Aaron Around The World    >>    Europe    >>    United Kingdom    >>    London, England

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Sunday, 26 June 2011 - London in summer, when the sun actually comes out

  
London in summer, when the sun does actually come out, is a really beautiful spot (if you're in the right spots that is - there's plenty of it for which there's just no helping hehe). The mercury was in the high 20s today and seeing as I haven't been for a decent bike ride in ages I whipped out the beast and off we went!
 

 
 
First I headed down to Wimbledon to check out the happenings (this weekend is the halfway point of the tournament), but today is apparently a rest day for everybody so there wasn't much happening.
  
From there I headed further west to Richmond, perched right on the River Thames and an awesome spot to lay back on the grass along the river and get drunk in the sun!
  
And from there I followed the Thames Path back towards home. Yippee.

Thursday, 30 June 2011 - Southeast Asia here we come!

Back in mid-May I mentioned in a nutshell my plans for the next twelve months, which consist entirely of travel around the world and absolutely no work (hooray for savings!). Those plans still stand, which at this stage are:

  • One month in Texas with Kristina.
  • Three months in Southeast Asia with Kristina.
  • Two months in New Zealand and Australia with Kristina.
  • Two months give-or-take in Central America... with Kristina.

As I mentioned before though, anyone reading this is free to jump on board for any of that - open invite :) Anyway, that will take me up to the next northern summer, when I hope to settle in North America somewhere for while. I'll now be leaving the UK permanently in mid-August rather than the end of August as mentioned in May, to give myself a little more time in Texas to prepare for the three-month Southeast Asia trip (and to see a bit of Texas of course). Over the last while I've been researching intently and have put together a provisional itinerary for those three months (provisional because it will change as we go as per the nature of the trip). A full-size version of our route map is here, and a quick rundown of our likely destinations including that provisional itinerary is here. In the meantime, the countdown stands at 45 days - exactly a month and a half and I'm outta here!

  

Saturday, 2 July 2011 - Reading (the city, not the pass time)

  
 
In the weeks since I came back from Paris I've been crashing in the living room of my flat. With so little time left before I leave the UK there was no point kicking the chick out of my room who I put in there to pay most of my rent hehe. Anyway, my other flatmates needed the living room to put their visiting relatives in there for the weekend, so I organised to crash at Davydd's out in Reading. However, he was away for the weekend so I had the place to myself. Left is the view from his flat, and right is a little love note I left on his fridge hahaha (bit of a dirty word blurred out there which you might just about make out, if you wanted to ;)

 
 
Reading (pronounced "Redding") is a large town about 60km west of London. I had only ever passed through here for work purposes (Microsoft's UK headquarters are here) and never really had a good look around. Today was no different really as I had the bike with me and started heading out of town, but it looked a pretty nice place based on what I saw. A lot of police siren though I noticed.

 
This canal running through the centre of town links London to Bristol some 140kms further west. So I started following it not really sure how far I'd get before I either got bored or it started raining. The canal runs beside a railway for most of the way so I could bail at any time if need be.

 
 
I have no idea what that guy in the pink shirt is doing bottom-left.
  
The canal meanders through some really nice countryside, and past some pretty good-looking pubs! If there's one thing I love about the UK (apart from getting out of it), it's the countryside - beautiful!

 
 
Canal house boats - it never ceases to amaze me how people live in these.
  
This one's for sale if anyone is interested ;)
  
It's a pain in the ass to move your house along the canal though - these locks take ages to pass through.

 
 
Anyway I passed moo-cows...
  
Bunny-wabbits...
  
Human-beans...

 
 
And bugs, oh man the bugs - they were everywhere!
  
Have I got any in my teeth? Because I'm sure I ate several, and really wasn't very hungry come dinner time.
  
My odometer clocked up 13,400km somewhere along the way, meaning this bike has now done the some number (6,700km) as my last bike before it was stolen about two years ago. Bloody London.

 
I took a few detours through a few village neighbourhoods. It's amazing how quiet and nice they are compared to the big cities. I would hate to have the hour-or-more commute to/from work every day that some of my workmates have, but I guess this is why they're happy to do it.
  
Anyway, I reached 50kms before I couldn't trust the colour of that sky anymore. This is Newbury, another nice wee town in the hood, and from here I caught the train back to Reading and those sirens.

Sunday, 3 July 2011 - Update on Paris
As most of you know, up until mid-May I had been living and working in Paris after being seconded over there with my job. Our contract expired however and I was brought back to London. The expectation at the time was that a new contract would be put together within a week or two and I'd be sent back over again. But, the French will be French, and nothing happens very fast over there. The latest is that a new contract has been approved by the powers that be and I would be heading back to pick up where I left off in just a matter of weeks. However, with my permanently leaving the UK next month, it's become too late for that now :( So the update is that my Parisian dream is well and truly over, and it was awesome while it lasted - the best eight months I've had since leaving Brisbane and I would recommend Paris to anyone as a fantastic city to live in if you were to ever get the opportunity!

