London

DISCLAIMER: I am not going to do London justice. London is so many places, and for a regional youth like me (well sort of), its a bit overwhelming so we ran away fairly quickly. We're going back soon though. Anyway after successfully rendezvous-ing with Louisa at 6pm at Bethnal Green tube station (with 4 minutes to spare despite the efforts of rush hour to throw me off course, or at least make me traverse the course very, very slowly) I was was feeling pretty much in CONTROL and ready to own this town. We first went to Camden Town cos I thought it would be a little bit less abrasive than the rest of London for poor jetlagged Louisa, who I think is currently holding the world record for having the longest flight AND longest stopover in world history. That night I had a good time trying to find everything as funny as she did in her state of delirium. Drinking helped here. The phrase "It's all just like The Bill here!" has never been uttered more frequently or with such mania. In the morning we went back to check out the markets, but since we were there at approximately 5.30am (jetlag again) we were unable to make the variety of impulse buys and cultural mistakes ordering curry than we otherwise might have liked to. Oh well, my backpack feels much better for it.

Since then we've done plenty, but the standout parts of town for me were Bethnal Green & Shoreditch (home of many things including a RESPECT seat, some great bars and a big anti-war exhibition by Gerald Laing), Vauxhall and Brixton, which would've been even better if we'd managed to have our trip coincide with the markets actually being open. We stayed in Vauxhall for a couple of nights, and yeah I really did listen to Morrissey's Vauxhall and I on repeat. I have been fairly shameless in this. My happiness at being in Morrissey land, and particularly an era of a good album was only matched by the Christian missionary from Minnesota who we met who had come to London to help the Britons worship God and meet Tom Baker (AKA one of the latter day Dr Who's). I've never been more affected by the enthusiasm of someone waving a mobile phone with a fuzzy picture of a gawky young man and a fuzzy figure who I was assured was Tom Baker. So there really is something for everyone in London.