LDN
ah yes, it's been a while. apologies. i consider myself throughly told off, and am really really ashamed of myself.
righto then, moving right along... london. we have been here since wednesday last, and leave wednesday coming. which leaves us with one whole day tomorrow - but before i tell you what we have planned for that, i'll fill you in on what we did with the our other london days.
we got here on wednesday afternoon and made our way to will and cam's place in london with no complications. turns out they live two doors down from the cafe that beck's sister meg used to work at when she was living la vida london. once everyone was home we went down to to the shops and came back with supplies - we had a beer and curry night in, and caught up. on thursday mark and i braved tge underground, and began & ended our first day with london cliches - buckingham palace and a play. we wandered from buckingham palace past big ben and to the london eye, on which we went for a ride - yes it was expensive but it was a lovely clear day, blue skies and fluffy clouds, so we thought we'd make the most of it. after our slow spin on the big ferris wheel we wandered around town, and found leicester square. we bought half-price tickets to a play called 'love song' starring neve campbell and michael mckean. we had an hour or so to kill before the show so we wandered around some more, and stumbled across a place that had a really good happy hour deal on cocktails. mark reasoned that it would work out cheaper to get a jug of cocktails instead of individual glasses. i liked where he was going with this line of reasoning, so did not argue with his logic. we sipped and people-watched, then watched the play, then came home and slept like babies.
on friday we went to the national portrait gallery. the great thing about london is that all the galleries are free these days. anyway we spent some hours there looking at all the art, then decided it was time for refreshment. we grabbed some cheap food then (burger king if you must know, we had 'buy one get one free' vouchers i'd ripped out of free papers - are you proud of me or what??) we wandered around picadilly circus and found the absolut ice bar. i had heard about this place, and it was quite inmpressive - the whole bar is made of ice, even the glasses they serve your drinks in. they give you a cape and gloves and you go in, and the bar and the walls and tables are all ice, and the cocktails are all absolut vodka based. i had one made out of absolut peppar and i think i could make that my new signature beverage. pepper vodka tastes great with pineapple juice. anyway, after there we came back home to see if will had finished work and wanted to go out for a beer, but he had a hard couple of days and didn't finish till around 10 - so we got some beers and played upwords till a lot later.
saturday we decided we'd go and find the door on portobello road - the one from the movie notting hill. so we caught the tube out half way to notting hill, but there were trackworks and we had to catch a bus the rest of the way. we saw a bus labellled 'portobello road markets' and hopped on it... and realised about twenty monutes later that we'd caught it on the wrong side of the road. so we hopped off, waited in the rain for ten minutes and caught the same bus on the other side of the road... by the time we got to portobello road the markets were done, so we found a cafe and had a late lunch. wasn't alll in vain though, we found the door and took a photo of it, like the true tourists we are. we then caught a train out to wimbledon to catch up with arani and tharani, twins whom i went to primary school with in fiji. we had dinner and caught up with them which was a great laugh, and ended up crashing at their place that night. the next day we all had breakfast together and then we set off back for home. despite our difficulties finding portobello markets the day beforem, we decided to search foir brick lane on the way home. found it, wandered through it - was a lot like foster road, only more so. lots of indian restaurants and sweet shops plying hindi music out onto the street... we found the spitalfield markets and browsed a bit before coming back home to meet up with will and penny. we caught a movie and then went out for dinner and drinks - all in all an excellent sunday evening.
monday - today - we got ooff to a bit of a slow start. i went to kensington palace and saw the diana photo exhibition - the beautiful last photo shoot she had with mario testino. it was a lovely afternoon, and even though it was drizzling lightly the whole time i was walking to and from the palace, i felt as though i could live here. i would like to give that go go one of these days actually - i wonder if i will ever get to live in london *and* new york, though. ah, well. you never know. after a lovely yum-cha lunch we went on to the tate modern gallery, but we got there a little too late. they have these massive tube slides in there that go from the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors down to the ground, but you have to get there early to get a ticket for them. they are free, so they go fast... we might try and go there early tomoroow morning, or maybe even wednesday before we leave. this evening mark and will and i went on a 'jack the ripper' walking tour of london which was interesting in a slightly morbid way. and i though i'd blog before goung off to bed, so i hope you're enjoying the read! tomorrow we are going on a behind-the-scenes tour at bbc tv, and i am hoping to fit in high tea at the ritz. that would be lovely.
