It is incredible that a week has passed since we arrived in London. Already I feel as though this holiday is going to be over before I know it. It seems like just yesterday that we were running through the streets of Bangkok buying everything in sight, with minimal bartering because we just couldn’t be bothered. We bought a lot. Fiona bought a lot. I didn’t buy much. Sightseeing was relegated to filling time in between shopping. We took a momentary glance at the Grand Palace and Wat Pho. Wat Pho is the site of the biggest reclining buddha in Thailand. I made that up, but it may be true and it is really big. Wat Pho also houses a traditional massage school and both of us took time out from shopping to endure a 1 hour herbal thai massage. The young girl who presided over my massage was all of 30kg in weight, yet managed to inflict immense pain across my body with these brutally strong fingers that penetrated my most secret pressure points. If pain is good for you, this massage was totally beneficial.
We moved onto the Grand Palace eventually and had to borrow suitable clothing to gain entry. We looked like stupid tourists but thankfully were surrounded by similarly idiotically attired happy snappers and so thought nothing more of it. The Grand Palace was a bit of a let down, I was tired of walking, I was emotional, I had already seen 50 other temples that looked rather identical to this on a slightly smaller scale. We hurtled around the place, took the obligatory tourist shots (Fi hugging a dragon statue) and made our way back to the markets. We hitched a ride on the ‘tourist boat’ down the bangkok river, which was fun and made our way back to khao san road; 6 hours before we depart for our flight to london and we have some heavy shopping ahead of us. We don’t know how much we spent in the end, probably nothing, hopefully nothing because what we ended up with shouldn’t be worth much. The DVD’s have mostly worked and have been entertaining in London, although i’ve pretty much watched everything we bought. The Incredibles has been the highlight movie so far. I’m sure you were waiting for my reccomendation before viewing this movie.
We had a 12 hour flight from Bangkok to London. I wanted a pillow really badly, but couldn’t get one and spent the flight mashed against the plane window. When the flight arrived in London, Fiona arose from her chair whereupon she had been sittin on a pillow unknowingly the entire flight. There is a number of ways one can be killed by a small pillow, I chose not to excercise one of these methods. This time. We were in luck at Heathrow airport, the tube had broken down and we were forced to catch a cab in peak traffic to our destination. Half way there and with the meter at about the cost of our entire Thailand holiday, we said bugger this and hopped on the nearest tube station which thankfully was working by this stage and got us to Clapham North.
We bought 2 litres of Bombay Sapphire and 2 litres of Absolut in Bangkok airport along with several cartons of cigarettes which we planned to sell at highly inflated prices to our smoking friends in the UK. I think Fiona swindled me. We’ve been staying the last week at Tam and Ben’s in Clapham North, hogging the couch and TV and cramping what is already a restricted space. It’s been great to see some familiar faces we haven’t seen in a while. The housing around here is really strange though, rows and rows of tiny flats that are three storeys high, crammed with Australian travellers. The weather hasn’t been bad, it remains in single figures mostly but I can deal with it pretty comfortably and we haven’t had much rain or wind. In fact the windows are almost always open in the house because it gets too hot otherwise. Transport around town is pretty easy with the tube and bus service. I find the poms to be a fairly rude bunch though, they seem to be forever in a hurry and like to push in front of you be generally selfish. I’m also getting stared at constantly as I walk down the street, i’m not that good looking. Only through living here have I been able to comprehend the extent of the English love affair with Football, 7 pages of the sports section are dedicated to stupid Soccer articles, then a page of general sports news. Its pathetic. I’m yet to decide on a Football team, i’m leaning towards Everton because they are half decent, have an Aussie playing for them and the clincher is they are sponsored by Chang Beer! Ipswich Town is also in contention. Probably the wierdest thing about the Uk is the hours of daylight. It takes a long time for the sun to come up and it doesn’t stay up for long, probably 9 hours of daylight all up. Its horrible when it gets dark at 4PM, you feel like you’ve wasted the day. Thankfully the food over here isn’t as bad as I was led to believe. Sainsbury’s is like the Coles equivalent but better and is full of organic products and even some half decent fruit, i’m saved.
