Hello all,
Week two in London has been pretty good so far. The body clock has adjusted itself so my sleeping, eating, and I suppose pooping patterns are in synch with the locals.
Monday: Took it pretty easy after a busy weekend and read a book before leaving Camden Town (Tim's house) to go to Clapham (Nick's house). There were already another dosser when I got here, and when you include flatmates girlfriends/boyfriends, it's quite a full house. Slept on the floor on some yoga mats and bugged the other dosser (Forrest, from Oamaru) with my snoring.
Tuesday: Went for a walk around the local area. Went up Clapham high street to Clapham North, before walking around to Brixton, then back to Clapham Common, before walking south through Clapham South, then Balham, then down past Tooting Bec. Then walked back home. It's quite a nice area around here, although not as nice as say, Islington. Still, there's a lot of Kiwi's and Aussies down this way and I've reacquainted myself with friends of friends who are down this way.
Wednesday: Can't remember what I did during the day, but in the evening, I met an old primary school friend, Ryan Duff for a couple of beers and we went out for a feed in a pub. He shouted me, so that was good, although I gotta pick up the tab next time. Was good to see him and catch up on the goss from what he's been up to. Looks like we'll be seeing a bit more of each other since we've both arrived to London around the same time, although he has been here before.
Thursday: On Thursday, I caught the bus from Clapham to Waterloo and then walked around Westminster for a few hours, seeing the sights such as parliament house, and walked around the River Thames plus checking out lots of statues and streets around. Also went down to Buckingham Palace although I missed the changing of the guard which happens about 11am. No big deal.
Ryan lent me a book on Things To Do In London For Under A Fiver and 1000 Things To Do In London and so I took a ride on the Duck Tours. Basically, it's an amphibious vehicle and the first part of the tour was a drive around the streets of Westminster (where ironically I had just spent three hours walking around),and then the boat/car went into the River Thames and we floated (barely) down the river at a speed that could only be referred to as 'snail-like'. Still, it was worth doing. Also took a fair bit of photo and video which I'll compile into a movie when I get a chance and send it back home.
Later that evening, Nick Jones and I went out for Japanese and a couple of beers. Great Japanese at a place called Mijijami or something like that. Nick is pretty tired from working long hours in his job, so it wasn't a late one.
Friday - pretty easy day although in the evening I caught up with Ben Fahy in only about the second time in five years. He looks great and is pretty slim looking after driving 18000km around Europe and being in India for 3 months. Was great to see him though. Later that evening caught up with Steve Duncan who was in town for his brother Dave's engagement party. There were a few Verdon boys, Jimmy D, Paul Higgins so had a bit of a catch up with them. After that, I caught up with Tim Coughlan and Alex Worsely who was an English exchange student who went to Arana Hall in our first year of Uni. He hasn't changed a bit and neither have we and we were still drinking about 4am in the morning (the more things change, the more they stay the same, eh?) at Alex's swish apartment in Bethnal Green. Apparently Bethnal Green is a bit dodgy, but his apartment is pretty darn fine.
Saturday: Got up at 8:30am to watch the All Blacks get their revenge on the French. Pretty good game despite the sideways rain. Went back to Nicks and caught up on sleep before catching up with a few guys (Nick's friends who I know) down at this awesome pub called 'The Falcon' in Clapham North. Definitely the best pub I've been to so far, although I just stuck to the soft drink.
Later on, after navigating various tube delays I went back to Regents Park in Camden Town to hang out with Ben, Tim and Claire. Just chilled out, told stories and bad jokes. Caught the late tube to Clapham before getting a taxi home. Everyone seems to have a few mugging stories, so I thought it best not to brave the 10 minute walk through the park in the dark. Clapham at night really goes off though, much different to daytime Clapham.
Sunday: Lazy day today. Going to catch up with Ryan and then Ben in the evening and will pack up my stuff as I leave for Sheffield tomorrow and then onto Spain on Wednesday. Will be staying at my mate Ian's house and taking a visit to Leeds during the day on Tuesday before catching a plane to Spain from Manchester at some ungodly hour the next day. One of Ian's mate is coming along too. Turns out he's fluent in Spanish, Portuguese and a bunch of other languages so he'll be handy to have along so that I don't order a car tyre for dessert instead of ice cream.
All right, hope everything is well and good when you are. Might not be able to update very often in Spain but will have a few yarns to spin when I get back for sure.
Not even sure how I'm getting back yet. I may just fly from Gibraltar with Ian on July the 8th, or should I fancy it, I might waltz on over to France. Perhaps I'll invade them. Since they never win any wars, I quite fancy my chances.
Now, where did I put my musket...?
Love
Joe, Jono, Jonathan (take your pic).
