More Winter Stuff......

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Hi everyone.

How are you all doing? It's been pretty quiet from the NZ neck of the woods recently, but the American sector are coming on strong - thanks for everyone's communication recently, from all regions of the world. We seem to be over most of Winter (I'm not sure what happened to it, as we still seem to have escaped the cold) & the days are a lot lighter & brighter - Spring is in the air! Hope you have all had a fantastic Summer (for those of you in the Southern Hemisphere) - we look forward to hearing more holiday stories & seeing some pics if you have any!

I decided that we have been up to a few things recently that are worthy of putting up on the travel site, despite the murderously long time it takes to make an entry sometimes (when I am not in the mood for it). To enable me to short-cut this process, I have rudely cut & pasted some of the emails I have sent a few of you over the past couple of weeks, so I apologise if I am doubling up on anything. I also apologise for the quality of most of the photos - as our digital camera decided to give up the ghost, we have only had pathetic mobile phone cameras to take pictures on most of the time. Neither of our phone cameras have a flash, which has led to a bit of creative camera work at times, but in general it hasn't been too bad - apart from the blurriness, the huge pixels, the lack of light.....you get the idea. So here is another miscellaneous London entry, of nothing in particular. Hope you enjoy it even half as much as we did!

PS - There's a snow pic here, for anyone who didn't get to see any of the London snow. And if you're talking to Vaughan, tell him to get a haircut! I'm sure he's trying the new John Denver look!

On Waitangi Day weekend we decided to venture into the city for the Circle Line Pub Crawl, some random New Zealand tradition from way back. In fact, we decied to go more to see the Haka being performed outside the Parliament Buildings than anything else, as of course, the pubs would be incredibly manic, with the Pub Crawl starting at 10am. We made it into Parliament Square just after 3pm. It was a nice day, & good to be out in the sun, & to be hanging out in the city by Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, & the Houses of Parliament (& the London Eye/Millenium Wheel), which are all right by each other. We gathered on the grass section in the middle - I was wearing a New Zealand flag, like quite a few other people - I had also not seen so many people dressed in black clothing for quite some time. The Haka was due to start at 4pm, but there were so many people that the Police had to close the roads around the Square - as you can imagine by the surroundings, it is quite a big roundabout, & very few drivers were happy. Most Kiwis seemed quite drunk by that time, & everyone was just milling around until people started moving in the general direction of where the Haka would be performed. Because no one past the second row can ever see anything in a crowd, & because the Haka guys didn't have a microphone, no one could actually hear anything, so the Haka ended up being quite a non-event. Not to mention the girl next to us who was talking at 200 decibels into her mobile phone the whole time, stopping the 100 people around her from hearing anything anyway. I gave her a few choice words on the way out - yay! From there we did, well, nothing - we walked up to Picadilly Circus & had a drink at one of the pubs there, away from the crowds. Heaps of people were asking me why I was wearing the NZ flag & they were quite interested (or at least appeared to be). After a short time we lost interest with the whole thing & headed home from there. Not too exciting - I did take some photos on the new mobile phone I bought Vaughan, but had the camera set to take small photos, which I didn't realise were completely miniscule, so I can't actually upload them - sorry!

The next day we decided to go on a mini road trip & get out of the city, as we enjoy doing fairly often. We had planned to go to Dover, to see the White Cliffs & also the castle there, which is meant to be worthwhile, but saw on the internet before we left that most of the castle was closed for renovations. Maybe another day! So we headed on down to Hastings - all I knew abut the place was that the Battle of Hastings had happened there in 1066. Looking at the map on the way, I saw that there was a town close to Hastings called Battle, which is where the battle had actually taken place (obviously). Battle itself was pretty cool - all the buildings were tiny, & the doorways were very short - even I had to duck for a few of them! Very medieval. Vaughan seemed really interested to go into the heritage site & have a look around the battle ground itself. We bought some tickets & got one of those commentary things you hold to your ear, then went tromping around in the mud for 2 hours. It was quite good actually, even though it was a bit slippery. We learned a lot about the battle - I had thought that the British won there, but they didn't (the Normans won). After trekking around, we had a look around the grounds & gates of the Abbey which was built there by the Normans in memory of everyone who died in the battle. You couldn't go into the Abbey itself (well, you could go into some of the buildings, but not the main one) as it is now a private school. After that we drove on to Hastings, which was kind of like Brighton, with a big pier, although most of the amusements were actually on the land, further down the beach. It was quite some distance along the waterfront & the whole area was quite hilly. You could get some really good views & it looked exciting for the summertime. It was a nice journey, even though it was raining most of the time that we were driving there & back. Unfortunately I also took miniscule pictures of Battle/Hastings as well, but got some pics off the internet for you to look at anyway - sorry, I couldn't find any pics of the battleground itself, but really it was just kind of a hilly field with a few trees in it!

