The RAAF museum is still free and still great
As I predicted, when I woke up, it was raining, followed by 2 seconds of blue sky, then a huge amount of rain and even some thunder. Therefore I decided to make a return visit to a musuem I visited 10 years ago that has apparently now tripled in size, the Royal Air Force museum. I enjoyed it last time, and I enjoyed it this time, despite being much bigger it is still very cramped, they have crammed in too many planes to appreciate properly.
As it was last time, the highlight this time was the giant Vulcan bomber. This time I got a story that went south fast.
I was crouching down to take a photo which you can see below, and an old guy decided to tell me about the history of the plane in the Falklands war. So far so good. We briefly discussed its huge wing area and how loud it is when it takes off. Then he tells me he thinks they should bring the bombers out of retirement, to 'deal with the darkies, stop the bastards from coming over here'.
So it was time for me to move on.
Then I got another humorous story on the tube on the way back. I was not involved in this conversation, but a 'girl' who looked older than me, was talking to a very dapper older black gentleman in a suit with bow tie about her long history of attending psychedelic hard trance raves in a nearby forest.
The older fellow described how he would like to go but fears he would be too old and not admitted, the girl assured him that lots of 80 year olds go. So far... not too bad.
Then the 'girl' proceeded to explain how shes been attending since she was 12, generally goes 3 days without sleep, and has taken anything and everything in every combination and quantity, which is the only way to truly get in touch with the forest. So thats concerning, but I kind of expected it, she went into the usual shopping list of every kind of drug and their chemical properties, but assured the old fellow that no one does heroin, 'just everything else'.
The old fellow was very interested in this, described his 1970's LSD trip.
Now things turned for the worse.
The 'girl' explained that she was much more into drugs when she was 15, and they made her some kind of super genius that can see things no one else can. She spent 2 years in a hospital where authorities tried to study her powers, before she escaped, and she has lived undercover ever since.
Now she secretly works as an alternate neurologist, mixing different chemicals to combat peoples mental illnesses that the government controls via vaccines forced onto the population. Ketamine was the main ingredient from what I could gather, which is animal tranquilizer.
A sunny wet and rainy street.
In Australia new Chinese stores get a few bouquets of flowers out the front, here they ring the entire store with plastic flowers.
I walked down the equality tunnel and pretended I was playing Mario kart. The cleaning lady was very concerned when I threw a turtle at her.
ITS A HELICOPTER. More to come. I culled many plane photos, really I did.
Giant flying boat and cafe.
You can get inside the flying boat and peer through darkness into the light.
World war 1 hall, no ones really interested, everyone goes straight to see the newer planes.
The latest in British design. Faily McFailFace.
The fighter hall has way too many Spitfires. You can pay an exorbitant amount to sit in one briefly. The actual museum is completely free! All London museums are.
Long helicopter is long.
I made a helicopter view stop for a coffee.
Here is a Phantom. Photo makes it look small, it is huge.
The inside of the Phantom looks quite terrifying.
This is a lightning, I think when it was new it was the fastest fighter in the world. Note the extra fuel tanks on top of the wings.
The mighty Vulcan. Potential future eradicator of darkies!
A Lancaster, we have one of these in the war museum in Canberra I think.
They decided to only paint this Buccaneer with undercoat.
Signs are a feature of England. I realised a while ago its best not to question the sign, just do what it says, so I sat and sketched this trolley.
The modern fighter hall. I took a photo of this same hall in this exact spot 10 years ago. The chains holding the jets up have not snapped yet.
DUCK!
The area around the museum is all new apartments. I guess its no more than 10km out of the middle of London, its still on the tube line, a couple of stations before the end of the Northern line.
Check out that storm heading this way! Time to get back to the city before the end of the world!
Walking along Southbank to Tower bridge
For my last night in London I headed back to Southbank and walked the other way. Finally getting to the Tower Bridge, which despite not being very far had somehow eluded me during this trip. Along the way I saw some skateboarding competitions, fake jails, pay toilets, more of the shard, a damaged police car going at ridiculous speed, a guy threaten to throw his missus in the Thames, a kid ride his scooter into the side of a taxi, a girl try to shove her ice cream up her mothers bum for no reason, a pigeon fly into a guys head, security guards failing to make kids move off the steps and then a woman loudly telling the train station staff that she would write a harshly worded letter expressing her disgust at the inconvenience a line closure had caused her. All very English.
I then had a repeat dinner as you shall see, and am now back in my hotel early, trying to go to sleep so I can get up early tomorrow and wait all day to go to the airport tomorrow night. Maybe this will get updated again from the airport, it all depends on Heathrow customs and the Etihad corralled zoo.
Yes I am aware all these photos are more of the same, why are there no mountains near London?
Here are the Royal Law Courts, where members of the Royal family are tried if they break the law.
More of the same view of the brown Thames. Busy on a Saturday afternoon.
Theres a Harry Potter book fair under the bridge.
You can pay to rent a deck chair to watch these 2 people play ping pong for the first time.
I use a Vodafone SIM when traveling because it has great data when roaming. The network connectivity in London is the worst I have ever experienced, despite the SIM roaming to all networks. When my phone is not working I hear other people asking if anyone has signal, so its not just me. Oh, this is a Vodafone ad if you were wondering why I placed that rant here.
Here is the Tate modern museum, it was founded by Sharon Tate who was murdered by notorious pedophile Roman Polanski who then successfully framed Charles Manson for the murders. I have been in here before, today I used their bathrooms.
