Dinosaurs and Harrods

This weekend we spent most of our time in South Kensington. This is about a 25 minute tube ride from where we're staying in Sudbury Hill. It's the location of heaps of interesting places, like Harrods, The Natural History Museum, The Science Museum, The Royal Albert Hall and Kensington Gardens.

We didn't manage to fit in a visit to the science museum this time, but it looks really interesting, so we'll try and go back there. All museums are currently free to visit in London, which makes them much more appealing.

The line for the Natural History Museum was stretching out the door when we arrived, and it stayed that way for the whole day. I wonder if it would have been as busy had we visited on a weekday. I think everywhere in London is just busy all the time.

There is a whole exhibit about dinosaurs, and they have lots of humungous skeletons. Bradley was super excited since he loves dinosaurs and could name every one without looking at the name tag. It was really dark inside, so we didn't get very good photo's. Really need to invest in a better camera. They have all these little dinosaur animatronics, and a big one of a T-Rex, that was really cool to see.

We also went to Harrods which was just down the road. It's 4 levels, and it's just luxury everywhere. Was thinking of buying a teddy bear to replace my cuddle buddy left behind in NZ, but none were cuddly enough :( So have to keep looking. We bought some mini cupcakes from Lola's Cupcake shop in the Food Hall. We got Banana, Oreo and Chocolate Marshmallow. They were okay, but not as nice as the one from Hummingbird Bakery we had the other day.

There were heaps of people in Harrods too, mostly tourists it looked like, but also rich Europeans who looked like the only ones actually buying anything. We went up to their toy department which was awesome, lot's of bears everywhere.

Everything seemed to be Egyptian themed, and there was a massive Dodi and Diana memorial on the ground floor. Everyone was crowded around it and taking photos. Seemed a bit tacky to me, and we kind of rushed past it.

There are Diana memorials everywhere in Kensington Gardens where we went after Harrods. I think there's a fountain, a playground and a walkway. It's insane.

Kensington Gardens is quite lovely to walk around. Didn't really see any squirrels, but there were heaps of people out walking their dogs, which made me miss Mac and Piper again.

There was also quite a lot of people boating on the lake, which was surprising because it was really cold this weekend. There was a really icy wind, I don't think I would've liked to have been on the water.

We grabbed a hot chocolate from one of the many stalls in the park and sat down to have our cupcakes.

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking round the park. There is an incredibly large statue of Prince Albert in the park across from The Royal Albert Hall. Very large and very gold.

We're going to call some recruitment agencies tomorrow and see about getting some work. Hopefully we can find some pretty quickly, we're not that fussy.

Portobello Markets

Today we went to Portobello Markets. It was a yucky day again, really cold and there were periods of heavy rain. Going on a Friday meant there weren't as many stalls as on the weekend, but there was still heaps of stalls there and lots to look at.

There are shops and market stalls all the way down Portobello Road, and they sell everything from jewellery to teapots to fur coats. I had my eye on a cute tea-for-one set with cupcakes on it, but decided I didn't really need it since we don't have a permanent home yet. They had heaps of cool jewellery, and I brought a Turquoise and silver ring. I've been looking for one for ages, but hadn't found one I liked, so was very excited to finally find one.

The ring in the middle is the one I got today, the one on the left is a Nightmare Before Christmas ring from Disneyland and the one on the right is a Pirates of the Caribbean ring also from Disneyland.

I also bought a pink umbrella, which was excellent for keeping the rain off me. It's pretty large and has a parasol top, so maybe not perfect for daily use, but I loved the colour! Maybe I'll just save it for special occasions :)

For lunch we had cupcakes from Hummingbird bakery. We had carrot cake cupcakes, but they had cola ones with little coke bottle lollies on top! They looked pretty good...but wasn't sure about how cola cupcakes would taste.

I bought some navy Hunter gumboots today as well. They were perfect for the rain, my feet were nice and dry. And they're pretty stylish too. So I've gone from not buying anything, to buying quite a lot in one day! I also stopped in at Primark in Hammersmith and purchased the puffer jacket in the post below, and also a thinner hip length jacket to wear now, as it's not quite cold enough for the puffer yet. That one was only 11 pounds! Bargain!

We had hoped to go to Borough Markets today as well, but by the time we left Portobello Rd it was 3 p.m., and Borough Markets were too far away to make it by closing time. Hopefully we can go next week.

Here's a photo of the house we're staying in too, and one of our room.

Guess What I Bought Today...

A 17 pound puffer jacket from Primark!

Finally arrived in London!

Well we've arrived in London. We arrived on Sunday afternoon after a horrendous flight with no sleep. Not sure why, but I was completely freaked out the entire flight from LA to London. Every time the plane hit some turbulence I was convinced we were about to plummet to the ground, even taking rescue remedy, sleeping tablets and rubbing Peace of Mind cream on my neck didn't help.

So needless to say I was already pretty emotional by the time we arrived. Once we arrived in Sudbury Hill where we're staying, I think everything just hit me and I got really depressed. I think it was finally arriving at our destination, where everything was really strange, and there was no one at the house when we arrived. So I think I was just really lonely and I was ready to go home right then!

I've gotten a bit better since then...but still feeling really homesick and missing everyone. Especially the dogs :(

The place we're staying in is pretty far from the centre of London, about a 40 minute tube ride into Picadilly Circus. We're on a central line, so we don't have to change unless we want to go north or south. We've mastered the tube pretty quickly, haven't gotten on the wrong one yet, and that includes several trips where we've changed onto several different lines. So we're pretty proud of ourselves.

