London

So after the Monkey and Mace left town I was left to my own devices to explore this amazing city on my own- I still didn't have my Ipod- Fucking Kapitan Kloss hadn't sent it over yet (more on this later) so sometimes I was a little bored. But overall I have to say I like London. I have often times described Melbourne as having a feeling of its own, whilst Sydney is more just Mega Brisbane (i.e. feels the same but with more people), well fortunatly for a home town boy like myself, London is most like Mega Sydney. Brisbane has a few old buildings and a bit of history, Sydney has more, and London has a lot. That's the real difference.

I've seen all sorts of things, every now and then having a real Wow moment as I see something that is truely amazing (the Rosetta Stone at the Mueseum, The Albert Hall, the tomb of the unkown solder at Westminster) but my absolute favorite was when I stumbled across the London School of Economics, I had taken a wrong turn down Kingsway and ended up near Australia House and the Strand, I found a random alleyway that looked a lot like a typical shopping street off Regent street so I went down, the buidlings were old (like the rest of town) but something seemed familiar about the place, as I went into a building I realised what it was, it felt like home.

Dav Ross back your bags I am working on our enrollments for the Michealmas Semester next October- We can be home by June.

My other favorite place has been St Pauls Cathedral- its a massive old school building a bit away from the rest of the middle of town. You can climb up to the coupala (?) at the top of the dome which gives a magnificent veiw of the city- its over 500 steps, but well worth it.
I'm told, the day I did it was the first day of the cursed christmas fog (more on that later) so my view was fairly limited. Still it was a nice building inside.

I like the Churches here because they tend to include Military monuments- and the best thing about English History is that it fairly closely matches Australian History. So everywhere you go their is mention of our boys at Gallalipoli or the Light Horse which makes me happy.

The only other story I care to share of pre Christmas London has to do with the amazing third day of the Perth Test (or was it the second ?) Jo Knorks and I woke early on a Saturday morning (4:30 am) and jumped a bus for the centre of town. The only place showing the Ashes live all day is a sports bar of Picadilly so that was our destination. We arrived at 6 just after lunch and settled in to watch. I was excited cause I thought Haydos would be near his ton by now, unfortunatly we arrived just after he had thrown it all away for 92. But that was all right we got to see Hussey then Clarke get their tons.

(NOTE: As I am writing this I am sitting up at 5:30 am, I have been up all night, I have finally worked out how to stream the cricket live on the web to the Pickle and have watched the amazing Aussies kick some arse- as we talk Warne ahs just got Mahmood with a flipper- All Right)

Anyways, it was a lot of fun, their were a bunch of poms (very drunk) singing all sorts of barmy army songs and having a great time. That was until Gilly got off the mark, for ten balls they were being very loud and obnoxious, then for the next 46 odd balls they looked on in amazement as Gilly did what only he can (or perhaps Viv Richards...). It was amazing, possibly the only time in my life I will ever watch a game from six am till 10:30 am, and for something as excellent as Gilly's innings to happen will make it all the more memorable.

Joe Knorks has just suggested that the most remarkable thing about the experience was having a Sambucca shot at nine in the morning, brought for us by a Scottish friend we had made, who enjoyed sticking it up his English brothers all most as much as we did.

Anyways, that just about wraps up London, some cool old buildings and history, some fairly bland areas, lots of drinking, many, many Aussies, and lots of cricket. Good Times.