Going back to London for work.
It probably wont be as interesting as the recent Japan trip, but at least the weather should be nice since its the middle of summer in London, however that could mean it rains non stop because when I was there in winter it didnt rain.
Flight goes through Melbourne this time, havent flown internationally from Melbourne before. I Think they completed a major upgrade recently. If you are bored already, so am I, I am sitting in the qantas club in Adelaide where I seem to spend half my life!
Heres my plane for the short flight to Melbourne, Boeing 737
It was pouring with rain and we circled a bit before landing, but other than that, it was uneventful.
Melbourne airports new international terminal isnt finished, so its a maze to get through to the lounge, but its pretty much deserted, and before I knew it I was in the first class lounge.
The lounge is also deserted, and to be honest it makes me feel stupid because theres at least 20 staff and they all stare at you to see if they can do anything for you.
I have about a 2.5 hour wait for my next flight, so its plenty of time to enjoy a delicious dinner, and upload boring pictures which you can see below onto the internet.
Here I am, looking scruffy.
I cant ever resist cakes.
This was a great flight.
I have finally achieved sleep on a plane. And it was great because it didnt seem like I was on a plane for 24 hours at all, probably more like 6 or 7 hours is what it felt like.
Yet despite being chemically assisted I still woke up when needed for food and drink etc. and I felt absolutely fine during the stopover in Hong Kong.
I didnt watch anything at all on the entertainment system even. I think it helped that I had the absolute best seat in economy (yes economy!) as you can see below.
The most amazing thing was when we landed in Hong Kong, I had drifted back to sleep and was asleep when the plane hit the ground, I woke up thinking we had hit the worst turbulence ever, but no, we had landed.
Heres my seat, as you can see I have a bulk head behind me and in front of me. My seat still reclines as much as any other, I am on the end of the aisle. Across from me in the aisle is the crew rest area, which is curtained off, this makes my seat the darkest area on the plane.
The plane was oversold, not a single spare seat, hence no chance at all for an upgrade.
My feet cant touch the bulkhead in front of me, especially once the seat was reclined, noisy pictures because it really was dark here. I didnt take any pictures of my food on this leg (since I am sure everyones bored of them), but it was the usual chicken in soy sauce, rice, spinach, followed by the snack packs with kit kats and mentos, then only a continental breakfast shortly before arriving at Hong Kong.
This is a shower room in the first class lounge at Hong Kong, and this is the single best reason to maintain platinum frequent flyer status. Better than all the food and expensive spirits which I dont drink put together. You really do feel great after the shower.
The breakfast buffet in Hong Kong was great, as I was able to construct what I would eat at home, cereal with yoghurt and fruit.
I relented and took food pictures on the Hong Kong to London leg, heres the breakfast aftermath. Breakfast was scrambled eggs with spinach and baked beans, yoghurt, a scone thing and some pineapple. I sure did eat a lot didnt I?
And heres the last plane food picture until my return in 3 weeks, the menu said it was a lamb pot pie, in reality it was lamb stew with some pastry on top that had been reheated for hours. Still it wasnt too bad.
I was quite refreshed from the flight, and knowing that Heathrow immigration is a zoo, once off the plane I went at top speed passing everyone left and right over the course of the mile stampede (literally, it would be nearly a mile walk) to the immigrations counters.
I was almost first in line and passed straight through, after some extra questions about why I keep visiting the UK for business, and am I really not getting paid by the UK etc.
The race was on to get to my hotel in time for Formula 1 qualifying, so I took the Heathrow Express train which gets you to Paddington, then transferred to the circle line to Euston, then just a short walk to my Hotel.
Checked in straight away, raced upstairs, made it by 3pm, just in time! Except qualifying was 2 - 3, not 3 - 4. Oh well.
There are no photos today, which is a pretty big failure, but in the afternoon/evening I went to Reading via a ride in a new Jag to a birthday party and had thai food followed by a smartie birthday cake, which was pretty good. I thought it would be rude to take my camera and post photos of English people eating Thai food on the internet.
I caught the train back which was not the express that the board said and it took ages, and I started to nod off on the train despite the drunken behaviour going on all around me.
Finally, my air conditioned room, doesnt seem to be! There will be photos tomorrow I promise.
I woke up at 6:30am, which is perfect as thats my regular getting up time during the week, so does this mean no jet lag at all? I am hopeful.
By 7:30 I decided to set out for a walk, the weather is absolutely fantastic, I walked the usual tourist route of tottentham court road, bloomsbury avenue, trafalgar square etc, but also had a look in chinatown for some good places to have dinner that are cheap and take credit card.
The other good news for the day is that the formual 1 and England vs Germany football game do not crossover, so I can watch the f1 then hit the streets to photograph the riot that occurs as England gets thrashed by their traditional dual world war enemy.
I promised pictures, I deliver pictures.
One last thing, it takes a lot for me to not finish food or drink, but without a doubt, diet Dr Pepper is the worst drink of all time, OF ALL TIME.
Heres a blurry picture of the BT tower, note the very blue sky, this is a rare thing in London.
