Senna

Today I went in to Reading, wandering around the High street and the Oracle. After having lunch at Pret, I met Mickaela for a coffee on her work break, and then went to watch the afternoon showing of 'Senna".

'Senna' follows the life of Formula 1 driver Ayrton Senna. It documents his rise as a driver from 1994 until his tragic accident a decade later, which resulted in his death.


It is a documentary, but made entirely of video footage of him both in F1 and his private life. It's made as a live-action movie as opposed to your usual documentaries, resulting in it feeling as if the story is happening before our eyes instead of hearing what happened in the past. I don't think it really matters whether you are a fan of the sport, as it is such an encompassing story.


Senna was definitely a great driver and interesting portrait - you see him as a religious man, an innocent victim of the sport's politics, an icon in Brasil and, most of all, as a talented young man pursuing his passion with so much determination that it bordered on being reckless and selfish.


Despite knowing how the story ends, the final few minutes are tense and nerve-racking. This on-board and intimate approach is exhilarating, and as the tragic ends draws closer, you can't help to feel emotional.

Elias Days

As you may have noticed, I really haven't mentioned much about my happenings since returning from London. With Adam in Paris and Mick at work, it meant I got to spend the days quietly contemplating to myself! The days were spent watching the Wimbledon tennis and concerts at Glastonbury festival, messing around on photoshop and reading.

Today I went to work, and spent the day pouring champagne at a function not far from home. It was a pleasant way to spend a beautiful, sunny and hot Summer's day (hopefully the first of many!), and the fact that it earned me some pounds didn't hurt!

I got home early enough to spend the afternoon with Mickaela at the bank of the river, feeding the swans and generally just enjoying the day while watching the sun slowly set.

Now it's time for an early bed-time, and then off to Reading tomorrow! Peace!

CAMDEN! (mostly)

It's that number 1 champion sound

So on Thursday we made our way into London once again. Our train rides in were easier this time, but once again the train was so full we had to stand the whole way in. With "Summer" here, as well as Wimbledon, it meant that London was even busier than before!

Building near Tottenham Court Road

Mickaela set off to meet a friend and go to a King's of Leon concert in Hyde Park, so Adam and I went to meet his family at Tottenham Court Road. Adam, his dad and I then walked around the streets here, lined with many different electronics shops, in search of a new camera for Adam. Once we had checked out enough stores, Adam finally got the camera he wanted. We then had lunch at a Subway on Oxford street, before getting back on the Underground to go to Knightsbridge, and the famous department store - Harrod's.

Harrod's

We walked through the building, looking at all the amazing stuff they have to offer (fashion, jewelry, furniture, art, food...) as well as the store itself, which is extremely opulent and luxurious! Not only did it remind us of how poor we are, but also of how rich some others are! We tried to take it all in, and then eventually went to meet Adam's mom and sister at a restaurant nearby.

Our next port of call was a quick stop at St Pancreas International station, so that Adam could have a look at where to meet his family the next day when they would head out to Paris...

We all then went to Camden town, a really cool and eccentric part of London, famous for its markets and alternative people. There are all sorts of people there, sporting colourful hair, tattoos, piercings and everything in between! It is a good place to go shopping for curious items and trendy stuff, and there really is so much on offer here! We got there relatively late, but it was still packed with people walking around the High street and visiting the stalls and stores!

It really is a unique and colourful place, and it seems that you can get a piercing or tattoo done at basically any shop, regardless of what they sell! Once the shops closed at about 6, we went to dinner at a Chinese buffet there. The food was really good and we made sure we ate as much as we could!

We then caught the tube back to London Paddington, and the train back to Goring from there. It was a nice day that wasn't as hectic as our other London trips, but nonetheless offered us so much to see and do!

Lon-DONE!

Long day in London. It was great as usual! Expect the details and pictures tomorrow! Time to go get some rest...

Into the Wild

Just finished watching the movie "Into the Wild". Really good. Really sad. If you want the motivation to go out and explore, working towards a single goal, then is the movie to watch! It's based on a book that is based on actual events... Definitely going to be on the look out for the book!

In other news, we went to Reading today. Nothing spectaculor or out of the usual, but it was a good day. Tomorrow - LONDON! Holding thumbs for some sunlight so I can get some nice photos and walk about without getting drenched.

The Way Home

So today we didn't really do much. We took a walk down to Pierreponts by the bridge, and enjoyed some salmon and cream-cheese sandwiches, and sat at one of the tables outside the restaurant just chatting and enjoying ourselves, even though the weather around it was changing from sunny and hot, to windy and cloudy and everything in between.

After that, we spent some time in the gardens of our complex looking for any birds on the river that we could feed some old bread to, but they were mostly in hiding, and the few we did see were not really interested in the food we had to offer.

