where to now?

I have finally finished my first memories of London posts. It was enjoyable writing all about it, less enjoyable reading the finished product (was i always this shoddy at writing?) and panic laden trying to locate photos i was positive i had hidden somewhere (turns out they were memories). If I am honest I want to keep writing and writing until everything I have ever seen and done here in London is recorded here for you to see. Realistically however I have a few issues with doing that. You see I live a very full life here in London, what with work, friends and all my adventures I am astounded that I find time to sleep and eat most days. And I am so bloody grateful that I am able to live like this, the tricky situation however is that I am doing things at a faster rate than which i can record them at. Now i have a personal philosophy (one of many hair brained ones haha) And its this- I believe that should you choose to keep a record of your life like I do, you should be living at a rate where you are simply having too much fun to be able to record it regularly. This is how i have been ever since moving to London. I have been out and about so often that i think, if i were to write about my experiences chronologically I would do them no justice what so ever. The longer i wait to write about something, i forget many small and important details and trivialities that warrant remembering. So i have come up with the notion of writing  in a 'Now and Then' way. I will write about things happening to me and also continue to work on things that have happened. It will hopefully be more interesting to read, more efficient and regular and I believe i wont view my blog as a tedious day journal. Fingers crossed this works. And if you don't like it. Jog on... haha

A way for you to keep up with the to-ing and fro-ing is to check the top of the post. Ill lable them with a Then or Now.  and the date or season if i can remember. That way you know roughly when things are taking place.

So you don't get bored, I've included two photos taken on my way home from work on the 28/02/2013 from Tower Bridge.
ENJOY :)

first glimpses of london: Part four- Camden and Goodbye

 What is going on with my face here? haha. Cass and I on the Camden Lock

Camden... Oh how i love Camden. Its not just the fact that it's loaded with history, funky clothes, great food, culturally diverse people and a lock you can paddle boat through in the summer. It's the sheer cool factor that entails heading down to the market and witnessing all that is great in life. I mean when Cass and i were visiting the sun was out, people were skipping between shops and stalls, picking up cool Indian jewelry and cyber rave goodies galore! The place smell delicious, Cass and i couldn't even count on our fingers the many differing food's being cooked before our eyes. Camden market on a busy day reminds you that life should have a dose of hustle and busy in the everyday. Just to keep you alert and receptive to the wonders of the world.

Camden food court- or part of it. I didn't know that just around the corner Cass would find cyberdog and start jumping up and down like a teenager. Hence my relaxed pose

Cass and I began our day in Camden with a little retail therapy, naturally haha. I bought two gorgeous dresses and a cutesy handbag from one of the permanent shops. The shop is one of millions that sell 'british rose' type clothes. Unfortunately I've seen very few British girls about town still dressing so well. Mostly they just slap on a tshirt and high heels with their fake tan and extensions and off they go clubbing on a chilly winters night. but hey, who is judging (lol)
After the retail therapy Cass and I were happy to walk about through the market checking out all the souvenir shops, food stalls, vintage stalls (with hipster price tags AKA expensive) and then without me really knowing what was going on cass was all of a sudden ridiculously excited about finding a giant robot outside one of the stores... "omg omg omg" she kept saying "its cyberdog!"- she said this as if i would instantly know what she was on about but i just stood there with a smile on my face going 'oh dear, she has cracked' haha.

 Look how chuffed she is! :)

Cyberdog is a store that Cass used to shop in when she lived in London, it specialises in cybergoth clothing which is very popular with ravers and the like. Cass naturally shopped here to pick up her weekend uniforms during the 90's. I don't think Ive ever told her but i am incredibly jealous that she got to experience this side of London, i mean when you walk into this store and see all the fluro pink 'Jestson's' dresses and glow sticks and gas masks and all other kinds of cuckoo stuff you instantly get excited! Not to mention the fact that there is a non stop Dj and in the summer (paid) ravers dancing about the shop in their awesome get up. This place is so dark and club like that you could spend all day in there dancing about and then head off to a real rave elsewhere. I instantly loved it :)
It was also a cool blast from the past for Cass and she went nuts inside and went on a mission to buy PJ something as a memento. Some cool cyberdog undies that glow in the dark... haha. I walked about checking out the kids section (yes so cybergoth parents can kit out their too cool for school offspring) and in doing so i found myself staring at mini robot cargo pants missing Rinse, Annemijn and Wende.

