Day 5: Greenwich Mean Time, Tower of London, Dirty Beefeater and an English Dinner

When living near Greenwich, one must go and see 'The Line'. Huh? What you say?

I'm talking about the Prime Meridian of the World, where longitude is 0º00'00", thereby the only place in the world where you can stand on the western and eastern hemisphere simultaneously. I still hear everyone saying 'huh?' except for all you mapping freaks. You know who you are. ;-)

On route to the Greenwich Observatory, we passed a Viet restaurant - Spuey's first! Such a relevant photo.

Whilst there was a museum there - nothing too fascinating unless you like clocks - I could not find a speckling of information to tell me why this particular spot was chosen as THE reference point for mapping. It was getting on my nerves. Surely, other people think the same? Anyway, as I suspected, it was chosen arbitrarily as the result of the need to fix a common meridian. Too bad I had to Wiki it to find out. Why couldn't they just tell me in the museum?

Enough geek griping, here's a shot of Spuey trying to start a conga dance over the line.

And here's me, err, splitting myself into western and eastern hemisphere happiness.

Ma and Pa this one's for you. No, not Bombay but Saigon.

In it's full glory.

Next was a visit to Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. I'd been wanting to visit the Tower of London for AGES!!! It is mighty impressive to see it for the first time. Steeped in history, it is my idea of nerdy heaven. Previous British monarch dwellings, executions, suspicious disappearances, crown jewels, ghostly apparitions - yippee! Fun-filled, I dare say. Shuddup - I'm a geek and proud of it too.

The Tower of London from the bridge.

Tower Bridge. Been there, done that. I'm so blase now.

My Beefeater tourguide. I didn't know that they resided within the walls.

The site of Anne Boleyn and other's beheading.

Spuey at the White Tower.

Traitor's Gate.

The icky black ravens.

Oh look, me and a beefeater bear.

Spuey too.

We insisted on having a photo with a real-life beefeater. Something that I will thankfully never do again.

Oh look, the beefeater didn't touch Spuey. Meanwhile my experience went like this:

Me: Excuse me, do you mind if I have a photograph?
Beefeater: You can do anything you like to me, young lady. *puts arm tightly around waist*
*cringe and internal vomit*
BE: So where are you from?
Me: Australia
BE: Is that your boyfriend?
Me: Errr NO!!!!!!! That's my brother.
BF: Are you ticklish?
Me: No

Photo finally taken. Eeeeew!!!! I'm so glad that I'm not ticklish. Who's knows what would've happened next. Dirty ol' Beefeater.

We met up with Smee afterwards in Aldgate for dinner and Spuey managed to tick another thing off his list - a traditional English dinner - curry.

Day 4: The British Museum, National Gallery, Portrait Gallery and Trafalgar Square

For those who do religiously read my blog (all one of you - hai moo) you will already know that I've been here. There was no point in re-hashing everything I've seen but I will say that I saw the bog man this time! Yippee!! He was a little smaller and more shrivelled than I expected but alas, he is more than 2000 years old.

Spuey looking up at the ceiling.


My mummy and I.

Blending in quite nicely there.

No photography is allowed at the National Gallery but photo-posing opportunities there are slim anyway. Plenty of opportunities outside at Trafalgar Square though!

Spuey's head stuck in a lion.


The square from the gallery's steps.

Yes, my feet were sore again.

Day 3: Changing of the Guard, Westminster (take 2) and Natural History Museum

After a quick visit to Harrods (another thing to tick off the list), we trotted down to Buckingham Palace to watch the Changing of the Guard. Now, I didn't really know what was involved but there was much pomp and circumstance with horsies, marching band and the tip-top bread men. No one else would understand (except for my siblings) but I could not shed the 'Good on you Mum, Tip Top's the one' tune from my head. Just a shred of evidence that TV played too much of a role in my upbringing.

Can someone enlighten me? I have forgotten what these guys are called.

Spuey right at the gate. Good viewing spot, I do say.

This is the balding head that impeded my view. Having a view like this is an effective way to make the experience a boring one.

We returned to Westminster Abbey to visit the crypts as it was closed yesterday. Wow there are some really old tombs in there, Queen Elizabeth I being one of them. And some other monarchs too.

Here's a sneaky photo of the green inside the Abbey. I can understand if I was accused of photographing the Melb Uni Law Lawn though.

Next was the Natural History Museum, which of course comes guaranteed with stupid posing.

Me and a Dinosaur.

Spuey and the giant foetus.

Spuey and his triceratops blood brother.

Spuey the Chimp.

Needless to say, I went home with tired feet.

CHOOSE LIFE

The 80s was my childhood. Slap bands, ra-ra skirts, teased hair - I'm all for that. Call me a dag - I don't care.

