brayza in the UK

Changing the Guard

// May 29th, 2009 // No Comments » // Trip information

Changing the Guard

On Friday (22/5/09) Mel and I finally got out of the house after all the bad weather and went to Hyde Park corner. We visited the Wellington Arch as I had seen it as I left to Manchester the previous week. We were snapping up pictures when a procession of the Queen’s horsemen went straight through the area heading towards Buckingham Palace. Mel remembered that the Changing the Guard happened daily at 11:30am so we followed the horsemen to Buckingham Palace to see what all the fuss was about.

Standing room only

Well Buckingham Palace was absolutely packed. They had sectioned of the road area so everyone was squished up against the fence, sniffing everyone’s bad B.O. It was a very hot day and the crowd was getting restless, as nothing was happening. Just after 11:30am the horsemen from earlier did a circle around the Queen Victoria Memorial in the middle and went inside the Palace grounds. They dismounted and stood still for around half an hour. Mel and I were getting quite hot and restless so we decided to leave. We begun moving towards the exit when I heard some music playing. We decided to stick it out to see what happened. A few moments later a huge procession of the Queen’s band came in through the side and into the Palace grounds. Everyone was jostling for a view, and somehow Mel was able to sneak right up to the fence.

Check in/Check out

Well, if only every time I finished or started work I got a band and a thousand onlookers. I couldn’t really see much from where I was, but the music the band was playing reminded me of Austin Powers. I guess that’s where they get it from. The Changing the Guards obviously takes a while to do, about 45 minutes, and here is a quick run through of what happens.

The New Guard, led by the Band, marches across into the forecourt of Buckingham Palace. Once there, the New Guard advances towards the Old Guard in slow time and halts. The Old Guard presents arms, followed by the New Guard presenting arms. The Captains of the Guards march towards each other for the handing over of the Palace keys. The new reliefs are marched to the guardrooms of Buckingham Palace and St James’ Palace where new sentries are posted. During this time the Band has taken its place by the centre gate, formed up in a half-circle, where it plays music (the Austin Powers theme tune) to entertain the New and Old Guard as well as the watching crowds. With the Old and New Guards formed up once again, the Old Guard and the Band marches out through the centre gates in slow time to their Regimental Slow march played by the Band (more Austin Powers music). At the end of the slow march the Captain of the Old Guard gives the word of command to ‘Break into Quick Time’ and with a brisk five pace roll from the drums, the Band leads the way back to Wellington Barracks (source).

After that happens everyone tries to vacate the area. The thousands pour into St James’ Park, and what great weather it was to lie on the grass, and purchase a hot dog.

Some pointers

As Mel and I just rocked up on a whim, we were lucky to get a relatively good viewing spot. If you go I would suggest:

• For the best view arrive early and stand as near as you can to the railings at the Victoria Monument - stay there. At first we thought nothing was going to happen inside the grounds as everyone looks the other way, but stay there. It all happens inside the grounds. The fence has a little lip on it so you can sit down whilst you wait.
• If you want a picture of a guard I would suggest walking through St James’ Park until you reach the Horse Guard Palace. There are all sorts of Guards there from the Marines to the Queens Guards to Horse Guards. They also love tourists and would love to have a photo with you. Just watch out for the Horses, they aren’t too friendly.
• Also, when the Queen is there then she has four sentries at the front - when she is away there are only two.

Downing Street

On the way back to the tube we also passed by Downing street. I was hoping to get a photo of number 10, however the whole street was locked up like Fort Knox.

The Mancunian

// May 17th, 2009 // No Comments » // Trip information

Hanging with my Pals

On Wednesday (13/5/09) I went and visited my mate Jules (AKA Jude Neville) in Manchester. Jules had bought tickets to the Leeds League 1 play-of against Millwall, so I went up to join him.

That night we watched Man Utd perform the great escape against Wigan, watched Barcelona destroy Alhletic Bilbao and had a pint at local Manchester Jazz bar. It was a great night. I learned a bit of Spanish as well.

The Theatre of Dreams

The next day I had booked Jules and I into a tour of Old Trafford and the Manchester United Museum. The tour lasted about an hour and was Manchester United captain for 10 minutes as I led out my team out of the tunnel. It was a great experience, they played the entrance music and even put on a fake crowd noise. We were also able to sit in the dugout seats which was awesome. I was even joined by Ronaldo and Rooney!! They just appeared out of nowhere

After the tour we went to the Museum and Megastore. I could have bought so much but I held off. I’ll wait for the new jerseys next season, another one with a massive PREMIERS badge!!

