London, and A Weekend With Jess and Andrew.

After my last blog I did indeed have a walk through Kensington Gardens and walked to Kensington Palace for a look. I didn´t actually go inside the palace, but wandered around the perimeter. It had just been the ten year anniversary of Princess Diana´s death, and there were lots of tributes on the front gates, although I have heard that there is usually a small bunch of tributes there all year round. I also had my afternoon tea at Laduree which I said that I was going to have, and walked through Harrods again. This time it wasn´t so crowded as there was no sale on.

On the Friday, I went to Westminster Abbey, and this time went inside and had a look around. It is quite an interesting church to look through, as besides the religious symbols and artefacts, there is also a spot called Poets Corner, where there are memorials to some famous artists, singers, actors, and authors, and some of them are buried there. Also, there are memorials to some scientists such as Charles Darwin and Isaac Newton (I made sure that I looked at Newton´s as it had been in The Da Vinci Code!). As the church where nearly every king and queen of England has been coronated, the Coronation Chair is also there on display.
That afternoon I headed to Jess and Andrew´s place, and of course, made it there a bit later than planned due to train delays and cancellations on the underground.

Jess and Andrew´s new house is set in a lovely new area called Fairfield Hall. Actually, it´s quite an old area, and an old building, but the houses are all new. Basically, Jess and Andrew are living in a mental assylum. The old hospital is heritage listed and it has all been refitted and refurbished (the inside of it) and Jess and Andrew own one of these houses. It is about twice the size of the place that they were living in before (this time I had my own bedroom to sleep in!), and a really nice home.
On the Friday night, Helen and Dan (Jess and Andrew´s friends that I met the last time I stayed with them) came over for dinner. That night I kicked Jess and Andrew out of their bed and they had to sleep on the blow up mattress in their room!

The next day, we spent the morning at Jess and Andrew´s as they were having their new bed delivered which we had to wait for, and also, Andrew needed to do some "manly" things around the house with his power tools and spirit level. He ended up putting up a coat rack (there you go Andrew, it´s now in black and white for the whole world to see: Andrew Johnstone owns some power tools, and isn´t afraid to use them!).
That night we watched Ghost Busters, as I mentioned that I´d never seen it before and Andrew bought it from Sainsbury´s for two pounds and promised that it had the Phil Collins song in it that the gorilla in the Cadbury´s add plays the drums to. He built up the moment for me and Jess, saying that it was the best part of the film and that we would love it. It wasn´t in the film. We were very disappointed. Andrew said maybe it was in Ghost Busters 2.

On Sunday we drove to Cambridge which is about a 45 minute drive from Jess and Andrew´s house. There we decided that we would take a tour down the river on one of the punting boats. The three of us squeezed into the seat at the front, then waited there, cramped for half an hour, before the tour started! While we were waiting another guy went passed, punting with his trousers around his ankles and a can of larger in one hand! He was yelling out that he was looking for some people to take on a tour. A few minutes later, he passed with his trousers back up and four women in his boat!

The tour (once it finally started) went down the Cam River, passed many of the famous colleges of Cambridge such as Trinity and King´s College. Our guide told us several anecdotes along the way, and about some of the famous people who had been to the colleges. There were lots of punters on the river that day. It was fairly obvious the people who were trying it out for the first time. Andrew was willing them all to fall into the water, but nobody did. After our tour, we went to an Italian Restaurant for some lunch, then headed back to Jess and Andrew´s house, where I picked up my bag and then headed to the train station.

This was a Busker that we saw while we were walking down a street in Cambridge. He was really quite good!

That night I had to pick up my keys for my accommodation for the job that I was starting the next day. The job was in Richmond, my accommodation was in Raynes Park, and I had to pick up my keys from Wimbledon. That probably won´t mean anything to those of you who haven´t been to London, but basically it meant having to travel an hour between picking up the keys and getting to my accomodation (walking, train, then another walk), and an hour and a half to get to work every day (walk, train, bus, walk- although on the way home being as it was dark I would go walk, bus, train, bus, shorter walk). So even though I didn´t mind the work at the clinic, I wouldn´t work there again as I couldn´t stand commuting three hours a day! Although the nurses gave me flowers and chocolates and a card the day I left even though I´d only worked there one week!

On the Saturday after I finished work, I got up bright and early in order to wash my sheets, pack my bag, drop my keys off, and make it to Gatwick Airport with plenty of time to check in and get on the plane to Cologne, Germany.