london

 This is our last day in London, our plane for Thailand leaves at 10pm tonight. Fortunately we are flying Qantas for the rest of the trip and the inflight movies look very promising for a change. We will be in Thailand for a week before flying back to Auckland.

In Thailand we will be staying on Ko Samui at Le Royal Meridien. Ko Samui is a small resort island off the eastern coast of mainland Thailand and was unaffected by the tsunami of Boxing Day 2004. The resort sounds really great and is something we have been looking forward to during the snow and rain of the last few months. Weather wise it looks like its going to be warm and wet but we are hoping to get a bit of a tan when there is a break in the clouds. The island has a lot of tourist orientated activities such as elephant treks which look like fun.

On Friday there was no rain and temperature wise it was not too cold so we headed into London city for the evening. Initially we went to Leicester Square to see what shows were selling cheap tickets. Unfortunately the shows on offer were nothing too special and the half-price ticket prices were still fairly expensive. Rather than go to an overpriced, unknown production we headed across the Thames to Shakespeares Globe Theatre. It was the opening night of Pericles and there were still some cheap seats (13 each) available. There were plenty of standing tickets available but the thought of standing for almost three hours watching anything (let alone a Shakespeare comedy) was a little hard to stomach. Thankfully we hired a couple of cushions and a rug because in the restored open air theatre it was not too warm and the wooden seats made a British Airways seat look comfortable.

This week has been pretty busy as we get everything checked off our to-do list before heading to Thailand on Sunday. On Wednesday we headed to the Natural History Museum as it had been recommended by lots of people. The building itself is very impressive, it is old but in very good condition with some very nice interior spaces.

Today there was a big Star Wars spectacular at Leicsester Square to celebrate the immanent release of Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith. One of the cinemas was screening all six Star Wars films in a row and ticket prices were reported as high as 250 for the day. As Emma and I were heading into the city to do some shopping we headed along to take a look. After getting off the Underground finding the Square was not hard as all we had to do was follow the kids dressed as Jedi and Storm Troopers.

Of late Emma has been addicted to the Harry Potter website and all of its games. To give her something a little more exciting I dropped by the Apple Store on Friday to see what they had on offer. Fortunately they had the Harry Potter Deluxe Edition on sale (a fancy name for Harry Potter 1 & 2 in the same box). 72 hours after purchasing the games I have struggled to get near the laptop. Emma has been glued to the screen, cursing and bouncing around as she tries to avoid objects on her broom. It looks like I will need another computer in the near future just so I do not have to compete with Harry Potter.

Yesterday was the United Kingdom general election which to us meant an end to the bombardment on TV of political adverts and interviews with unknown MPs from small corners of the country. The weird thing is not many people can be bothered voting (only 50%) which is kind of strange given the situation of the country. The schools and health system are going down the toilet and the armed forces are embroiled in Iraq yet most people could not care less. I have not actually meet anyone who has voted yet which is slightly disappointing. I think a big part of it could be the scheduling of an election on a Thursday but I guess they could not do it on the weekend as that would conflict with the non-stop soccer.

For the last few days Emma and I have spent our time at the flat working. Consequently we were beginning to show the first signs of cabin fever. Our condition was confirmed when I suggested we go feed some squirrels at the nearby park and Emma excitedly agreed. Last week I got into trouble by feeding the squirrels cashew nuts Emma had bought for me (it turned out cashews should only go to Emma and not squirrels). This time round I planned ahead and picked up a bag of peanuts from the supermarket so we headed off with the camera to have some fun.

Hand Feeding the Squirrels at the Park

The nearby park is full of squirrels and pigeons drawn together by the generous humans who pass them by. Thanks to a few visiting dogs it took a little time to find them but once we did it was squirrel heaven. They were not as keen on the peanuts as they were with the cashews but at least with peanuts they do not have to compete with Emma. Some of the fatter squirrels were not afraid of walking right up to you to get a nut whilst the smaller, friskier squirrels preferred to hang back and play catch. Half a bag of nuts later there was some very satisfied squirrels so we headed back home to cook some dinner of our own.

Update:

Sunday was particularly fine and sunny so Emma and I took the Underground out to Archway to undertake a Lonely Planet Walk through Hampstead Heath. Considering it was still Zone 2 the area was very green with relatively old but expensive low density housing and shops throughout. The park itself was very large and had lots of people like ourselves were enjoying the warm afternoon. Spring has arrived in London and all the flowers are blooming which makes for a nice change from the grey/brown tones of winter.

This evening Apple released the latest version of their operating system called Tiger (OS 10.4). The Apple Store in Regent Street had a massive evening devoted to Tiger so we decided to call by to checkout what was going on. I knew there would be thousands of crazed Apple fanatics but Emma held firm on the belief that there was only one and that was me.

The last few days in London have been very fine and quite warm for a change. On Thursday afternoon we headed out to Regent's Park for a walk around it and the London Zoo. All the flowers were in bloom and lots of birds were hanging about so it was very nice.

As reward for visiting the park and smelling flowers we went to the Royal Air Force Museum London the next day. It is quite a way north of London but still on the Northern tube line which made getting there easy. I have spent many years studying aircraft so it was great to finally see many of the planes I had read about in books. Emma on the other hand does not know much at all about aircraft so it was all new to her and quite an experience.