London part 2: Subways, shopping, and Sherlock Holmes

Despite staying up late (and almost falling asleep) watching the Olympics, I woke up bright and early to meet Jenn at Camden train station, since she had heard of a large market that she had been referred to by everyone and their mother. I figured an extra half hour would help since it was further north.

That would have worked out fine and dandy had the Underground not exercised its customary practice of shutting down half the lines on weekends for maintenance. This weekend, the entire Circle line was shut, stretches of the Bakerloo line were down (which messed things up for the trip to Baker St), eight different lines were partially closed, and the station that had been shut down on the Northern line? Camden. Yup. So while I was on the train, I was trying to figure out the closest way to get there, and they were saying to get off at Euston station, two stops away from Camden, which I did. Then I called Jenn, and it turns out she'd stopped at Mornington which was the stop right before Camden, so I hauled ass back to the train, and got off there instead, where we learned that the markets were only a short walk away. Welcome to the London Underground: there are multiple overlapping lines for a reason.


View of Camden Market from the bridge. There were a bunch of stores before that, selling more touristy stuff, strangely enough including various pipes, hookahs, bongs, and stocks of flavoured tobacco. And condoms with "I Love London" on the wrapping.



In addition to the shops, there were loads of food stalls and a couple of eating areas. But how many eating areas have scooter seats with a river view?



View down the market. They mainly sold clothing and accessories, but there were plenty of other things as well. Some of the stuff looked really good, but we found the two best answers to resist temptation:

1) "It's getting too hot!" (used in response to the temptation to buy nifty jackets)
2) "I'm too fat!" (used to ward off sellers of clothes that are adorable but we know we will genuinely never fit in even with Weight Watchers and Crisco)

After a good three hours of wandering around the market, we decided to head to Baker Street. This was also our first time on a bus, since it would be quicker than changing trains 9213907 times, and the bus came every 10 minutes or so.


Woo!



Even more woo!



A notice about Jack the Ripper, for authenticity.



A replica of Holmes's bedroom, complete with possessions.



The desk in the study. Watson's medical kit can be seen resting on the chair.



Fireplace! A little blurry, sadly. Note the hats on the table :)



Victorian-era potty?



Bronze bust of the great man himself.



The second floor consisted of artifacts linked with the stories. This glass case contains some of the weapons described in the books.



Voodoo doll used by an accomplice (can't remember which story though)



Some of the rooms also had figures of characters or scenes. The one on the left is from "The Man with the Twisted Lip" and the one on the right is from "The Musgrave Ritual".




Professor Moriarty, looking suitably evil and plotting something.





Um, yeah.



I think this picture pretty much sums up the experience. :)




Not only did they put a statue of him outside Baker St station, his profile adorns the tiles inside.

So I lied about there being two parts to the London post; it's gonna be 3 now since I'm getting really tired and there is a lot more awesomeness to cover. My energy levels have been at about 30% with this cough and hopefully this week's course of antibiotics will help, but the whole rest and fluids thing needs to be done as well.

G'night!

London part 1: Towers, dungeons, squares, and a LOT of walking

Hooray, the long-overdue update on LONDON! This will have to be broken down into two parts for easier reading.

I popped into Parliament on the Thursday to get my computer set up before hauling my stuff to Waverley, which left me surprisingly out of breath and realising that I need to hit the gym again once I'm healthy. Nothing particularly eventful about the train ride, although the taxi driver had a late-night brain fart and wasn't sure where the street I was looking for was until I told him the area. My moneysaver for the weekend was to crash at my cousin's place in Kensington instead of camping at a hostel. I was initially worried that I would be in the way, but it turns out that he often works until 2am, being an intense CompSci professor, so as long as I didn't mess up the place or change the channel from the Olympics it was ok. We did have some nice conversation the first night though over a late dinner.

