March 26

Today's mission is Portobello Road markets with one of Shane's friends from work. There looked like there was some interesting stuff there but there were far too many people to really see much and Shane's friend made the mission more to get through the crowd than to take our time browsing. They say its the biggest antiques market in the world but I'm very, very far from convinced about this as it only seemed to extend about 3 blocks. We'll come back on a day when it's not so busy I guess.

See a few notable things...

A great contemporary art gallery where unfortunately everything was a bit overpriced, even though I took a liking to just about everything.

The travel bookshop as featured in the movie Notting Hill

Five little dogs set up in a caravan, one barking to get attention, whilst the other 4 sleep in a tray below. We theorised how the little dogs must drive their caravan there everyday and set up shop as we can't see a human in site.

Next we head for Picadilly Circus for a brief look around and a stroll through China Town. We have lunch at a pub (all the damn Chinese places were too packed) and watch some Football/Soccer. (Well, the boys do whilst I attempt to stop staring at a particularly attractive emo* boy in the pub.) *I hate to use the word emo here because I think its the worst subculture label ever invented. However if you were to distill it and pour it into one person, this boy was it.

I start to realise how absolutely packed and busy this city is when squished into the Tube later on. Makes doing anything terribly difficult. (BTW I have to mention here Mum just how extremely handy that fold out London map has been.)

After all this we head to Walthamstowe to visit another of Shane's friends and indulge in a great chicken chow mein, a vast variety of seafood and pork (no, I didn't try any) and 2 bottles of Jamaican Rum!