 Sneaky photo of the cool display inside- photography is not permitted inside. Lame but understandable, imagine the hoarde of tourists posing for photos about the joint. You would never be able to sell anything amongst them all!

 After our hoppin and boppin about cyberdog Cass and I headed back into the outdoor world and we were greeted with the bright sunshine and warm weather- it is so easy to forget time inside Cyberdog haha. Our next stop was down the back of some dingy little plaza that Ive since not been able to find. I have no idea why we were in there but all i know is that we came across a gentleman selling fish pedicures. Now Cass and I had been talking about these the whole trip and i think that we may have seen a sign or a promoter who sent us to this store. Basically a fish pedicure for those of you who don't know is where you dip your feet into a small tank of water and let tiny fish eat away the dead skin of your feet... yeah, weird is the word. But its a very natural procedure first popularised in Asia. But in saying that whilst swimming in Santorini Greece i actually had fish there begin to nibble at my toes- i had two thoughts on this. the first was "wow i don't have to spend 15 euro up the road after all" and the second more pressing thought was "AHHHHHHHHHHHHH Piranhas!!!" and I was out of the water! Back to London however.

 Being eaten alive and happy about it

So Cass and I sat on our little chairs about the tanks and lowered our feet in. Cass was quite good at this, she took the horrible first stage tickling (where the fish go into a frenzy and begin rushing about your feet for the best feeding spot) in her stride. The fish settle down about after a minute or so and then you feel just like your feet are in a Jacuzzi. I did not do too well. I hate my feet being tickled, so i spent more time with me feet out of the water than in. And i got such horrible shivers all over my body. Eventually I braved the first tickling minutes and then the fish settled down and got to business polishing my feet. Only occasionally did a fat one get greedy and take a huge chunk out of my foot, apart from that soon forgot i was being eaten alive and enjoyed the experience. I was getting sadder and sadder as the day progressed because i knew it would be all too soon before i had to give Cass a final hug and say goodbye. Then i would be all alone in London...

The tiny fish that were lucky enough to feast on our yucky feet. Perhaps there could be a 'Finding Feeto' or something made about them one day

After Camden, I have no more photos and my memory fails me as to what happened next. I think Cass and I went home from there so she could pack up her suitcase and we could enjoy a quiet night in together. I must have sat on the lounge praying a hundred times over for just a few more days with her here. I felt so safe with Cass in charge that i was sure i was going to fail miserably without her. She had already helped me set up my phone and make an appointment with the bank, with the help of Mick she had helped me organize an interview at a hotel where i would later be employed and most of all she had helped me to just be happy. Happy despite the worry and fear and the huge life change. I was so sad when we said goodbye that night and settled down to sleep that I cried a few silent tears before i remembered that she was going home to 'RAD'elaide. Her new home and a place which she loves, PJ who she was smitten with and her life filled with all her wonderful adventures. How selfish of me to want to keep her all to myself. And so when i woke up in the morning to say goodbye there was one last fierce hug and some loving words and then it was just me inside the flat wondering how the eff i was going to survive in this amazing city...

Finally, I've got these memories recorded :)

first glimpses of London: Part three

Getting off the bus at London bridge was not a magical moment where i realised how much i adored the area and that i would desperately try to find a home here. to be honest, i thought it was a bit of a dump haha. the London dungeon is (or was as of recently :( ) situated underneath London bridge rail lines and station. That and the main road next at its front doors makes this place a busy intersection of commuters, tourists, cars, buses, trains, tubes and even the odd horse and cart. When Cass and I arrived the que was massive! Its always massive, Ive never know there to be a day when you can walk in without a long wait! Actually, i came to hate this part of London because of all the stupid tourists lined up along the path way standing in the groups making it impossible to walk by, I mean cmon! what a nuance to anyone who needed to pass through there to the tube multiple times a day!

photographic evidence of the line. This line was often 50 meters long, and there was two sides. These poor suckers were queuing for tickets, the other suckers lined up the opposite direction had tickets but were waiting for admittance. lose lose situation. To make matters worse there is always roadworks along this sidewalk, so there were many days where you either walked on the road to avoid the que or my way was to walk through the que cursing at the lousy tourists standing in the rain... poor suckers

 But going back to Cass and I, I'd have to say we had a really great time in the Dungeon! After the initial wait we were ushered inside to take a ghoulish photo of me loping off cass' head before we paid and were hearded into the waiting room to be led on the guided tour.

