Fancy A Butcher's At London?

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As we were settling into to our plush Air Asia X seats eagerly awaiting our take-off the captain came over the PA with all the usual pre-flight info: names of crew, expected altitude, weather and wind (strong head-wind) and flight time dooor to door: 14 hrs. What, 14 hrs? For some reason Meg and I had thought the flight would be in the range of 6-8hrs; perhaps because neither of us bothered to look at a map or calculate the time difference of Kuala Lampur and London (8 hrs) plus the ETD (10 AM) and ETA (4PM). Oops!

After our long, long flight, which actually wasn't bad at all (apparently SE Asia had made long travel in a comfortable plane seat with movies seem easy compared to some of our other modes of transport) we tottered out into the arrivals hall at Stansted airport at 5PM local time (1AM in Indo) to find our good mate Jamie waiting to collect us and save us from having to find his flat (that's British for apartment) using public transport. He took us out to his truck and we hopped in thinking we'd head to his place for some dinner and chatting as Meg and I attempted to stay awake until 8 or 9. However, we all got so excited about the prospects of the next four days (site-seeing, pubs, a theme park, fish and chips, football, Cockney lessons, etc...) we thought we'd go take a quick tour of some of Jamie's preferred sites. Stop number one: West Ham United's football (soccer) stadium. It was awesome and on the way I managed to make a hand gesture at a bloke on the street I thought signaled something like hey what's up. Instead Jamie informed me (the following day) it means more like piss-off; he was ready to blow through the red-light if the guy charged the car.
Anyway, we'd been in London for 47 minutes and already we were at a Premier League football stadium. After that we checked out some more taditional sites (the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, etc...) and then headed over to our friends' places (Brad and Chris who were the travelling mates of Jamie in Vietnam where we all met, and who are still abroad) to take some photos outside their houses and sitting on their cars. We loved it and Jamie got a kick out of it. The rest of the evening was spent catching up and eating delicious Indian take-out at Jamie's place. Meg and I made it until 9PM then passed out in Jamie's guest room.

The following morning we woke at 5:30AM feeling pretty good and ready for our first day in London. A couple hours later Jamie outfitted us with hats, gloves, scarves, sweaters, maps, a key to his place, a backpack full of Indian food leftover from the night prior and a phone number to call when we got lost. We spent the next 6 or 7 hours jumping on and off the London Underground and seeing almost every tourist site downtown London had to offer: Big Ben, the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Picadilly Circus, the All England Lawn and Tennis Club at Wimbledon and Waterloo to name just a few. London proved to a fantastic tourist city; well sign-posted and extremely easy to navigate.

Once back at Jamie's we dined on some fish and chips from Jamie's local shop, Oh My Cod, and then headed down to his local pub, Fatling on Firkin (London is filled with places with great names: Beavis Marks, Shoeburyness, Cockfosters, Dagenham Heathway; the list is endless), with his girlfriend Karen to meet some of the Green Street boys and have a lesson in Cockney. Fatling on Firkin was the dogs bollox (the ultimate compliment). It was the quintissential British pub complete with a host of local characters, a wide array of beers on tap and bartenders that seemed to know everyone by name and who were quite friendly.
Over our pints we learned a bit of Cockney. A Cockney is a person who is born within earshot of the bells at Bow Church. These folks have their own way of speaking; a mixture of rhyming phrases that mean different things. For example: apples and pears means stairs; nuclear sub means pub; ping-pong tittly wink means drink; Barack Obama means pajamas; butcher's hook means look. A sentence might sound something like this: I'm going down to the nuclear in my baracks to have a few britneys before my troubles comes home. Translation: nuclear sub-pub; Barack Obama-pajama; Britney Spears-beers; troubles and strife-wife. What a great language.

Day number two in London was filled with more site-seeing, this time less touristy stuff. We went to the Tate Modern art museum, then checked out some of the different neighborhoods. First stop was Covent Garden which has a huge marketplace and lots of shopping and street performers. We hopped back on the tube and then hopped off at Knightsbridge, which has even more shopping and the famous Harrods department store. This time, Megan indulged herself after showing great restraint the rest of the day and made a few purchases. Our last stop was Camden Town for some good curry dinners at an organic cafe lounge and a butcher's (look) around one of London's more alternative scenes. We were supposed to meet Jamie and friends at another battle (in Cockney, battle cruiser means boozer or pub,) but I wasn't feeling up to it and we headed home instead-with a quick detour to the enormous Liverpool underground station.

Our last day in London we had planned on going with Jamie and Karen to a local theme park, but we awoke to some "miserable weather" as their weather person called it on the news and decided against standing in line in freezing rain. Instead, we enjoyed a relaxing day at Jamie's flat watching movies and hanging out. Much to my enjoyment, it even hailed for a few minutes...one of the few times I've gotten to see that in my life! It almost snowed! What a change...Bali to almost snowing!

A special thanks to Jamie and Karen for their hospitality and outfitting us with all the warm clothes one could need (we arrived completely unprepared for freezing cold temperatures, to say the least). You guys are the dog's bollox. We're looking forward to coming back for a night or two at the end of our short stint in Europe.

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Photos

Jamie's car
on our nice tour of London the first night

row houses
gorgeous old London architecture

a famous stoplight
which one do you look at???

The London Eye
this was built by British Airways at the millenium

The Tower of London
where they keep the crown jewels

Matt with Jamie and Karen
at Fatling and Firkin

Comments

[the kemps]

Cockneys!
Hi Guys, how are you both? I see your travels are still going well, Tel is very impressed with your new cockney knowledge as he is real cockney (!) although he is a spurs fan rather than the hammers!!! Hope your both good and life is treating you well, looks like you enjoyed our fine capital city!!! We have not managed any big treks or climbs since the mountain experience but have found waterfalls etc a breeze since Kinabalu!!!!! take care and safe travels Abi and Terry (From Mount kinabalu!)