Other than that, we just mostly spent the afternoon and evening listening to music and doing our own things. I set up shop on the couch and finished a book I had started reading. It was a novel by George Pelecanos (American-Greek writer of the tv show 'The Wire") called 'The was Home".

The story revolves around a kid named Chris Flynn, and the bad choices he makes that eventually lead to him going to juvenile detention. He eventually makes it out, and is hired as a carpet installer by his dad. He and his friend then discover a bag of hidden money hidden beneath the floorboards in a old house they are installing new carpets in. This is where things really get pear-shaped...

It's a gripping and exciting read, and the characters are all very flawed and 'real'. The biggest questions it asks is whether people really can reform themselves, and the struggles the people have dealing with their choices. It looks at the bonds of family and friends, especially in challenging circumstances. It also demonstrates how small decisions often have big effects on our life. All in all, it was a really enjoyable book, and it was a bit like reading a television series. Cool stuff!

Hopefully have more good reads coming up!

Bad Teacher, Good day.

Today we went into Reading. Adam had a job interview at a sport's shop, and I'm happy to announce that he got the job! Hopefully he can get me some sweet discounts on merchandise once he starts!

While he was busy with his interview, Mickaela accompanied me while i returned the black pants I had bought, as I didn't need them after all. The lady who worked at the returns counter was suspicious of me for some reason, and claimed that the pants were wet. She thought I had worn and washed them, despite the fact that all the various tags were still on... Eventually though she refunded me, so Mickaela and I just went to get a coffee from Costa's while we waited for Adam. He eventually met us there and told us the good news! We then walked around for a bit, and I used the money from the pants to get a pair of black trainers for work, because working in my black shoes was not the best thing for my feet! I was quite happy with my purchase, and we went off to Subway for lunch, where I got to eat a free sub I had won as part of Subway's birthday celebrations. With time on our hands and not much to do, we decided to go watch a movie.

We watched 'Bad Teacher', with Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake. It was a funny movie, and a great way to just spend the afternoon on what turned out to be a really positive, relaxed day! It seems that having eventually all found jobs of some sort has really lifted our spirits (although the continuously shitty weather didn't reflect this!).After the movie we walked across the centre of town to Poundland (a cool store where everything costs only 1 pound), and bought a couple of big bags of chips along with some other things we needed, and slowly made our way home.

The trains were busy, mostly with businessmen and women making their way home from London. We had some of the meat I brought home from work for dinner, as well as some potatoes and vegetables that Mick whipped up, for dinner. We then just chilled, and I finally got back onto the internet (and my blog) again!

I've got a feeling that this is going to be a good week...

UPDATE (and a detailed description of my first day of work)

So the weekend has come and gone, and with it went my internet connection! I don't know why or how, but it seems to be working again now... So I'm gonna do a quick update of what has happened these past few days. Unfortunately, this update will feature no photos, so if you are just here looking for some more pictures you're just going to have to wait!

Friday 17 June: After a forgettable day(literally, all I can recall is buying chicken at the butcher and playing mini-soccer in our living room against Adam), we got ourselves ready and went out for dinner with Adam's brother, his fiance and Adam's dad. We went to a pub not far from Goring and were treated to a lovely meal. Mostly everyone had fish, but Adam and I went for the ribs! Nothing beats red meat... We were also introduced to an ale called 'hobgoblin', which I thought was like a watered-down version of Guiness, and it was quite nice. The rest of the night was spent playing Kings, but I went to bed early because I was expecting a big day on Saturday...

Saturday 18 June: After waking up first for probably the first time, I set out on my walk to work! I won't lie, I was quite nervous but really excited to be going to my first day at work in England! The place was about 3 miles away from us, and with no idea of how long it would take me to walk 3 miles, I gave myself 90 minutes to work with... The walk took me out of Goring and out through the various fields and farms, which were occupied solely by pigs and hundreds, if not thousands, of crows! I don't know if that is a common sight here or what, but it was a bit freaky to be walking amongst so many of those giant black birds!

I eventually (±50 min) made it to my destination - a warehouse which stored all the equipment, vans and food for Nyala catering. Nyala are a catering company that specialise in South African food and, more specifically, braais! I met the manager (Matthew), who showed me around for a while and then gave me my uniform the day - black chef's pants, a black golf shirt and a black chef's jacket. It was all pretty cool, and because i was there early I got to have a good look around the place before I started.

Eventually I was introduced to Rob, a short guy with a huge jew-fro, who was gonna be my co-worker for the day. They gave us a checklist of things we needed to pack for the event we would be working, and we set about packing our van with all the necessary stuff and food! After packing it all in and making sure it was secure, we set out to Chesham, an area about an hour away from us and not far from London.

We did get stuck in a bit of traffic but made it to the party just on time. It was a lady's 40th birthday party, and we would be catering for 60 people. They had ordered a hog roast (pig on a spit), as well as prawn skewers, veggie skewers, springbok(!) skewers, boerewors and a variety of salads and side dishes!

