JFSOCC Posted August 5, 2014 Posted August 5, 2014 (edited) Imperial war museum was a highlight of my visit to London as well, as well as Sushi in Chinatown and the Museum of Natural History and the British Museum. Any chance for a daytrip over the small divide and into my little country? Edited August 5, 2014 by JFSOCC 2 Remember: Argue the point, not the person. Remain polite and constructive. Friendly forums have friendly debate. There's no shame in being wrong. If you don't have something to add, don't post for the sake of it. And don't be afraid to post thoughts you are uncertain about, that's what discussion is for.---Pet threads, everyone has them. I love imagining Gods, Monsters, Factions and Weapons.
BruceVC Posted August 5, 2014 Author Posted August 5, 2014 Imperial war museum was a highlight of my visit to London as well, as well as Sushi in Chinatown and the Museum of Natural History and the British Museum. Any chance for a daytrip over the small divide and into my little country? Not this trip but the next time I'll come across and come say hi to you, 2 years ago I was in Belgium and Netherlands but I didn't know you back then 1 "Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss” John Milton "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” - George Bernard Shaw "What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead" - Nelson Mandela
AGX-17 Posted August 6, 2014 Posted August 6, 2014 Absolutely nothing. There is not a goddamn thing to do in Londinium. It's a backwater amongst backwaters, a hamlet of ill-repute with no redeeming qualities. 1
BruceVC Posted August 6, 2014 Author Posted August 6, 2014 Absolutely nothing. There is not a goddamn thing to do in Londinium. It's a backwater amongst backwaters, a hamlet of ill-repute with no redeeming qualities. You naughty, you know that ? "Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss” John Milton "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” - George Bernard Shaw "What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead" - Nelson Mandela
BruceVC Posted August 6, 2014 Author Posted August 6, 2014 (edited) Yesterday we went for a 4 hour walk and probably did between 12-14 km, its really a great feeling to be able to walk through a city like London with all these interesting sites and landmarks and feel completely safe. Its not that I feel unsafe in South Africa but we are always aware of what we are doing From Chelsea we went through South Kensingston and saw the sights of Exhibition road, we then crossed into Kensington Gardens and went east through Hyde Park and onto Buckingham Palace. From there we headed up to Trafalgar Square and north-west up Regent Street through Piccadilly Circus to Oxford Street. We then headed west back through Hyde Park and back home down Exhibition Road to get home Something interesting, at Exhibition street I battled to find a traditional English breakfast, only the fourth restaurant we went to served it. There seems something wrong when you cant find an English breakfast in London and I suppose a sign of the changing demographics? Last night we went to an amazing restaurant called PJ's in Chelsea, I had a delicious Steak Tartare and then we went to several pubs for some drinks So a really good day overall Edited August 6, 2014 by BruceVC 2 "Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss” John Milton "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” - George Bernard Shaw "What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead" - Nelson Mandela
Nepenthe Posted August 6, 2014 Posted August 6, 2014 You should try (good) hotels instead of restaurants for breakfast, AFAIK most of them will be happy to serve walk-ins, as well. At least the current Rosewood London had a sublime English breakfast back in the day when it was still Chancery Court Hotel. 1 You're a cheery wee bugger, Nep. Have I ever said that? Reapercussions
Gorgon Posted August 6, 2014 Posted August 6, 2014 I've been to London three (or is it four? i can't remember) times and i have seen almost all the basic tourist attractions, atleast once. But one thing has always stuck in my mind: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ojomTUt0X4 Useless information. Unless you're blind of course in which case it's too little information. I got a text today from the workers making parking lines on the street asking everyone to pay attention to the temporary signs. I got a text about a sign. In my street. Felt like strangulating something. Na na na na na na ... greg358 from Darksouls 3 PVP is a CHEATER. That is all.
RocketChaser Posted August 6, 2014 Posted August 6, 2014 Get yourself in World's End for a few pre drinks, score a bit of coke off the dodgy geezers outside Electric Ballroom then hit up whatever's cracking off in Koko.
