Firstly, let’s just back up a little to last week and moments just after I posted the last entry on my blog. I heard scuffle and what sounded like a small altercation over by the counter. Turning to see into the other small room, I saw the owner/operator arguing with some guy in a hooded jacket. I then noticed another guy doing something with the money box behind the counter. When he stood up from behind the counter i then saw his facemask and the penny dropped as to what was going on - the place was being held up! The guy with the box then rushed past us while stuffing it down his pants and once out the door, his partner soon followed. It all happened so fast it was amazing.
The cops took a while to find the place, and were about as interested as if they had gum on their shoes until they discovered the whole thing was on the CCTV. Nothing like a bit of action for the evening...
Fast forward past some uninteresting days at work to New Year’s Eve. Yet another uninteresting day at work (it’s a pretty quiet time of year) that thankfully finished at midday, so at least the ride home was in daylight for a change. On the way, I stopped in at a bike shop, which had the news going on its TV showing the fireworks from Sydney’s New Year’s celebrations - nice.
After some dinner and the Life of Brian, we headed out to central London and discovering what New Year’s celebrations were in store in London. Trafalgar Square was our target, as this was reputed to be one of the best vantage spots as down by the Thames and Big Ben would be “absolutely mental”.
The tube ride was packed and this was at 11pm. We also had a 15min delay between some of the stations along the way, but eventually emerged at Leicester square. The streets were packed, and thankfully closed to traffic (pictured). Unfortunately, Trafalgar square was already full and the police were not allowing any more people into it, so we made our way to the nearby Duke of York column just off The Mall by St James Park as another vantage point to view the fireworks.
Again, there were hordes of people and the place was packed, but at least we could see half of the London Eye and the fireworks that it centred (see the pics and video below).
With the London Eye doing a pretty good impression of Pink Floyd’s large lighting wheel, the chimes of Big Ben set the fireworks off. Unfortunately, we didn’t hear the chimes through all the cheering and screaming of the crowds, but it didn’t matter. Quite an impressive show, which ran for at least 15mins, although you’d think that some of the folk in the crowd hadn’t seen fireworks before! Maybe it had something to do with the fact that they’d consumed
FAR more alcohol than we had. Then again, there weren’t too many speaking English either so maybe they hadn’t seen fireworks like that before, as well as explaining why we didn’t hear any verses of Old Lang Syme...
The crowds were phenomenal as they just continued and continued. To get home we had to avoid Piccadilly Circus as the queues to get into the tube station extended for blocks. We headed for Green Park, but couldn’t get in there either, so on to
Hyde Park Corner which finally got us into the underground and on our way home.
The other fun part was attempting to text New Year’s wishes back to people - over 2hours before I could get just one text message sent! And I thought things were difficult on New Year’s in Melbourne!!
All up, an interesting trip into central London for the experience.
Happy New Year!
The cops took a while to find the place, and were about as interested as if they had gum on their shoes until they discovered the whole thing was on the CCTV. Nothing like a bit of action for the evening...
Fast forward past some uninteresting days at work to New Year’s Eve. Yet another uninteresting day at work (it’s a pretty quiet time of year) that thankfully finished at midday, so at least the ride home was in daylight for a change. On the way, I stopped in at a bike shop, which had the news going on its TV showing the fireworks from Sydney’s New Year’s celebrations - nice.After some dinner and the Life of Brian, we headed out to central London and discovering what New Year’s celebrations were in store in London. Trafalgar Square was our target, as this was reputed to be one of the best vantage spots as down by the Thames and Big Ben would be “absolutely mental”.
The tube ride was packed and this was at 11pm. We also had a 15min delay between some of the stations along the way, but eventually emerged at Leicester square. The streets were packed, and thankfully closed to traffic (pictured). Unfortunately, Trafalgar square was already full and the police were not allowing any more people into it, so we made our way to the nearby Duke of York column just off The Mall by St James Park as another vantage point to view the fireworks.
Again, there were hordes of people and the place was packed, but at least we could see half of the London Eye and the fireworks that it centred (see the pics and video below).With the London Eye doing a pretty good impression of Pink Floyd’s large lighting wheel, the chimes of Big Ben set the fireworks off. Unfortunately, we didn’t hear the chimes through all the cheering and screaming of the crowds, but it didn’t matter. Quite an impressive show, which ran for at least 15mins, although you’d think that some of the folk in the crowd hadn’t seen fireworks before! Maybe it had something to do with the fact that they’d consumed
FAR more alcohol than we had. Then again, there weren’t too many speaking English either so maybe they hadn’t seen fireworks like that before, as well as explaining why we didn’t hear any verses of Old Lang Syme...The crowds were phenomenal as they just continued and continued. To get home we had to avoid Piccadilly Circus as the queues to get into the tube station extended for blocks. We headed for Green Park, but couldn’t get in there either, so on to
Hyde Park Corner which finally got us into the underground and on our way home.The other fun part was attempting to text New Year’s wishes back to people - over 2hours before I could get just one text message sent! And I thought things were difficult on New Year’s in Melbourne!!
All up, an interesting trip into central London for the experience.
Happy New Year!
ps. the full show was far more spectacular than what my little camera can show...
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