A Curious Girl: The Illustrated Adventures

Yesterday I went up to London to visit my sister... not the Queen :) I got up reasonably early to get the commuter coach up - Ł8, so cheaper than the train... it was a nice day, sunny but rather chilly. The trip up was punctuated by various text messages... mainly from Nicky. I saw the Millennium Hedgehog... I mean Dome... on the way up. Actually, I found the sight rather depressing. So much potential, yet when I went there, it had been rather bland, dumbed-down in some places... some 'zones' were fun (Play was pretty good, would have liked to have seen more of it) but I have no idea what they had to do with the Millennium. The show was quite good... much of the rest simply struck me as rather 'consumerist'. Personally I would have preferred something more diverse, less techonogically showy and more focused on the world's cultures, achievements, even mistakes over the years.

At Aldgate, the woman next to me advised me that Embankment was when the Thames was on the left of the coach... so when I saw the Thames, I asked the Driver (Sean, I am reliably informed) where Embankment was. He told me, so I got up, and looked out the window to see a pair of sphinxes and Cleopatra's Needle - and the London Eye. In the Station, I was advised that the cheaper tickets were available in half an hour, so after phoning Nicky, I went out and took some photos... the needle, St. Paul's in the distance.

Unfortunately I didn't have the greatest view of the London Eye, or I would have got one of that as well. Feeling at a bit of a loose end, I went back to the station and wandered around the gardens/walk/whatever where there are some amazing flowers that I didn't even know existed, let alone in London. Glancing around me, I also noticed that all the various flags were at half-mast. Of course - the Queen Mother.

Seeing as I still had about fifteen minutes, I sat down and read a little of my Gideon Bible which I'd brought with me, and tried to pray a bit. As you can see from last entry, spiritually I'm not particularly strong at the moment. Sunday's service had been... turbulent. I am unfortunately either extremely good or extremely awful at hiding my emotions... I came in feeling rather like Isaiah at the beginning of Isaiah 6, and strangely, the sermon was preached on Isaiah 6, by a preacher who sounded a bit like a Birmingham version of Kyle Horner, the charismatic preacher at Detling. And I wanted to have the spiritual experience he kept going on about, but soon it was ten minutes past official ending time, and every time I'm late out I either get 'hardly Christian' - of the preacher - or 'shouldn't your conscience be pricking you a bit?' *Sigh*... so I left, feeling close to tears, although I was cheery to Bill - see what I mean? I was pleased to see Bill, but still feeling bad. Clive asked me what was wrong and in the end I said 'Tired and other stuff'. I don't know what he would have said if I'd explained, but I doubt I would have liked it.

So anyway, I was in Embankment, telling God that I'm quite amazed he thought of some many different flowers, and then I went to catch the train to meet Nicky. We walked back to her uni and room after a quick stop at Tesco's to buy some bacon, ham and garlic for our dinner that evening. I like Nicky's room when it looks lived in... she has quite a lot of cuddly toys, including a large duck from Jonathan (in fact, most of the toys were from Jonathan!), a Mystic 8 ball (which I proceeded to play with), a couple of Jonathan's framed POVray images, and some pictures of Jonathan, and her and Jonathan, which are sweet :). In the kitchen we dumped the food and she threw away some particularly disgusting looking milk. Aah... student life.

We got the bus back to the station, and proceeded to Oxford Circus, stopping off for a KFC in Oxford Street. I like travelling by Tube for some reason. When I was travelling up to meet Nicky, I had one of those 'wow, they have a whole life I don't know about' moments about some of the people travelling with us. Seeing as the bit we were travelling on wasn't actually underground for some of the way, there was some sunshine coming in, and I read the adverts, whilst Nicky commented that they don't change them very often. Seeing as I travel by Tube about once a year, they're always new to me :)

Gloucester Road station (if I'm not mistaken) was dedicated to art and had some sculptures, as well as being interestingly lit. I liked that a lot - I like it that many of the stations are so different (for instance, Westminster is has a lot of open space and is rather space age grey/silver, others have adverts up the walls by the platforms and have token buskers, South Kensington is open to the sky but set out differently to Richmond, which is also open, or Hounslow, which is actually on a hill).

The KFC meal was delicious as always, although I managed to burn my tongue on the gravy, and got standard twinge of guilt for ordering a 3 piece meal. I think I would have been hungry for more chicken with a 2 piece, but for some reason 3 pieces are a bit too much... *sigh*... on the bright side on the food front, at least I'm recognising these moments now. I'm gradually learning to trust myself with what I eat.

After lunch we went to Hyde Park! The subway system to get there is labyrinthine (great word...) but we came out at Speaker's Corner, unfortunately with no speakers around - I would have been interested to hear what sort of things people say! It was nippy but sunny (as I'm sure I've already said about three times) and Nicky and I walked down to the Serpentine as she told me about various IRC meets and pointed out the strange shaped trees. People were out walking, boating, and rollerblading. I wish I had some rollerblades and could used them :) Maybe I should get some! I was feeling a bit crampy (period...) and didn't really want to go rowing, but I thought a pedal boat would probably be good, so we hired one of them for half an hour and pedalled around. The people who run the boating place all seem to be Australian, it's odd :) I find Australian accents catching for some reason, if I talk to someone with one for a while I start talking the same way... but we only got told to stay away from the edge and how to steer by the helpful Australian woman, so I managed to stay sounding English :)

The boat was, I thought, surprisingly comfortable, not wet at all (compared to most small boats I've been in, quite miraculous) and very easy to work. There were many interesting birds on the water - ducks, geese, a swan and some birds I can't name. Some birds-I-can't-name did a pretty amazing run across the water, leaving Nicky screaming 'Jesus!' I thought she was swearing, but in fact she was referring to him walking on water :)

We saw some kids in a boat splashing each other the oars and steered well clear. Another Australian man had a little motor boat that caused the occasional ripple. We pedalled out to the bridge, where there are barriers up, and back, stopping to pick up a plastic bag some girls had dropped, and approaching them to give it back :) they seemed quite grateful actually, probably more so that we had retrieved it from the water rather than that we had returned it to them.

