First Day, fini

I'm not going to bore you with shots of Big Ben - but I do have to stick in at least one photo - it's obligatory. I want to say as well at this point that I've just discovered Adobe' Photomerge. What a great little tool. I used to have to muck around with these intricate tripod heads to get half-decent panoramas. This thing just took a quick look at the shots and instantly merged them into something passable. The result is above.

For our first real day of wandering, we covered a hell of a lot of ground. After making our way by tube to a popular pub near Big Ben, I had my first English Pint. I've already forgotten the name, and I'm not sure if the whole room-temperature thing will take off in Australia, but there's something to be said for tradition.

Particularly when it's cheaper than water.

Just across the road from my pint experience, I could make out a church, far more ornate than anything I'd seen in Australia. With a magnificent circular design of stone and stained glass over one of the side entrances, I wanted a closer look. So too did every other tourist in London, for this was Westminster Abbey. We were a little taken aback that they charge entrance now. Makes me wonder if you need to get a 'worshipper ID card' to be allowed in, or if the devout just consider it part of their tithe.

Jus and I soon made our way across the river, using the stunning Westminster Bridge to cross.






In front of the (gallery? Museum?) on the opposite side of the river, near the London Eye, were a few random sculptures, highlighting a Salvador Dali exhibit. What was incredibly cool was that some of his most famous works had been rendered into bronze sculpture - like this 'Melting Clock'. I liked that alot.

We walked quite a while along the banks of the river Thames. There's a fascinating series of cobbled lanes as you walk from Westminster bridge to the Tate Modern, where old buildings (and occasionally ruins) intermingle with modern buildings. Tight twisted laneways, looking for all the world like a scene from Oliver Twist, house cafés, bars and restaurants, where the majority of the city's lawyers (Sorry, barristers) seem to hang out.

The skyline along the Thames is something else. It's so very different from Australia, where it's either high-rise buildings or weatherboard cottages barely beating back the scrub. As dusk approaches and we head into the Tate, the riverside buildings come alight - one of the most incredibly beautiful sights of my life.

After visiting the Tate, a strange and surreal experience (which I think is the point), we stopped at a politically-correct soup bar, doing the good work of donating a portion of their profits to the poor. Can't remember the name, but that sausage & pea soup made an impression!

On our way back, we wanted to cross at Tower Bridge. We asked a few locals, but all claimed no knowledge. Instead, we wound up crossing back on London Bridge. We got a good look at Tower Bridge in the distance, but I was out of space on the memory card and we were both just too tired to wait around. Maybe another time.

We must have walked at least ten kilometres today.

First Day, Continued

After the Victoria and Albert Museum, we continued on to the Natural History Museum, with only a brief stop to photograph me with a London bobby. Heh.






Now Jus has virtually no interest in this sort of thing, but she still got a kick out of some of the dinosaur stuff and the ancient sequoia that saw the Battle of Hastings or something.

However, being a guy, Dinosaurs and fossils are my kind of thing. I took lots of photos here, partly for me, partly because my Dad would love it here. I'd only been gone a couple of days at this point, I live more than two thousand kilometres from my parents and see them fairly rarely, but at this point, I just wanted to have my Dad with me.

So Dad, these photos are for you:

First day in London

Despite our exhaustion, we still made it out for our first day in London.

Jus had a lot of difficulty rising this morning.

Not that I blame her. She doesn't do well without sleep (neither of us have had much) and coupled with the fact that she's not only lived in London for a few years, but has lived in the very room we're staying in, then it's really no surprise that her keeness to get out into London was minimal at best.

I gotta admit, I'm pretty shattered myself. Any other time and I'd be curling up with a good book.

I have this weird constitution that allows me to stay awake and functioning pretty much indefinitely. I realise this isn't normal, but it doesn't mean I'm any more patient when it comes to people who need to sleep. Particularly if I'm sleep-dep grumpy myself.

My poor, wonderful, girlfriend. I was like a little puppy begging to go out.

So finally, we started on the plan we had for yesterday.

We started out by taking the tube to Harrods. What can I say about Harrods? It's big, it's old, it's beautiful, it's crowded - it's a supermarket with pretensions. We didn't stay long, and breakfasted around the corner in a groovy little cafe.

After which, we walked to the
Victoria and Albert Museum.

I can't say enough good things about this place. First of all, it's huge. If I tried to describe just how large this place is, I'd wind up parodying Douglas Adams, and I'm far from being that good a writer.

The Victoria and Albert houses some of the most amazing collections of historial art and design I've ever encountered. Jus and I only saw a fraction of what was on offer and I hope one day to return and explore it more fully.

Most impressive is that for a museum that has been operating since 1852, it has a thoroughly inviting feel to it. There's plenty of 'interactive' opportunities - as Jus found out in the 'how a hoop skirt works' exhibit.

In looking at their brochure, I wish we'd had a little more time there - there's a Cast Gallery that has full-sized casts of some of the most famous sculptures of all time. However, I particularly liked this bronze bust of some Pope whose name I've already forgotten. I'd be keen to know, if anyone wants to point it out.

Another few photos: This is an absolutely stunning glass scuplture by Dale Chihuly hanging in the foyer of the V&A. I've included a few photos because I have good friends in Australia, Tim and Tali Dalton who do similar work and I find all of their works amazing.

London - Day One

We arrived at Heathrow at around 6am local time. Customs was quick, not even blinking at our shifty, evasive answers to the tricky questions in life: 'where do you live?' and 'where will you be staying?'.

