Just a Quiet Day in London

Monday saw Charity and myself spend most of our time along the Thames. After a brief bit of shopping in Covent Garden, we made our way down to the Thames and Waterloo Bridge. From there we made our way along the Thames to Borough Market via all sorts of places that we encountered - the Globe Theartre, street stalls, fat pidgeons, Gabriel's wharf, Clink Prison, Tate Modern, and other places that I can't recall the name of...

Eventually, we ended up in The George (pictured), one of London's many historical pubs, for a pint or two before we tackled the evening Tube traffic to make our way home.

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By the way, one of the "brief bits of shopping" was at the London Marathon Shop. In case I've not mentioned it earlier, I've put in my application to run the London Marathon. I had planned to do the Melbourne Marathon, but I'd moved countries before that could have happened. To let you know, the London marathon is a ballot for your entry, so I'll find out in november if I'm going to get a spot. If I don't, then SIA (the Spinal Injury Association) have accepted me to run in one of their allocated slots, although I will need to raise £1,500 for them if I end up using one of their places.

On a Rainy Afternoon

Sunday arvo had me take advantage of a "perk of the job" so to speak, although the before and after of it isn't something that I'd want as a 'perk'.

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A leftover ticket for the Spurs v Blackburn game meant I had a quick walk to White Hart Lane in the steady afternoon drizzle to make it on time. I missed the first 3 minutes of the game, but no matter as it was pretty quiet for the first 10mins anyway. The rest of the game was pretty good to watch, despite the frustration of watching your team miss chance after chance, only to see a (literal) last minute winner go in for Blackburn. Well, at least the walk home won't be too bad as the rain had stopped. That is, until I was about 2 blocks from the ground, when it started up again - seemed fitting...

Spurs v Getafe

Due to the sorry state of things at Tottenham Hotspur at the moment, and the manager's impending departure - which naturally brings about a period of "rebuilding" - the chance to both see and be a part of a Tottenham "European Night" could well be very limited. So, with this in mind, Charity and I headed to White Hart Lane for her first ever game of football and my first European game - Tottenham v Getafe (of Spain)

A drizzly night and no luck getting tickets on the net, I hopped on my new tredley and did the quick 10minute ride to the ground in the hope that the ticket office was still open. Long story short, it was, so back home I went with two tickets and only 20mins before kick off!!

We headed off for the ground all suitably rugged up at a fairly quick pace. Even still, we missed the first 15 or so minutes, and naturally the first two goals of the night!! The score being 1-1 when we arrived.

Nice seats though, as you can see, being 4 rows from the touchline and right behind the Spurs goal for the first half. Just as we took our seats we got to see our first goal, only for it to be disallowed, and for the hail of abuse at the ref to be flowing straight over our heads. I had warned Charity that there were some rather passionate supporters and she took it all in her stride.

The only other goal for the night came at our end in the second half with about 15 or so minutes to go in the game - unfortunately it was for the Spainards from Getafe. From then on, we (and pretty much everyone else) could not work out how Tottenham didn't score at the other end. Great edge of the seat stuff as they tried again and again and again.

In the meantime we were happy to join in the chants and songs in the stand, even if the night itself lacked a bit more atmosphere than usual. Due to the fact that it turned out to be the manager's last game, this isn't a surprise.

After the game we headed back to one of the nearby pubs for a pint or few, even running into a mate from Perth and a few of the other guys I'd met on my previous trip here. The walk home, whilst rather 'fresh' in the late night mist was at a rather more subdued pace, but rounded out at top night all up.

The New Tredley

Well, the new bike is in my possession. Picked it up yesterday afternoon after training it out to Wickford, which was a little further out of London than anticipated. I had intended to ride it back home from Wickford until I discovered that it was about 40miles...

I settled for riding home from Liverpool Street Station instead - just a short 9.5km ride, although packed with adventure thanks to the busses and motorists as well as a few mopeds! Add to that the darkness of night and it was a test ride and a half.

The train got back at about 6.30pm, and by this time I'd resized the seat height - much to the curiosity of the other passengers, who seemed most intrigued to watch me sitting on it in the centre of the carriage by the doors! I also managed to put on the pedals along with both the polar speed unit & magnet, and the new rear light...

Happy to say that the ride home went very well!! A lovely bike to ride and one that will no doubt give me hours of enjoyment providing it doesn't get nicked!!

