that I would shortly receive an email with more details. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Ping. “RSVP: Your Invitation to Join MasterCard at 2015 Rugby World Cup‏”

The prize absolutely blew us away. I remember logging into the microsite that they sent me a link to and needing to sit down. Royal Horseguards in Embankment for three nights! WOW! What country do you support? What is your shirt size or your country’s jersey which we’ll leave in your room?  What train station can the limousine pick you up from? Here is your itinerary for the next three days. Itinerary?! 

Day 1: Check in. Champagne on arrival. Dinner at the Royal Horseguards.

Day 2: Breakfast at hotel, bus tour of London, lunch at a 5 star restaurant, dinner at a 5 star restaurant.

Day 3 : Breakfast at hotel, London Eye – TWICE around with champagne and canapes, lunch at a 5 star hotel, private coach to Twickenham stadium, access to Mastercard hospitality suite, dinner served, free flowing champagne.

The below photo is us in the Mastercard hospitality suite, where we got to meet Martin Johnson and get a photo with the Rugby World Cup.

(For those of you who don’t know who the giant below is, he was the England captain when they won the RWC in 2003. His comment to me when we asked for a photo – “Only if you take off that Australia jersey” *feels two feet tall*)

#28 well and truly checked off in style!

MJ

#16 Cooking Class

23 Jun

I’ve wanted to do this one since 2013. We were in Positano enjoying five nights on the Amalfi Coast and the food was so incredible that I was absolutely desperate to learn how to cook some authentic and fresh Italian food. We signed up for a pasta making class the day that we were leaving and our plans changed last minute and we had to leave early in the morning. Still to this day I don’t remember having a bigger melt down/tantrum/whinge in my life! Ha ha!

Cut to September 2015 and we were in London at L’atelier des Chefs thanks to a birthday gift from Nick. We were treated to lessons on making:

– Garlic tiger prawns with rocket salad and a lemon mayonnaise
– Chargrilled Sirloin steak with bearnaise sauce and sauteed potatoes
– Chocolate Pot with Kirsch soaked cherries

Have you ever tried making bearnaise sauce or lemon mayonnaise from scratch? A great experience, but I think we’ll stick to supermarket bought… what a loooooooong process!

I have to mention that I’m very proud of Nick for being one of only two men in the room – I was the envy of all the ladies getting my partner there 😉

cooking

#27 Get Upgraded on a Flight… (again! YAY!)

23 Jun

After an extremely busy 10 days in the US (Atlanta for a friends wedding and Miami to visit friends) it was a lovely surprise to be upgraded to premium economy for our red-eye from Atlanta to London.

Premium economy was actually better than I thought it would be. With seats reclining much further than economy and extra leg room it was much easier to get some rest. Sometimes I think that Nick could sleep standing up, but I never do well on planes without about five of those mini bottles of white wine. Only one glass needed with premium economy! British Airways, our jet lag and my liver thank you!

EF119782-7338-4EA3-8610-CED0729CB8E2

#7 Buy a house in London

26 Sep

So we’ve been in our house almost a year now, and we’re ALMOST finished repainting (not that it really needed it) and the only thing left to really improve is the garden but that can wait until Spring 2016. The previous owners left a very sad looking Christmas tree planted and a pathetic raspberry vine that produced 3.5 raspberries this season.

Anyway, sometimes we rent our place out on AirBnB when we go on holiday and I noticed that they were offering free verified photos. I booked them in and they were here within a week! So, this should give you an update on #7 on our list. Let us know what you think of our place 🙂

Bathroom Dining Frontliving Garden Kitchen Living Living2 Living3 Living4

#38 Collect 30 fridge magnets

5 Apr

Am I still allowed to keep this blog going even though I just turned 31? Am I really 31? Wow. Is this real life?

So this is one item on the list that we started immediately. I can’t remember which magnet was first. Probably from the state of Pennsylvania when attending a friend’s wedding, or from the US Open on the same holiday. I think almost three years later we may have achieved this…

2012-10-18 11.18.28

Let me go take some photos of how our fridge looks now and count the magnets.

IMG_8765 IMG_8766

SUCCESS! I counted 32 different locations! There are more than 32 magnets however, some places we loved so much we bought two (I think Australia has four!) and some places we haven’t been to together. At first I didn’t like the idea of having all of the magnets on display but every time I look at them now it makes me so happy. It reminds me of how lucky we are to be able to travel to all of these amazing places.

