Council Tax

Well hello!

My morning was pretty standard... woke up... stumbled out of bed. Called the Gas/Electric company to give them new meter readings as they had asked - easy enough.

Then I thought that I'd call the council tax people to get some of the names switched on our bill (you know, people moving out, people moving in, the lot), and then I heard this:

"Thank you for holding. Your position in the queue is.... 16"

*click* That's when I hang up.

From then on, I decided it was too lovely a day to sit at home, despite really wanting to go back to bed. I gave in and hopped the tube (no walking for me today!) to Westminster Abbey.

I wandered around everywhere, really. I popped into the Portrait Gallery to view a recent Photographic Expo they had on - I enjoyed that. I also bought a little pin with a camera on it from the gift shop (yay!) and carried on. I walked up Regent Street (There is a National Geographic store there!), and down Oxford Street, where I seem to have stumbled upon new peice of graffiti art by Banksy.

(It doesn't look that tall but the paint goes up for about 3 storeys!). According to the web, it's been up since 2008, and apparently he errected a bunch of scaffolding in front of the wall, covered it with tarps and went about his business without anyone questionning what he was doing. (Keep in mind both the security camera to the right as well as the fact that this wall faces the headquarters of the Royal Mail Service...heh). You can read more about it here.

After that excitement I popped into the British Museum for a bit, as well as the crumpler store (and drooled over new camera bags....), before ending up in Selfridges.

From there is was starting to get dark (which was the point of lugging my camera and tripod around all day!), so I wandered back to Trafalgar Square and snapped some shots. From there I walked to Big Ben and the London Eye and snapped some more shots!

It was pretty chilly by the end so I hurried home to my nice (warm) house, which is where I am sitting now.

Either way, I am looking forward to the summer when it gets really warm in the evenings and I can parade around with my tripod and not shiver.

I would've liked to spend more time outside, but again, so very very chilly!

Big Ben

Today was just like any other day, really. I got up around 9 a.m., showered, ate breakfast, watched some tv... and walked all the way into central London.

Yep, that's right. I walked 6.8 miles into Central London... all the way to Big Ben. I had wondered how long it would take me, and it turns out, it took me about 2 hours and 45 minutes. Admitedly I did get lost once and had to wait for an awful lot of traffic signals, but needless to say I was looking forward to getting to Big Ben and relaxing in the grass for a while.

For a visual, here is the map of the route I took:

Once I got to Big Ben, I didn't really have a plan. I bought some pasta from the local Tescos and sat down with my pal Churchill and ate some lunch.

Afterwards I started wandering around, snapping pictures. I didn't really want to wander too far, and I decided that while I had many, many 'standard' pictures of Big Ben, I hadn't really tried to 'photograph' it properly. So I spent the next 2 (that's right, 2) hours wandering all around Big Ben, trying to get as many different photos of Big Ben as possible.

So, here are 11 of my favorites. Get ready for a whole-lotta Big Ben!

Here's Big Ben and his old pal, Winston Churchill. Notice the lack of pigeon crap on Churchill - his statue has an electrical current running through it to keep the birds off.
I don't remember who this bloke was - but he's got a fancy cape.
I also don't remember who this guy was. But he's tall and has a very large head.
Again... don't know who he is. I probably should've written this down.
It almost looks as though Nelson Mandela is godzilla and he's attacking Big Ben. Raaaawr!
Here's Big Ben through the iron-gates of the Parliament Building.
And another view over the side of the fence. No tresspassing.
Here's the statue of Boudica (that's how Wikipedia spells it, so lay off), and Big Ben.
...And another close up.
The very very top of Big Ben and the lovely lamp posts off the Westminster Bridge.
And finally, sunset over the Thames.
And just for fun - 'What'cho looking at, fool!'

I think from now on, I will try and do this with a lot of different monuments. It was actually quite fun trying to think of new ways and angles from which to shoot Big Ben.

I took some other photos today, mainly of birds and night-time at Trafalgar Square which I will post at a later time. Didn't want to interfere with all the Big Ben photos...

Wandering in Wimbledon

Hi Hi everyone! I didn't have any concrete plans for the day since it was supposed to rain all day, but when it cleared up this afternoon about 1 a.m., I thought that I couldn't waste the day. Rather then spend the money and head into central London for a half-day, I grabbed my camera and figured I'd head into the park near my house to see what was happening!

Turns out it's a lovely, albeit muddy park!

