Egham - Ta Daa!

After trying repeatedly to pack our bags which would not close - surprisingly - after all our shopping. Subsequently, we were burdened with 4 extra bags (little bags mind you). We braved the way to the station, the train and the way to the hotel in Egham or rather the pub in Egham - with no lift. Some kind man helped us all the way despite our room being the furthest away! The people are much nicer here than in London and are all smiley and genuine which is a refreshing change. The town here is...small. Our hotel "The Wheatsheaf" is next to Windsor Park which is gorgeous.

Mum and I went out for a walk in it this afternoon and yep the lake in the photo is in fact frozen and that is frost on the ground. This would be the first time I've ever seen a frozen lake so naturally I had to find everything I could to throw on it and try to break the ice with my feet - only near the very edge like I'm going to try to walk on it! It's funny though because as we were walking around the edge there were several lonely soccer balls sitting on the ice tempting passer-bys "come and get me! A free ball! It's not that far out you'll make it and not fall in the water". During our walk there were loads of dogs bounding around their owners. One was very feisty and ran right up to us, lay on the ground, jumped about and ran off again to hear it's owner calling "Truffles! Truffles!". What a great dog name.

There was a random totem pole in the park which became our beacon of hope as we became lost after a while in the frosty mist. It was truly a magnificent park though - tall trees, greenery and animals! Little Robin birds bouncing along the ground, bunnies and squirrels scurrying about. I tried to take a photo of the squirrel I saw but it was too dark and the only thing you see in the photo is the squirrel's eyes which are all lit up - Demon Squirrel! Baaaa!

Anyway the pub we are staying at is really cute. There was no one in there when we got back from our walk (it was full beforehand) so we took a juicy spot by the fire, sinking into a couch (I took a photo) and proceeded to eat and eat and eat - because it was only just 5. I tried goose for the first time and rather enjoyed it. Followed that with a chocolate fudge cake and the evening was complete! Tomorrow we go to the uni to find and settle myself into my new room - Deep breath - here I go!

The End of London (for now)

Today is the last day of Mum and my wandering about this big city. We didn't really know what to do with ourselves as we've covered so much ground - as you've read. So today we eventually crawled from the safety and warmth of our beds and sacraficed ourselves to the cold. So we went to Leicester Square to score some tickets to see "Phantom of the Opera" - success! Yes! Both Mum and I are huge fans of this opera despite seeing it many times. After our successes we wandered about the area and I found the BEST toy shop/ (I know, I'm sorry Hamley's but this was amazing) restaurant. It was the "Rainforest Cafe" and it had stuff everywhere! There were moving animals all over the ceiling, hiding in the various leaves, trees and foliage. Noises of the rainforest, a waterfall and rain that would drip out of the ceiling. I have a photo, you can see, but I couldn't capture the amazing-ness of this place. There was a huge robotic crocodile (Mum said alligator) that moved, blinked and roared in the artifical lake. It was great.

We went and had lunch in Carnaby Street which was bombarded by Christmas decorations. Though they are out a bit late they were impressive. Every couple of metres there was a huge inflatable snow man and snow flakes strung above you. You can see these in the photo.

After that experience we continued around the shops for hours (tee hee) until it was time for the Phantom! Typically they used those terrible theatre pop guns at various points which make me jump out of my seat everytime. Sigh. They did it in Les Mis as well so I spend my time in London theatres looking very absorbed in the drama as I have my hands up around my face to stifle the sound and shock of those stupid props! It was really good - it always is and the theatre (Her Majesty's) was beautiful. The show and everything was a present for Mum - birthday present! Ha she didn't want anyone to know.

Tomorrow we're off to Egham and I suppose the REAL Egham Chronicles can begin!

I Saw Dead People

Today was a dead-filled day! After setting out at midday (yeah midday, we were tired and putting on all our winter woolies is such a chore - plus if you look at the headline I have attached in the photo - it's really cold! And snowing in some parts! Argh!) we went to Westminster Abbey.

