5 September 2004
Colchester, Essex, England
I'm sitting on a nice, quiet train, reading a newspaper, and I glance out the window. What's this I'm seeing? Green. Open fields. Trees. Water. Bestill my heart, I don't think I can take this shock. It's been just over two months since we've been out of London, and I don't know how long since we've been outside a major city.
We were up fairly early this morning for the tube ride across town to Liverpool Street Station. A return ticket to Colchester cost £15, and a little over an hour later, we were rolling to a stop in England's first Roman capital. We were immediately reminded of the fact that London and England are two completely different creatures. No more hustle and bustle and millions of rude and self-centred people. Instead, a picturesque town (pop. 160,000) where random strangers still say hello on the street, surrounded by the stereotypical rolling English countryside.
We arrived at Colchester Station just before noon on a glorious sunshiny late summer day. Our first order of business was to find the town centre. Apparently there are two train stations in Colchester, the North Station that we arrived in that's about 1 mile out of town, and Colchester Town Station, that's right in the middle of town. So after a twenty minute ramble down the main road past pastures and remnants of the Roman Wall that once surrounded the city, we made our way to the Visitor Information Centre. Picking up a map of the city that we never looked at, we headed across the street to Colchester Castle. The Castle was buiilt by the Normans, and it was presented really well. For only £2.90 each (student discounts are definitely your friend) we had a wander around the interactive museum inside. They had a lot of great things for visitors to play with: a toga to try on, a slave collar, a Norman helmet and shield to play with, Boudica's chariot from the movie starring Alex Kingston (actually we weren't technically supposed to play with that one). Yeah, the whole thing was done really well.
Heading back out into the sunlight, we went for a quick look around the gardens. They were really impressive and much larger than we expected, and with the great weather, they were packed with people making the most of the sunshine. We were planning on doing a 2-hour self-guided walk around the village, but instead we decided to grab some food and park in the park for a while. For the ridiculously cheap price of £4.90 we got a 10" pizza to share and enjoyed an impromptu picnic. Our next task was to explore some more of the gardens. In the process we stumbled across a cricket match, so we stopped for an hour or so to watch and laze in the sun.
Because Gray was spending the night, we set about finding a B&B for him (the nearest hostel is 10 miles away). While he checked in, I had a breeze through the place's guestbook and confirmed my suspicions: not many foreigners make it to Colchester. There were a few different nationalities dotted through it here and there, but the overwhelming majority of guests were English. Welcome to the real England.
By this time it was getting late, and I had a 2-hour trip home, so off to the bus station. Unfortunately, being on Sunday Service, the regular buses were only running every hour and a half, so I ended up paying £3 for a 40p trip to the train station on an express coach. All good though, we took the scenic route, passing through the University of Essex on the way.
The train ride back to London was full and uneventful, then it was another hour on the crowded tube. Why did I come back to London again? Anyway, it was a very enjoyable and much needed day away.
8 September 2004
Fulham
Not too much longer to go now. I am more than ready to move on. Only four and a half weeks of work left, then a couple of days to finalise the last minute details before I'm off. Actually we might be spending those last few days down in Cornwall, haven't decided yet though. It's not a bad idea; I'll get to leave Britain on a high note instead of just feeling like I'm running away from London as far and as fast as I possibly can. We'll see.
As for the trip, there's been a couple of snags/disappointments on that front. There have been unknown problems with my plane tickets, so I'm still waiting for those to be couriered over. They were supposed to be here about 3 weeks ago and they're promising sometime this week, but they've said that for the last two weeks. There's still plenty of time though, so I'm not too worried yet. Snag number 2 is Occupational Health at work. They were supposed to be giving me some antimalarials for free, but I haven't been able to get an appointment with a doctor to get the prescription and they don't seem too interested in helping me to set one up. I've got some other options open, but I'm not sure what's going to happen with that. The big disappointment was with Gray. He was planning on joining me for the first part of my trip up to Cairo, but the expedition is full for that portion. On the bright side, it means there'll be a lot more people than I was originally expecting and bigger groups are always better on this sort of trip.
In the meantime, life goes on. We were out at Crystal Palace last night for our last scuba diving class - or so we thought. We've gotta go back to Streatham again on Friday to do some basic skills they never got around to teaching us. We have to show them that we can swim 200m and float for 10 minutes - pretty tough, dunno if we'll be able to do it (*note* sarcasm) We already did our final exams, and yours truly got 100% (not that I'm tooting my own horn or anything :D) They'll give us our Log Books back on Friday and then we go off and do our 4 Open Water Dives (I'm doing mine in Egypt, Gray is doing his in either Mexico or when we get back to Oz) and then we're fully qualified PADI Open Water Divers.
13 September 2004
Fulham
Saturday night was party night. Our two Kiwi housemates threw a huge bash on the weekend, and it was quite an event. We moved all the furniture from the lounge into the backyard, got a couple of bamboo lamps, cleared out 3 fridges for drinks, put up the flags of all the nationalities in our house (New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Brazil, Italy, Egypt and Sweden), set up DJ's decks in the lounge with speakers all over the house, locked all the valuables in DJ's and Rob's rooms, and waited for the fun to start.