Monte Carlo Posted August 6, 2014 Posted August 6, 2014 PJs is epic. Good spot. English breakfasts are easily found ten metres off the beaten track. I'd suggest The Regency off Horseferry Road for an epic Full English. It featured in the movie 'layer cake' and the lady who runs it shouts like a sergeant major. 2
Gromnir Posted August 6, 2014 Posted August 6, 2014 The other thing I really should have pimped is a RIB ride up the Thames. A bunch of ex-marines have bought a couple of rigid inflatable raiding craft and bomb up and down the Thames to the James Bond theme, past all the landmarks. Obviously, you can go on a slow tourist boat with a bar (pro-tip... head towards Greenwich, a much more interesting river-scape than the leafier downriver) but the RIB ride is a blast too. In short, you seriously need to go on a boat up the Thames. we like london very much, but your suggestion reminded us o' one o' our most vivid memories o' our time in london during the early 90s. rats. we has lived in cities such as chicago, so we got some familiarity with urban rodents, but the locals in london at that time had developed a kinda preternatural rat blindness that surprised us a bit. am recalling pointing out to our companion a tangle o' a dozen or more wet rats clinging to some girders under a bridge and it were as if we were pointing out the sun or sky. the thames seemed to belong to the rats as much as to the people o' london, but folks didn't even seem to notice all the rodents perched along concrete walls and piers and bridges. we don't have a rat phobia, but they creep us out more than does snakes or spiders or other critters. the thames were a bit o' a magnet for rats back then, so encouraging us to do a thames tour gives us a bit o' a spine shiver. rats. why did it have to be rats? HA! Good Fun! 1 "If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence."Justice Louis Brandeis, Concurring, Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927) "Im indifferent to almost any murder as long as it doesn't affect me or mine."--Gfted1 (September 30, 2019)
BruceVC Posted August 6, 2014 Author Posted August 6, 2014 The other thing I really should have pimped is a RIB ride up the Thames. A bunch of ex-marines have bought a couple of rigid inflatable raiding craft and bomb up and down the Thames to the James Bond theme, past all the landmarks. Obviously, you can go on a slow tourist boat with a bar (pro-tip... head towards Greenwich, a much more interesting river-scape than the leafier downriver) but the RIB ride is a blast too. In short, you seriously need to go on a boat up the Thames. we like london very much, but your suggestion reminded us o' one o' our most vivid memories o' our time in london during the early 90s. rats. we has lived in cities such as chicago, so we got some familiarity with urban rodents, but the locals in london at that time had developed a kinda preternatural rat blindness that surprised us a bit. am recalling pointing out to our companion a tangle o' a dozen or more wet rats clinging to some girders under a bridge and it were as if we were pointing out the sun or sky. the thames seemed to belong to the rats as much as to the people o' london, but folks didn't even seem to notice all the rodents perched along concrete walls and piers and bridges. we don't have a rat phobia, but they creep us out more than does snakes or spiders or other critters. the thames were a bit o' a magnet for rats back then, so encouraging us to do a thames tour gives us a bit o' a spine shiver. rats. why did it have to be rats? HA! Good Fun! In South Africa I know people that keep rats as pets, apparently they are loyal and loving? When I first moved to Johannesburg 14 years ago the lady I shared an apartment with had 2 rats. She use to let the little critters run around the apartment...it freaked me out a bit. I would come back from work and the rats would be snoozing on the couch, stretched out like cats "Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss” John Milton "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” - George Bernard Shaw "What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead" - Nelson Mandela
Monte Carlo Posted August 6, 2014 Posted August 6, 2014 I think the Thames is a lot cleaner now. I walk along it every day and seldom see rats, although the Tube has plenty of rodents. We even get seals in The Thames nowadays. 1
