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Published: February 23rd 2008
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India House
Holding my passport, with Visa, all before 11.30am As I only had 6 weeks in the UK, and that included the festive period. I deemed it too risky to send off my passport for a new visa, especially with the Indian Embassy likely to just decide to stop postal applications again, crazy!
So, we decided that my mam and I would make a trip down to the big smoke and make a couple of days of it. We did a similar thing in July before I set off to Goa, and had a really good time.
Sunday Set off on the Sunday morning, and took a train from Skipton to Leeds, and then up to York, before going back down to London (the mind boggles when it comes to British Rail and their cheap tickets!!) Journey went without a hitch, and arrived in London at about 13.40.
Took a tube directly to Finchley Central, the one closest to the hotel. And, to set off on the right foot, found a pub and went in for lunch and a pint. Then we set off to the Holiday Inn Express we were staying in, after directions form a shop keeper found it no problem.
The hotel was
Holiday Inn
Posing with the funky artwork inside the lovely hotel room! lovely, big, modern and clean room, at a fraction of the price we would have paid right in the centre, but close enough not to be a real problem getting into the centre (once we found the beloved 82 bus anyway!!)
After watching the first half of bolton v blackburn on sky sports in the room, we walked back up into Finchley and found another pub for a couple of pints for the second half. We then walked back down the mainstreet, to a restaurant 'New Saigon'. We thought this would be in keeping with the theme of our trip, as Vietnam is my current top desination to go on my first teaching placement after my TEFL. And, we were certainly not disappointed. The place was really quite full for a early Sunday evening, the service excellent and the food divine. The bill was £50 for both of us to have a four course banquet and share a bottle of wine, share some good chatting and really enjoy.
Got back to the hotel and set the alarm, ready for an early start on the visa trail in the morning...........
Monday Alarm woke us up at 5.45, ouch!
Pink Ladies!
Mum and me having a pre show cocktail And we were out of the hotel just after 6.30, to step onto a FULL bus!! The people of London are crazy!! Took the bus to Golders Green and then tubed it in to central London, as we didnt have time to go wrong, and knew exactly how to get to India House from the tube.
Arrived to a maaaahhhhusive queue at 7.15 in the morning one hour fifteen mins before the visa office opened. It was cold, and our feet were still numb, but thankfully not raining. Mum did the breakfast run, and I had a cup of black coffee and a Gregg’s sausage and bean melt to keep my spirits up. By the time the doors opened at just before 8.30 the queue was insane, far longer than it has been any other time I have been there. When we got to the ticket desk, our passports were numbers 148 & 149. I’m pleased to announce that with the longer queue also came a somewhat more efficient service. All the staff, for once, had a spring in their step and seemed to want to process applications quickly, rather than their normal nonchalant attitude to the hoards of customers eagerly waiting in the queue. It was probably something to do with that law a man named ‘sod’ came up with that the systems crashed just five numbers away from ours, so waiting for the technical hitch to be rectified added an extra 20 minutes to the wait.
We can’t really have any complaints though when before 11.30, and after a good coffee n tasty bun in an eatery close to the Lyceum, where The Lion King is staged, we have both Charlene and my passports back and can set off to enjoy the rest of our day.
As we had tickets for Grease that evening, we had already decided that after such an early start we would take some time out in the afternoon to chill out. So, from India House we took a tube to find the theatre, which was easy to spot with all its luminous pink banners. Then, being a pair of classy birds, we popped in a Tesco Express to pick up lunch, and went back to the hotel to eat, relax and most importantly watch Neighbours, before getting ready and heading out at about 3pm.
We got the bus from directly outside of the hotel right to Victoria Station, for a bargain price of £1.20, which for a 40min journey in London is a major bargain, especially with all the entertainment going on both out of the windows and inside the bus with some interesting characters, it was well worth it!
Once we had made our way to Piccadilly, we found a fab little pub and had a couple of bevies and a snack platter to share. Then at around 7pm we went to the theatre, picked up our tickets, programmes and obligatory t-shirt, before heading up to the bar where Mum treated us to a Pink Lady cocktail each. Which was a mix of pink champagne, vodka and soda, and was simply delicious.
When the show was about to begin, we went and took our, excellent, seats, and continued to sip on our cocktails slightly less classily as they had been tipped into plastic cups for health and safety reasons!
The show was fabulous! The only slight disappointment before it started was the notification that Susanne McFadden of Saturday night reality TV fame was not performing due to sickness. But watching the performance you had absolutely no idea that it was the understudy playing Sandie. The whole cast were breath taking.
Once the performance was done we left the theatre buzzing, and decided that we would head back to Finchley directly and get some supper when we got home. As we sat on the bus the pouring rain did nothing to dampen our spirits. The same can not be said for the 15 minutes we spent walking up into Finchley to try and find somewhere for supper, unsuccessfully. So we returned to the hotel soggy and pretty hungry, but bar the last 15mins had had a brilliant evening. After a couple of biscuits we both passed out after out busy day.
Tuesday This morning we woke up to the same weather we went to sleep with, it was absolutely peeing it down. We had originally planned to go into Central London and shop, but when we saw how bad it was outside, we changed our minds. Traipsing around wet through with our bags wouldn’t be fun.
So, instead we went and had a leisurely brekkie in the hotel. It was a complementary continental one, so I wasn’t getting excited, but oh wow, I should have been! It was by far the best continental breakfast I’ve ever seen, and I stuffed myself silly on crunchy nut cornflakes, yoghurt, muffin, smoked Austrian cheese and French bread, coffee and fresh juice.
We left the hotel at about 10.30, with a plan to get the bus direct to Victoria and get a coffee there to hide from the rain, and head over to Kings Cross on the tube in time for our train which departed at about 1.30pm. However the bus randomly pulls up at Oxford street/Marble Arch and the driver says he’s going no further so we get off. Have a nosey in the massive Primark on Oxford Street, and then get a Starbucks, before being charged £4 each to go 2 stops on the tube, rip off! Will defo get an oyster card if and when I next plan to go to London, otherwise the tube is just too expensive nowadays.
Bought an upper crust Sandwich to take on the train to lunch and set off, direct to Leeds this time, on time and onboard a freezing cold train.
When we arrived into Skipton just after 5pm, Dad picked us up and we went to Westmoreland Street for a fish supper to finish off a lovely and very successful couple of days.
Now I’ve got the visa its definitely Kolkata here I come!!!!!!
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