Londoninium
Apr. 5th, 2009 01:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slycatIf you watch my Twitter, you'll probably have seen much of this, however here's the detailed version. Kinda long, but then it was nice to have something to write about for a change :)
Soo,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bungle_bear and I went to London yesterday. I had just been wanting something to do to break the boredom of my weekends and I hadn't been to London in ages (mostly owing to the fact that I'm now on call every 3rd weekend which coincides with the LondonFur meets). Headed on up on the train using some of the the Gold Service passes I had which allow free travel over the entire SWT network for one day (you get 6 when you buy an annual pass which is also known as a Gold Card), naturally singing "I've got a golden ticket!" in Cartman voices :P
Train journey was mostly uneventful apart from the fact that it seemed to take the long way into London meaning it took around 30mins longer than normal to get in. Once at Waterloo, I was feeling rather ravenous and so indulged in a fat drippingly tasty Double Angus burger from BK. Didn't really have any plans so we ventured out of the station, across the river to Trafalgar Square. There was a large gathering of people there so we naturally went to see what all the fuss was about. Turned out it was just a guy trying to escape from a straight jacket and so didn't hang around. Instead we walked round to Leicester Square and then on to the Trocadero in Piccadilly Circus. Bungle wanted a coffee so he went in Starbucks while I went to find a toilet. I found one in the basement of the Trocadero but they had the sheer nerve to charge one pound for entrance to the toilets! I made my protest in the form of not paying and decided I would look elsewhere.
Met back up with Bungle and continues through Piccadilly Circus past Ripley's Believe It or Not! which had bizarre inflatable costumed people dancing and stuff out front trying to entice people in. I had done Ripley's in San Francisco and while I enjoyed it, I didn't think there would be much to be gained from going to the London one as well (probably costs a lot for a ticket anyway). Continuing on however, I was surprised that there was a Cinnabon shop there in Piccadilly Circus. I didn't think they operated in the UK any more and I love their artery clogging products. I couldn't resist and so purchased a mini Chocobon which was just as tasty as I remembered, and just as difficult to eat without a table as I remembered :P
This was the larger one I ate later
Wandered up Regent Street in case anything would catch our eye with the intention of coming back down Oxford Street and on to Covent Garden (for CyberCandy). Walked past Hamleys which had a blue blob from Monsters vs Aliens costume thing outside the store. We didn't go in due to lack of money and just walked round to Oxford Street where I decided to find a free toilet in Borders. My mission was successful and so we chilled out in the Starbucks before deciding on what to do next*. So, finished going down Oxford Street, passing another Cinnabon on the way which made me rather jealous of London and passed under Centre Point on the way to Forbidden Planet on Shaftsbury Avenue. London's Forbidden Planet used to be unique due to it's size, however these days it's only marginally larger than the one in Southampton which is obviously much easier to get to so had a look about but nothing caught my eye (apart from the t-shirt rack which was selling the same OCP t-shirt I happened to be wearing).
Next stop was Covent Garden. Rather bizarrely, on our way to Covent Garden, we bumped intodelph_bunny who was on the phone to someone. Would have chatted with him but seemed rude to talk to someone while they're on the phone so just went on to CyberCandy. As usual, plenty tasty looking things on offer including a wide selection of all varieties of Pop Tarts but sadly no Cookie Dough flavour which was my favourite (and I think discontinued) so I passed on that and ended up getting a selection of the new flavours of Mountain Dew, some Jones Root Beer, some Nestle Overloads (which are what appear to be Nestle's take on Reeces Cups with different toppings) and a cookies and cream Kit Kat.
After purchasing overpriced sugary treats, our plan was to sit down and have a pint in the next door pub, but it was rammed. We headed back towards Covent Garden and met up withorona_red who Bungle had arranged us to meet. With us not really having any plans until we felt hungry, we just ended up sitting in Leicester Square and chatting for a bit until Orona revealed he had planned to get a camera from a shop near Tottenham Court Road and so with lack of anything better to do, we wandered up to the camera shop but they didn't have the one Orona was looking for. Decided we were hungry enough for some food and so headed off to Bodeans for some meat. I had been before but wasn't that hungry at the time so only had a hot dog. However this time I wanted to properly experience the place and so had a combo of ribs, chicken and pulled pork. As bizarre as it may sound, I had never eaten ribs before and needed to check on how you're supposed to eat them! They were really tasty tho, as was everything else on the plate. Was certainly worth the £15 for the meal, however the drinks were extortionate. £2.50 for an non-refillable glass of coke... I ended up getting the beer of the month which was Gaymers Cider (yes, I know that's not a beer...) just so I had a larger volume of liquid to drink.
Again after food we had no plans on what to do and so after a bit more aimless wandering, we ended up at the Cinnabon on Oxford Street, where I had a normal sized Chocobon (nom!) and Orona had Cinnasticks. Ended up spending ages in the seating area just chatting, and Orona ended up playing with his food...
After that, we decided to head off home and so said goodbye to Orona at the underground station before walking back to Waterloo. By the time we got there, we had about half an hour until our train, which was good considering the queue for the toilets due to malfunctioning barriers. Anyway, picked a seat on the train and expected to have a long but quiet journey back home. However drunken football supporters had other plans >_< I tried to drown them out by watching Slumdog Millionaire on my PMP but they were still very audible. I wish I had brought my noise cancelling headphones... The connecting train wasn't much better either as a woman had what sounded like a rabid dog that could attack everyone on the train at any moment. Fortunately my stop was only 3 stops away.