 (this is a stock photo from google images, i do not own it.) Just picture me as the axe wielder and Cass and the old British rocker haha. Luckily that axe was plastic, I can only imagine the damage some retards would do to one another otherwise!! After our photo we were certainly pumped for the rest of the tour!

Now i don't know if any of you remember, but id been to a Dungeon before in Amsterdam with Mike. And this is the exact same company with many similar spectacles except for a few things intrinsic to the history of London. Things like Jack the Ripper and Sweeney Todd the Barber. It was a good tour, a little less scary than the one in Amsterdam. i was signalled out for any of the situations like i was in Amsterdam. no horrifying ghouls jumped out at me from behind doors and such. We did however get to go on a very cool ride... and by cool i mean stomach churning. It was a simulated hang mans experience. basically we were strapped into chairs which then proceeded to lift us up high above the ground. Then a judge and hangman would appear on the platform to condemn us to death! at which point a series of nooses dangled before us and the ride plummeted toward the ground.... not cool. don't know if Ive mentioned before but i hate falling, i hate jumping off things, i hate getting butterflies in my stomach. i hate no having a part of my body on something supportive and or solid... so naturally the photo i got of Cass and i falling is hilarious. Infuriatingly, Ive misplaced said photo and also the one of me chopping off cass' head. not to worry though, Ive an idea where it is and i shall make sure i find it and post it on here for you all to laugh at!!!

Now a lot of you are probably thinking. why would you go on this ride if you don't like falling? well firstly the exhibit was like madame Tussuad's in that you were only excused if you were likely to die from participation or stood under a certain height. And secondly, when i saw the seats in the middle of the dark room and they began strapping us in i did not think they would be dropping us in a short while i thought, 'oh this must be the roller coaster ride that's included'.... this thought quickly gave way to panic as i looked about and realized that we were not going to be going anywhere but up. Eeep!

Said ride... my stomach is fluttering just remembering it... (not my photo)

After this and the non event roller coaster, Cass and i were out into the sunshine once more and we were laughing about Cass being hit in the head with a fake kidney earlier on. One of the part of the dungeon was a man talking about Jack the Ripper as he was dissecting an obviously fake body, he began throwing organs about and Cass was hit! she jumped like a fish out of water and I couldn't stop giggling haha.

 Guilty as charged! This was the part Cass was hit with a flying kidney. Talk about laugh!!! (not my photo)

I must say i was a little bored by this dungeon. Amsterdam was AMAZING. London was a little bit cliche and the characters mainly just talked at you in a creepy way. It was still a great place, but sadly the pot smoking dutchies have beaten the tea drinking poms in the popularity stakes.

Happy snaps while waiting in the gloom for the tour to begin. It sucked that photos weren't allowed in the dungeon. hence the reason Ive had to steal the stock photos to show you guys what it was like...

After the London Dungeon the bus drove us past and over one of my favourite places in the world. Tower Bridge. My my, what a beauty she was on that day- she still is a beauty with her new evening neon lights, and fresh paint job for the Olympics. But she was just so unbelievable on this day, tall and proud in all her glory.

I always thought she was called the London bridge... a common mistake apparently. just goes to show how ignorant Ive been all these years imagining this bridge 'falling down' as i sang that song. Tower Bridge provides an awesome view from the river of west and east London along the Thames. On the east side you can see Canary wharf and its skyscrapers, the old store houses lining the river, and lots of nicely blended buildings and boats of little to no importance. On the west side however you have the tower of London, London Bridge (which happens to be a very plain structure who's saving grace is that she glows red at night) The mayors office- a round ball like thing that no one is a fan of and endless other amazing buildings from all eras haphazardly blending into one another until the Thames bends and you see no more. My god i love tower bridge and her wonderful view. Driving over it on day 3 though was a quick affair, i was more looking up at the bridge than out to the side for the view. But it was a truly wonderful moment driving for the first time over this beautiful icon :)