And heres a mural, maybe its interesting, maybe not, its colorful. The tower snuck into the shot again.
Piles of rubbish on the streets are common in Central London. Its a strange thing to see, but I guess theres no room for bins.
Look! I have taken enough regular tourist shots on my last 2 visits, so now I have to look for artful and different things to photograph. Not being arty myself, and sucking at photography, the best I can do is cliche reflections. Enjoy.
Trafalgar square is deserted at 8am in the morning. Unlike Australia there are no big screens in the city to watch the football on, due to fear of riots, Boris promised to erect them but has failed to deliver. This is dissapointing, as I dont know where the best vantage point for riot photography will be.
Theres no giant screens, but there is a ship in a giant bottle.
I stopped for breakfast at costa coffee as not much else was open. At least it was healthy, yoghurt, fruit salad.
Some sort of particularly grand old hotel at Russel Square.
This area of London has no skyscrapers except this one, and what a shockingly ugly building it is, sticking up for all to see from miles around. It should be demolished immediately.
I went and got a boring lunch and got home just in time for the Formula 1. Mark Webber decided to see how far he could jump his car onto its roof, quite far as it turns out.
Then England decided to reverse the result of World War 2. For this occasion I decided to wander the streets to see what was going on in the pubs. Lots of yelling and screaming for the first 30 minutes or so....then silence. I was dissapointed there was no riot.
I really did walk a lot today and my feet are already suffering as a result, I think my shoes are no good, too narrow at the toe end for my fat feet.
The evening walk took me back to chinatown, where I saw a disgraceful display in a restaurant, read on for the description with the pictures.
I quickly walked to Camden looking for lunch, its quite near my hotel, there were lots of people out and about, some already drunk, but I didnt find anything for lunch that wasnt deep fried.
Here is my exceptionally boring lunch from M&S, I do like the fruit salads in England though.
That sign says it was 35C today in London. I saw a lot of people with wet cloths on their heads etc. It didnt feel particularly hot to me, I doubt it was really 35C
There were announcements and signs alerting everyone to Englands huge failure. After seeing the goal they were denied I cant believe there wasnt more violence in the streets.
Heres my dinner from a Singaporean curry house (in China town). It was pretty great, and cost about $10, quite spicy, good roti.
When I got there a group of 6 people from India were attempting to order. They all spoke good english but despite this, I listened in as they took 20 minutes to order 3 things off the menu. They were deliberately trying to confuse the chinese waitress. I dont know what their motivation for doing this was but it was starting to make me mad.
To the credit of the chinese girl, she kept explaining things patiently, when she must have known they were being idiots. Some questions they asked were 'Is there any pork in the steamed rice?', 'does the chicken come with prawns?', 'do you serve the curry on a plate or straight out the tin?'.
The one woman at the table seemed very annoyed at the 5 men.
When their drinks came, the behaviour continued, they sent the coke back for being too cold, and they sent orange juice back for not being sweet enough.
Next thing, a man comes out from behind the door, and says very calmly, 'I have been observing you from the kitchen (dramatic pause), get out of my restaurant.
Now this caused quite a drama, with the group accusing him of being rude and demanding an apology, by now I am trying to get my camera, the woman started crying and stormed out, and the 5 men followed her before I could take a photo.
Today I worked, all day, its a common misconception that I just go on holidays all over the world.
I woke up at 6 and had to catch a train north of the city, but I was early so I wandered around Kings Cross station and saw nothing of interest. But it was quite hot, 30C again today.
During work I got to go to Maplin to buy a female to female gender convertor, I rang them and got a retarded child whom I asked if they had one in stock, and he just couldnt grasp what I was asking for, no matter how I described it (d-type, 9 pin serial etc.) he just kept asking me if it was for an xbox or if maybe USB would be better. So I hung up, and called back, 3 times, until someone else answered, and he told me straight away that they had it. This was hilariously frustrating.
In the evening I again just wandered around the city, in the heat, its still quite amazing to me that it can be fully light at 9:30pm. I saw a fight in chinatown but didnt get a good picture, see down for details.
This is todays picture of random architecture. I have no idea what it is, its quite near Downing street.
Heres some random really poor breakdancers. If you are this bad at something you should practice at home before showing off in front of huge crowds.
This seems to be homeless person central.
I dont know whats happening here, but these guys crowded into the pagoda are very excited about it.
Google told me that in here were the best dumplings in town, I guess google needs to be updated because there was nothing here at all.
I looked in here for my dinner, no luck.
I settled on a vietnamese place, some cold rolls to start, quite nice.
And then Pho, which was really nice, good quality beef, hot chillies provided.
A fight broke out just outside the shop. The lady of the house locked the shop door. Outside theres roundhouses and sweep the leg johnny going on, and I cant get a decent picture. Then her sons rushed down from upstairs and ran outside, and she was yelling and screaming, and they tore off down the street.
I wanted to leave to see what was going on but my dinner had only just arrived.
Last picture of the day, a giant golden flaming freddie mercury.
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