Well, I'm ticking things off MY London tourist list for this visit. Having been here before I have only a few iconic places left to visit.
1. Portabello Road.
I've heard about the AMAZING antiques and retro bric-a-brac (yes, I do use that word) for sale along this road so it was definitely on my to-do list for this visit. Yesterday morning I took the UNDERGROUND (I'm in London, you know) to Notting Hill Gate (oh, yes, I know the lingo) and started walking down the hill that is Portabello Road.
What was I looking for? Onion vases. I thought, SURELY! With all the stuff here, I'd have to find one... or two, then work out how to get them home.
So many shops. So much crap. But I persisted. I looked here...
I looked there...
I scoured the area and in the end found a very promising shop, but no onions. So I left empty handed and a little disappointed that this stretch of shops didn't live up to the hype.
I've moved on, I've got over it.
2. Cambridge.
SO NOT UNE, ARMIDALE, NSW, AUSTRALIA. Oh, so not. When we visited today I felt like I should be reading a text book or discussing quantum physics, or something. Instead I was piggy-backing heavy 3 year olds and trying to teach 5 year olds how to ride a bike with hand breaks, unsuccessfully. (That sentence could be a blog post in itself... or two, it was a long day.) But a great day. Cambridge is AMAZING. Like 550 years old!!! And, we're hoping it has a few more years in it as Rod and I will be back WITHOUT CHILDREN bless their cotton socks *cough, sneeze, eye roll*.
I don't know if we had the equal of Isaac Newton or Lord Byron roaming the halls of Austin College in Armidale. Actually, I know that we didn't, certainly not. Lord Byron did, however, find a loop hole in the rules and had a live bear in his room for a few weeks until the rules were rewritten. That actually sounds like a few people I knew at uni.
550 years of tradition is HUGE.
The river punting might have been a good idea in that body of water behind Robb College in Armidale (don't remember what that lake (?) was called... OR how to balance a chemical equation).
Speaking of that river, there was an incident in the River Cam while we sat beside. Traumatic for some. Traumatic for Rod. The grass beside the river is on a steep(ish) bank. This is where we sat and watched the boats. Until we heard a SPLASH. Rod's camera bag. Luckily he had his camera around his neck but his bag still held a lens (worth more than you can imagine). I was ready for him to jump in and save it until a passing punter used their oar, stick thing to push it back towards the bank BEFORE THE WHOLE BAG SANK!!!!
Check out the face...
Not happy, Jan. Are you kidding me? Camera bag! Floating down the Cam! What? Did that just happen?
We're drying it out on the heater as I write. The bag that is, the lens is unscathed, thankfully. And we can laugh about it now, the polite two hour buffer has passed and we can remove our hands from our mouths as we giggle. Kind of. V funny now that all is ok, still a mountain to get over for Rod.
*giggle*
