Believe it or not, the last thing on Lauren’s “to-do” list for London was to visit Ripley’s. Though I’ve never had a desire to go there myself, I’d be lying if I said that I’d never been a little bit curious. And, as Kristy so rightly pointed out, this may have been my only opportunity ever to go along with someone that actually wanted to be there. As such, I seized the moment, and tagged along.

(Un)fortunately(?) for you, I didn’t have lovely camera with me, and although I did have little camera, I had it on all of the wrong settings. So, we came away with barely any photos to show for ourselves – this rather grainy shot of me sitting in a unbelievably large rocking chair is about the best that you can hope for here.

The highlight of the visit – for me at least – was the gigantic mirror maze. We should have packed a meal before entering, because we got lost so many times inside that we almost had to camp overnight. Had we have had to turn to cannibalism to survive, I reckon I could have overpowered Lauren and at least had me some tea. Then again, she’s small and nimble, and being a university student, she’s probably quite crafty too; I’ve no doubt she has some tricks up her sleeve. Not that it mattered in the end, as we eventually found the exit; though it was only after we were foiled at least five times by re-finding the entrance – including once using my “guaranteed, fail-safe way of navigating out of a maze” (i.e. keep your right hand on the wall). Maybe it’s the left hand that’s guaranteed…

There was also one of those suspension-bridge-through-a-tunnel-surrounded-by-spinning-lights jobbies for the punters’ pleasure. Oh my goodness, it was so disorienting! I couldn’t believe how off balance it made us! It was only about five metres long, but that was more than enough – I was happy to emerge from the other side (albeit feeling a little sea-sick!).

I had expected that there’d be more displays that erred on the “not” end of the “believe it or not” scale – like more optical illusions, and things of that nature. But overall, the walk through was very entertaining, and there were a number of exhibits that extracted an “oohhhh!!” type of reaction from me. But, at the rather outlandish price of £20 to go in, it’s probably not something that I’d recommend to anyone who didn’t have it on their “to-do” list to begin with.

One of the things that Weezy insisted Lauren try while she was here is the very English dish of a baked potato. Yes, we have them in Australia, and yes, you can get them pretty much anywhere in the world. But, do they look like this?

(Yeah, they probably do, don’t they?)

Oh my, that was one filling meal, and I didn’t even get through it all. At least I ate all of the side-salad, which Weezy and Lauren both just ignored! Still, you can’t blame them; look how shocked Lauren was at the prospect of eating so many carbs!

Mmm…. beans….

Coincidentally, my first week off work overlapped with cousin Lauren’s second week of her visit to London! And so, we arranged to meet up on Wednesday and Thursday in order to tour around London together.

It wasn’t the greatest weather on Wednesday – cold, and light rain – but that’s almost every day at the moment! We met up at Harrods, and then headed out to Canary Wharf, where we had lunch with Nick, Fitim, and Andrew. Lauren was particularly impressed with Fitim’s Russain Albanian accent, even though I’m sure she had no idea what he was saying most of the time.

Next we headed over to Greenwich, and the origin of time itself – the Greenwich Conservatory. I figured that being there on a week day it would be empty, but unfortunately it was packed with school kids! We still managed to find a quiet corner to get some photos of the view, looking back over the Maritime Museum, and back towards Canary Wharf.

By this point the weather had turned truly awful, so we rounded off the day in Covent Garden, where I took Lauren to my favourite coffee shop, and then to my favourite pub. We split a bottle of Bulmers, and then one of Magners, and we both agreed that Bulmers tastes better.

We met up outside St Paul’s cathedral on Thursday morning, and walked across the Millennium Bridge to Tate Modern. The current exhibit is a giant shipping container (note its size compared to the people on the left), completely closed in at one end, with a ramp leading up and inside at the other end. The further you go inside, the darker it gets, to the point where you can’t see anything. Thankfully, the wall at the end is padded, so you don’t get a headache when you inevitably run straight into it.

We also did a tour of the Globe Theatre, which Lauren was disappointed to find out wasn’t the original Globe Theatre, but instead, the third globe theatre, built in the style of the original, as a tribute to Shakespeare. One of the schemes that they came up with in order to raise funds for construction was to engrave some of the pavers outside the theaters with the names of big contributors.

Apparently, John Cleese paid for both his and Michael Palin’s pavers, on the condition that Michael Palin’s name was spelt incorrectly. However, as it turned out, Michael Palin didn’t care – he ended up with a bigger paver, and he didn’t have to pay anything for it! Joke’s on you, Cleese!

After an extremely filling lunch at Tortilla, we did a quick lap around Borough Market, where I did the Durham-like duty of introducing Lauren to coffee! She managed to down her single-shot-latte, commenting that it “wasn’t terrible”. A few more shots of espresso before she leaves and we’ll have another addict!

Being a medical student, Lauren was very keen to see the Old Operating Theatre Museum; however since we were their only customers, I suspect they were more keen to see us! I tell ya, things were brutal back in the olden days – imagine having your tonsils removed by this, without anaesthetic!

