Back in London

I spent most of a day on the train back to London, caught up with some friends I met while mountain walking in Windemere for a party and ended up shacking up with one of the girls for the week. The party was actually a farewell for Mark who was going to Australia for a few months. There were a couple more parties that week too, at one of which I learnt beerpong – a cross between table tennis and tenpin bowling. Two teams of two arrange 10 large beer glasses like tenpins at each end of a table tennis table and pour in what ever amount of beer is desired. Then each team takes it in turns to throw a ping pong ball into one of the glasses at the other end. If you get the ball to land in a glass then the opposing team has to drink it. For some time Mark and I were reigning champions, but as I discovered, a string of victories often ends in throwing up.

A week in London also gave me the chance to finish of a few thing there I hadn´t seen. I finished off the Natural History Museum and also went to St Pauls, which was just magnificent. The atmosphere, the paintings and that domed roof, just awesome. Of St Pauls and Westminster Abber, skip the abbey, go to St Pauls. I also took the train up to Great Missenden (towards Oxford) the home of Roald Dahl for much of his latter life where a museum has recently been set up in his honour. I didn´t learn a lot that I didn´t already know about him but there were a few little things which rounded out my picture of him and there was quite a bit of audio of him talking about this and that which was interesting to hear. I also went and visited his grave which was nearby and paid tribute to a man who has had much influence on the person I have become, something which I am well thankful for.

London was also time for some practicalities like a hair cut, collecting my new cashcard and drivers licence as well as Servas books for France and Morocco which I´ve added to my itinery. Plus when I collected my ticket for the Eurostar to Paris I was told that my bike had to go in a bag. After visiting some bike shops I established that normal bike bags cost £100 (A$250) and cheap ones came at £40 (A$100) but even this was too much for a one off use. So I tested the theory of being able to find anything in London and went out to find a cheap bag big enough for a bike. Where would you go if not a bike shop? First I went to a tourist store for one of those red, blue and white bags tourists buy when they can´t fit in all their shopping but they didn´t have one big enough. I tried a carpet shop, a hardware store, a travel bag shop, and someone even suggested a place where they will wrap anything but not a bike it turns out. After half a day I found a builders merchant who sold me a 1 tonne bag (normally for a tonne of sand) for five quid, what a saving! It was a bit awkward and I got lots of weird looks in the train terminal but it was very convenient.

My last night in London I took Sarah (who I´d been staying with) to see Stomp. I´d not yet managed to see a show on the west end and had always wanted to see Stomp, so this was perfect, and even better than I expected. The things those people can make music with, it was just awesome. I just sat there dancing away in my seat having the best time, marvelling at the co-ordination and sense of rhythm the eight performers had. It really is amazing and if you ever get the chance, go and see it. Apparently there are about eight different Stomp troupes touring the world, they must come near you sometime.