Wednesday evening a few of us had tickets to the Aussie hip hop group Hilltop Hoods who were playing at the Electric Ballroom in Camden. Claire, a friend and neighbour of the guys up at the Stables, works for a music company and managed to grab a bunch of these tickets for us, which seemed a fairly sweet deal.

After work we all headed up to Camden and met at The Ice Wharf by the Camden lock. I had already eaten, the others grabbed a bite there, and once we were done it was over to the Electric Ballroom. I'd never been to a gig there before, walked past it many times, but not actually been inside. Technically I've been in there on the weekend when it forms part of the Camden indoor market, but in the evenings it's a performance venue primarily for rock bands and has been in operation for over seventy years.

For a band I really knew nothing about or even any of their music, the gig was cool and enjoyed seeing them live. They only started quite late, so decided not to hang around afterwards but rather head home.

Thursday night was the official opening of the Shard by London Bridge. There was a press release that had gone out that there'd be a laser show and music to mark the opening, so Uns and I headed out there straight after work to guarantee ourselves a decent spot of the building, and laser show.

As the light disappeared, the crowds started to gather, and slowly the lights of the Shard and surrounding buildings began to light up. It all seemed very exciting, until, well, nothing really happened. The lights of the Shard started changing colours, the lasers pointing out in every direction, but it just seemed a bit dull unfortunately. Not quite the massive build up it was made out to be. But got a few decent pictures though.

On Friday evening I missioned home first, dropped my bags then met up with Uns and we headed down to Noel's place who was having a belated house warning party, with the theme of Wimbledon Tennis. I actually just ran out of time to try organise any sort of fancy dress, so was one of the few who hadn't made any effort :( It was still a good night there, until a few visits from the noise police council who promptly brought a stop to the whole party. I guess there goes that relationship between Noel and his neighbour!

Saturday morning started with a Tried & True breakfast then I headed over to Carol's house with everyone else to celebrate Tom's belated birthday. He hadn't done anything back in May, so we decided for force him into keeping one day free for us all to meet up, and today was the day. Carol had decided on a Moroccan themed lunch for the day, which was different - hadn't had much Moroccan food before. We spent a good part of the afternoon and evening up there, always good to see everyone, and at last managed to pin Tom down for an afternoon, even though it was a couple of months down the line.

Yesterday was windy, miserable day around home, with very little to no interest in heading out the house. So instead I spent the day lazying around on the couch watching a mix of the Formula 1, the Tour de France and the Wimbledon Final. It's more TV than I usually watch, but with the weather the way it was outside and a good combination of sport of TV, made for a good lazy Sunday on the couch!