#7 Buy a house in London

5 Apr

We are SO happy to be where we are, but I almost don’t want to reminisce on what it was like to buy a house in London. To sum it up, we put our first offer in on a flat in December 2013 and finally moved in to our place we bought in November 2014.

– 12 months
– 100+ inspections
– 15 offers
– 13 outbids
– 2 accepted properties
– 2 properties falling through
– 1 success (after falling through once)

I don’t even know where to begin to explain the frustration of buying property in the UK! In Australia the majority of properties go to auction and when that hammer falls you have to pay 10% of the sale price and you move in four weeks later. If you can’t get a loan (unless you’re paying cash) you lose your 10% deposit. In the UK, you put your offer in, then you can be out bid, gazumped, caught in a bidding war, and you’re not safe until you are at the very end of the process… after inspections and surveys, and the bank approving the property. But you’re not done yet. WHAT THE? It is so back-to-front. Either party at any time can pull out until you exchange, which should take five weeks, usually longer. You can be at the day of exchange and the vendor can change their mind. Or you could get cold feet and pull out. The only thing you lose are your survey fees. This then affects ‘the chain’. Everyone caught in this selling chain must exchange on the same day. If anyone pulls out, the whole chain is ruined for anyone that is relying on the funding for the place that pulled out. We were luckily only in a chain of three, but I’ve heard of one being 20 properties. Imagine trying to get 20 properties all coordinated. Ridiculous.

UGH! Besides the crazy process here we FINALLY found our home and fought tooth and nail for it. A lovely two bedroom ground floor terrace with a garden in Wimbledon (Which will hopefully cover off #9 Wimbledon tennis because we live 5 minutes away).

HUGE thanks to our friends Jon and Rosie for putting us up for about 8 weeks while it fell through TWICE… xx

IMG_8152IMG_8459

We’ve started putting out own touch on the place (see above) and will post the final results of the place later. Its already been five months… but these things take time!

I also got my first taste of London snow. It was brief but exciting because I’ve never woken up and gone to work in the snow – glad it only lasted two days!

IMG_8322

The last thanks goes to my wonderful friend, Jem and her BF Rupert – what an amazing housewarming gift send all the way from Sydney! This cookie lasted long enough to keep us going with an empty fridge… x

IMG_7923

#29 Save for more travel :-)

5 Apr

It’s been so long since an update! A very poor effort from our end. However, this one isn’t very exciting. Saving for more travel has been something that has just ticked along in the background. While we were living in Sydney Nick and I set up a joint high interest savings account and put in a large sum each and then added to it each month. If you live in Australia you’ll already know that two of the best high interest accounts are ING and USaver.

Anyway in addition to this we kept an old school money tin in Australia – you know the ones that you have to open with a can opener to prevent any temptation? Well we filled two large tins over a 12 month period. I can’t remember how much exactly, but it was enough to fund a holiday for the two of us.

2013-07-07 22.11.58

When we moved into our flat in Pitt Street, Sydney, we went from a huge 2 bedroom 2 bathroom 2 storey apartment to a small one bedroom apartment which meant we needed to downsize all of our (my) junk.

2013-06-07 21.36.43

We decided to hire a van and rent a space at Rozelle Markets on a Saturday morning. It must have taken me a week to go through everything that I had collected over the years including clothes that I no longer fitted into (SIGH! No woman enjoys that moment where you realise you’re not going to get down to your weight from when you were 21!). It was a pretty crazy day. The die-hard market goers were literally ripping boxes apart as we brought them over for the van. They know that the earlier they get there, the better the offerings.

But things died down and it got pretty boring around lunch time. All of our good stuff was gone and we were down to the $1 shoes.

2013-06-08 11.46.01

Anyway, it was a pretty interesting experience (that we ended up doing again when we were moving to London) but well worth it. We must have made $2000 from both market stalls… enough to get from London to Paris a few times… but it didn’t end up going on just travel… 😉

#23 Go parasailing

26 Aug

Tenerife. Canary Islands. Spain. Nothing Spanish about it really.

But that also means that we get to take advantage of all the touritsy activities that make up this mini Britain away from Britain! So, parasailing. I first did this when I was about 12 and I remember it being the most relaxing and carefree experience. I even did it by myself.

