Roll on Winter

Shit, its cold.

I mean, we are in for trouble. I can just feel it. The other morning when I woke up, got dressed to a Dire Straits number and eventually stepped out the door, I had no idea the snap that would hit me. It was like being smacked in the face. With a frozen chihuahua.
A balmy 0 degrees Celsius (that's 'zero').

Yes, there was frost.

Kew Gardens, about 15 km north of where I live recorded the lowest temperature for London that day getting down to -2.5 degrees Celsius.
........... And we are only in October!!!!

The weather seems to have affected the tubes already with serious problems attacking the underground. One line had to close down during service and people had to leave the train in the deep murky depths of the tunnel and walk for around 15mins to get to an exit. It is utterly ridiculous. I am not looking forward to the break downs that I have been told happen so regularly in the winter. It already takes me the good part of an hour to get to work!
The other day was chaos, as usual, and my train decided it didn't want to go to the station I needed to get to. I decided to hop on another line, thinking I was clever, and I turned the corner to find that there are also a heck of a lot of other 'clever' people in London. The place was packed. I spent half an hour wondering what train I should get on before I noticed that my original train was free again.
I jumped on it, amazed that I got a seat and it wasn't until a couple of stops down the way that I realised I was heading out to Heathrow airport, the exact opposite direction to work.
' Shit' I said, and I had to 'Terminator Run' it to get to another train. (You know the scene)

Bloody tubes.
It took an hour and a half that day to get to the glorious bright lights of work.

Oh, that's another thing. It is dark too. really dark. I leave for work in darkness. I come home in darkness. And its still daylight savings at the moment....!.....

Despite the cold and chaos, London life hasn't changed much. I'm still going to work, still inching closer and closer to the final payment on my student loan (might have a celebratory Guinness once that beast has been tamed), and still keeping an eye out for new travel destinations to head to. The opportunities really are endless. There is just too much to see in this world.

Last weekend, I went to a casino near Piccadilly Circus on the Friday after work. I didn't do too badly, up 60 pound at one stage, before inevitably losing it all on some stupid hands. How can that dealer consistently hit 21??? I night bused it home by myself at around 4am and had to wake up at 8am to head to a travel show. My head did not like that decision. Still, the travel show was fun. We caught up with Ryan and Jo there, and they broke the news to us that they are calling it a day with London and heading back to the land of the long white cloud. I was disappointed, but stoked that they figured out what they were doing. Here's hoping they find what they are looking for in Tauranga.

I have just now got back from a spot of shopping at Camden and Westfield. It was good stuff. Just being out there you can see that London is gearing up for winter events, which should subdue the miserable effect that the cold will bring on. We are looking to have a Halloween party (it is huge over here), followed by a Guy Fawkes Bonfire night located just down the road at Wimbledon Park. They do it proper here, with massive bonfires, fairground stalls, rides, and, of course, huge fireworks displays. It should be a little ripper.

Christmas time is seeing the introduction of heaps of temporary ice skating rinks, most of them located in some pretty picturesque spots; namely Hyde Park, the National History Museum, and directly under the London Eye. I am keen to get on the ice and see if I can snap both ankles at once this time. They also deck the city out with fairy lights and all that crap to add to the nostalgia. Snow is expected mere weeks from now and the whole city is meant to transform into a winter wonderland. So, I guess it cant be all that bad, can it?

Iceland is still all go in around three weeks from now. That is meant to be colder than here, so I might have to get some thermals for it.

Still, should be good.

Sveden Yar?

Work was very hard to get back into after returning from a mere week away in Scotland. But I managed.

The following Saturday, Renee and I went out to the theatre to watch the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.
And what a little beauty it was. The costumes, the performances. Sensational stuff. I can see why people take out second mortgages on homes to buy tickets to see these plays. The guy sounded exactly like Frankie Valli and all the songs they played were bang on.
So - there is a 'highly recommended' from yours truly.

We had a few drinks during the show and headed out to farewell Tara, a Contiki friend, who had unfortunately decided that another unbearable winter in the UK was not for her. It was a shame to see her go, so we all went out to a really cool blues / jazz bar and boogied on down. My dance moves consisted of a rotation of the left foot using my big toe as a pivot, hip swinging to coincide and a rocking motion of my arms, in finger clicking position.
"It was a teenage wedding and the old folks wished them well......"

The big finale of the night came when, on the night bus ride home (biggest pain in the ass ever, btw), I saw four foxes roaming the streets! I had seen two on the bus ride itself (outside the bus - not just chilling in a window seat) and then I said to Renee
"Whats the bet there is a fox down this sidestreet", as we walked on home from the bus stop.
"You little Anzac!!!" Sure enough, there was.
Then just as we were walking into the flat another burst out behind the garbage cans and ran across the street. That rounded out the Quad-fecta.