After the short boat ride, we had an ice-cream - well, Nicky had a Solero and I had a 99 flake, and we reflected on how good it was to have jokes on lolly sticks. I remember my personal favourite - 'What wobbles and has knobs on? A Jelly-vision'. Then we looked at a boulder that Norway had donated to Hyde Park and wondered what Norway did during the Second World War, seeing as neither of us appeared to know.

We walked up through South Kensington, seeing some flags at half-mast along the way, and ended up deciding to go to Baker Street to see if we could find a pillar box. Yes... a Mayfair pillar box, home of the world's greatest secret agent Dangermouse! On our way there, Nicky was handed a card for the Sherlock Holmes museum by a man dressed suspiciously like the man himself. As we wandered along trying to work out where we were exactly, we wandered back past him and Nicky offered him the card back. For some reason, he refused.

We found what was probably Dangermouse's residence (right next to Abbey National), although it being bigger than it was on television, they probably had an extension built... DM didn't appear to be in, but Nicky posted the Sherlock Holmes Museum card into it, so maybe the World's Greatest Secret Agent will be seen examining things once belonging to the World's Most Beloved Fictional Character in the near future. We both had a picture taken of us by the pillar box, and I took a photo of the Sherlock Holmes exhibit and the Baker Street sign next to the Abbey National sign - it's 221 Baker Street, of course :)

After that, we weren't sure where to go next. I suggested Abbey Road where the Beatles recorded, and Nicky suggested Pudding Lane, where the Great Fire of London started in 1666. We decided to visit Pudding Lane to see if we could find a Bakery, and to visit Buckingham Palace first.

(I wanted a genuine picture of this, and of the zebra crossing! another time, perhaps)

I have a postcard of Buckingham Palace on my notice board, and it being an aerial photo, it's possible to see a lot more green than it is walking there. We went from Baker Street to Green Park and through there we went up to the palace. I actually saw some of those red coated guards with fluffy black hats! Wow :) the Union Jack was at half mast (so the Queen can't have been in), the place had rather a lot of cameras and the Queen Victoria Memorial and white tarpaulin over the steps. I did get a picture, but tried to get the non-tarpaulined side. (click here for it in all its glory). There were many people gathered outside, and we watched cars go in and out. We might have possibly seen someone famous as the car drove out, but it was impossible to tell! too dark inside. I thought of taking a picture, but it seemed unfair, especially when they're all in mourning. So I took a couple of the palace, and Nicky took one of the tulips, for Jonathan I think :)

Eventually we left, rather exhausted by now, to catch the Tube to London Bridge, so we could walk to Pudding Lane from there. We crossed the bridge against the flow of many commuters in suits, and saw Tower Bridge down the river... it is so lovely. Pudding Lane wasn't much, no bakers, but we got a picture, and I finally thought to check my phone, to discover that Mum had left a message saying she would buy us lunch... oops (she works in London). That had been several hours before.

Our last stop was HMV, Oxford Street - we'd planned WHSmiths but couldn't find it. Nicky bought Sliding Doors, I bought What Women Want, and then we crawled back home. Oxford Street seemed full of Scientologists, Hare Krishnas, a Christian preacher (I wasn't sure whether to be pleased!), some Animal rights activists and London News stands with 'BT cuts 20000 jobs' and 'Queen's TV Tribute' as headlines. Back at Nicky's room, she called Jonathan and I went onto the Internet to check my e-mail, and discovered that Alice had been in London yesterday too! Wow... Also my Grandma went to queue up for the Queen Mother, but I'd already known that :)

We cooked some pasta and the sauce, including liberal amounts of bacon (Nicky did most of the cooking), I called Christina about the cinema plans for today, and then we watched 'Sliding Doors'. I enjoyed the film, and it being set in London was sort of appropriate, even if (as I have read in a couple of reviews) the view of London was rather unrealistic. I thought it was a cool film - a PR worker called Helen (nice name... played by Gwyneth Paltrow with a perfectly passable English accent that didn't sound overly posh, phew) gets fired from her job, and misses the train home. Then it switches to a storyline where she doesn't miss the train home... If she got home early, she would have discovered that her boyfriend was cheating on her, and also met a man called James who I thought was a rather adorable character :) He quoted Monty Python a lot. If she missed the train, she got two rubbish part-time jobs and we watch the boyfriend carry on cheating on her. I think the ending was the best bit, though - the way the two storylines finished was clever.

Soon after, we went to bed. I slept well on the camp bed type thing, we got up at about half past eight and ate bacon sandwiches for breakfast... mmmmmm.... then I had to get the train home to meet Christina for the cinema. I got the bus down, and the train to Waterloo, and then in Waterloo (rushing to Waterloo East) I had a conversation on the phone with Christina. The chances of me reaching the cinema on time were looking slim. I ran up the escalators, still on the phone, and eventually saw the ticket machines. I have to confess, I had a bit of a thrill tearing through the station at top speed... My ten pound note would not process through the machine, and I couldn't find a normal human being selling tickets anywhere nearby. A train pulled away from my platform. Grr. I tried again, it finally worked, and I went to get the next train, which was delayed. Had to wonder, given the film I'd seen the night before, what would have happened if I'd caught it. Eventually I caught a train - missed the cinema, unfortunately - but had a nice, peaceful ride home.

I walked the rest of the way back :) I had a lovely time.

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