Grange St Pauls Hotel London

... on my way back to hotel. Saw the Aussie Memorial for war times. At night i headed out to a pub just up the road in Paddington. Not a bad place, but was starting to get super tired after a couple of pints and British lasagne. Headed back and crashed about 10:30pm. So proud of myself being able to foot it around London having had bugger all sleep and running pretty much on the excitement of wanting to see something London-ish.

... that I wish to take you.

Enjoy an early evening chat with Jose and Maria on their doorstep, join the group of older ladies dressed in black talking about their sex life (what else did you think they were talking about? Surely the squeals of delight/disgust/amusement/disappointmen t must have forewarned you?). Maria in Almayate once told me she’d had ten children because she liked a bit of ‘jiggy, jiggy’ (all accompanied by suitable ...

... steps and the grassland
disappeared beneath a dense spread of shrubs, all of which had given
bloom to these stunning bright yellow flowers. I continued on and the
concrete stairs disappeared to be replaced with nothing but a rocky
dirt path. I must have been about half way up the mountain.

The
yellow shrubs started thinning out just as the dirt path started
disappearing. The path ended as did the shrubs and I was suddenly faced
with a steep ...

... that took us right back to the Mediterranean coast (where are you Bayram?); Dan, better known as the road manager of the Indian dance sensation, Chocolate Thunder. I partied on Friday with Dan and his two Aussie friends who just relocated to London, Dave and Janine. They spent the better part of July touring (on cycles) along with the Tour de France. Dave is a maniac, an asmathic, he hauled it up Alpe Huez in 90 minutes (Lance did it in ...

... see: furniture making? Etc. and.... um... This is such a ****** blog for somewhere that I liked so much... OH. I saw the new musical from the creators of Les Mis - Marguerite. It was good and the actors were wonderful. But really, it takes some really bad musical theatre to disappoint me. And I had some great seats! Always a plus. There were some moments were you could really feel the Les Mis influence... Which made me want ...

... ourselves a spot by the fence with a good view of the courtyard. It was 10:05am at this point and we were beginning to question our wisdom in arriving so early, the commentator on the bus had suggested we should arrive at about 11:10am. We started to look around to see if there was anywhere we could buy a hot drink or something but the lady who lives in the big house obviously does not like shopkeepers and will not allow them to set up anywhere near her home. We ...

... added a laser light at 0°, which looked fantastic as it got dark, pointing into the distance. Got the last ferry back to Westminster, and the bus back to the hotel. Spent the evening finding a Monopoly streets on the London map.

Saturday London

Went straight to St Paul's to see if we could get in. Only bought a bus ticket since it was much cheaper than a combined bus/train ticket. Toured the cathedral, and walked up the 400 stairs to the ...

... watch the football of course so that 's what we did. Steve had to watch his beloved Liverpool play Portsmouth. Dimo gave me a buzz and came to meet us at Limehouse and have a couple of pints. It was really cool and strange to see another familiar face on the other side of the world. (Even if they were all poking muck at my hat which was covering an abysmal hair do due to lack of straightening irons!) Then ...

... and travel around a bit). Then for the last month I will be on a medical placement in paediatric hospitals and clinics in and around La Paz. I have been told to bring scrubs, gloves, caps and stethescope so it really does sound like I will be able to get involved and will be learning a lot! Anyhow, not sure when my first update from Bolivia will be but keep checking my travelogue!

... those picture books, you know (especially since we were not allowed to use cameras inside).

We had to catch the blue line to get back to the hotel so we transferred busses at Hyde Park. On our way back, a dome was pointed out in the distance and we were told that it is Westminster Cathedral, the most important Catholic Church in all of England. Almost a whole week in London and this is the first time anyone pointed it out to us! I wish we would have found it sooner so that we ...