 (isn't she wonderful! i always thought she had a red paint job, perhaps its all the photographs playing tricks or maybe once upon a time she decided old biddies really do have more fun and changed her colour over to blue)

And that my friends, concludes our tour bus saga. After our passes ran out we were required to use the tube like common mules... haha. But that will be discussed in the next post, Instead let me tell you about hopping off the bus and onto the water cruise... oh yes. We were lucky enough to have included in our ticket prices (for the bus) a free guided cruise along the Thames. We boarded at the Tower of London, down east and as a very funny chap chattered on about the local history of the Thames and London itself we sat in the sunshine gliding along the river, taking in all the beautiful buildings until we arrived back at the Parliament houses.

 :) love you cass!

Not wanting to move from our spot in the sun Cass and i let the boat turn around and take us back to the Tower of London with a different guide- this one wasn't as funny, but my word he was sex on legs! so good looking that i almost forgave him for his dull monologue.... almost. The second part of the cruise Cass and i spent chatting and relaxing as the afternoon began turning cold and we began to think of food.

 Chilling like Villains on the Thames. Look at Cass with her beer. She was stoked as anything to find our they served drinks on the cruise! Must be where my antics come from haha

We received a phone call from Mick (the gent who's place we were staying at) and we arranged to meet him for some Indian food near his house. He would pick us up from the tower of London and escort us to our restaurant. what a gentlemen hey! Dinner was a great affair. All of us chatting and eating at one of the top notch Indian places in London. It was literally down the road from where we had been staying and I'm told that  on certain nights there is a line out the door. judging by all the other lines id seen in London i didn't doubt this was true haha.  We ended the night by heading home and curling up on the lounge to watch tv and then finally get some sleep before cass' last day in London and my first trip to Camden...

 Dinner! Just look at the amazing spread we had! We also got to bring along our roadies from the off licence across the road. Coronas and spicy dishes are what taste buds were made for!!

My first glimpses of london. part two

On the road again! Navigating the traffic leading up to Marble Arch and Oxford street... This place was so happening that I assumed it was the centre of London, the kind of navel where everything stems from. For me however the centre of London is nowadays in Trafalgar Sq. And being a spoilt inner city renter, anything passed oxford circus tube feels like the stix haha.

 Continued:
... After boarding the bus and leaving Buckingham Palace we were whisked through the very posh streets of Green Park and up towards the very famous Hyde Park. Cass had great fun explaining to me that hoardes of people sunbathe in Hyde Park in the summer. Something I couldn't wrap my head around. I mean imagine all these pasty Brits getting their kits off and lying on grassy knolls in the middle of the city. But turns out they do it and do it in great numbers to boot. We had a good ol chuckle about this as we neared Marble Arch, with its very eclectic group of statues... seriously. A giant green horses head, a 'marble arch' and a pack of jelly bean babies all kind of randomly tossed together doesn't sound at all aesthetically pleasing... but it works. Kind of... haha. It's very 'London'. 'London' being the way that things of all different eras and styles and ideas are thrown on top of one another at different points in history. Everything has a story, has a meaning and with so many people concentrated in one area it makes sense that all these stories and meanings and happenings would overlap... resulting in a horse, an arch and some jelly beans living amicably beside one another in the middle of one of London's busiest intersections.

See what i mean about the giant green horses head? I believe it commemorates a particular type of breed of horse that was quite popular with the wealthy and aristocratic families. If you can notice in this sideways portrait the ears of the horse are quite twisted which was apparently handy in how the horse weather the strong winds and rain. Cool little bit of trivia is that this statue was only supposed to remain in the park for 28 days after its unveiling... however many years later its still standing strong and doesn't appear to be vacating anytime soon. At first I thought this sculpture was quite garish, but now its definitely grown on me, I also enjoy being able to say to people ill meet you at the nags head in marble arch... see how London i am. with my slang and knowledge haha.

