Christmas and NYE 2007
Well Christmas in London was a restrained and relaxed affair. I left work pretty early on Christmas Eve and had plenty of time to go home and get something to eat before catching the 7:30pm train from Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington. I just had a small bag of my stuff so there was no stress with luggage and it is only a 7 minute walk from the house to the train station.
Everything went smoothly with train running and at Paddington I changed to the Tube to get to Willesden Green where I would be spending the next two days. Christmas Day is the one day of the year where the entire transport system in London stops working completely, not even a train an hour. Fair enough I reckon.
Christmas Day in London was very rainy and dreary. Spent the whole day inside literally and did not go outside at all! We just ate a lot (rum cake, gammon steak, roast lamb, wine, banana cake, lasagna, salads, etc) as most people do. A lot of effort went into the shopping and subsequent cooking and it was very good food, possibly even cuisine. I think it is a lot easier to make those hot dishes in a cold climate. The rest of the time was spent talking, playing board games, X-Box (Lego Star Wars) and watching DVDs and not sleeping much.
On Boxing Day I had a lunch catchup with some other friends in London so Elaine and I left Willesden Green after breakfast. The Tubes were operating again, albeit with a limited service but it was certainly good to have something! We got to Elaine's place where I dumped my stuff and headed out to meet Dave, Cindy, Hong, Jon and Catherine in China Town where I thought the likelihood of finding an open restaurant was greatest. It was good to catch up with them and after that I headed to check out the shops hoping to get some soccer jumpers for my nephews. The other guys decided to shop as well but wanted different things so we split up at this point.
I got my soccer jumpers (Arsenal and England - not cheap!) and caught the train back to Canada Water wanting to take a nap! The trains were pretty packed as they weren't running as frequently and lots of people were out sales shopping! Glad to get home is all I can say!
Dinner that night was with my old housemate Dave Bradford.
I wasn't taking any time off during the period except for the Bank (Public) Holidays so I was catching the 08:30 train from Paddington to Bristol and going straight to work. The trains were all delayed due to a broken down train at Hayes. Ended up leaving an hour later. Then when we got to Reading it just sat there for another 45 mins! It was 2 hrs late by the time I got to Bristol! Sent off a compensation claim to First Great Western for that one! Nothing great about their service!
I spent New Year's Eve in Bristol. My landlord (in her 40s) had a few friends coming from Dartmouth and invited me along onto her barge boat. It was pretty cool actually and I even got to 'drive' the boat around the rivers and canals of Bristol! A bit like being on the Yarra for NYE however I didn't see any fireworks as by that stage we had docked next to an old barge boat that had been converted into a bar. There was a modern Blues band playing on the lower deck so when we did the mid-night countdown I really couldn't see outside though I'm told that Bristol doesn't do much fireworks.
My landlord and her friends dressed up as pirates (people from Dartmouth seem to do things like that) and even I had to don a wig and headscarf. Not sure I'll be posting those photos up! I was pretty tired by 2am so decided to walk home from the barge boat (called the Grain Barge) and that was a lot less stress than trying to find a taxi! It was at most a 15min walk so the exorbitant rent I pay has some advantages!
PS. Istanbul blog entry below recently added as well!
Everything went smoothly with train running and at Paddington I changed to the Tube to get to Willesden Green where I would be spending the next two days. Christmas Day is the one day of the year where the entire transport system in London stops working completely, not even a train an hour. Fair enough I reckon.
Christmas Day in London was very rainy and dreary. Spent the whole day inside literally and did not go outside at all! We just ate a lot (rum cake, gammon steak, roast lamb, wine, banana cake, lasagna, salads, etc) as most people do. A lot of effort went into the shopping and subsequent cooking and it was very good food, possibly even cuisine. I think it is a lot easier to make those hot dishes in a cold climate. The rest of the time was spent talking, playing board games, X-Box (Lego Star Wars) and watching DVDs and not sleeping much.
On Boxing Day I had a lunch catchup with some other friends in London so Elaine and I left Willesden Green after breakfast. The Tubes were operating again, albeit with a limited service but it was certainly good to have something! We got to Elaine's place where I dumped my stuff and headed out to meet Dave, Cindy, Hong, Jon and Catherine in China Town where I thought the likelihood of finding an open restaurant was greatest. It was good to catch up with them and after that I headed to check out the shops hoping to get some soccer jumpers for my nephews. The other guys decided to shop as well but wanted different things so we split up at this point.
I got my soccer jumpers (Arsenal and England - not cheap!) and caught the train back to Canada Water wanting to take a nap! The trains were pretty packed as they weren't running as frequently and lots of people were out sales shopping! Glad to get home is all I can say!
Dinner that night was with my old housemate Dave Bradford.
I wasn't taking any time off during the period except for the Bank (Public) Holidays so I was catching the 08:30 train from Paddington to Bristol and going straight to work. The trains were all delayed due to a broken down train at Hayes. Ended up leaving an hour later. Then when we got to Reading it just sat there for another 45 mins! It was 2 hrs late by the time I got to Bristol! Sent off a compensation claim to First Great Western for that one! Nothing great about their service!
I spent New Year's Eve in Bristol. My landlord (in her 40s) had a few friends coming from Dartmouth and invited me along onto her barge boat. It was pretty cool actually and I even got to 'drive' the boat around the rivers and canals of Bristol! A bit like being on the Yarra for NYE however I didn't see any fireworks as by that stage we had docked next to an old barge boat that had been converted into a bar. There was a modern Blues band playing on the lower deck so when we did the mid-night countdown I really couldn't see outside though I'm told that Bristol doesn't do much fireworks.
My landlord and her friends dressed up as pirates (people from Dartmouth seem to do things like that) and even I had to don a wig and headscarf. Not sure I'll be posting those photos up! I was pretty tired by 2am so decided to walk home from the barge boat (called the Grain Barge) and that was a lot less stress than trying to find a taxi! It was at most a 15min walk so the exorbitant rent I pay has some advantages!
PS. Istanbul blog entry below recently added as well!
posted by boarderbob at
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