And, No, I don't care that the seat's yellow.

That Cat's Back...

Okay, I've been a little lax in updating this over the past week and a bit, but a cold/flu over several days will do this....

Anyway, not much really going on at this side of the world, although we've managed to do a few things, including a trip in to Covent Market, which really was disappointing. Nice market square, but the market itself was rather uninteresting. We had a more interesting time by discovering both kathmandu store and the Australia Shop! Just had to grab a pack of chocolate coated scotch fingers. Didn't get any Coopers though, but was impressed that they had a carton of Vintage on hand! Also Sparkling, Pale, Stout and Dark, so a big thumbs up for this shop! The day rounded out with dinner in a bistro just off the market before a stroll through the city streets.

We attempted a visit to the terracotta soldiers of the First Emporer (of China) exhibition at the British Museum recently. Some of you may remember my last visit to this museum, and my description of it being the world's largest antique store still holds. Remember a certain modern Egyptian cat? Well, he's still there amongst the Egyptian exhibition amid the mummified and carved cats - see his pic below for the reminder, and if you can tell me the difference between him and the common modern moggy, then I'm all ears...

But I digress. We didn't get to see the Chinese exhibition as planned as we were an hour too late for tickets - sold out. And they're sold out til mid-January 2008!! which is rather astounding, but the exhibition runs til next April, so we may still get to have a gander.

We stayed in the museum and spent a fair amount of time checking out some other sections that were interesting (as they contained more than just vases, pots and busts). Finding out that the museum's crystal skull was now on display was exciting, until I discovered that it was in fact a fake and not one of the legendary crystal skulls that come from thousands of years ago... but there you go. (Read the book 'The Mystery of the Crystal Skulls' if you wish to know more, or just google it.)

This weekend I managed to find myself a cheap bike on ebay. Bicycle theft is a MAJOR issue over here, so I'll leave my good road bike home and for use on weekends on long specific rides. I will use the new cheap single speed for commuting and general use "around town". Rather a snazzy bike, if I do say so myself!!

Riding through the streets of London, or more specifically Tottenham and Wood Green is still just as hairy, and still a good adrenaline buzz. Love it!!

Yesterday saw Charity and I make our way down nearly the entire length of the High Rd from Tottenham to Monument Station near the Thames. About 8-9kms.

Quite a varied road this is as it goes through many demographics and changes face along the way. It goes from the High Rd to Stoke-Newington Rd, High Rd, Kingsland Rd, etc... A Pretty interesting day out really.

Still, Londoners are the same along the footpaths - just plain rude, as they push past... not to worry, it's fun to confuse them by just stopping in front of them and seeing their reaction when I become an obstacle for them. Most don't know what to make of it if you don't get out their way...

Last night saw Paul n Myself head down to our "local" for a few pints and to take in a Spurs game on the box. A bit of fun in the pub, except for the crap result...

Cycle2007 - London Bike Show

Went to this today, and it was FAR larger than anticipated. The intention was to take a look around, suss out a few bike stores, pick up some bits that I need, and perhaps find some riding locations and groups nearby, then head home via some central London locations to pick up some other needed items. How wrong I was!!
The show was HUGE!! Complete with mountain bike test track, which just had to be tried out! Apologies to my MTB mates, but while I tried out one of Ironhorse’s top duallies, I'm still a bit cold towards a dual suspension bike...
Speaking of riding, I’ve now done two rides through the local areas, and lets just say that those double decker busses are much larger when there’s only a few inches between you, them and the gutter!! Great fun though, weaving through the traffic, and I’ll certainly improve my road riding and bike handling skills on the streets of London! But, I digress...

The rest of the show was great and while we arrived at around 10am - with the intention of having lunch somewhere near Covent Garden at around midday - we left at around 6ish. Naturally, we were laden with freebies (Including 2 tubs of High5 Energy and Recovery products!) and information about places to ride, where to ride, shop locations, as well as dozens of European biking destinations for holidays, training camps, tours & challenge events, and mixtures of all these. The MTB scene is much larger than I realised and also goes on throughout winter, so even though I've no idea where I'll put it, I reckon I'll be shipping the mountain bike over shortly!
No doubt I’m about to receive a tonne of junk mail after entering loads of competitions, but who knows, some of it may well be worthwhile even if we don’t have a wheelie bin for rubbish collection yet. (must admit that our neighbours seem to accumulate a lot more rubbish that I’d expect!)
Thankfully, I didn’t have all that much cash on me, nor a better credit card, otherwise I may well have left there needing a van to get some very nice bikes home!!

