Day 54!!

The rest of yesterday was kinda interesting. I walked around a bit.. decided Id go and see a few more buildings, so I walked along to St Pauls but it was closed. I hubng out in the gardens outside for a while tho which was really nice. The roses especially smelt incredible!! Soon I made friends with this incredibly cute squirrel. It was the cutest little dude out ay!! Reminded me heaps of my girls at home actually. We went for a walk, and he came up and sniffed and put his paws on my hands a few times, and he did some acrobatics and stuff for me.. and in return I found a few nuts for him.. It was so much fun, and he was soooo cute!! I got a few pictures which is sweet, so hopefully in sweden I can start uploading some (got alot of catching up to do!!).

After this I went to the guild hall which was a nice old building.. and then I went to the Bank of England which was a cool big old historic building. This place is like the Reserve Bank here in NZ. While walking along one side of the building I noticed something ontop of a bus shelter kinda obscured from view.. I thought it was a little strange.. maybe a kids toy.. but I decided to clamber some stuff and have a look. It was a weird thing that I couldnt figure out so I took a picture of it. After checking out the photo I noticed that it was a little suspicious.. A ball with spikes coming out of it to keep it where it was laying, and lots of matches pertruding out of it too. The ball was made of two putty type materials, an two orange semi-spheres separated by some green stuff. I thought this could be quite dodgy.. some random putty thing with matches in it outside the Bank of England on a bus shelter.. So I looked around for a cop. Couldnt find one so I went into the bank and told the security and showed them the picture. They thanked me and congratulated me and stuff and notified the police and got their cameras on it and stuff. :) was quite cool!! And little old me found it! If it was something serious I coulda stopped something that probably woulda made international news if it had gone off (especially seeing as theres just been this terror stuff here). So yeah! Cool!

After that I headed off coz I didnt wanna get caught up with police reports and jumped on the tube, after which I called home before calling my cousin Kate who lived super close to my hostel actually :). She walked down to the station where I was waiting and we wandered back to her and Brandons flat. It was quite funny, when I talked to her on the phone she had quite a strong british accent, but talking with me and stuff it dissapeared quite soon. Altho I suppose thats to be expected tho :). Anyway.. Their flat is really nice!! Its near a park and a pool, and near the Thames. Its just a few minutes from a tube station too! They flat with 3 others, Zoe, Nicola I think (shes not here) and Andy. They are nice too!

Once I was there Kate gave me the grand tour, and we sat in the lounge and chatted for a while. It was really nice catching up with them. I have never spent much time with Brandon before, and spent the most time with Kate when I was younger so we both are alot different and stuff too. It was great ay, Brandons a cool as guy, hes really quality, and Kates awesome too. Both really friendly and accomadating, its been great! Later on we hung out in their room for a while, and I got to admire some great shots Kate had made that were up on their wall, and also had a flick through a big photo album of some of their travels through Europe which was cool as too!!

Around 12 I went back down to the lounge where my bed was and went to sleep.

In the morning I got up around 8.30 and kinda milled and did nothing for a few minutes. After this I got all my stuff together, and started a load of washing. I forgot my towel and shorts which was a shame.. but its all good! I had a shower and some toast (finished off my peanut butter), and then after having a small chat to Zoe I unloaded the washing and put it in a drying room, packed up my gears and walked to the Tube station around 11.

I went to Saint Pauls and had a look inside which was SUPER impressive! Its the second biggest church in the world behind Saint Peters in the Vatican.. and it was equally nice inside. Not quite so many sculptures, but it was lighter, and the ceiling and decorations and stuff were really nice. I couldnt see it all coz I didnt wanna pay.. but thats sweet. After this I walked over to the Tate Modern Musuem and had about an hour there. Some of it was rubbish, like a blue canvas or something like that.. But there was alot of really cool stuff too! I really liked the 'beyond poetry and surreal' room, it was great!! And some of the physical pieces of art were really good too!

I only had an hour there, and wanted more.. but It was time to go to the Globe! I got there nice and early, and therefore I got the most PRIMO spot!! I was right at the front and had the best view of the whole stage. I actually got to lean on the front of the stage :D!! It was such that I didnt get a weird perspective like sometimes happens with front seats.. It was just perfect!! I got to see the actors really close (see the bits of spit coming out) AMAZING!!

The play itself (A comdey of errors) was GREAT! I hadnt read or seen it before and I loved it. A very entertaining comedy! And the actors did a great job. Especially one. Ha ha the best part tho was in the scene when Dromio (one of the servants) is describing to his master (the Antipholus from Syracuse) describing the massive fat lady who was pursueing him in order to take him. The script goes on as he describes her size, then he calls her spherical, and compares her to the world and says you could find countries on her. To this Antipholus replies 'where was Ireland' and Dromio says, then he asks where Scotland was, and France, then England. After this he asks where America was.. The way he had planned to do it was 'where (bemused silence) was america' but straight after he said 'where' someone in the audience shouted out 'SPAIN!' ha ha ha!! This isnt in the script and everyone cracked up. The poor actor kinda paused and looked down with a big grin and kind cracked a little, then recovered, then cracked a little again.. all the time everyones cracking up. Finally he turned to Dromio and sheepishly said 'and Spain?'. It was so hilarious! And Dromio adlibbed a great answer that brought them back to the script :D.

At half time I met a lady from America called Elizabeth which was nice (and got reminded that unless i say Richarrrrrrrrd when I say my name they think I say Richie :D). The second half was great too, and it was all finished at 4.30 or so> I so wanted to book a ticket for the 7.30 show of Anthony and Cleopatra because I enjoyed it so much, and it woulda been great to see a different genre there.. But I wanted to do other stuff, and thought I should get home at a reasonable hour so I didnt. From here I tubed to the Victoria and Albert Museum (poked my head in the Natural History Museum on the way which looked great too). This place was great!! I only had an hour and I looked at as much as I could, but oh man it was great!! Up there with the lourve, but lots of casts of original sculptures instead of originals and stuff.. but there were great exhibits. I especially loved the Japanese sectiuon!! I have to go there some time soon!

Man.. Ive never been a super cultral kinda guy.. I like music but thats about it.. but the more art and theater and museums I see the more I totally love it.. There are so many places I want to spend days in now here in London and other places but I have no time :( Its such a shame.. And I mean Wellington has reasonable culture.. but its not even a scratch on these European cities.. :S ah well.

After closing time at V&A I wandered past Harrods just to see it (and saw a HOT Astin Martin, then an equally cool Lamborghini on the way!). From here I tubed home and got there about 7. Soon after Kate got home and we had a talk for a while, and then Brandon came down from his room and we talked and watched news and stuff. They are really great and Im glad I could visit them!
Kate made some delicious burritos for dinner, and after that I started trying to check my flight (cant coz I dont have my credit card number.. grr) and writing this blog. I gotta catch a bus at like 1 am, to get to a bus at 3 am to be at the airport in time for my 6.25 flight (lets hope it flies!).
Dunno when im gonna get any sleep in there :S.. but we will see!

Till next time :D!