Tag: England

Old London Town

Reading Time: 2 minutes

London, what a magical city.

It’s almost indescribable, but there is a buzz to this place which I’ve not really experienced elsewhere.

Monday evening I woke up at 3:30am to Skype my family back in Dubai. Quite unexpectedly, when I came down to the ground floor wifi at this ungodly hour, there were a dozen glamorous people partying in the hotel bar near reception. And the party-goers were not stopping any time soon.

We first arrived Sunday afternoon by train, then caught a couple different tubes in the underground to get close to our Hotel Russell accommodation. Actually, calling it an underground is a bit of an understatement. More like middle earth. Where we got off at Russell Square, there was a 175 stair climb back to the surface. It was no surprise everyone took the lift.

My free time around the conference was limited. I was able to maximize this though, through going for a morning run. Running through a large unfamiliar city I focus almost extreme levels of attention taking mental notes of my surroundings. It worked, I didn’t get lost. I was so happy to run along the Thames and see the Millennium Dome, Big Ben, Old Parliament House. In fact everywhere you look there’s historical things of interest. My boss, and tour guide, was describing a building as being “not that old”, it was built in 1901 – 110 years ago.

After my run I had time to check out a local newspaper. Well two local papers actually. The Times so I could read the local news, and The Sun so I could see some boobs. To be honest I felt like a bit of a prude seeing journalism mixed with nudity. Having said that, I probably couldn’t write on here the name of some of the adult magazines which the news stand stocked on the shelf above.

To be honest I was a bit disappointed by the quality of journalism overall. On the TV news the first story was about impending political elections, followed by an interview by a hopeful participant of the X-factor.

The news coverage of football went beyond impressive. I now believe people when they say that the UK sees football like religion, only more important.

Once again I was spoilt by fantastic weather, OR people lie about the UK raining 90% of the time and it’s bloody awful the rest of the time. The chirpy weather girl shared that it’s been London’s warmest end to September since 1985. Quite likely some Dubai weather went across with me. You’re welcome, my British friends.

Quick UK trip September 2011

Reading Time: 3 minutes

I’ve had the opportunity to attend a two day conference in London. But I figured making the most of my trip, and using the Friday & Saturday of my Dubai weekend to also see Cardiff, Wales.

My flight to Birmingham was extremely busy – just like all our flights to the UK. I saw the passenger numbers, and there was only one free seat in the entire plane.

The flight route took us over Bahrain, Kuwait, and Afghanistan, before Europe. I managed to get a window seat, and enjoyed watching a lot of the country side. Afghanistan especially, looked incredible. It seemed to have an amazing variety of scenery. I particularly loved the harsh and mountainous terrain.

A sure sign of a good flight is when it seems to take no time at all – which this flight did. A good movie helps for at least part of the way.

Once I got through Customs at Birmingham, I somehow sparked the attention of a security guard. He asked many questions about my reason for the visit, my line of work, UK itinerary, and how often I visit Australia. He seemed happy enough with my answers to let me through after only a couple of minutes – no rubber gloves needed. I must have an untrustworthy face. When I was leaving Brisbane International Airport last time out of the 8 of us family and friends, I was the only one to get special attention from security, which involved a pat down. The guy was impressed with the Liverpool stickers adorning Myles’s suitcase – so perhaps he did spared me further attention. (And I suppose he did have soft hands so it wasn’t a total loss – joking).

I pre-booked my train tickets to get to Bristol Parkway on the way to Cardiff on the web. Everything was incredibly simple to get me there. One slight glitch occurred when I overlooked the fact that I was getting on the train an hour earlier than planned. I blame jet lag, or being stupid. When the ticket collector explained my mistake he was kind enough to lend me his phone to call my boss who would pick me up at the other end. Talk about English courtesy.

In just two days traveling from Birmingham into, and around Cardiff, I’ve already marked off quite a few of the items in my game of British Bingo:

  • “innit”
  • egg butty
  • “one should”
  • fancy a pint.

I’m still waiting to hear mentions of:

  • core blimey
  • pukka
  • “guvnor”.

So far I’ve visited the National History Museum, St Fagans; the absolutely awe-inspiring Wales Millennium Centre to see Welsh National Opera perform Don Giovanni; Millennium Stadium (which I can prove with an “I entered the dragon’s lair” lanyard). One disappointment of this fine tour was the stadium’s hallowed grass was completely gone. The pitch was well into the process of being removed by an industrious team of four diggers. Well I originally thought it was a downer, until our tour guide proudly announced the slurry of mud we were seeing was such a rare opportunity. 😉

I also had a good look around the city centre. Sadly I missed visiting Cardiff Castle, due to the very popular “Cheese Fest” being held inside the castle walls this weekend. This (National) festival had so much interest the queue going inside began a few hundred metres down the street. It would have been nice to see, but perhaps I may come back some day with the rest of the family.

Wales has a rich and proud mining heritage. The mines produce coal and, judging by signage in the Welsh language, an excess of consonants.

The weather has been a real treat. Apparently I brought the weather with me. The week, and several weeks before I came there were many consecutive days of rain. I’m glad I could bring this for the people of Cardiff. Take it as part-payment for allowing me to have an enjoyable visit to the city.

Tomorrow we hit Old London Town, so I’ll be sure to have more updates then.