A Plethora of Photos from My Big Day Out

My last day in London and Amy had to go to work. What was the plan? Plan A was to go to the museums and galleries around Kensington starting at the Museum of Natural Science with the giant dinosaur skeletons. Amy wrote down the tube instructions for me and I was feeling confident enough to ride the tube and get out of any strife I might have got myself in if I had got myself lost. The Natural Science Museum was great- swarming with children on school trips with worksheets in hand- it was a joy to behold. Putting my school teacher hat on I do wonder though at the worth of having little kids draw pictures of dinosaurs while on a school trip to visit dinosaurs at such a prestigious venue! Give them a digital camera and move on to more deeper understandings of dinosaur activity. Never mind- I did enjoy watching the teachers in action all working hard.
I couldn't far enough back to get the whole of the dinosaur in the photo- it was quite spectacular.
And very fierce.
I couldn't help but wonder what might have happened to the dodo if well meaning British bird collectors hadn't caught and stuffed dodos as museum specimens.
Next stop was the Victoria and Albert Museum- not my cup of tea- full of a heap of old statues and stuff- I moved on at a pace. The building itself though was magnificent.
Just across the road was the upper crust houses of Kensington with a private shared walled garden- how absolutely spiffing. Kensington was the scene of a bit of a riot a couple of days before outside the Isreali Embassy as protesters made their feelings known about the bombardment of Gaza.
Then I headed off back down the tube with plans go to the Tate and walk across the Millennium Bridge but on a whim I got off by Westminster Bridge and thought I might catch a river boat to Greenwich.
Here I came face to face with some rudeness that made me fume. Firstly I needed to go to the toilet and spend a penny that turned out to be 50 pence. I only had a few coins and a £10 note. Myself and another lady didn’t have enough coins so the attendant rudely told us to get lost and go get some some cash from somewhere ( BTW money machines are few and far between, even in the middle of the capital city ). I gave my money to the other lady so at least one of us could do the business.

The next spot of bother really did send me into a lather. After choosing City Cruises as a provider of the river boat cruise to Greenwich mainly chosen on the fact the the next boat left in about five minutes. I paid my £11 and went straight to the wharf only to watch the boat pull out when I was about 10 steps from getting on! Not looking forward to a 45 minute wait for the next one I went back to the lady in the ticket booth to let her know what I thought of the fact the boat left without me- she couldn’t gave given a fat rats arse about it. I was liveid and fired off a vitriolic text to Amy at her work. Nothing to do then but hang about for 45 minutes- I did ask for my money but but she would not give it.

I fumed for 40 minutes taking a couple of photos of the London Eye from the Westminster Bridge, Then I walked back to catch the next boat and the City Cruise business was redeemed by the young lad supervising the loading- he apologised for going without me- bless him- his toothy smile and apology made the rage of the last 45 minutes completely disappear.
The cruise itself turned out to be a grand one and I saw lots of interesting things along the way to Greenwich. I didn’t realise that this part of the Thames is 60 miles inland but it is still affected by the tide.
Two British icons for the price of one.
An Argentinian family and I swapped camera for a photo opportunity.
The spire at the top of St Paul's was very striking across the London skyline.
From the river you could easily see the Millennium walking bridge as well.
I got lots of great photos of the bridge from the river as well.
This old pub had been frequented for hundreds of years.
I loved the lighting with the dark, brooding skies with the sun falling on the newly buildings.
I had a nice wander around Greenwich with little town lanes that I could imagine Charles Dickens walked down as indeed he did!
I resisted the temptations to go in for a free pint!
It was fitting that the clouds parted as I captured the place where the international dateline starts 0° 0° 0° .
It was getting dark so I had a cone of chips and a Coke for £1.95 from the Fish Restaurant. Much more like it.
Then back on the boat to Westminster Abbey for the striking of the o'clock.

I rested my camera on the bridge and got this decent photo of The London Eye which was a bit of a mission.

Big Ben on Westminster Abbey strikes 6 o'clock at night- brilliant.

You know you're back in England

It had been a wonderful few days in Ireland but we had to return for Amy's work and Rachel had to go back to Edinburgh. It was great to visit with our Irish family and see Dad's childhood home.
We came home to the rain! Seeing we were travelling light we thought we might have a quick look around the iconic Harrod's shop- big mistake! Firstly they wouldn't let us in with our small travel bags and we had to check them in for £3 per bag and £1 for your coat! That's $9 just for holding on to your bag for an hour- and you don't get it back! Next we looked around at the price inflated things- kittens for £1,ooo EACH- that's $3,000 for an ordinary looking cat!! The final straw was when we decided to have a Coke and a shared plate of wedges- a glass of Coke was £3.75 ($10 each)and the tasteless nachoes were £10 ($30). I know food prices here are high but that was WAY over the top for my tastes!
On the way out they had this rather tacky and somewhat old tribute to Princess Diana's last fling. Sad really.

