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2023 April-May - London, UK (Day 3)
Saturday, 29 April 2023 23:24Day 3! Friday! Oh boy!
I've reached my bullshit limit. I should say I'm ashamed but I'm really not. Before this trip, I warned my friend, she's going on holiday with me, I'm a hardcore walker. She said it's fine, she. goes hiking with her Mom. I gave her the planned itinerary, it showed all the sights and locations we would go and the amount of walking, she comes with leather and un-sensible shoes complaining she can't walk much. WTF. Trainers? Sneakers? Sports shoes? Walking shoes? WHY would she come with pretty leather shoes? And she came in long skirts (I casually asked why didn't she come in jeans) and she said she thought we would go to religious sites that don't let you wear short skirts or casual jeans. She brought a ton of crap and complained that her bag is heavy. I don't even want to go into what she's brought with her, it's just stupid.
She was in the mentality of going on Group Tours. No. This is not a Group Tour itinerary. This is a "free walker" itinerary. Oh my gooossssssshhhhhhhhh.
So we started the day a little later today, because friend had to sleep and rest. She was up already around 6:30, went on her phone, scrolled until 6:50, then said, "I'm going to nap till 7am then I'm going to get ready."
Feel me slowly boiling. If you're up already, why can't you go get ready? Saying you will nap for 10 minutes, but really only getting up at 7:15. I wouldn't normally care, but she was surely getting on my nerves.
So since, she did not bring a hair fan (out of all the other ridiculous things she brought) she had to ask the hotel to borrow one, and so had to bring the hair fan up to the room. On the way down she tripped *rolls eyes*. I asked if she could walk, if she needed a doctor, if she needed anything, and she said no.
Off we go. Seeing as she took a tumble, I took the long way on the tube. We could have changed lines and reached our destination sooner, but I decided to sit through the trip (Circle line).
Breakfast! A proper English breakfast, I suppose. I didn't know what a "Bubbles and Squeak" was, so I added that. We also had a blood pudding. I seem to have read/heard a lot of people saying how it's yuck and it sucks so we wanted to try it. We live in the land of tripes and liver sausages and such, this blood pudding is nothing. It wasn't bad, but I had imagined it to be more wet or juicy? Or maybe he fried it till it dried?
Tate Britain, but it was funny that I found the way to the staff entrance instead LOL
Here we go!
So when I was getting a ticket (wanted to see The Rossettis exhibit), my friend said, "I'm actually not interested in art, so I'll sit and wait outside." Okay? I had given her the itinerary, I had asked her if that was ok, she had said it was all fine. So sure. I went on my way and you can bet I took my sweet time. Why Rossettis though? I guess I also went through a goth phase in my teens LOL. At that time I had a blog at Diaryland, and we had to make our own layouts and designs (I was rather creative and had some spiffy designs, if I do say so myself) and the designs featured a lot of Christina Rossetti poems. I wasn't sure if this exhibit was about this Rossetti, I came to find out it is, so I was a happy clam.
Gift shop browsing, this book was cute! But I did not get it.
When I was done, I texted my friend and we left.
Got a bit confused by these arrows.
We took the boat to the next Tate, Tate Modern. The guy told us to tap the Oyster going in, but going out they shooed us away and didn't tell us to tap. Later we found out we got charged over 15 pounds because we didn't swipe out. *mad*
View from the boat. Standard tourists spots. Which my friend was just scrolling on her phone and not looking at any of these.
Friend wasn't interested in Tate Modern, saying "I don't really understand art" (this will bite her ass later) so on we went.
The Prison Museum that I was intrigued about since my last visit in 2016.
They had this funny free photo thing that my friend was "afraid to go into the photo room because it looks haunted." Sorry, I'm not going to let anyone stop me from having fun.
Borough Market. I don't remember this part of the market though?