I'd arranged to meet Jenn the next morning at Piccadilly Circus, where she was staying at a hostel. Jenn is the fellow intern whom I spent the summer with picking our way through old naval documents and enduring the verbal barbs from highers-up, and since she's in Belfast this semester, where else to meet up but London? So after meeting up with her (and her pet octopus Otto) we went for a full English breakfast while figuring out what to do next.

Now I hadn't exactly planned what to do on this trip. Jenn, bless her, had a list of landmarks AND restaurants of interest, so after consulting the map, we figured we'd start further out and work our way back to the centre. First port of call: the Tower of London.


Trebuchet in the grounds.



Yup, that's a hand. Someone had a sick sense of humour.



Barney, our lovely Yeoman Warder or Beefeater.



This is the Bell Tower, where Sir Thomas More was held after Henry VIII got pissed off at him. Also held here was Elizabeth I, since her sister Mary I didn't trust her, being a Protestant and Mary a Catholic. We all know how that ended.



You can't see the sign that well, but that's the gate to the Bloody Tower.



This pretty glass monument marks the spot for many private executions, including Anne Boleyn. Back then, if you were rich enough, important enough, or the king decided to have mercy on you, you would get...not a pardon, but a private execution. Otherwise you got beheaded on Tower Hill in front of all and sundry.



The ravens of the Tower. Lord knows what they do all day, the only thing that matters is that if they leave, the kingdom falls. Although one could joke that devolution is already helping that process along.



This is me holding the legendary Otto! Gnomes are so last year.



Classic shot of Westminster Bridge, Parliament, Big Ben, and a red double decker in the background.



On our way back to Leicester Square/Piccadilly, we decided to walk the path that would take us next to the Horse Guards and Trafalgar Square. It doesn't show that well, but this was a really grumpy horse. I think it got a little antsy with the kids running around as well.



Trafalgar Square! But no legendary flocks of pigeons. :(


The rest of the day was spent wandering the area doing touristy window shopping in places such as Chinatown and Shaftesbury Avenue. While running around looking for Fortnum & Mason's, we stumbled upon Forbidden Planet, which is a dream of comic books, manga, graphic novels, Studio Ghibli DVDs, and a huge-ass Enterprise model hanging from the ceiling.

We then had dinner at an Indian place which looked pricey until they offered the set dinner for £9, which was a pretty good deal. We also ended up with a leaflet for a burlesque cabaret show. Now, we were actually quite interested, but due to our mediocre sense of direction, we never actually found it. Instead, we were back at Leicester Square, surrounded by cinemas. Solution? Let's watch Sherlock Holmes!

I had had my reservations about the movie when the trailer first came out, since I usually preferred my Holmes fully clothed and a little less scruffy. But Jenn, also a Sherlock Holmes fan, had seen it, and she loved it, so I was persuaded. (Jenn, I swear there's a pattern going on here...first you convince me to watch the new Star Trek movie, and now the new Sherlock Holmes movie?) And I actually really really enjoyed it. I was terrified for a while that Guy Ritchie was going to go crazy and use something of the supernatural, so I was very glad when there was a explanation for everything. But what made me really happy was the Holmes-Watson dynamic. No blundering, blustering Watson here. We have someone who's capable in his own sphere, actually serves some use as the detective's assistant, appreciates the friendship while criticising Holmes's faults, and can hold his own in a fight. I think we'd have to credit House for that, though.

We parted ways for the day, after that, I went back to Kensington. Surprise, surprise, it was midnight and my cousin wasn't home. No matter, the figure skating came on at 1am so I watched it for a bit before heading off to sleep.

Stay tuned for Part 2!

*COUGH*

So, I'm still kind of sick. I have this crazy cough that won't go away and which gets worse at night, and is definitely a distraction at work. I owe people a London post, so I promise I'll get it up once this paper is done!

One perk of working and having a regular schedule where you're pretty much done after 5 (extra research on projects is optional) is that I've been hanging out more with the flatmates, especially during dinner time and afterwards, which is pretty sweet, and hopefully we can have a flat-wide meal at some point.