A Wander Round Hammersmith

After a packed few weeks today was a day of rest with Amy going off to work at crack of dawn. I got up late and went for a walk to see if I could find Aaron and Eleanor's flat across the Hammersmith Bridge- Google Earth gave me directions and it was a doddle but no one was home. I will try again.

On the way back I saw this sign in a window that I thought was funny.
When Amy got home we went to the pictures to see Yes Men with Drew Carrey. I don't usually like him but the movie was actually quite good. Here is a link to the preview.

And now I am off to pack my bags for Ireland. I will be only be posting from my iTouch if I can get hold of wireless so will be of line for a few days.

Thanks for the comments- they encourage me to keep posting.

Saturday in London

Today James came by and the three of went of to Richmond for a look around the shops and a late lunch at the Slug and Lettuce down by the Thames.
We had a good look at the Richmond shops and I bought a lovely summery top for £34 which will be nice to have in Bangkok on the way home. We enjoyed another very nice meal. I had haddock fish pie which was very nice.
After lunch we had a walk down by the river. Despite the cold it was a nice afternoon.James took these photos of Amy and I. It was great to get a couple of us together.

Boxing Day

Today we got up late and decided to have a look around the Boxing Day sales at the Sheppard's Bush Westfield Mall. It was as packed as ever. Amy bought herself a new camera. You need a good camera when you are travelling. After that we headed off to Leiscester Square to see if we could get cheap show tickets- we did! We noticed this paving stone in Leicester Square that shows us how far away from home we are!They had a magificent merry-go-round in the square as well. It reminded me very much of the merry-go-round in San Francisco.
It was bitterly cold but we did have a look around Trafalgar Square as it started to get darker- 3:30pm!
I liked the silhouette against the evening sky.
We weren't far from things as we could see Big Ben in the distance. Amy's new camera had 6x optical zoom so got an even better view.
To fill in time before the show started we had a delicious meal at a real Italian restaurant. We had a shared appetizer and then a yummy spaghetti cabonara, followed by banoffi pie and tea. Very yummy.
The show we went to see was Les Miserables at the Queen's Theatre. I love that show and really enjoyed seeing it- in Melbourne, Wellington and now London!

Christmas Day, London 2008

Today we awoke early to make sure we caught Tom on Skype before night time in NZ. We caught up with friends and family via Skype and text. I tried to update my Skype account but it only lets me have 2¢left on my account so I will try again tomorrow. We mucked about at the flat and went for a walk through Hammersmith and down by the Thames after lunch.
Aaron and Eleanor live close by the Hammersmith Bridge- I will look on Google Earth and see if we track them down.
On our walk we laughed at this pavement sign to encourage dogs not to poo on the footpath. Dogs in the UK can't read cos there is plenty of evidence of their leavings!
When we got home from our cold walk Amy cooked a lovely lamb shanks and roast vegetable Christmas tea for us and listened to Britney Spears latest offerings on YouTube.

Christmas Eve in London

Amy had to go to work in the morning so I went into town with her and even managed to get on the tube by myself and go two stops to Oxford Circus for another spot of shopping. I knew more this time about where I wanted to go.

Here's some interesting things about life in England...

• Their Post Offices are in the stupidest and far away places. Sherryn had given me a parcel to post to her son, Scott, who is on London and we carried her parcel around for two days before eventually tracking down a PO. People we had asked about it said there used to be one in such and such a place but they shut it down! You would think they would be in places like commuter hubs- but no!
  
• To go up or down on an escalator you stand on the right hand side so people who want to walk up faster can go on the left hand side. That at least makes sense.
• To rent a video you pay when you return it which means that you have to get it back in shop hours which means that they get extra money cos you can't just drop it back in the slot at a time that suits you.
• Pre-paid power is really dumb as if you didn't hear the beeping that it is about to run out you can be in the shower with your hair all lathered up.
  

On the way home we rode on the top of a double decker bus back to Hammersmith. It was slower than the tube but we got to see more of the Christmas lights and saw more of the town.
While I was wandering a TV crew wanted my opinion about the credit crunch and its affect on Woolworths. I told them I was fresh off the plane from New Zealand and was trying to keep the global economy going all on my own by keeping on spending! They won't be using that footage!It does feel strange that it gets dark by four o'clock in the afternoon. I know the above photo is a bit blurry but I like how it shows the hustle and bustle of downtown.



The video was taken from the top story of the double decker bus as it was wonding its way home at the end of the day.