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Trip Start May 27, 2010 Previous
Entry Trip End Aug 31, 2011 Next
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  London, England, United Kingdom
Monday, August 9, 2010

This week started with a smile when I sat down at my desk on Monday and noticed not only the Thames glistening under the sun, but that the orchid that was given to me by some colleagues for my birthday had blossomed with more flowers over the weekend.  Lovely yellow flowers that really are thriving, probably due to the fact that they have the best spot in the office, right in the window overlooking the Tower of London.  I'm not a flowery person per se, but I often find myself staring up at my plant and admiring it's beauty.  I am slightly concerned about the fate of the orchid though, given that August has arrived and the cooler weather appears to have arrived with it.  I'm told that a month's worth of sun is what Londoners classify as a "good summer".  I don't think I'll complain about the weather at home ever again once I've experienced the full gammit of what London has to throw at me!  I'll never forget the picture that Miss Morris drew in my mind when I was but a wee lass: she told me that London was a very dark and gloomy place where it always rained, and a place whose people never smiled.  She was onto something those 20-odd years ago.  Ouch, that hurt, saying something happened 20 years ago.  I'm getting old. 
 
The weeknights were mostly taken up by watching episodes of Nip/Tuck and True Blood, although I'm still not sure I'm too much of a True Blood fan, but I'm giving it a go.  For one, I don't really care how southern you are, but the name Suki is just all sorts of wrong.  Nip/Tuck, though, is quality.  Bent plots, twisted storylines, messed up characters - it's awesome!  I have even stooped to watching it on my iPhone on the train in the morning.  No wonder I'm blind.
 
I had the day off on Friday, having previously planned a Thursday night catch-up with Ann Marie and Matt, who I'd worked with in the Melbourne office.  The last time I had Thursday night drinks, I ended up legless thanks to some generous partners who kept buying us pint after pint.  So to avoid a repeat of embarrassing tube behaviour on my way to work the next morning, I thought it wise to take the day off in advance.  Our catch-up was postponed though, so I initiated Plan B and went home to have a quiet one with the housemates before a big weekend.  
 
So that's pretty boring stuff innit?  Nod your heads...
 
Continuing from last week's proclamation that I am a local, and to prove same, I had a visitor this weekend to whom I played tour guide.  I had done my research and made a list of some cool pubs to visit and made a spreadsheet so that we didn't miss a thing and to make sure the tour went according to schedule.  I highlighted our destinations on my London A-Z and had post-it-notes marking the relevant pages, appropriately numbered so as to correspond with the itinerary.  With my compass in hand and a box of tissues stuffed into my bag, I got the tube and met old mate in Earl's Court where, after a briefing about the itinerary and tour rules, as well as the obligatory knot tying lesson, we set off to the pub to discuss the finer details of our weekend plan.  This included a (stupid) decision to have a tequila shot at every pub we went to.  It was a good idea at the time, but not entirely necessary, so that plan was canned after two pubs.  Does that make us soft or smart?  I'm not sure...
 
A little trip in to Westminster saw us taking photos of Big Ben and wrestling with the new camera to try and get the settings right to take a flattering photo of BB by night.  I gave up and am now going to have to resort to reading the instruction manual because, given that I am no Hulk Hogan, any camera-wrestling attempts will fail. 
 
Then on Saturday we jumped on the tube again and headed into Trafalgar Square to attend a climate change protest.  It was a great day out but after being there for five minutes we decided it best to discuss the finer details of climate change over a chip butty.  Never again, those things are disgusting.  It's basically a chip sandwich which, when we were kids (and even sometimes now) were awesome.  However this was not awesome.  It was greasy and swimming in oil.  Now I'm never one to complain about chips - all chips are good chips, but these were foul.  Ew, my hands are still oily. 
 
From there we wandered around the streets of London and stumbled upon Piccadilly Circus and various other landmarks, including a visit to the London Eye, but we got there all of 5 minutes late which meant we'd missed our chance at a night flight.  It was then that we came to rest at a Turkish bar where we sat out the front smoking shisha pipes and eating baklava.  Mmmmm love that stuff. 
 
Sunday was spent mostly sleeping and laughing with Gemma about her weekend shenanigans, and getting ready for the barbeque at W3 6PD to welcome Steve home and farewell James.  As usual, the housemates were in good spirits and Mikey did another bonza job of the Weber, while the rest of us did a bonza job of cheering him on from the sidelines and showing our support by keeping out of his way. 
 
And then an early night topped off the weekend before another earth-shatteringly exciting week of work. 
 
By way of update, Baxter didn't get his call centre job so, feeling glum, he ran onto the road to end his misery and was clipped by a car.  Fortunately, the driver stopped and took him (and his wingman, Wedge) to the vet to be prescribed no more than a few painkillers.  I anticipate that he will recover in due course, and Wedge continues to offer support in the form of regular day trips so as to take his mind off the minor injury and rejection from the call centre job. 

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