Nearby is a newly covered Galleria, its just the usual coffee shops.
SHARD!!!
And here it is, Tower Bridge.
I waited long enough to see it, here it is again.
Across the river, a new modern London.
The Southbank side with lots of sun in my eyes. I have been on that battleship before, the view of it today is ruined by a cruise ship tied up against it.
After crossing the bridge you come to this castle thing, then you descend into the tube station and encounter a loud angry letter writing threatening elderly lady.
And heres my bang bang chicken and delicious chunky tomato soup which I drank from the cup. Behind me 2 air hostesses were talking loudly and openly about how they wanted to be lesbians, at least for as long as they are air hostesses.
The London fun run and a visit to the national library
Is this the end? Maybe, in more ways than one. Hypochondria has kicked in. Although I feel fine, my pulse has been inexplicably high all day. Science and fitness websites suggest this means I will certainly be getting a cold, soon. But thats ok, I did not get a cold during my trip, if I get one now quickly I will possibly give it to everyone on the plane, only time will tell.
Right now I am sitting in 'the house' which is the branding Etihad gives to its lounges, at London Heathrow terminal 4. I suspect I am the only person in here, who took the tube all the way from Kings Cross to get here, its just over an hour standing up crushed against thousands of people going to Easyjet. So I have been fed and showered, ready for my flight, which does not leave for another 2.5 hours assuming its on time.
Earlier, I woke up early and had a lot of time to kill, so walked two last giant laps of the city. Its the weekend when the city shuts down for a running race and picnics on the street. Somehow I have been here before on this very day where the same thing occurred. No problem for me, but opinion is divided on the disruption it causes, more harshly worded letters no doubt.
Will I post another update from Abu Dhabi in about 10 hours from now? I dont know, the airport here at Heathrow and in Abu Dhabi outside 'the house' is a zoo, so maybe I can take photos of zoo animals. Maybe something will happen in Abu Dhabi. Maybe we will get diverted to Iran. Anything is possible.
Now for the final set of same looking London photos.
First up, soon after the dawn, its a multi level umbrella shop. Terrifying.
A particularly nice pile of rubbish. I stood and appreciated it for a while.
Here we have Regent street, supposedly closed off for a picnic, however its filling up with paid advertising areas.
Then I found out theres a running race all around the city streets. A shame I could not enter.
These runners are late to get to the start.
Its the mall. The start of the running race is down there, near Buckingham palace. The Queen is hoping for a personal best.
This is an area where people torture horses. Everyone better appreciate how I got the ferris wheel to line up.
Trafalgar Square. Its quite underwhelming really.
I think I am faster than most of these guys. Its only a 10km race, go faster. Actually it was interesting to see the very different styles of the elite athletes out the front, some were slow and loping, some bent over like hunchbacks, but most have adopted a more African forefoot striking style, similar to me. Yeah they copied me.
A bit later in the day now, and this is the British Library. Its free apart from the exhibitions. The old sacred texts part is free, but they are strict on no photos. Also its very dark to preserve the old paper. By old I mean, they had the Magna Carta from 1215, they also had some Japanese texts from 700AD.
Phone booths stopped being about phones long ago. Now they are just for sex service advertising. Look at all the wires hanging down.
On my second loop of London for the day I headed over towards Paddington, the far west of the city. The buildings look less grey here, this could be a shitty old Australian street, perhaps in Geelong.
A filthy recycling station, enjoyed by pigeons.
Paddington station is quite old still. Most of the other main stations have had complete makeovers. Paddington station does have a brass version of Paddington bear on a seat for Chinese girls to hug while having their photo taken.
Nearby there is another bright green canal.
Now we jump forwards to the Etihad lounge at Heathrow. I took a seat in the a la carte area, but there is also a buffet as you can see.
I ordered zaataar chicken or something like that. Its small and a bit plain, but nice enough. I added some salds from the buffet, not pictured.
Because dinner was small, I could have a selection of tiny desserts. The service was too attentive, a guy stood next to my table looking at me. Judging me.
Now for the shower experience. I could not fit it in one photo.
BEHOLD! A shower. Have you ever seen such a thing before in your life? As I type this an Arabic guy who must not be able to read or write is talking to his phone in Arabic and getting answers on speaker phone. Very annoying. He is getting quite mad with it.
There are currently 1 comments - click to add
mother on 2019-07-22 said:
Your photos still seem to lean to the right a bit. Have a germ free flight home.
Going from Heathrow to Abu Dhabi on an Etihad Airbus A380
Now I am back in the Etihad lounge at Abu Dhabi airport eating waffles.
The flight was fine, an Airbus A380, completely full. 7 hour leg. The only thing notable, a woman sat in the aisle mid flight for a couple of hours and had a tantrum and refused to move. Lots of the cabin staff spoke firmly with her. This kept everyone awake for a while.
My next and last flight is a much smaller Boeing Dreamliner, on a much longer flight, about 13.5 hours.
Heres the last 2 photos, both really boring!
The airport area looks really polluted! Maybe its a sea mist, I was talking to someone that works here about how sea mists shut down the highways for many hours each day.
Waffle time. This was the lightest option on the menu. The food on the plane is terrible, mutton stew, carbonara. Thats it, I am done.
There are currently 2 comments - click to add
elz on 2019-08-24 said:
I enjoyed reading your guide, still I believe you should add gps tag to your images if your gears allow it.
mother on 2019-07-22 said:
Yum!
The end.
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