On Monday I met my friend Tal from Israel, who was staying with me for a few days. She was staying for a week in London (with me for 4 days) before going back to start studying political science at Jerusalem university (probably once of the best locations to study political science).
After eating my sandwich lunch we then took the bus to visit Harrods again.
Now I wasn't with my cousin I felt this was a great opportunity to be a slightly uncivilised consumer. What I mean here is that even though I couldn't possibly afford anything in Harrods, that wasn't going to stop me from trying everything I could on. I got this relatively childish idea from my schoolboy days, more specifically from one of my year 8 (Age 12) religious education lessons.
We had a guest speaker come in to talk about the difference between ethics, law and morality. I remember little about why they needed to bring someone in considering our R.E teacher was called Mr Priestman (I kid you not), however, what I do remember is that he told us this: "technically it's not illegal to go into Sainsburys, fill a trolley with shopping, and then just walk out". I don't think he really judged the maturity level of his audience because a few months later during the summer holidays a few of my friends did exactly that, filling a shopping trolley right to the brim and leaving it in one of the aisles. Unfortunately for them, except one of the four boys who had slipped out the back, the other three were caught, and when the school found out, were internally suspended.
So basically I had to hone my acting skills and pretend like I wanted, and had the financial capabilities, to buy the designer £20,000 watches and £2000 suits from Harrods, without losing credibility. In fairness the suits were pretty easy to try without attention, however the watch provided a bit more trouble. Considering most things in the jewellery section are in glass cabinets I had to go to the effort of asking for them to be removed and then enquiring for me to try them on. However, after trying on three watches littered with diamonds I finally deciding that I wanted to try at the Rolex store in Oxford street myself. I would of felt bad if it wasnt for the fact the salesman there look like they get very little interest throughout the day, despite Harrods having a reasonable collection of watches for only a few hundred pounds too. Anyway, Tal went along to the toy and chocolate section before departing with me to further explore the Kensington and Chelsea area.
Kensington Palace,
Hyde park,
Buckingham Palace,
St James Park
and the houses of Parliament where we just missed out on getting in.
It can be quite a fun experience (one I have done a few times as a tourist and twice as a guest of the house). For more information consult http://www.parliament.uk/visiting/visiting-and-tours/ukvisitors/. We then went home and I cooked macaroni cheese, we ate half of what I made so I could finish the rest tomorrow.
Spent £316.99
Tuesday: Work and play
Tuesday I had to do a site visit of where were holding the Volunteers Conference. I took Tal with me and then as soon as it finished I took her to Covent Garden to show her the Royal Opera/Ballet House, as she is trained in Ballet(after taking a slight detour into Somerset House).
I was looking for tickets to watch a Ballet but unfortunately there were no performances that week. My mum, who is also trained in Ballet told me that you can get some tickets for as cheap as £10 or £5 standing. Obviously to go from £210 seats to £10 you give up a lot on view and comfort so its worth bringing some opera glasses, but it is definitely worth it, just for the fact it is something different.
Next we went to Leicester Square and we also moved ideas from opera to theatre tickets.
In Leicester Square you can often get half price or discounted theatre tickets from the "Tkts" stall in the centre of the Square. Other tips include phoning up the theatre where your choice of play is being held, as often you can get further discounts from cutting out the middleman. Fringe theatres outside of the centre are usually less expensive than their West End counterparts, typically in the region of £10-£15. However, many offer pay-what-you-can nights, where ticket prices are left to your conscience. Some hand over 50p while other more charitable souls pay the whole price or more.
The Royal Court Theatre in Sloane Square has 10p tickets. They are standing tickets and must be bought in person at the box office from 1 hour before the performance, one per person only and their are 8 tickets available. Finally, my last theatre tip is for those under 26. Londoners under the age of 26 are also entitled to free theatre tickets at a variety of venues across the capital up until March 2011. It is part of the Arts Council's "A night less ordinary" scheme (For more info go to www.anightlessordinary.org.uk).
Now back to where I was before, Tal had decided she wanted to go and see a West End production and would decide, which one that evening. We walked from Leicester Square through Piccadilly Circus, up Regents Street (stopping in Hamleys and Libertys on the way)
past Oxford street until we got a bus to Camden. I directed her to the market and told her I would meet her in 2 hours after I had finished some work.
We met two hours later with Tal seemingly to grow a selection of bags for me to carry. We then went back home and had second helpings of Macaroni cheese. My parents bought the ingredients for Apple Crumble, which I made but did not try as the Macaroni cheese had filled me up completely. My mum then took Tal on a tour of London by night, something I recommend to anyone who has the ability, not necessarily with my mum though.
Spent £316.99
Wednesday: Sweet Home Chicago
Wednesday I decided to take Tal around the Southbank area from London bridge along the river until the houses of parliament. We ended going back on ourselves a little bit, as she wanted to see the Tower of London.
We then went past Monument before walking across London Bridge once more. Now one of the world's great metropolises, London started in humble fashion as a small fashion as a smalle settlement that grew up next to a bridge across the Thames. The bridge remained London's only permanent river crossing until the mid 18th-century. The current bridge erected in the 1970s, is a nondescript and almost ironically featureless successor.
I also had to explain to Tal that a Wednesday was an equally bland day for Borough Market, with few sights and sounds available in comparison to a Saturday Morning. However, she was more interested in Southwark Cathedral. She told me before coming that she liked all things Gothic, so where better than London's first Gothic church, which was built over a 200-year period between the 13th-15th centuries (however, it was only designated a cathedral at the beginning of the 20th Century).