Ouch!

The final outing for the day was a trip to The London Dungeons. I honestly had no idea what to expect from this, and was quite surprised at how scary it actually is! Most of the time it’s extremely dark, and there’s lots of creepy noises and things brushing past your face, to keep you guessing what’s coming next. I wasn’t sorry to walk into the gift shop at the end of our tour!

It was great checking out London with a newbie, as it’s always so refreshing to see things from a new perspective. Lauren’s in town until Wednesday so hopefully we’ll have a chance to see a few more sites this week before she jets back to Australia!

Check out more photos from our travels in the Touring with Lauren album.

And in true London fashion, the weather here has turned decidedly Londony – overcast skies, and always with the threat of rain but not usually carrying through. Such a shame, since last week it was so beautiful and blue! Oh, and to top things off, I’ve come down with the worst cold I’ve had for years. What a sucker-punch!

Still, can’t let a little gray sky and sickness get in the way of a good time! And if visitors from Australia isn’t a good enough excuse to go to Borough Market, then surely being low on coffee is! By the time we got out there it was coming up to lunch time, so the market was its usual heaving mass of clueless dweebs.

We picked up what we needed to, as well as a spot of food to keep us going. I opted for the roast pork on a baguette, and – needless to say – absolutely smothered it in apple sauce. This must have amused a number of patrons, as I saw a few people look at my food and then laugh, but none more so than the guy who Jason overhead saying, “heh, that guy over there’s gotta sandwich covered in glue!”. It helps if you imagine him as Cletus.

Climbing up the Monument is apparently the thing to do when you’re flatmates are away so we dutifully complied. It’s 311 spiral steps of towering goodness that affords you some decent views over ye old London town. Standing at 202 feet tall, it was built as a memorial to the Great Fire of London which, ironically, started exactly 202 feet west of the monument – even more ironically, at a bakery on “Pudding lane”!

Monumental!

We had enough energy for one more destination, so we headed to Covent Garden. Jason had a spot of shopping to do, plus it’s always worth a visit to The Porterhouse for a spot of ale. Clumsy Joe on the table next to us almost soaked me with his beer, but my swift reflexes saw me dodge the fallout faster than Neo dodges bullets.

We went home via Leicester square and Chinatown, where we grabbed some wantons to make wonton soup for dinner. Mmmm…. little balls of miscellaneous meat in pastry….

So what’s been happening in London since we got back? Well, a heap of things actually, far too many to count!

Continue reading →

We hired a car for the weekend so we could take Jason and Louise to the Cotswolds – specifically, we wanted to go back to Bourton on the Water, so they could have a play in the hedge maze there. They too figured out where the golden dragonfly was, but like us, their time fell slightly outside the “genius” 20 minute mark.

Of course, the real reason to go back to the Cotswolds is the clotted cream. Oh man, that stuff is the goods. I even managed to control myself long enough to get a photo of it this time. Warning: if you’re feeling snackish, this will be enough to top you over the edge!

We meandered around a number of the other towns to pass our afternoon, eventually settling in for a very late lunch in The Swan hotel in Broadway. It was delightful! Jason reckons they served one of the best burgers that he has ever eaten!

We were a bit undecided on where Sunday’s destination should be, but eventually we agreed on Stonehenge. I was a little in two minds about this one, as I’d heard many people give it very average reviews, with comments such as, “it’s a lot smaller than I thought it would be”. However, when I drove over the final hill and saw the rather famous stones in a field in front of me, I was absolutely blown away! I thought it was amazing!

I must have taken about 200 photos of the stones, from just about every possible angle. I really, really loved it. So much so, that Kristy and I even joined up to the heritage/historic/whatever it is society (bonus: free entry to over 400 sites in England!). 15 months for the price of 12! And I really don’t know why people had said it was “smaller than they had thought”; not only does each stone way up to 45 tonnes, but look how huge they are compared to the people next to them!

The only “bad” thing about stonehenge was the fools who decided the rope barrier didn’t apply to them, and hence felt no shame in jumping over it to take some photos a bit closer to the “action”.

Well, as a member of the society whose name I can’t remember, I was offended! So I pulled out my extra loud whistle – the one I usually save for encores at concerts – and let rip at them, followed closely by me yelling, “get out of there!”. The fools had a bit of a panic – which no doubt came from the sudden realisation that there was about 1,200 people who had noticed they had jumped the barrier – and scurried back behind the rope. Not before they polished off their photo-shoot though! Still, I feel I did my part to help preserve the site; I was just disappointed that security didn’t hear my whistle, and come running up with their batons.

As mentioned previously, our last visitors at E 52nd Street are John and Kirsty, who have trekked here all the way from London for a four-day weekend. Truth be told, we had never met J&K before they got here, but since they were friends of Ben and Michelle we figured they’d probably be fairly safe! Plus, we’ll be holidaying with them (amongst others) in February and March this year – but that’s a story for another time.

