London Shoping

I start the day the best way (well almost the best way) a cooked breakfast. I am down at 07:30 which turns out to be a bit early for the breakfast room,despite what the signs say. I hang around for 15 mins talking to the other guests and get called "gov" for the first time in a long time. I don't think that I had realized that kiwis never use that term.

The breakfast starts up after a while, it's 9.95UKP for the buffet. That is a bit costly but it's the only choice. So I fill myself up on eggs, bacon and hash browns. Not the best quality but it's ok. Then its time to go out to the shops. I can remember London opening at 08:30 but that seems to be the old days! Over an hour goes past and almost nowhere is open? Where is everybody. I am waiting for the “three shop” on oxford street to open, it says 10:00 on the door, I wonder if that's going to turn out to be true.

Oxford street seems to have smaller shops than I remember, many of them are small discount end of line shops, I would expect to find them I the side streets not on the main one. I wonder up and down but very little catches my eye past a shop claiming "real Cornish pasties". We will see later if that is true. Decided to find out if Foyles is open, it's not. Then to books etc also closed. Then around Soho also mostly closed. I am sure there would be more life in Auckland than I am seeing here.

It looks like they have really cleaned up Soho! It's all wine bars now, all the dodgy sex shops and clubs have gone. It's about as interesting as a supermarket now, no soul to the area at all. Boring! One thing that is going on is building. Oxford street in one long building site, as is the TCR tube station, it actually makes it problematic crossing the road as the building screens close so much of it off. I head back to Oxford street and the “three shop” as I really want to get my sims sorted out. They are still closed so I wander for a bit. What is this? A sex shop on Oxford street they have not died out lol. It's very up market though. Very posh and professional. It also seems to be very explicit, it seems the UK has fondly given up on their stupid laws, does anybody remember the black spots?

Back to the shop but as it's still only 09:30 they are still shut. This meant I have to do something really awful. Yes dear readers I have coffee in Starbucks. They are opposite the shop and open. As I use their toilet I feel I have to buy something. As I sit in their window I realize it's a good place to people watch. They are finally turning up in numbers to go to work. I should think so to lazy buggers. That seems to be one think that has not changed. Londoners are still all shapes types and colours.

At 10:20 the shop finally opens and I am their first customer. All I want is a sim that can do roaming and data but that turns out to be hard to work out. I buy a USB key and a sim with a data plan on it in under the understanding that I can do voice as well

Then off I go to Covenant garden. It's a fair old walk but I am in no rush. At Leicester square, the thing that always happens to me happens, I get asked for directions! Why when I am in a foreign city do people always ask me for directions. I am usually lost after all. I can't really help them just give them a general direction. At Covent garden there are not that many people, certainly no as many as I expected. At it's past 11 I am suppressed, will people come for lunch? It's split into two sections, one selling expensive crap and the other cheap crap. The cheap area is getting all the business. Lots of people looking at the expensive stuff but I suspect they are not buying. How's do these shops survive?

I notice the London transport museum. So I go for a look see. Very well laid out and quite interesting. I suspect I have seen it before as it's very familiar. There are lots of groups of school kids going round. Rather that school uniforms they have school tabards on, all very bright. Suspect it makes control easier than in my days.

I decide to ride the underground back to the hotel so I go to the unground station and buy myself an Oyster card. I am still full from breakfast so I just have coffee and play with my new toys.

I can get the USB stick working on my net book but it looks like voice is disabled so much for being able to use it in the iPhone. So then it's back to the shop for another sim. This ones works for data and voice in the iPhone. Then I get a shock, they filter the Internet ! This is the net access on the sim in the iPhone but not the USB stick. How anal is that! Are we all children now. Its not like I want to visit those sites, I can't remember how I realized it was active it's just the concept of a ISP filtering like that that offends me so much.

Then its time for the British museum, what a dud. I just could not engage. There was more interesting stuff going on outside where a couple were having a domestic over her navigation. It ended up with him dumping her and the car on the pavement! I do wonder what happened in the end. Perhaps the next time they come into London they will get a GPS and a A to Z. Oh I just bought myself one of those this morning. Just can't do London without one

Went to Foyles. The old foils is dead this shop could be any other shop in the world now. All the interesting bits that made it more that just a book shop have gone. Oh well RIP it was fun.