On Sunday 18th of February it was Chinese New Year. We went into the city & met up with Sara, Ash (Sara's Indian Londoner friend) who we have met a lot before, & also Andy, who is an HR guy from school who is kind of in charge of temps like me. He's really young though but a really nice guy. Later on Ray joined us. He works at school too - in fact, he's the head of PE & he used to have a crush on Sara, so she always gets pissy when I invite him - haha! I do it just to ruffle her feathers, but really, he's a nice guy too & we all get along. Vaughan was there as well. We had a look around all the stalls but V & I missed the parade as we didn't get into town in time. It was nice to be back in town (Leicester Square), which is right by Soho/Chinatown - there is a gigantic Odeon cinema where they have all the red carpet premieres too. The place was packed & buzzing - all the decorations looked amazing. We bought some paper dragon things & some firecrackers, which everyone was letting off. We watched the main fireworks display & then went to a bar in the square & had drinks for a couple of hours, then came outside to watch the end events & the finale fireworks, which looked a bit better as it was getting dark by then. After that we went into the depths of Chinatown & went for a buffet dinner. I thought I was going to die from eating so much, even though I didn't eat as much as I thought I would. Ash & Vaughan did us proud & got their value for money (in fact, Ash put Vaughan to shame, as he is short & small, & ate even more than Vaughan did)! We had a walk around & went into Covent Garden (posh restaurant area in town) but after a drink in another pub we all felt too full & ill to do anything else so we went home. It was a great day though & it was awesome to do something different, & have an excuse to go into town. Nice one!

On that Wednesday of that same week we went to another theatre show, which was great, as I had only been to one before (Guys & Dolls, for my birthday one time). We went to one called We Will Rock You. I had heard a lot of good things about it, & it is based on the music by Queen. I haven't really been to a 'modern' musical before (ie Not a traditional musical like Chicago), & at the beginning I thought it was a bit cheesy. But once I got over that the storyline was really only there to give them a reason to perform Queen songs, I just ignored it mostly & listened to the music. The main girl was very funny though, & I liked her the best, along with the lead guy, who was a different one than is usually advertised in the show. Not sure if he was new, or if he was the understudy, but he was very, very good. It was interesting to hear live performances of Queen music (especially when sung by someone else), & they had adapted some of the lyrics to the storyline from time to time, but it was really quite good. It was really loud & I couldn't help but think that it was kind of like being at a concert, which was great, because since Freddy Mercury died of course, it is impossible to go to a Queen concert ever again. The theatre itself was quite cool as well - London has so many old theatres, & because they are still being used, they are well looked-after. This theatre had a smaller stage than where we saw Guys & Dolls, but the upper floor (where we sat both times) wasn't half as steep, & we still had a good view. The lobby was also really interesting, as they had a gallery of really nice Freddie Mercury (& Queen) photos - many of them were taken from live shows, but there were also some personal ones there too, & all of them were really well done & quite impressive & moving. Both Vaughan & I had a really good time.

On the Friday I went to Harrods, as it was the school holidays & I had some time free in the day. It was a bit different than I thought it would be (ie It even sold carpet & lampshades etc) but it was much bigger than I had anticipated, & I enjoyed myself there too. In general, it's kind of like a giant department store - not all of it is unaffordable - it just depends what floor/section you are in. I preferred the 'Arcade' section, which is where you get all the old-school Harrods stuff like tins of tea & biscuits, jars of jam, & all the varieties of famous Harrods teddy bears. I went up to the 2nd floor to see a Rock Collection that was on display for a limited time - famous people's electric guitars & stuff. I also went to the pet section (they only had 2 dogs, 1 rabbit & 1 guinea pig for sale though), & into the musical instruments department, where it was great to see all the grand pianos. There was also a memorial plaque for Diana & Dodi, & a big book that you could sign in their memory - I didn't sign it though as I just didn't know what to say at the time. My migraine was quite bad then & I was kind of on my way downstairs to go home. I wasn't even there for an hour - it was a shame as I would have liked to have looked around more, but not much more, so it was OK. I think it was all the perfumes in the perfume section that did it, as I kept getting lost & walking through the same bit all the time. I was really impressed with the food section though - it was advertised as a food hall (there were several cafes & other eateries, but the main section was on the ground floor), so I had imagined a food hall like in a mall, but it wasn't like that at all. It was also very old fashioned & set up kind of in a boutique manner, with huge display cases of all the food, & you just pointed to what you wanted, which was sitting there on a plate. The whole area was huge, & there were so many exotic foods - all kind of fancy cakes & sweets, as well as food from around the world, & many, many things I had never seen or heard of before. It was kind of like the chocolate truffle stores in Zurich, but of course, much larger, & selling a lot more than truffles. They package everything up in fancy Harrods boxes for you, like they would have done in the old days. It's a bit hard to describe, but the food section really was quite spectacular!

On that same evening (after going to Harrods & coming home to have a rest & try & get rid of my migraine) we went to O'Neill's in Ealing (which is only a few minutes walk up the road from our house), for a late birthday party for Sara - she went home to Aussie for 5 weeks over her actual birthday. It was also a Congratulations party for her friend Shax, who just completed Police school the week before, & also a Going Away party for Sara's other friend, Danny, who is off to Australia for 2 months (we know both Shax & Danny as well). So it was kind of a nice, casual combined thing - Ray & Andy were there too, as well as some other people I know from work/school. There were only a few people there, but it was great to see everyone we knew. It was a pretty average night but we had booked a separate upstairs area which means there is a lot more room & it's far more comfortable, as O'Neill's is always packed in the evenings. Afterwards we went & got something to eat & then everyone went home. Unfortunately by that time it was pouring with rain, so we had a wet walk home, even though it was only a short distance (not short enough when it's raining). A good, hassle-free time, like a night out should be! Always a laugh!