Thus when the opportunity arose to see GEORGE MICHAEL LIVE IN CONCERT, I could not let it pass my cassette deck operating hands. Coupled with the fact that the concert cost a mere £2 (that's AU$4.60 - thanks to my accountant friends) I definitely had to get my hands on some tickets. Forcing Spuey to go ensured that I had guaranteed company. He wanted to see Wembley stadium anyway - two birds with one stone, I say.

The 'new' Wembley Stadium. I didn't even know that it was under construction.

I got a little antsy because we had delays in collecting our tickets and had yet to enter the stadium when I heard a roar from the audience and the beginning verse of 'Father Figure'. It's an ok song, but I was more upset I was missed the start! Boo hoo. It was even more upsetting to realise that according to the set lists I also missed Fastlove :`( . I nearly started crying.

The Wembley stage. Little Georgie in the front somewhere.


Hmmm a blow up George Bush with a little doggie giving him ermm...

Caz, Spuey (Mullet King) and I. Happy to be daggy.

I must give my thumbs up to George Michael as he can sing mighty well and proved as much at this concert.

For those interested, here's the set list:
Song to the Siren
Fastlove
Too Funky
Father Figure
Everything She Wants
Flawless
You Have Been Loved
Praying For Time
Star People
Shoot The Dog
Interval - John & Elvis video
Outside
Spinning The Wheel
Freedom
Idol
Jesus To A Child
Faith
I'm Your Man
Amazing
Edge of Heaven
Careless Whisper
Freedom 90

He didn't quite sing these songs in the same order on the night I attended but that doesn't really matter. I was planning on uploading videos but the recordings were so awful (see my U2 post) that I decided not to subject anyone to such trifle.

Highlights of the night: any song from the Wham! era, Faith, Freedom 90 and Praying for Time.

Lowlights: Shoot the Dog (yes I know it's a political statement but I don't really know it.

And...........not singing my favourite Wham!/George Michael song of all time which I (and many others I'm sure) have endearing called "Jitterbug" a.k.a Wake me up before you Go-Go!!!!!!!!

VERY UPSETTING INDEED. VERY MUCH SO.

I stopped Spuey filming other parts of the concerts (my batter died, his was dying) so he could use that small battery energy to film WMUBYGG. As a result, not only do I NOT have a video of Jitterbug live, I have hardly any footage whatsoever. *sniff* No one understands. I wouldn't have minded a bit of 'Last Christmas' either.

So in place, I had to find a Youtube video of WMUBYGG to ease the pain. Do enjoy.

Day Two of Touristy Stuff with Spuey

Yesterday was spent looking at the shops on Oxford and Regent streets, so it is not worth blogging.

Spuey had a list of things to cross off on his London To-Do list which included the London Eye, Big Ben, Downing St and Westminster Abbey. He also felt the need to eat a 'traditional English meal'. A big week of touristy stuff lies ahead.

The view of Big Ben clock tower upon exiting the tube.

It was uber-gay after getting to the Abbey to found out that it wasn't open for visitors on Sunday.


Spuey happy regardless......

.... despite getting stuck in a telephone box only moments ago.

It's a shame we can no longer stand out the front of the Downing Street door to take a photo. This is as close as we can ever get.

Luckily today was a day with blue skies and maximal visibility, given the horrible London air pollution. Hence an ideal day for the London Eye.

I like looking up at things and pretending to be artistic.

The entire trip takes about half an hour. It was the longest half hour of my life. By the time we were 1/4 into the revolution, Spuey and I were ready to get off. Not because I'm scared of heights but rather of boredom.

The best view was of the Big Ben clock tower (because it's the closest) and yes, you can see Buckingham palace, St Pauls Cathedral, the Gherkin and the BT tower (eh?) but once you've seen the London skyline even from the ground, it is not any more fascinating from up in the Eye.

The view of the next capsule.

Me and Big Ben.

Oh, and if you don't have close to perfect vision I wouldn't even bother going up unless you like utlising your imagination. I should stop whinging and start appreciating the fact that we ended up on the Eye on a day of utmost perfect conditions. But for those interested, unless you're a person who is awestruck by city skylines, I would give the London Eye a miss.

Next was lunchies. We went to a not-worth-mentioning pub so he could have some traditional British grub. He chose a Toad in the Hole and I had an English Breakfast (read: big fry-up).

While it may look nice here, his veggies were undercooked. And the whole thing didn't fare too well.

Dinner with the Relos

Well after about 22 hours of flying direct from Melbourne to London via Singapore and having only slept 3 hours in the Singapore airlines lounge, I forced Spuey (well he did agree a while back) to come out and have dinner with our one and only relo in London, our cousin.

Dinner was at Pierre Victoire, a French restaurant in Soho - quite nice too! I wished I ordered the spatchcock cos that was so nice, but my entire sea bream almost made up for it. I will be suggesting this place as a regular dining venue.

Well here's what matters, a photo of us cousins.

Cuz and her fiance.

Even though he was clearly tired, Spuey insisted that he was capable of getting to Piccadilly Circus to see the lights.

So sleepy but excited to be in London.