London

(Worte this on the train home) 

I don’t blog very much because most of my life is quite boring, but this week me and Joni have been on a mini holiday to London which was fantastic, so I can tell you all about that!

Tuesday

It all started a bit early for my tastes – train at half 7 in the morning, leaving poor Tay alone for the second time in a week. I was a bit worried when we get back he will think James is his new owner! Then when reached York some idiot decided to jump in fount of a train, causing everything south of York to be delayed or cancelled. But it was ok, we got into London only an hour late and the sun was shining and our hotel (Super cheap, not to cheerful) was very close to Victoria Station. Quick stop to drop of the bags and get changed and we headed out into town.

As the weather was so nice we walked along the river to Parliament, and had ice cream sitting in the shadow on the London eye, very picturesque. We also managed to find a rooftop bar and garden on top of the south bank centre which was very nice, but reminded us of how expensive London is!

For a nights entertainment we had booked a table in a very good restaurant, Roux at Parliament Square and it was amazing! We had like 6 courses and each one was a perfectly crafted bundle of amazingness! We had Asparagus soup with parmesan foam (actually foam – it looked like fairy liquid, tasted like heaven), and Veal and Suckling pig and the most AMAZING Blackberry and Apple Soufflé which was massing and so soft. Joni had Salmon and Pigeon, also totally delicious. And you know what, nowhere near as expensive as I thought and totally worth every penny. My first real experience of fine dining and it was a good one. Can’t wait to do that again.

Possibly the best thing about the whole meal (aside from like everything else) was the magical refilling bottle of wine. I have no idea how he did it but somehow I managed to have my class refilled at least 4 times all from one bottle of wine! And a bloody good bottle too. Midnight on Tue found me and Joni giggling our way back to the hotel.

Wednesday

Wednesday was the day of the Big Show, the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition (an exhibition of art works from contemporary living artist, for those not in the know) but that wasn’t until 11am, so we had a few hours to kill in the morning. The day before we had spotted some of those bike-hire stands they are now operating in London. Basically you can hire a bike, cycle to where you want to go and leave your bike at the nearest station. So we decided to give it a go and OMG, such a good way to get around London! We cycled all the way around Hyde Park, got a great view of it and then just left the bikes near the gallery. I think it cost about £2 each and that includes a £1 access charge so we could have used them all day if we wanted. An amazing idea.

The show was pretty amazing, although I think not really my favourite way to see art. The pieces were all very unconnected, as you can imagine as they were all from different artists. And there were so many! The show catalogue listed 1117 items. There were some amazing pieces – and a whole room of architects drawings and models which were really cool. We were thinking we might buy some work if we sound something good (the show is primarily a sale of works, form all sorts of different people. We had a maximum budget of £500, but it turns out this was nowhere near enough to buy something we liked. Both of us kept pointing out pieces we liked around the £3000 mark. Well, at least we know how much to take with us next time, to help start out collection.

We left the show about 2pm, having had nothing except the most expensive coffee&cake ever. So hungry (and so a little bit bitchy for me, as always when I am hungry) we decided to just grab a quick bite before deciding what to do next. Bring on the Subway, then half price tickets for a show that evening and a quick march to the British Museum to pass the rest of the afternoon. And OMG, THE BRITISH MUSEUM IS AMAZING! We were there until we were practically kicked out, just moving from room to room looking at all these amazing artefacts. I could have spent so much longer – I’m not sure we even saw half of the stuff they had on display. I saw the Rosetta stone, which I have never seen before, and so many Egyptian mummies and Greek statues. Just awesome.

Went for a quick Chinese buffet before going to see The 39 Steps, which was so funny! I know – Hitchcock’s Phyco-thriller but it was a comedy. Full on slap-stick farcical funny. It was a cast of 4, at one point with 2 guys playing 5 different characters at once with the clever use of hats and some excellent accents. I think it was made even funnier because it was set mostly in Scotland and their Scottish characters were all just brilliant – so stereotypical, but so true! So Wednesday night found me and Joni once again, giggling our way back to the hotel, past a beautifully lit Buckingham Palace. 

Thursday

Thursday we had till 2pm till our train left, so we decided to visit the Tower of London in the morning. Raining buckets this morning which was a bit annoying, but never mind. We took the tube again over the right side of town. It was a good attraction, the Crown Jewels were amazing and some of the armour they have on display is epic, but I was annoyed by how money-grabbing they were. Maybe it’s just been so long since I was at a proper tourist attraction, so I’ve forgotten how bad they can be, but this place seems particularly awful. Firstly you pay £18 entry. Then you automatically pay £2 “voluntary” donation, then they got all Joni’s details so they could claim tax gift aid, and then they have the check to put donations bins all over the place! And the souvenirs were all so incredibly expensive I couldn’t even get a tacky pen. In fact I’ve gone the whole trip without getting a tacky pen from anywhere we went. Very sad.

So it’s been an amazing trip. I’m really looking forward to seeing Tay. I hope he has coped ok without us.