After passing through Marble Arch the buses next stop was out front of Madame Tussuad's wax museum. Now I had already been to Madame Tussuad's in Amsterdam and I'd had a great time so naturally Cass and I decided it was time to hop off our trusty bus and head inside to catch up with some well known Brits!

It was a long line but the music inside had us bopping about and the lighting inside was so dark that i felt like i was waiting in line for an exclusive night club haha. Imagine how freaky that would be, a night club with realistic wax figures of famous people... I'm just going to stop that spooky though right in its track and show you guys some pics of Cass and i getting friendly with some stars.

  Look how excited we are, russel brand and i had a great time swapping stories and cass found a wax figure of an Uncle Pete look alike. haha.

Lady Diana and Cass were swapping stories about their travels in Africa when i happened to get in a sneaky photo of them. I however was just exchanging pleasantries with Harry one of the more interesting members of the royal family when he brazenly asked me for a hug. what a cad! He never did call me back...probably because grand mumsie and the prince of bad jokes were looking on disapprovingly...

Haha :)

And last but not least, seeing as we were in his neck of the woods Cass and I stopped for a quick chat with Sherlock Holmes. He gave me some excellent tips on avoiding crime and debauchery in this sordid capital city...

Elementary my dear Emily... The actual Sherlock Holmes (from the books) has himself a very nice statue just outside the building and his silhouette is also on all the wall tiles in the Baker Street underground station. Turns out quite a few people make the pilgrimage to see these two things.

Before finishing our tour through the wax museum Cass and I stumbled into the museums horror house which is one of the only ways to get out of the place. Turns out you have to fake heart problems or be a small child to be allowed to leave the building like a normal person. Cass and I didn't qualify for either of those and so naturally we were lead through a very realistic underground dungeon with hum entrails, skeletons and the like dangling from the walls. Each time something jumped out and I screamed the tour guide would yell "its ok, company policy is that they wont touch you" like that made it all ok... Glad to finally emerge and giggling at my silliness Cass and i re- boarded the bus and were off towards Regent street and Trafalgar square (thankfully no wax figures insight).

In the dark you could be forgiven thinking this thing is real, especially with all the sound effects and twitching mechanisms surrounding it. nice way to thank the patrons for visiting i guess..."thanks for coming, have a scream and shout, go on get out" sort of thing. (i do not own this photo. blah blah blah.)

Sitting in the sun on top of the bus was wonderful after emerging from the scary exhibit, we were able to relax and chat as we sped past lots of great sights. Taking it all in and working on our tans as well.

Down Regent Street and through Theater Land, past Trafalgar square and towards St Pauls. No time to pay another 16 quid (stupid churches) to walk around inside. And towards my beloved Tower Bridge, but first a quick trip over the river into my now home borough London Bridge. Naturally at the time I didn't know i would live here and because of all the zigging and zagging that we did on the bus I actually thought we were in the north of London and not the south east. It took me weeks of dumb questions like. "which side of the Thames do i live on" and "that's on the Oxford circus side right". Eventually though I figured it all out. You see when i finally started working at the Marylebone I was a little inexperienced with the tube, so i used to catch the only tube line i knew of (central line- stops no where near where i live) jump off at St Pauls cathedral (also not very close to me) and walk along the Thames until i got home (a good 1.30 half trek).

Happy snaps of St Paul's as we zoomed on past and Cass and i strike a pose because who wants to look at photos of scenery from their holidays haha. Ive been trying in vain to figure out which building is behind us in this photo... looks like it will just have to remain a mystery for now...

That's all for now, i shall write more about getting off at London Bridge and heading into the London Dungeon at a later date...

 

My first glimpses of london from the tour bus

 Please note I do not own either of these photos and by clicking on them Im sure you can reach The Original Tour's web page.

 Wohooo, so after getting lost en route to the touristy districts of London Cass and I finally came upon the open roof tour bus companies and we were soon underway. It was a lovely warm sunny day and we took advantage of the weather to sit up to of the bus with out cameras out and earphones in! There was simply too much to take in the first time around so Cass and I decided to stay on for a while just to take in the scenery and then we could jump off once we were ready to hit the pavement for some serious touristy business.

(well, looks like all my London photos are going to be posted on their sides. tough luck for you guys haha.) Check out my first glimpses of the London eye and Big Ben!

