I arrived on Thursday. By the time we got to Em’s and Paps place Pap’s was just about on his way out the door for work, so Em and I chatted for an hour or so before we walked the 10 minutes up to High Street for an early lunch and to run some errands. Even though I had been on the go for 27 hours I was feeling okay at this stage and decided to just keep going till I was absolutely stuffed and would pass out with tiredness. London has always been a cultural mix of people from all corners of the Earth and this was definitely the first thing I noticed about London and the suburbs on my return this time and I have to say I love the cultural mix. People can walk along with pink hair, next to strict Muslim women covered from head to toe to Russian speaking girls to the Polish Café where we had lunch. It reminds me a little of Darwin with the Asian/Greek/Italian population and the foods and heritage they bring to an Australian way of life. I was able to get a UK sim card while we were here. I have got an Orange sim card now and I made sure this time that I can top this baby up on line while I am overseas which was a yes and with the cost of a text message at 20p a message I think I will retire my Australian sim unless I really need to use it now and stick to my UK number. So if you ever want to text me my new number is +44 758-014-6943. As it was Paps 30th birthday on Saturday, Em was going to bake her very first birthday cake for him as a surprise. As there were 40 people coming to the lunch doo-she ended up baking 10 little cakes in total to double them up and have 5 cakes in total. I laughed when she said that I could help her. I haven’t cooked in 17 months let alone bake a cake-are you kidding!? So I told her I was more than happy to taste test what-ever was required but that was as far as I could go. So after a 60 quid shop for all the ingredients we headed home early in the afternoon for Em to hit the kitchen and for me to hit the couch-I was running on empty now. During the course of the afternoon we were trying to get Olympic tickets for anything that was available and not too expensive. Well we could find tickets but they were 500-1300GBP a pop. Yeah for those prices I won’t be attending any of the sporting events. Paps and Em are lucky to have semifinal basketball tickets where USA are playing Argentina and they have also been to Wimbledon to see some of the tennis. Lucky buggers. Oh well we will keep trying. The closing ceremony is only 1495GBP…… ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad took place from 27 July to 12 August 2012. More than 10,000 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) participated. London was the first city to officially host the modern Olympic Games times, having previously done so in 1908 and in 1948. During the Games, Michael Phelps became the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time, winning his 22nd medal. Great Britain achieved its highest tally of gold medals since 1908, finishing third in the medal table. Usain Bolt became the first sprinter to retain all three sprinting gold medals at consecutive Olympics. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Brunei entered female athletes for the first time, meaning every country has sent a female competitor to at least one Olympic Games. With women's boxing included, the Games became the first at which every sport had female competitors. It was great to switch on the TV every day and see men and women give their all for their country and it was quite emotional as you hear individual stories about competitors from all different countries. Now that I am in Britain I am also keeping a close eye on their finals hopes (well Paps is and I am just here for the ride). I am proud to report that I stayed awake till 10pm when I finally crashed on the couch-it was time to go to bed.
Friday was a new day and with a sleep in till 10am I felt like a new woman. When you travel across a few times zones it is really important to try and get into step with the new time and sleeping patterns and even though I had a tough day yesterday it really was the best thing I could have done as now I feel fresh as a daisy. We all just hung around the apartment till 3.30pm when I got a lift to the Streatham train station to head into the ‘city’ for my date with Cheryl, my United Hostee. Paps and Em were heading to the Olympic semifinals of the basketball, so they weren’t going to be home when I was due to return. So with my directions to get home all set and gone through 10 times, I think I was confident to catch the 2 tubes, the overland and the local bus to get me home. It sounds a lot but it was quite easy. I just hadn’t done it before and anything new is always a little un-nerving but something I am going to have to get used to again.