Actually, Gray and I didn't stick around cuz we had another party to go to across town in Willesden Green. It was a going away party for one of Gray's buddies and we ended up at the Walkabout at Finchley Road. It was a very fun night with much dancing, drinking and debauchery. The trip home was the biggest event. Gray was loaded and barely functional. With much cajoling, pushing, shoving, pleading and a bit of hurling, we finally made it back to Fulham. A very entertaining trip.
We made it back to the house at about 1am to find the party still in full swing. The house was packed and the music was thumping. Wouldn't have minded joining in, but I had reached my limit for the night, so to bed for us. I think the party finally wound down at about 6am. The empties perched on every available flat surface and the beer-soaked carpet were evidence that it had been a very good night.
Other entertainment for the weekend was watching the Great River Race on Friday afternoon. It's a 22-mile race on the Thames starting in Richmond and finishing off in Greenwich. You can race anything that floats, so long as it's powered by oars and the seats are stationary. There was everything from Dragon boats and traditional fishing boats to a Viking whaler and a rowboat full of pirates. Parked on Wandsworth bridge in the sunshine watching the race was a great way to spend the afternoon.
In other news, my plane tickets have arrived. And I've got an appointment set up with Occupational Health for next week; I managed to talk to a non-English receptionist the last time I called - a sad but true fact about life in London: if you ever want anything to get done, talk to a foreigner; the natives don't have a clue. Anyway, it's all looking good; things are coming together.
14 September 2004
Fulham
I actually sat down and had a good look at my plane tickets today, double-checking dates and times, etc. In the process I noticed that the tickets were all individually priced. Just had to share these with you:
London - Ljubljana: US$ 201.40 (return)
Ljubljana - Istanbul: US$ 434.80 (one way)
Johannesburg - Mauritius - Singapore: US$ 250.00? (one way)
Bangkok - Bali - Darwin: US$ 1116.00 (one way)
The first flight is pretty reasonable, plus it's a refundable ticket, so that means I can probably get some money back on the return portion that I'm not going to use. The flight to Istanbul and the last flight are seriously overpriced, but the Jo'burg to Singapore flight is interesting. It says that it was only US$36.23! Something tells me that was only the tax, which would make the ticket about US$250 altogether. Just to put that in perspective, Jo'burg to Mauritius is about a 5 hour flight, and Mauritius to Singapore is about 9 hours. So I managed to pay either $36 or $250 (doesn't matter which - they're both damn good!) for a flight that normally costs US$1500-2000. Is that legal? Is it even possible? I dunno, but I've got the ticket in my grubby little paws so I'll take it.
And for the arithmetically-challenged among you that's a grand total of between US$1788 and US$2038 (depending on the Mauritius flight) But I was only billed US$1490. How does that work? I've always considered myself to be pretty darn good at math, but I can't say I've ever seen any math quite like this. Not that I'm complaining or anything! Oh yeah! And the best part: AirTreks also gave me US$200 worth of vouchers for future bookings. Not too shabby!
Other than plane ticket conundrums there are a few other things in the works today. Yoseph took Bertha and I out for lunch today for our "good-bye"/"good luck" lunch. Bertha is leaving next week to start her own business, and I leave two weeks later. Drinking wine then going back to work repairing electrical equipment is probably not the wisest manoeuvre, ergo I'm playing on the net instead of working. I'm also going out for dinner tonight with Riikka, a friend from Finland who I met in Edinburgh 4 years ago who's in town for a bit. Wow! Can't believe it's been four years already. Should be good fun.
20 September 2004
Fulham
The Shao Lin Monks are Zen Buddhist Monks from the Hannan Province of China. They are the creators of Kung Fu and various fighting techniques based on the movements of animals. They are also renowned for their displays of strength, flexibility and mental toughness. During the Tang Dynasty they were betrayed by the Emperor and all but 5 were killed. Those 5 survivors returned to their temple and Shao Lin was reborn.
On Saturday, Gray and I went to the Peacock Theatre and saw the performance Shao Lin: The Wheel of Life, which demonstrated their skills by re-enacting the events surrounding their betrayal. There were about 20 monks ranging in age from about 5 or 6 up to 30+. They set the mood from the moment you entered the darkened theatre with a massive statue of Buddha centre stage and incense filling the room. It was a two-hour performance with several demonstrations of the various animal techniques they employ - the cat and the scorpion were easy to spot, but I couldn't begin to guess at the rest of them. It was especially impressive watching the two youngest monks sparring, and also a bit disconcerting to realise that these two pint-sized warriors could easily take down a gorwn man before he even knew what hit him. They finished the show with some mind-boggling stunts including one monk performing a hand stand on his index fingers. And we got all that for the ridiculously low student price of £15 each. If you show up an hour before the performance starts, the Peacock offers students the best available seat for a flat rate, so we got our seats for half-price. Good deal.