Cut to 2014 and I convince Nick to do it with me tandem. I also forgot that Nick didn’t love heights.

1920267_10152227112207674_1173952389_n 

1619080_10152227133837674_1061142374_n

I didn’t feel as comfortable this time… was it the height? Was it the mature understanding of mortality and being 100m above sea? Or was it Nick asking questions about what would happen if the rope snapped or our harness broke or a big gust of wind came or the parachute collapsed?

1932414_10152227133842674_81804045_n

1959859_10152227112577674_911786354_n 1901315_10152227112622674_723062007_n

Anyway, we made it back down to a more civilised height and the driver had a surprise for us. Dragging us through the water! When I did this when I was 12 I was gently dipped into the water up to my knees, the water was a little cold, but it was funny and I remember enjoying it. So check out what happened this time…

1970680_10152227113512674_161164524_n

1888624_10152227113102674_486789061_n

1621785_10152227113122674_1588760605_n

Hold onto your pants, people! We survived… but you might not!

#12 Road trip through Italy

26 Aug

SIGH! This feels like two lifetimes ago now. Since we travelled to Italy for a friend’s wedding in July 2013 we have also been to Barcelona, Tenerife, Amsterdam, Athens, and traveled around some Greek Islands and Italy still is a strong contender for our favourite holiday ever (Except for you, Naples! Your pizza may be amazing but that doesn’t make up for the nightmare that you were!).

We found out that Nick was going to have to move back to the UK and he left Australia within weeks meaning that we hadn’t seen each other for five weeks when we were reunited in Rome.

Ah, Roma! 35+ degree days never ending history and amazing architecture.

IMG_3967

We spend three days eating gelato and just generally getting lost. It was the best three days seeing each other after five weeks!

IMG_3983

IMG_3984

So a few days in Rome and we were off to Naples! Lets not dwell on the negative… but in a nutshell we left an iPad, a watch, some sunglasses (see watch and sunglasses in above pictures on Nick) and cologne poorer… thanks to the hotel cleaner! Anyway, the usual to say about Naples. It was exactly the same as I remember when I was 15. Dirty, rough, but strangely fascinating. Both times I’ve been there have been concerning situations with cab drivers but both times the pizza was very good. Basically, couldn’t wait to leave.

IMG_4050
We even paid for a taxi outta there! A 100 euro taxi! When we got to the train station there were no working ATMs to get money out for the train tickets, there were little gypsy kids begging for money, putting their hands into your pockets and eying off your luggage. We finally got tickets and got to the train platform to find more gypsy kids walking the platforms and squeezing onto packed trains and standing next to tourists with open pockets who were distracted with all their suitcases… GET US OUTTA HERE! (Obviously we just had a bad experience and are a little bitter about it! I’m sure Naples can be fantastic! Let me know your experiences and where would have made it a great place to visit!)

IMG_4077

Ah! Cruising the Amalfi Coast in our air-conditioned taxi! We were FINALLY on holiday. Positano, ti amo!

Positano is just the most romantic and beautiful place. The food is stunning and the views even more so. It’s quiet enough to relax, but there is enough to do to keep you busy. There are a few (albeit pebbles as hot as my straightening iron) beaches to relax on, lots of restaurants and bars and plenty of shops to max out your credit card in. You can also take day trips to surrounding island like Carpi (this was a particular highlight for us and Capri was just as I remembered it 15 years ago!). Have I already mentioned the food? Well, who cares because I’m mentioning it again. WOW!

IMG_4094

IMG_4355

IMG_4153

Nick tore me away from Positano kicking and screaming and we were off to our friends wedding in the small but beautiful town of Arpino. This town isn’t a tourist destination and most of the locals don’t speak English.

IMG_4363

Proseccos all round and we are celebrating in the local town square. The poor bar didn’t know what hit them with 100 tourists piling in drinking them dry. We probably made them their rent for the whole year that night! One thing that I have to say about Arpino – the best pasta dish of my life was eaten here. We watched the pasta made fresh in front of our eyes and the ingredients were so simple. Don’t laugh, but I still think of that lunch to this day. As my Dad would say “I would walk over hot coals for that”!

2013-07-28 12.42.15 2013-07-28 12.42.31

Post wedding hangovers didn’t help our mini bus journey back to Rome the next afternoon and the idea that our holiday was over in a couple of days made it even worse 😦