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Published: September 11th 2008
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This has took a while to get online because we have been such busy bees lately. But now, as we have some time to reminice...this is how our return to ENgland from Spain went...
P.S. I apologise for the title - "London Calling". I wanted a song name with London in it, that's all. It was either that or "Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner". But I'm not. Anyway...
London calling
We arrived into Gatwick airport from Madrid and headed straight into central London, making our way to Archway Road and the home of my 2 friends from university - Stu and Clare. I hadn't seen either of them since pre-Thailand and they thankfully invited us to spend a couple of nights round there's when we arrived back in England. Which was nice.
Stu did his PhD around the same time as me and, like me, studied (and still studies) creepy-crawlies. He's a fly-man, I was a moth-man. He studies fly sex, I studied moth parasites. Luckily, the difference between the topics isn't so great that we don't have anything to talk about. Sometimes we don't mention moths or flies for a whole conversation. Anyway, stu's a biologist
at UCL. Meanwhile, Clare's doing a PhD in meteorology at Imperial College. We're so learned, eh?
We met Stu at home and after the 1st real English cup of tea in a while, we set out to the local bank to deposit a bundle of Euro notes that I'd been carrying in my moneybelt like some kind of fugitive. Then we were off for a stroll around Highgate - confused by the side of the road the cars were driving on we were almost knocked down more than once. Later, we wandered over Hampstead Heath (despite promises from Stu, we spied no one having sex in the long grass), and had a drink in a pub called The Spaniard's Inn (aptly). Dinner in an Italian topped off our 1st day back home.
Tourists again
The next day we were tourists again and when Stu and Clare headed off for work we headed to the sights. We're not really strangers to London, admittedly, but it's nice seeing all the old sights again and spying some new ones. We visited Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliment, Westminster Abbey, covent Garden and Trafalgar Square (althought this was largely to use
the free toilet facilities). We then wandered along to Camden and had a few expensive drinks in the World's End pub and ate Vietnamese food in Camden Market. The weather was traitionally unpredictable and drizzly. But then it's tough walking around Madrid when it's 40C!
At the end of the day we headed to a pub near King's Cross where we met up with Stu and Clare as well as Mike, Monica and Dave - more university friends for a big jolly reunion! I was really chuffed that they came to meet us - it's been a while. Shame Becky was busy, but we'll catch up next time!
Thanks Stu and Clare for letting us stay!
Remember you're always welcome to stay with us, wherever we might be!
The British Riviera
After our short decompression in London it was time to head to the next job. Bangkok - Madrid -----Bournemouth.
It's a logical progression....(?)
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Stu
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Any time folks.