Howdy folks, it’s good to be back home 🙂
Firstly, some of you may be wondering what happened my twittering… the short answer is that i accidentally erased twitter’s number in my phonebook… i was so busy i didn’t even have time to check mails or find an internet cafe. When i did get in to a cafe or restaurant, most of them had wi-fi, but i had to pay for it and i wasn’t doing that 🙂
As for my hilton hotel giving me free wi-fi, yeah….
That’s the one thing i notice about hilton hotels… very expensive internet access. Come on… it should be free in this day and age… it’s not like guests deliberately book in just to stay in their rooms and download movies all day 🙄 Guests are out of their room most of the time and when on holiday only want to check emails or do basic tasks…
Apart from that, the Hilton Olympia was very nice. Clean, modern, friendly staff, nice bar/restaurant etc… couldn’t complain, especially when i got it through priceline at a slightly knocked down rate 😉
On our first night, we went to see ‘Dirty Dancing’ in the West End. I’d never seen the film before, thankfully. But the show was good… very good and well worth the ticket price. The stage, props, dancing, acting, lighting etc… were all extremely professional and entertaining.
The following morning we went to the Tower Of London, probably the highlight of my short trip. You can feel the history around the place… We got a tour around the place and heard of all the old stories and gruesome deaths etc… that went on within the tower walls. The Crown Jewells are also kept there, in movie-like bank vaults with thick stainless steel doors and bolts etc..
As you can see, it was also a chance to plug BeerChief 🙂 No doubt i’ll have a few London IP’s checking out BeerChief soon 😎
After that, we went to the IMAX in london…. if you think you’ve seen a big screen, think again 😉 I had booked tickets in the very back row, right in the centre and we were still moving our heads around to see the whole screen 
The 3d experience is good, but not great i have to say. I don’t know if it’s just me, but i can never adjust my eyes properly to 3d screens through glasses, i can’t focus on the 3d image unless it’s static or slowly moving…. fast moving images are just blurry. You can’t beat 4d either… i was in universal studios, florida a few years ago to see Shrek 4D and although pretty childish, it was a great experience and you really felt like yo were actually in the film. So the IMAX was a disappointment i have to say. The screen was impressive but that was about it.
We then went on to Madam Tussauds wax museum.. it was jam packed and that made it really difficult to get around properly and get unobstructed pictures of the models. Getting a picture, WITH a model was virtually impossible unless you thumped everyone out of the way 🙂
But we weren’t that desperate… plenty were however no matter where you walked you were either in someone’s photo, bumping in to someone, walking in to a wax model, getting moved/hurried up by other people… far too many people in there imo and they should have a cap on the amount of people allowed in at any one stage, and if they do already, it should be lowered as it really spoils the experience imo.
We then went off to Regents Street shopping for a couple of hours, were i got inside the Apple Store. Got my first look at an iphone and definitiely my last 😎 I wouldn’t use it if you paid me. I’m sorry, but touch screen phones are not the future. Firstly, you need to be static to work the damn thing, so if you’re on a train or in a car or even walking, you touch the ‘button’ you want to touch and end up pressing another… you try to hit cancel or back and end up hitting another wrong ‘button’….
I’ve said this before but the apple iphone is the David Beckham of phones. Yes it looks good and has plenty of x factor and wow factor but you’re only paying for the status symbol imo, it’s overhyped and far too dainty for the average joe. If you’re using a stylus, or aren’t on the move much, then yeah, it’s a nice option. For me, touch typing is essential…
I can put my phone on silent without taking it out of my pocket, as i know where the keys are… I can write a text whilst walking down the street without really looking at the phone… that’s stuff i do on a daily basis and it’s just too big a change to make imo.
Anyway, we finished up at Buckingham Palace and had dinner and a drink back in the hotel. We slept in slightly this morning so we had to skip breakfast and leg it to the tube… then catch a train to the airport. Loads of time in the end as our flight was delayed 1 hour and 30 minutes… they only told us that once we were all on the plane 🙄 So we had to spend the guts of 2 hours at Stansted airport, sitting on a plane going nowhere… lucky i had my ipod 🙂
😯 wow that looked like a great trip alright
