So it begins...

Hi Everyone

Well I finally left Melbourne at 2:55am on Wednesday morning, 26th May 2010. The flight took 26 hours with two stops, we had a 1:30 hour stopover in Kuala Lumper, but they only allowed us 20 minutes to ourselves and then we had to check in to reboard the flight. They say reboard, but they really mean 'shepard you into a lounge and make you wait'. We then had another stopover in Dubai, what an incredible place. I was watching the landscape out the window and I have never seen anything so baron, not even our outback... None of the homes outside the city of Dubai had any trees or shade at all, just little buildings stuck in the middle of a desert, it was amazing... You should Google Earth it, just to be amazed too.

I arrived at Heathrow at 8:08pm, London time, it was still light and remained so for quite a while, I loved that, I didn't have to find my bearings in the dark. I stayed at an hotel near the airport for my first night, as I didn't want to travel into London in the middle of the night, with all my luggage and no idea of where I was going.... Good plan, it worked out quite well. The Holiday Inn Arial was quite nice, decent price and their breakfast was to die for... It was help yourself, and I did!! I still wasn't hungry at lunch time, so there you are.

I took a train into town from Heathrow at about 7am this morning, so am now officially in London. I could not book into this hotel until 1:30 pm, so have been dragging my luggage around all day, I am surprised at how much I have seen this morning, considering I was dragging around about a ton of luggage. I know the airport in Melbourne told me it was 21.5 kilo's but I think their scale is incorrect as it is definitly nearer the ton... I know, I totted the thing around all morning. When I arrived in London at Piccadilly train station, I discovered that they do not actually have lifts in train stations, it was the funniest thing, like on the cartoons when someone looks up the stairs and they just keep growing, higher and higher, that is exactly how it was, I couldn't believe it, no lifts and me with 1 ton of luggage and no muscles!! I was in serious trouble when this lovely young man saw my predicament and said "Would you like a hand with that?", in the most adorable English accent... Well he had muscles, lots of them... mmmmm....

I have been to Trafalgar Square, St James Park, Buckingham Palace, Wellington's Arch, Hyde Park and Marble Arch already, not too bad for one morning. I am now in the new hotel, it has free wireless internet which is great, which is lucky, 'cause the rest of it is not that wonderful. I almost laughed out loud when I saw my room.. If you tried to swing a cat you would fracture the poor thing in several places. The worst part though is no lift, yep I know, I was looking at that 1 ton piece of luggage and then the stairs in horror!! Luckily the receptionist offered me a hand with my luggage and as she was young and fit and rents rooms on the first floor without an elevator to old ladies (I was feeling older by the minute) , I let her do it, no guilt at all...

So now I am about to have a nap (that's the old lady thing kicking in!!) then I shall go out and explore again, without the hinderance of all that luggage.

You will all be super suprised to know that my very first English purchase was a bottle of Coke.... I know I'm amazed too!! Mind you they are impossible to find cold, most of them are sold straight off the shelf...

As most of you will know I planned to give up smoking before my trip, well that didn't work out so well.... So I then decided to give up upon arriving in England, I brought my stop smoking patches with me and everything. Have you ever tried to open a stop smoking patch without scissors??? I have no sharp items on my person, they discouraged them at Tullamarine, so what can a person do? I shall have to find a shop and buy some scissors and then forge ahead with my plan of non smoking... bear with me, I shall post updates of how all that works out!

So that is all my news at present. I shall post some of my pics at the bottom of this post, so you can have a small look see at what I have done.

This is my first blog, I have no idea what I am doing, so I hope it works out properly, if not, please bear with me until I get it sorted.

Cheers for now, from London

Lones

Buckingham Palace

St James Park

Two of London's icons, Nelson's Column & a double decker bus