London

I had a very good flight over to the UK. I managed to get an upgrade to a 'sky-couch' on the Auckland to Los Angeles leg which was brilliant. It was 3 whole seats to myself with footrests that fold up horizontal to make a flat compartment. I actually got a decent amount of sleep which was rare for me. The Los Angeles to London leg was also good. I had an empty seat next to me which made a difference.

Nicola was there to meet me at Heathrow Sunday morning and gave me a scenic tour as we drove right through central London on the way to her Blackheath house. Her mission to keep me up and awake until a reasonable hour in the evening involved a nice walk in Greenwich Park, assembling and decorating a gingerbread house, and helping her decorate her house and Christmas tree (although by this stage I was under the blanket on her couch and couldn't do much more than point at where to put things on her tree!). Will was arriving on Friday once he had finished a conference in Dunedin that he was helping to organise, so I had 5 nights staying with Nicola and seeing the London sights.

Nicola was still at work finishing her last week at school, so it was a good chance to hang out with Geoff during the day as he had finished his first UK work contract. We had a lovely time catching up and seeing the sights. On Monday we started with the Natural History Museum where we visited the Wildlife photographer of the year exhibition which was very cool. We also popped into the V&A to have a look at the furniture exhibition, finishing the day with a couple of pints in one of London's numerous pubs.

On Tuesday I met Geoff out at Stratford which is where he lives. We spent time shopping in the Westfield there which is one of the biggest urban shopping centres in Europe. We also got good views over the Olympic Park. Geoff then came back with me to Nicola's for dinner (where we ate duck and drank plenty of red wine, happy days...).

Wednesday was another big day in the central city. I was keen to do the tourist trail and take a few photos. It was another lovely mild day, I've been incredibly lucky with the weather while I've been here.

It is always interesting seeing what is on the fourth plinth at Trafalgar Square, and at the moment there is a statue of a bright blue giant cockerel! Pretty random, but kind of cool...

We visited the British Museum which I loved. It is a beautiful building with an incredible glass roof. I liked all the Egyptian stuff, plus we also saw the 'highlights' which included the Elgin marbles (very impressive) and the Rosetta stone.

Here are a few more photos. It really is a photogenic city! I do love Big Ben...
 

 

 

I know squirrels are a pest in the UK, but this one that we saw at St Paul's was really cute! Especially as a passerby had just thrown it a nut.

At the moment there is a Paddington Bear trail around London with 50 statues in total dotted around the place. It is promotion for the new Paddington Bear movie coming out soon. We stumbled across 5 of them, although I only took pictures of 4... The 5th one was painted all white with a red 'fragile' sticker stamped across it. I decided it wasn't interesting enough to photograph! Here are the others, the top one was my favourite...

 

On Thursday I had a lazy morning, then met Geoff in town a bit later. We spent a bit of time at The Building Centre which was a really interesting place. The highlight was a 12m long plastic 1:1500 scale model of London. They also had a couple of other interesting exhibitions.

After another nice wander through the city, including the whole length of Oxford street, I bade Geoff farewell. I then headed to Waterloo to meet up with Claire who I hadn't seen yet. Our first stop was the Festival hall at the Southbank centre where I wanted to go up the Singing Elevator . I thought it was brilliant, but Claire found the combination of glass lift and 'interesting' singing a bit overwhelming! We went up to the 5th floor where there was a nice outside terrace with views over the Thames.

In the foyer there was a very random art exhibition of giant inflatable bunny rabbits! Pretty cute...

Southbank had a big winter festival happening, so we thought it would be rude not to enjoy a couple of mulled wines while we waited for Nicola to come into town after her day at work. I'm sure my 'rosy' face in the pic below is due to the crisp winter's air (and not the mulled wine...) ha ha ha.

Once we were all reunited we walked towards the West End where we had tickets to go see 'Once, the Musical' which was starring Ronan Keating. I took a few pics of London at night as we went.

 You do see some very interesting sights walking through Soho...

We had a very enjoyable dinner at a Chinese restaurant in China Town, before heading to the theatre. I enjoyed the show, but thought the movie told the story better. Ronan was surprisingly good in it though.

On Friday morning I bussed and tubed across town to Heathrow to meet Will. I couldn't have timed it better, arriving about 3 minutes before he came through the gate. It was lovely seeing him after 5 days. We caught a bus straight to Oxford, and then a small local bus to his parent's in Standlake where we will now be based until we leave on the 29th December. In very exciting news, they now have broadband (Will set it up today), hence me being able to write this post.