In London

Strange, my pommie accent has disappeared now that I'm in London. It's just not so much fun anymore for some reason. I'm back to speaking Stray-liun again. We're staying in Westminster, which is near Victoria Station in a place called Wigram House and is student accomodation for Westminster University and is almost right next-door from Westminster Cathedral. I'm almost still calling this place "Winchester" but have to correct myself all the time... It smells funny here (almost like my old boarding school), the floor boards squeak, and the beds aren't that comfy. The room is big enough for me and Tam and they have toilets, showers and kitchens on each floor, and a laundry on the ground floor. It's a great location for exploring London.

We arrived here last night (Sunday) at about 8pm local time, which is quite quick considering our flight was at about 3pm. But that was Hong Kong time. It was about an 11 hour flight. Yeah, we travelled back in time baby. Watched three movies (Sahara, Kung Fu Hustle, and Be Cool), and reread some more of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Tam watched Sahara, The Pacifier, a Friends and Sex in the City episode and had a nap.

It was still light and a pleasant change of climate. After some in-airport research, we opted against the scary hairy men asking if we needed a taxi and decided to catch a National Express bus from Heathrow into Victoria. The trip was fine and cost us 10 pounds each, the bus was packed and we both had separate aisle seats but managed to check out our surroundings and some of Earl's Court on the way to the city. On the way, We saw some familiar shops like Burger King, Starbucks, McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Nando's so we should be fine. We reached the bus terminal and then caught a black taxi to Wigram House, unpacked a bit and showered off the crustiness of an 11 hour flight and went to bed around midnight.

Woke up today about 8am to a warm sunny London day (bloody hell it's hot sometimes) and we went through our travel books and guides to decide what to do. We eventually got ready and went out at 9:30, first stop was to the Information Centre at Victoria Station where we picked up some more brochures and guides and bought a weekly travelcard. We then located a Marks & Spencer food hall and got some sandwiches and yogurt for breakfast, and then a Starbuck capuccino. After Hong Kong, I can't believe how expensive everything is here. Especially for food, drinks and public transportation! If you don't convert back to Aussie dollars, the prices would seem alright. But then you have to do the conversion and you kind of lose your appetite again. Which may be a good thing since I need to lose some weight and also lose that extra waist baggage I picked up in Hong Kong. We then headed over to sit at St James Park near Buckingham Palace to have our breakfast.

We got there, after a minor detour, and found that some roads were closed to cars and that all sorts of people in their Sunday best were heading the same way. We had stumbled into the VE celebrations commerating the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII. We thought we'd just see the Changing of the Guards at 11:30am (those tall guys in red with guns and the big black hairy hats). But sadly, that wasn't on today so we'll have to go back another day). The good thing was that we got to see the old lady herself. The Queen, dressed in a yellow outfit with matching yellow bonnet, drove by with her trademark hand waving. We didn't expect to see her (sorry, no Queen photos today) as there was no notice or fanfare or anything, but looked over just in time to see her go past. Wow. The Queen of England. That's right. We saw her. Then after waiting about half an hour, and then overhearing a policeman say that the Changing of the Guard wasn't happening today, we left and headed back to Victoria Station.

S'funny how the shops here display their opening and closing hours, but they don't seem to really mean a thing. I had to see Vodafone to clear up some problem with my Roaming and their shop said they would be open at 11am. We got there at 11:45 and they were still closed and eventually opened their doors at 12:15. The pharmacy here, Boots, also said they close at 5 today. But we got there at 4:40pm and they already locked the doors and were cleaning up. What's wrong with this stupid country?

After not being helped at Vodafone, we caught the underground tube to Oxford Circus and went to eat some Indian curry at Masala Zone, which was quite tasty. Then had a look at some of the shops there and then walked to take some photos of Big Ben, the London Eye and some other buildings and bridges and stuff. We'll upload the photos later. We came back to Westminster and bought some microwave meals from Sainsbury's (the local supermarket). mmm yummy. A definitely huge change from the delicious cuisine from Hong Kong. We miss Hong Kong so much. Maybe London will grow on us. I'm sure it'll be better after we start working and earning pounds.

Tam here now... Well Des has pretty much summed up our first day in London! Pretty much doing the touristy thing. I don't think I was really too excited about coming over as I thought I would have been... Perhaps a freak out from the happenings of a few days earlier and also leaving the family nest in HK but I think the excitement started to run thru me again as we arrived into Heathrow and so far I think I like what I've seen... It'll be nice when and if we make some friends (though meeting up with a school friend soon!) and start earning some dosh...