London

That night after Cambridge (Sunday) I went to London to stay with Alaina and Sam in Wembley Park. It was great to see them having made the successful move over earlier in the year, and they are ticking along nicely. As they work and almost live at a Garden Centre, they have a big backyard which is great for making bonfires, so we did, had a few ciders, and watched suspicious looking cars drive down the road to the reservoir to to dodgey things there at night.

Next day (Monday) they had off, so we all took the Tube into town. God I love Metros, not just because they are a great way to get around, but for the individual character each city's has. London's character is 'stifling hot' - overall I had bloody marvellous weather the whole time in the UK. We had lunch at the second English pub we found nearish Baker St (the one we wanted appeared to be recently derelict) and then I set off alone for a bit of a walking tour: Green Park, Buck Palace, The Mall, St James Park, Parliament and the Abbey, then across to Southbank for a bit. All very impressive old chap.

Then I somehow managed to get to Oxford Circus at rush hour to meet Shaun (no typo) who I worked with a bit on census in 2006. He is now back working at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (Playstation team), project managing the production of top-secret projects for Sony. Needless to say the discussion was nerdy, but aided by several beers (my higher-earning london people always taking pity on this poor traveler despite his protests and proffered cash) we pretty quickly got on to solving the problems of the universe. Then I took the tube back to Wembley (innate sense of mapless navigation functioning perfectly) and went to bed/couch.

Next morning (Tuesday) it was up and at em, sort of, for the Tate Modern, predictably the highlight of my very short and underfunded time in London. Special thanks to all my friends who have visted and raved about it for years, not even the fact there was NO BLOODY PROPER LARGE SCALE EXHIBIT IN THE TURBINE HALL could dampen my enthusiasm. Seriously, it was good, and I got a lot of names of artists new and old I need to see more of.

After my Southbank experience I wandered round St Pauls then tubed to Trafalger Square area to catch up with a fellow Fulbrighter, Olivia, who works for MFAT there currently. NZ House is so classic, kind of garish, kind of nothing, but very tall and dominating the fine works around it. After afternoon tea I tried my hand at rush-hour Underground to get across to Harrods, and did just fine thankyouverymuch. There met Gareth, who flatted with Dan for bit when we were all blissfully un-/partially-employed in the winter of 2006. Went to a cool pub in Notting Hill, which was super-trendy about 100 years ago. Now its Shoreditch, but people debate that. What is clear is the coolness travels east across the suburbs of London...interesting.

Overall my time in London was very nice. Next time I'd like more time, a lot more money (i couldn't stop multiplying to NZ $ and freakin out) and a super-central location. Maybe a cushy summer research posting to LSE then? I see a theme emerging slowly here...