I always meet my Hostees at the same hotel they that are put up in each time on Edgeware Road. It is just like a ritual we now have. It was just Cheryl this time as United operate 2 flights an early and a late and this trip they were separated. The upside was I am getting to see them both on Monday when they come back across the pond again. It is so cool that we got to meet 3 times last year, I stayed with them in Chicago in May for a week and I see them again on Monday. It is weird the way the world works. Cheryl and David were 2 people I met on my Middle East cruise in 2009 and we have just kept in touch over time till my travels took me through London and we were able to meet up each time I passed through and has worked out really well and we never would have thought that we would ever have seen each other as much when we said goodbye to each other in April 2009. I am proud to report I got Cheryl onto Facebook; I encouraged her to get an international phone and also change her plastic day bag to a proper bag of some sort. They are definitely good eggs and I am so glad to have them in my life. I got to the hotel with 5 minutes to spare so I placed a quick call to Zeme. It is always great to hear his voice and he is currently on tour for 17 days in Ethiopia and Kenya. So I met Cheryl at the hotel at 4.30pm and we made our way to Marble Arch which was a 15-20 minute walk away. I did have 2 chores that I had to do. One was to stop on Oxford Street by a shop I always go to get clothes as I needed to buy a pair of cargo pants and I had in my purse a Blu Ray list of movies that Em and I were going to buy Pap’s for his birthday tomorrow. I figured I could do the clothes shop on the way home from dinner and Paps Blu Rays was more important with his birthday looming tomorrow. So we visited HMV in Selfridges and we got asked if we needed help, so I pulled out my list and of the 3 movies on there they had all 3 movies!!!! There was a sale on where you could get 3 for 20GBP but the third one I had got was not included in the deal (of course) so I got another Blu Ray and now had a total of 4. I think Paps will be happy with that. 2 from Em’s and 2 from me. One of the movies I got was a Nat Geo documentary of the Gorilla’s in Rwanda which is where I met Paps and Em just over 12 months ago on the first section of my Africa trip and we got to spend an amazing hour with relatives from the Gorilla’s in the doco. It was a pretty cool gift if I say so myself and a personal touch that meant something to the 3 of us.
London really knows how to shine when the weather is good. All the pubs are overflowing with people spilling out onto the streets with pints of beers in their hands. Add onto that the Olympic atmosphere and Team GB doing their country proud it was an amazing evening to be out and about. It really was a hot evening, one of the few that London gets and we found a great little Thai restaurant in St Christopher’s Place just one street back from Oxford Street where Cheryl and I were able to catch up on the last 6 weeks since we had seen each other in Chicago. I love talking to Cheryl as she is a great listener and we just have a great time together and before we knew it was 8pm and decided to get moving as I had to get my way home that I hadn’t done before and was going to take over an hour, so I wanted to get cracking. I missed the clothing shop though, but I was back in this knick of the woods on Monday so I would just stop in then to try and find a pair of cargos for my Sri Lanka and Nepal trips.
My trip home was uneventful. I had to catch the Brown line (Bakerloo) to Elephant and Castle and then the Black line (Northern line) 5 stops to Balham and then I had to catch he 315 bus that would drop me directly out the front of the flat. The 315 bus comes around every 30 minutes and I must have just missed the 8.30 bus and the next bus must have been late as it didn’t come till 9.15pm but it came and I was able to use my tube day pass so I just had to flash that when I got on the bus. So far so good. I now just had to keep an eye on crossing High Street and the bridge after about 15 minutes and then I knew I was home. I was a little out of my comfort zone as I really had no idea where I was going to get to my final destination, it was all unknown but I have to get used to this as that is what my life is going to be like when I move to Ethiopia so I really need to get used to it. Toughen up Princess. Anyway I was lucky, we crossed High Street, we passed over the bridge and then someone else pushed the button so I got off with them and had a short walk to the flat. I had made it home safe and sound and it was 9.30pm. Paps and Em were still at the basketball, it had only started at 9pm, so I let myself in with the keys that I had been given and then stayed up as late as I could waiting for them to get home before I fell asleep on the couch till midnight when they got home. Quite a successful Friday and the weather has just been amazing. I did also manage to start making dates with people for next week. So far I have Jo from Africa lined up for tomorrow night and a surprise for Paps, my United Hostees from Chicago, Sharon for lunch and Heather for a catch up on Monday, Helen in Birmingham from my South America trip on Wednesday night in Birmingham and then off to Brighton on Friday. I have a busy week ahead and I know that I am missing out on catching up with people, but I can only do what I can and maybe catch them on the next round in January?