These willowy things grow in lots of places around my neighborhood - I'm not entirely sure what they are, but I sure like the way they move in the wind.
The sky ended up being a lovely shade of blue. There was still a lot of water in the park from the wet weather we've been having during the past couple of days.
This is the lake in the middle of Wimbledon park. The spire you see on the left-hand side in the background is St. Mary's Church, where I end up later.
Yup... lots of puddles.
This is kind of neat, actually, this is a building that stood over the Artesian Well. According to the little plaque, the well was first dug in 1793, and it was only about 30 feet deep. An appliance powered by a horse walking around the ground floor of the building lifted water to a storage tank under the dome.

In 1798, needing a greater supply, Earl Spencer ordered the well to be deepened. After 15 months of excavation, at a depth of 563 feet, the workmen struck water which shot up over a hundred feet and nearly drowned them.

Of all the building constructed by the Spencers in Wimbledon only this well house survives. After the well silted up the doomed tower above it was extended to form a private residence.
Would be kind of a neat place to live in - I wonder what it looks like on the inside.
This is St. Mary's Church in the Parish of Wimbledon.
Apparently a church has stood on this site since the sixth century, duly registered in the Domesday Book in the reign of William the Conqueror. The first recorded rector was 'Master Phillip" in 1210. The oldest bell bears the shield of William Culverden, a London bell-founder who died in 1522.
In 1534 the Rector Thomas Mylling was made to swear acceptance of King Henry VIII as Head of the English Church. A bible written in English instead of Latin was required to be in every parish church, although few villagers could read.
The register of baptisms, marriages and burials for the parish began with the christening of Elizabeth Wight on 15th January 1539. By 1786 the mediaeval church was in need of repair and west end was rebuilt.
The present building was constructed by Sir George Gilbert Schott, preserving the Bothic chancel with some fifteenth century masonry. Around the walls and graveyard may be seen memorials to many famous people.

I didn't see any memorials to famous people, though... maybe just not famous people that I recognized?
This is the Wimbledon war memorial. I saw it was I was walking down this street, trying to figure out where the heck I was. I didn't get too close to it, as that would've involved crossing a reasonably busy road.

Eventually I found myself on Wimbledon High Street, where I caught the bus back home. It was nice to get out and see more the neighborhood. I will definitely have to head back to the park when it is dry and warm outside - and maybe I'll bring some seed to feed the birds!

Not sure what I'm going to do over the weekend. I thought about maybe heading to Greenwich, but they are doing major work on the DLR (Docklands Light Rail), and it might be very complicated trying to get there. We'll see, though. It's supposed to be sunny tomorrow, so I am definitely going out.

My Weekend

Hello! This weekend was my first full weekend of sightseeing/shopping. I took some pictures over the weekend, although not a whole lot, but here you go!
I started out Saturday morning at Portobello Road Market. I was hoping to peruse the artsy stalls up north and maybe see if I could buy more antique jars, but I didn't have any luck in either department. I found the whole market very overcrowded and touristy, so I gave up. It got very busy at about noon when I was leaving, so I snapped some pictures and got the hell out of there!
From Portobello Road I hoped a bus to Camden Market, where the boots were midly less busy and things were a little more 'my taste'. I wandered around for a good 2-3 hours, and bought a nice little bag. (I could've bought waaaay more, but resisted!).
I also enjoyed my £4 bowl of pick-and-mix Chinese food (they have the best food at this market!) and wandered around some more.
After Camden Market I hopped a bus with the full intention of riding it to Big Ben and continuing on to the Tate Britain, but as we passed Trafalgar Square I noticed some activity, and hopped off.

Turns out they were having some kind of protest relating to Gaza. I'm still not entirely sure what was going on - I didn't stick around too long. I got tired of people trying to hand me signs and flyers and such.
Although I don't think I've ever seen so many policeman at Trafalgar Square before.

From there I started walking to Big Ben through the gardens of Buckingham Palace.
And snapping some more touristy shots of Big Ben and the phone booth...

I actually ended up walking past Westminster Abbey and went inside to listen to their Evensong Performance. It was lovely, and the views inside the cathedral were plenty. There are great accousics, too - as you would probably imagine. It was a nice way to see the cathedral with *ahem* having to pay for it.

Sunday morning I had every intention of heading down to Harrod's to see what kind of sales they had going on, but when I got to Knightsbridge at 10:30 a.m., I realized that they didn't open for another hour and moved on. I walked through the neighborhood, taking some lovely pictures!
And no... I can't remember the name of the church that was behind this little arch. Sorry!

