Day 4: Pizza, Pints and Pals

There had been some talk on the news of 'Storm Diana' headed for the UK, and that it would bucket down (#sydneysolidarity), but when we got up on Day 4 there wasn't any sign of rain - only fog which magically shrouded Shipton-Under-Wychwood.

Against the spirit of the blog, Adelaide didn't feel like a huge breakfast, and as I had burned through my 20 pounds of phone credit already (because apparently I was meant to buy an 'addon', thanks 3 Mobile), I needed to once again top up my phone; so the plan was made to stroll to Milton-Under-Wychwood, the village a short walk to the west in search of bakeries for a lighter breakfast, and for any P-Offs (That's right, P-off!) that I could top up at.

It didn't take us long to find a small corner store which had a post-office nook where I was able to replenish my credit, and in the cool damp morning we continued our walk. We passed a horse in a pasture and a somewhat ominous playground in the fog (Zombies!), but were unable to locate the bakery. Turns out in England when they call something "The Old X" it can also mean "used to be X".

No matter, our plan B was to head back to the Wychwood Inn and have brekkie there. We got a generous coffee and Adelaide had some hearty and delicious porridge, while I had eggs, bacon and sausage. It was topped off with a fresh, warm plain and chocolate croissant.

The drive back to London was uneventful but began to irritate me once we hit London traffic and everythingg sloweddd dowwnnnnn. I think out of the 2 hours it took us to get back, the last 5 miles stretched across 30 minutes, but not a single horn was heard. I pulled into a square near our hotel so Adelaide could off-load our luggage, and got to oggle at a TV or movie that was being shot at the top floor of one of the Georgian Townhouses(? not sure of the right term). They had a giant solar light on a cherry picker outside. We also had to fill up our car before we returned it, and after a few triple lane changes in front of some bobbies, we got it back in one piece.

With the car dropped off, Adelaide and I went to meet Addy's friend Emily at Marble Arch (only two blocks away). We had the goal of staying up past 7pm for once too, so we took a quick pit stop at our inaugural Pret-A-Manger (Manager? Main-ja? Manga? I still can't pronounce it; lets just say Pret) for a tolerable americano. We crossed the road and ran into Em.

It was good to catch up with Emily, and we walked down along Hyde Park in the chilly light rain before we started to cut across Mayfair looking for a place to eat. I felt under-dressed just walking through Mayfair - there was so much money there! We hit Soho and stopped off at Shakespeare's Head on Carnaby St. To celebrate the release of the Bohemian Rhapsody movie, they had some creative lights setup down the length of the street. For lunch was fish and chips for Addy, a burger for Em, and a great Philly cheese steak for me (and accompanying pints of beer - Em and I had a 'Rockin Reindeer').

Christmas display in Mayfair

 

The great philly cheese steak

Once fed and watered it was off to Liberty for a browse. Both our Mothers would have loved it! Especially the fabric section...

We continued our walk through Soho and eventually ended up back at our hotel where we stopped off to quickly check in properly. With light fading we opted to go check out The British Museum. Even with the rain and low light there wasn't any line to get in. Addy was at awe at the Rosetta stone, and we spent some time checking out the mummies, Greek and Roman artefacts. At 4:30 it was time for Emily to leave, and so Addy and I adjourned for a few hours mostly to get off our feet for a bit... and also to catch up on the blog! We're staying at the Morgan hotel which finally has some decent Wifi.

Coffee wasn't enough. To help aid us stay up past pensioners bed-time, we met with our high-school friend Eleanor who had been over here the last two years working for GreenPeace. We had initially arranged to meet at Kings Cross but should have known how big that station was. After some back and forth calls, Nori and I managed to triangulate our position. Turns out there are multiple Boots and multiple Prets in the same area. We Hillbrookians (who studied Geography no less!) should have known to use a better POI... or just share our position on Messenger (SMRT).

Anyway, eventually we found each other and headed to the Skinner Arms for a catch up over a pint. Unfortunately, we were now too late for dinner at the pub (we just can't time it right), and so when we'd finished our drinks we headed to Pizza Sophia only two blocks away, where we only just slipped in the window of them serving food. As we finished our pizzas and it was getting late, the owners of the establishment had free reign over the music playlist and we were treated to a Country-Western-Johnny-Cash mix, which we knew was our cue to depart. We said our goodbyes to Eleanor and headed back to our hotel, which pushed us just over the 18,000 step mark (with apparently 18 floors climbed!).

Cheers!
D+A