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.