Laura Sevenus Swimming Tuition - London

In London, August 2009, after my extensive travels of the UK and Europe, I found myself a managing role at Laura Sevenus Swimming Tuition, London's most expensive (£!) and prestigious swim school in Chiswick (West London).

I found this brief blurb on the business website that sums up LSST's history:

"Laura Sevenus Swimming Tuition (LSST Ltd) is a family-run business operated by Laura Sevenus and her daughter Kirsten.

Laura Sevenus was a South African national competitive swimmer in the 60's. She was one of five South Africans chosen to tour with the American Water Follies as a synchronized swimmer, thus changing her amateur status.

In 1964, her professional career began when she assisted the South African team coach training beginners, and later established her first private swim school. Her understanding of parent's and children's needs led to the creation of a purpose-designed facility for teaching swimming in Cape Town, this is where she developed what is now the Laura Sevenus Swimming Method®.

She has contributed her evolving insight and expertise to various working groups in South Africa, Sweden, Germany and the UK and has been instrumental in defining swim teaching standards in South Africa. She is also a certified aquarobics instructor and Watsu® practitioner."

I was put in charge of managing the higher level students and training the teachers, as well as swim teaching myself, which has been very rewarding, challenging and I have gained a lot of experience and knowledge of small business (Even thought the swim school has over 1200 students).

Laura and Kirsten are probably the nicest people I have ever had to work for and it will be sad to leave such a pleasurable working environment, apart from to many hours in the water and the fact that I want to enhance my career opportunities.

In my short time at LSST I have made an incredible impact on the way the business procedures and conducted and also on the teaching methods used, I am well liked by the staff and the number of students that I teach.

The Adventure Continues

So much ha happened in the past year its hard to put it into writing, I have had the time of my life, met some awesome people and the best girl in the world.. Belinda!:) .. It all started for me back in April 2009 when I left the great land down under and headed to Europe.

I arrived in London being extremely jet lagged, was knacked from the flight and still had to make my way to the backpacker on the train. After a long ride on the piccadilly line I finally got into central London (at least it wasnt on a weekend when they do all those line works lol). I stayed at St Christopher's Inn on Borough High Street near London Bridge tube. After walking through the city a bit before I got to the backpacker I got usual feeling of being somewhere new and exciting, that feeling of adventure that I love. I didn't know anyone so that was sorta scary, I just wanted to hit the town and check out the sights but it was late afternoon and I needed sleep bad so I ended up crashing at the backpacker.

My room consisted of 4 bunk beds but when I arrived I was the only one staying in the room, however an american dude came the next day and a french guy and a kiwi girl after that. The good thing about backpacking is you get to meet people and hear their stories from all over the world and I am glad that I did it.

Day 2 in London I set out to check out the sights, I had an itinerary that I planed out, I went to Tower of London first since it was close by to London Bridge, it was extremely interesting and old, walked where many kings and prisoners had walked hundreds of years ago. It was where William Wallace was kept before his execution. Went on a tour through there and an interesting myth the tour guy said is at least 6 ravens must remain in the grounds of the tower otherwise the monarchy will fall, so they keep 12 in there just in case and clip their wings lol.

The other days where filled with the usual sight seeing things like seeing Big Ben, London Eye, Theater District etc etc etc. I also caught up with David C as he was in London at the time to check out some of the sights with him, we went up to Kensington Palace and around Oxford Circus (Hamleys etc) as well as Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guard. I noticed London was the busiest tourist city I have been so, so many european tourists who can be quite arrogant sometimes by pushing in and playing dumb etc lol.

I left London after 6 Days and headed down to Brighton for my solo journey through the UK before my European tour was to start in June, I had about 1 month of travels to go. Brighton was a really nice sea side town, reminded me of Oceangrove area back hope except our beach is nicer lol Seen some king sized seagulls that steal food out of your hands, little nic nack shops, a really cool peir with arcades and rides on it, and the worlds oldest aquarium. Met some backpackers there, 3 aussies, 2 canadians, 1 irish, 1 english. We all had a drink that night and some got so drunk they decided to skinny dip into the freezing british ocean which they all regretted lol (It was raining all day by the way).

Following Brighton I went over to Bath which was a beautiful city and rich in history, Sailsbury (Very green and beautiful countryside) where Stonehenge is and a really nice Cathedral, checked out Bristol, Cardiff, Birmingham, Stratford-Upon-Avon (Avon river runs a long way, I followed it for agers lol) Went out and seen Shakespears birthplace which was cool. After that I went to Liverpool, I met a good friend up there called Simmo, we went out a couple of nights and he showed me the nightlife which was cool, its a great music scene up there in Liverpool, I also checked out all the Beetles sights and museum and got some good pics. I then went through Manchester, York (Great night life and lots to see, very old and most haunted place in the UK apparently, not that I seen anything lol), Newcastle was next where I went out to Hadrians Wall (Roman ruins in Northern England built to keep the Barbarians of the north out lol) I met an Aussie up there who I went around town with by the name of Marcella, when I got to Edinburgh where she worked she and her boyfriend also showed me around a bit which was good of them.

My Wild in Scotland tour started from Edinburgh and went for 6 days through the highlands of Scotland with 12 people our tour guild was Bruce, very good history and great senery, got some awesome photos and walked through some basically untouched places, we had a kitty where we all chipped in for our food and drink every night and we made our own tucker, such as haggis and black pudding (pigs blood and oatmeal! Yum! lol) was an awesome experience that I will never forget and we had some big nights drinking, ended up swimming in Loch Ness too! Damn it was cold! haha.

