Jul 2008

The day after the concert, and another one lined up... The Beck concert in Southampton that night. That morning we tried to get our bearings a bit by walking from Islington into the city on another stunning day. We met Andrew for lunch in the Church Yard of St Paul's, and were introduced to Paul's pastries. Afterwards we walked the Millennium Bridge to the Tate Modern, dwarfed by the giant graffiti art on the walls - a recent installation piece. As we had such limited time in London, we were getting used to the 'in-and-out' tours of these places, and had to limit our time in the Tate before heading to Waterloo station. I will definitely be going back to see more of what it has to offer, but did manage to squeeze in seeing the Pollocks, Klines, Rothkos... We walked the Thames to Waterloo station, and were thankful that the staff were very helpful with the information we needed, as we're still adjusting to reading giant sign boards with incomprehensible information.

We caught the train to Southampton and went straight from the station to the concert venue where we met Dan, a friend who works on the crew with Beck, and generously helped us out with tickets for the event. We strolled on into soundcheck with the band, and sat in the back rocking away to the wordless beats of the songs. After the gig, we waited around for pack up and ended up sitting in the tour bus (the crew's one, Beck quickly scampered away to his and departed) having some drinks with Dan, and one or two of the band until they left us to drive to Manchester for the next gig...

We caught the morning train back into the heart of the city, and spent the day walking the streets to see some more sites. Soho in search of the famous 'flat white', but found the fabulous Monmouth Coffee House instead, Neal's Dairy for some amazing blue cheese (not pricey at all if you were earning the pounds, like most things really! Pity about the NZ dollar...), Covent Gardens, Trafalgar Square and a glimpse at Buckingham Palace, and ended up at the British Museum - incredible architecture. With our newly acquired blue cheese, we picked up some red wine to have with Andrew, and went to the lock at the canal by his place where the houseboats lie.

From there it was into the city for dinner with Josh's brother Daniel, his wife Katherine and Josh's sister Sophie at the East Room, where we enjoyed fantastic cocktails and food, including one specially made cocktail for Josh by the 'NZ' bartender, who actually turned out to be Australian...

Fish in a sea of weird and wonderful accents, we arrived at Heathrow after what felt like an extended long-haul flight, although it was only 13 hours. Although 13 hours without any entertainment system working is a long 13 hours... Not impressed to say the least! We had finally made it, and were immediately introduced to London's underground to make our way back to Andrew's flat - thankfully with the lead of Andrew - in Angel, Islington. Rolling my suitcase down cobblestone streets, following Josh with many kilos on his back, this was the start of lugging our lives around behind us in bags. We discovered that London doesn't get dark until at least 10.30pm in summer which was a great excuse to go to the pub for our first drink in London. We met Josh's brother Daniel, his wife Katherine, and Josh's sister Sophie at the Organic bar down the road for one drink before we faded miserably into the pits of tiredness...

The next day was a strikingly sunny day, spent in Islington with my cousin Patrick and his partner Randy (who coincidentally live a short walk from where we were staying), and my sister Sarah and her boyfriend Mike who had travelled from Bristol for the day. A bit of a reunion over a beautiful Greek lunch, followed by a crash course in London tips...

That evening we were heading to the Erykah Badu concert, and caught the tube into the city, which gave me my first glimpse of the London riverscape, and all of the tourist sites scattered around it. We walked along past Millenium Bridge shadowed by the Tate Modern to Embankment to enjoy a drink in the sun, outside the caves of the bar below us. Another tube ride to Brixton where the concert was being held, and we arrived at the venue. An amazing voice, and an incredible show, but sadly jetlag may have hit us by this point and we weren't quite on form... But what a fantastic night.