It’s been ages since I’ve written now. I guess being uninspired by, surprise surprise, rainy summer weather! Yes, we’ve had rain, rain, and, wait for it…more rain here in Norway too. Records have been broken in the amount of rain we’ve had (I actually heard of someone who is into statistics and measuring the weather conditions, who was very excited about that. I think he tried to act sympathetic to the general majority opinion that the weather this summer has been pants, but he had to admit that he actually thought it was great to see records broken). To add to the rain (for those of you who are used to rain in tropical climates) it’s been cold! Last week I was driving to work in the morning and the car thermometer showed a shocking 11 degrees Celsius in JULY!!! I think the writing part of my brain has suffered from hypothermia or something, or maybe I’ve just not had anything really exciting to write about.
I have been travelling a wee bit though. I popped over to England for a bit to catch up with some of my many good friends who live there. Apart from numerous cups of tea (Earl Grey being the absolute favourite), long chats, good food, and general hanging out, I had a few days of heading into the British capital of London and doing the tourist thing. I figure being blond and Norwegian I can get away with it! And my personal opinion is that I did quite a good job of it. I took the compulsory photos of me pretending to go into a red phone booth, some guard thing, the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, and of course the London Eye.
I actually did more than just photograph the London Eye, I went for a flight in it! Now, if like me you aren’t in with the lingo of tourist attractions, you might ask, as I asked myself when I was reading the brochure, “what is a flight?” Well, a ”flight” is the same as what I would call a ”ride”, although I guess to distinguish it from a fun fair they wanted to call it something different. I mean, it’s not really a flight, because the little egg-shaped cubicle you go in is attached to the whole metal structure so you’re hardly flying! But then I was pondering this fact for a bit, and remembered that sometimes when children are very small, we’ll lift them above our heads and have them ”fly”. So in that sense I suppose you could get away with using the term ”flight” for the London Eye.
Needless to say a great number of photos were taken (what did we do before digital cameras were invented???) through the dirty windows, including the ”official” photo as we were about to ”land”. I add that I didn’t buy it as I kind of managed to stand in the one spot where I wasn’t actually in it, plus it cost something ridiculous like 7£, and I had a perfectly good one taken by my friend Faith, and it was free on my digital camera.
Having concluded our flight we spotted a large number of people gathering around some person taking photos and getting autographs. So we thought: ”oh, it must be someone famous”, and went to join them (the ”fans” not the celebrity). My friend Faith whipped out her camera and started taking photos, while I asked one of the people near by who this person was. Turns out he was (we’ll I assume he still is) a famous Indian cricket player, and reading the free London newspaper on the tube later on, we found out that he was actually the captain of the Indian cricket team.
Did you know there’s a Star Wars exhibition in London at the moment? Neither did I, till we walked past this place (next to the London Eye), and spotted some conspicuous storm troopers on the wall above us accompanied by the Star Wars theme. It was quite surreal I must admit, but also very cool. I managed to get a photo of myself challenging a storm trooper, which I obviously will cherish forever (that might be a slight exaggeration).
It always amazes me how quickly time flies when you’re in London, and also how many things you can manage to see in a short amount of time.
On another day I headed into London to meet some other friends, and we went to the Natural History Museum. A great place, and it’s free! Quite a good alternative to Madame Tussaud’s which, apart for costing 25£, had a 3-hour queue! And at the Natural History Museum they teach how to make dolphin sounds (or was it whale sounds?). You close your mouth shut, and then sort of suck your cheeks in. It was fun. They also have this amazing dinosaur exhibition, the best bit being the massive Tyrannosaurus Rex, which seems really lifelike (apart from his slightly limited movements). You turn a corner, and there he is! Naturally it impacts you so much you kind of just stand there and try to take some photos while being in complete awe of his size. That is, until some person with a summer job ushering people around, starts nagging everyone to: “keep walking, don’t stop, keep walking!”. I mean, how can you expect a child who is completely overwhelmed by this dinosaur to not stop and stare for a bit.
At the end of our walking around the museum we were very tired, hot, and in desperate need of cake and tea! Heading for the exit, the 10 year old we had with us wanted to get some souvenirs and so we went into the very comfortably air-conditioned gift shop….and spent another half an our (or maybe more) looking at all the fun and interesting things there. I am glad I knew that I had no space in my suitcase, or I might have succumbed to the temptation to buy something. We did make it to the coffee shop where I had a mug of tea with milk in (I love the UK for their tea!) and one of the must scrumptious chocolate mousse chocolate cakes I’ve ever eaten (had I been there alone I probably would have had a second slice, it was that good).
