Advice about living in, visiting or
moving to the UK
Advice about living in, visiting or
moving to the UK
Posted by Kay Gillespie
Jah Shaka Surf Villa: The Algarve’s retreat for cool surfers & crazy hens! Just outside the quaint Portugese village of Luz, a mini-bus travels carefully along a small sandy road looking for a sign to stop. The sign we were looking for was… Jah-Shaka Surf Villa The villa which w...
Posted by Charlotte Barrett
In my own story I'm the lead character, the main attraction, the VIP, obviously, but rarely do I actually get a glimpse into the VIP lifestyle. Until yesterday! I was very VERY lucky to be invited to launch day of The London Helicopter Tour Company. I can't tell you how excited I was to be able to t...
Posted by Sara Hardman
There’s something about this slogan – it’s the city tag-line that greets you as you arrive. It’s the word ‘fine’. There’s something about fine, it feels like it could be readily interchanged with ‘so so’ ’adequate’ ‘don&rs...
Posted by Kay Gillespie
Snorkelling in Silfra Swimming in water too deep for your feet to touch the bottom, do you experience the fear of not knowing what lurks beneath? I DO! Well, I promise there were no sub aqua secrets on this Icelandic adventure… Floating face down on the surface of a cavity between contine...
Posted by Kay Gillespie
Are you like me – you’ve not even finished drinking the milk from the bottom of your cereal bowl and you’re already thinking about what’s for lunch? So, I love to eat? It’s only my waistline that has a problem with this. I also can’t really cook, which has ...
Posted by Charlotte Barrett
Here's the scenario; it's a cold, bitter and miserable Saturday. Your body is praying you'll stay indoors but your head wants to explore London. You're in the mood to wander round one of London's many museums but the idea of battling through herds of tourist is a nauseating prospect. This is a scen...
Posted by Carrie Hetherington
Local campaigner Russell Gray labelled it a 'great big pyramid of glass and steel' with nothing 'endearing about it', and Jonathan Jones from the Guardian dismissed it as 'a monument to wealth and power run way out of control'. To be honest, they both need their eyes and moral compasses testing. It'...
Posted by Rebecca Blandford
I have always wanted to have a go at bingo, but the fear of being tutted by purple-rinsed oldies has kept me at bay. So when Costa Bingo invited me along to try out Musical Bingo with Laura from This City Life and Mona from Chipped & Chapped, I leapt at the chance. The night is run like a ty...
Posted by Rebecca Blandford
Drop everything and get yourself down to the Kurt Schwitters exhibition at the Tate Britain. Before I went, the only thing I knew about Kurt Schwitters is that his last name is frighteningly fun to say*. So I was in no way expecting to: A) Learn some interesting social history; B) see the insp...
Posted by Charlotte Barrett
Following on from Barcelona By Night. I woke up the next morning with a mouth drier than Gandhi’s flip flop with my clothes still wet from the night before and my bed contained an unusual amount of sand. I waved goodbye to the Topdeck tour as they moved on to Nice and found I had 10 hours to ...
Posted by Rebecca Blandford
Yesterday I did something bad, real bad. I cheated on Borough Market. For months now Borough Market and I have had a loving, regular and fulfilling relationship. We laughed, we ate cheese and we got free coffee. Times were good. But then in a moment of weakness I did the unthinkable, I went to ano...
Posted by Rebecca Blandford
I don’t normally use this blog to rubbish things – but these new Post & Go machines are really terrible. The concept is great. To cut down the long Post Office queues they have installed machines where you can buy stamps and weigh/post packages. Some are installed in normal post offices...
Posted by Rebecca Blandford
I have been having serious pumpkin issues. The most popular squash in London supermarkets (at least those near me) is butternut. I do love me some butternut squash, but it does have a rather insipid flavour. In New Zealand the most commonly sold pumpkin is the Crown Prince pumpkin (sometimes call...
Posted by Shapelle McKenzie
I spent last weekend in Wales with 5 kiwis and one Englishman, which naturally means that (despite our superiority in numbers, AND not even being in England) we all got the shit ripped out of us constantly for our accents and kiwi-isms. So, to match the recent post on things Londoners say, here is t...
Posted by Shapelle McKenzie
The other day my boss told me I was turning into a cranky old Londoner. This was terribly galling, coming from a man who exclaims “Oh for GOODness SAKES!” to his computer once every 13 minutes or so (I’m not sure he knows about ctrl-z), but equally galling because it’s bloody...
Posted by Shapelle McKenzie
In July 2012 I had just moved to the other side of the world, ended my exciting travels, and moved into a hellhole with a landlord from the deepest abyss of Tartarus. My flatmate-friend (JJ) was working mental hours, my travel companion and constant sidekick of the last two years (KJM aka SF) was su...
Posted by Shapelle McKenzie
If you are a kiwi and have ever left kiwiland, you'll know that we are referred to as 'such a friendly people' by many other areas of west-ville. I wondered at this patronising but positive impression previously, as I've certainly met enough rude people in the homeland, but I'm beginning to understa...
Posted by Shapelle McKenzie
Miiiiiiind the gap! This is an iconic slogan that has become very dear to Londoners and is plastered over all sorts of tourist merchandise to take in the suckers on Oxford Street. It actually can be a bit of a leap to the platform, mostly at stations with a curving platform, and especially hazar...
Posted by Rebecca Blandford
The sun has finally returned to London. Weak and cold it may be, but it is the perfect excuse to rediscover Brick Lane. There are three main reasons to go to Brick Lane on a Sunday: ■ You are hungry ■ You are hungover ■ You are in need of a London indie culture slap Point the first. As well as...
Posted by Rebecca Blandford
Friend: Where shall we meet? Me: Next to the giant nail. Friend: What giant nail? And thus we can see how a piece of art can be hidden in plain sight. Gavin Turk’s ‘Nail’ is near One New Change in the centre of London, and as you can guess from the name, it is a giant rusty na...
