25th tourist day

Well to day I played tourist again. But first it was down to reception to remind them of my broken safe. They assured me that it would be fixed soon and that it was almost certainly a flat battery. I was just glad that it had failed in the unlocked position. I left my important stuff with reception for them to look after.

Time for breakfast from the Cornish pastie shop in tottenham court road. It's really a takeaway with a couple of chairs in the window, I managed to get one while I munched my cheese and bacon,not bad closest I could get to a breakfast pastie.

Then on to TCR tube station to catch the Northern line to Waterloo and then number 59 bus to the Imperial War Museum. The Oyster card really does make this easy. One swipe into the tube, another one out of the tube and one onto the bus. There is only one swipe on the bus as it's a single charge no matter where you go on the network. I worked out my route via the London Transport web site. It's such an improvement on the old ways. I am not sure I have ever caught a London bus before.

The bus drops me the other side of a small park from the IWM. As a result I get a short quiet walk. It's a clear summer morning, at the side of the park a NZ style coffee and cakes stall is opening up. It takes me about 5 mins to walk there time to collect my thoughts and start to enjoy the morning.

I have been there before and each time it surprises me with how small it is. Still plenty to look at. Today is themed "wartime food". There is a small stall and an exhibition that you have to pay to see. It was all quite good, half way through I stopped for second breakfast. The MOF films showed a humor that I did not expect. Then off to V&A in South Kensington.

Gemma loves this place, I can't see why? I was done after about 20 mins. I almost made an awful mistake and went into a history of quilts! just as well they were charging for it. There were lots of school tours around, large number of teens all trying to out shout one another, then across the road to the science museum.

Now this is my sort of place. Large machines, boilers and things that go whizz. Even a Dan Dare display, what more could I want. Well I could do with my feet not hurting so much. With all this walking at a fast pace is starting to take a toll. The museum does have some issues. It does not flow very well and several areas are closed for various reasons. There are odd mixtures of styles of presentation. But still a great place. Good steam boiler display and ship engineering that I was strangely alone in.

Outside after about 2 hours. I was originally intending to do the nat history today but it's mid afternoon and I have worked up some really impressive blisters. I decide to leave it for another time. Back to the hotel via the pastie shop. Had a “traditional” this time, it was good but something was missing that prevented my taste buds agreeing it was the real thing like from my student days. Up to my hotel room for a bit of a rest, no surprise that my safe is not fixed. I ring and complain and after 30 or so mins two guys with tool kits turn up. Apparently the safes are all life expired so they are having to spend quite a lot of time fixing then. They try various things without much success and then replace the whole front unit.

I rest my poor feet and have a bit of a nap. Then I try and book cheap tickets for Honition without luck as I have left late as its less than 24 hours to the trip.

Some London thoughts.

• Lots and lots of people in all shapes and styles. Reasonably dressed but not as well as HK
• Street life is loud and 24x7 but not that entertaining
• London is a building site
• London underground has reliability problems. Lots of signaling failures
• The girls are really into short skirts particularly 15-18 year olds. It's almost like a uniform or union rules. It is summer I suppose and I don't mind
• I don't think schools have broken up but there are school trips everywhere
• Roman sandals are in!
• London black taxis are still the best what a pity Auckland does not have them
• I still like London but it would be better with company though she might want to go to the wrong places like the V&A for example