A busy weekend.

This weekend I kept myself very busy during the day. It was good to go out into town today and refire the brain cell that says 'be exicited - you're in London!'. Yesterday was confined to Wimbledon, however, where I bought a few things for my room - sheets, pillowcases, doona - and did a few errands, like sending mail and dropping off my coat for dry-cleaning, FINALLY. Hehe, it was funny, I handed the coat to the woman behind the counter and she looked at it and then said 'well, we'll do our best'. It was kinda dirty. She said they'll have a couple of goes at it.

Today I got up late and headed to Knightsbridge with the intention of going to Harrods, only to realise while I was reading my guide book on the tube that Harrods is closed on Sundays. So I went to Harvey Nichols instead, and I can now say with confidence I HEART HARVEY NICHOLS. It's totally awesome! They have the most amazing food hall on the top level - absolutely incredible range of food, and three different cafes. I had lunch at the biggest sushi train I've ever seen - it was enourmous! And the food was fantastic.

After that, I wandered down stairs through the levels and fell in love with clothes. They have everthing there - Marc Jacobs, Dolce and Gabbana, DKNY, Stella McCartney etc etc etc. And then I gave in and bought some Lacome juicy tubes and got a gift pack with it, and got sucked in to Dior makeup. Dammit, it's just so good!

I eventually left and hopped back on the tube to Covent Garden. Sundays there are great - they've got a whole heap of street performers and the markets and just a fantastic atmosphere. Then I went to the Australia Shop to top up on Vegemite, and wandered off again and somehow found myself in China Town. I have no idea how I got there,but I'm glad I did. Preparations for Chinese New Year are in full swing, and the place was packed. I got me an egg tart, and it was real tasty:D. I also visited a couple of Chinese supermarkets and got some pork buns and bok choy and tea and things. I love Chinese supermarkets! Then wandered to Piccadilly Circus and back home.

It's so tough shopping sometimes.:D


Chinatown today

Last night I booked a Gallipoli tour for Anzac Day. This year being the 90th anniversary, it's probably going to be pretty busy, so I booked well ahead. The tour itself is pretty awesome - four days in total, we start in Istanbul and stay in a hotel there overnight, after a welcome dinner with bellydancers and then a trip to a local nightclub. The next day we head to Gallipoli for a look at the War Museum and the trenches etc with a tour guide. The idea is we'll be there two days before the Dawn Service so we'll have lots of time to see the place. We'll then go to a 'luxury' hotel and relax there and have a big buffet dinner.

The next day we're going to visit a couple of rural Turkish villages. One of them is apparently the last example of really old-skool Turkey. We have an early dinner at the hotel that night, then head off to get a prime position at Lone Pine.

The next day is obviously the Dawn Service, and later in the afternoon we head back to Istanbul where we stay overnight and leave the next day.

It's going to be really awesome and it's CHEAP and a lot of meals are included, so i'm really looking forward to it.

HOORAY!


Oh, and I had a conversation with an Indian in a London souvenir store about the Australian cricket team today.

Although I couldn't understand half of what he said.

But he had been to Brisvegas twice, Sydney and Cairns, and the only reason he went to Australia was to see cricket matches.