Last Friday, I took work off an hour early and made my way to Gatwick Airport for a weekend in Sweden that we had booked. It almost didn't happen mind you. With my trigger happy fingers I had mistakenly booked our return flight home a week later than what it should have been.
"Damn it" I said out loud in a less PC way, and I instantly started looking for an alternative one way flight back from Sweden to replace that initial one. The numbers rang true to me.
"180 POUNDS!!!! EACH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I couldn't believe the price of it (or the amount of exclamation points it took to describe the situation).
This discovery had essentially made the flight not worth all the effort. However, my eagle eye was at work and I managed to find a return flight a few days later for fairly cheap so I grabbed it. All up the flights were around NZ$100 return. Which still isn't bad.

So, we were all set to meet up with my mate Richie in Sweden. The tubes were chaos and trying to find Renee posed a mission. We got to the airport in time to see our flight had been delayed.
This spelt problem, with a p-r-o-b-l-e-m. Richie was meeting us at the other end. With the delayed flight it meant he had to meet us at the central station at 2am, which he did hang around for.
What a trooper. We couldn't thank him enough. Lucky we had purchased some duty free alcohol to make amends. On the tube ride to his place, this guy asked where I was from, and in a proud voice I said "New Zealand". He then went off his (drugged up) rocker and started calling us racists.
"Be careful round here" he warned, "People don't like you guys because you are all racists, all you Australians are"
Richie puffed out his chest and stepped up to the plate "Yeah, but he said he was from NEW ZEALAND. Its a different country. Its like saying Sweden and Norway are the same country"
This didn't phase the guy.
"It doesn't matter" he said "Same thing. You're all racists"

"What the hell was that all about" I asked as the guy gingerly made his way off the train.
Richie shrugged.

The Saturday was spent hurriedly making our way around Stockholm in blur to see everything and still have a good time. Which, with our well travelled expertise, was easily done. First off, Richie sent us to a mysterious museum that was meant to be a little pearler.
"Whats in it man?" I quizzed.
"I don't want to ruin it for you"
"OK" I though and I balked at the price of entry.
'Better be one hell of a ............ thing' I thought with a puzzled yet intrigued look on my face.
We got up to the ticket counter and were about to pay when I got a tap on my shoulder and there was a couple with two free tickets to give us.
"Ohhhhh chur bro" I said in a heavy kiwi accent and they giggled.

To be fair to Richie, the museum was a little ripper. The mystery of it..... should I tell you ........ OK, I will. It was a 400 year old pirate ship they had recently drawn up from the murky depths of the ocean. And what a ship it was. The timber had been heavily water beaten and gave the entire ship a ghost like appearance. And it was HUGE. Around 80 metres long maybe, and just as high. The whole museum was about the life and death of this vessel. Check it out in my photos if you wish. It was hard to get proper photos without the use of a tripod so I tried to make some of the photos resemble the ghost ship that it is.







This set our spirits in good steed. We met Richie afterwards, in the centre of Stockholm, for a bite to eat and then he took us on a walking tour of the city. Stockholm is what is known as an archipelago, which is essentially a city built around a whole plethora of small islands.







We strolled from island to island, before we got the need for a drink and we decided to head up to a bar in one of the highest spots in the city for a quick beer. The only beer they serve in Stockholm is Carlsberg, and I tell you, it is shithouse. It was lucky the place had good views, I can tell you that much.



That night, we went to the supermarket and put together a whole antipasto platter of Swedish foods, one of the main delicacies being a shrimp coleslaw. Oh yes, they are heavily into their seafood over there. We made our way through the bottle of vodka and a bottle of Jagermeister that night and slept (coma'd) at around 2am.
Just joking Mum, I didn't coma.

The next day we were due to leave early afternoon so we had another stroll through the city and finished the trip off with a burger from the Swedish McDonalds, known as MAX. It was pretty good stuff.

Two things I noticed from Sweden, and I will impart my new found wisdom onto you; it is bloody expensive and it is bloody cold. We had great weather, but being in my usual state of dangerously unprepared (Bear Grylls - have I shamed thee???), I was shivering, even though I had a SINGLET on, under my top, of course. Im not a bogan.
If it weren't for Richie our trip would have been all the more expensive, so a big ups to him for putting us up. It is always good to go to a foreign land and know someone.

Iceland in 5 weeks. Till then.