Day 2 - ENG

Cookie says...
After waking I told Julie I had booked us in for an event. It didn't take her long to work out it was a concert playing at the O2. She sounded okay with seeing this and as you'll expect, I'm looking forward to it.

What's more Londonish than seeing a band like this?

But it was breakfast time and it was the first full day so I figured I'd start with my first full buffet breakfast whilst Julz had cereal. I'd better be careful though as I have recently put on one wedding band and wouldn't want to put on another!

As both of us have been to London before, there wasn't a big 'to do list' so we decided to head in and check out a few odds and ends. Julz discovered that during my previous two visits I had missed the London Eye (remember, this is the guy who didn't see the Mona Lisa while in the Lourve) so we went there first. It was certainly worth the visit.

Third time lucky

For lunch we grabbed some sandwiches from Waterloo Station. Over here there are several places like Marks and Spencer, Costa and Pret a Manger which sell sandwiches but they are all really good. We headed back into the Strand and walked for a bit looking for the Twinings store and museum as Julie loves her tea.

Julie had found heaven on earth

Last trip I found the Temple Church but it was closed however this time it was open so we had a look through it. We returned to the hotel where Julz had a snooze and I did some nerd stuff while I watched France play South Africa. France didn't deserve to be there as they cheated their way in, ask any Irishmen, but poor South Africa became the first host nation to not qualify for the elimination stage.

Once rested and showered we headed into Westminster and then Trafalgur Square for dinner (more sandwiches) and then onto the O2. It's an impressive venue. It's an indoor arena with cafe's and bars also inside the structure. Kid Rock was the supporting act. I call it an act because he's not very good and pretends to be something worth watching. Fortunately he wasn't on for very long and the real band arrived on stage.

I saw Bon Jovi at the start of 2008 in Melbourne and while the play list was better then, the show they put on this time was alot better. I think Julie quite enjoyed the concert even though she was a little tired. The screens they used throughout the show were incredibly good quality to look at and moved around in different configurations across the night.

They might have started out in the 80's but these
guys still know how to rock

Once the encore ended (which featured Always, Wanted Dead or Alive and Livin' on a Prayer) we bailed and headed home.


Julie says...
Bon Jovi. He has brought me all the way to England to watch Bon Jovi. This will definately put me up there in the 'my wife is fantastic and willing to watch my favourite band on our honeymoon' stakes.

Today I just loved walking around and reaquainting myself with my old life over here. The Eye is always a nice view and Twinings should definately export more of their tea to Australia (I have never seen so many varities!). Sarah was definately jealous when I sent her photos of us eating a Ben's Cookie and cupcakes at the Hummingbird Bakery (a 'must eat' experience for anyone visiting South Kensington).

Inside the Hummingbird Bakery

Sarah started the first Ben's Annonymous
for those who miss Ben's Cookies

And then there was the concert. I must admit, it was quite an amazing concert - Cookie is not joking about the screens (they were the only thing I saw all night due to us having seats on the floor and my lack of height). Although I would never admit it to him, I did enjoy myself, and would even consider going to see them again when they come to Brisbane in Dec this year...

Day 1 - ENG

Cookie says...
When Julie said that she wanted me to organise our honeymoon and it was to be a surprise for her, I was confident that I could come up with something that she'd like. However, once I had started booking stuff, I was unsure that she would be thrilled with a few things. Firstly, she had wanted to go somewhere she hadn't been before and secondly, I didn't know how she'd like the initial commuting stage.

So, for me today started with some trepidation as we had three back to back flights heading to somewhere she'd already spent 11 months. Both of us had flown with Emirates previously and apart from feeling as though we were in the fridge compartment, this experience was another good one. We ended up sitting in the last row on the plane (courtesy of some bargain basement Flight Centre prices) and had a couple next to us from Burpengary (named after my uncle Gary who used to burp alot) who were also off to our destination.

Over the last few years, Julie has discovered that my superpower is that I will meet people I know wherever I go and this flight was no different. When we were boarding in Singapore after a 30 min stopover, I noticed that we had queued behind Michael Stepenyazi and Sophie. I knew him from soccer and it turned out that they had been married on the same day as us and were travelling to Italy for their honeymoon.

