Lovin' London!

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My journey from Brussells to London is relatively painless (no bastardish ticket inspectors anyway!). I decide to get a cab from Waterloo station as it is nearing 7.00pm and I can't face the tube! The cab ride takes my past Big Ben where I do a "Look kids, Big Ben" (ref National Lampoon) silently and smile to myself. We also go past Westminster Abbey and I take in the sights of this great city.

I am staying in a hotel in Bayswater, it is across the road from Hyde Park. It is a great location and the hotel itself is converted Victorian townhouses. My room is like a 5 star suite compared to Hotel Belga in Amsterdam!

The next morning I get up, have breakky and begin to explore London on foot. Bayswater Rd joins Oxford Street so I walk all the way along them stopping to look at the cool shops that lines the streets. I was going to an MTV show that night in Leicester Square so after stopping briefly at Covent Garden I catch the tube to Leicester Square. I have got my rhythm back with using the tube and am getting around very easily. I love the square, there are always interesting sights, it's great to just sit down and people watch. I spend a few hours here, getting lunch and being all touristy. I have to head back at around 2.00pm as I need to get back to my room and be back at L Square by 1700hrs for the taping of 1 Leicester Square - Russell Brand's new show.

When I get back to my room my feet are absolutely killing me! I reckon I have done about 10k's walking today alone! I scrub myself up and head back to the MTV studios. It was fantastic! Got a few free drinks whilst waiting and then headed down onto the set. The audience was actually quite small - during the first half I was perched on the stairways but in the second half I was down on one of the couches. Russell Brand was literally within touching distance. He said Hello darling to me at one point, and I felt myself like a nervous schoolgirl unable to meet his eyes for any lenght of time!! He is gorgeous, a lean sex machine I would well imagine. Up close you can see why he is so loved by the women here (his latest dalliance is said to be Courtney Love), but he is also a wonderful dichotomy - all Essex accent but coming out with some really quite eloquent language. That's of course when he is not being down and dirty (which he was a great deal of the time!). The guests were a band called Zuton (quite huge here), Michelle Collins (ex soap star and now starring in Daddy Cool) and Steve Merchant who plays Ricky Gervais agent on Extras and actually co-wrote the office. He was brilliantly funny, all in all it was a great night.

Today it's Thursday and this morning I walked across Hyde Park. It's really quite awesome. This took me to Knightsbrige where of course I then had to go to Harrrods. I love the place, you can spend hours there. I spent an hour in the Food Halls alone, but that did include grabbing a coffee and my first ever Krispy Kreme donut!!

So here I am now updating you all, I am at Leicester Square again, shortly I will go and grab some lunch and then might go to the London Tower and London Eye this afternoon. Ah decisions, decisions!!!

I'm up in the air over whether I will be doing my Thailand stopover now with the instability there at the moment, so will keep you all posted.

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Comments

[bobbie]

u lucky bugger!!
so jealous of you bein in the tv audience . i wouldve of been so excited. im back home now and just got your journals hence no previous comments. great to read about your trip !! stay safe and cant wait to hear the rest when you get back!!