This one's from Fixie Inc. - A lovely classic single speed, which if I had the money...

It's All Happening

Well, it’s been a long week and a bit, but at least we have electricity connected to the new place!!
The premises has actually been(being) rebuilt from scratch, which is great because you know you’re in something nice n new that isn’t 300 years old with who knows how many deaths in your bedroom and maybe a ghost or two to go with it!
Anyway, I’m still in an internet cafe to do this as we’re yet to have a phone line hooked up to the house, let alone internet. Despite the pic below, we’re in the ‘finished’ part on the ground floor, while they finish the upstairs section...

And then the view from the back door...

To get here alone was an adventure after having spent most of last week in Watford. Paul and I trekked to the nearest car rental place only to be told that they didn’t accept international drivers licences, even though they said that they did when we rang before walking the 6kms to get there!! Unfortunately, this also meant that our intended trip to Cambridge with Row n Karl couldn’t eventuate. At least it didn’t rain on our 12km walk...

The next day (Saturday) we found a place that did accept the licence and booked a ‘Vauxhall’ Astra - same thing as a Holden Astra, only with its original badges on it. When we walked the extra distance to reach this one, we got a pleasant surprise in that the only vehicle they had left was the blue wagon in the picture below.

Peugeot may have been once described as the French word for sh*t, but it was actually quite a nice car to drive!
Long story short, we eventually made it back to Tottenham (after returning the car and cleaning the place in Watford) at sometime after midnight.

The rest of the week has been a case of getting by in the new place as we’ve managed to live here most of the week with the electricity being connected properly to the meter only yesterday (Thursday). It certainly has been novel to live in this place - amazing how you take the little things for granted, like towel rails or bathroom cabinets. Wardrobes that don’t wobble, exhaust fans in bathrooms that actually do more than just make a noise, etc...

We’ve also been out to Plane Handling Ltd’s cargo depot by Heathrow and collected the bags and my bike that we had freighted over. This turned into an almost all day trip on the tube, with a 20min walk from the airport in the middle. We left there with the distinct feeling that Baggage Masters really did stooge us, as everything was just so easy at this end with regard to clearing customs and collecting - not to mention their surprise at what Baggage Masters had told us would be the situation.

We have managed to explore the area a bit to find necessities and at least manage to get ourselves set up somewhat, even if we’re finding new things we need each day.
A visit to Regent St, now has my UK bank account set up, with the rest of that afternoon spent looking around the area, including some nice back laneways (pictured) and a jaunt along Carnaby Street and Piccadilly for good measure.
I do still need to find a bike shop, but at least I’ve found out that White Hart Lane is a cruisey 10minute ride away, and that i’m now a little poorer after visiting the store there...

I Don't Like Mondays

Thanks to Bob Geldof, erm.. Sir Bob Geldof for the inspiration for the title for this post.

The day started out fairly well, with a trot around the main lake of Hyde Park in the misty, drizzly and overcast morning. So much for seeing the sunrise at the Palace again, for it was all just grey.

Anyway, long story short, as I was waiting for Paul n Marty to collect me from the Wood Green tube station, it began to rain. Then came the news that they'd found out at the real estate agent's office only minutes before collecting me - that the place we were moving into didn't have it's electricty hooked up yet!! And that it wouldn't be hooked up til friday!!
So, after unloading the van, we headed back to Paul's old place in Watford, which luckily enough, he still has until friday.

On the way, we stopped at the airport to pickup Charity. Also on the way, we spent nearly 2hours on the Northern Connector, which is the inner "freeway" through north london. At one point we took over 20mins to travel about 500metres...

No sooner were we back at Watford (you guessed it, the M25 was just as slow!), then Paul and I had to head off to White Hart Lane for the 125th Anniversary celebrations and match. Thankfully, that turned out to be a pretty good night out, despite going 4-1 down in the first hour! Certainly relieved that it ended at 4-4. You just have to love comebacks like that!!

Having got back to Watford at just after 1am, we then slept til around 3pm on tuesday. Ahh, jetlag and late nights!!

Again, pics to follow when I have better internet access!