We made it to Dubai and changed planes. This time we noticed that our boarding passes had us in row 79 which if it was on another Boeing 777, we'd have been perched up on the tail wings. It turns out we were at the back of the second last section on an A380. These planes are truely huge and I ended up sitting next to a guy who worked for Emirates who had apparently put alot of money down on another 24 of this birds. He was heading to London to hang out with his mates at the Glastonbury Festival.

Once we landed we had a bit of a delay due to the airbridges not functioning. Border control was easy and the old habits of getting to the tube kicked in. We checked into a place in Kensington and had dinner there too. Being summer it was incredibly bright at 8.30 in the evening but we were so tired it didn't matter so headed straight to bed.


Julie says...
This is the first time I have ever caught a plane at 2:30am, and I must admit when Cookie told me the time we were flying out, I doubted his planning. However, my caution was unneccessary, as leaving at ridiculous-o'clock in the morning worked well for the 3 flights we had to take. On both the Singapore and Dubai legs of the flight, Emirates decided that all passengers should experience an Artic winter, and so even with multiple layers of clothing, I stole Cookie's blanket (having a husband now certainly comes in handy). Otherwise, the trip over was quite uneventful and I was happy to see merry old England again.

Day 46 - ENG

Another day lost to commuting today. Rose at 5.30 to finish packing and said good-bye to Gavin. Yesterday he said that gale force winds and rain were expected for today and the weather forecasters weren't wrong. I consider myself lucky to not have experienced much in the way of typical weather up until today so i prefer to think that England was crying that I was leaving. The end result was me and three bags being rather damp by the time I'd dashed to the tube.

When I rose I check the status of the tube and it was all good however just before I was leaving, one of the lines had minor delays and by the time I was on the line, both Wimbledon and Piccadilly lines had issues. Of course, those were the two lines I needed to get to Heathrow. Was this England's way of telling me to stay? Finally made it to the airport and checked in and waited to depart. The winds had affected flights all over the board with cancellations to destinations like Rome and others still in doubt. Our flight to Helsinki experienced only a minor delay and so off to the skies with Finnair.

Had a good old chin wag with a Finnish couple next to me who had just had a belated honeymoon to Bali and were on the way home after changing planes in Hong Kong, the destination of my connecting flight.

Similar conditions to the Bris - Syd flight
but being on the otherside of the world, it was all upside-down

Landing was without issue and I made my way around the terminal to burn some time. When I went to board for some reason my ticket wasn't initially but after a ten minute wait, it was all sorted.

This however was the bumpiest ride I'd ever had but it wasn't due to turbulance. For the first time in a long time I had an isle seat with our middle row of four taken up by broad chested adult males and as it seemed that I was invisible to everyone, it resulted in people smacking into my shoulder whenever anyone was moving around. Eating out meals was a tedious process too.

Nine hours and no sleep later we landed in Hong Kong around 8 in the morning.

Day 45 - ENG

Julz, Sarah and I were off to HTB again this morning for church however knowing that it was my last full day in Lomdon, it took the shine of anything we did and put me in a bit of a mood. After making it to South Ken we shared in Sarah's religious activity of having a Ben's Cookie. I'm sure I mentioned it before but they really are very good.

This morning Tim Hughes was leading worship which was nice to see. The worship team had more depth which added a richness to the music but that didn't drown out the congregation. Sang both familiar and unfamiliar songs including some songs with actions which the girls got into.

After the service we met with Gavin and headed to a pub. Service could have been better and we were squished into tables better suited to little people however Sarah and Julie said they were fine. Once that was over, we observed another of Sarah's pilgrimages to the Hummingbird Cafe. This time it was Gavin who bought the bessa block sized chocolate brownie and we retreated to Sarah's to sit, eat and talk.

As Julie lives so far away, she had to leave mid afternoon. Much to Sarah's dismay, neither Julie or I shed a tear although we both knew that it wasn't easy and knowing that we'll see each other again mid year for Brookes wedding gives us something to look forward to.

Gavin and I finally left and once at his place, he, Jo and I ordered some Japanese and we sat watching crap TV and being nerds on our computers.

Set my alarm early as I had a flight out at 10.20 and it was a bit of a hike to get to the airport especially when the tube is quite the unknown factor when it comes to getting somewhere on time.

