It is hot. Very, very hot.. My typically Wellingtonian prelidiction for dark colours is proving my downfall, to the benefit of the bottled drink industry - at least I managed to pack some light-coloured trousers. I may have to get Ellen to help me go shopping... :)
Downstairs, Paul is playing some classic Kiwi tracks to his flatmates - "Rewind" by the Hallelujia Picassos, "Parehaka" by Herbs & Tim Finn, "There Is No Depression In New Zealand" by Blam Blam Blam... I find it hard to conceive what it might be like to hear some of these for the first time, rather than having them evoke the halcyon days of my youth. I'm annoyed about what I don't seem to have brought with me - some essentials like a really good collection of NZ pop (of the Hello Sailor / Coup d'Etat / Dragon variety) and the Beatlecracker Suite, for example. But being able to play Paul the version of "Dirty Creature" that's done by King Kapisi and Betchadupa is quite cool. :)
There were a number of things I meant to say yesterday about entering the country - but when I started pausing, having a mini dream, and then found I had written a word that made sense in the context of the dream, but not in the sentence... well, then I decided that I had to go to bed. But I had wanted to mention going through customs - I was a bit worried, since I had a bunch of coffee in my bag, which I know is used by drug smugglers to hide the smell of their contraband. So it was some trepidation that I headed to the "nothing to declare" gate... only to find that there was no-one there. Like, no-one - there were tables and metal detectors, but not even someone to do a visual check. It was weird, and somewhat creepy - I mean, I'm used to NZ, where they take biosecurity seriously, and have sniffer dogs that seek pears rather than cocaine. I'm not saying that I would have prefered a full cavity search, but I felt a bit like I was breaking some kind of rule.
Anyway, the trick of "stay up until 4am the night before you go, then don't properly go to sleep for more than 45 hours" seems to have done the trick, jet-lag wise - I feel a little tired, but not weirdly so. I think the fact that I've been out in the bright sunshine probably helps a lot - I'm really not looking forward to the trip back.
Went out sight-seeing with Paul today - Houses of Parliment, the Cenotaph, Cleopatra's Needle, etc. Had a pub lunch at a nice chain that has a non-smoking secction and only charges 15p for a lime and soda - something begining with 'W', I forget what. (Paul tells me "Wetherspoons".) Popped into a enormous five-story bookstore, really wanted to get a big hardback called "Jewish Legends and Folklore", talked myself down to a wee paperback on the history of the names of the currently active Underground stations. Have already bought a bunch of books - at some point, will buy a suitcase.
Was mocked at drinks yesterday for talking about dairies - here, they're cornershops. According to Paul, in Australia they're "milkbars", which is just bizarre.
("@" is in the place I expect the double-quotes to be - if you see any mistakes along that line, well, now you know why. '"' is above the 2, for some reason - I can't remember what *should* be there but double-quotes isn't it. :)
Hey, flatmates - how's the tidied flat holding out? Is it weird being able to get to the balcony door? :)
Should go off to bed now - going for a country ramble in the morning. Constable country, in fact - the place that Constable painted the hay-wain, to be precise. I've rung Ellen, so I'll be turning up in Oxford either today or tomorrow. Slowly but surely, I'm organizing this trip on the fly... I can see how it's nice to have this all done beforehand, but I'm not sure I would have been walking on the Southbank with Paul and running across a Cuban/Sri Lankan/Liverpudllian band playing a free salsa concert. (I bought the album. :)
This trip has been a bunch of happy chances so far - I hope that the random live music theme continues!
Posted by svend at August 8, 2004 10:13 AMThe @ is above the 2, of course. Was the 5 story bookstore Foyles? (Mmmmmm, Foyles)
My theory about lack of UK Customs is that they principally check for drugs, and if you've arrived from Singapore or Malaysia, there's sod all chance of you having drugs on you, so why bother?
Either that, or they'd reached their target that day, so they'd skived off for the rest of it. Seems equally likely to me.
Posted by: Michael at August 8, 2004 5:40 PM