Dinner was Burger kings and I bought some beer at the hotel. Oh I just discovered that my room safe has broken. I reported it to reception, they say they will look at it in the morning. The room is very stuffy and I wonder why no aircon when I realize that the window can be opened a couple of inches. Great cool air. I go to sleep to the sound of the street life outside.

London LHR

This A319 is a very minimal affair. It seems to have been fitted out to a very low price. No screens to help the crew with getting us to pay attention to the announcements. Most of us don't as we are almost word perfect with them. I sometimes pay attention not because I need to know but just so as the crew don't get to depressed.

I have almost completed my second kobo book by touchdown, in between my short naps. LHR goes smoothly with my RFID UK passport I sail through. I really do mean sail through as it's so fast I almost don't break my step. The UK could show the yanks a thing or two, as I pass through I remember the 45 min queues at LAX!

Baggage claim is fast to, how Heathrow has changed. Then I need the HEX, otherwise known as Heathrow eXpress. There is a direct connection to the platform and by direct I mean a lift. That's the way to do it, at the top of the lifts there is a guy running around waving an EFTPOS machine so you don't even have to use the ticket office. I almost make a mistake and bought a return ticket before I remember that I am here for more than 30 days. It's the first time that I try and use my ASB chip card and I am a but apprehensive. Still it works no problem though the way you use these cards is a bit different from NZ ones. More about that later. I have my ticket and it's onto the platform.

I knew everything was going much to smoothly. As I enter the platform the dispatcher screens go blank! What! It turns out that a train has hit somebody and services are indefinitely delayed. Could be 15 mins or a couple of hours, nobody is saying. The pa is telling people to take a taxi. I don't want to as my bag has lost it's wheels and after my HK escapades my feet are hurting. I elect to sit it out. Time passes and I talk to some others that have also chosen the same path. The pa announces that the guy who was hit committed suicide, it was not an accident. I decide that as it's been over an hour I will ask for a ticket refund and try for a taxi. I assume the hotel will hold my reservation but it is getting really late and I am not sure of their policy. I ascend back to the terminal to the main ticket office to be greeted by the announcement the the next train is due in 10 mins. Back down I go and true enough in pulls a train, packed of course but I get on. I have visions of waiting more hours with everything getting worse and worse with no toilets on this train when much to my delight we pull out on time.

Paddington.

Still busy even late at night. I have 5 min wait for a taxi (ah London black cabs how I have missed you). It turns out to be further from the station to the hotel than I expected. I expect that yet again my mental map of London has let me down. I was expecting of about 10UKP fare but it was 20UKP including a round up of almost 5UKP tip which seemed to surprise the driver but after all the excitement I really needed to pee and did not want to wait while he made change. Must tip less next time. 22:30 into the St. Giles hotel.

I was not sure what I was expecting to find. I had chosen the hotel for a combination of rate (98UKP a night) and location ( tottenham court road tube station). What I did not realise was that most of the world made the same choice! The place is heaving and it's just off midnight. There are five staff on reception and I still have to wait ( doing a sort if Scottish jig now). Then into the room what joy what relief. After that I have a look at my room. It is the size of a double bed with a single bed in it. The space between the bed and the desk is about the size of a tea tray. I have seen larger walk in wardrobes. Still it has power, a very small (though given room size that reasonable) CRT TV, no air conditioning, a desk and a bed. The toilet is in a cupboard that is also the shower. Still it will do I have arrived!

I decide to look around the hotel. There are three terminals in the lobby with coin slots, 3UKP an hour, an ice machine (free) and wifi which is 1UKP per 15 mins or 8UKP for a day. I will examine other options for that me thinks. I see the breakfast room which reminds me that I have not eaten since my flights. Outside of the hotel is or rather was theatre land however there does not much seems to be going on. What is with all the piss? The streets are covered it in! It's almost 1 in the morning and I find a small sausage stand or cupboard that is trying to close. I have a real UK sausage in a roll for the first time in how many years? I look around the outside of the hotel but it's all dead and I really should check out my small bed in my small room, for tomorrow will be exploring London, wahoo!