Anyway, one of their self proclaimed goals for this trip is to eat pretty much anything they can get their hands on. Wifey and I figure that the USA has two cuisines in particular that may be tricky to get in London – BBQ, and Mexican. So last night, along with Karl, we trolleyed up to Dallas BBQ to grab some ginormous portions of ribs, chicken, steak and wings. We’d never eaten there before, but reviews all raved about portion size, so we figured it was probably on the right track.

Turns out they’re also known for their “Texas sized” frozen drinks – and who are we to turn down the house special? Kirstin bravely headed up to the bar to order something for us all, and I stood behind her for translation support. First order was a peach margarita for Kristy. The bar girl said to Kirstin, “salt?”, and I quickly realised it was lucky I was there too, because Kirstin replied with, “Texas size for all, please”.

Anyway, the rest of the drinks went smoothly, as did our meals. Portion sizes certainly didn’t disappoint, yet we all managed to get through almost everything. Probably not a very friendly place for the vegetarians out there, but if you’ve got a meat craving then it’s not a bad place to stop. Prices are very reasonable (especially when J&K sneakily conspire to distract us while they fix up the bill! Thanks guys!), and I’d be shocked if anyone ever left hungry.

I think we can successfully cross BBQ off John and Kirsty’s list. I also think I’ll be at the gym for three hours today burning off the excess calories!

Something strange is going on in New York (well a lot of the USA in fact) – it’s freaky hot. It’s supposed to be the dead of winter, but yesterday and the day before, we had temperatures around 20°C! It’s very strange seeing people out on the street wearing shorts and t-shirts!

To make the most of the splendid weather, and as a farewell to Caroline whose last full day it was in New York, we headed over to Bizarro World – or more accurately, the West Side – and up to a little diner called Eatery. We’ve read countless reviews of this place, and we’ve seen it on programs that talk about the trendy places to eat in New York, so we figured it would probably be a bit of alright.

Turns out that for the most part, it was a bit of alright. The food was reasonably priced with a brunch main hitting the wallet at around 13 bucks, and for that you get a decent serving of whatever it is that you ordered. The menu itself was just about the right size – not so huge that it’s overwhelming, yet extensive enough that even the biggest whingers should be satisfied.

It seems the meal of choice for our table was the buttermilk pancakes (three of), with rum caramelised pears, plus bananas and strawberries and maple syrup. Kristy, Karl, and Casper all ordered that and seemed satisfied with their choices. Just to be different, I hit our waitress up for their variation of eggs benedict called “E-Benne”. Instead of being served on an English Muffin, it came on a Maine crab cake, which was then stacked on top of a vegetable potato cake.

On the downside, the bread was pretty festy – quite hard and almost stale tasting, actually – but I don’t know if was just a strange variety of bread or if I just scored the dodgy bits of the loaf. Worse than the bread was their “latte” – it tasted more like they’d thrown instant coffee into an espresso machine, then topped it off with super bubbly milk. Yukko!

But on the upside, everything else was tasty as. Karl and Casper both polished off their plates in record time, so I guess the pancakes were pretty decent. Kristy and I both said that Eatery is a place that we’d happily eat at again, but we wouldn’t feel disappointed if we didn’t. gerrod.com rating: 6.5/10.

Karl and Caroline have arrived to wreak havoc on the USA. More specifically, Karl will be starting work with me next week, so he’ll also be wreaking havoc in our otherwise quiet department. Let’s see what trouble he can get himself up to!

Pat is also in town for a couple of weeks holiday over Christmas and New Years, so yesterday we all got together for a catch-up. After some well earned coffee (well earned because we managed to drag ourselves out of bed), Karl and Caroline hit the Red Bus Tour; Pat and I worked up an appetite by checking to make sure the XBox was still working, and Kristy exercised her eyes reading Angels and Demons.

After about an hour, the XBox showed no signs of packing it in, so we gave it our nod of approval and headed out for some lunch at Chipotle. Pat tells us that Mexican in the UK is sub-par so it’s probably for the best that he “stocks up” while he’s in the States!

We decided to take advantage of the niceish weather by taking a walk through the city. We made it to Columbus Circle (south-west corner of Central Park) and headed inside to look at the goodies at Williams Sonoma – as well as warm our freezing cold ears and faces!

Our walk home took us through Central Park which is looking rather bleak with all the bare trees. Still, it was nice to be outdoors in the fresh air – though I think we were all thankful to enjoy a good sit when we finally made it home.

Dodgy Jo told us about two months ago that she was coming for a visit. What she failed to mention was that she’d also be leaving us again! We thought she was here for good!

But alas, she’s done a runner, leaving us miserable in her wake. Kristy even tried chasing her all the way to the airport to try and change her mind and get her to stay, but her mission was unsuccessful. Jo is now winging her way back to the land of tikka masala and garlic naans, after a brief stopover for some vodka and matryoshka dolls.

Overall, we think that Jo (aka “Shabbadu” or “Rogan Jo”) had a good holiday in New York; we certainly loved having her around. We just wish she didn’t have to leave! Dodgy Jo!