London 19/12

London has been prett good lately, but I think I need to speed up the rate at which I see things because in 4/5(?) days I've only been to the British Museum, National Gallery and Tate gallery, you know, nerdy stuff that I enjoy. But having taken my time at them, I've realised that I'm probably going to have to not see other geeky things that I'd like to do like visit Shakespeare's home village cos apparently that requires a day trip. *crap*

Out of the time I've been here, its only rained twice - once in the morning and once in the afternoon, otherwise the legendarily crappy English weather hasnt shown itself to me yet. Having said that, it'll probably snow tomorrow, to which i say yippee! I've walked around the city a few times and while I have seen lots of limos, I havent seen any famous ppl in the flesh - though someone today said she'd seen Sean Connery and that apparently he's a lot shorter than she expected.

I met up with my cousins and they took me on an impromtu tour of the seedy streets of SoHo and had all the strip bars and gay streets in search of a dessert place. The funny thing about this city is that even though its meant to have a huge nightlife, a lot of the pubs stop serving alcohol around 11pm, so when you walk around late at night, you meet a lot of drunken lads. Not very nice. With the exception of one guy I saw in Leicester Sq on the first night, none of them seem to piss in the streets (unlike Paris).

I think I'd like to live here. Its not as pretty as Paris and the Tube is A LOT smaller and less efficient (that I've seen) than the Metro, but you dont have to put up with the dog poo - you can freely walk around looking at the buildings here. Also, ppl other than drunk ones are generally helpful when you ask for directions. On the other hand, sometimes ppl are more randomly nasty. In Paris, you expect ppl to be mean. When I was in the National Gallery, some guy asked us how to get to some station and we pulled out a map to check it out and he just snaps *well thats no use to me cos I dont have a map*. And it wasnt like he was a tourist or anything, his accent was definitely english. And he also said it was no use telling us the names of places cos he didnt know them, we should just say stuff like *at the third street, turn left*. And then he says *and this route you've told me will get me there in 15 minutes?*...i nearly yelled at him, how on earth would I know? I'm a bloody tourist. So rude.

The funny thing about here is that a lot of ppl who work in the shops/restaurants etc including my hotel are obviously not locals. Seems that everyone who works here is an overseas person who's come to london found a job and never left. Sounds like a plan! We met a security guard in the Gallery who oddly enough was from Sydney, and another guard at the Museum who said he'd just returned, and a taxi drivier who said that while he liked Melbourne, there was nothing to do there. Actually, people in general in London don;'t seem to be from London. I hear French and Italian on the street a lot and a lot of other languages i dont recognise. Not as many beggars though. Nowhere near as much as Paris. Unless London is simply better at hiding them than Paris is :-P

And there are lots of funny announcements around. Especially in the tube where you can hear message *The service on the Northern Line is now Good.* There is also a sign at my local tube station:

THIS STAIRCASE HAS 136 STEPS

PLEASE USE ONLY IN EMERGENCIES

But the funniest thing so far was:

ADVICE FOR MOSQUITO BITES -

IF YOU HAVE A MOSQUITO BITE, DAB ON SOME VINEGAR TO RELIEVE ITCHING

IF YOU DO NOT HAVE VINEGAR, USE TOOTHPASTE

IF YOU DO NOT HAVE TOOTHPASTE, WHAT KIND OF STATE ARE YOUR TEETH IN?