An amazing place which I have been to before which has a whole lot of royalty and famous people jammed into the one spot. It's funny because there seems to be no room left in the church at all. Some of the many marble carved plaques are hidden behind stacks of chairs. There are monuments and tombstones on the walls and even the floor so there are some very worn ones which you can't even read anymore. The whole place seems to have been built with the best intentions but after some very elaborate tombs with full figured effigies, canopies and fences are built there is very little room for anyone else! Obviously, the builders were like - "Yeah we'll go all out with Elizabeth I, Mary I, Mary Queen of scots and so on" and then when more kings and queens died they were like "oh crap where can we put them now?? Quick in the floor - on the wall - anywhere!". There are queens mixed in with Dukes and families mixed with randoms and yes - it's a shambles. Though there was one corner which made sense, the poet's corner, which had plaques commemorating great authors. Most of the authors I mentioned which I had seen portraits of were commemorated here. The grave, however, of Chaucer was there and had been there since the 1400s! Such history... it boggles the mind. Oh also in the Abbey were the two skeletons of the little Princes that were murdered at the Tower of London (which I also mentioned earlier). They were placed in "innocent's corner" which had an effigy of a baby! The infant mortality rate was huge and very sad.

Anyhoo-hoo we toddled out of there and waited around to go to our Jack the Ripper tour. Keeping in mind it was extremely cold being outdoors for 2 hours at 7 at night! So before we went Mum and I rugged up like bag ladies and didn't feel the cold immediately which was lucky. So the tour was very interesting - gruesome - but the woman who took it was very knowledgable and had photos of the victims (erk) and of the what the streets, which were in, looked like in the 19th century. Jack the Ripper really went to town on his last victim - I have to share because it was so awful - so scroll down if you don't want to read this. His last victim Mary Kelly was 25 (much younger than the others who were over 40) and when her body was found she was unrecognisable. Her face had been cut away and only her eyes remained, starring, in her head. Her ex-lover could only tell it was her because of her eyes and hair. She had been sliced in a straight line up the middle and had her breasts cut off, kidney removed, intestines draped over her shoulder, womb cut out, skin cut off and all these various bits of flesh were in piles around the room. Grisly stuff. Jack actually sent a letter to the head of police with a small box which contained - da dum - half of a kidney. The other half, he wrote in the letter, he had eaten. All of these details we were being told and some car drove by and the occupant lent out and the window and went "AHHHHHHH!" and scared the whole group! We all jumped and the tour guide said "yeah they do that almost every night - I'm use to it".

All in all it was very interesting - cold - at least we weren't snowed on like some parts of the country. Brrr more updates on my travels and the weather!

Chillin' at her Maj's crib

That's right folks today I went to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. After waiting around for an hour and a half as the helpful website timetable was wrong - the guards turned up. Unfortunately, so did about a thousand other people. Wiggling our way through various people who had climbed up on things and one another we found a spot next to the fence and several crying children. It was quite funny because this one child did not stop crying the entire time and was having a major tantrum and could not be consoled by either parent. After it kicked and screamed about being put in its pram or held - it found itself on the ground. What an awful child.

Anyway back to the whole shebang. What an affair! They do this everyday?? There is an army truck, police officers on horses, more police officers on foot, police cars as well as the guards themselves! Ridiculous. So the whole process started with two gangs of the fuzzy hatted ones trooping in - one playing instruments and the others just marching about. Various members of the latter group were yelling and blowing whistles which must have made sense to someone I would hope. Inside the gates the must have marched about or got naked - I'm not sure there were too many people in the way but they all seemed very focused so who knows? I could feel the cold seeping through my skin so we gave up after I got a shot of the fuzzy men and me in front of the golden deluxe gates. Mum and I were joking that during the entire process the Queen was indoors scratching herself and wondering why there's so much racket downstairs.

