More from London

Me again!

The day after We Will Rock You I had agreed to wait around at Emma's house for the man who was fixing her washing machine. She was letting me stay there while she was away on a training course, so i was quite happy to spend the morning sorting things out, hand washing clothes (I was getting desperate!) and pottering. I'd forgotten to ask Emma what was actually wrong with the washing machine, but luckily he worked it out and all was good.

After that i headed off to the London Eye, which is the giant ferris wheel like thing. It takes half an hour to do a full rotation and you get great views the whole way round. Security is a big thing here- people get oput of the carriage while it's rotating slowly, then two people come in with mirrors and check underneath the benches and up high to check for bombs etc. Then more people are loaded as it's still rotating. You also have to get frisked and get your bag searched before you board- they even have x-ray machines for some bags. This is normal- every museum etc i've been to has at least bag checks to get it.

Following the London Eye I headed out to meet a friend of Dad's- Annie McGuinness, who is a doctor in the emergency department University College Hospital in London. We had a drink with some of her trainees and then headed out to her house for dinner. Interestingly, of the 8 or so people we had drinks with, only 1 was from the UK (and even then, her Dad was an Aussie). This was quite normal for them.

We got to Annie's house about 7ish, having stopped at the supermarket on the way. Her son had friends over and so at one stage Annie thought we'd have 12 people for dinner (apparently this is normal also!). Her two sons are 16 and 18, and the 18 yr old has decided he wants to own or manage hotels, so he's moving to Switzerland in a few weeks to study there for 4 years! The other son and friends were shaving their heads when we arrived, and there were other people randomly wandering in and out (several boarders live in the house), as well as Annie's friend who turned up with the poshest English accent. It was quite chatotic. At about 10;30 we ended up eating dinner, a chicken curry like dish made from everything thrown in together (Annie and her 18 yr old both love cooking), and then Annie and the dog (a gorgeous, friendly boxer) walked me back to the station.

The following day I headed out to the Imperial War Museum, something I've wanted to visit for ages, having heard so much about it. I spent hours there! The museum was quite interactive, they had one section where they'd recreated a trench from WW1, complete with the smells, sounds and sights of battle. They also had a Blitz experience, in which you went into an air raid shelter and experienced being 'bombed' and then emerging to see the aftermath.

After the erm several hours I spent there I headed to Picadilly Circus to see if I could get tickets to Les Miserables- my all time favourite musical. There were several cheap ticket places, but the cheapest they could offer me was 45 pounds- bloody ridiculous!!! So, on a whim I went to the theatre itself and asked at the box office. The guy told me he had 40 and 50 pound tickets left, or 12.50 restricted view, but when I asked him he said restricted view meant you could only see 1/3 of the stage. I was just walking away when he asked me if I was a student and told me if IO came back an hour before the show started I could get a seat for 22.50 if there were any remaining. I came back and managed to get a dress circle ticket with an awesome view for this price (despite the fact tyhat 5 minutes earlier they'd sold a similar ticket for 40 or 50 pounds!). I met up with 3 other Aussies doing the same thing so we all went and had a bite to eat then returned to see the show. It was great cos the other 3 all loved Les Mis as much as I did, so we met up in the interval and discussed the characters and the actors end everything. It was so exciting to see Les Mis in London, especially with reduced price tickets!!! After the show, I caught the tube home, from Picadilly Circus station, with no idea of the drama to occur round the corner from there only a few hours later.

The next day I woke up and Emma told me there might be problems on the tube due to an unexploded bomb near Picadilly Circus. It turns out that a car bomb had been found at 1:30 or so in the morning outside a night club, about 2.5 hours after I was there....

It was really wet so I decided to go to the Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum (yes, I'm a nerd). The War Rooms had been sealed at the end of the Second World War and so it was not a replica- everything in there was as it was in the 1940s. The rooms were underground and were mainly used during the bombing of London. It was fantastic!

Following that, I went and did a bit of shopping in Marble Arch- Mum I went to Marks and Sparks and got those shirts for you, and then headed back to Emma's place to pack up. We then went out with some of her workmates last night to a farewell. No one seemed at all fased that I was there and it was fun to meet some locals (and non-locals, again there were a large number of people there from all over the world, Aussies, Turkish, Scottish, Irish, American, South African etc).

This morning I moved into a hostel for the night as Emma's parents are coming to stay with her, and I will set off to Cambridge soon to meet Kara's sister and have a look at Cambridge. The weather is awful though, wet as, so I don't know how much I'll get up to in Cambridge!

I fly out tomorrow night and will spend a night in Singapore, before arriving Wed morning in Adelaide. Check back later next week though, and I'll post up more pix.

Cya soon!

Anneke