  

Happy snaps! would you just look at the clear blue sky! and my very short hair seeing as i had cut off my pony tail a few weeks earlier! 

What a surreal moment to finally see these two famous babies in person! I felt my heart jump into my throat because i was just so happy at finally being here. As we drove along the banks of the Thames the audio guide on the bus informed us that Big Ben is actually the name of the Bell inside the Parliament House clock tower. And being the lucky lasses we are, Cass and I not only had time to snap some blurry photos of the place while we were stopped at the lights, we also got to here Ben give us a chime or two. As the lights turned green we were take around the back of Parliament and on towards Westminster Abbey, where there had not long ago been a royal wedding. It was nice to drive through after having watched the procession on Tv in Stavoren. It was quite funny to think how much had happened since that summer. 

 such a beautiful building! Ive only recently started to like the abbey, you see while snapping photos here Cass and i were thinking of heading inside for a sticky beak when we discovered it would cost us 16quid entry... now thats near three times the minimum hourly rate here in the UK and im not overly fond of religion to begin with. so bollocks to that i said! and we left with me feeling rather cranky and ready to pick a fight with the first rosary wielding nun i saw. Recently however i have learned that you can be a tad sly and enter the church for free and pretend you are there for a specific service. Best part is you can relax while admiring the view from a comfy church pew. Since then my feelings towards this incredible building have somewhat mollified.

The Abbey and surroundings were heaving with tourists and big shots en route to lunch, so the bus was slow going. Making it easier for Cass and I to continue on foot. I was very startled to walk past a tent community protesting the end of the wars. It was confronting but also liberating that people in this giant city had the balls to go against the grain.

I came by this spot just the other day and im sorry to say that the tents are all but gone. Hopefully they managed to secure a deal to bring the troops home and left with heads held high... unfortunately one of the biggest things Ive learnt over here is that often, these cool and outspoken intellectuals are often severely treated by their opponents... aka. the dudes over the road in Parliament house and a part of me knows that their admirable intentions regarding the protest would have influenced little in the end :(

After all the politics and religion running about in my head i wanted nothing more than to head elsewhere in this amazing city and forget these unhappy thoughts. So back to the bus it was. And over Westminster bridge past the living quarters of the bishop of london. (yes he lives in an old castle. where do you think all the money from the donation boxes goes!) around the loop de loop and back over the river towards green park and Buckingham palace to pop in and see Lizzie at the Palace! Boy was it cool to drive towards Buckingham Palace and see all the tourists clambering about to get a good shot of the poor palace guards. They aren't standing outside the gates like i always believed. Rather they are a long way inside the gates looking very unformidable. There would be no monkeying about trying to make them laugh today!

no signs of lizzie or some sexy british gaurds to have fun with, there was however a huge line waiting for a chance to get into the palace grounds and so after a while of waiting cass and i became quite annoyed and realized it was time to move onto the next touristy place... madame tussades!!

Tune in tomorrow night for the continuing photos and stories...

Then and Now... Take note

My first glimpse of Tower Bridge. At this point I never imagined I would live within walking distance of it!

I am going to do something a little different with the next post. I am having so much fun looking through all the photos that I have decided to post as many in here as possible and tell the story through them rather then recall exactly how we spent our time in London. Even though these photos aren't much to look at many are action shots. Taken from the bus. But more importantly they document my first impressions of London. These impressions that are often forgotten and changed after spending a length of time in one place, or visiting a place regularly, or understanding how this place connects into the big scheme of things.
Let me explain this in a little more in depth.... Do you remember the first time you ever saw your high school? Was it like my first time when i was on my orientation day with a large group of primary school students who would become your peers after Christmas and in the New Year? Do you remember being led around the court yards and buildings and the impressions you formed then? do you remember your first glimpses of your roll call room or art room? If you are lucky enough to remember them then please compare those first images to how you remember the buildings looking after having been at school a few years. Can you even remember those first impressions after all the changes in perception?. I imagine its hard to remember those images because you had quickly learnt your way around and now know how the school is laid out. You know for instance that the bus drop off connects you to this quad and that quad and that if you go left you reach the science rooms or the art rooms. After you have seen the school weather the four seasons you learn that the half quad near the roll calls rooms isn't a dark and damp place where all the seniors hang out, but rather it only appeared that way for a tiny fraction of a second when you happened to see it the first time. Well I never forgot my first impressions of McCarthy Catholic college. And i get a very cool sense of time when I compare my first glimpses of the school with my memories of everyday life there. And it was only when looking back through my photos of my first few days in London that I had the same feeling again... So that's why Ive decided to try this new way of writing about my adventures. I hope you like it.... xxx