Day 44 - ENG

We had a few things to do today but Windsor Castle was our main destination. Julie, Sarah and I met Lauren and Kristy at Clapham Junction and we trained it to the station near Windsor and Eton. First stop however was a cafe for some morning tea. Shortly after we reached the castle and joined a walking tour around the main precints. The Royal standard was flying which indicated that the Queen was in residence however as she didn't come greet us personally, I doubt she was and someone stuffed up.

Can you tell I washed my hair today?

One of the popular things to view there was the Queens Dollhouse. I'm not sure it was entirely all it cracked up to be but good to see none the less. One things for sure, if the Queen can dedicate a chunk to it then I can dedicate a room in the townhouse to Lego! Sarah was keen on checking out the chapel there as King Henry VIII was laid to rest next to Jane Seymore as she's mildly obsessed with this Hen-Rye chap. Actually, tonight she went and saw the latest movie about him (or the Boleyn sisters really).

I found the throne and I even sat on it!

At this point Julie and I left as she had an appointment around Clapham for a dress fitting for Brooke's wedding. On the way out I managed to tick another of my tourist check boxes much to the embarassment of my better half.

Josh... do you think I'd make it as a cop?

After arriving at Clapham Junction, we headed for the dress shop via Nando's. I was only a late convert to Nando's back home (thanks to Josh, Jonno and Richard) and we both enjoyed our meal. We made it to the shop and Julie tried on some unimaginable number of dresses and asked me for my expert opinion. She fancied three of the six she had to chose from and managed to reduce it to one which did look good on her.

The others returned from Windsor just as we were leaving the dress shop so we headed to Sarah's to get ready for tonight. Sarah was off to the movie's and Julie and I were heading into town for dinner with Kate and Tim. Kate had suggested a Latin place and we met them there. Nice food and good company made for an enjoyable dinner. Kate and Tim had a party to attend afterwards so we bid them farewell and walked along the Thames, over Westminster Bridge and around Westminster Abby before heading to Victoria Station where we bussed it to Sarah's. We beat her home so we packed our gear for tomorrow and hit the hay.

Another drunk looking Kate photo : )

It kinda looks photoshopped but trust me, we were there
and it's just a rare dud photo I take

Day 43 - ENG

Although we woke on time, it was still a bit of a rush this morning. Julie gets a lift to school with Natacha but the time she get's to the house varies so Julie always rushes to get ready and then has to sit around for her ride. Natacha arrived and I got a lift to Chafford Hundred. I was tasked with getting tickets for Lord of the Rings from a half price mob. Sadly and worryingly enough I kinda got lost coming out of Fenchurch St. Station. There's two exits and I could never work out where this other one surfaced. I wandered around the stupid gerkin / cucumber / whatever building for about 20 odd mins. I was annoyed and worried as I thought the ticket place opened at 8 and I knew I'd cop an earful if I didn't secure us seats.

Guilty as charged!

Finally got onto the Metropolitan line at Aldgate and man, that station sucks. Circle line is intermittent and hardly any Metro trains operate. I think I was there for about 20 mins before I got out. I ended up going some silly direction to Kings Cross and then down to Leicester. Finally made it there around 9:40 and turned out the place didn't open till 10 and I was about 10th in the queue. All good in the end, got the tickets and then I headed to Hampton Court Palace.

The entrance to the palace

Sarah had been at me to make sure I'd visited this place. It's a court that had been built by Cardinal Wolsey but was confiscated by figure in Sarah's eye - King Hen-Rye VIII. So I trained it from Waterloo and got there around 11. It's an impressive place in a nice area with some neat gardens. I could understand why he took it from Wolsey when he branded him a traitor. I did two tours which although had different names, went to the same places and talked about the same stuff... bit disappointing. Strolled around the rooms and then the gardens. I even walked through the maze and got to the middle.

One of the courtyards

Part of the gardens

I bailed and tried to get to Temple Church before four when it closes however when I arrived, it turned out that it was closed today anyway. I don't know much about it apart from it being the only surviving circle church in England, was built by the Templar Knights and featured in The Da Vinvi Code. I still had some spare time so I squeezed the National Portrait Gallery in until I was to meet the othres. I don't know which one however Sarah says one of her earlier house mates has a photo in there which the gallery bought after it was displayed. Quite a bit of stuff there too.

