Gina´s London Blog

I am back in Germany for a few weeks and I arrived at Düsseldorf airport on Saturday morning (at 9AM) after I'd spent about 8 hours at Heathrow airport *scary*
I got there at about midnight and I couldn't believe my eyes as the terminal was completely abondoned. Only "Costa Coffee" was still open but apart from a few workers, coppers *g* and 2 lost japanese passengers no one was there and after a while I decided to look for a more comfi spot to have a nap or so, which I found at "International Arrivals". But as soon as I had settled down it started to get really cold and noisy around there. I still managed to stay there and rest until 5AM or so *brr*

The flight was absolutely on time for a change and after "chocolate for breakfast" (I didn't have money for anything else *cry*) I dropped off my luggage (had checked in online the day before) and made my way up to "Departures".
I had 29.6kg of luggage (which was ridiculous) but didn't have to pay as the aircraft happened to be only half full

I'm glad to be here at the moment and the heat is giving us a break as well.
Just popped down our local university hospital to give blood (this time my HB was 14.6 I couldn't believe it) with Vanessa and now we're at G.'s office where I finally managed to find a computer I can use *happy*

Whenever I come here I make three mistakes:

1. I tend to talk to people in English (at least one or two words) before I realize "stop, German, please"
2. I always think nobody around us understands me when I talk to friends or family (in German) while walking down the street.
3. I look to the wrong side while crossing the street

Driving the car is fine as I can switch pretty fast from "sitting on the right side + driving on the left" and "sitting on the left side + driving on the right"

My sister is a student of the University Of Duesseldorf from today and she's very proud of that (Congratulations!)

I hope Daryl's gonna visit me here in Germany in two weeks time... if he ever manages to go on the internet and book the bloody flight.
My flight back to London is on the 28th of August at 1.35PM (BA 939)

I've moved to Harrow/North London and the last couple of days I spent getting to know the area up there.
It's funny. I think if you're a foreigner and/or immigrant and/or poor you'll move to Hackney for instance (East End).
If you're a foreigner and wealthy you'll move to Harrow.
But the people who live up there seem to be really pleasant. It's also strange to have hills while living in London

I'm awfully broke at the moment and believe it or not but I don't even have proper food. I'd have dry bread rolls with milk for breakfast, porridge for lunch and cucumber for tea *g* Good occasion to go on a diet actually

But things are getting better and at the end of the week I'll fly to Germany (Duesseldorf) for a couple of weeks. We'll see.

The heat gave us a break at the weekend but today it's already started to get hotter again and by Wednesday the next heat wave will have arrived *brrr* I'm really fed up.
I love sunshine and blue skies (who doesn't) but NOT LIKE THAT.
I've just spent some time sunbathing at Trafalgar Square (where it's really nice as you can sunbath without getting a heat stroke while putting your legs in cool water (I've mentioned that before I guess)) although you are likely to be photographed by some perverts (this is London, they're everywhere) *g*
Right now I'm at the Easy Internet Cafe at Tottenham Court Rd where some muppet nice person has forgotten to log off so I'm surfing for free *g*
Just popped down Sainsbury's next door and managed to buy wholegrain pasta + mushroom tomato sauce for 1 GBP (always looking out for bargains)

At the moment Central London pisses me off.
With simply three reasons: Too hot, too dirty, too busy...
Although I have to admit spending one day in Harrow, Sudbury, Ruislip and Co. makes me long for some "action" (it's really dull and boring up there)

So long (let's be a bit american today)

It is hot.
And in case I've mentioned that before, it got even hotter.
I don't really mind as long as I get enough water and food but going by bus is unbearable.
Luckily enough the trains from Richmond towards Central London have air conditioning and so it's a pleasure to go by train at least.
The room I've got is quite nice as well (although it's on the Ground floor and keeping the windows open means everyone can look inside). I don't even mind that it's just right next to a fire- and ambulance station and I get woken up by sirens every hour. Since I've got about four windows or so there's always enough air throughout the night (has been really warm and humid so far), so yeah, I will survive *ggg*

I met up with Kathryn the other day (she's studied law and after that media in Kingston for the last three years) and talking to her actually gave me new ideas etc. what to do next.

I'm going to move up to North London (Harrow) tonight and then we'll see.
I might also be going home for a few weeks soon

There's not much I can write at the moment as things are a bit out of order and I am moving house.

The last couple of days have been a complete mess and I am just about to sort things out (which turns out to be hard work).

It is really hot again (32 degrees) and I am sweating

Yesterday I slept most of the day (as I hadn't done so for ages) and then I went out in Richmond (where I'm living at the moment).
I spent ages on the computer/internet and went sunbathing at Richmond Green afterwards before I took a bus up to Kensington.

That's me at the ROYAL ALBERT HALL yesterday:
(PS: I am not as happy at the moment as I look in this pic)

First of all: sorry for being so lazy.
Much happened but I just didn't have time to write about it.
Many things are changing at the moment as well and it looks like I'm going back to Germany quite soon (for how long, I don't know yet)

The week with Vanessa was great and after that I got back to everyday's life which meant: work, going out, having fun, getting annoyed by XY etc etc.