We haven’t done a lot of sightseeing in London yet, today we moved into Fiona’s cousin’s place for 3 weeks or so, a real nice setup in the heart of London. It will be much easier to walk around from here to see the inner city sights. I took a look at a few galleries last Monday while Fiona was out shopping (priorities). The National Gallery at Trafalgar square is a huge gallery and I lost interest in most of the art, though it was pretty amazing to think how old some of these paintings were and how detailed and accurately they were drawn given their age. Monet, Van Gogh and Picasso were the highlights. The National Portrait Gallery which adjoins the National Gallery was a bit more interesting with a greater focus on some contemporary art works such as a video installation of David Beckham sleeping for an hour and a half (a captivated audience looked on, i kid you not). I then walked up to the British Museum which was interesting but just way too big to wonder all the way around. Highlights included the Mummies, American Indians and South American sections. Finally, in the darkness, I walked down the strand expecting to pass GO but found myself at the Tate Modern Gallery. This place is spectatular and most importantly modern. Some of these exhibitions were highly cryptic, but I pretended that I knew exactly what the artist was trying to do to gain street cred. Unfortunately the camera battery died, but I’ll go back with Fiona soon so we can take some photos for you. There were too many highlights to single out just a few, but i will do so anyway: Andy Warhol, Picasso and lots of artists I can’t remember. A+
We haven’t been up to much else in London. We’ve been out a few nights. Fiona and I watched Chelsea v Arsenal at the Pub while devouring an overbearingly large Sunday Roast mixed with Carlin Extra Cold. Fiona spent about half an hour on a job posting site and 2 days later has turned down a job offer and had 4 seperate interviews. The job she turned down was HR Administration (answering phones) at £9 an hour which is not a bad wage in Australian terms ($45-50k? I might be way off there) but shes found a few jobs that pay a bit more and will be a bit more challenging and has time on her side, so we should be earning some half decent money. We don’t aim to start work for another 4 weeks or so though, depending on how bored we get. We’ve been looking at some houses in Clapham, but haven’t made much progress on that front. We have a group of 8 for Christmas lunch (Turkey, Plum Pudding, Bombay Sapphire) so it will be a very merry christmas even without family and I don’t mind that a new Table Tennis champion will be crowned this year at our family lunch. I’m sick of winning really.
Time for bed. I’m delirious, hope what I’ve said has made sense. Photos, tommorow your time, I promise, again! Amazing but true that I can break promises from thousands of miles away. Lots of love to all and handshakes and pats on the backs to the male readers. More frequent updates on the way soon. I know i’ve forgotted to jot down lots of stuff, watch as my memory slowly recovers its deeply hidden treasures.
Comments:
Sarah & Sue (Mum) (December 19th, 2004 at 1:55 pm)
Campbell - you NEVER won table tennis baby! This year we are commencing a new competition - platform diving from the balcony to a blow up pool located on a slight slope in the driveway. Could have a high risk factor, however Ross can test first. Jess has undertaken preliminary testing in the front yard with a 7.1 dive from the retaining wall to pavement. Pavement = 1, Jess’s tooth = 1/2 original size. Sore chin. Red mouth. Vet visit Monday. All good. Promise.
Ross (December 19th, 2004 at 2:00 pm)
Cammie Smith - you say you have no friends…Dad will have to do. Don’t believe bullshit tales of wandering around galleries. The next gallery you see will be your first. Cricket score - Pakkies succumb for 72 to lose by 491 runs. Nan is still alive despite her worst thoughts. 92 not out - made more than the pakkies. Will report shortly on sale of your major assets…laptop and toyota machine. Love Daddy. xx oo
Campbell (December 19th, 2004 at 2:18 pm)
And this is what happens when my family gets on the piss…
Jenny (December 19th, 2004 at 10:28 pm)
I have been missing your updates. So i am glad tha you have put some more on the website.Sounds like you are having heaps of fun.. Miss you guys heaps.. Fi - dont know if someone has told you but Ken sent you a christmas card.
