The Book of Ashes

London baby, London... 7:40PM

London is like a huge, big, old machine. Its a beast with its veins being the tubes and its life blood being the people that travel them. One heart beat and the people flow through the tubes into the centre of town, another heart beat and they flow back out again, another heart beat, another day.

Suspicous foreigners in the tubes

And it really feels like that, travelling down the tubes at high speed. Its dark, noisy, crammed full of people. You can't help but feel that you're just a tiny insignificant cell in the greater being. Travelling to your destination to do your bit then return again. London is a beast. There are a lot of people and a lot of buildings. The city just goes on and on forever.

I found it quite hard to get to terms with where I was. I'm a very spacial person (not a very "special" person). If I can see where I've travelled, be it by bus, car or foot, I usually still know which way is which. But with the tubes you go down underground, then you turn left, then right, then down further then left again, then you take a train - that way, then you come up, left, right, up, left, left, out onto the street. No idea what orientation you are now facing from that which you went in. Each tube stop is like a small isolated area. Then you realise you can walk between them. It was only after I'd been through a lot of areas that I started to piece them all together, even then I didn't get it all.

But I'm rambling, forgive me God, lets get back to the story. We arrived in London late at night, we were travelling on the tubes (for me the first time) at midnight. I wondered if people would be looking at us suspiciously with our large packs (no they didn't contain bombs). But we were fine. Life goes on. We arrived late at night at Kim and Jos's place, friends of Bonnies.

First day in London was a Sunday, a non work day so good to catch up with friends. Crispy was away overseas with work so we caught up with Bev & Jo first. They showed us around a few places.

So the first thing I was to learn was that London does have some sunny days and some nice outdoor parks. In fact this park was huge and I was quite amused to hear that people sunbath in their bikinis (and speedos) in these parks. We had a picnic with Bev & Jo and saw some squirrels.

The picnic was quite awesome and just what we needed for our first day. We got to go see the Royal Observatory at Greenwich (where east meets west and the origin of time).

It was quite exciting. We then headed back to see Bev & Jos flat which was cool. There Bev showed me his huge TV and cool Archos device. We then met up with Dan and headed out for a boat trip down (or up) the river Thames. It was rather flat and the edges featureless (e.g. no shore, just concrete and buildings) but the view of the city from the boat was great. We got to see quite a bit including the Tower Bridge, the Gerkin and Big Ben. There was just a little bit of smog tho...

Now if London is a beast then this is its eye. We didn't get to go on this but we did go higher...

We walked past Big Ben on the way to B@1. This was a cool bar that Bev & Jo and Dan hung out at. It quite often has 2 for 1 cocktails and they are really good. I didn't really know what I wanted but Bev got me an ice-cream one which was awesome.

So the Monday we spent sight seeing in London. We went to St Pauls cathedral and climbed up to the top. I was a little freaked out after having had vertigo at the Sagrada Familia but got to the top and it wasn't that bad. The views were pretty cool but climbing up the inside of the dome was a little freaky. You have to trust that their archetiture is pretty solid.

St Pauls Cathedral.

We also got to see The Tower of London (near St Pauls Cathedral, the London Eye, the Tower bridge and Dan's work). It was pretty cool, lots of armour, weapons, towers and of course the crown jewels, tucked away behind thick steel doors we got to stand on the esculator and travel past them. Unfortunetly no photos were allowed. I would have liked photos.

Tuesday we caught up with Crispy. The morning was a little rushed as he had just flown back into London but it was great to catch up and finally see where he lives in London and to meet Ni-Cha. We had an awesome day with them. They took us around a few different places including a bar called Vertigo with an amazing view. You don't quite get the impression from the photo below but you're bloody high up in that building (as high as you get in London) and you can see for ages. All those buildings down below are actually quite high. Even though you can see for ages, it doesn't matter where you look, you can't see an end to London. It sprawls on and on and on...

The rest of our time in London was spent catching up with people and travelling around. We saw some stores, visited the War mueseum and did lots of tube travelling.

One thing I think everyone notices about London is that it is a little polluted. Your snot gets a little black and you feel like a sponge, walking through the dirty air, soaking up the pollution. It made the Mt Vic tunnel air seem clean in comparison.

Are these guys terrorists? Is that a bomb in your pocket Sir?

But finally our trip had come to an end. It was time to go home. We made it safely to the airport where I couldn't help myself and purchased a 80GB Archos (504). It is pretty cool, I can copy movies (avi) onto it and play straight on the TV, no converting the files like an IPOD. Anyway enough of toys. We had 4 flights home, first to Frankfurt, then Hong Kong then Auckland and finally Wellington. I think I did pretty well. We got home tired (with 4 bottles of duty free) and slept. Next day was Sunday so we relaxed and caught up on housework. I was feeling pretty good but Bonnie had caught the semi-cold I had in London. She didn't make it to her first day back. I did. Work was busy, catching up on everything I'd left behind. Wellington was cold and dark. I think its been cold every day since we've been back (only 1 or 2 nice days and nice means sunny but cool). Its been terrible here but still riding on the glow of the holiday.