HRH Queen Elizabeth II welcomes Babs to London ... please 'Mind the Gap' ...

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Well kiddies,

For the last couple of days I've found myself in London at the mercy of 'Queen Lizzie' ... praise be to Jeebus I finally validated my God forsaken visa ! After being delayed out of Oz, I ensured that I asked the Customs lass at Gatwick at least half a dozen times whether or not a single stamp in the middle of my forehead (on my visa photo of course !) was sufficient to validate ... and just in case she was wrong, I also queried the lass at the medical post ... talk about 'Paranoid Anadroid' ! But can ya blame me ?

So the lovely Laura served as my host for four days of crazy fun fun fun. Laura has a nice little house in suburb called Golders Green and as she had to work on Wednesday / Thursday, I was left to my 'own devices' to explore as I saw fit. Consequently, I caught up with Chris and Jase downtown for a few beers and some pub food. We hung in Leicester Square and then gradually made our way to Camden Town which would be well sweet in the summer. That evening, I hit that delightful 'brick wall' known as 'jetlag' and consequently, was rude enough to fall asleep whilst Laura was talking to me mid-sentence (sorry ! when will I learn to be a proper gentleman ?).

Thursday, however, I was hot to trott. Whilst Laura was away doing her best to uphold the best British traditions, I hit a few pubs for ales and lunch before heading to Elephant and Castle to look through the Imperial War Museum - it's unbelievable in its detail. On the way, had a great chin wag with an elderly British gent at the pub and whilst inside the museum, had about 1/2 dozen more elderly gents approach wanting to tell me about 'life during the war' ... what gives ? Also, your friendly neighbourhood 'psycho' decided that it was in my best interest to be told all about the mechanics of the 'ham radio' ... "the transitors react with the resistors which react with the ..." ... boy, what gives honestly ?

So that night, Laura was free of the oppressive shackles of her job and it was time to hit the town and paint it. I grabbed a couple tickets to the musical 'Wicked' in the West End and it was absolutely brilliant ... a great, great show - we had £19 tickets in the stalls which were fantastic ! Afterwards, it was time to hit some bars. Now, if I have one gripe about the English method of alcohol serving, it would be that all pubs shut at either 11pm or 12am and you are then forced to go to the bars (which are suitably more expensive). Not to matter, Laura and I managed to get into what appeared to be a work Christmas party and well, didn't manage free drinks however, managed to sink into some leftover tapas (I know, I know ... you're asking 'what is the point of that' ?). Before we knew it, it was 3:30am and we thought that we'd best head home ... enter: "random wanderings around Trafalgar Square trying to locate the right bus ... it's left, it's right, no, it's down here ..." Eventually we made it home at 4:30am ... burning the candle !

After rising at the respectable hour of 1pm, Friday we made sure to be out of the house just before dark (4pm ... ha ha ... well it is winter !). I can't really remember what we got up to on Friday ... bit of a blank ... thinking, thinking - Laura please fill this in with a 'comment' when you have a moment, however, I do know that Friday evening we once again painted the town until about 430am ... I am a trooper (and modest too ... ha ha ha) ! I use this as proof that I have settled into the backpacker lifestyle !

Finally, yesterday. After getting up a little earlier - 11am - we checked out the National Portrait Gallery which has a wonderful array of portraits spanning the entire of British history. After a nice 'cup o' tea' we then headed to Hyde Park for the 'Winter Wonderland' - a sideshow alley of rides, beers, German winter snacks and market stalls ... quite a nice change indeed ! Laura and I went on the Rollercoaster which was both rickety and fast (great entertainment) and also hit this spinning thing that (funnily enough) spun you round and round and round and round and round round and round and round and round and round round and round and round and round and round round and round and round and round and round ... well, you get the idea ! Then it was time for a final beer before heading back to Golder's Green !

Stayed up all night and finally, after leaving for the airport at 330am, was checked in by 6am and now, find myself typing in the departures lounge.

So today is a day of flying. Firstly, Heathrow to JFK and then JFK to Cancun. Hopefully when I hit JFK I can upload some photos, however, failing that, will do so in Cancun ... there are some pearlers in there !

Until next time. Stay well my friends !

Derek / Babs

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Comments

[Chris]

Good luck!
Hey Babs, was great to catch up in London. Good luck with the rest of the trip. Catch u on the flipside!

[Laura]

what we did on friday!
alright mate, just to add in, on friday after getting up well late and me fannying about, we went to westminster abbey, and horrified at the 12 pound visiting price, went to see their 'evening song' choir/mass thing that was cool and meant we could look round for free! then after trying to get into Houses of Parliament (your name's not down, you're not coming in) we went to a local pub for chips, then tootled off home for fish and chips (which we trecked north london for remember?! but you got to see lovely hampstead) and wine, before not going out until about 11pm!!! Then we went to a couple of pubs, a gay indie bar where i had mulled wine, i tried to persuade you to go to G-A-Y but you were having none of it, then back to the 'christmas lights bar' where we sampled some pear drops the night before! so there you go, loads of random details!!! so much fun, i'll try and make our itinery more organised next time hahaha! xxx