After helping Rob set everything up, I had to drive the van and make a delivery to a hotel. I was assured it was close by, but to my surprise it was 30min away! And it also involved me having to drive through both really narrow alley ways and highways around Heathrow, navigating through traffic circle (rotary) after traffic circle! It was probably the most stressful part of the day, but I made it through the delivery and back to the party.

Once I got back I met Martin, who also worked for Nyala and was there to help us. With the hog on the roast, we had a few hours to wait before we started braaing the rest of the stuff, so we made friends with the bar staff, who offered us free drinks if we fed them. It was cool to meet some new people and just talk to them for a while, but before long we were back under our gazebo, trying to keep sheltered from the temperamental rain. We slowly braaied all the food and unwrapped the sides, and started dinner by walking around the guests with the starters. The boerewors flew off our platters, but we had luckily kept some aside for ourselves. After we carved the pig, we served the main course and it seemed like everyone was quite pleased with our efforts.

We then had to collect the cutlery and plates, and began packing everything up into the van again. The worst part of it all was having to dispose of so much of the food that was left over... We did, however, get hold of some tupperwares to take home the meat that remained from what we had carved off the pig. We then collected the cheque (but no tip) and made our way back home. After unpacking the van and changing back into normal clothes, Matthew took Rob to the train station and took me home. It had been a long day, but I can honestly say that I enjoyed it and it was nice to be out and doing things. And of course, seeing some money come in to my wallet was nice!

Sunday 19 June: After a long day of work, I took the chance to sleep in, and after slowly getting up, I get ready and walked with Adam to his grandparents' house. Mickaela had gone to London on Saturday and was spending time their with her aunts, so she wasn't with us. We got the house as it started raining, and sat speaking to Adam's grandparents and dad as we waited for the Adam's brother and his fiance to arrive.

Once we were all there, we made our way to Toby's Carvery. It's quite a big place in Caversham (Reading), and the food was really nice, especially Yorkshire pudding, which I had never tried before then. We enjoyed the afternoon there, but it did make me miss having Sunday lunch with my family, especially as it was Father's day... But i got to speak to everyone at home so it was a nice day. We then spent the evening at home, watching tv and sitting down by the river, watching the neighbor's dog barking at a swan, which would in turn hiss at the dog...

So all in all it was a really nice weekend. Sorry for the lack of pictures, but hopefully we will be doing some more exciting stuff this week!

Living the life!

Well I know that the posts aren't coming thick and fast these days, but that's mainly because we haven't really been doing anything too exciting recently. We have been going in to Reading for various reasons... Today I had to go in to buy black pants and a black shirt for a job i finally got called back for! It's only part-time right now, but it's better than no job!

Anyway I hope to be hitting you up with some more exciting posts soon. Until then it's tv, sketching, reading (and Reading) and laptop!

A spider, a fox and a deer.

No, those are not animal representatives for the three of us! They are in fact 3 of the new animals we can claim to have seen while walking around in Goring!

We started today with some good sandwiches for lunch from Pierreponts. It really is a nice little restaurant, which is continuously busy, probably because the food is great (if a little pricey). We got to sit outside on what was a warm, sunny day - and it really was appreciated by us, who have been cooped up in our house following the past few days of cold and rainy weather. It's amazing how a little sunshine makes everything so much happier and less gray!

Anyway, we enjoyed our lunch while watching a tree surgeon (as of course they are known), climb a tree with a mini chainsaw attached to his hip, and proceed in felling it. Thereafter, we set off on our walk.

Our path was towards the abandoned bunker we had seen the other day, but this time with Mickaela as re-inforcement should things turn nasty! We also tried to take a different side-road to link up to the path we wanted to end up on, although this proved to be less scenic than we expected. Nonetheless, we were surrounded by the greenery that is Goring. It is hard to explain, but it really is so green here! It always looks as if the colour settings and saturation on my camera are faulty, but i guess that's what all the rain does to the landscape!

We walked along the various trails through fields, farms and forest, with the Thames on our right. The paths were surprisingly busy today, but I guess that was to be expected with people enjoying being outdoors in this nice weather. We eventually made it to the bunker again, and this time called out a few times to try figure out if anyone was staying inside. Once we thought it was safe, we looked inside, but couldn't see much because it was really dark, so decided to jump up onto the flat roof instead!

conquering the bunker!

After a few photos we decided to carry on with the walk. It led us up steeper hills until we were quite high above the river, but after walking a fair distance further, decided to turn back once we had reached a huge open field amongst all the woodland - I guess that will serve as our marker for next time!

We stopped and got some ice-creams on the way back home. A fitting way to end a hot summer walk! Tomorrow we go to Reading!

OOOOH! Pretty Pictures!