The Play-off

After Old Trafford, Jules and I went and grabbed a massive burger at a local pub. It was so big I couldn’t even finish it. After the bite to eat we met two of Jules’ friends at his house, then we all proceeded to the train station to catch a train to Leeds. We were all off to Elland Road to watch Leeds vs Millwall in the League 1 championship play-off. The atmosphere at the game was unbelievable. I don’t know how the players could hear the ref as it was so loud. No one in the stadium sat down for the entire game. Everyone was singing, dancing, jumping around it was so loud.

Unfortunately for Jules, Leeds drew which meant they missed out becuase they lost the previous game. As we were leaving I have never seen so many police officers gaurding the away supporters entrance. We didn’t hang around to see what happened

On Friday afternoon I headed back to London after a great midweek in Manchester. Thanks Jules!

Saturday Night Flavour

// May 13th, 2009 // No Comments » // Trip information

Cooking with Jamie Oliver

On Saturday (2/5/09), Teneale, Mel and myself met up with my best mate’s sister, Sinead, at Old Street. She was there with her boyfriend (whose name escapes me at the moment, I think it started with S. It might be Stephen or something, they haven’t been dating long). Anyway, we met them in Old Street and we walked down to Hoxton Square. Apparently Hoxton Square is “in” at the moment. We decided we would have drinks before we ate so we made our way into one of the pubs there. Since the pub didn’t have any Bulmers or Magners I was forced to drink tap cider, which wasn’t too bad I have to admit. For some reason no one serves cider with ice, so I was forced to order a pint of ice.

That will be a 30 minute wait

After we finished our drinks and Sinead left half of hers, we moved on to find a place to eat. Sinead and Steve were thinking we should eat a this Thai place around the corner so we went there. The menu sounded awesome so we asked for a table. The place was very busy so we had to wait 30 minutes. Luckily there was a pub across the road so we went in for another drink. Halfway through the cider Sineads boyfriend Stefan went to check to see if our table was ready. He came back and said it was, so we downed the remaining half pint and we back over the road.

Sineads boyfriend Sasha and I ordered meat spring rolls which you cook yourself for entree, and the girls order standard spring rolls.

A bit of a spectacle

The waiter came to our table with a little gas cooker, and all the meat and condiments to assemble the suckers. The waiter showed us how to do it first and offered to make mine. He placed the lettuce on the rice paper, piled on the spicy ginger and finally added the lovely cooked meat. The first bite was amazing, the flavours were awesome, then I hit the ginger and my mouth exploded. Oh so hot, but oh so good.

Steward then begun cooking one of his whilst my mouth was recovering. Cooking your own meat is such a novelty at a restaurant, yet so mundane when you have to do it at home. We both enjoyed the spectacle, as did the rest of patrons who were eager to find out which dish we ordered.

Caution: Contents hot

Whilst Stanton and I were cooking our own meals, the girls received their vegetarian spring rolls. Sinead dug straight in and bore the wrath of extremely hot food by burning her tongue on pretty much the first bite! It was game over for Sinead as she struggled to recover from such an early blow.

After we devoured our entree, the mains arrived. The consensus was to share the meals, so we did just that. All I can say is the flavours we unreal and I can’t wait to go back.

Smoke and a pancake

After the amazing dinner we kicked on over the road at some Moroccan bar and we ordered an apple shisha. Very interesting! The first block was quite nice and appley, however the second was pretty disgusting. We were there for a while, and Sinead and I both messaged Nick (her brother) wondering when he is going to come to England. We were hoping for a response, but somehow we both missed calls from him..

The time has come young grasshoppper

The time flew by and before we knew it, it was nearly 1am. We all parted ways at the tube station as Sinead and Stu (which is his real name, haha) walked home, and we needed to catch a bus. After much deliberation, we got on the correct bus and headed home.

