BIG Day… after breakfast and the initial ‘orientation’ tour at 9:15 was over at 11, I joined up with the same group as yesterday (Margaret, Jo, Jodie, Mark and Richard).

Went to the Louvre initially.

Saw a bunch of sculptures (great), and paintings (ho-hum compared to the national collection in london), saw the obvious tourist-y things like the mona lisa (I dont see what all the fuss is about, tbh… It’s rather drab). Overall definitely worth seeing though.

For lunch we went to the latin quarter.
The street we walked down were lined with small restaurants, each having a maitre’d (i think) trying to convince you to go inside. Think Kings Cross’s stripclub fronts, and you’e got the general idea… Except add about 10 or so languages to the mix, the most likely being tried on you in turn.

Our waiter was great, very friendly, helping us learn a little french. Good food too, and reasonable prices (10 euros for a 3 course meal)

After lunch, headed off to Notre Dame Cathederal (it’d started raining by this time) and queued to go up the top… Climbing it is slightly better than st p_____ in london. Also walked around inside the actual cathedral too, amazing stained glass windows and other architecture.

Tried getting into the museum D’Orsay, but it was already shut (5:30pm, even though our info said open until 6pm). Took a train up to the Arc De Triumph, saw an accident on the round about around it.

Speaking of that roundabout, it’s a complete free-for-all… And legally you’re not insured while you’re on it. Theres an accident every 8 mins on average… Anyone stupid enough to try walking across the roundabout will most assureadly be eligible for a darwin award.

Finally, we went to a Caberat show at Nouvellex Eve (near the Moulin Rouge, cheaper too)

The there was a female acrobat doing all sorts of amazing things on a trapeize bar… Eg hanging by the back of her neck, and holding on with one hand to a rope and being spun around very fast.

The other between dance performances were great too— one guy who go an audience member involved to help with a few balancing tricks…

Anyway, yet more photos. I swear I have atleast 4GB of photos to upload.

Early morning, all day driving to Interlaken, Switzerland.

Bonjour from Paris,
Had a late night on thursday… Blame Ian, Luke Smolenski, and Andrew Verral… All ex-Telstra guys. Good night though, even if I didn’t get to sleep ’till about 1am.

Getting up at 5:23 (should have been *gone* by 5:30) wasn’t fun. Managed to make my way to the meeting point near hyde park well before the specified meeting time though…
The eurostar is… Okay, less legroom than an aircraft… And for the slightly claustrophobic, the total time in the tunnel is less than 30mins… They hit speeds something like 150 mph (rough estimate … We were whipping past cars and trucks doing 70-80mph on the freeway.)

The group I’m with seems to be a fairly good bunch… 46 people total, about 20 are aussies, about the same kiwis, the rest are (iirc) from various parts of the UK. Decent age range too — 20’s to late 30’s is the vast bulk.

Also, Kumuka mix up the tour groups… Some of us on the 10 day tour, some 18, some 24ish, and even a few doing the full 44 day trip.

After arriving at the hotel, A group of us went off to the Eiffle Tower, and went up it… before going off to a group dinner, and cruise. Plenty of photos, but wont be online ’till sometime later.

Aurevouir

Not much to report for the last few days.

Tuesday night/wednesday morning we went out around Westminster and all sorts of other parts of London, taking a bunch of photos. Everything between Westminster Abbey, Big Ben (well, the tower it´s in anyway), and Millenium Bridge. Got back around 2am Wednesday Morning.

Re-Packed my bags again, leaving out a few tech bits which I havn´t used — a few KG less to carry. I´ll pick them back up when I come back.

Thanks to everyone for the emails, SMSs and comments on the blog.

I did try calling a bunch of people today (Thursday, around 5PM Sydney Time) but noone was answering, oh well. If people are looking at their CallerIDs and seeing ¨Unknown Number¨ then that could be me (since CallerID isn´t presente d for most international calls).
Also, please don´t call me on my mobile unless it´s urgent — it costs me a packet to recieve calls on it while overseas (Yes, I pay when you call me). SMS is OK though.

From now, until I get back to Ians (Early June) - posting on the blog will probably be limited and spotty, depending upon availability of internet access at hotels/hostels.

Anyway, gotta go - going out tonight.

Scoped out the early morning bus situation to get me to the tour starting point early Friday morning. Looks like I’ll have to be out of here not long after 5:30am to make sure I have plenty of time to get to the meeting point.

Visited the National Collection on tuesday. The first painting I saw upon wandering in was “Sunflowers” by Picasso. However, the most memorable for me would have to be “The execution of Lady Jane Grey” by Paul Delarouche.

It is a little morbid, but still it captures the scene wonderfully.

“Lady Jane Grrey reigned as Queen for nine days Im 1553 until deposed by supporters of Catholic Queen Mary.
She was beheaded at Tower Hill early the following year, aged 17″

One of the good things about London is that most of the galleries and museums are free for the general exhibitions, donations are strongly encouraged though.

Further wandering laneded me in Covent Gardens. For any fan of “Spooks”, this is home to the masonic hall that plays home to the fictitious MI5 HQ.
Didn’t have my camera with me, but I’ll definitely be heading back again.

What’s news in Oz?
It’s great not hearing about what “mullet mouth” (thanks Robyn for that one) is doing every day.

Stonehenge is “pretty boring, actually… I mean it’s just a pile of old rocks”, as I overheard one person saying.