Anyway, in summary, had a really good day. Not particularily structured, but fun all the same. Was certainly better to have something to do rather than stay in my flat or wander around the same old Southampton. Unfortunately I'm now broke for the rest of the month but will be good to do something again next month. However I am doing Confuzzled next month so that will be something :)
Soo,
bungle_bear and I went to London yesterday. I had just been wanting something to do to break the boredom of my weekends and I hadn't been to London in ages (mostly owing to the fact that I'm now on call every 3rd weekend which coincides with the LondonFur meets). Headed on up on the train using some of the the Gold Service passes I had which allow free travel over the entire SWT network for one day (you get 6 when you buy an annual pass which is also known as a Gold Card), naturally singing "I've got a golden ticket!" in Cartman voices :PTrain journey was mostly uneventful apart from the fact that it seemed to take the long way into London meaning it took around 30mins longer than normal to get in. Once at Waterloo, I was feeling rather ravenous and so indulged in a fat drippingly tasty Double Angus burger from BK. Didn't really have any plans so we ventured out of the station, across the river to Trafalgar Square. There was a large gathering of people there so we naturally went to see what all the fuss was about. Turned out it was just a guy trying to escape from a straight jacket and so didn't hang around. Instead we walked round to Leicester Square and then on to the Trocadero in Piccadilly Circus. Bungle wanted a coffee so he went in Starbucks while I went to find a toilet. I found one in the basement of the Trocadero but they had the sheer nerve to charge one pound for entrance to the toilets! I made my protest in the form of not paying and decided I would look elsewhere.
Met back up with Bungle and continues through Piccadilly Circus past Ripley's Believe It or Not! which had bizarre inflatable costumed people dancing and stuff out front trying to entice people in. I had done Ripley's in San Francisco and while I enjoyed it, I didn't think there would be much to be gained from going to the London one as well (probably costs a lot for a ticket anyway). Continuing on however, I was surprised that there was a Cinnabon shop there in Piccadilly Circus. I didn't think they operated in the UK any more and I love their artery clogging products. I couldn't resist and so purchased a mini Chocobon which was just as tasty as I remembered, and just as difficult to eat without a table as I remembered :P
This was the larger one I ate later
Wandered up Regent Street in case anything would catch our eye with the intention of coming back down Oxford Street and on to Covent Garden (for CyberCandy). Walked past Hamleys which had a blue blob from Monsters vs Aliens costume thing outside the store. We didn't go in due to lack of money and just walked round to Oxford Street where I decided to find a free toilet in Borders. My mission was successful and so we chilled out in the Starbucks before deciding on what to do next*. So, finished going down Oxford Street, passing another Cinnabon on the way which made me rather jealous of London and passed under Centre Point on the way to Forbidden Planet on Shaftsbury Avenue. London's Forbidden Planet used to be unique due to it's size, however these days it's only marginally larger than the one in Southampton which is obviously much easier to get to so had a look about but nothing caught my eye (apart from the t-shirt rack which was selling the same OCP t-shirt I happened to be wearing).
Next stop was Covent Garden. Rather bizarrely, on our way to Covent Garden, we bumped into
delph_bunny who was on the phone to someone. Would have chatted with him but seemed rude to talk to someone while they're on the phone so just went on to CyberCandy. As usual, plenty tasty looking things on offer including a wide selection of all varieties of Pop Tarts but sadly no Cookie Dough flavour which was my favourite (and I think discontinued) so I passed on that and ended up getting a selection of the new flavours of Mountain Dew, some Jones Root Beer, some Nestle Overloads (which are what appear to be Nestle's take on Reeces Cups with different toppings) and a cookies and cream Kit Kat.After purchasing overpriced sugary treats, our plan was to sit down and have a pint in the next door pub, but it was rammed. We headed back towards Covent Garden and met up with
orona_red who Bungle had arranged us to meet. With us not really having any plans until we felt hungry, we just ended up sitting in Leicester Square and chatting for a bit until Orona revealed he had planned to get a camera from a shop near Tottenham Court Road and so with lack of anything better to do, we wandered up to the camera shop but they didn't have the one Orona was looking for. Decided we were hungry enough for some food and so headed off to Bodeans for some meat. I had been before but wasn't that hungry at the time so only had a hot dog. However this time I wanted to properly experience the place and so had a combo of ribs, chicken and pulled pork. As bizarre as it may sound, I had never eaten ribs before and needed to check on how you're supposed to eat them! They were really tasty tho, as was everything else on the plate. Was certainly worth the £15 for the meal, however the drinks were extortionate. £2.50 for an non-refillable glass of coke... I ended up getting the beer of the month which was Gaymers Cider (yes, I know that's not a beer...) just so I had a larger volume of liquid to drink.Again after food we had no plans on what to do and so after a bit more aimless wandering, we ended up at the Cinnabon on Oxford Street, where I had a normal sized Chocobon (nom!) and Orona had Cinnasticks. Ended up spending ages in the seating area just chatting, and Orona ended up playing with his food...
After that, we decided to head off home and so said goodbye to Orona at the underground station before walking back to Waterloo. By the time we got there, we had about half an hour until our train, which was good considering the queue for the toilets due to malfunctioning barriers. Anyway, picked a seat on the train and expected to have a long but quiet journey back home. However drunken football supporters had other plans >_< I tried to drown them out by watching Slumdog Millionaire on my PMP but they were still very audible. I wish I had brought my noise cancelling headphones... The connecting train wasn't much better either as a woman had what sounded like a rabid dog that could attack everyone on the train at any moment. Fortunately my stop was only 3 stops away.
Anyway, in summary, had a really good day. Not particularily structured, but fun all the same. Was certainly better to have something to do rather than stay in my flat or wander around the same old Southampton. Unfortunately I'm now broke for the rest of the month but will be good to do something again next month. However I am doing Confuzzled next month so that will be something :)
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