We spent a bit of time inside the cathedral before moving past the Golden Hinde (a replica of the ship abroad which Sir Frances Drake became the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe in the 16th Century). When I was about 10 my friend had a birthday party on the boat and we got to talk to pirates on the boat, before going to visit the London Dungeon-esque Clink Prison. A prison where one of my relatives (unfortunately not by blood), a Mr Charles Dickens, would gain inspiration for his novel David Copperfield after his father John spent time for not paying his debts. Me and Tal casually walked past both before heading to the Globe.
She took some more pictures before we entered the Tate Modern. I went with Michael Mansfield QC and his son on the day the tate modern opened and I remember being impressed that all the space of the main hall was filled with Louise Bourgeois's Giant spider. However, on many of my future visits there was nothing there, making it feel like a bit of a waste of space. Luckily, that day it wasn't and it was quite fitting for the guest I had brought. The exhibition was a live Ballet class, which Tal watched for about 10 minutes, pointing out flaws in the technique of some of the dancers.
We then went to the OXO tower, which 8th floor views are some of the best in London. The tower itself is owned by the Coin Street Builders, a not for profit organisation that also owns, in August a temporary Lido, where free swimming lessons are available for all ages.
Me and Tal then walked to the Southbank to view the skateboarders, a place where I spent a lot of my childhood. Then the London Eye before finally taking Tal to a place every tourist comes to London to see, one of the most favourite parts of the river.....that's right.....St Thomas's hospital. I told Tal I was taking her to the hospital, she in all fairness seemed rather perplexed by such an announcement. However, without breaking my stride I walked in the entrance of the hospital, past doctors, nurses, sick patients and waxed floors. By this time Tal was looking slightly perplexed. However, I knew exactly what I was doing, because at the entrance of the Hospital walking in the direction of the Evelina children's hospital there is a grand piano. It is completely free to play and left in a small hallway for patients to play. I let Tal sit down after walking all day and began to play her some pieces I knew: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wijcN__y6EI and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7BRpmbfPk0 . After playing these two pieces I was in a rush to buy tickets for the theatre. Tal had decided she wanted to see Chicago, and despite getting a good discount from the tckts hut in Leicester square it was still a bit too expensive for me.
She didn't mind though because she was able to see it with one of her other friends from London, additionally, I didn't mind too much because I had seen it a few years ago with my sister (even before the film with Catherine Zeta Jones had come out). Instead I went home to make myself spaghetti bolognese and then picked her up after the play had finished. She seemed very impressed with the dancing and happy to of seen a real West End show in London.
Spent £316.99
Thursday: A Stand and a Tour
Thursday I spent most of the day staffing a stand at Alcatel Lucent in Woolwich. They were holding a fun day for workers and it was basically my job to hand out leaflets to staff about diabetes. I got a free lunch and when it was time to leave they even gave me a free dinner too, in the form of leftovers that is. It was also the leaving do of a guy who is head of the Roadshow team and has worked at Diabetes UK for 7 years. I treated myself to a pint for £3.25, which I thought was fair considering I had spent nothing on food for the day.
I stayed for a bit. but I had planned to go on a walking tour with Tal. I had done it myself about 6 months previously and loved it. It was a tour of the dark history of London, a sort of whose who, or sordid behaviour, serial killers, murderers, thieves that take place on the streets of London. It is called the Blood and Tears Walk and is a 2 hour walk starting at Barbican tube and ending at Holborn, taken by am Irish ex-actor. As I had done it before he only charged me £7,but Tal and our mutual friend David (himself a Londoner) it was £8. If you book online you can get a ticket for £7.50. He also does Shakespeare walks too. For more information consult here http://www.shockinglondon.com/ I really recommend it.
Spent 327.24
Friday: My First Ever Giant Cheque
We had been made Charity of the Year with Sainsbury's in Alperton over a year ago and it was about time to pick up the years fundraising total. Therefore, I got to pick up the giant cheque, my first ever giant cheque, with the remainder of the Diabetes UK merchandise left at the store. It answered many of the questions I had pondered as a young boy.
1. Is there a giant cheque book. Answer: no it is just a big cheque made of cardboard, at the same time as receiving a giant cheque, you get a normal size cheque which is the one you give to the bank.
2. Is there a giant bank that accept giant cheques. Answer: No!
after receiving the small cheque the manager at the store asked if I wanted the giant one too. I said "oh okay if it's not to much trouble". Inside my head I was saying something like this: "YES YES YES YES YES", "Where am I going to put this giant cheque in my house?, how many people are going to look at me funny on the tube home.
Then answer was my kitchen and too many to count. I also was carrying it around another branch of Sainsburys whilst picking up Chopped tomatoes and tomato sauce for my risotto.
Spent 329.24
Saturday: A party in Plumstead
Saturday I spent some of the day watching Wolves vs Newcastle (My dads team vs my team). Then after that I went to a party in the new flat of my friends Stu and Jade from University. As I had a travelcard I get free buses throughout London. Therefore, although it took slightly longer it was still free to make the effort. There was free drinks at the party and a free place to stay, which consisted of the floor and a pillow I had taken from the sofa. It was great to see my university friends and it only seemed fitting that I would wake up the next morning, with smells of alcohol, close friends nearby, a lack of sleep and a good time had by all.
Spent 331.24
Sunday: Notting Hill Part 1
After waking up on the floor in Plumstead I got the bus home, ate my porridge, had a power nap and then after eating lunch of a sandwich, packed an additional sandwich in my bag ready to head out to the Notting Hill Carnival with some of the friends from last night. It was a great day to be at one of the biggest street parties in the world. The first day being the children and parents day, was one of relative peace and safety said the reporter on the radio the following morning. How peaceful and safe is relative I hear you ask, well 70 arrests and only 3 stabbings.
Luckily no harm came to me or any of my friends. I finished the day with Tal and her friend Lauren who she was now staying with instead of me in Cheam (even further south). Another week down, only two more to go!!!
spent £331.24
