Action Jackson Week

Wow - February is here and suddenly me and Alix throw off the January blues, with one of the more full-on weeks I've had in a while.

Started last Friday (the 3rd) with the Waitangi Day Ball - run by the NZ society. One of the kiwi's on my rugby team had got some extra tickets and asked us if we wanted to go. £100 - but it was dinner and dancing (and drinking) at the Dorchester, so sounded great.

But it got better - one of the other kiwi rugby lads is a concierge at a Hilton - so was able to get us rooms at the Hilton London Metropole for £30. Nice.

The ball was fantastic - great food, wine (made better by bribing the waiter to give us more wine), a cool band, a maori dance company, and glad-handing the former Minister of Wine and Cheese (High Commissioner, Jonathan Hunt).

Next day was an early game of rugby at ealing, and then a mad dash back into town to catch the wales vs. england match, and of course the Waitangi Day Circle Line Pub Crawl! Madness.

Wednesday was the Cirque du Soleil Alegria - at the Royal Albert Hall. Fantastic stuff. Very surreal. Some acts were similar to most circus acts (like the one we saw in Shanghai), but most of it was pretty original -esp the clowns harrassing the people in the front(ish) row seats.

Thursday - the Brick Lane experience (cheap and fabulous curry), catching up with Adrian and his young student docutor girlfriend. Mysterious.

Saturday - Rugby, 6 Nations, and a few funky bars in North London with a couple of the lads.

I need a holiday!