It's been so fantastically busy over here at the moment that this is the first opportutnity I've had to post something proper. So I'll start from the beginning...
The flight was ok, and leaving was made so much better by the amazing prayers and support of everybody. It's not something I'd want to repeat again too soon. All up it was 27 hours, I couldn't sleep at all on the Auckland to Bangkok leg, but I got in some quality Lion King watching. I sat next to a lovely lady named Jan Mandeno. She teaches at Westlake Grils' so we had a good yarn about education and schools, and Alison Goernhoffer. It turned out that we were both travelling to London so we took comfort in each others company at Bangkok airport. The trip from Bangkok to London was so smooth, and it was a larger 747, so I slept quite easily and with plenty of room for most of it. After spending one and a half hours in the passport check in queue I collected my bags and went through. Alice's dad was there to pick me up (I must have looked very lost because Heathrow was absolutely buzzing). I came out about 3 hours later than my scheduled arrival time so I felt terrible making him wait so long. Turns out the whole airport knew who I was. He had paged me to meet him 3 times at the meeting point in the arirvals lounge, and he was worried I was getting interrogated by customs. We drove back to Alice's place in essex on the M25, which took about an hour, and I settled in. It was about 11am by now on Sunday. Alice's family are really lovely, and just so accomodating, and Alice has spared no expense in making me feel comfortable, giving up her bedroom for these 4 days. It's been great seeing her again, and catching up. Her course at Drama Centre is very intense, but she loves it. And I'm even a little jealous because next week she has Harold Pinter coming in to her class to give them a lesson. Alice is terrified because she is directing one of his plays at the moment and she thinks he'll tear it to shreds. Later on Sunday Vinny called up and wanted to meet in London so Alice and I caught the train in to Leicester Square to meet him. It took about 45 minutes all up from her house, but by the time I got in I was wetting my pants with excitement. Everything you see on United Travel Getaway is right in front of you. The very first thing I recognised from the train in was the Gherkin. Alice hates it. I think it's wonderful. Go figure.
We met Vinny and Tamzin at the London Eye, and it was amazing seeing them. Vinny has a really long 'Auburn' beard. He gets upset when you call it morange. Tamzin was bouncing off the walls. We all just walked the Thames and chatted about what each of us missed in the other's lives. It was actually amazing, but also really strange. If you said to me in year 9 when I met Tamzin and Vinny that I'd be meeting them in London 6 years later I would have laughed. We ended up sitting on Nelson's Column, having casually walked past Parliament House, Big Ben, Tower Bridge, Westminster Abbey and London Bridge. Tamzin had left us to meet some of her Australian friends so Alice, Vinny and I were left talking. We walked down the road and had Burgers for dinner. Alice and I left Vinny at about 8pm and I was dying for sleep by the time we got back to her place at 9.
I slept right through until 7:30 the next morning when I got up to go in to London with Alice. Her train wasn't as full as I thought and we got a seat easily. It goes direct to Liverpool St. where I met Vinny again. We toured London for the rest of the day. He was a really good tour guide, and a really thrifty one too, which was nice. We walked the Queen's Walk around the waterfront of the Thames, going past the Tower of London.
(Vinny and I at the Tower of London)
We tubed to the British National Museum, which was just incredible. I held alot more respect for the artifacts than what you see in the photos below, but who could pass up an opportunity to pout with Apollo or pose with the discus guy?
The museum was actually amazing, you'd have to see it because my description would never do it justice. Highlights were definitely the Roman and Greek exhibits. And this absolutely huge marble hand from a Egyptian colossal statue. We followed the museum with a caramel hot chocolate at Starbuck's. I'd like to point out here that coffee in the UK is terrible and I have given up all hope of finding a good one. I have resigned myself to tea until I return. Vinny led me then to the Natural History museum which was very very cool. Dinosaurs and Animal species and the like. It was very interesting, but we had nowhere near enough time to see it all. However, just pointing out, the very first thing you see is a skeleton of a moa, and references to New Zealand!
(Vinny and the moa)
Vinny and I were halfway through our escalator ride through the Earth's Centre when Alice called, so we met her for Dinner at an all you can eat Thai Buffet about 5 minutes from her Uni. Vinny and I were in Heaven. Chicken, Prawns and Beef! Alice happily soldiered on with her unlimited supply of veges, tofu and fried rice. Alice went back to Uni and Vinny and I tubed back to here he was staying. Tamzin was back from her daytrip to Kent and we had another good chat. At about 8pm I said my last goodbye to her and left to meet Alice to go home. I was pretty tired again, but I held up through the day alright.
(Alice and I farewelling Tamzin at the station)
Today I went in again with Alice after a very deep sleep! This time I just went to Oxford Street to explore by myself. It was shopping paradise, but I wasn't really enticed to purchase anything, except for a really amazing Fougasse (this pretzel shaped bread) and Pin Au Chocolat from this cute little french bakery, which I ate in a park somewhere. I was a little off the map from anywhere I had heard of before but it was certainly a lovely park. Feeling contented I called Vinny and met him at his flat again. We washed a few dishes then left to explore Buckingham Palace. This Indian lady came up to Vinny and I and wanted to know how she could see the queen. We told her they had tours through the palace but she'd have to pay. Then she asked again how she could talk to the queen, and demanded a meeting with her from us. We told her nicely you probably couldn't do that. Then she started getting really mad, by which time Vinny had walked away, so I slinked off too. 5 minutes later when him and I were on the monument outside the palace grounds we turned around and she was harassing the palace guard to let her in. Goodness knows what she wanted. We walked down the road and came out again at Nelson's Column, and decided to go to through the National Gallery. There was an exhibition on there called 'Manet to Picasso', so we walked through it and visited all the paintings you see in the books including van gough's 'sunflowers' and 'chair'. My favorite was called 'La La at the Cirque Fernando'. It depicts this russian circus performer hanging mid air by a wire brace clenched between her teeth - it looks really cool, trust me ;) We spent some time looking at the 1600-1700 section where alot of Da Vinci, Raphael and Michaelangelo works were housed, and it was mind blowing looking at the various ways these artists depicted and portrayed various scenes from the bible. We ran out of time and had to return to meet Alice at 3:15 at Liverpool St. I said goodbye to Vinny here for another two months but I'll see him again around early December. It was sad, but I was really glad I got to spend some time with him. Alice and I returned home and later that night we went to her little brother Ben's production of Oliver. This amateur drama company puts on these plays all the time, and they sunk 40,000 pounds into this one, which was well worth it. Her little brother was Oliver and he was a real charmer. Afterwards we went to the Theatre Pub to discuss the nights events. Ben came out loving all the attention, and he was really great. I met Cliff at the pub too, a friend of Alice's family and local funny man. He was really cool, and talked with a pikey like english accent, which was a tad difficult to understand. So now I am back at Alice's, midnight, typing away, a little tired but loving every minute.
I miss you all, and would love to hear from you so please post a comment or send me an email. Thanks to all of you who already have :)
God Bless,
Blake
