For evil to triumph all that is necessary is for good men to do nothing

Hey,

This is going to be a long one, so brace yourselves. (2 whole pages on word, apparently :p)

OK so it’s been a bit of a busy time for me this last week or so. I shall start last weekend. I got ill, as my last blog states, but it was just the start of a very bad week for me. I went home because I was so ill, which considering how contagious the noro virus is was probably a bit of a stupid idea in retrospect, but I didn’t give it to anyone which is always nice. Well to cut a long story short I ended up with this blasted thing for nearly a week and as a result of being so violently ill I had bruised the inside of my stomach. My sickness and internal bruising was topped off when the only thing I could drink, milk, fell off my table onto my computer and now it won’t work off the battery I don’t think. Oh well, it still works at least which is more than good.

Anyway, my hideous week a side I went to London on Friday. It was so so so so so so so good. A quick summary before we delve deeper: We went to the natural history museum, the science museum, the national gallery (Van Gough’s sun flowers are not that nice close up, he has so much nicer paintings), the British museum, the imperial war museum, the Tate modern, walked to see the globe theatre and parliament, but we couldn’t take tours of parliament because it doesn’t do them in the winter. My two personal highlights were seeing phantom of the opera live (and then Joe buying me the DVD and OST) and when me and Joe were in the Natural History Museum he randomly exclaimed rather loudly while stood next to the turtle exhibit: “Quicker Marge! The snapping turtle’s are massing!”

My experience of the underground was well, I didn’t like it, but it was convenient. There’s something not good about being so far underground. And you feel like you’re moving a lot faster than you actually are, but they do seem to be the best way for a poor person to get around London. It was £5.30 for a day ticket for zone’s one and two and me and Joe never left zone one so that was all done and easy to cope with. Considering a single ticket is about £4 and Joe and me were getting at least 4 trains a day we were saving a lot of money. The underground in rush hour, is well, not nice, not nice at all in fact. If you get on a train, you are like a sardine, all hopes of a seat need to go out the window before you even enter a station, and the claustrophobia and dull air and heat and everything just pile on you, it’s horrible, absolutely horrible. In the quieter times it’s not bad though, not bad at all, If I didn’t think about the tin of sardines shooting under the capital city it was bearable, I’m not going to complain though, it was a matter of transport that served us well.

The hotel was nice for what we paid for it. We paid £35 each for a twin room with an en suite for 2 nights, which was, lets be honest, peanuts. We had bunk beds, and a nice little bathroom. It was very liveable in and it only had two disadvantages, it was a bit small and on the 6th floor. It looked out onto a nice little garden square and was right next door to Paddington underground station. So it was difficult to get around. It was a bit of a quicker considering that just around the corner was the Hilton, but I liked where we stayed. A double bed (yes, I know we’re not going out or married, but friend’s share beds these days :p) would have been easier for watching the marathon of season one house that we watched on Saturday night, but the bunk beds were fun while they lasted. Even if Joe insisted I have the top bunk, and then when he discovered the bottom bunk had a worse mattress made me have the bottom. Moose. The location was perfect, we couldn’t really complain or asked for a better one. We were away from the hustle and bustle and prices of very central London, but close enough to easily access everything. It was a bit bad though that 2 seconds away was a KFC, Burger King, McDonalds and Subway. So we ate and unbelievable amount of burgers. Joe made me try a burger king whopper, but I couldn’t eat it, it was way too big.

The highlight of highlights for me was defiantly Joe taking me to see Phantom of the Opera. I’ve never seen it all the way through before but I love it, I mean seriously love it. Joe also bought me a box set of the DVD version and the OST. Which I am seriously in love with and now it’s all on my iPod. The guy who played Raoul was a bit of a ‘smoking hotty’ not to mention a talented singer, as were they all. It was an unbelievable experience and I would go and see it again and again. It was the best part of the trip for me, by a long long way. Another of my highlights was the Tate Modern, some bits of it I didn’t understand, and me an Joe walked straight out of the surrealism room because it was just plain weird, I love modern art but something were just like art for the sake of art. There was an exhibit of mattresses with maps printed on them, and a plaque stating that the artist used themes of mattresses and maps in his work, which I would never have guessed. I do love art though and all modern art so it was a great place to go, and I did enjoy it a lot. I hope to go back there, maybe when I make Nick take me to the Natural History Museum, I know he’d love that museum even if he hated the Tate Modern.

The Natural History Museum was very very fun. You can tell it’s going to be from the second it comes into sight because it is a stunning building. When you walk in the doors and have had your bag searched you see a cast of a dinosaur in the lobby, I forget what type, and like most people, then instantly run to the dinosaur exhibit. They have lots of casts and some actual fossils and skeletons of dinosaurs. I loved it. They had a T Rex Model as well which was very impressive. There was also lots of Plesiosaur fossils from England, which impressed me a lot. They were so fascinating. There were lots of things that impressed me about that museum. The Imperial War Museum was as always, a treat. There was a holocaust exhibition that nearly made me cry though. And everywhere else was very very fun too. I especially loved the dinner at pizza express that Joe and me had on the Thames, and being sat in Trafalgar Square after visiting a HMV that’s open until midnight! (very very dangerous!) It was just such a lovely time I don’t think I can say how much fun I had.

Now I am at work. Uni start’s for proper again this week, so things are going to get busier. I have lectures tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday, and hopefully I will adjust to taking an English and history module this semester, which will be a new exciting challenge for me :p

I am gonna go now, I have my lunch break from 2-4 and I’m going making a lovely salad for my dinner because the one that I have in Pizza Express has inspired me to have a lovely salad :p Tuna or Chicken? You tell me. :D

Katie xx

PS: I’m still in mourning over Heath :(
PPS: Joe.... HORSE!!!!!!!!