After braving the cold - did I mention that today the weather forecast was -7? MINUS SEVEN. I wouldn't disagree because it was darn cold. After the Palatical ridiculous we went to see "The Lion King" which was quite good. Though on arrival we discovered some woman who had the same seat number as us and a whole debacle arose. Turns out our seats were fine but we don't know what happened to her - ah well. So yeah the show was pretty good. It was the Disney story of the Lion King but with various puppets and appendages that attached to the actors which were quite effective. Of course most of the audience knew the story but that didn't stop one little girl announcing after a gripping part of the story "Um that wasn't actually a surprise". The man sitting next to me smelt like tobacco, a second-hand store and moth balls. So all my senses were awakened during the show!

Headless fun at the Tower of London

Good day dear friends. Today I went for a visit to the Tower of London which, as I recently discovered, was not just a place of torture and execution. Well that turned many readers away but regardless for I have learned many things! Ha Ha! (More readers are closing the window) Now today I learnt that Anne Boleyn requested a sword to decapitate her instead of a common axe and that there was a woman who refused to kneel at all for her execution and was chased around the square. It only took 22 strikes to get her head off and she was 67! What a lovely town. Lady Jane Grey (I learnt) was buried in the last Tudor chapel and ruled for only 9 days and was beheaded by raging Mary I fans at the old age of...17. Oh another story! Richard III wanted to be put on the throne but two little boys of 12 and 9 stood in his way. They were invited to the tower, mysteriously disappeared and Richard became king - suspicious? Well 191 years later when the White House (which is the building you can just see behind me in the photo) was being rebuilt and as a wall was chipped away two little skeletons fell out fitting the description of these little princes. Grim times I must say.

Oh wait I haven't written about the torture department yet despite the many signs saying that it didn't happen under English law and when it did it RARELY happened. Anyway one of these rare occassions could include "the scavenger's daughter" which was the opposite to the rack where the unfortunate individual is forced to crouch as if in the smallest position you could get into and then they forced a steel band around you, locked it and left you there for hours. It usually took one hour for the people to crack because it was quoted as worse than the rack (which tears you apart). Fun fun! In one of the prisoner chambers there was graffiti on the walls, chipped out by various prisoners over the years. Graffiti which dated back 400 years!! It's so spooky walking up and down tiny staircases (the people must have been tiny back then) that people hundreds of years earlier did. History is amazing.

We also saw the crown jewels which were massive. Most of the crowns weighed more than 2kg and one king was quoted whinging about how hard it was to wear for 3 hours. Anyway they also had this amazing collection of gold crockery and dining equipment for royal feasts and what not and there was this huge punch bowl. It was completely made of gold and accomodated 144 bottles of wine - now that's one goon party!

Later that day we went to visit The Globe - Shakespeare's Globe. I have attached a photo of inside the theatre and it was freaky seeing the place which my drama lectures have focused on for so long. Haunting really. The whole theatre was a perfect replica of the original - it was made entirely of wood, wood pegs holding it together and a thatched roof! The only thatched roof in London since the 1600s. I'm looking foward to going back and seeing a performance.

Well that about wraps up my day - oh no wait - on the way home someone had pooped in the tube! Have a good evening!

Portobello Road Baby

Another market! It was inevitable. They're great. Today was the Portobello Road market which was an eccletic market consisting of clothes (old and new), shoes, antiques, jewellery and fresh fruit and bread. It was a lovely road with houses on either side which were painted all different colours (which you can sort of see in the photo). Each little terrace would have their section either yellow, blue, green, pink, white or grey. It's funny because a lot of other areas in London must look the same (they regulate it) so there are only white houses with either blue or black doors. Another thing that's regulated here is EVERYTHING. No matter where you go there are signs saying "CCTV in progress for your safety" which are security cameras. How are they for our safety? Just because there are cameras doesn't mean people won't act up. Oh well. Anyway this morning there was a whole hour of sunshine and blue sky! It really illumintated the colours of the market and I should have taken a photograph then. Oh well.