Monday, 4 July 2011 - Ice ice baby

  
The friggin' freezer has iced up again. The door seal has worn away so it doesn't close properly hehe. All I wanted was a couple ice cubes to cool my drink - I certainly got that.

Tuesday, 5 July 2011 - Date confirmed!

So initially it was going to be August 31st, then I pushed it forward to August 15th, but instead it's going to be right in the middle of those two. I booked my flight to Kristina's home town of San Antonio, Texas today for August 23rd! I'm not exactly sure why but the price difference between the 15th and the 23rd onwards is £300 (£750 compared to £450)! I'm guessing UK school holidays must finish about then and hence the airlines drop all their prices back down - bastards. Anyway, despite the small change of date, our travel plans for the following nine months still stand: Texas for a month, Southeast Asia for three months (provisional route for that trip here), New Zealand and Australia for two months, and probably Central America for a couple more after which I'll hopefully be in a position to settle down in North America somewhere for the time being. So, in exactly seven weeks today I'm outta here, and I can't freakin' wait! :)
  

Wednesday, 6 July 2011

  
There have been a few buses going around lately completely splattered from end to end and top to toe with tourism advertising for Malaysia. Although not in our provisional plans, Kristina and I are contemplating including Malaysia while we're in Southeast Asia if time permits. However, spot what somebody has written down the bottom hahaha! I'll keep that in mind.
  

Thursday, 7 July 2011 - No more Harry

  
 
Helicopters in the sky, and thousands of screaming people all over the place. This is Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square, and this lot have all come to witness the premiere of the final instalment of Harry Potter (the eighth in the series; I've seen the first three I think). Some of these idiots camped out along the unusually-large red carpet stretching 1.2km between Leicester and Trafalgar Squares since Monday in pissing rain, and others came from as far as China and Argentina for this! Unreal.

 
 
Big screen in Trafalgar Square. J. K. Rowling is in the centre there.
  
Trafalgar Square was barricaded off, leaving a lot of folk to get their photos from the adjacent road, like me ;) Daniel Radcliffe (Harry) in the grey suit on the left, Emma Watson (Hermione) in the spotlight wearing the big boofy dress, and Rupert Grint (Ron the ginger) to her right. I'm not the biggest fan but it's something to come see after work :)

Tuesday, 12 July 2011 - 254 down, 6 more to go

  
Weeks until I'm out of here that is. Yup, Tuesday August 23rd I board a plane at Heathrow, and I don't come back. Anyway, after my month in Texas with Kristina and our three-month jaunt throughout Southeast Asia, we're doing a month and a half in New Zealand (followed by probably another month and a half in Australia). I'm planning a big road trip taking in the bulk of the country, starting in Christchurch (my home sweet home) and finishing in Auckland. 4,000kms of fun all up - full-size route map here :)
  

Thursday, 14 July 2011 - Safe driving and safe sex

  
 
 I saw the funniest car accident while riding into work this morning. Traffic was gridlocked along nearest the main road as it often is, made worse by both an awkward intersection and two lanes merging into one. At that merge point, some punk who was clearly Eastern European decided he was sick of this traffic, and so rather than merge like everyone else he made his own lane down the middle of the road to overtake everyone, in hope of finding a gap further up the road to squeeze in to. Inevitably a car coming in the opposite direction got in his way, so this punk had no choice but to merge back in to traffic rather suddenly. But given there was nowhere amongst the gridlock for him to merge into, he ended up merging straight into the side of a coach hahaha! As if that wasn't funny enough, the punk then got out and tried to blame it all on the coach driver who incidentally wasn't even in motion - he sideswiped a stationary coach and tried to blame the coach hehe, but that's Eastern Europe for ya. While this was going on, traffic was being held up further by these two now blocking the road. The white van (pointed out above) hurled some abuse at everyone as he drove around, however he could only go another 20 yards up the road before he reached the gridlocked queue of traffic again anyway, so what was the point of the abuse?! But that's Britain for ya.
  
In other news, I came out of work tonight to find a pair condoms sitting by my bike! Very random. I don't have use for such things at the moment - my ladyfriend is in Texas, so I'll see if they're still there in the morning hehe.

Sunday, 17 July 2011 - Just another British summer weekend

  
 
Yes indeed, it's done nothing but piss down all weekend. But with only five more weekends to go, I don't give a shit.
  