On Monday we caught the tube into Oxford Circus because we had to go to the HSBC to get our debit cards and activate our bank account. We couldn't get over how many people there were on Regent Street and Oxford Circus. It was like Christmas rush hour times a thousand. It was pretty claustrophobic, just being around that many people, and everyone's moving really fast. Everyone moves really fast in London, all the time.

So we opened our account super easily. It was great we were able to open it from NZ, as otherwise it would have taken weeks for them to set up, and we wouldn't have been given a proper bank account. So hurray for ASB.

On Tuesday we went to the massive Westfield Mall in Shepherd's Bush. It's amazing. It has all the shops, but without the horrendous crowds. So I know where I'll be shopping from now on. Plus, it's inside so you don't get rained on and it's open late every night. It's 2 levels, but each level is like an NZ shopping centre in itself. It's probably 4 times the size of St Lukes.

We haven't really brought much stuff yet, I've been looking for a winter coat, but haven't managed to find one I like yet. Hopefully I can find one soon, because today it dropped to 14 degrees, where as the rest of the week it has been in the 20's, so it was a big shock for us. Not sure how I'm going to survive winter...

After Westfield we went to High Street Kensington, which is like a mini Oxford Circus. Still pretty busy, with lot's of shops, but not insanely crowded. We wandered around Notting Hill and through Holland Park looking at all the amazing houses.

On Wednesday we went to the Tower of London, Covent Garden and Trafalgar Square. The Tower of London was awesome, we had a guided tour with a Yeoman guard (Beefeater). It was really interesting, they told us the whole history of the Tower and everyone who had been killed there. They also had an exhibition on the armour of previous King's of England, that was more interesting for Bradley than for me. There's only so many suits of armour you can look at...

We loved Covent Garden. Bradley found an amazing comic book store called Forbidden Planet, I think he could have stayed there for hours. I think it was the same as when I discovered the Sephora beauty store in San Francisco. The comic store is really big, it's 2 levels and filled with comics, toys and books. They also do in store signings with celebrities, Simon Pegg and Guillermo Del Toro are both signing books next month, so we might pop along to see those.

We stumbled across Trafalgar Square by accident, we just walked around a corner and there it was. It really is awesome, it had a really cool atmosphere, there were heaps of people just hanging out, sitting on the steps. It was crowded, but didn't seem as bad as other places, maybe because it's such a large space. Reminds me of how people hang out in Aotea Square.

Today we went to see Big Ben and Buckingham Palace. It was freezing today, so we had to stop at Hammersmith tube station and buy me some gloves and a scarf. We were trying to find a good umbrella, but they all seem pretty flimsy. So if anyone can recommend an umbrella store...

We saw the Parliament Buildings, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. We were amazed at the size of Westminster Abbey, it is so tall and just keeps going as you walk around it. We were pretty disappointed by Buckingham Palace, we arrived and it was kind of like 'Is that it??' I was expecting it to be bigger maybe, not sure. Just didn't seem that grand.

We walked through St James Park to get from the Parliament Buildings to Buckingham Palace. It's such a pretty park, there are birds and squirrels everywhere. We were really excited about seeing the squirrels, people were hand feeding them. They run up to you as soon as you see them. That freaked me out a bit, I wasn't sure if they would bite me or not! We got lot's of photos, and will have to bring something to feed them with next time.

We haven't taken too many photo's of London so far. We're going to Portobello Market and Borough Market tomorrow, so hopefully we'll take some more photos then.

Halloween Time at Disneyland

Today was our last day at Disneyland. The only rides we had left were Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain. They had both been closed all week as they were being made over for Halloween. 

The Haunted Mansion was decorated as The Nightmare Before Christmas. Jack Skellington and the rest of the cast from the movie were all over the mansion, and there were pumpkins everywhere. This was by far my favourite ride. We went on it twice.

Space Mountain had been redecorated for Halloween as Ghost Galaxy. It was like you were zooming through space, and there were massive ghosts everywhere. This was pretty scary, as Space Mountain is a roller coaster in the dark anyway, so the addition of ghosts made it even scarier.

Disneyland was extremely busy today. I'd say it was about 4 times busier than the other days this week. Wait times were up to an hour long for Space Mountain and the other popular rides, whereas they had been down to 5 minutes earlier in the week. It looked like most people had come to see the Halloween overlay for Space Mountain and The Haunted Mansion, as soon as the park opened everyone rushed towards both those rides. 


We managed to get in front of everyone to get to The Haunted Mansion first, only to find out it was going to be delayed in opening. We had rushed all that way for nothing! So we got a fastpass and came back at 10 a.m. This was great because we bypassed everyone else in the massive line and got straight on the ride. Fastpasses are fantastic. I don't understand why people were waiting in line for an hour and not getting them!

We'll be going back later tonight to see the fireworks and the Fantasmic show at Disneyland. The Fantasmic show is performed at 10.30 p.m., and is a massive performance based on Fantasia. There's music, lights and lasers, so that should be fun to see.

After we'd been to The Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain, we just wandered the shops for a while. Overnight the park had added even more Halloween decorations, and there was even more Halloween merchandise in the stores. I wanted so much stuff! So I just contented myself with taking photos. Maybe I'll buy some online...

We also took some photos of Downtown Disney and the Lego store. Downtown Disney is a street full of shops and restaurants just outside Disneyland.

We took a video of us on the Carousel as well. We were the only adults on there without children! :)