London

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After about three or four weeks travelling around on my own, it was time to rejoin the boys in London. Apart from Steve, who was presumably in Asia already by this time, it was back to a full strength crew, not to mention a handful of guys from school that I hadn't seen for a while.
Through poor planning I arrived a few days before everyone else. This actually worked out coz as soon as I got to London, apparently my lifestyle started to catch up with me, and I spent about 3 days in bed at the hostel sick with a fever and doing nothing but reading and eating. I had a cool Hungarian guy in my room who worked at a Pret a Manger (nice deli-style takeaway) and every day he brought me all the free gourmet food I could eat. Went to Buckingham palace in this time which is almost the only sightseeing I did while in London. I'd been to the city twice before and had really seen all I needed to see on those two trips so my only goal this time was to catch up friends and take in a bit more of the London nightlife.
After these few lazy days, finally met up with Luke and Sanga at a pub near Victoria station and we had a good time catching up and swapping stories etc. Found out Sanga is somewhat of a toyboy, seeing a girl in her mid-thirties working as director of Johnson & Johnson or something.
Next day I sat around Sam De Burgh's place with Luke all day watching TV before heading out to meet up with Ryan Vaughan. He'd come down from Slough for the weekend to catch up and we shared a hotel room. It was the first time in probably 3 months I had a really nice place to sleep and the room even had a plasma on the wall. We ended up bouncing around Soho for the night, checking out random places and ultimately ending up at the Walkabout (and yes, I know what you're thinking, how cliche is the Australian in London that goes to an Australian pub chain, but it was a good time).
Next night, Luke used the excuse of his birthday 2 weeks before to get everyone together for a night out. Our big group met at a local pub before heading to 'The End' nightclub to see Laurent Garnier play an 8 hour set. The guest list included myself, Luke, Norm, Shatters, Tom, Vaughan, Sanga +1, Sam +1, Dean Petit, Tom's Canadian mate, and a handful of Sam's girlfriend's girlfriends. Not everyone hung around for the whole night but on the whole was a huge night out and went very late into the morning, ending with Tom and I walking home (no $ left for taxi) for an hour and getting lost.
The next day was pretty funny. Vaughan left to head back home and we checked out of our luxury hotel. I went to meet Luke for breakfest with some English mates, Ollie and Tom, he met last time he came to the UK. What was supposed to be a 5 quid breakfast turned into a Guiness drinking marathon, with Luke spilling a whole pint of Guiness on me, and us getting stuck with a 180 pound tab at the end of 'breakfest' between the four of us. Slow drinking was scolded with the phrase 'get involved!' from the poms. Norm and Shatters also joined us at some point and the shenanigans continued at the pub next door for many hours more. I had some hilarious photos on my camera the next morning, including one of the Norm and Shats trying to get into a pub without their pants on.
The rest of the London adventure included walking around Hyde Park yawning, an excellent curry dinner in Brick Lane, a spectacular steak & ale pie at a pub in Covent Garden, watching the AFL grandfinal and Australia v West Indies ODI cricket at Sam's place, watching Chelsea v Barcelona at a crap pub, checking out the Tate Modern, London and Tower bridge, and Shakespeare's Globe before hopping on an overnight bus to Belgium after 9 days of quality fun in the motherland.

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Photos

Outside Buckingham palace
One of the very few touristy things I saw

Me and Ryan Vaughan
Ryan came down from Slough for the weekend

Late night pizza
Don't ask me why I have this girls shoe on

The Hoff
Good to see this guy is still alive and kicking. Have you seen his music video? WTF

Tom, Luke and Vaughaners
At Luke's belated birthday celebration

Dean, Sam and I
It was a big Hale school reunion

Wiggin' out
Sam De Burgh in his own world at 'The End' doing some crazy dance

Luke and Sanga's girlfriend
She's a bit older than Sanga (a decade at least) but she's loaded. Guess that makes Sanga a toy boy

Tom and friends
Tom's Canadian mate and some random girl from Sydney who got stroppy at us when we weren't dancing

Thanks Luke
Luke knocked the table and spilled an entire pint of Guiness onto me

And the back
Somehow, even tho I was sitting down, the back of my jeans were wetter than the front

The breakfest crew
Ollie and Tom (some boys from Surry) and Shatters, Luke and Norm. Notice Shatters' hand on Ollie's inner thigh- he is so gay

Surry boys
Ollie and Tom, Luke's mates. We met these guys for breakfest at the pub and it turned into a ridiculous all day drinking session

No shirt, no shoes, no service
Didn't say anything about no pants

'The Richie'
I shaved the side of Luke's head so that he could look more like his favourite DJ- Richie Hawtin

Wearing a Fez
??? No reason

Shatman carrying Norm
The sign on the bus station behind reads "You pick up, we pay up"

Late night cooking
Shatters pulling out 'Blue Steel' and Norm's fantastic mullet

Comments

[Ryan]

mate, these blogs are coming thick and fast! makes for enjoyable reading tho. again, i'm sitting at school bored between classes. this livens up my day. london looks like a lot of fun. really need to hit that city again sometime. i also want to partake in a breakfast-cum-all day drinking session. stay safe

[Shatters]

I don't remember giving permission for my arse to be plastered all over the internet? I'm not upset - I have a great arse. Good job.