As I sit writing this, I am in a cosy little Air BnB in Kennington, London. I will aim to blog daily, however that will, of course, depend on my access to wi-fi, charge on my phone, availability of time and, most importantly, exhaustion.
So let’s start with that one. We flew relatively uneventfully from Brisbane to Singapore. Just over 7 hours, no sleep required really, as it’s only a two hour timezone difference and we arrived at 7pm Brisbane time. Managed to watch 2 movies I’ve wanted to see (Incredibles 2 and Solo) and a couple I’ve seen but didn’t mind revisiting (Deadpool 2).
Had a five hour layover waiting for our connecting flight, which gave us time to explore Chiangi airport and try to find these awesome Harry Potter themed areas I’d been given a heads up about. It wasn’t to be, as said HP area in our terminal was a series of cardboard cutouts and exploration of T3 did not result in us finding either Diagonal Alley or Hogsmeade. Our only thoughts were that perhaps it was in the area past immigration, which we couldn’t go through and so maybe missed out on something very cool. Thank goodness we have more HP stuff on the trip!
Got onto our next flight - 14 hours to London and that’s where my troubles began. Struggled to sleep and can only describe what sleep I had as that vague, fugue state where you are kind of asleep but also aware of what is going on around you. I probably got about four hours of that and spent the other time between the bathroom nursing an upset tummy (I should just not eat airline and food) and dozing through movies. I did watch Crazy Rich Asians which was hilarious and revisited Antman and the Wasp, as well as a cool documentary on Duran Duran and a couple of episodes of young Sheldon, so not a complete loss.
Purchased Oyster cards at Heathrow (same as our Go Cards from Translink) and found our way to my current location. Our host was lovely - I fully intended to just bag drop as we didn’t want to inconvenience him, but he took one look at us, showed us around quickly and then ushered us to bed to catch up some sleep. Didn’t take long, and after thinking I’d only need a couple of hours to feel human again, woke up 7 hours later ready for our first international sporting event.
Hayden already has the hang of how the Tube works, thanks to finding our way from Heathrow on the tube, along with making our way to Wembley Stadium to watch the Tottenham Hotspurs take on Southhampton in the Premier League. Tottenham have come good over the last few weeks and they brought it home again tonight with a 3-1 win.
It was a great atmosphere to be in - to hear the fans singing the club song, being part of the chants (come on you hotspurs) and the euphoria when a goal is scored. I’m not a huge fan of the sport but I can certainly recognise the degree of skill to play and it was a much more attacking game compared to the ones I’ve watched back home.
Most interesting is that alcohol is not allowed within the ‘bowl’ - which means if you want to drink you miss the game. It made for a great game where there were no drunken louts and just plenty of faithful supporters watching the team they love.
I also loved taking Hayden on an exploration tonight - getting off the tube at Waterloo station and “getting lost” as we made our way to Westminster Bridge so we could see the Thames at night looking up past the London Eye on one side and down past the Houses of Parliament on the other.
However, hands down my favourite part has been introducing Hayden to the English sausage. Now if you’ve never been to England, you might think you’ve had an English sausage based on what you’ve bought at Coles or Woolies labelled as such. I’m here to tell you that you are kidding yourself if you think there is any comparison. Tonight at the footy we had a Cambridge sausage and onions on a bun with English tomato sauce and Dijon mustard. I watched as Hayden took that first bite and knew that I’d gotten another one hooked on English sausages. He couldn’t believe the flavour and as I ate mine it reminded me of all we are missing in sausages back home.
Anyhoo - back to our apartment where Hayden has easily drifted off to sleep (I don’t think it will be that simple for me) and planning the next three days exploring the sites of London. It’s meant to rain for most of the time we are here but who cares - we are in London. More to come tomorrow when you’ll find out precisely what “planning the next three days” really involves...
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