Here are a couple of shots I had Kristina take for me around her neighbourhood this afternoon. Pretty much every day looks like this during summer (which is why they're in the midst of a massive drought at the moment but ignoring that for a second) and this is where I'll be in just 37 days :)

Tuesday, 19 July 2011 - Ostraya

  

Five weeks until I fly out, and planning for the next nine months is nearing completion with just Central America left to research :) This time last week I had just got done planning a 40-day, 4,000km road trip around New Zealand for Kristina and I next January, and have now come up with a 40-day, 4,500km road trip right along the east coast of Australia. I would dearly love to take in more of it, particularly the northwest, but there's only so much time in the day unfortunately and Central America beckons! Anyway, full size route map here!

  

Wednesday, 20 July 2011 - Seller beware

  

So much for "buyer beware", with the Nigerians on the loose nobody's safe hehe. I'm selling my projector and have an advert posted for it on an online classified ad site for £185. I got an email yesterday from a Michael claiming he was interested in buying it. I responded, and then got a response back but this time his name had become Mary. I immediately got suspicious and asked why the sudden change of name (and gender), to which I got told his/her full name is Mary Michael Luck - hahaha! Anyway, Mary Michael wanted to offer me £210 if I would post the projector to him and would send the money through PayPal. I said that was fine, and as soon as I receive payment confirmation from PayPal I would post the projector. I then get these two bogus emails here and here, purporting to be from PayPal saying I had received a payment of £210 from Mary Luck (hehe). Well, have a quick look at those emails and spot the obvious flaws, i.e. the atrocious spelling and grammar and overall layout of the email, not to mention half the images are missing, and the buyer is located in none other than... Nigeria! Scam, scam, scam. The idea is that Mr Mary here wanted me to believe he had made payment so I would mail off my projector when of course he had done no such thing.

This all happened this afternoon, and I have since received another email from some other prick offering me £450 (for my £180 projector) if I post it urgently upon this person paying me via Western Union (another telltale sign of a scam). Dear me. People are scammed online every day, and it's easy to see how, but it's so easy to spot the obvious signs that I have little sympathy for such people. In this case, PayPal is a massive and professional company and would never send out such a messed up email, however a scammer with shit for brains would. And in the case of Western Union, just stay the hell away from that one.

Thursday, 21 July 2011 - Fun with scammers

As per yesterday, the Nigerians are still after my projector. Today I had an "Adam Jones" send me a bogus email that was meant to fool me into thinking it was from Western Union confirming payment for my projector. And then the following chain of emails between "Adam" and I commenced. His emails are in bold and, as always, spot the piss-poor English.

Hello mate, I have transfer the money out now and just want you to know that the confirmation mail will be send to you and please all you have to do then is to get this item shipped. Here is the shipping address: Tonsin Ogunkoya, [blah blah blah], Nigeria.

Who is Tosin Ogunkoya?

Tosin Ogunkoya is the name of the receiver of this item in Nigeria so that is the address am sending it to, and please get this item shipped out now.

What is your relationship to Tosin Ogunkoya? Is he your boyfriend?

Why asking me that crap question? what did you want to know about, i have send you the money now please make the shipment to him as i wanted.

Would you like to see a photo of me? I have attached one. Do you like it? Does it excite you? If you send me more money, I will send you more photos, but better ones that you will really like! [I sent him the photo on the right, of me in Barcelona pretending to fall off the wall as per the sign beneath hehe]

Are you mad, what is the meaning of this? you must be stupid asshole.

You don't like this photo? I'm sorry, I thought you would really like it. The last Nigerian asshole who tried to scam me liked it very much. Would you like me to give you his address? He lives in the same city as you ;)

I never heard back.

  

Friday, 22 July 2011 - I follow choas, and it follows me

  
About a month or so after Kristina and I visited Istanbul in Turkey last year, massive rioting broke out. About a month after Kristina and I visited Sharm el Sheik in Egypt, a shark killed and attacked tourists there in the Red Sea. We also visited Cairo on that trip, and massive rioting broke out there too shortly thereafter. And now, just a few months after we visited Oslo in Norway, they've had what appears to be their first ever terrorist attack after a massive bomb tore a good chunk of the central city to bits around government buildings. Look out Southeast Asia - we're coming to you next ;)

Sunday, 24 July 2011 - Amy's Winehouse

  
Some folk think it was inevitble, given her addictions and resulting health issues, and those folk were right as it turns out - Amy Winehouse yesterday joined the list of iconic stars who died aged 27. That list includes Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison, Brian Jones, Janis Joplin - all of them hell-bent on fucking themselves up with various drugs, and early indications are that Winehouse overdosed after a having a massive bender on Friday night. She lived in Camden about a 15-minute cycle from my flat, so I like hundreds of others and the global media all came for a little look-see and pay their respects (or in my case take photos). While I was there, one of her neighbours was being interviewed on camera, and this chick had nothing but nice things to say. Anyway, stay away from drugs kids, and refrain from littering.
 