On Sunday we finally planned to go to the Tower of London (& actually make it there this time!). I felt really sorry for Vaughan, as when we got to the tube station he realised that someone had stolen the cash out of his wallet. He had got more cash out than usual so that he had plenty for Sara's party & for the rest of the weekend & to top up his mobile phone, but when we got the groceries on Saturday, Vaughan decided he wanted KFC on the way back, so he took his wallet out of his pocket & then left it in the car afterwards. As we were struggling inside with all the shopping bags in the rain, he then forgot to lock his car. It was just a bad chain of events, as Vaughan doesn't usually carry that much cash, nor leave his wallet in the car, nor forget to lock it. Vaughan was very lucky that more was not taken from his car - he had a whole pile of CDs in there, & his wallet itself was left in the car afterwards with all his cards/drivers licence etc, still inside - it could have been much worse! It's strange to think about who must have taken the money though, as if it was any regular opportunist, you would think that they would see the wallet, open the car door & then just take the whole thing. I don't know who would bother to look through it while sitting in the car (or standing by it), which is about 1 foot from the bedroom window, & then put the wallet back all nicely again - weird! I felt even more sorry for Vaughan because right after he realised that his money was gone, we were standing outside the tube station figuring out what to do & this guy came running out with a guy behind him screaming 'STOP THAT GUY', as he had snatched his bag. I was so close to him & had plenty of time that I could have easily tackled him, but was worried that I would miss him & just land on the muddy concrete in the rain & hurt myself, so I kind of lunged towards the guy to make him slow down & change direction. Vaughan decided to chase the guy & he was yelling really loud as he ran, & then a whole pile of other people started chasing the guy, even some girls in high heels. It was so funny - like watching a movie or video clip. This guy is running & Vaughan is yelling & other people are yelling & about 20 people are running down the road & people start coming out of shops to see what's happening. Then a guy came out of Tescos (supermarket) up ahead (it's a little Tescos, like a dairy) & he managed to grab the guy long enough to snatch the bag back from him. The bag snatcher got away but it was certainly exciting! Vaughan & the guy from Tescos returned the bag to the man it belonged to, & he just walked off looking through his bag to make sure everything was still there. He didn't even say thank you. So Vaughan was a bit disappointed that he saved someone else's stuff from being stolen & the guy couldn't even be bothered to acknowledge anything, but that someone had stolen his own money. I paid for the tickets into the Tower of London instead, to try & cheer Vaughan up - he had lost about £80 overall (about NZ$240).

The Tower of London was good overall - it was totally different inside than I had imagined. It is generally famous for imprisoning people over the years (some of tem famous), & for the torture that also went on there. The walls around the outside have smaller towers attached to them every so often, so there is actually about 12 towers to look at, as well as the main White Tower which is the big one in the middle. It was much better preserved than I had thought too - I thought you would be wandering around in the wet & the dark, & that they would have kept some of it as it would have been back in the day, but it has all been completely restored & houses a lot of museums, the Crown Jewels, the world's largest diamond, an artillery kind of area & loads of other things. It wasn't too busy when we were there, but busy enough, as it was a Sunday. I was glad I didn't try & visit the Crown Jewels in Summer, as you could see all the barriers where people must normally must have to line up for hours! We had a walk around the top of one of the outer walls, & also saw that people actually live in parts of the buildings! It was quite funny to imagine having your home in the Tower of London. We saw some instruments of torture, & went on a short (free) tour run by a Beefeater guy, which was quite amusing & interesting. After learning a lot of English History at school with Lewis (1500 - 1750 Henry VIII/Elizabeth I etc) I found it a lot easier to understand & could relate to it a bit more. Although a lot of the areas weren't very high, Vaughan managed to avoid hitting his head for once. I bought a guidebook which has some nice photos in it too. You can also go down to the vaults which used to go right under the towers, but now they house cafes & tourist stores near the ticket entrance. We spent just over 3 hours there, & managed to get in with some 2 for 1 tickets, so it worked out OK. Although it was a bit drizzly, it was great to walk around something that contained so much history, & weird to think that you were treading on the same ground as the various royal families so many centuries before.

Well, that's about it for now - it was certainly a busy week, & it's a shame we don't have so many exciting things happening the rest of the time. Of course, I can't complain as we are off to Egypt on Thursday. I absolutely dread all the hawkers that are going to be outside the pyramids - I know they will hassle us the entire time (where else better to sell your stuff to tourists than at one of the Seven Wonders of the World?), but I am looking forward to going in general. Am sure I will get another travel blog sorted out when we get back. At some point. I'm not making any promises! We miss you all - please take care xxxxxx

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