I'm slowly coming to the realisation that this internship has about 7 weeks to go, which is pretty terrifying in a way. Normally I wouldn't think about it, but I was trying to plan out the scope of my project, and I realised that 7 weeks is pushing it for the amount I want to cover. I'm actually really really into this whole cancer research thing, although statistics was never my strong point, and I'm still working out my focus point at this moment.

On the side, the little administrative tasks do break the momentum, and I'm finally learning how to use the phone properly with referring callers to the right office and transferring connections and all that. Since Cathy spends most of her time out west and no one comes in Mondays, as of next week, I'll be helping out in the Labour campaign office....I'm curious to see how it compares to Hong Kong.

And after Friday....horse racing and dim sum! :)

Should be writing my paper, but...

One and a half weeks down!
I'm currently chilling in the library. Our last assessment for the classes is due Friday, in the form of a mid-size paper. There were two tests, and those are happily over and went rather well. Naturally, I can't wait until there's nothing to think about but parli work!

I've slowly picked up more duties in the office... I'm handling RSVPs, investigating little issues to see if they are worth a PQ (Parliamentary Question; an inquiry posed to the Government that must be answered by the responsible minister) etc. Also! I'm keeping track of who has spoken at debates and asked PQs for David, since he's the chief whip and responsible for managing the party's participation in the debates and votes.

Most refreshing of all, though, is a talk I had with Peter, another one of my 3 MSPs (I promise, it's entirely legit to call them by their first names). I knew I was working on rural broadband availability for him, but he had a chance to sit me down and go over what's been done, what more has to BE done, etc... This is probably what my formal research project will be on, even though I'm still involved on the Forth Crossing Bill.

Phew. I'm totally tired out, but very happy to be doing what I am! Hopefully going to actually get to bed early tonight. Enjoying the freedom. Also, going to Kelso for some horse-racing with the USC folks on Saturday! I'll try to actually bring the camera to that one, since I bet photos will be in order.

"Charlie bit me!"

I just had this encounter about half an hour ago. Please imagine the conversation with the girls speaking in Scottish accents:

Me: (walking down the Royal Mile)

(stepping around a bunch of little primary school-age girls chattering away)

Little girl 1: Excuse me!

Me: Mm?

Little girl: Don't you think he's ugly? *brandishes poster of Justin Bieber, some child singer I've heard about but don't pay attention to* He's ugly, isn't he?

Little girl 2: No he's not!

Little girl 1: Yes he is! Don't you agree? Look at him! He's ugly!

(At this point, I've stopped walking, and they're skipping along)

Me: Um, well, isn't he like 14?

Chorus of little girls: YES! (actually 16 now that I checked)

Me: Um--

Little girl 1: He really is ugly!

Little girl 2: No he isn't!

Me: Well, I've heard of him, but I don't really know that much...

Little girl 1: Oh...

(girls run off giggling)

Ah, kids.

More food discoveries!

I am finding weird ways to procrastinate. One is writing cover letters for internships. The other is making food. (The third is blogging and piggy-backing off Chris's posts.)

Crumpets.

They are amazing. Especially with peanut butter. The Scottish ones are easier to eat with, since they're flatter and more like pancakes in shape, so you put butter and peanut butter on top, roll/fold it up, eat. Mmmm.

They also work with (sounds a little weird, I know) pate. I've only tried it with the Scottish crumpets, but I might just give the regular ones a go.

....Okay, okay, back to studying, I know.

How to make UK ramen!

My dear flatmate Brad just showed me how they do ramen here (or Super Noodles, as it's branded). First and foremost, they have awesome flavors, including bacon! So, already, win. For cooking, though, you only use half a pint of water. With that, and boiling it longer, the gluten comes out of the noodles, thickens the water that hasn't yet evaporated, and you get actual NOODLES! I prefer this greatly to the soup-with-noodles-floating-in-it that results from US ramen.

Delightful discovery of the day!