Temple Church. Just like Wales... it was closed

Then it was time to meet Julie. She was coming in later than desired but we met and found Sarah and grabbed a bit for dinner and then we were off to West End for the show. And what a show it was. Well, it was pretty good. The orcs were moving around with either arm or leg extensions allowing them to run along like apes or bounce around and do flips with the fight scenes. It (like the books and movies) was long but it moved with pace and unlike the other two shows I saw with Sarah, I didn't drift off.

After it was over we headed to Sarah's to stay as tomorrow we were off to the home of the Queen - Windsor Castle!

Day 42 - ENG

Yet another late start today and this time, I missed the train I was aiming for at Fenchurch St. by just a single minute. Oh well, not to worry as it gave me a chance to have some lunch and besides, Julz was on bus stop duty.

The plan was to meet Julie at her school after hours as on Thursdays a handful of teachers and staff get together and play some football on the astroturf out back. Apart from all the walking I'd been doing, I'd not been to active and after last nights game, I was looking forward to playing. It was good fun and some of the players were actually quite good. I managed to wind poor Big Dan (and we were on the same team!) however he gets hurt in every game he plays and Little Dan played in his pants, sorry, trowsers (pants over here are underwear) and socks. There were goals a plenty and fun was had by all.

Once that had finished, Julz, the Dans, Amy and I headed out to dinner. Initially we seated ourselves at some Italian joint but Big Dan was restless as he wanted refillable drinks so we did a runner and headed to TGI Fridays instead. It was busy (and the Italian place was not) but they squeezed us in and our meals arrived relatively quickly. Once again Little Dan dropped us back at Julz place and I said farewell and I might catch him soon as he's spending six weeks or so here mid year.

The last thing to do was to sort out what was happening tomorrow as we'd decided to go see a show and eat beforehand. It was nice getting into bed. My body was sore as I think I'd strained twice the number of things I usually do when I play sport. No sympathy from Julie either, all I got was 'I'll point and I'll laugh'.

Day 41 - ENG

Really slow start to the day today as I had some photos and blogging to catch up on. Mind you I only had three things I wanted to do: U23D this arvo, time-lapse at dusk and the football tonight.

Finally stepped out at lunch and trained to Waterloo. I spied some football game being played near the station so walked around to watch it. I thought it might have been some school comp however I soon found that it was adults playing and I suspect it was a company comp. Only saw about 5 mins worth and from what I saw, the standard wasn't too crash hot, they were obviously employees reliving past glories and sadly enough... I'd have fit right in!

I moved over to near Tower Clock to check I could find a decent spot for the time-lapse. Found an okay spot however I'm still not sure how it will turn out as I didn't use the best settings and the angle's a little odd. Oh well, you can only do what you can. It just gives me an incentive to come back again!

The mighty Thames... it's as 'clean' as our Brisbane River!

Headed to the IMAX opposite Waterloo station and booked my ticket. I grabbed a bite to eat and sat down for the show. Tell you what, it was an impressive show. I've now seen them live and own their two recent concerts on DVD and this experience still blew them away. Murray... you'd loved to have seen this hey! Stereoscopic vision is seriously cool and the depth perception was amazing!

Once it was over I headed straight to my vantage point. This time I was up against a statue so didn't stick out like a sore thumb so no police interest. Sarah met me so I packed up and we tubed it to South Kensington. She took my gear to her place and I met Gavin and Jo (albeit a little late) at the shopping centre near the stadium. We found our seats and proceeded to enjoy the game. Chelsea won 3-0 and were a goal up after 5 minutes through Ballack (Germany's captain) and Frank 'Fat' Lampard 20 minutes after that. We had a goal in front of us in the second half. Once again it was amazing to listen to the crowd chanting away either supporting Chelsea or giving Olympiacos a right serve including one song asking if they are West Ham in disguise.

I think this time-lapse has turned out okay, shall wait and see

Stamford Bridge in all it's glory

We also felt like yo-yo's as you have to stand to see once people in front of you stand up. You usually stand for two things: a goal / tense moment in the game or someone starting a chant that if you love the team you stand up. I had a fine specimen of physical form (a man mountain who must have been locked in the pie truck as a youth) who kept standing up for song meaning I needed to stand resulting in an entire bay reacting to his every move.

After surviving the rush to the tube, I picked up my gear from Sarah's and returned to Gavin's for the night.