Heathrow seems like a very impersonal kind of airport, but I got excited about seeing London cabs and that we were about to ride on the tube.

I think it was probably one of nicest train-ish rides I've ever taken. I had no idea the Tube had such small, round, open compartments. The morning sun was peeking out from behind a smattering of grey cloud and the all-pervasive deciduous trees, of which we have so few in Australia, seemed possessed of an ethereal beauty.

It all seemed so familiar, yet so foreign at the same time. All those oh-so-British rows of townhouses that you just don't see in Australia, but we know so well from regular injections of BBC culture.

It was a long trip. We were going to the other side of the city, to Tottenham-Hale Station, being met by Justine's friend Anita, a Jamaican-born Londoner.

Tottenham is a bit of a rough neighbourhood, but I've lived in worse. Mostly in Sydney.

Anita and I got along from the start. She's this generous-hearted woman, a single mum with a near-adult son and a great sense of humour. She fussed about while we got everything stowed and organised our first London takeaway curry.

Jus and I sat down on her couch and after approximately 144 hours we fell instantly asleep.

Sitting up.

Koi!

Singapore Airport has Koi!

Right in the lounge. It's really cool - this meditation area right on a busy concourse, with bamboo, wooden planking and seats.

Although we had a couple of hours to kill before our transfers, we pushed, shoved and ran like mad bastards to get off the plane and over to the service counter first. We wanted more good seats between Singapore and London. Being tall and long of leg, we made it well in advance of our fellow travelers, not that it helped.

Turns out that these sort of things are booked weeks in advance. We got lucky anyway, our flight was only half-full and got three seats between the two of us. Should be comfy.

And Singapore Airport is a wonder of the modern world. Free internet terminals! Duty Free everywhere! Cheap alcohol!

Free foot-massage machines!

Koi!

Leaving, on a Jet Plane.....

So we've just spent six hours on Singapore Airlines SQ217, arriving at Singapore Airport at around 7am local time. I think.

I haven't sleep.

I'm somewhat disappointed that the movies aren't on-demand and had some small difficulty with the KrisFlyer handset, inadvertently paging the stewards far too many times. I think I discovered the real reason why Australia doesn't want Singapore muscling in on our local air routes. They're even nicer than Virgin Blue - and a hell of a lot better than JetShaft.

In fact we got pretty lucky on our flight, with Jus and I tag-teaming the service personnel (flip the switch to 'Super Cheery!') to secure exit row seats for our flights out of Australia.

Still. I like the hot towels!

Jus is trying to sort out our seats for the next part of the flight....

Why can't endings just.... end?

I'm not good at sleeping on planes.

Knowing this, I felt pretty casual about the lack of sleep that Jus & I would get prior to our departure. I was a little concerned for Jus - without a good eight hours sack time, she can move into a pretty 'interesting' state of mind.

Don't ask me to define 'interesting'.

Despite all that, I had no inkling of just how much time the whole 'lets put our stuff in storage' plan was going to consume.

We're both busy people. We work full time jobs as well as working on our own design business. I also freelance for a national technology magazine.

Here's our timeline for that last week:

• Thursday Night: Packing starts. We get about 1 hour of sleep.


• Friday Night: Continued packing. No sleep to speak of.


• Saturday:Removalists arrive. We haven't finished packing, so they just take the bulk of it. There's also an Open day at the college where I teach and I can't get out of attending. While I'm there, Jus doesn't quit - just keeps on dragging stuff over to the storage shed. I come home. We keep packing. May two or three hours of sleep.


• Sunday: Buy cold weather gear and remaining supplies, continue to pack, start to clean. Absolutely no sleep.


• Monday: I Go to work, Jus finishes cleaning and hands in keys about an hour late. Real Estate Agency wants to charge us for a whole day of 'accommodation'. Jus can't deal with the insufferable twits at Wilson Pride without completely losing the plot - which I can't blame her for. She's suffered the bulk of the packing and cleaning, continuing on during the day while I work. I get on the phone, do my 'dance of the angry tenant' which involves liberal abuse. No extra money is paid.

Tonight after work, Jus comes in with all of our clothes and dumps the whole lot on the College boardroom table. We spend about three hours sorting out what we're going to take and leave the rest, bribing the night supervisor with pizza to quietly pack and hide the remainder (a substantial pile). Off to Melbourne airport.

We've checked in and I'm posting from a terminal in the airport.

Total hours sleep: about 6 hours.

We leave at 1am.

MOOD: HYPERSONIC BABY!

Beginnings & Endings

We've decided to do it, my girlfriend and I.

Travel, that is.

We don't know how we'll raise the cash, we don't know exactly where we'll go, but it's something I've missed out on for far too long.

Justine has spent a few years overseas and had traveled fairly extensively. I, on the other hand, have only traveled around Australia and New Zealand. There never seemed to be the money, no matter how much I wanted to go.

So a couple of weeks ago, while we were wandering around Southlands shopping centre we just stopped at a Student Flights travel centre and booked tickets on a whim.

We knew if we could just get there, the rest would take care of itself.

Probably.

Until now, Jus and I have been living in my groovy little St Kilda studio bachelor pad. I like it here, but we've outgrown it a little. Plus our crazy neighbour has made daily life a little more interesting than it probably should be.

So the news that the owner of our flat has sold up isn't as bad as it probably could be. The new owner is a divorcee. He took one look at our setup and decided that he could probably entice his share of willing 40-somethings back here and is moving in right around the time we get back.

So we'll be saving a couple of months rent, putting our belongings in storage and just figuring it out as we go along!