London visit 2010 – day 2 of 6

Trips and outings

You know when you sleep in a strange bed and it takes a night or two before you get used to it. That was exactly what I was doing when at about 6am the first morning the hotel, where I was staying, had its fire alarms go off. When I got into the hall outside my room I saw a lot of sleepy-looking heads popping out from behind the doors trying to find out what the hell was going on. As I got closer to the fire exit it looked more like a zombie convention. Luckily they did not make us wait in the brisk December morning for very long but it was to late to catch-up on any zzz-s.

The day’s morning was first and foremost planned for the Thames version of the Fat Tyre bicycle tour - another highly recommended activity if you visit London, so much more interesting for the fact that we had a run-in by the local bicycle-mounted PCSO (Police Community Support Officers ). Sorry, but to me its like civilians playing police. They are just not allowed to play with guns. Apparently our guide took us over a red light so he got a bit of a posh bollocking from the two officers. I guess that made the tour a bit more thrilling – don’t judge me if I don’t get out as much ;-)

This tour took us round some other parts that the standard (Royal London) tour does not and you even end up sailing on the Thames clipper boats for part of the return journey.

The lunch stop was at a quaint marketplace close to London Bridge where you could have a chance to have some tasty sausages, curries, burgers and much, much more.

The evening entertainment was to be at the Hammersmith Apollo (or as its called now the HMV Apollo) where Mark Watson was spreading his pre-Christmas comedy magic. There was a bit of a cock-up by the production company and one of the advertised times when the show would start was to be half an hour before the actual start. So what Mark did then was to put up a computer screen connected to an overhead LCD display and did some written (chat-line like) humour. Great improvisation Mark! I was surprised about the poor state of the theatre. You see it on the telly with all the big names putting on their comedy acts there and I would never have believed what a dump the place really is. It still however trumps the awful toilet of a place in Swansea Grand Theatre . That place should be condemned, not to mention the almost non-existent legroom – the place was probably designed by a Lilliputian.