Gromnir Posted August 6, 2014 Posted August 6, 2014 I think the Thames is a lot cleaner now. I walk along it every day and seldom see rats, although the Tube has plenty of rodents. We even get seals in The Thames nowadays. seals? am s'posing some o' the rats we recollect coulda' been mistaken for seals, or bunyip. is good to hear the thames is now clean. am remembering we saw a show on tv (it were a cooking show oddly enough) wherein folks in downtown pittsburgh were actual fishing in the allegheny and then eating their catch. such a thing were a bit shocking to us as we recall pittsburgh in the late 70s. we wouldn't have eaten fish from any o' the three rivers less we were paid a ridiculous amount o' money to do so... and as long as our inevitable hospital bills were covered. kinda shocking how relative quick a toxic waterway can be reclaimed. one of these days we will get back to london. all our overseas trips nowadays is to asia... not necessarily by choice. HA! Good Fun! "If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence."Justice Louis Brandeis, Concurring, Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927) "Im indifferent to almost any murder as long as it doesn't affect me or mine."--Gfted1 (September 30, 2019)
Kroney Posted August 7, 2014 Posted August 7, 2014 (edited) The Thames would have been pretty similar in the early nineties. As Monte says, you could almost go swimming in it, these days (were it not for the lethal under-currents). There's fish in there and seals and all sorts. Even a whale not so long ago, though that didn't end well. As for rats, I knew a guy that lived in Hackney a while back. He heard a scratching in his kitchen, figured he had a mouse and put a humane trap down. Next morning he goes into the kitchen to find a foot-long, black as night, red-eyed, bastard-great sewer rat staring up at him. He decided to put it down and stabbed it with a kitchen knife. That just made it angry. With that thing screaming and thrashing around, it took him five more stabs to kill the thing. Londoners didn't ignore them out of complacency, they ignored them out of fear. Edited August 7, 2014 by Kroney 2 Dirty deeds done cheap.
ManifestedISO Posted August 8, 2014 Posted August 8, 2014 That is a properly horrific rat tale. Makes me glad to live in semi-arid conditions, which I think precludes bastard-great finger biters. Also, is Hackney the place, the origin of hackneyed the term. All Stop. On Screen.
Gromnir Posted August 8, 2014 Posted August 8, 2014 Londoners didn't ignore them out of complacency, they ignored them out of fear. did we mention that we don't like rats? we grew up in extreme rural sw south dakota, then moved to south chicago. we lived near the skyway not far from CVS, but we were east o' the skyway. went from having nearest neighbor be ~1 mile away to having most o' neighbors being rats, literally. no joke, the place where we lived had more rat residents than people. *shudder* woke up during hour o' the wolf one morning in december to find a rat, bold as you please, eating a corner of our blanket- the blanket which were on Gromnir at the time. later that day, we convinced our family that it were time to buy a cat regardless o' landlord's pet policy. is not that Gromnir has a fear o' rats, but we don't like'em, and we do notice them. HA! Good Fun! "If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence."Justice Louis Brandeis, Concurring, Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927) "Im indifferent to almost any murder as long as it doesn't affect me or mine."--Gfted1 (September 30, 2019)
BruceVC Posted August 8, 2014 Author Posted August 8, 2014 We had another very eventful day yesterday, we went on a bus tour from Chelsea to Saint Pauls and the house of Parliaments. We were fortunate to see a horse parade of mounted guards, we then spent loads of time just walking and reading the various plaques and see all the statues that represent UK history. We then moved onto the Tower of London to see the poppies that have been laid, one for each British causality in WW1. We also walked up and down the Thames on both sides and had a lunch at a French restaurant right on the river by the HMS Belfast We took a Taxi from there to Chelsea and had a interesting encounter with the Taxi driver, he was local man and we asked him why he was taking a certain route to Chelsea. He became aggressive and basically told us " we could get out the Taxi if we didn't like how he was driving ", that in turn irritated me and we got into an argument. Anyway he dropped us off and we ended up paying 25 pounds for trip from Tower of London Chelsea "Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss” John Milton "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” - George Bernard Shaw "What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead" - Nelson Mandela
RocketChaser Posted August 8, 2014 Posted August 8, 2014 Why the hell would you get in a taxi in central London? Oyster, man, Oyster god dammit! 1