I also made an experiment (not deliberately!):
How long can you get by without any sleep or better: how does your mood change if you haven't slept for over 50 hours?

Another thing: I won't drink anymore! *ggg*

Monday and Tuesday I was working all day and when I went out with Daryl on Tuesday night I actually realized that everything's changing at the moment whereas I want it to stay as it is more than anything else. (I'll write about that later)

D. was really, really poorly again (we were all quite worried as he had such a high fever that he started halluzinating).
We called a doctor out at 2AM in the morning. (The "Thames Doc" which I think is quite similar to "der kassenaerztliche Notdienst" in Germany. Took them just about 20 minutes to get here but there was not much he could do anyway apart from reassuring us and giving him some medicine he already had.) The fever was over 104 and he had been throwing up for more than 20 times during the day.

I had to go to the dentist today *argh* but it was no problem at all.
Got a nice sedation (+ a needle into my hand which makes me look like a junkie *brrrrr*) and can't remember much (not even that nasty noise you tend to hear) - cool!

I'm still waiting for the results of my exam.. and yesterday was my last day at work *cry*

The week's been pretty hot so far (too hot) and Vanny and I have been suffering in the heat while stucking to our planned "Across London" tour... (She'd only been here once before so there was a lot she hadn't seen yet)

We went up to East London where we first stopped at St Paul's Cathedral and Tower Bridge later on where we nearly died without any water/food/energy left *LOL* and a copper misled us telling us the wrong way to the next Sainsbury's/ they are really cruel, you know, he probably wanted us to die somewhere in the backstreets *ggg* because England lost the day before and Germany got into the semi final *yeah*).
We did some, well, sight seeing (Tower Of London, Big Ben and Co.) and had a nice time sitting in the shadow in front of Marks & Spencers (where we finally got some food and water which prevented us from fainting in that heat *brrrr*)

We took a bus down to Canary Wharf but the shopping centre was already closed so we just had a little walk around, some refreshment from Tescos (+ the lovely air conditioning in there) and some fun at "fishermen walk" (gosh we really embarrassed ourselves) before we graped a chinki and catched a bus (no 15) back to Central London.

In the evening it was lovely as we walked down to Leicester Square and Covent Garden (where we had loads of freshly squeezed orange juice and live music).

On Monday it was still unbearably hot and we went up to Kingston (in order to flee from the heat we popped down Bentalls Centre) and did some shopping sight seeing

I had to work for a few hours and after that Vanny and I took a bus down to Wimbledon (where we met loads of weird people).
There's Tennis in Wimbledon and a "Flower Show" at Hampton Court Palace (where I live) which makes me feel as if I lived in the middle of some kind of tourist attraction (they're everywhere!).
As I mentioned before: I hate tourists!

I won't comment on the world cup as we went to see the game with a few mates of mine yesterday and all I can say is: it's a pity
(We watched it in a pub in Kingston and funnily enough, we found some English couple who were supporting Germany - I couldn't believe it *LOL*)

That was yesterday (Tuesday) where we tried to fight the heat by putting our feet (legs) into the fountains (at Trafalgar Square, which was nice):

Update:

It's really, really hot again - my little sister's here - England got kicked out of the worldcup and I've got a terrible toothache.

On Wednesday I went to the pictures with Anna as usual (where we watched "THE LAKE HOUSE" with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock - quite nice film actually) and Thursday was my last day at college.
It was so sad as we had a nice picnic at Esher Green in the sun and after that we all had to say good-bye for good. Most of us are leaving or doing something else so it's quite unlikely that we'll all meet again
Anna joined our picnic and afterwards we popped down the tanning studio in Cobham before we decided to hang around in her garden for a bit.
In the evening I met up with Daryl in Waterloo where we popped down the pub as usual
No footie = a really quiet evening

On friday I had to see the dentist as my toothache was killing me
I was in agony and scared but it was alright.
Luckily I've got a private insurance so I didn't have to go to an NHS dentist which was good. I got the appointment within one day and the next one next week where I'll also get a sedation (which means I'll be put to sleep and not remember anything *great*)

In the afternoon Lotte and I went up to Kingston to find some nice pub where we could watch footie (Germany - Argentina)
We got loads of chocolate bars for free (there were some guys handing them out for promotion) (which is great if you want to cut down on chocolate) and after a little walk through the heat we popped down "O'Neills".
Nice game (thrilling and almost disturbing but good) as WE WON!

Saturday I got up at 5AM (which nearly killed me) in order to get a bus to Heathrow airport and pick up my sister.
It was alright and we had a nice day up in London where we met up with Daryl later on and watched the England game in a pub.
Unfortunately they lost agains Portugal (which you might know) and because it wasn't fair either everyone got "a little" upset.
The town was packed out with police (on horses, in vans and on the streets), upset footie fans and confused tourists...
We had some tea at Pizza Hut and walked back to Waterloo (across Waterloo Bridge) later on that night.
Vany wasn't feeling well so I was a little worried and additional to that both of us were completely knackered
We couldn't sleep at all as it was hot and sticky etc.
I also had a combination of toothache, tummyache, headache and too much alcohol (which was great *grrrr*)

But hey, cheer up! We're fine now