This summer, I headed back to the UK for a few weeks. I boarded
the plane in Qatar where the temperature was pushing 50 degrees, and walked off
in England to chilly 15 degrees or so.
Travelling alone has never bothered me in the past, and this time was no
exception. I find making my way around, whether it be by car, train, plane,
tube, bus, fairly easy (hence 'Navigator Phil'). So after some instruction from
KatieB, I hopped on the Piccadilly line and headed east-bound.
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| The London Eye |
My loose plan for the two-weeks was to eat an extortionate amount
of Haribo Starmix, drink alcohol on some sort of public street, see a show,
dip-dye my hair, and get a tattoo. I was extremely pleased (and somewhat
surprised) that I managed to do all of the above. Especially the latter in the
list! Although admittedly, I think the only reasons I actually went through
with the last one is because (a) KatieB (b) the very nice tattooist fed me
chocolate and kept me distracted by filling me in on all the local gossip (he
clearly saw me coming a mile away).
My whirlwind trip also included a trip down to sunny Bournemouth. So for one
weekend only, KatieB, HT, Skywalker, Kim and I trooped down to the coast. Our
aim was to visit the Student Village (potentially throw sharp items at
students), visit Butlers (the land of baguette heaven), and just generally
reminisce.
Unfortunately we were unable to track any (bastard) students down and Butlers
was closed for the weekend (devastated – I shall have to continue living
vicariously through others)! So instead, we spent a large amount of time
at Sixty Million Postcards (a pub) doing crosswords and Sudoku, eating at some
random Italian restaurant close to the Travelodge, and sitting in the park. I
feel I should mention we also played an epic game of Crazy Golf, mainly because
I was amazing.
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| Bournemouth |
I was also extremely lucky to
secure a couple of Olympic tickets for when I was there. The Baby and I watched
some gymnastics, a diving final, and a volleyball semi-final match. It was all
very exciting! We did however both get horrifically sucked in by the widespread
Team GB patriotism that seemed to affect the whole country and as a result
ended up buying a large amount of useless paraphernalia at each of the events.
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| Gymnastics, O2 |
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| Volleyball, Earls Court |
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| Diving, Olympic Park |
As is always the case with
holidays, it went far too quickly and before I knew it, I was headed back to
the sandpit.