Really, it’s not that much… A small gift shop, cafe/food stand, and that’s about it — oh, and Stone Henge itself.
But a big song and dance wouldn’t exactly be appropriate, in my opinion.

This is one heck of an impressive structure, considering it was built well before most modern civilizations were around.

The tour group we (me and Ian) were with ended up leaving two “saffas” (South Africans - in the same vein as Aussies/Kiwis) there, because they hadn’t turned up 10+ mins after we were supposed to have left (we did have 1hr to walk around)

Afterward we went on to wander around at Devisers. Found a castle that the TM didn’t know about… but it was on private property.

Finally we spent a few hours at Averbury, walking around the standing stones there.

Took a bunch of photos, and the weather managed to hold off for the most part.
I’ll put them up sometime soon.

RE the email situation, it looks like people arent getting them properly, and/or can’t respond. So… I won’t be emailing people directly from my pda (which is where I do most of my posting from.).

Also, Since it takes a while to tap out these posts on my pda, it might be a little while between posts (2-3 days maybe), depending on what else is happening.

Best Wishes to everyone.

Don’t let anyone tell you climbing St Paul’s Cathedral is easy. Getting to the “whispering gallery” is… Not too bad, but getting any further requires a lot of effort, and some of the stairwells are *tiny*… (as in duck-down and turn partly sideways kinda tiny…. Even for shorter people)

There’s a faily strict “no photography” rule throughout, and outside it was pretty miserable weather (first rainy day since I’ve been here), so no photos to speak of.

Had lunch in an english pub too, which was good — The Wellington, fwiw.

Oh, and went to the movies later that night, Ice Age 2… Quite funny, I really don’t know why Margeret & David (of At the movies, ex-The Movie Show) didn’t like it.

(posted 2 days after)

Spent most of the day wandering around Hyde park today. Great weather, so everyone (or atleast the brits) was getting their kit off all over the place.

The park is pretty damn big, but it obviously needs to be.

Ian took me and two of his friends (Gabby & Amy) to “Symphonic Rock” by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra… Great show, all sorts of rock/pop sos from Coldplay’s “Fix you ” to The Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations”, and a few beetles songs I cant remember the names to.
Unfortunately towards the end I was getting a bit tired and had to really concentrate to not fall asleep.

BTW, incase you did’nt know: The hall is *huge*… you definitely don’t get the correct impression when you watch it on tv.

(Posted the day after)

Spent today learning my way around the tube. Its easy enough to get around if you´ve got a tube map (which I do, thanks to Ian) - and know that not all the trains that turn up at a tube station are necessarily London Underground services.

I caught a tube from Tottenham Court to Kew Gardens (more on this in a moment), on the way back I caught what I thought was the right train (it turned up at the station … there was only one line that I could see, it should be right, right?) — which ended up being a ¨Silverlink¨ service which didn´t actually go where I thought it should´ve.

Anyway, after a few panicked moments (looking at the big posters about 100 Pound fines), I found another common station, and got my way back easily enough.

Kew Gardens is big, I didn´t get to spent a lot of time there — about 2-3 hours, but I did manage to see a decent portion of the gardens.

On that note - I have some photos online, both of Kew Gardens and some photos I took in Singapore.

Apologies in advance for the photos not being rotated correctly — the software I´d normally use isn´t available to me here (I´m using Ian´s mac)

The Main gallery — contains links to all the sub-galleries, and some miscelanious photos.

Singapore — contains photos from around Singapore, and from the Orchid Gardens.

The Main gallery — contains photos from around Kew Gardens.

–
Oh, and for anyone who has too much money, and loves gadgetry… Tottenham Court Road is heaven. There´s a huge number of electronics shops… Oh for a few thousand to go blow on some camera gear… mmm Canon L-Series lenses.

The flight in was good, sat next to a nice older couple from WA (Bunbury). The upgrade to aisle was excellent.

Now sitting here in Ian´s place (Update your blog already), watching TV after eating dinner.

Not quite sure what I´m doing tomorrow, wandering around hyde park/tottenham court, etc.

It´s now about 10PM, so probably off to bed…

It’s now 4:45 am, and I’m getting ready to head out to the airport in about 40 mins.

13-16 hr flight ahead, hopefully i’ll get an aisle seat this time.

The music on the hotel tv screen is good to wake up to…

Artist : Motorcycle
Title : As the Rush Comes

Trance/dance-ish music.
Anyhow, ciao from Singapore.

Updated @6:25AM (Singapore/Perth Time - GMT+8):
Got driven to Singapore Airport in a nice Mercedes, but damn I’m here early.

Currently sitting here in an Internet Cafe, at 6:25, but the flight isn’t due out till 9:30, so don’t know what gate I’m supposed to go to. Got a window seat again, unfortunately - damnit.

“Sorry sir, the flight is very full - will a window seat be OK?”

Damnit, there’s gotta be a trick to this.

Atleast I managed to transfer some of my camera gear to my backpack - bringing it up to ~19.8KG, and dropping my carry on weight by half.

updated @ 08:16am (Singapore Time, GMT+8)
Singapore Airlines rocks (yeah, I’m cheap)… got transferred to an aisle seat, which has made me very happy…

BTW: Non, sorry about getting cut off… not sure what went wrong.

Anyway, got the wireless working at the airport (obviously), so will be online for a little longer.

….
in other news, that ‘where the bloody hell are you’ ad is getting played a lot here in the airport. Alongside a malaysian ‘true culture’ (something like that) one…