Day 40 - ENG

Yet another touristy day today. Scored a lift with Natacha who picks Julie up of a morning and she was kind enough to drop me off at Grays station. Made it to Tower Hill where I wandered around seeing if there was a decent vantage point I could use for a time-lapse of London Tower and had a crappy English breakfast.

Picked up Sarah's keys and dropped off the suitcase at her place. I then figured as I was in her neck of the woods, I'd go check out a few things around there. First on the list was the Natural History Museum. It's pretty big and has several sections like dinosaurs and marine life and stuff but a bit of a highlight was that they were hosting some Shell sponsored wildlife photographer of the year event so I check it out. There was some amazing photos in there with interesting stories to go along with them.

As it was actually part of the same building, I headed around to the Science Museum. It was pretty interesting and spread across several floors. There was space stuff on the bottom along with other machinery and stuff. Left level had boats and stuff including decent sized models of countless passenger liners and war ships although I didn't see one for the Titanic. Above that there was stuff for medical developments and for flight. People whinge about wars (and rightly so) however as necessity is the mother of all invention, without the world wars there would be many developments like radar, flight and engine technology and rocket power which would not have been invented and refined during the times which they were.

Headed to the VNA (Victoria and Albert) Museum next which has a hugh collection of just stuff. There's cartoons (actually big paintings in this case by that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle inspired artist called Raphael), iron (there was some intricate stuff here however ironwork is kinda lost on me), glass, architecture, regional exhibitions, sculpture and other things that people might like to look at.

Then to bide my time I wandered along one of the high streets. Ended up strolling into Harrods and it was pretty apparent that I was the pleb amongst the crowd. Managed to locate the entertainment section which had a Pioneer display. Us Aussies usually get screwed with pricing however unless it's just Harrods, we aren't the only ones. The screens I'm contemplating between for the townhouse were almost the same in pounds! So we're not doing too badly.

Met Sarah and bought dinner for later. I headed back to Gavin's to get the notebook and then had dinner at Sarah's and stayed the night.

Day 39 - ENG

Cookie says...
The last time I spent most of the day at Julie's, it was pretty much a dead day with the two highlights being seeing a movie with Gavin and Sarah... and waking up...

This time it was different. Julie took the day off school as her sickness had overcome her. Turned out that the other teacher from her trip had also called in sick. Sleeping in was the order of the day until we decided that the washing had to be done and there was a fair bit to do.

The rest of the day was made up of countless cups of tea and water, we watched a few Planet Earth movies (they're truly amazing to watch and are on the list of high def titles I will buy should I ever move into my townhouse), I made a few trips to the shop and cooked us some pasta for lunch. I hadn't cooked this dish for close to a year so I was a bit worried as although it's fairly simple, it's easy to get wrong if the timing isn't right. Fortunately Julie liked it (although her sickness might have stuffed her taste buds) but it was pretty yummy.

So, this time I really enjoyed hanging out here and I think Julie did too as I was here to see to her every need : )

Day 38 - DE

Cookie says...
Once again Adam was up before us and with breaky done, we were outa there. Decided to find some botanical gardens which we walked around for a bit. Just before we left we descended upon a playground and had some fun with some of those seat see-saw's for a bit of mindless fun in the morning. Thought we'd try some tough laps for a bit and take in what the city looks like and then after dropping the car off, we headed for some lunch. We wanted to find a typical German pub or beerhaus however all we could manage was a cafe. Wasn't the smartest of moves as we bussed it there and hoofed it back at a great rate of knots to try and make the next bus to the airport. And that was a no. So we sat in the railway station for a bit and then we bailed.

Trip to the airport was quite a way however this time we could see the country side. Offloaded ourselves, checked in and sat around waiting with a few hot chocolates. I picked up some chocolate duty free too. We boarded our plane and as this airport probably wasn't the biggest and busiest around, the pilot was able to taxi and leave in one swoop and just to show he was either good, tough or a bit of a cowboy, he'd actually gunned it while half way around the corner coming onto the main drag. The landing at the other end was a bit sudden too. I think the gound snuck up on them but we hit hard and stuck.

Exited, boarder control came and went and then found the baggage and high tailed it for the expres train to Liverpool Street Station. Initially I'd planned on staying at Sarah's however as Julie was sick and it was dark, I decided I'd see her home instead. Turned out there was a bit of track work going on so we had to offload prior to Liverpool and then tube it to intercept the C2C service that left Fenchurch St.