Following the tour of Scotland I made my way back down to London to begin my Contiki tour of Europe where I would meet some more great people and have an excellent time over 37 days and over 11,000km in a bus! lol Started out not knowing anyone really, had to go to a pre departure tour where I met a few people who I was going to be traveling with and our tour guide and driver, Ryan and Laslow. Over the 37 day tour we headed to France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Albania, Croatia, Slovenia, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Holland. I loved Barcelona and Debrovnik and Munich the best out of all the places we visited, made good friends with a few Aussies on the tour, had a lot to drink and a lot to eat, I did get a nice tan and experienced many new cultures.

After Contiki Europe it was Contiki Egypt, another awesome tour for 9 days, met a very good friend Chris on the tour, he is also from Melbourne, amongst a few guys from the US, was the most exciting destination I went to over all as it was a totally different culture and the scenery was unbelievable. Chris and I arrived a day earlier than everyone else so we hit up Cairo in a cab, its so funny how they drive there are no road laws, tooting of horns and chipping in, driving down roads backwards etc lol. After awhile in Cairo we decided to head back and chill by the poolside bar (It was stinking hot since it was July, so temps were in the low 40s but very very dry). Our tour started and we headed on a train down to Aswan (an experiance I will never forget, hard to sleep and terrible food that you cant eat, funny company in my yanky room mate too. We cruised up the nile and seen some great sights on the way, the Pyramids at night was a good highlight for me, I did get sick though from the food on the boat and had to sleep for awhile :( one of the best tours I have ever been on though. Will have to catch up with Chris when I am back in Melbourne.

After I returned to London I had to find a place, ended up moving into a house with french people which turned out to be a mistake, I ended up getting a job at the local pool just to keep me going until I could find something decent, which I ended up finding over in Chiswick as a swim school manager for Laura Sevenus Swimming Tuition and have been here since August 09, its been challenging and fun, I am well liked by everyone here but I do too many hours in the water as part of the role and get home late. During the time I have been working I met the most beautiful girl ever Belinda :) We moved in together and are now engaged :)!

In about 1 month and a half we are moving to Australia, its going to be a great experience to share together, and to have a little holiday or 2 in the meantime lol. I'm excited to be able to show belinda my home town and go traveling with her. There is a lot we have to do, though it will all get sorted in time. Its also going to be fun planning out our wedding, there is going to be a lot involved and a lot to decide on, but we both like the same things which is a bonus! :)

Belinda and I are going to be having 2 engagement parties one in London and one in Melbourne so thats something to look forward to, her mum is planning out a get together for us here I will have to set something up for back home too. Lots of big weekends coming up then with all that and Belinda's Birthday too! :)

Looking forward to introducing Belinda to my family and friends, I think she is nervous but she doesn't have anything to worry about :) and starting a new career in Tourism I have decided because I love travel so much, I am going to apply for a number of jobs in this field when I get home, so fingers crossed!

Dean

P.S Bel - I liked the name Calinda so much that I looked up the meaning - The Hindi name Kalinda means Sun (I like the K at the start)

Pizza and wedding planning....and the name Calinda??

Wedding List side one.
Wedding List side two
Lovely CDs,books and DVDs


Today, my good friend Catherine decided to visit the lovely Tooting. This was very exciting as I had not seen her for a month or so.
Along with her came a mass of CDs, some Adrian Mole books and a DVD. After catching up and laughing at things on youtube and some-how coming up with the name 'Calinda' (as you do at the age of 21/22), we decided that we could no longer stand our hunger pains and orederd some Domino Pizza.
With a full stomach, we started to talk about weddings! After a brief look at my ring, Cath decided to devise a list of things that a wedding needed. I was rather shocked at the size of the on-going list! Theme, flowers, band, venue, food, whom is sitting next to whom, rings, hair, dresses, white or ivory, lace or no lace, gloves?????
Why is it so much hassle to plan a wedding? Anyway, we decided that we should look up wedding planners as planning a wedding seems a bit over our heads. This idea was quickly quashed by the price of those people £2000...no way! It was a great relief when Cath said that herself and friends and family will help plan the wedding.

Luckily, Dean and myself have agreed that although we are going to elope one day, that day does not need to be soon and we can take our time in planning it.
The last thing I want to become is a bridezilla!

One thing that has been nagging away at me though is the location of the wedding...Australia or London? Do we have a wedding in Australia and then a party in London for the folks over here or the wedding in London and a party in Australia??



Belinda

The adventure of buying suitcases...in Wimbledon.

Today we bought my suitcases for our trip to Australia. Woke up pretty late (I blame Dean and his lazy ways), got on the bus and headed to Wimbledon. First of all we stopped off at Nandos as we were both starving then we headed to Centre Court (which is not where they play tennis, but a shopping centre).
Dean spent 10 years trying to connect to the internet to see the luggage size allowance whilst I got pestered by a woman who was after my bag...yes lady...I got it from Dorothy Perkins...TWO YEARS AGO, now leave it alone!
After spendin more money than intended we headed off to the bus stop. However, as I beeped my oyster card, the dreaded red spot appeared in place of the usual green one. To my shock and horror I was informed that a one way fare on a bus is now £1.20! The last time I checked, it was 90p, and the time I checked before that, it was 40p. Over-priced is not even the word.

Anyways, buying suitcases justbrings it closer t brought it closer to home that we are actually going! For me, it is a huge jump in my life as I have never done anything out of the ordinary before. Obviously I have my worries, i.e. money, jobs, how our lives will be etc but I am also excited.

I also told my mother that we have booked our tickets for the 1st of June...she was excited to say the least...*clears throat*. Love you mummy.

Belinda