anyway, take care all and we'll post pics soon.
righto then, moving right along... london. we have been here since wednesday last, and leave wednesday coming. which leaves us with one whole day tomorrow - but before i tell you what we have planned for that, i'll fill you in on what we did with the our other london days.
we got here on wednesday afternoon and made our way to will and cam's place in london with no complications. turns out they live two doors down from the cafe that beck's sister meg used to work at when she was living la vida london. once everyone was home we went down to to the shops and came back with supplies - we had a beer and curry night in, and caught up. on thursday mark and i braved tge underground, and began & ended our first day with london cliches - buckingham palace and a play. we wandered from buckingham palace past big ben and to the london eye, on which we went for a ride - yes it was expensive but it was a lovely clear day, blue skies and fluffy clouds, so we thought we'd make the most of it. after our slow spin on the big ferris wheel we wandered around town, and found leicester square. we bought half-price tickets to a play called 'love song' starring neve campbell and michael mckean. we had an hour or so to kill before the show so we wandered around some more, and stumbled across a place that had a really good happy hour deal on cocktails. mark reasoned that it would work out cheaper to get a jug of cocktails instead of individual glasses. i liked where he was going with this line of reasoning, so did not argue with his logic. we sipped and people-watched, then watched the play, then came home and slept like babies.
on friday we went to the national portrait gallery. the great thing about london is that all the galleries are free these days. anyway we spent some hours there looking at all the art, then decided it was time for refreshment. we grabbed some cheap food then (burger king if you must know, we had 'buy one get one free' vouchers i'd ripped out of free papers - are you proud of me or what??) we wandered around picadilly circus and found the absolut ice bar. i had heard about this place, and it was quite inmpressive - the whole bar is made of ice, even the glasses they serve your drinks in. they give you a cape and gloves and you go in, and the bar and the walls and tables are all ice, and the cocktails are all absolut vodka based. i had one made out of absolut peppar and i think i could make that my new signature beverage. pepper vodka tastes great with pineapple juice. anyway, after there we came back home to see if will had finished work and wanted to go out for a beer, but he had a hard couple of days and didn't finish till around 10 - so we got some beers and played upwords till a lot later.
saturday we decided we'd go and find the door on portobello road - the one from the movie notting hill. so we caught the tube out half way to notting hill, but there were trackworks and we had to catch a bus the rest of the way. we saw a bus labellled 'portobello road markets' and hopped on it... and realised about twenty monutes later that we'd caught it on the wrong side of the road. so we hopped off, waited in the rain for ten minutes and caught the same bus on the other side of the road... by the time we got to portobello road the markets were done, so we found a cafe and had a late lunch. wasn't alll in vain though, we found the door and took a photo of it, like the true tourists we are. we then caught a train out to wimbledon to catch up with arani and tharani, twins whom i went to primary school with in fiji. we had dinner and caught up with them which was a great laugh, and ended up crashing at their place that night. the next day we all had breakfast together and then we set off back for home. despite our difficulties finding portobello markets the day beforem, we decided to search foir brick lane on the way home. found it, wandered through it - was a lot like foster road, only more so. lots of indian restaurants and sweet shops plying hindi music out onto the street... we found the spitalfield markets and browsed a bit before coming back home to meet up with will and penny. we caught a movie and then went out for dinner and drinks - all in all an excellent sunday evening.
monday - today - we got ooff to a bit of a slow start. i went to kensington palace and saw the diana photo exhibition - the beautiful last photo shoot she had with mario testino. it was a lovely afternoon, and even though it was drizzling lightly the whole time i was walking to and from the palace, i felt as though i could live here. i would like to give that go go one of these days actually - i wonder if i will ever get to live in london *and* new york, though. ah, well. you never know. after a lovely yum-cha lunch we went on to the tate modern gallery, but we got there a little too late. they have these massive tube slides in there that go from the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors down to the ground, but you have to get there early to get a ticket for them. they are free, so they go fast... we might try and go there early tomoroow morning, or maybe even wednesday before we leave. this evening mark and will and i went on a 'jack the ripper' walking tour of london which was interesting in a slightly morbid way. and i though i'd blog before goung off to bed, so i hope you're enjoying the read! tomorrow we are going on a behind-the-scenes tour at bbc tv, and i am hoping to fit in high tea at the ritz. that would be lovely.
anyway, take care all and we'll post pics soon.
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