Our tour of London in Pictures

Sep 27, 2007 by Justin Wayne

27/9/07
jwa

Bollocks! It’s almost October already! I don’t believe it! (Bollocks = balls for those of you, like me, who had no idea.)

Time sure flies when you’re having fun – or looking for jobs. *Sigh* Does anyone know anybody who would give me some money for doing work around here? Or sponsor my work permit?

Sorry about that, desperation rears its ugly head once again. And I’ve got pictures to share. Here’s one to get us started:

Apparantly, I got too crazy with the camera one evening, and Jamie got a bit frustrated with me. Ah, the joys of living with… nevermind.

Anyway, you most likely wanted to see some pictures of London, and since I’m still typing on the right-side of this photo (and sitting in the exact spot in the living room as Jamie was in the picture, weird!) I’ll talk more about it. That metal thing on the wall is a water pumped radiator, and in these old Victorian House flats, I guess they’re pretty common.

Whew! I should start making the pictures a bit smaller. But… so I tagged along with Jamie on Monday and got in on a free tour of London courtesy of the Royal Veterinary College. As far as I’m concerned, that’s the least they can do for us poor, non-school-affiliated partners of students. Gosh, we should make a club: NSAPOS or even better NSAPRVC (non-school-affiliated-partners-of-the Royal-Veterinary-College). They only thing I’VE learned so far is how to spell Veterinary. Got that down.

So, tour… right… Here’s my first picture.

This is Jamie standing on Oxford Street, very close to Oxford Circus. These “circus” places including Oxford and Piccadilly Circus don’t have anything to do with animals. I was sad, but Jamie explained to me that it’s just where a bunch of streets run into each other, probably the reason they began building roundabouts in different parts of the city. Lots of people and lots of buses and cars. I had a great shot and then in the time between me pushing the button on the camera and it ACTUALLY taking the picture, this strange dood wandered into the shot. There is a traditional red bus behind him, however, and those things are EVERYWHERE.

So, looks like about time for another picture, eh?

Here’s a random street in London that I just took because it was a pretty shot. I actually took about eighty pictures on this outing and sadly ran out of batteries about half-way through. I missed cool places like the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, the HMS… whatever, and other cool things that we passed after I took too many pictures of… random roads. That’s what happens when things are new, you just keep taking picture after picture… *sigh* It is a pretty picture, though, don’t you think? Gosh, I wonder if my mom is still reading my blog. She was the one that wanted to see pictures…

AH! Didn’t have too much to say about that picture that was relevant, sorry about that. Did you know that London is one of the only big cities in the world to be above the 50th parallel? And, because of the gulf stream – water flowing from the Gulf of Mexico – we stay very warm even throughout the winter. Here’s another picture:

This is something I was talking about in an older episode of the show, which was the London Eye. Commissioned primarily by British Airways, this is the largest ferris wheel in the world, placed here in 2000 to commemorate the new millennium. There’s also a walking bridge that crosses the Thames that I spoke about as well, called the Millennium Bridge that was made about the same time. We have still yet to take a ride, but it sounds like Jamie’s mom is ready to go (we’re both afraid of heights) so when she’s here we’ll all be going for a ride. Each car, I guess holds up to 24 people and a ride takes about 45 minutes. I hope I don’t freak out and puke. So, I’ve got two more photos for you to check out, and I guess I’ll have to go on my rant about the British vs. Irish next time – I’ve got some job applications to finish.

These photos are both from Trafalgar Square, one of the most famous places in London as it’s just up the street from Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey (I guess I’ll throw in a token Big Ben – Westminster photo at the end) and just down the street form Oxford and Piccadilly Circus. This first one is Trafalgar – a British general who lead forces against Napoleon and others – facing south still looking for enemies coming up the street from the Thames. What a bad ass. If that dood had a good high-powered rifle, you wouldn’t want to come up that street wearing French colors, (I mean colours) now would you? I spoke of this square in a previous episode too, and it was something that both Jamie and I thought we knew about and then were totally surprised when we arrived that we did, in fact, have notions about it, but were completely surprised when we stumbled upon it.

This next picture is also of Trafalgar Square, but you can see one of the fountains there stained greenish-brown, demonstrating all
the lime that’s in the water here. Also, that cool building in the back-left spanning most of the picture is the National Gallery filled with many works of art and those types of things that you’d most likely find in a museum. We didn’t get to check that out yet, but we’ve seen it a few times now and feel like we can lie and say we have. So yeah, it’s a museum filled with different artifacts and portraits… oh wait, isn’t there another museum filled with portraits somewhere near here? *pause* What I DO know about this square is that it’s the virtual center point of London, where all distances are measured to and from. Kinda cool, I thought.

Well, I’m tired of talking about pictures, so I’ll include one of the Old Bailey – the High Court of Britain, and one of Big Ben and Westminster. Once again, I appreciate all your support and good thoughts, and I’ll tell you immediately when I get a job because I’ll be, most likely, really excited.

Next time: my thoughts on the British vs. Ireland rivalry. Language-style.

Cheers!

~Justin

Old Bailey – London High Court