Typically woke at about 4am I guess and snoozed until quarter to six when we decided to get up and cracking. Looked out the window to check out the weather – dark so can’t tell. It’s not raining.
After breakfast I decide it is time to do some washing. Now to most people this is just normal life but to me this is a bit of a challenge! Like stepping out into the unknown. Reception said there is a Laundromat 10 minutes walk down the road. I get to it at 8am and it’s closed. No sign on the window saying what the hours are… sigh. Back at the hotel I ask what time would be typical opening time and was told maybe 9am. Back in NZ I’m sure something like this would be open from 7am-7pm but not in London. Opening times all over seem to be very gentlemanly.
So, rolled up my sleeves and tackled the washing in the bathroom sink. Hung it in the bathroom on our handy elastic clothes lines. I wonder if it will dry.
We took the subway to Westminster and found our way to the London Eye. The sun is just starting to poke through the grey sky, it is going and there is no queue – amazing. I need to go to the bathroom – dumb! Anyway, 3-4 minutes later there’s a bloody queue about 50 metres long plus a ton of school kids have turned up. No one is getting onto the Eye so I grab a brochure and see that it doesn’t open for another 15 minutes at 10am. They must be just warming it up.
Eventually we get on board and it is stunning. The clouds have cleared and the sun is shining on us for the first time. The ride is pretty cool – it takes half an hour. Check out the photos and the comments. I was pretty fascinated with the engineering of it. The whole thing is kept upright by 4 cables. They must be amazingly strong.
Once off we decide to give the Movium (movie making in London museum) a go. We spent an hour there and it was boring. The brits make great movies but the need to take a lead from Hollywood when it comes to putting an exhibition like this together. Sorry guys but you score a thumbs down on this one.
Next is about a mile walk to find the Photographers Gallery. I’d googled for photographic galleries before we left NZ but hadn’t brought the address with us. When I looked them up on the web last night I find that we’d walked past within 1 block of it yesterday… sheesh! Bad planning.
Anyway we get there and the main exhibition area (with an interesting looking exhibition) is closed on Sundays and Mondays. Damn. We check out the other exhibition which only took 5 minutes. As we left Jeremy fortunately noticed that there was another The Photographer’s Gallery sign just down the street. There we find an exhibition and a photographic bookshop packed with books. I take some photos of Jem there so that he can put it towards his photography course study points. Jem waits outside while I spend half an hour looking at photography books. Some really nice ones there that I haven’t seen before but the wallet stays in my pocket because we are already overweight for the flight tomorrow and at ten pounds per kilo over I’m not planning on adding to it with a heavy book. They sell rare/weird cameras in the store and a tiny digital Leica screams out “buy me” but I resist – just.
By now it’s after 1pm and we’re sick of walking. Well… we’re over roaming the city full stop. We’ve walked miles and miles in the last couple of days and just want to hang out and relax. We grab a light lunch – Jeremy is now officially on a weight loss diet leading up to the tournament – and head back on the subway to our hotel.
When we get back I check to see if the washing is drying. It is still sopping wet and I reckon it will take a week at this rate. Off to the Laundromat. Sit next to an old lady while the washing is in the drier – she reeks of whisky! This is different. Anyway, half an hour later and it is dry – perfect.
Now we’re just chilling out, writing this and researching how to get to Stansted Airport on the subway + train tomorrow. It’s about an hour’s trip so we need to head off at about 9am to give us plenty of time for our 12.45pm flight to Rome.
I’m going to read the manual for our video camera and Jem’s cruising channels between a game show and an American soap. Boring eh! At least we are off our sore feet!
We checked out the photos from the Nationals tournament that we missed last weekend. Auckland North won and Mark Hanna did well coming home with an individual silver for patterns and team golds for patterns, sparring and specialty.
Our time in London has been great but we’re over playing tourist here now and ready to move on. If you were into art galleries and museums you could be here for weeks but we’re not and so we’re really happy to move on tomorrow.
We’re meeting up with about 8 other team members in Rome tomorrow. They’re on the same flight we were on but at Zurich change to a Rome flight. They left at midnight last night NZ time and arrive Tuesday afternoon.
See ya
Doug
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