Reidy writes

Tuesday 9 August 2011

London town


People always told me I'd love London and they were spot on. Its up there in my top 3 favourite cities. From the warm friendly atmosphere to the culturally diverse areas easily accessible by a great rail system, what more could you want in a city. We arrived to a very warm 28 degree welcome from Nathan and Ilka at the Generator Hostel. The place is off the hook, it sleeps up to 900 people, is close to public transport and has all the facilities you need for a very comfortable stay in London. 



The next day we spent the rainy morning doing interviews with several London print journalists, one being Richard Arnold. Apparently he is quite the fan of Bondi Rescue and was keen to have a chat to us. He is a lovely bloke with plenty of flair. It was really great to chat with him.

Being in a town famous for the theatre we knew we had to take in a show. Big thanks to Ilka, Nate and Alison at The Generator hostel for organising us tickets to see Priscilla in The West End. We're not strangers to dressing in drag and felt right at home watching the colourful performance by some extremely talented actors and dancers. Maxi, Bruce and myself were reliving our Starry Starry night rehearsals Starry Starry night rehearsals for the rest of the evening !




Beep Beep Beep ! My alarm went off at 5:30am, we had a big morning ahead with call time for Daybreak ITV at 6:30am. Arriving at the studio in South bank we were all a little nervous. Its not every day your gonna be on one of the biggest Morning TV shows in the world, on the other side of the world ! After shooting a few fun lead ins it was game time... GULP ! Apart from Adrian Chiles getting poor Maxi's name wrong everything seemed to go well. Gotta give a special mention to the beautiful Christine Bleakly, such a wonderfully friendly human being ! The whole experience was lots of fun and it was great to meet everyone at ITV. For anyone that missed it you can watch it here.







We were then taken round to the offices of Fabulous Magazine were we met all the team and took a picture for an up and coming issue. Again, lots of fun !




It was now tourist time, knowing we had a lot to see we set off early. Destined to get lost it was gonna be a long day. We started by going to checking out the home of the Queen. Nice pad she has although I nearly shed a tear when reliving the big wedding and imagining Willy and Kate giving me a wave from the balcony.





We then jumped back on the tube and shot over to the London Eye. What an awesome way to see this city. Big thanks to my new friend Rhian, we managed to jump the hour long que and head straight on up. There is interesting things to see the whole way round and the half hour journey is highly recommended if your want to see London from a birds eye view.









Feeling a little dizzy we decided to walk across the bridge to Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and  Westminster Abby. Amazing structures with detail as far as the eye could see. On the way Maxi and Troy got robbed of 20 pound each by the Russian guys playing the "which cup is the ball under" game. Me and Hoppo couldnt help but laugh and call them "SUCKERS".



Welcoming in the weekend with a swim in the Thames was something we were trying to avoid when we meet the crew from Sons of the Thames. After a little bit of instruction from Allan the coach in their gym we headed out on the water in an 8 man/women boat to really get amongst it. The long thin vessels are super tippy and I was dreading a capsize. Fortunately it was avoided and all the girls gave us lots of handy hints to really get it moving.














Rowing was loads of fun and definitely worked up an appetite so we all headed next door to a lovely little pub/restaurant called The Old Ship V6. The service staff (especially our 2 lovely Kiwi waitresses that felt the need to remind us about the beating us Aussies got by the All Blacks in the Rugby earlier that morning) we super friendly and the food fantastic.





Now you'd think after a day like that a beer would be the best way to top it off but thanks to Maria (the wonderful lady that organised the whole day) we went 1 better. She took us to her studio at Body Works in Fulham where we enjoyed some very relaxing massage. Definitely one of the best days of the trip !

Our last full day was Sunday and we had organised a meet and greet for anyone in the area interested in Bondi Rescue. The venue was Giraffe restaurant in SoHo and boy did they look after us. We were greeted with delicious cocktails and friendly staff. The event went great and we were so surprised at how many people turned up. Big Thanks to everyone that braved the traffic and the rain. We really appreciate the effort you guys went to to come and say hello. Also massive thanks to Giraffe and their staff. You guys were so welcoming and generous, it made the day so much more fun.




We then popped back to the Generator to do a video interview with our main man Nathan or better know as Noodles. He does the PR for the place and is such a bloody champion. He'd set up a pool in their bar just to make us feel more at home. Stay tuned and I'll post Noodles interview in the nest post. Thanks again to the GENERATOR Hostel for taking such great care of us, all the staff are so friendly, always happy to help you with anything you need.




If you think going to a rock concert on you last night in London is a bad idea then please don't read on. We were invited to a Good Charlotte gig at 02 Empire, Shepherds Bush by a lovely lady named Lucie. Its a small, old, character filled theatre and just the place to see Joel and Benji Madden do their thing. We were standing on the 2nd level and had a perfect view of the stage and the 2000 plus crazy rockers moshing to all their greatest hits. The night was so much fun with us later rocking out again at Road House in Covent Garden. Thanks again to Lucie for an excellent last night in London Town. 




It was really sad to wave goodbye to London, everyone was so nice to us and it was such an awesome city. I'll definitely be back. We're in Edinburgh, Scotland now and this place is blowing my mind every time I turn my head. So many beautiful sights to see, I can really see myself not wanting to leave. We are going to Edinburgh Tattoo on Wednesday night, hopefully climbing Ben Nevis at some point and seeing some comedy shows at the fringe festival. I just love scottish comedians, they crack me up ! Special thanks to a lovely wee lady named Kirsty for putting us up. With out you we probably wouldnt be here... Stay tuned to Facebook and Twitter as we are trying to organise a meet and greet here in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

For anyone that missed our interview on TV3 Xpose, check it here.


Also we did a little interview with the local Dublin radio station 98FM Dublin, check it here.


C Ya Later :)

8 comments:

  1. Make sure you check out Radio 1 DJ Scott Mills and David Hasslehoff doing a comedy duet at Edinburgh Festival next week if you can.
    Also a huge thank you for sharing all your adventures. It has brightened up some dull office days for me! I was in Sweden last week so unfortunately missed you in London. I have loved reading all your blogs though.
    All the people helping to make your trip run smoothly sound amazing. Enjoy the last little bit and keep sharing all the love.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You coming back to London at any point? :) xxx

    ReplyDelete
  3. WOOOOOoo I live in Fort William!!!....I look out my window and see Ben Nevis every morning!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. If u r in Glasgow. U should go to xscape it has loads of things to do like high ropes course on the ceiling skiing snowboarding a massage station lots of restraunts 1 of Wich u can see the people skiing n snowboarding From and there is also a bar were u can see them from as well u should try and go I think u guys would love it.XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

    ReplyDelete
  5. Keep those blogs coming! So glad you are enjoying all our country has to offer! I laughed so much at Hopppo's pronunciation of 'Thames' but after thinking about it, it does look like it's supposed to be said that way! Have fun in Edinburgh, I went there for new years a couple of years ago and fell in love with the place! It's so stunning! Have fun guys! Can't wait to read the next blog! xxx

    ReplyDelete
  6. Glad you had a good time.
    It's a shame I didn't get to meet you, didn't get the message about teh meet and greet until after it had happened :(.
    I hope you come back sometime. Enjoy the rest of your tour, travel safe.
    :D

    ReplyDelete
  7. you boys left london just in the nick of time!

    are you coming down south??? :>

    hope your all good!!

    xxx

    ReplyDelete
  8. hey reidy will u and the boys be coming to south wales at all xx <3

    ReplyDelete