London Calling....Collect

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Greetings Old Chaps and Lasses! Yes, Meg has sensibly handed control over this most difficult of portions of our trip, the grand bustling metropolis of London, to me, Cameron, your humble blog guide.

We flew into London after the debacle that was Amsterdam, needing some loving from the Mother country. Some of our readers may not know, but Meg is actually half English - I know, I know, she tries to hide it but it's time for it to be revealed to the world. We flew into that grand hodge podge airport Heathrow and took a fast train into paddington station. Not yet corageous enough to dare the Tube, we took a cab to Swiss Cottage where my brother Iain and his nice young 'friend' Carly live. Well, technically we sat in the pub for an hour until they both finished work, but eventually we made it to their place after a nice Thai dinner.

The next day was one of those gray miserable days that England is famed for, so we decided ( all right, I dragged Meg along ) to do some geek shopping at a few of the English game stores. That done, we went to Madame Toussads famous wax museum. The models were quite good - some of them stunningly so - but at £25 / person, it is about £10 overpriced. To kill some time before heading back to Iain and Carlys, we went for a healthy constitutional around Hyde Park, past Queen Lizzies place - loved the window treatments - down Regent street and stumbled into the Oxford St train station.

In a most un-English display, the Thursday bloomed into a beautiful clear day. We started by returning back to Queen Lizzies place to watch the changing of the guards, and amble past parliament, Big Ben and Tony B's crib. We then took the chance to go up the London Eye. The view is fantastic and the bright breezy day that it was meant that we could see for miles, almost to the outskirts of London. Definately a must do if you're in London on a nice day! After stumbling back to Iain and Carly's place, we grabbed our stuff and moved onto my good friends Ben and Nicole - along with new addition to the family Joshua - place. After becoming acquainted with the little gurgler, we all went out for a lovely pub meal of sausages, pies and soup. We then all slowly waddled back to their place and collapsed into quivering piles of gravy.

Phew - this is a long one isn't it? If anyone wants a comfort break, we will resume in a few sentences.

Friday heralded the arrival of my mum, Jan, joining us all in London. We caught up with her first thing in the morning - before she collapsed from Jet lag. After we put her to bed, we went and indulged in a stroll around Hamleys toy store, a childhood highlight for me when I was last in London. Next on the agenda was catching up with some fellow NOVA survivors, Dave and Sarah, who - despite being English - are very nice. We went to a pub across the road from the Houses of Parliament, were we sat and discussed many things. It was great to catch up with them both, even if Dave still forgot to pay me back my 2,000 yen!!!! We then tubed it to Covent Garden for a nice night out with Jan and Iain and Carly. Finally, we cralwed into Ben and Nicoles place and slept like babies.

Last portion coming up, I promise. Saturday was the day of gastronomical adventures. We went to the Burrow ( Burough as well possibly ) markets and saw a huge selection of fresh meats, cheeses, breads, fudges, pates, seafood, veggies, chutneys and of course, teas. In a fit of mad inspiration, we all bought some bits and pieces and trundled back to Iain and Carlys place for a platter extravaganza! Stuffed to the gills, we all sat around and watched some horrible english TV - further confirming that the BBC ain't what she used to be - before making our goodnights and once more trekking to Ben and Nicoles.

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Photos

Big Ben
and Meg and Cam

At the Borough Markets
Cam and the yummy fudge

Comments

[Terri Erwin]

COOOOORRRRRRRRRRRE
hELLO THERE YOU GUYS, i MUST SAY THAT YOUR LIFE IS A TAD MORE INTERESTING THAN MINE AT THE MOMENT. yOU SEEM TO HAVE DONE LONDON THROUGHLY, ITS GREAT ISNT IT!!!!!!!!!, JUST READING WHAT YOU DID MAKES ME THINK OF THE TRIP ME AND MY FAMILY DID. UNFORGETTABLE. fUDGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.. IM WITH YA CAM. IF I DONT EMAIL YOU AGAIN BEFORE XMAS,,,MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR. aM EXPECTING THIS LITTLE RIB KICKER IN BOUT 2 WEEKS, WILL LET YOU KNOW HOW IT ALL GOES. ALL MY LOVE, BE SAFE TERRI

[Sarah and Dave]

English people..nutters
English but nice apparently..is that really a compliment?? Pretty backhanded if you ask me! Glad you guys had such a sugoi time in Londinium. Don't you have fudge in Australia? Tell me it isn't true!!!Great to see you guys and chat about NOVA times and films with Steven Seagal or whatever that slight 'disagreement' was about!! This is purely phoenetic: oh-tsu-carlay-samma-desh-ta..thanks for your hard work and good night!!