So my conclusion, after two days of touristing around London, is that there are plenty of fun-filled things to do, and that if you decide to be a proper tourist, it’s even better!
I have been travelling a wee bit though. I popped over to England for a bit to catch up with some of my many good friends who live there. Apart from numerous cups of tea (Earl Grey being the absolute favourite), long chats, good food, and general hanging out, I had a few days of heading into the British capital of London and doing the tourist thing. I figure being blond and Norwegian I can get away with it! And my personal opinion is that I did quite a good job of it. I took the compulsory photos of me pretending to go into a red phone booth, some guard thing, the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, and of course the London Eye.
I actually did more than just photograph the London Eye, I went for a flight in it! Now, if like me you aren’t in with the lingo of tourist attractions, you might ask, as I asked myself when I was reading the brochure, “what is a flight?” Well, a ”flight” is the same as what I would call a ”ride”, although I guess to distinguish it from a fun fair they wanted to call it something different. I mean, it’s not really a flight, because the little egg-shaped cubicle you go in is attached to the whole metal structure so you’re hardly flying! But then I was pondering this fact for a bit, and remembered that sometimes when children are very small, we’ll lift them above our heads and have them ”fly”. So in that sense I suppose you could get away with using the term ”flight” for the London Eye.
Needless to say a great number of photos were taken (what did we do before digital cameras were invented???) through the dirty windows, including the ”official” photo as we were about to ”land”. I add that I didn’t buy it as I kind of managed to stand in the one spot where I wasn’t actually in it, plus it cost something ridiculous like 7£, and I had a perfectly good one taken by my friend Faith, and it was free on my digital camera.
Having concluded our flight we spotted a large number of people gathering around some person taking photos and getting autographs. So we thought: ”oh, it must be someone famous”, and went to join them (the ”fans” not the celebrity). My friend Faith whipped out her camera and started taking photos, while I asked one of the people near by who this person was. Turns out he was (we’ll I assume he still is) a famous Indian cricket player, and reading the free London newspaper on the tube later on, we found out that he was actually the captain of the Indian cricket team.
Did you know there’s a Star Wars exhibition in London at the moment? Neither did I, till we walked past this place (next to the London Eye), and spotted some conspicuous storm troopers on the wall above us accompanied by the Star Wars theme. It was quite surreal I must admit, but also very cool. I managed to get a photo of myself challenging a storm trooper, which I obviously will cherish forever (that might be a slight exaggeration).
It always amazes me how quickly time flies when you’re in London, and also how many things you can manage to see in a short amount of time.
On another day I headed into London to meet some other friends, and we went to the Natural History Museum. A great place, and it’s free! Quite a good alternative to Madame Tussaud’s which, apart for costing 25£, had a 3-hour queue! And at the Natural History Museum they teach how to make dolphin sounds (or was it whale sounds?). You close your mouth shut, and then sort of suck your cheeks in. It was fun. They also have this amazing dinosaur exhibition, the best bit being the massive Tyrannosaurus Rex, which seems really lifelike (apart from his slightly limited movements). You turn a corner, and there he is! Naturally it impacts you so much you kind of just stand there and try to take some photos while being in complete awe of his size. That is, until some person with a summer job ushering people around, starts nagging everyone to: “keep walking, don’t stop, keep walking!”. I mean, how can you expect a child who is completely overwhelmed by this dinosaur to not stop and stare for a bit.
At the end of our walking around the museum we were very tired, hot, and in desperate need of cake and tea! Heading for the exit, the 10 year old we had with us wanted to get some souvenirs and so we went into the very comfortably air-conditioned gift shop….and spent another half an our (or maybe more) looking at all the fun and interesting things there. I am glad I knew that I had no space in my suitcase, or I might have succumbed to the temptation to buy something. We did make it to the coffee shop where I had a mug of tea with milk in (I love the UK for their tea!) and one of the must scrumptious chocolate mousse chocolate cakes I’ve ever eaten (had I been there alone I probably would have had a second slice, it was that good).
So my conclusion, after two days of touristing around London, is that there are plenty of fun-filled things to do, and that if you decide to be a proper tourist, it’s even better!