Crazy-assed London
Friday, December 29, 2006
I've seriously done more in that week in London than in three months in cold, crappy Calgary! This place is totally dick-riculous and always vibin' and stuff! It's awesome, although I doubt I can live here. But it was totally awesome - shot to my bro for entertaining me!
Circus and Squares
I arrived at 10h30 at Heathrow with surprisingly very little hassle - usually I get the full security pat down and cavity search for uncut diamonds, perlemoen, mandrax and 12 year old sex slaves hiding in my hand luggage... this time when they interrogated me at customs, they actually believed I was there for holiday, and not some dodgy smuggling deal!
We went straight into town for lunch in Chinatown, and then randomised our way through Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus.
Christmas at the in-laws
People always ask what we eat at a Chinese Christmas. Well, see for yourself - three different roasts, tons of side dishes - 12 courses at least! And back home it's even more!! And then afterwards we played mahjong into the wee hours...
The Palace
Buckingham Palace is hardly anything to write home about. It's a big stone building with gawdy gold statues that The Donald himself would be proud of. And apparently the queen doesn't even stay there? Actually, highlight of the day was hitting the Nandosh for lunch! Yoh, I miss Nando's!
The river and everything alongside it
We took a walk through to Westminster Abbey and Houses of Parliament which are all close to the Thames River, and then we mosey'd onto the London Eye. Queues to the Eye are insanely long and winding, so I decided to postpone that ride til Feb... And I finally polished off a plate of one of England's national dishes - no man not curry and rice... bangers and mash you silly sod!
Update:
Sushi'd out
We went for all you can eat sushi. 'Nuff said. Just pick your plate of the conveyer belt and deshtroy as many plates as is humanly possible. It was SO great - 33 plates of sushi and two bowls of noodles! I was a lil sick, but not nearly as sick as Judge was after the infamous "two platters of salmon sushi" night. Good times...
Old Year's Day
New Years was pretty chilled - dinner at the in-laws, playing with sparklers (haven't done that since forever!) and then karaoke in Soho which was actually quite hilarious. What's up with Asians and karaoke? Seriously I don't get it?!
And I saw probably the greatest fireworks show I ever did see - they set up 10 minutes of crazy explosions on the London Eye and boats on the Thames, which was pretty awesome!
The walk back to the car was crazy mad too! Firstly, we parked 30 minutes from the restaurant, and secondly, I got to witness some good ol' fashioned British thuggery and hooliganism - such liberal use of the bad words, near rioting and abuse of passers-by! Unfortunately there was no looting and or stone throwing - I would've loved that cos God knows I can throw far and accurately!
And then after four hours of sleep, I was up, packed and off to the airport for my flight back to Calgary. And so with that, ended my whirlwind tour of London! There was a lot I never got around to, but I'll be back in Feb so hopefully I get to see some more of you monkeys out there! And after 9 hours of flying we touched down, only to have a startling reminder that I live in Calgary - our baggage was delayed cos the cargo doors at the airport were frozen! Well, imagine that?!
Check the highly condensed gallery of the billion photos taken:
Circus and Squares
Christmas
Buck Palace
The River
Sushi
New Years
Interlude - Things I won't miss about London
- Fast and reckless bus drivers. And taxi drivers. Actually English drivers in general.
- Busy London streets filled with thousands of rude, non-English speaking Europeans.
- A real shower.
- Toilets that don't flush! (You have to crank the handle a couple times to build up some voema to get a half decent flush - good thing I didn't need a power dump at the in-laws after the three roast Christmas dinner - coulda been mighty embarrassing!).
- The tube.
- Cold rainy-ness.
Circus and Squares
I arrived at 10h30 at Heathrow with surprisingly very little hassle - usually I get the full security pat down and cavity search for uncut diamonds, perlemoen, mandrax and 12 year old sex slaves hiding in my hand luggage... this time when they interrogated me at customs, they actually believed I was there for holiday, and not some dodgy smuggling deal!
We went straight into town for lunch in Chinatown, and then randomised our way through Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus.
Christmas at the in-laws
People always ask what we eat at a Chinese Christmas. Well, see for yourself - three different roasts, tons of side dishes - 12 courses at least! And back home it's even more!! And then afterwards we played mahjong into the wee hours...
The Palace
Buckingham Palace is hardly anything to write home about. It's a big stone building with gawdy gold statues that The Donald himself would be proud of. And apparently the queen doesn't even stay there? Actually, highlight of the day was hitting the Nandosh for lunch! Yoh, I miss Nando's!
The river and everything alongside it
We took a walk through to Westminster Abbey and Houses of Parliament which are all close to the Thames River, and then we mosey'd onto the London Eye. Queues to the Eye are insanely long and winding, so I decided to postpone that ride til Feb... And I finally polished off a plate of one of England's national dishes - no man not curry and rice... bangers and mash you silly sod!
Update:
Sushi'd out
We went for all you can eat sushi. 'Nuff said. Just pick your plate of the conveyer belt and deshtroy as many plates as is humanly possible. It was SO great - 33 plates of sushi and two bowls of noodles! I was a lil sick, but not nearly as sick as Judge was after the infamous "two platters of salmon sushi" night. Good times...
Old Year's Day
New Years was pretty chilled - dinner at the in-laws, playing with sparklers (haven't done that since forever!) and then karaoke in Soho which was actually quite hilarious. What's up with Asians and karaoke? Seriously I don't get it?!
And I saw probably the greatest fireworks show I ever did see - they set up 10 minutes of crazy explosions on the London Eye and boats on the Thames, which was pretty awesome!
The walk back to the car was crazy mad too! Firstly, we parked 30 minutes from the restaurant, and secondly, I got to witness some good ol' fashioned British thuggery and hooliganism - such liberal use of the bad words, near rioting and abuse of passers-by! Unfortunately there was no looting and or stone throwing - I would've loved that cos God knows I can throw far and accurately!
And then after four hours of sleep, I was up, packed and off to the airport for my flight back to Calgary. And so with that, ended my whirlwind tour of London! There was a lot I never got around to, but I'll be back in Feb so hopefully I get to see some more of you monkeys out there! And after 9 hours of flying we touched down, only to have a startling reminder that I live in Calgary - our baggage was delayed cos the cargo doors at the airport were frozen! Well, imagine that?!
Check the highly condensed gallery of the billion photos taken:
Circus and Squares
Christmas
Buck Palace
The River
Sushi
New Years
Interlude - Things I won't miss about London
- Fast and reckless bus drivers. And taxi drivers. Actually English drivers in general.
- Busy London streets filled with thousands of rude, non-English speaking Europeans.
- A real shower.
- Toilets that don't flush! (You have to crank the handle a couple times to build up some voema to get a half decent flush - good thing I didn't need a power dump at the in-laws after the three roast Christmas dinner - coulda been mighty embarrassing!).
- The tube.
- Cold rainy-ness.