My everyday view of Tower Bridge. A different angle, different life, different ideas and thoughts running through my mind. Its funny how our perception of things change with us... oooh very deep Emily haha. The night I took this was the practise run of Lizzies Jubilee/ The Olympics light show. I was reading in bed when out of the corner of my eye i noticed something a tad colourful going on outside. I thought it was the rich neighbours disco lights (he has a thing for blondes and disco- what he doesn't have is curtains haha). It took me a while of googling and photo snapping to discover the reason Tower Bridge had her sassy pants on.

where it all began, my first days in london

Picture this, Cass and I are sitting in the airport in Barcelona, Spain waiting a some hours to board our delayed flight to London City, Airport. Reason for the delay? Severe weather conditions in England.... Wohooo. What a great start I was having. But then much to my delight the weather cleared. Suddenly we were in the air, on our way, through security, let lose on the streets... and you know what... This was the beginning of the hottest two weeks ever recorded in London history. awwww yeah baby. Talk about a warm welcome :)
Now what do you do when life gives you two weeks of perfect weather in a notoriously bad weathered country? You sit on the open roof tourist bus and you soak up the beauty of London! So that is exactly what we did!

Check out our sun glassed selves with our free audio guide headphones in. It looks like we are driving past somewhere fancy... Buckingham palace, Green Park or somewhere in Westminster maybe? The audio guides on these things are great, some really cool tidbits discussed. That is if your headphone jacks work and you can turn the sound level up louder than the whisper of a mute monk. Haha. God Ive missed all these silly puns I used to make...

But here I am getting ahead of myself. Let me explain how i spent my first evening in London: Cass and I arrived at Mick's house after stressfully navigating the rush hour tubes and trains with our over sized backpacks only to find that Mick's house was identical to the other 4 either side of him, he had hidden his keys in an un-obvious place and before even making it to the courtyard we had been given a faulty code for his front security gate. But we managed. We got in, dumped our bags, had a drink of water and we were off into the city. Cass in the lead and a very overwhelmed and exhausted little Emily trailing behind...

 

 Ok no matter what i do these photos will not sit upright. so deal with it. we are awesome in our sideways photos at Trafalgar sq. Thumbs up. wohoo!

First stop on Cass's introductory tour was Trafalgar Sq. The hustling bustling go to public area for tourist and local alike. I often find myself there to catch my bus home from a night out, re visit my favourite artworks in the national gallery, see a cool concert, show a friend about or spend a day at some kind of event. On this afternoon however Cass and i were content to pose for a photo and dip our hands into the cool fountain before heading on to Covent Garden...

 

Walking through Covent Garden was like a dream come true, all the locals rushing about from cozy pubs to evening theatre shows was just like I'd imagined life in London to be like! so you can imagine how excited i was to head into my first london pub and have myself a drink and a sit down meal. I forget the pubs name now, but I'm constantly walking past there when i am around that way. I had my first ever jug of Pimms with summer fruits (this became my signature drink in summertime) and i had myself a plate of pies for dinner! Cute little things with an array of meats, sauces, potatoes and veggies. It felt so great being there with Cass! finally in London, the city i was to make my own... i wont lie. i remember being so frigging excited an anxious all at once that i spent a large part of the holiday quietly panicking and brooding. But this night was wonderful and all thanks to Cassy's kind words of encouragement (i love you by the way). After dinner and a drink it was off back to Mick's house and into bed ready for the tourist bus as seen above^^.

 

 In the Pub, with our Pimms in a pitcher. One of my best memories with Cass :)

fin.

(Ill continue onto the rest of my adventures in the next post. I'm afraid my computer is being a bit slow and so ill write more when i can xxx)