Wednesday, 27 July 2011 - London 2012

  
 
One year today sees the start of the 2012 Olympic Games in London (it's a leap-year next year, hence 366 days). Too bad I won't be around to see it.
  
Anyway, Trafalgar Square was once again the scene of random festivities to celebrate the occasion and create massive traffic jams.

 
 
Plenty of people with nothing better to do (including me) came along, and grandad appeared to be well impressed!
  
Even Princess Anne rocked up - she's the only daughter of the Queen in case anyone didn't know (including me). I wonder where I'll be in one year.

Friday, 29 July 2011 - Thailand and Central America here we come!

  
Normally us Kiwis don't need to get a visa in advance of entering Thailand, we can just rock up to the front door and they'll let us in for x-number of days. However our plans for Southeast Asia are such that we'll be in Thailand for longer than we're allowed to be under that arrangement so Kristina and I need to get a proper tourist visa, and here it is - lovely.
  
In other news, I just got done putting together a provisional route for the six weeks we'll have available after Australia to see a bit of Central America before Kristina needs to be back in Texas (and I need to get back into work). Full-size map here :)

Monday, 1 August 2011 - Aaron's bike around the world

Over the last few weeks I've been posting advertisements online in an attempt to sell my bike. I'm asking £500 for an extremely well-maintained, two-year-old, £1300 bike (neglecting to mention of course the fact it's done 7,000kms in that time, taught at least three dumbass pedestrians a lesson they won't forget in a hurry, and been given a hiding). It seems even that is too much though as I've had little interest. So I've decided that since it's a perfectly good bike, and if I can't get what I feel it's worth, then I'll just take it with me! FedEx will sting me £200 to courier it to Texas which will only take four days (their cheapest option believe it or not). It'll be waiting for me when I get there in three weeks which means I'll have it to scream around the state in the 40-degree sun, and will save me from forking out for another new bike when I next eventually settle down. With that in mind I whipped out to the bike shop tonight to pick up some new parts for it so it's the next best thing to brand-spanking-new when it gets there. On the way back I found this: the cyclist in black and the posh driver of the white Fiat having an argument at this intersection hehe. According to the cyclist, the car overtook him and cut him up just metres from the intersection for no other apparent reason than to get in front of him despite the red light, which is pointless in this country because most city intersections have an allocated area for cyclists in front of the traffic which you can see in this shot (except that other car is stopped in it which he shouldn't be). Anyway, the driver of the Fiat disagreed, and so through green light after red light after green light after red light this argument carried on while other traffic drove around it hehe. Then came the other cyclist in blue there, followed shortly thereafter by a third cyclist, and of course me - all of us just watching on (and taking photos) I guess in silent support of the lowly cyclist. However, the little wifey in the passenger seat wearing enough makeup to make The Joker look normal wasn't happy about this, and called the police to explain that her husband was having an argument in the middle of the road with this cyclist, and three other cyclists had appeared out of nowhere to watch hahaha! As I happened to be closest to her, she said to me "The police want to know whether you witnessed what happened, and why you're all here", to which I replied, "No I didn't see anything - I'm just here to watch because I have nothing better to do really", and gave her a big cheesy grin. She then relayed what I said word-for-word to the cop on the phone hahaha brilliant! Anyway, we all eventually went our separate ways, and lived to fight another day in the never-ending battle of the road (my air horn does most of my battling for me).
  

Thursday, 4 August 2011 - Attack on cyclist captured on film

  
Check out this typical English scumbag. Let's call him Cock. Cock and his bottom teeth were captured on the helmet camera of a London cyclist threatening to punch the cyclist's lights out. Why did Cock do this? Nobody, not even the cyclist, can really be sure. Cock was the passenger in a car who was behind the cyclist as they both exited a roundabout. The best guess is Cock was upset about the (slower) cyclist delaying his journey by all of about two seconds, not that it mattered because Cock had to stop at a red light anyway. It was at this red light that Cock got out of the car and this happened (the car incidentally didn't wait hehe, and drove off when the light went green). The full news article of this is here - it's unbelievable and yet typical of the mentality of this country; most everybody seems to want a fight over absolutely anything. I'm no stranger to this experience myself.
  
I wonder if they're any better in New York. Given that I'm hoping to set up camp there next summer, a mate at work sent me this news article containing a video of "visual analysis of the everyday dangerous traffic situations at a specific intersection in New York City, which includes pedestrians jaywalking, cyclists running red lights, and motorists plowing through crosswalks". It's great stuff ;)

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