It was great seeing Riikka last week. Gray and I met her for dinner at a little Chinese/Thai restaurant at Fulham Broadway, then just headed back to our place and enjoyed some drinks and chatted the night away. It was a fun night.
It was Open House weekend in London, which meant that most of the government buildings, churches/temples, and major offices (like the BBC studios) were open to the public. We didn't have a lot of time so we decided to check out the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on Whitehall yesterday afternoon. From the description we read, we were expecting it to be quite extravagant with a pronounced Indian influence. It was pretty disappointing. The interior was nice, and some of the rooms were very ornately decorated, but it didn't live up to expectations and there was no Indian aspects to it at all apart from the names of a few Indian cities being engraved into the decor of the main hall. It was a free day out though, so no complaints :D
21 September 2004
Fulham
Frustration doesn't begin to cover it. I had my appointment with occupational health this afternoon, and they are seriously the biggest bunch of wankers I have ever encountered. The doctor I saw today, not only refused to give me a prescription for anti-malarials, but he also had the gall to tell me that I shouldn't have been given half the vaccines I received there because they're for personal travel and aren't occupational health's respsonsiblity. Idiot.
The fact that another doctor in OH had told me that I would receive a prescription meant nothing to him. I tried the guilt trip "But I was told I would get them here, so I didn't budget for them. I can't afford to get them from my GP now." (not true, but he doesn't know that ;D) Also laid the moral responsiblity trip on him "So you're refusing to give me medication that I'm entitled to, so that I will now go away and get sick then come back and infect other workers and patients in the hospital" (they don't have to know that I'm not actually coming back :P). Actually that bit about infecting others in the hospital is the only reason that OH offers travel vaccines in the first place. Makes sense. You don't want your staff to catch a tropical disease then come back and infect half the hospital when you can prevent it for the price of a postage stamp. Like I said, a bunch of freaking wankers.
So, off to 1st Contact for a private prescription that I have to pay for myself. And just to clarify after all the humming and hawing I've done on the antimalarial issue, here's the final verdict. I'm gonna go with Lariam, but I'm taking the Chinese herbal, Artemisinin, with me as well. If I have any problems with Lariam I'll switch to the herbal. It's not proven at preventing malaria, but it's 100% effective at treating it. And in the meantime, it'll help balance out my system and prevent Delhi Belly - always a good thing!
Just to finish things off on a positive, we had going away drinks for Bertha today at lunch. The boss-man took us to a really posh little pub for a round, not expecting any of us to actually want to eat lunch on our lunch break (we're silly that way, we like to eat lunch, go figure) So he felt guilty about us all having to pay so much, so he paid for most of it and well all only had to chip in a fiver. £5 for a £15 meal - not too shabby. I had a Thai Lime Chicken Salad by the way. Not too bad. About what you would expect from a London pub trying to cook Thai, but it wasn't bad at all.
27 September 2004
Fulham
I walk past these stacks every day on my way to/from work, and for the longest time I thought I was losing it. One day there would be two of them, the next day there would be one, the next there would be three. I didn't know what the heck was going on. Turns out they're natural gas tanks and they increase/decrease in size depending how much gas is in them. Whew! So I'm not losing my mind. Anyway, it's a marvelous example of urban industrialization (my high school geography teacher would be so impressed that I remembered something) having an industrial site in the middle of a city residential area.
Things are pretty much sorted now. Picked up the Lariam last week, started changing some of my money (I'm taking about half with me in US travellers cheques and cash, and leaving the rest in my bank account here in London). Have to say, it's a bit bizarre getting used to US$ again, haven't used any in donkeys years. Also sat down over the weekend with a big garbage bag and started going through my stuff. By the time I finish with my work clothes I'll have halved my stuff I think. I'm chucking/donating most of my clothes, but I'll be keeping a few odds and ends to trade for souvenirs in Africa. So nothing really left to do. Just have to pick up a few bits and pieces, but I might just do that at the airport - I'll have a couple of hours to kill there anyway, might as well make the most of it!
Gonna finish off the time here with two more trips. We're off to Leeds this weekend for a last visit with my brother. It's halfway between London and Edinburgh, and none of us have been there before. Then after I finish work next Friday, Gray and I are off to do a road trip down to Hastings (to see the re-enactment the Battle of Hastings that's performed once a year), then over to Cornwall for a few days, stopping off to see the Eden Project and whatever else tickles our fancy. It'll be a great way to end my time in the UK.
29 September 2004
Fulham
A bit disappointing: the trip up to Leeds fell through. Because of rail repairs it would have taken my bro 6 hours to make the trip from Edinburgh to Leeds, so he wouldn't have gotten there until midnight Saturday, and he would have had to leave early in the afternoon on Sunday. Just not enough time to justify spending all that money, especially when we both could put it to much better use.
I'm hoping the trip to Cornwall still goes ahead, but Gray and I are having money issues on that one as well. We'd forgotten just how expensive it is to travel anywhere in the UK. For now it's still a go, but final decision is pending.
Nothing else to really add. Same same. Work, sleep. Only 7 days of work left, 15 days until I leave. Not long to go now. Getting very excited, I am!