Since I'm sort of a minor fan of Uncle Roger, he always recommended this Mei Mei restaurant, so we tried. We were still full from breakfast, so we had a simple Kaya Toast. Wasn't anything special to me. Guess we should have tried some actual food? The Sodas were okay, but we weren't told to mix it well, so we drank all the syrup (using straws) thinking it was disgustingly sweet then getting to the tasteless part of the drink in the end LOL.
More random walk around.
Walking over to... the VA.
When we arrived the VA, my friend looked at me, and I looked at her. I said, "I've been here twice already. We are here solely at YOUR request. You ASKED to come here." I said this while standing in a room full of art sculptures. So. Tail between her legs, she had to go look around. I went outside to the water feature and read amongst the pigeons. It was nice and sunny one minute and I thought I got lucky with the nice weather, and as soon as I thought that, it turned overcast and chilling winds started blowing.
Walked up the road to Harrods.
So my friend didn't seem all that interested in Harrods and asked me why I took her there. I thought Harrods being this fancy department store with history would be an interesting place to at least have a gander around (I myself admired the elevators). I actually threw in the towel and said "alright since you're not interested, let's go." She then said she'd like to look at the souvenir bears. We went up to the Toys floor, but that wasn't what she wanted (more on that later). After getting lost in Harrods (how do you get lost in a square shaped building?) looking for the way to the basement, I found the "souvenir bears." Left my friend there and I walked around... LOOK at this beautiful line of books! I abstained and didn't buy them.
So after placing my friend there, I had to take a break from her. I actually went back the way towards V&A and roughly a block down had this Cafe de Nata place that I wanted to try the nata when I saw it on the way to Harrods. I wasn't feeling homesick, I simply wanted to try the nata from overseas. The stuffing is a little creamier than I know it (more like custard?) but, I have to say, the shell was amazing. Nice flakey filo pastry. I liked the shell very much.
After that, I went back up to Harrods and my friend wasn't done yet. So I waited, and finally out she comes. Since she asked if our Oyster cards only worked for the tube, and, I figured, going from Knightsbridge to Marble Arch or Baker Street by tube was basically walking the same way, but underground (due to changing trains and such), I took her to take the bus. Something was going on though so the traffic was terrible, and she complained about that. Geez. Plan your own itinerary next time. It was late, so might as well have some dinner at Bill's.
It was a bit of a letdown. We got seated at this table that I could see the service pledge card, and guess what, NONE of the steps listed was done. No taking drink order, no getting asked if I want to pay for water or just have the tap water, no nothing. Even trying to get them to come over to order something was a whole dance, because I practically had to stand up and dance in front of them, short of going over, holding their hands and bring them over, to our table.
Oh yeah. I was at my tipping point with the cash thing here LOL. Heck even a street stall hawker type kiosk shop wouldn't take cash and I had to pay by credit card. The cash I had on hand can practically be considered dead. So at the Toys floor at Harrods... I did something. I know Steiff Teddies are expensive (I saw one that had a lacey finish, in Rothenburg ob dem Tauber in Germany, it was unimaginable!), so when I saw them at Harrods, I said, I'd get them. But I also wasn't going to make it easy for the staff, LOL. There were very many other teddies, but I chose this one, that had a tag, but no price on it, and the other same teddy didn't even have a tag, LOL. The staff were stumped, thinking of ways of getting into the system to get the price. I knew more or less it would be in the GBP 200s in the second hand market, so wasn't exactly sure about this one. I was thinking if this was outrageously more than GBP 300 then I'd say no. When the supervisor was keying into the computer, the other staff was already removing the security tag, and I was like, no... don't take it off yet.... I haven't decided if I'd buy it or not yet.
Meet Frederic, Steiff Teddy 000430. At least it's a yellow tag, so it's not limited edition :-)
GBP 209, thank you very much Harrods, for accepting my cold, hard, cash.
Please note, this is not a toy. This is a collector's item. Says so on the tag. Now I've brought upon myself another headache: How am I bringing it home? I'm surely not going to stuff it in my check in bag, I don't want to squash it. I also don't feel like taking it as a hand-carry, I want my hands free........ I'll think about it in a couple of days again...