BruceVC Posted August 8, 2014 Author Posted August 8, 2014 Why the hell would you get in a taxi in central London? Oyster, man, Oyster god dammit! Main reason being convenience, if you have been walking for 4 hours and the streets are really busy the taxi option makes loads of sense. Trust me "Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss” John Milton "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” - George Bernard Shaw "What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead" - Nelson Mandela
Amentep Posted August 8, 2014 Posted August 8, 2014 Mmmm, the brown rat aka wharf rat aka sewer rat. My mom was attacked by one she when she was a little girl in bed, not that dissimilar to Gromnir's experience. The people around the area would sit on their porch and shoot the rats as they moved around the area from house to house in search of food but some would still get inside houses. My mom lived near a chicken processing plant which supported the population for the most part, but made them nuisances in the poor neighborhood around the plant. I cannot - yet I must. How do you calculate that? At what point on the graph do "must" and "cannot" meet? Yet I must - but I cannot! ~ Ro-Man
Nepenthe Posted August 8, 2014 Posted August 8, 2014 Why the hell would you get in a taxi in central London? Oyster, man, Oyster god dammit! Main reason being convenience, if you have been walking for 4 hours and the streets are really busy the taxi option makes loads of sense. Trust me ... Underground... You're a cheery wee bugger, Nep. Have I ever said that? Reapercussions
BruceVC Posted August 8, 2014 Author Posted August 8, 2014 Why the hell would you get in a taxi in central London? Oyster, man, Oyster god dammit! Main reason being convenience, if you have been walking for 4 hours and the streets are really busy the taxi option makes loads of sense. Trust me ... Underground... Of course but you need to realize just how busy London is at the moment. Its summer and there hundreds of tourists enjoying the WW1 commemoration at places like the Tower of London, so why go to the busy underground when we can walk 20 meters from a particular tourist attraction and get into a taxi? "Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss” John Milton "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” - George Bernard Shaw "What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead" - Nelson Mandela
Gromnir Posted August 8, 2014 Posted August 8, 2014 Why the hell would you get in a taxi in central London? Oyster, man, Oyster god dammit! Main reason being convenience, if you have been walking for 4 hours and the streets are really busy the taxi option makes loads of sense. Trust me ... Underground... so why go to the busy underground when we can walk 20 meters from a particular tourist attraction and get into a taxi? ... 'cause you paid ~$40 for the taxi? HA! Good Fun! "If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence."Justice Louis Brandeis, Concurring, Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927) "Im indifferent to almost any murder as long as it doesn't affect me or mine."--Gfted1 (September 30, 2019)
BruceVC Posted August 8, 2014 Author Posted August 8, 2014 Why the hell would you get in a taxi in central London? Oyster, man, Oyster god dammit! Main reason being convenience, if you have been walking for 4 hours and the streets are really busy the taxi option makes loads of sense. Trust me ... Underground... so why go to the busy underground when we can walk 20 meters from a particular tourist attraction and get into a taxi? ... 'cause you paid ~$40 for the taxi? HA! Good Fun! Yes but as I mentioned we were ripped off, the taxi driver took us on an intentionally long route and thought we wouldn't notice "Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss” John Milton "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” - George Bernard Shaw "What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead" - Nelson Mandela
Gromnir Posted August 8, 2014 Posted August 8, 2014 Why the hell would you get in a taxi in central London? Oyster, man, Oyster god dammit! Main reason being convenience, if you have been walking for 4 hours and the streets are really busy the taxi option makes loads of sense. Trust me ... Underground... so why go to the busy underground when we can walk 20 meters from a particular tourist attraction and get into a taxi? ... 'cause you paid ~$40 for the taxi? HA! Good Fun! Yes but as I mentioned we were ripped off, the taxi driver took us on an intentionally long route and thought we wouldn't notice which wouldn't happen on the underground. HA! Good Fun! "If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence."Justice Louis Brandeis, Concurring, Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927) "Im indifferent to almost any murder as long as it doesn't affect me or mine."--Gfted1 (September 30, 2019)
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