London Calling

I´ve just spent a little short of 2 weeks in London, staying with my brother Luke and his fiance Theresa who currently live there in a funny named suburb called Sidcup (sounds like a name for an icecream company). Also in London were my parents who also happened to be visiting at the same time. It was really good to see everyone!

Summer in London is living up to it´s reputation. I had three days when I arrived of nice sunny 21 degree weather. Then for the rest of my time it was at best overcast and at worst, raining and cold. I don´t know how the Poms can stand it! Yesterday I spent an hour and a half standing in a queue outside the Chinese consulate trying to get a visa to visit there and with the rain, wind and cold, it really sucked. Then I reached the front of the queue just before the 2 hour mark and the woman told me I was too late to get a visa processed that day! Why was I late? Because there was a freekin´slow queue! Whose fault? THE CHINESE CONSULATE!!! Who had to pay a kings ransom for a full day pass on the tube only to find it was a waste and will have to go through the same thing again another day? ME!!!! So yeah, still got a bit of anger left over from that one.

But the anger melted away somewhat when I was walking near Charing Cross station later that day and I stopped to pick up a Big Issue from a dude on the corner and he called me "Guv'nor". Twice! First and second time I've ever been called "Guv'nor"! Hopefully not the last.

Basically in my time in London I took it pretty easy. Visited some relatives one day, checked out some museums and galleries on other days, and spent a fair bit of time relaxing, reading the final Harry Potter book and refreshing my mp3 player with lots of new music. I probably should have been heaps more productive but I´ve enjoyed being a bit of a slacker.

Now I´m in Madrid. Just arrived today. All I've done is check in to the hostel and find a tapas bar where I enjoyed being given a small free snack with each beer. I´ve got 12 nights in Spain so am planning to head south in a few days to Andalucia (everytime I see the city´s name I think of The Clash´s "Spanish Bombs" song) where The Alhambra is. It´s a "palace and fortress complex" which I think was built by the Moors who I prefer to call The Moops in honour of George Costanza. Should be fun and I should see lots of sun for the next 12 days.

Oh yeah, I was just about to finish this blog entry and then I remembered... About 10 years ago, it was possible to stroll on in to a supermarket, saunter on down the ice-cream aisle and pick up a six-pack. No, I´m not talking beer, I´m talking a six-pack of Mars Bar Icecreams! An actual improvement on the original chocolate bar, they are melt in your mouth gold! But like Holly Valances singing career, they disappeared virtually overnight. Unlike Holly Valances career, I´ve missed Mars Bar Icecreams. But....THEY STILL SELL MARS BAR ICECREAMS IN LONDON!!!! I´ve eaten two now and I tell ya, they are just as good as I remember them!

So if you add up the fact that I ate two Mars Bar Icecreams, was called Guv'nor, managed to spend a fair bit of time with the family and I refreshed my mp3 player with new music, I´d say that easily cancels out the carp weather I´ve seen and has made for a fun time in London.