Arrived at Chafford Hundred, picked up some Chinese for dinner I had a bit of a chat with the other housemates of Julie's and then called it a night.

Day 36 - ENG

Cookie says...
Continued being the tourist today and headed to Lords. The tour is more about the Marylbourne Cricket Club however this is where they house The Ashes and stacks of other historical cricket items like two stump wickets and curved bats. The tour included rooms like The Pavilion, home change rooms, the stand and the media centre. It was interesting to note that the MCC is the governing body of the laws of cricket, not the ICC.

He's got him... yes!

I'm definately listening to some 12th Man when I get home.

Once that was over I headed into town to meet Julie. The two of us were heading to Frankfurt with Sarah and one of her work colleagues for the weekend and we had to get to Stansted early to change the name on the ticket from Gavin to him. Everything went smoothly until we actually flew. It was the roughest flight I've ever been on. We had a hefty tailwind which although delayed it's arrival in London, made for a quick flight to 'Frankers' which in itself was like flying to Sydney - no sooner have you reached altitude and then you're descending to land.

For the last half of the flight it was a bit rough but there were a couple of moments where the plane dropped suddenly resulting a chorus of screams from half the cabin, especially the American school group that was parked around us. The second we landed the cabin was full of clapping although Julie rightly pointed out that clapping should be held until we've actually stopped moving because anything can still happen... has anyone seen that footage from Hamburg? Check this out! That wasn't us but the same day in the same country.

We experienced something else at the airport. Our only piece of checked in luggage had arrived and been collected by Julz and I before Sarah had passed through border control and it was in her name - I don't think this has ever happened in the history of commercial flights. After what we thought was a quick start to the trip we were then let down by the bus which just sat there for half an hour before we left. I think the driver was more interested in eating frankfurts instead of actually driving us to Frankfurt (because in true RyanAir tradition, we've landed 1.45hrs outside of Frankfurt). The bus ride was uneventful and we mostly dozed but when we got off, we had to hoof it several blocks in light rain to find our hotel which looked like it was closed but thankfully was not.

Checked in, showered and slept as it was after 1 in the morning.

Julz says...
It seems that every trip I take with Cookie, I am meeting him at a random train station straight from work. This trip was no different. After leaving work early (sshh, don't tell!), we met at Fenchurch Street Station and headed to Stansted early to change the flight details in typical RyanAir style (must be done in person - no-one would answer the phone and negative on internet check-in). That all done, we headed to the pub inside the airport (as all good English airports have), and I drank cidar whilst watching the highlights of the Aussies being beaten by the Indians at cricket! How disgraceful!

As was mentioned, the flight wasn't the greatest, but I had complete trust in the pilot and ground-crew, and figured that if they didn't know what they were doing, there wasn't a great deal that screaming would do about it. (It seems that Cookie is a nervous flyer, for any of you who need blackmail info for future reference.) Once off the plane, the charming 2hr trip on the bus at some stupid hour of the night meant that Cookie yet again got to fall asleep on public transport - I'm beginning to wonder if I am really that conservationally boring...

Thanks to Adam, his trusty BlackBerry and Google maps, we found the hotel with relative ease in the rain and all headed to bed.

Day 35 - ENG

Today I turned into a tourist again. After bussing it to Chafford Hundred station and training it to Fenchurch St station, I walked to St Pauls along the northern side of the Thames. Not sure who they were but as I approached a crossing near the cathedral, a police escorted vehicle came through. After I crossed another one came through and I think that as it was the same looking vehicle as before I think they were just the escorts and I missed the middle car or it was the same one and they were lost.

Walked into the cathedral and had a look around. It's the third or fourth church built on that site as the others had burnt down at across the course of history. Unfortunately I couldn't find the access to walk up the dome so I missed out.

Cathedrals all look the same but they are still impressive to look at

I left and was thinking about heading to Lords but I scrapped that in favour of securing tickets for Gavin, Jo and I at the Chelsea v Olympiacos match next Wednesday. Found the ground and while waiting to do a tour of the stadium, I checked out the shop. Plenty of gear there football hooligans would love to own.

