Exodus 2010

Last time I wrote one of these I was in Dublin. I think it was January 2008, two and a half years ago. This time I've just left Dublin on the train to Galway. I'm only doing it because there's nothing decent left to watch on my laptop and I forgot to bring a book.

Anyway, I suppose I should start at the start. The flight stopped in Singapore on the way over and I'd already exchanged all my Aussieland fun-bucks for pounds, so I had to pay for my beer with a fiver. The nice man gave me change in the form of a two Singapore dollar note. I still have it in my wallet. It occurs to me that it's not actually going to be enough to buy another beer on the return leg, whenever that may be.

I sat next to a lady from the Australian Women's Wheelchair Basketball team on the way over. Her name was Liesel I think. They were on their way to the world championships in Birmingham. I told them her I'd watch it on BBC 3 but I was in Turkey while it was on so I didn't. Sorry Liesel. So even in economy class there's a chance you'll sit next to some national sporting types on a QANTAS plane. Yay. Oh and A380s are awesome. You get laptop power even in economy and there's a camera on the tail so you can watch them land. I heard an Englishman whinging about the landing at Heathrow and quietly wondered how well he would do trying to land a small office block on a road without spilling everybody's tea. I suspect quite badly.

Upon landing in Heathrow I instantly felt at home. I think it was the long queue for immigration. Then I had to catch 3 trains and a bus to get back to Justin and Meri's in Herne Hill, which I did in record time despite some unexpected and unexplained tube stoppages along the way. You know you're a Londoner when the train slows down before Brixton and you think "wait a second it hasn't been long enough since Stockwell, we'll be sitting here a while".

Anyway Meri was home that day because an electrician came around to mend some lights. She had to stick around and couldn't go to the pub so I wandered up to Sainsbury's and got us some Pimm's and associated materials. When I came home I complained that the Sainsbury's in East Dulwich no longer has Tim Tams. At this point the electrician piped up and said "Meredith, I think I have to tell you my secret". Needless to say we tabled our Pimm's and awaited keenly. He did not disappoint. Turns out he used to be an actor living in Sydney, and he was the original Tim Tam genie. Sadly, though, he could not furnish us with Tim Tams any more than East Dulwich Sainsbury's, so we had to be content with our Pimm's and strawberries and brie.

I realise I've written nearly a page and I've only made it to the end of the first day, but it's a long way to Galway. :P

Now, I worked in Covent Garden for over a year. It's about 3 blocks away from the British Museum, but I only went once and it was near closing time so we only got to spend about 45 minutes there. I had one day in London to spare before Heather and I jetted off to Turkey, so I thought I'd start nice and early and get a full day of wanderin' in. It's amazing. If you haven't, see it. I particularly liked the clock room. There's this one clock with a ball bearing that keeps hopeless time but is totally cool. There are mummies and Rosetta Stones and all that too that you can see if you must.

My feet started to hurt after about 2 hours so I had to quit. I got myself a haircut, 'cos I needed one, and the extremely gay man that cut my hair also elected to trim my eyebrows. Nobody's ever done that before. I also bought some Doc Marten's to replace the ones I got just before I left, and had a sandwich at Earl's, which is the sandwich shop I used to go to when I worked in Covent Garden. I was disappointed though, because the soup of the day was Tomato, which is pretty much the only one I never liked.

That night I met up with Heather and Steve in King's Cross (or Islington, or wherever). They helped me remember how much better Czech beer is than anything we have in Australia. Honestly, I'd gone off beer a bit in Aus, but I could drink Budwar all day. (I'll be sinking a fair amount of Guinness in Galway tonight too!)

The next day I met up with Heather and did a bit of shopping, and then we went off to the airport and the real holiday started.