Karissa's European Adventure: Shepherds Bush Walkabout for State of Origin Game Two

Hey everyone,

Me out the front of the Walkabout Aussie Pub

I invited Rachael to come and watch the State of Origin game two with me at Shepherds Bush Walkabout pub about 2 weeks ago now. The Walkabout is an Aussie Pub which serves Aussie beers and had all Aussie staff which is kind of refreshing after hearing so many foreign languages and going to pubs where you have no idea what drink to order. The time difference meant that the kick off started at 11am in London at the pub that day which felt so kind of weird. Rach and I called a cab and had a very fun ride to the pub with a Jamaican man who played loud R & B songs the whole way there. When we got there the pub was already pretty packed and we decided to go to the bar and get a bottle a wine to get us started. They were playing the game on this huge projector screen as well as on small plasma TV’s around the pub. The volume was really loud and they had the lights dimmed so it felt just like we were watching the game at a pub at night in Australia which was great! As we were sitting there waiting for kick off I found out that Rachael wasn't actually into football and had never even watched a game of Origin in her life!lol I couldn't believe it and I started explaining some of the rules of football to her while we waited and she was starting to get excited. I always get shivers when I watch State of Origin just before kick off as I'm so excited and love hearing the crowd cheering and Ray Warren's voice commentating. The first hit up is always the most exciting and on the first tackle we started cheering with all of the other Aussies. We ended up drinking about 3 bottles of wine between us that day as well as eating nachos and fatty chips. NSW also won 18-8 which made the day even better for us and I'm sure many NSW supporters back home. We met some nice people at the bar and Rachael almost picked up twice due to her leg being in a cast. Who said people with broken legs couldn't pick up?lol

After we had loads of wine we decided it would be a good idea to go shopping for a few things we needed at the Shepherds Bush Westfield. It is apparently one of only two Westfields in London which is so weird considering they are everywhere back home. Rachael wanted to try and get her iphone fixed so she could get back in contact with the world and buy a few things she needed while she had my help. She wasn't used to using her Canadian crutches and having so much weight put on her shoulders again so the trek to the Westfield proved problematic and very tiring for her ha We decided to get a motorised scooter to travel around in while we shopped which was hilarious to watch at first!After we shopped around we had some delicious GBK burgers and decided it was time to head home. To save Rachael from getting exhausted I walked with her so she was as close to the footpath as we could get and then I rode the scooter back through the shopping centre, down the elevator to where we originally collected the scooter from on the ground floor. As I was by myself on the scooter I couldn't help but laugh at how stupid I looked and I also got some weird glances from people who were obviously wondering why a fully able girl was riding around the shopping centre on a scooter ha Overall our day was great and we loved watching the State of Origin together for the first time in London!