Thinking that it’d be warm in London, I packed lotsa short-sleeved T-shirts and sunblock. Needless to say, the sunblock never left my bag.
Well, I’m back. Back at work. A little groggy, but manageable.
In the span of the 3 days (yes, believe it) I was there, I managed to make somewhat full use of my visit. As soon as the plane touched down, we ran off to check into our (me sibs and dad and meself) hotel and immediately took the tube to Picadilly Circus. The kids wanted to go see the Imaginator, only to find that it wasn’t there. Wait a sec, it says 1998 on our travel brochure! Damned travel agent.
One night somewhat wasted, we decided to make full use of the following days. All of us woke up rather early ’bout 5am but stayed in bed till about 7 since most of the attractions only open at 10. Spent the whole morning at the Natural History Museum, since Khairil’s into that kind of stuff. In the afternoon, after lunch, we went to Madam Tussaud’s. The theme at the time was something like an awards ceremony.. and.. uh.. dancing divas. They had Kylie Minogue, Beyonce and Britney in.. interesting poses. Didn’t manage to take pics with em, as they had this dance thing going on stage and I wasn’t so keen on being a… dancing diva. 😛
The London Planetarium which was pretty much the same building as Tussaud’s was closed. Boo. So then you’d have found us at the London Eye. The view wasn’t bad, but the only notable thing was Big Ben, which was just across the Thames. Crossed over to the other side to get a closer look at the clock tower. After that we went home and ended up sleeping. So much for the evening’s plans.
The next day brought us to the Tower Bridge, which is basically… a bridge.. with towers. Looks nice. Before that we actually went to the London Dungeon first, since it was right next to London Bridge Station. To put it simply, it was a very pricey haunted house. With a brief look at London’s dark history. Crossed over the Tower Bridge and went to see the Tower of London, where the Crown Jewels were held, as well as the largest diamond in the world, supposedly. We also saw their history in terms of armoury and weapons and architecture. Etc. etc. You know. 🙂 Some of the more notable exhibitions were the Prisoners at the Tower and Torture at the Tower. And the Yeomen were nice, in a sense where their guided tours gave us an excellent insight on what happened there. No, not because they were macho men or had tight buns.
It was still rather early, so we took a break and headed to the hotel for a short rest. Later in the evening we got ourselves to New Oxford St to see the largest cult entertainment store in the world.. the Forbidden Planet. Which was closed. Took at stroll along Oxford St to find that most shops were closed. It sucked. I was so sure I could bring home a new DECT phone. 😛 At least BORDERS was open, from which I purchased a copy of Grim Tuesday. Fancy that, having to go all the way for a book I missed. Drowned Wednesday didn’t seem to be out yet.
Went back to Picadilly to try out some of the simulators we discovered on the first night. Bumpy.
The next day I found myself back at Heathrow. A final check on my finances showed I’ve spent 250 ringgit on souvenirs alone. Not enough to cover the entire office either. Oh well.
And I hate parents who can’t control their kids. Especially in economy class. Even more if they’re sitting behind you.
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