What started out as an atheletics track was turned into this

Did the tour of the stadium and managed to get up close and personal with the jerseys the players wear. Apparently Chelsea are undefeated at home in the last 70 odd matches which is a league record. They were spraying the ground so it was off limits to everyone as it might cause an alergic reaction however the tour guide said that being a Liverpool fan, I could roll on the field to my hearts content.

These are jerseys of two of the best players in the EPL

Afterwards I went back into town to Trafalgur Square to scope out a spot for some time-lapse. My lens (with a wider angle lens attatched) wasn't quite wide enough to place it at the foot of Nelsons memorial and still get the full width of the National Gallery so I went for a diagonal angle instead. Started to have a stroll around the gallery and there's some very nice paintings and things in there.

It's a big square which was full of Pommy cricket fans last time I came here

I didn't quite go for as long as I'd hoped as I was meeting Sarah and her sister Bronwyn (currently living in New York) for dinner but I think it still turned out well. Only sucky thing was that smokers seemed drawn to just below where I was positioned. I'd had Italian for lunch and had more Italian for dinner. I'm just thankful that I'm walking around a fair bit at the moment or I'd hav trouble fitting into my seat on the way home. After dinner we saw Bronwyn to where she was staying and headed back to Sarah's.

Day 34 - ENG

Bit of a late start today as I wanted to catch up on the blogging. Also took a call from the mortgage broker and there's another damn interest rate rise coming through. At this rate I think I'll get my townhouse in the year 2015 and I'll be paying 18.5% interest!

Dropped some stuff off at Sarah's and it was nice to be able to walk around town without a heavy load on my back. So I headed to the transport museum which was quite a good thing to see. It covered the evolution from horse drawn carts and ferries to trams, buses and trains. WW2 had it's impact and half the employees headed off to fight so the women stepped up to the plate. They also noted that the war didn't stop the transport system although 60,000 bus windows were damaged (excluding destroyed busses) and tube stations were used as shelters, although that didn't entirely mean you were safe from the bombings.

Did some more random walking around town then picked up my stuff from Sarah's work and trained it to Chafford Hundred where I met Julie at a cafe. Actually, I was so focused on getting to where I had to meet her I managed to walk right past her in the queue where she was ordering herself a drink. Whoops! She had some things to sort out and afterwards we went to Wagga Mamma's for some Japanese which was pretty good.

Day 33 - ENG

Ahh... today was a bit of a 'mission' day. If you really want to hear about it, email me however after I tell you that Sarah would call me a 'sap' and Gavin would ask 'why the hell did you do that', I don't expect to hear from anyone.

The next part of the day was to be seeing U2 in 3D at the IMAX however as the C2C train service had my first train running 45 mins late, I didn't get there in time so I ended walking around the Tower Hill area.

Makes me want to go find my castle Lego

Had a late lunch and headed to my vantage point for some more time-lapse. No police interest this time though.

No points for guessing what I did the time-lapse off

Bet you didn't think it spun this fast!

Afterwards I managed to make it back to Tower Hill to join a Jack the Ripper tour. Which was a bit of a shame as it proved to have been an awesome night for photography. It was another 2.5hrs of walking but I'm not complaining. It was quite interesting and I've had too much hot chocolate and good food to not want to walk it off. This tour is run by ex-Befeaters and it was well presented. The guy built up the tension nicely and at one point I thought it was going to get messy because two other rival tour groups arrived at the same location at the same time as us. It looked like it was going to be a Mexican Standoff, like what they have in Mexico sometimes. They also include their own spin on it including what the FBI (Federal Bloody Idiots?) profilers think. Turns out it was Colonel Mustard in the dinning room with the lead pipe! Just kidding, if you come over, it's a tour worth doing.

Day 32 - ENG

Not quite as touristy today as others. After leaving Gavin's place later than I'd hoped, I made it to Westminster and setup in Parliament Square (a big traffic island near Parliament that seems to have no legal means of getting onto it). I sat there for 2hrs doing a time-lapse of Clock Tower.

Then I walked around for a while including walking through Chinatown (it seems all cities around the world has one of these). Had some food and hot chocolate near Sarah's work then made my way back to Westminster again.

This time I setup my gear on the opposite side of the Thames looking at Parliament Houses and this time I managed to attract the attention of the constabulary. I had two pairs of officers have a chat to me about taking photos and loitering in a security zone and under Section 44 of the blah blah blah. The first bunch took some details and the second pair were just checking up on me. Had a coupla good chats with them though. One of the offices said how he wanted to come to Australia to visit but was afraid of all the big scary snakes... and he's serving and protecting the public!

