English Summers and Meeting Brothers
Mel and I are quite established in London now after 6 months, has it been that long? We have a place to live and bills in our name and even a TV. We both had jobs, I don’t have one since my last contract ran out a month ago so I am enjoying the start of an English summer sitting in the sun and watching the leaves grow on the trees out my window. London is really a different place in summer. A couple of weekends ago the sun was up at 6am and down at 9pm and between those hours it was sun sun sun. We could walk around in Tee shirts and shorts and we even had to pull out the sunglasses and give them a good polish. The rain returned on Monday and everyone said that was the English summer over and done with in one weekend. If only every weekend was like that. The parks in London are just great. There are plenty of green bits around for a big dull concrete city.
A few weeks ago some friends of ours and Mel and I decided to go out to Black Heath for a kick around of the rugby ball. So we clambered off to the tube station with rugby ball and Frisbees galore in hand for a day out in the park. The weather wasn’t too crash hot but once your running around it doesn’t really matter. We tubed to Waterloo and then jumped the overland to Black Heath. Well we didn’t exactly. We didn’t know here we were going so we were just following David, Jane and Matt who presumably knew where we were going. The train pulled up and the origin and destination on the front of it was “Listen to Announcements”. The trains origin, “Listen”, must be in France as it sounded French and we had no idea where “Announcements” was, presumably Wales somewhere and “Announcements” in Welsh was actually pronounced “New Port”. We did a quick analysis of the train and listened very hard to the list of stations this train was bound for being played across the PA but alas our stop was missing from the list so we stepped off the train. As soon as the doors closed and the train was pulling out they announced our stop. So we caught the next train to god knows where. Once we reached God-Knows-Where (just out side of Where-The-Hell-Are-We) we went to catch the connecting bus. We wandered up the street and looking for the connecting bus from the station to our destination. In the end we got fed up and decided to arrange everyone else to meet us in Greenwich. We caught a bus and eventually we were there. Mel and I came up with the suggestion that perhaps we should have just caught the Tube to Greenwich in the first place and saved us and hour but everyone else just ignored us.
At the park we quickly pulled the rugby ball out and we started to boot it around the empty rugby field. We also quickly realised how seven years of not kicking a rugby ball severely impacts your ability. We ran around, had drop kick competitions and generally mucked about. The ball seemed to have gravity towards Jane’s head as she performed a bomb head butt and had several subsequent near misses. The ball also seemed to have the reverse effect on my foot.
The day seemed to get colder and colder and soon we decided to throw the whole thing in and head for the pub. As we were packing up a larger group arrived on the field and seemed to look like they knew what they were doing and actually started a real game.
The other good thing about the increased hours of sunshine is the pub. If it is a sunny day the pubs are just brimming with people standing outside enjoying the rays. You can walk past the pubs and you will have to walk on the road because there is just that many people standing outside with a pint in hand. If you actually walk into the pub you will find that there is absolutely no one inside. It is so nice to be able to sit outside your local pub drinking beer while sitting in the sun with your shades on. You realise that London actually has a sky that is blue. Also the high amount of air traffic above London creates a nice criss-cross pattern of jet streams across the sky that is just magic at sunset.
Another good thing to do in London when you’re unemployed and have no money is to visit the Old Bailey, the criminal courts in London. David and I have been planning to visit for some time now and as we were both in between contracts the other week we decided to pop down and have a look as there were two high profile cases underway. The first was the case of Jane Andrews, the former royal Aide to the Duchess of York, who brutally stabbed her boyfriend to death and the second was Barry George on trial for the murder of TV celebrity Jill Dando. The Jane Andrews case had its verdict due and was very much the most popular case to visit, queues of photographers lined up down the street. We decided on the Jill Dando murder trial, as we would have more chance of getting into the public gallery. We queued up and passed through the security check. Wandered down to court one and sat down, front row, to watch the trial. It is quite interesting to watch the criminal courts in action but it can be very long and dull. We watch three people give evidence confirming Barry George’s whereabouts in proximity to the murder and were waiting on the edge of our seats for the strong Lawyer talk and the objections to start flying but it never happened. It was very orderly and the judge even made a couple of jokes. Not very funny ones.
The public gallery however must be the noisiest room on the face of this earth. The floors and chairs are made out of squeaky old wood and even tiptoeing to your seat creates a din that draws eyes upon you. This created the only bit of excitement for the day when a girl, whom I assume was a law student, dropped her pencil case down the stairs spilling a very loud collection of pens and pencils everywhere causing such a commotion that the whole court stopped and looked. How embarrassing.
David and I left after an eternity deciding we had experienced enough of the criminal court system. However it was an experience to be sitting within meters of someone who was being convicted of murder and that had to sit there every day during the trial and could not just go home when he felt like it. And should he be convicted would be spending many long nights in one of England’s finest prisons. It is sobering to be reminded how valuable your freedom is. I went home and turned the TV on for the evening news where in 30 seconds a reporter summed up our entire afternoon at the court.
Another fun thing to do in London is to try and get to Heathrow Airport at 5am in the morning. Jonathan (my brother for those who don’t know) was arriving on the 5:30am flight from Singapore. I arranged to meet him and his friend Calvin at the airport just to say hello and welcome to London. I kind of figured I would catch the early tube out to Heathrow at 4:00am, assuming there was a tube at that time. Unfortunately I discovered at 10:30pm the night before that the first tube wasn’t until 5:20. It’s a 60-minute tube ride out there so that would have me arriving at 6:20. A bit late. After a bit of investigative work on my part I found the only way to get to Heathrow at that hour of the morning was to take the night bus from Trafalgar Square. So at 3am I rose, walked 30 minutes to Trafalgar Square, sat on the night bus for an hour and a half and got to the airport with ten minutes to spare. I said my hellos and welcome to London bit and 20 minutes later said goodbye as Calvin and Jonathan headed off to Calvin’s Godfather’s house. The things brothers do! It was nice to be on the welcoming side of the fence at the airport. Jonathan and Calvin have stayed with us last week in true London style. Sleeping on the floor in the lounge. Next they will have the immense fun of finding work and a place to live. Ohhh I remember the fun time Mel and I had.
Well that’s about it for now. Mel and I are counting down the days to our big tour in September. Assuming I can find work between now and then! So if anyone has any spare cash that they would like to donate to our cause then I can give you the address to send your cheques to. Make them out to the Coalition of Antipodeans Struggling Hard, or CASH for short.
V.