I've reached my bullshit limit. I should say I'm ashamed but I'm really not. Before this trip, I warned my friend, she's going on holiday with me, I'm a hardcore walker. She said it's fine, she. goes hiking with her Mom. I gave her the planned itinerary, it showed all the sights and locations we would go and the amount of walking, she comes with leather and un-sensible shoes complaining she can't walk much. WTF. Trainers? Sneakers? Sports shoes? Walking shoes? WHY would she come with pretty leather shoes? And she came in long skirts (I casually asked why didn't she come in jeans) and she said she thought we would go to religious sites that don't let you wear short skirts or casual jeans. She brought a ton of crap and complained that her bag is heavy. I don't even want to go into what she's brought with her, it's just stupid.
She was in the mentality of going on Group Tours. No. This is not a Group Tour itinerary. This is a "free walker" itinerary. Oh my gooossssssshhhhhhhhh.
So we started the day a little later today, because friend had to sleep and rest. She was up already around 6:30, went on her phone, scrolled until 6:50, then said, "I'm going to nap till 7am then I'm going to get ready."
Feel me slowly boiling. If you're up already, why can't you go get ready? Saying you will nap for 10 minutes, but really only getting up at 7:15. I wouldn't normally care, but she was surely getting on my nerves.
So since, she did not bring a hair fan (out of all the other ridiculous things she brought) she had to ask the hotel to borrow one, and so had to bring the hair fan up to the room. On the way down she tripped *rolls eyes*. I asked if she could walk, if she needed a doctor, if she needed anything, and she said no.
Off we go. Seeing as she took a tumble, I took the long way on the tube. We could have changed lines and reached our destination sooner, but I decided to sit through the trip (Circle line).
Breakfast! A proper English breakfast, I suppose. I didn't know what a "Bubbles and Squeak" was, so I added that. We also had a blood pudding. I seem to have read/heard a lot of people saying how it's yuck and it sucks so we wanted to try it. We live in the land of tripes and liver sausages and such, this blood pudding is nothing. It wasn't bad, but I had imagined it to be more wet or juicy? Or maybe he fried it till it dried?
Tate Britain, but it was funny that I found the way to the staff entrance instead LOL
Here we go!
So when I was getting a ticket (wanted to see The Rossettis exhibit), my friend said, "I'm actually not interested in art, so I'll sit and wait outside." Okay? I had given her the itinerary, I had asked her if that was ok, she had said it was all fine. So sure. I went on my way and you can bet I took my sweet time. Why Rossettis though? I guess I also went through a goth phase in my teens LOL. At that time I had a blog at Diaryland, and we had to make our own layouts and designs (I was rather creative and had some spiffy designs, if I do say so myself) and the designs featured a lot of Christina Rossetti poems. I wasn't sure if this exhibit was about this Rossetti, I came to find out it is, so I was a happy clam.
Gift shop browsing, this book was cute! But I did not get it.
When I was done, I texted my friend and we left.
Got a bit confused by these arrows.
We took the boat to the next Tate, Tate Modern. The guy told us to tap the Oyster going in, but going out they shooed us away and didn't tell us to tap. Later we found out we got charged over 15 pounds because we didn't swipe out. *mad*
View from the boat. Standard tourists spots. Which my friend was just scrolling on her phone and not looking at any of these.
Friend wasn't interested in Tate Modern, saying "I don't really understand art" (this will bite her ass later) so on we went.
The Prison Museum that I was intrigued about since my last visit in 2016.
They had this funny free photo thing that my friend was "afraid to go into the photo room because it looks haunted." Sorry, I'm not going to let anyone stop me from having fun.
Borough Market. I don't remember this part of the market though?
Since I'm sort of a minor fan of Uncle Roger, he always recommended this Mei Mei restaurant, so we tried. We were still full from breakfast, so we had a simple Kaya Toast. Wasn't anything special to me. Guess we should have tried some actual food? The Sodas were okay, but we weren't told to mix it well, so we drank all the syrup (using straws) thinking it was disgustingly sweet then getting to the tasteless part of the drink in the end LOL.