Apparently the police were concerned that I was photographing this old building

Day 31 - ENG

Off to church this morning which was the first time since mid January. Although she's an RE teacher, Alison didn't join us so we met her afterwards. Went to Sarah's church (Holy Trinity Brompton) where (praise and worship trainspotters will know this name) Tim Hughs is a worship leader. He didn't lead today but it was great to experience and I reckon the best part was that the band was quite simple with a single singer and you can hear the congregation singing during the songs. It's in an Anglican church so has two levels and was nice to experience a contemporary service in an old school church building. Nicky Gumbel spoke and it tied in with their vision weekend theme. So mum should be happy cause this is the main mob that's behind the Alpha course. Andy Sercom is involved with theological at training at St Pauls which I think is linked to HTB somehow, I think it might have been a church plant actually.

See, Jedi is a religion! They have a statue of Yoda
hidden under a sheet in the courtyard to prove it!

Alison and Sarah

We caught up Alison afterwards and went for lunch. Also stopped in at some cupcake place called the Hummingbird Cafe which is reputed to have the best cupcakes ever. The girls had one each and I grabbed a huge brownie which was as big and heavy as a bessa block! Sarah wanted to show us Summer Heights High so we watched a few episodes at her place with Alison and one of her flatmates who was a Pom but still found it funny. Not my taste but amusing none the less. Sarah had been talking up this Italian place all week so we went there with another of her flatmates and it was nice.

Made it back to Gavin's and crashed.

Day 30 - ENG

The start of what I'd hope to be a fairly cruisy weekend. Gavin and I headed out to have a bit of a walk around town. Walked through Covent Gardens, explained what Monument station is named after (a monument - shock horror!), saw the Bank of England and other odds and ends like how there's an underground station that is kinda the same station as another but has two names plus an entrance to a disused station just off the Strand.

We made our way to check out St Paul's cathedral and then onto Greenwich via the DLR (docklands light rail) to meet Sarah. Found her, or at least she found us and we had lunch at a Mexican place. After lunch we headed to the observatory to check it out. Looked around it and started to watch a short video of the stars in the planetarium. I say started because after a while, Sarah noticed that my breathing became a little heavier as I'd drifted off.

Sarah wasn't sure if the sign referred to the rock or me

And Sarah thinks my glasses are old!

Afterwards we headed back to Wimbledon, met Sarah's friend Alison and watched Be Kind, Rewind. I grabbed some clothes for Sunday as I was staying at Sarah's so we could get a good start for church the next morning.

Day 29 - ENG

Pretended to be a tourist today. Quite successfully might I add. I randomly walked around London looking at things like Waterloo Station, London Eye, Houses of Parliment, Big Ben (or at least the tower in which it resides), Westminster Abby and Cathedral and other odds and ends. Some of it was just to check for locations for some time-lapse I plan on doing.

In this photo there's an old face with lines and an old face with numbers

Met up with Sarah after she finished work and went back to her place where we met Gavin and her friend Lauren. We grabbed some Chinese takeout along with two movies. We ate and watched Alpha Dog. Afterwards, Gavin and I headed back to his place.

Day 28 - ENG

What a write off! Today I discovered that it's easier to buy new clothes than to wash and dry them. I basically spent the day cooped up in Julie's house trying to do a load of washing. To make matters worse, silly me didn't seperate my colours resulting in an old and new shirt stained - not happy Jan!!! I was soo bored too. You know, there's only so much interest that the internet can provide to someone. Part of the day was hiding in Julz bedroom as the cleaners arrived and we weren't sure that they wouldn't find a freeloader and tell the landlord.

Finally I got sick of it and packed and left. Walking to the station took a good 20+ minutes with a pack that was heavier due to carrying damp clothes. I briefly stopped in at Lakeside which proved useless and then trained it to Fenchurch. The plan was to meet Gavin and Sarah to go see Cloverfield that night. The tube was running okay... sorta... some of the lines are known to have issues but I made it in good time to Wimbledon.

I hung out the damp clothing at Gavin's and went for dinner at a Thai joint with Sarah, Gavin and his housemate Jo. We watched the movie and that was that for Thursday.