There was some lovely little streets tucked away here, too. Although I'm pretty sure I can't afford them.

From here I visited the Victoria & Albert Museum, The Natural History Museum as well as the Science Museum. They were very crowded (being a weekend and all), but enjoyable none the less.

I did end up going back to Harrod's to see what the sales were like. I guess the sales were good - they had a lot of designer stuff that had been market down half price... but a £1300 bag marked down to £400 is still a £400 bag. And an ugly one at that. I gave up soon after that.
Rather than continue to shop, I decided I'd take a walk through Hyde Park before heading home. It was a lovely time of day to snap photos, and the birds were a-plenty.


My last stop was just outside the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens. It was starting to get cold and dark and as such, I hoped the tube and came home!

Today is going to be a pretty low-key day. I think I'll head over to the library later and return my books. I might go grocery stopping, although I might just do that tomorrow, too. Wednesday the Gas Man is comming to replace our boiler, and as such he'll be here all day Wednesday and part of Thursday, too. Wednesday I'll probably spend cleaning like a maniac. Not sure about the rest of the week - I know the London Walks company is doing a couple day trips, so that's something to think about. I guess it all depends on the weather.
Either way, hope you enjoyed!

Laundry and Spiders

Today was a midly uneventful day. It was miserable outside and I needed to do laundry, so I opted to stay inside and be a couch potato.

A repairman came over this morning to work on our hot water heater - we've been having troubles with the central heating. He said something about the circut board being fried - so he had to get the landlady's approval before he could work on it more. We've still got hot water, so its not a big deal if we get heating or not for the next little while.

In the meantime, since I didn't take any pictures today, and I'm still working on getting my new years eve videos uploaded to You Tube, I'll offer you this less festive photo:

This is a spider. And not just any spider. The spider that lives in the light underneath or porch, just to the left of the front door. And yes, he's big.

The light out front started flickering and I went outside to get a better look at it and here he was, just hanging out. He's probably about the size of a quarter or a dollar, I think - I didn't get that close to him!

I tried to identify him on several websites, but to no avail. The only picture that came close to this little guy was a picture of one called a Fake Widow Spider.

This was the picture that they provided:



His 'bum' looks too big to be the same spider, but its the only one with a stripe! Fortunately I read somewhere that while Britain has over 600 species of spiders, none of them are poisonous and most of them don't bite.

Either way - it looks like he/she is making a nest, which can only mean more little spiders, which is not what we agreed upon. So... eventually one of the boys will probably kill it. I don't care as long as it stays outside - he's got himself a nice little perch there, right outside the warm air exhaust of the house.

However, if I did want to cure my dislike/phobia/fear of spiders, I can always attend the London Zoo's Friendly Spider Program. This is what they say on their website:

Do you have a spider phobia? Then it's time you joined our Friendly Spider Programme where we will help you to overcome your fears.

There is no good reason to have a spider phobia, they're harmless and extremely beneficial invertebrates whose survival depends on avoiding such large, lumbering threats as ourselves. However, millions of perfectly rational people are terrified of spiders. No matter how much they try to calm themselves the response remains the same: sweating, nausea, panic, rapid, heartbeat and worse

The Friendly Spider Programme (FSP) is an afternoon course, carefully designed to ease or eliminate the condition of arachnophobia – fear of spiders. The programme is a combination of cognitive behavioural therapy and hypnotherapy. The course takes place in the Zoological Society of London's meeting rooms. No animals, photographs or illustrations are used until the end part of the course.

That's right, children, for only £110 ($240) of your hard-earned moolah, here's what you get:

The session begins with an explanation, by hypnotherapist John Clifford, of how hobias can become established, followed by a series of questions to the participants designed to comprehensively clarify just what it is about these animals they don't like. The Zoo's spider expert, Dave Clarke, then provides the facts on these animals (addressing all the comments raised in the earlier Q&A session) proving there really is nothing to be afraid of.

After refreshments, there is a group hypnosis session designed to remove any remaining negative subconscious feelings about the animals and support the newly-acquired positive feelings, imparted by Dave.

The session concludes with an optional visit to the invertebrate collection in the Zoo's BUGS! building. Here participants can, at their leisure, practice calmly catching British house spiders and even meet one of their cousins, our friendly Mexican red-knees. Great care is taken to ensure that the programme is as stress-free as possible.

And, in case you were curious, here's what a Mexian red-knee spider looks like:

So, who wants to sign up?!