Juvenile Delinquents

The bus we jumped onto to get home takes the long way around, however the girls were convinced that we were on the wrong bus so we got off just near the park at Bermondsey. I suggested we take a shortcut through the park. As we walked to the park we heard a horn go off continuously for about a minute. We all cursed Londoners for being so inconsiderate so late at night. As we rounded the corner of the park we were met with a car bellowing in flames. We were all very stunned and awestruck. I suggested to Teneale that we call the Fire Brigade. We were going to hang around to see what happened until we heard a few kids laughing, so we left for personal safety. We had to take the long way home and after about a minute we heard the Fire Brigade scream around the corner, and moments later the Police were on their way. It was a dramatic end to a great night out

9 out of 10 scientists agree

// May 3rd, 2009 // No Comments » // Trip information

In full flight

We continued on our Friday Museum Day after our visit to the Natural Museum. We finished up at the Natural History Museum at 3pm, so we went around the corner and visited the Science Museum. We were both expecting it to be similar to Questacon in Canberra, but it was very different. The museum was not as big as the Natural History Museum and not as well laid out either. We spent about 3 hours in the Science Museum and we were both absolutely wrecked. I think we will have to go again as the trip was brief and our brains had shut down from information overload.

Hands on!

There were two really cool hands on sections that appealed to both Mel and I. One was “who am I?” which is about your appearance and family origins, and the other was “Launchpad City” which is hands on science. In the “Who am I?” section, there were multiple interactive computers each with different aims, from basic text entry to finding out your family origin to more interactive ones which determine how you get your genes. On the other side of the section, there were more interactive computers about using the left and right sides of your brain.

In Launchpad City it was all hands-on science. I think we were there for at least 45 minutes mucking around with science. There were building blocks for science and gravity, sail boats for science and wind, magnetic blocks, ball games, and so much more. It was good fun. After that section we were wrecked so we moseyed on out of the museum. There was still a lot to see but we had enough and we went home. It was a really good day out.

Paying the price

Well Mel and I paid the price on having such a full day out. Swine flu in full swing! Friday night we crashed out at 8pm and didn’t awake until midday. We both had really bad sleeps, so we chilled on Saturday in preparation for Saturday night.

Life as we know it

// May 3rd, 2009 // No Comments » // Trip information

Natural History Museum

On Wednesday (29/4/09) Mel and I finally made it to the Natural History Museum after about 2 weeks of trying to get an entire day free. We caught the tube to Westminster station, which, in my opinion, is the coolest tube station I have seen. We then jumped onto the District and tubed it to South Kensington. A brief walk in the subway and we arrived at the Museum. It was quite a contrast from the last time we there; there was no line at all to get in. We took some photos in the lobby area before moving on to see my favourite dead creatures, the Dinosaurs!

We spent about 30 minutes in the Dinosaur area where we saw a lot of fossils and a T-Rex head and Stegosaurus head. There was also a robotic T-Rex which was pretty cool.

I’m feeling a little woozy here

Well we left the Dinosaur area and moved onto the mammals. It was about that time when my back was absolutely killing me. I sat down for a bit, had some water and we continued. I got about 6 steps further when my chest felt like it was crushing my lungs and my heart so I sat down again. It was the strangest pain. I didn’t know what it was, but I know I didn’t want to be walking around a museum while I had it. In the end I gave up, and Mel and I headed home. The walk to the tube and to our house was excruciating, but we made it, and the trip to the museum was over…until another day

Be afraid, be very afraid

I had diagnosed my sickness as swine flu. Since it is “pandemic”, every cold or symptoms of colds are now labeled as swine flu. Normal colds don’t exist in the media’s spotlight once a new cold comes to the forefront. So I figured my generic cold is now swine flu.

But that is not why you should be afraid. The next day I went on a pilgrimage to the “Temple of the Unemployed”. I had to go to this ghastly area of London to apply for my NI number. After waiting for over 2 hours in the capital of unemployed land, I was able to vacate, hopefully never to return again.

Museum, take 2, action!

Friday I was feeling a little better (however Mel was now feeling a little piggy) so we had another go at the museum. We skipped the Dino’s and picked up where we left off at the mammals. I dd have a little scare whilst there as my back was started to hurt, but the pain vanished and we were able to enjoy ourselves. The museum had an unreal array of everything “Natural”. I wonder whether the museum would “acquire” animals just to put them on display? “Oh wow, a dodo!”…*bang*…*whistles*…*ruffle of a bag*…

We left the Museum after 5 hours, as we had managed to see all the exhibitions. It was only 3pm so we decided to visit the Science Museum whilst we were here, as it was just around the corner.