So anyway this market stretched all the way down the very long road and the stalls were spilling out of actual shops and little stands were set up for the market. You would think all the merchandise and people on the road would prevent cars driving up the street wouldn't you? Well no. At this market you have to be constantly alert that you won't be run down by an impatient motorist (one which was playing terrible 80s music loudly). Imagine being run down and forced to listen to "You spin me right round" as you were slowly crushed by the vehicle. Grim but there you go.

The only problem with the market was the lack of toilets. London has these strange public toilets which self-clean themselves after each person. Clean but it takes eons waiting in the cold. There were some foreign non-english speaking girls who were in the queue behind me and must of been really busting because they rushed in directly after I had exited and started mashing the "close door" button. Oh how I would have laughed if it had closed and self-cleaned them! Ba ha ha listening to them squealing as jets of water and air blasted their toilet time. Tee hee hee.

After the market we caught the tube to Oxford Street because there was an item I just HAD to go back for and it was chaos! People everywhere. I guess it was late night friday shopping? Anyway it was just awful. People here go quite mad as they squish into one another and knock everything of the shelves in the stores onto the floor which slowly becomes crushed into a pulp of varying colour and texture. Delicious shopping experience. Anyway dinner calls and tomorrow we are seeing "The Lion King" Hooray! More updates then, I'm Phoebe and thank you for reading.

New Year's Day

Happy New Year! One and all! Despite me starting the new year at least 12 hours later than any Australian readers - happy belated 2009!

I did not make it to midnight. I am ashamed but once again THE JET JAG - Also I finished watching "Chocolat" and was ready to drift into dreamland thinking of Johnny Depp.

Today we went to the British Museum. Getting all of our gear on we trooped our way out there to discover that the unimaginable had happened - it was closed. No wonder there were so many grumpy faces turning away from the gates. Darn this public holiday business. So we turned our grumpy faces away and said "Poo" to the gallery and instead ventured to the National Portrait Gallery which was very full - I think of people who were getting out of the cold and for a free exhibit (sound familiar? Hmmm).

The National Portrait Gallery is AMAZING. There are literally portraits of every monarch, blue blood, artist, writer, playwright, theorist, feminist and politician! After all my english studies I could finally put a face to the many names of authors I had studied: George Eliot, Virginia Woolf, Johnathon Swift, Mary Shelly, Bryon, Keats, Mary Woolstencraft, Shakespeare, the Bronte sisters, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jane Austen and many many more! I've forgotten right now but I was surprised at how many I knew... I suppose I do learn stuff at uni! Oh anyone who has studied drama with me will remember being told about Nell Gywn - Charles I (?) favourite actress and then mistress - saw her portrait! Very beautiful and started out as an orange seller.

The interesting thing about the Shakespeare portrait was that it was the only one in existence thought to have been painted from still life! He had an earring and everything. The painting of the Bronte sisters was intriguing as it was actually found years after their deaths rolled up on top of a cupboard in their house. It was a little worn and there is a figure painted out of the picture which was thought to be their brother Branwell who was... not the nicest family figure - very educational. Of course there were paintings of Henry VIII and all his wives, Mary Queen of Scots, Elizabeth I, Mary I and so on and so forth. Walking through the gallery and reading about the lives of these individuals the women were given such a rough life. I read several notes on various women some who had had ten children, others with ten and only 4 or so surviving and others having eighteen miscarriages! The torment these women had to suffer all because of their sex!

After the gallery we managed to squeeze in and see "Les Miserables" which was very good and is the longest running show in London - 24 years! Not surprising because the actors knew what they were doing and it was very stirring and the Queen's Theatre is beautiful - the only photo I took today (not that I was actually allowed to but when I asked the usher said I shouldn't but it's okay, winking at me).