London!

I've been in London for two days and the weather has been fantastic.

Somewhat surprisingly, i haven't been overawed by the tourist sites. Sure they've been nice but nothing worthy of 'ohhh ahhh'.

Let's see:

Day #1
arrived after a 1hr delay at HK international because 1) we were waiting for passengers from another flight that was delayed 2) china decided to close off their air space due to bad weather. Ben and I wasted time playing scrabble (bastard won..., i was sooo close to winning until he did a bingo grrr)
Anyway we got on one of those newer Boeings (the ones where the seat doesn't move but the cushion does so that your bum shifts forwards and you back slides down the chair). Granted this means that the person if front doesn't shove the monitor into your face but seriously it's terrible for your back. I got into such a huff over the seats i thought i'd better sleep so i don't take it out on Ben (unfortunately it was a full flight as well so we couldn't spread out). The good thing is i managed to sleep for most of the flight (>12 hrs, skipped all the meals as well), the bad thing is i found out in the last 1.5hrs of the flight that there wer some really good movies that i could have watched (bugger...)

Arrived at Heathrow and was half-interrogated by the customs person who wanted to know why my stupid HSMP visa was rejected (after explaining a couple of times it was because the Home Office try and make it extremely difficult and confusing for people to enter and in the end 'i couldn't be bothered with it') she allowed me access. Then i had to wait ages for my bag to turn up on the belt (took so long i was thinking it was 'lost' by the ever-reliable Heathrow airport) Luckily it did turn up in the end and Ben and i took the Heathrow Express to Paddington. Gotta love the train, it's cheap and fast. Why can't Sydney do the same - quantity not quality and they'll earn more money in the long run... common sense isn't it.

From Paddington it was to Bond Street Station and just around the corner at Davies St is our accomodation! It was also a Bank Holiday so the tube and streets were still empty (at 9:30am)

We met our 'host' Jim and he was kind enough to show us around Mayfair. Then it was off to Buckingham Palace to catch the end of the changing of the guard (... 3 mins until my time is up at the interet cafe so if i get stopped halfway that's why)

Met up with Ingrid there and headed down to Westminster Abbey and Big Ben (you'll see photos later). Spent a couple of hours there then bought tickets to the London Eye and went in search of food near Waterloo Station (unfortunately we missed Waterloo Stn completely and found ourselves at Lambton North). Anyway eventually ate at Strada down near the Tower Bridge then headed back to the London Eye. [The photo we got taken there is hilarious...]

Run out of time, will continue in my next post