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

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!

Off to London

I sat around in the hotel lobby for about 30 mins trying to work out a cunning plan to fix my bag. Nothing came to mind so I read some of the newspapers instead and watched what was going on around me. I suppose that every hotel lobby is the same wherever you go. I was still trying to work out if I had cash and time for a coffee in the lobby bar, which was just opening, when the coach turned up early. I only had a voucher rather than a ticket which seemed to upset the driver but he took me anyway. I watched him try and move my bag without the wheels and thought I was probably going to see a lot of that

We stopped for several more pickups along the way. I was wondering if we were in the HK rush hour then it occurred to me that I probably could not tell the rush hour and the non rush hour apart. I quite like HK but I wonder what it is like to work here. As usual I became worried about whether I had left enough time to get to the airport and like usual I had plenty. I tried to take some pictures on the way but I was not satisfied with any of them.

I know that I said before that the airport at HK is big but it must have cost a fortune to build. The three approach bridges by themselves would have cost a kings ransom. Just as I was settling down to the run to the airport on the motor way we turned off. What, it's disneyland time! We are doing the hotels there. I worked out that I would not have 3 hours now, oh well nothing to do but sit and stew about how slow other people are. The hotels look nice if a bit sterile. Of course one of the groups is not ready so we sit to what seems like hours while they get their act together,but was probably 20 mins. At last everybody has their bags and we are off again. At the airport the driver fetches a trolley for me so no bag problems.

Like normal I have entered the airport at the furthest place I could from my checkin desk. Off I roll and after about 10 mins I am at my desk. Surprise there are no queues and even better they can check my bags through to London. Given what will happen at Frankfurt that's just as well, though at this point I don't know this of course. So now I have both my boarding passes (FRA and LHR)and by bags checked in. I go to return my trolley but despite not seeing anybody the trolley has gone, perhaps it dematerialised like the Tradis! I do think that compared to the 70's that the airports are getting better at this sort if thing.

Time to send some more post cards and figure out where to get lunch. I look around wondering how long will it take to find the post office and work out how to send a post card. Then I realise I am standing alongside the post office. That make a pleasant surprise, so in I go, working out how to send a card was not hard either due to it being written in English in big letters on the wall, somebody in HK post knows what he is doing. I sent some cards ( hi Clare) and it's off in search of lunch. Every thing seems to be sit down waiter service so I select wonton soup. Looks and tastes nice when it arrives, there is some chillie stuff which looks the most evil condimint that I have ever seen, I approach it like I am walking towards a land mine but it's nice and very hot. Just as I finish I realise it's time to head to the gate.

The gates are a long way away, no really they need a coach service inside the terminal. I feel like I am walking to London, its took 35 mins to walk from the lunch bar to the gate and as everybody knows I don't walk slowly. At the gate I realize that the locals don't know how to board a plane. The crew are trying to load by rows but the moment they start everybody rushes the gate. Do they think that it will leave without them?

What a old jumbo, it feels like it's out of the 70's (Flight 739, Seat 54F). No individual screens here just CRT in the isles. I can see 4 screens from where I sit but three different colours. The screens are so old that an actors jacket is red on two screens, blue on another and pink on a third. Lufthansa is also insulting us! During the flight they show us a film several times about how nice the new A380 is, ok but we are on this ancient beast! I want to be on a A380 please! Stop teasing us!

I am surrounded by asians who seem to be traveling as a group, the noise is unbelievable, I think some of the woman talked the whole flight. I have a small woman next to me, we are in a block of 4, it's not the seat that I ordered, so it looks like my seat requests have not made it.

The food is good and the crew seem to be working well together. I notice that the name tags dont show a furst name just an initial (Fraulein Shmitt is H.Schmit though she is introduced as Helena) I can't be bothered to try and watch a movie on a screen 10 feet away to me s I read my Kobo for a while and try and sleep. The Kobe works will in this environment but I must remember not to leave it in the seat pocket as it fits rather to well there. My travel buddy sees my bag and remarks that it looks like a good travel bag. Its the only exchange we have in the whole flight.

Then it's Frankfurt., another large airport and not laid out very well, certainly for xfers. I have an hour to make my xfer and I only end up with 10 mins to spare. Why do xfer pax have to go through security again. We just came off a flight. It seems that there is no xfer system here. You leave international to public then public to domestic so we all have to be scanned and checked again. What a waste of time just when most people don't have time to waste, jast as well I don't have bags to worry about!

Then it's on to a A319, talk about old to brand new (Flight 4742, Seat 16D). The German beer is good by why do they server it in cans on international flight but bottles on local? I need to know or I will be unfulfilled in life, well perhaps I exaggerate!

I must be feeling the stress, though I don't feel tired I fell asleep on take off and landing something that I have never done before. Here comes LHR but that's for the next entry.