Our flat

Just a quick blog to say that we moved into our flat on Tuesday night. The flat itself is rather small and is on the 4th floor of a 4-storey building, so we will certainly get fit climbing the stairs everyday! In fact, it was a mission carting the 5 suitcases and other junk we had acquired up the stairs.

The location is the best thing about the flat. It is in Westminster, right in the heart of London, a 10 minute walk to Big Ben, the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, and three underground stations. We also have loads of shops, supermarkets/minimarts, restaurants, cafes, and pubs right on our doorstep. We have 8 pubs within 5 mins of out front door, 2 of them are right across the road. Very handy.

We can now give you a virtual tour of the flat (the view from the window shows the London Eye, then just to left of that is the very top of Big Ben and then further left is the top of the towers of Westminster Abbey)...enjoy

PS Some fans have raised concerns for Bear's safety, fearing that he may have been left in Asia or that he may be stuck in quaratine at Heathrow. Never fear, all is well.










Our flat -
top floor














Lounge












Other side
of lounge













Bedroom













Tiny
kitchen













Bathroom
















View from
lounge window

Tower of London

On Saturday morning we decided go and see the Horse Guard at Whitehall and then head down to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard. Unfortunately we were a bit late getting to the changing of the guard and there were 10 billion people there already, so we put that off for another day!

The Horse Guard was interesting. We didn't really know what to expect, but thought it may have been slightly more spectacular than it turned out to be. Still, something to tick off the list...

After lunch we did some shopping on Oxford Street. Tim bought some shoes and Megan found a nice new top. That night we went to the theatre to see one of Megan's favourites, Mousetrap by Agatha Christie. The play was excellent, except for the annoying woman behind us who wouldn't shut up. I'm sure we'll be back again before long.

On Sunday, we braved the wintry weather and headed for the Tower of London...along with 50 billion other people. We had no idea how huge the Tower of London was. It's actually several different towers/buildings/fortresses etc. It was a very interesting tour, there was so much to see. We saw the Crown Jewels which were pretty spectacular. We also looked through the famous White Tower, which is now full of old weapons and armour, and the Beauchamp Tower, where apparently Anne Boleyn was imprisoned before her execution on Tower Green.

The tour was really good, but we were a little sick of it by the end, mainly due to the massive crowds everywhere.

Monday is a public holiday here, so we will probably be doing more shopping and sorting out our things to move into our flat on Tuesday night.






Our money boxes
for the billions of
coins we have
acquired











Horse Guard
at Whitehall























Horse Guard
heading back to
Buckingham
Palace










Former bedroom
of King Edward I























King of the Castle
King of the Castle













Megan outside
White Tower



























White Tower














Tower Green
where some
executions
took place























Guards at
the Tower












What remains of
Highbury Stadium

Star Wars and Sherlock Holmes

Fans

London continues to dazzle us, this time around it was a with a weekend of sunshine and a fearful display of the Force. More on that below. We spent Saturday morning at Borough market which is well known for its astounding range of fresh produce, meat, cheeses etc. It also features lovely stores selling desserts, confectionery and fresh baked breads. We fell in love with the place and will be returning asap, especially for the dense, warm chocolate brownie which was in itself worth getting through the week for.

The rest of Saturday was built around the FA Cup final (disappointing spectacle) and then a BBQ with the Putney ones. Anna pulled off a winner with a chocolate cake made to the Ma Compton recipe, it was a taste of home for those lucky enough to grow up on such delicacies.

After the chocolate brownie + cake combo we were full of energy for Sunday which opened with much excitement - a visit to the Star Wars exhibition! We got up close to the costumes, models and technology featured in the famous trilogies (sixtology?) and then it was time for the best part...meeting the characters! Megan got to inspect her favourite droid (that's R2D2, not his annoying pommie sidekick!) and Tim kicked several children out of the way to get a photo with Darth Vadar. Tim then got a photo with a "Jedi" who looked remarkably like All Black halfback, Piri Weepu.

We also watched a sweet little play-type thing where a couple of Jedis asked for volunteer Padawans (cue sixty kids straining to get their hands higher than the next kid's) and once six were chosen, the Jedis taught them "light sabre skills" with dodgy looking plastic swords. The next bit was classic though, just as these kids were getting the hang of the plastic swords and waving to their parents in the audience, the Emperor appeared and called on Darth Vadar...who walked in and down some stairs towards the kids! I think the four year old just about died of fright. Anyway, as with the movies, the Light Side of the Force triumphed although something told us it was a stitch up.

With Tim's childhood heroes covered off, we went to visit one of Megan's on Baker Street. The Sherlock Holmes Museum was not as high tech as Star Wars, but we did get to talk to "Dr Watson" (who had been to Westport recently, curious) and play with pipes, magnifying glasses and other related objects.

