Back from London Sightseeing

OK, here's some pics and a wrapup from Saturday night and my sightseeing on Sunday.

I got out of work at 8:30pm and went back to the hotel at 9. We went to a restaraunt called "Latino" that naturally servered Greek/Cyprus food. We ordered "The Full House" which was 20 plates of food that came in 3 courses. There were things like olives, tabuleh, stuffed grape leaves, pork, chicken, fish, etc.

Here's me with a Giant Kao beer from Cyprus. Notice the Chelmsford shirt. Chelmsford is a town

that is not far away from here:

Some of the plates from the first course:
The waiter took our picture but insisted the people at the next table were to be in it. So, meet our new friends:

On Sunday, we took the train to Slough, and then another one to Paddington. From there, we went into London at Hyde Park. It just so happens today is the London Marathon. See the runners below:

We then got on a bus tour and sat on the cold second deck.

This is a huge lion that sits in Tralfagla Square. The sculpter has never seen a lion, so he sculpted his dog, and put a mane on it.

In Hyde Park there is a small section called "Speaker Corner". Basically, anyonoe can go down there, set up a step stool, and start talking about anything they want. The funny thing is, there were 6 people all shouting things at once, which made it noisy.The guy below just stood on his stepladder, sang in Herbew and waved an Israeli flag. As you can see, no one was listening:

This guy had some audience. He was explaining that we were all doomed.

Here's the few from the top of the bus going down Fleet Street

Another view

We are acutally driving out of London at this point. there is a giant statue of a Dragon in the middle of the road. This is suppose to guard the gate of London. He's looking the wrong way, if you ask me.

A Giant Ferris wheel "The Eye" and Big Ben

Look kids, Big Ben, Parliment. the funny thing is, this picture was taken from the EXACT rotary from the movie!

The Tower Bridge, taken from driving over Lodon Bridge

Time for a shower and then a long day tomorrow at work. See ya!

Day Off

Well, this is my one day off for the trip, so I'm heading into London to sightsee. New pictures will be posted!

Saturday - Cutover Day!

I worked on Friday until 7pm. All of the people I work with were still there, and I really had no

place to go :) I went to an inn called The George and had the following to eat:

A boxed Camembert, which is a cheese like brie with carmelized onion.

Bangers and mashed: sausages, mashed potatoes, and gravy

Scallops and Salmon

Also had Ringwood beer.

Then, I went to bed.

I'm now typing this, and waiting for my breakfast to be delivered. I got coffee, toast, and fruit.

It also has begun raining.

A few more pictures from yesterday:

Two of my mates, Harp and Rohit, in front of the switch room

A picture in my room, of a lady taking a bath. She has hairy armpits!

Quick update as I'm running a tad late :) It's 7:07 am here.

Here's the view from my hotel window:

The lobby of my hotel, the Harte and Garter

Outside of the hotel, right across from Windor Castle:

The "Windsor Eye" ferris wheel, on the River Thames:

Would you like Fish and Chips or Chicken and Chips?

Browns, where I ate dinner last night:

Yum! Not....This is at McDonalds

It'sa me! Elvis! Mario is everywhere!

More updates to come later

Getting Ready for the UK

Leaving tomorrow! This will be the third year in the row for the blog.

Last Day

Went out for dinner with the VP tonight. Went to a sushi place his friend owns. It's a small place, no sign on the door, seats 12. No menu, you walk in and the two guys there decide what you want to eat.

Anyways, I had 9 types of fish, all raw:

4 types of Tuna
Shrimp
Prawn
Sea Urchin
Summer Oyster (as big as both your hands together)
Periwinkles in the shell
Makerel (spelling)
Octopus
Squid
Who knows what else

Also had cold seaweed in vinager. Only thing the whole trip I didn't like.

Took 3 hours to eat.

Also had 5 glasses of Sake with it and 3 beers. VP has his own bottle at the place, kept filling it up.

Great time.

That being said, I'm ready to go home. I leave tomorrow at 4 pm TST. I'll land around 7:45 pm EST. Can't wait.

I look forward to my Dad's Saudi Arabia blog......

I've Died And Went To Heaven

So, this afternoon after work, we took a cab to Akihabara, "Electric City". This is a part of Tokyo that caters to the Otaku, "fanboy" in Japanese, "geek" in English. It is block after block of stores that sell nothing but video games, comic books, dvds, computers, computer parts, toys, action figure (Giant Robots!), all sorts of electronics. Gee, I wonder who would like that? Needless to say, Chloe and Alex have a present coming from Akihabara. Poor girls.

Here's the pics and the stories:



This is on top of a 20 story building. Inside is nothing but those crane arcade games. Each one holds a different stuffed Space Invader (like below):




Good Grief! It's Super Potato! I could have spent four hours in this store. This is on the outside of the store. Mario and Pac Man are about 10 feet tall. The store is full of old video game systems from the 80s and 90s. If I was alone, I would have bought about 10 of them.



Relax! Enjoy a maid service! What's a maid service? I'll answer that in a bit (not, it's not what you think....)

It'sa me, Mario! Big Mario statue inside of Super Potato. I got my picture taken with him. Christmas card coming.

Outside a maid service.

In Otaku culture, the guys are geeks. They don't get girls. So, they have things called Maid Cafes. What it is, is you go to a cafe. When you walk in, one of the girls below runs up to you and says "Welcome home master!" She takes off your shoes, makes you tea, and WATCHES you play video games. She also talks to you. That's it.

And, no, I didn't go to one. They don't speak English and don't really cater to foreigners :(

This is a makeshift shrine to a terrble murder that happened Sunday. A man drove his car into the crowd and then starting stabing people. 7 died. Horrible crime that everyone in Japan is talking about.

The tent is covering a ton of flowers left by people. There are also people praying outside.


Typical building. They have billboard for video games and anime the same way we have them for Hollywood blockbusters.

Note the maids on the right side, handing out pamplets outside the train station.
I hope you have a Magical Halloween this year! Billboard outside a building for that annual classic about Playboy Bunny Vampires serving drinks.


Well, that's it. I have one more full day in the office, and then I'm going to dinner with the VP at night. Sushi. Sea Urchin. Enough said.

Talk to you soon.