London Dreams

27th July - Day 1
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27th July was the day when I boarded the flight to London from Bangalore. Prognosticating that the security check would be exacting and exasperatingly difficult, I took a cab at 1.30 am in the morning for a 6.45 am flight. This is the first time I was visiting the new airport. All the processes got over in less than an hour. Sitting all alone, I whiled away my time by reading "Veronika decides to die". But soon, exhaustion took over me. I ended up sleeping till 6am. It's at this time when I heard a voice calling me from behind. It happened to be that of my long lost friend. He was boarding the same flight, though his destination was USA.

All through the 10 hour journey we did a lot of catching up. We also tried interviewing each other. It was quite interesting and gratifying. To give my mouth some rest, I saw a calamitous movie called "Laga chunari mein daag". It really put my mind to test!!! One of the steward onboard seemed quite impressive. Eventually we managed to break the ice with him.

We reached London by 12.15pm GMT. I discovered that the roaming was not activated on my cell (Airtel sucks big time!!!). Luckily I could make a call to my cousin informing her about my arrival using my friend's phone. He & I took a couple of snaps together. He bid adieu and he rushed to catch his next flight to US. I followed the crowd and managed to get all the formalities done very quickly.














[My friend & I @ Heathrow Airport]

Then, came the long wait. I could neither find my cousin nor the cab driver. I tried to ring her up but the calls were not going through. Later I met an Indian guy (airport staff) and took his mobile and gave her a ring. She was already in the airport by then looking out for me. Due to miscommunication between her and the cab driver, we had to wait another 1 hour for him. The cab driver happened to be an Indian too. He had been in London for the past 50 years. He seemed to be very enterprising guy.

We reached the hotel at about 4.30 pm GMT. Took a quick shower and left for some sight seeing - St Paul’s Cathedral, London Bridge. Bought an Oyster card (common card for trams, tubes and buses)to travel around London. Felt really good being a part of the Sunday mass at St Paul’s Cathedral. London Bridge reminded me of the old rhyme recited at school (London Bridge is falling down :-)). Night was spent at my cousin's house at East Croydon. Fatigue soon conquered me as Day 1 made a slow but steady exit.

[St Pauls Cathedral]

28th July - Day2
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The day I need to go to the new office located at Snow Hill. At 7.30 am, I called up a colleague over here, enquiring about the office's location. I should have apologized for waking him up but I didn’t do that. May be my Indian mentality of taking every(thing/one) for granted refrained me from doing so. I reached office at about 8.30am. I was the first one to arrive. Soon, others arrived. I learnt from them that in UK office, people have an option to work from home. Hence, I got to meet only few of my colleagues.

During the lunch time, my colleagues took me out for lunch. The topic of discussion was kids. This is when one of my colleagues asked me "Do you have kids?". My instant answer was "I am not married". Ghosh, I thought and I continued with a smirk on my face "I don't have kids either" ;)

My cousin joined me in the evening and we decided to explore the Tower Bridge. We roamed around. Mr. Sunny gave us company till 10pm. Poor chap, being summer, he needs to do overtime everyday!!! We had Subs for dinner and decided to call it a day. We parted and proceeded to our own destinations. Jetlagged that I was, I got up at 2am. I forced myself to sleep for further few hours.

[London Bridge]














29th July - Day3
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The day, when I met another long lost friend. He was my ex-colleague and neighbor. I just mailed him and he happened to work near my office. We decided to meet after office hours at Oxford Circus tube station. We met at around 7pm and walked down the streets of Oxford Circus and Bond Street. These are the major shopping centers in London. The places were crowded, clustered and cramped. I realized - Everywhere, the women are the same, shopping binge seems to be in their blood ;)

To avoid the crowd, we decided to do some sight seeing and catching up. So we took a tube to Waterloo and walked down to London Eye. We saw Big Ben and IMax. My cousin was supposed to join us, but she could not as she was loaded with work. In the park, it was amazing to see people playing guitar/singing/tap dancing for their living. The tap dance was prodigious. People were enjoying his steps but they were stingy when it came to payment ;). At last, an Indian family made the first move. Generosity was overflowing as each member in the family paid the tap dancer. I felt a little proud at that moment.

My friend asked me "Hey, why don't you pay that guy". I replied "If I do, I need to dance next week as I am on a stringent budget. I won’t be able to draw the crowd the way this guy could." Mr. Sunny was in a hurry that day. Guess, he got a call from his house. So my friend and I decided to part. I reached my hotel around 10.20pm. I was not feeling sleepy, so I switched on the TV. Nothing interesting was being aired. Instead I watched "Kismat Konnection" in my laptop. It was a good movie because it did put me into sleep ;)

30th July - Day4
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My cousin & I decided to visit Buckingham Palace after office hours. Infact, Queen sent us an invite, so didnt want to let her down. Around 7.15pm we reached the palace. In the park, people were strolling, slackening (and what not ;)) after a very hectic day. Unfortunately we didn't carry the invite and were not allowed inside. We tried hard to gate crash, but luck was not gracious enough. Took a couple of snaps and decided to explore Queensway(the place where I am put up).

[Gate Crashers]














Queensway is indeed a good place for shopping. You name it, they have it. Since, we were not ready with the list of things to purchase, we decided not to explore further. Soon, we retired for the day. On the lighter note, this day I had a chance to chat with my friend in India. He asked me "How is London? Hot or cold?". I replied "It's hot". He asked "Why?". I answered "I am here. I am too hot to handle". His instant repartee was "Are you the reason behind Global Warming?"