Many happy returns to Megan's mum, hope you had a lovely Monday!



A "Jedi" and Tim


















Han Solo




















Chewie


















Megan with
her favourite






















R2D2

Yoda and Megan
(Yoda on left)

Tim and a
stormtrooper

Darth Vader

Sherlock Holmes
museum

Megan in
Holmes' chair

Megan and
her hero

St Paul's Cathedral and Piccadilly Circus

Fans,

On Thursday night Shanan and Renee came over to our place for a few drinks and some dinner down the road at our local. Sadly the good old Wetherspoons pub let us down, as they had run out of almost everything we wanted to order. Disappointing. However, Tim did persuade Shanan to try his first ever Guinness (insane) and he seemed to enjoy it!

On Friday, Tim decided to make the most of his last day of freedom (before work starts on Monday) so he went out in search of some more London sights.

First stop was St Paul's Cathedral. This was the venue for Winston Churchill's funeral, Charles and Diana's wedding and the Queen Mother's funeral. Interesting facts discovered: the dome of the cathedral is the second largest in the world, behind St Peter's in Rome; Lord Nelson, the Duke of Wellington and Florence Nightengale are all buried beneath the cathedral; and whilst this is the fifth version (after having been destroyed by fire twice), some form of church/cathedral has stood at that spot since the 600s.

Tim climbed the 434 steps to the 'golden gallery' and took some snaps of London from high. The ceilings and statues etc inside the cathedral are magnificent...and they must be a nightmare to clean/maintain!!!

Next stop was Mansion House, home of the Mayor of London. Then on to Piccadilly Circus, a London trademark. While the buildings around the circus all look ancient, most are full of new shopping malls. The statue of Eros is a very popular spot for tourists to sit and eat lunch. Tim also wandered through St James' Square, and then down Pall Mall past St James' Palace.

It looks as though the weather is improving, we actually got some sun today! Fingers crossed it stays fine for the weekend.

Shanan and Renee













St Paul

The enormous dome
of St Paul's

St Paul's













View of the Thames
from up top of St Paul's












Mansion House

Piccadilly
Circus













Statue of Eros

St James'
Square












St James' Palace

St James Park and National Gallery

Fans

On Saturday we decided to visit St James' Park, in hope of spotting some squirrels that we had heard so much about. It wasn't the nicest of days, but the park was beautiful. Sure enough we saw plenty of squirrels, some even chased us!!! St James' Park is pretty much right next to Buckingham Palace and runs almost down to Trafalgar Square.

We grabbed some lunch and ate it in Trafalgar Square, although the dark rainclouds and pigeons soon forced us indoors to the National Art Gallery. The gallery is massive and it will take at least 5-6 visits to see everything. So on Saturday we limited ourselves to Leonardo, Raphael, a little Michaelangelo and some Picasso. (Tim was mainly interested in the ninja turtles). While neither of us know much about art, it is still a fascinating place to visit, and we actually learned quite a lot!

The weather has been pretty poor here for the last week or so; it doesn't feel like summer is coming any time soon! However, this has alerted us to a popular British habit of walking round with an umbrella up even if its not actually raining. If it's threatening to rain, or if it was raining half an hour ago, the umbrella must stay up!!! We're sure it's done just to piss people off by blocking the already crowded footpaths.















St James' Park













View of Buckingham
Palace from the park















Squirrel up a tree













Park again












Squirrel attacking
























Trafalgar Square












The National Gallery
at Trafalgar Square
























Buckingham
Palace













The Royal Standard
flying at the Palace
showing Liz was home

Stamford Bridge

Tim says:

It has been a relatively quiet week, however the football at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night was brilliant. That may sound strange since I was watching two of my least favourite teams and they drew 0-0.

The atmosphere was fantastic. The crowd didn't stop singing, chanting, abusing the referee and abusing the Man Utd team for the entire 90 minutes. I particularly liked how the crowd spontaneously broke into a chant for the Chelsea manager, as if it was planned before the match; 50,000-odd people all at once started chanting "Jose Mourinho, Jose Mourinho, Jose Mourinho" over and over. Not the most original chant ever, but very loud.

I also chuckled at the "Who the f**k are Man United?" chant, which was to the tune of some nursery rhyme that I couldn't put my finger on. I was tempted to tell those around me that Man United are the team that just won the premiership, but I wasn't quite ready to die.

Thursday and Friday are job interview days for Tim. Megan's work is going well; she has had a good first week.


Simon and I had a few beers on a seat in someone's front yard on our way to Stamford Bridge.






















































John Terry was brilliant
















Wayne Rooney came on in the second half


























I think that's Joe Cole













The fulltime scoreline that made me £22...ooooh yeah