Saturday was Pap’s 30th birthday. Happy birthday buddy. We had a full day planned with lunch for 40 at a pop up restaurant at Angel and the 5 cakes (of course) and then there was an evening doo organized at the pub for the second round of friends that couldn’t/didn’t make the lunch doo. I headed in early with Em to get some balloons up and to help carry the grog and cake stuff to the venue. We had to catch a bus and 2 tubes to get there and this is just an accepted part of the London culture to carry all you need on the tubes. You see people carrying all sorts of things on the tube from dogs to baskets to frames to all sorts of things and this is just the way, the only way for some people to move things around. So with 3 bottles of plonk, 5 cakes and all the other things needed we made it to the restaurant with 10 minutes to spare before the guests started to arrive. Paps was to follow 45 minutes after us with some friends as he didn’t know where he was going, so he was late for his own party but I guess he could get away with it as it was his day after all…….. So what is a Pop-up Restaurant? A Pop-up restaurant, also called a supper club, are temporary restaurants. These restaurants often operate from a private home, former factory or similar and during festivals. Pop-up restaurants have been popular since the 2000’s in Britain and Australia but they are not a new phenomenon. Pop up restaurants have existed in the United States and Cuba. Diners typically make use of social media, such as the blogosphere and Twitter, to follow the movement of these restaurants and make online reservations.
Pop up restaurants, like food trucks, are an ideal way to gain exposure of young professionals' skills in the field of hospitality in order to get investors and attention to open a restaurant or another culinary concept. Pop-up restaurants have been hailed as useful for younger chefs, allowing them to utilize underused kitchen facilities and "experiment without the risk of bankruptcy". This restaurant was called Pips Dish and was known for his organic and kitch food and I have to say it was delicious. The restaurant was in an old garage, so there was still rust on the walls, chains from the roof and some car parts that had been painted to give the place some charm. We were told not to touch anything that looked like it shouldn’t be touched as he was not covered for insurance and this is also where the Pop-up Restaurants get away with what they do for a small period of time, generally 6 months before they have to stay and get everything ship shape or they close and then open somewhere else. It was nice to meet a whole bunch of Paps and Ems friends, a little tough to start when you don’t know people, but I had met Girl, Paps sister before and also Gemma so I got to hang with them for most of the afternoon. We had to be out of there at 4pm, so with a few wines under our belts and 3 hours to kill until our next party time we walked 15 minutes to a supermarket, bought some more grog and then headed to a nearby park and sat on the grass as a group (there was about 25 of us) and enjoyed the sunshine, the company and the wine that kept flowing for the few hours we were there. At 7pm it was time to head as a group on the tube to a pub where we were to spend the rest of the evening drinking and catching up. Em and I had a surprise up our sleeve for Paps. He didn’t know that Jo, our friend from Ireland, was in town for the Olympics and we had lined her up to meet us at the tube and surprise Paps and to get a little Jo time at the same time. Needless to say he was ecstatic to see her, as were we and this is who I drank and chatted with till 1.30am in the morning when it was time to finally go home. So we all didn’t do too bad having a 12 hour drinking session but maybe we should wait to see how we all pull up in the morning…. It could be messy…..
Sunday was a write off. None of us woke till 11am and we were all seedy as hell. I don’t know how Emma did it but she cooked us a hot breakfast and then we all passed out around the flat till 7pm when Paps and Em was invited to a friend’s place just down the road to watch the closing ceremony. I was also invited but decided to decline as I knew that I probably wouldn’t make it past 9pm. I was a little productive in the afternoon, I booked all my trains for the end of the week. They are advance purchase tickets so booking them on Sunday gave me some of the cheapest tickets available. I did have one issue when I was about to pay for my first round of tickets and it is an extra security measure called Verify Visa. You have, well should have, a password, which was the issue, I have 3 different credit cards with me and I don’t know the Verify Visa password for any of them BUT I do have a password for my card that I have left in Australia, so I used that to buy the tickets and then I read after it had been confirmed that you have to show your actual credit card and your reference number to be able to collect the tickets. Ummmmm my card is in Australia and I just paid 18GBP for my tickets. CRAP. The other 2 tickets I used my MasterCard which doesn’t have the Verify Visa (good to know) so I won’t have any issues collecting them, but I am just going to hope I get someone nice at the ticket window on Wednesday and I don’t have to pay for new tickets. Well I was pretty close to my bed time, I made it till 9.30pm. In my defence I didn’t sleep as much as the guys did during the day and I was absolutely shattered. I watched the first hour of the closing ceremony on TV and it I lost interest in it pretty quick, so I surfed the TV channels till 9.30pm when my eyelids just wouldn’t stay open any longer and I retired myself to bed this time instead of falling asleep on the couch to get a good night’s sleep. I was knackered.
So that was my first 4 days in London. It is so nice to still be able to spend time with friends and not be on tour, it makes a nice change and something I have been doing since May 14th. This will come to an end next week when I start my Scottish tour with Sharon and then the next 107 days will be in hotels, B&B’s and hostels, so I should make the most of this time and I am eternally grateful for my friends opening their homes to me.
