I thought I'd arrived in the wrong city when i stepped outside Stanstead airport in London. There were patches of blue in the sky and the pavements were bathed in warm sunshine. I was expecting floods, overflowing sewerage, third world conditions of disease and army drops of water and supplies.
It didn't take long to be reminded that yes, I am indeed in London, England, despite the lack of flood induced chaos. It seemed to me that London doesn't need weird and wonderful weather conditions to nurture chaos, it just lives in a perpetual cycle of chaos regardless. Just the trip from the airport to the city by bus took something over 2 hours, due to closed tunnels, road works and blocked up traffic. We even managed to cross the Themes two times before arriving, and I certainly received feelings of deja vu driving along various streets.
I arrived eventually, my throat parched, my legs wobbly from lack of food, and stumbled to a bagel shop in the nearest food court. I fluttered my eyelashes, and charmingly asked the lady for a bacon and cheese bagel, and if she would so kindly top up my water bottle from the tap. Now my degraded level of English (resulting from my year with the vikings) may be to blame, but I was rather surprised when she smiled sweetly, took me water bottle, and tossed it neatly into the bin beside her. I like to think it wasn't my poor English that caused the misunderstanding, but instead that she became light headed and confused as a result of my windswept looks and charm...
My reintroduction to wonderful London would of course not be complete without a journey on the reliable and fail proof London underground. A lovely journey 5 stops down the line, a relaxing 15 minute wait on a motionless train (due to radio failures), a lovely journey 5 stops back up the line (due to those radio failures), a handful of trips up and down the never ending escalators and eventually and almost an hour later I had completed my journey of a few kilometers. I at least got my recommended daily intake of Picadillys, Waterloos, and Elephants and castles.
Oh, and I had a bubble bap for lunch.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Hi there! Det lyder som om du har haft en lettere forvirret (confused) beginning to your english visit :) I really like reading this, specielt den del om Life after Roskilde. Dine ord er virkelig malende, man får billeder for øjnene :D
-Hvor er det egentlig utroligt meget man blander sprog når vi taler/skriver sammen, har du thought of that? ;)
Knus christina
Utterly hilarious Jambo. Just love the description of the underground trip. And the Italian bus from Stanstead just caps it all. I can truly picture the scene. Ah London, my home .......... what a shambles :-)
what on earth is a bubble bap!!?? is that what happens when you order a bacon and cheese bagel and so inconsiderately blow the serving lady of her feet with your windswept charming look!? i am just imagining a bread roll full of soapy detergent bubbles. sounds delectable. did you bus take you through Diagon Alley as it traversed London? :) have fun xoxo
Post a Comment