More random walk around.
Walking over to... the VA.
When we arrived the VA, my friend looked at me, and I looked at her. I said, "I've been here twice already. We are here solely at YOUR request. You ASKED to come here." I said this while standing in a room full of art sculptures. So. Tail between her legs, she had to go look around. I went outside to the water feature and read amongst the pigeons. It was nice and sunny one minute and I thought I got lucky with the nice weather, and as soon as I thought that, it turned overcast and chilling winds started blowing.
Walked up the road to Harrods.
So my friend didn't seem all that interested in Harrods and asked me why I took her there. I thought Harrods being this fancy department store with history would be an interesting place to at least have a gander around (I myself admired the elevators). I actually threw in the towel and said "alright since you're not interested, let's go." She then said she'd like to look at the souvenir bears. We went up to the Toys floor, but that wasn't what she wanted (more on that later). After getting lost in Harrods (how do you get lost in a square shaped building?) looking for the way to the basement, I found the "souvenir bears." Left my friend there and I walked around... LOOK at this beautiful line of books! I abstained and didn't buy them.
So after placing my friend there, I had to take a break from her. I actually went back the way towards V&A and roughly a block down had this Cafe de Nata place that I wanted to try the nata when I saw it on the way to Harrods. I wasn't feeling homesick, I simply wanted to try the nata from overseas. The stuffing is a little creamier than I know it (more like custard?) but, I have to say, the shell was amazing. Nice flakey filo pastry. I liked the shell very much.
After that, I went back up to Harrods and my friend wasn't done yet. So I waited, and finally out she comes. Since she asked if our Oyster cards only worked for the tube, and, I figured, going from Knightsbridge to Marble Arch or Baker Street by tube was basically walking the same way, but underground (due to changing trains and such), I took her to take the bus. Something was going on though so the traffic was terrible, and she complained about that. Geez. Plan your own itinerary next time. It was late, so might as well have some dinner at Bill's.
It was a bit of a letdown. We got seated at this table that I could see the service pledge card, and guess what, NONE of the steps listed was done. No taking drink order, no getting asked if I want to pay for water or just have the tap water, no nothing. Even trying to get them to come over to order something was a whole dance, because I practically had to stand up and dance in front of them, short of going over, holding their hands and bring them over, to our table.
Oh yeah. I was at my tipping point with the cash thing here LOL. Heck even a street stall hawker type kiosk shop wouldn't take cash and I had to pay by credit card. The cash I had on hand can practically be considered dead. So at the Toys floor at Harrods... I did something. I know Steiff Teddies are expensive (I saw one that had a lacey finish, in Rothenburg ob dem Tauber in Germany, it was unimaginable!), so when I saw them at Harrods, I said, I'd get them. But I also wasn't going to make it easy for the staff, LOL. There were very many other teddies, but I chose this one, that had a tag, but no price on it, and the other same teddy didn't even have a tag, LOL. The staff were stumped, thinking of ways of getting into the system to get the price. I knew more or less it would be in the GBP 200s in the second hand market, so wasn't exactly sure about this one. I was thinking if this was outrageously more than GBP 300 then I'd say no. When the supervisor was keying into the computer, the other staff was already removing the security tag, and I was like, no... don't take it off yet.... I haven't decided if I'd buy it or not yet.
Meet Frederic, Steiff Teddy 000430. At least it's a yellow tag, so it's not limited edition :-)
GBP 209, thank you very much Harrods, for accepting my cold, hard, cash.
Please note, this is not a toy. This is a collector's item. Says so on the tag. Now I've brought upon myself another headache: How am I bringing it home? I'm surely not going to stuff it in my check in bag, I don't want to squash it. I also don't feel like taking it as a hand-carry, I want my hands free........ I'll think about it in a couple of days again...
