London

Hello John, got a new motor? Hello John, got a new motor?
He works on the Thames Barrier. He works on the Thames Barrier.
Is there life in Peckham? Is there life in Peckham?
..........with apologies to Alexi Sayle ( 1980's muso) but that song of his fascinated me in the 1980's about the Thames Barrier and I never went to see it, so I finally made the pilgrimage. Yes, I know what you're thinking (has this lad got nothing better to do?) but it was worth the visit as the Barrier is one of the great modern wonders of the world. London flooded in the 1950's causing a lot of deaths and since the barrier has been in place, it has been activated 3 times, saving serious flooding. London is very low lying, and it's hard to imagine it flooding, but it has.
While in Nth Greenwich, I took the opportunity to go on the Thames Gondola, that too was amazing.

The area where the Gondola is, used to be a waste land in the 1980's and now there are endless luxury apartments and an international London airport which was created by a NZer who convinced the Brits there was room for an airport closer to London. I can remember the day he flew his prop plane onto the makeshift runway to prove his point.

I took the opportunity to do a London river cruise back(while having G&T) from Greenwich, which is a fitting way to return from that part of London.

Today has been a day for British engineering feats as I also visited the old Battersea Power station that has been restored into a hotel, shops and apartments along with a lift in one of the old chimney stacks. The power station in its time was the largest coal powered station in Europe, powering 20% of London. The station was decommissioned in 1983, and I can remember when they were contemplating knocking it down. However, a Malaysian group bought it and spent galzillions of dollars upgrading it, and what a great job. I had heard of the lift in the chimney, and that alone was an experience not to be missed, better by far than the London Eye (and no queues).
The shopping centre represented the top end, so purchasing anything from the shops was slightly out of my league.

Later in the day, I just had to stroll up Oxford Street in the maddening crowd. That was hard work.

I do love the British sense of humour and it came out in the "graffiti " photo I took.

After dinner, I walked around Kenningston Gardens and walked down a street housing a large number of embassies.

The end of day walk was a perfect wind down to yet another exciting day in London.Read more