Touring the World, with Vicky and Bertie! 19-1-11

Another treat in store, chaps! Another guest account from the old friend henceforth known as 'The Imperialite' : )
"So after a quick flurry of texts to plan I was off on that Wednesday afternoon to meet the Vegetarian and the Bristollian at the V&A. Having already shown them around my accommodation on a previous visit I met them in the tube station tunnel. The museum being right next to imperial (my uni) made it convenient to see them and surprisingly enough I had not popped round the V&A already. Meeting up in the hushed quiet of a museum may not seem the best place but soon I discovered my constant reading of Wikipedia history pages made for good soundbites in the conversation as we passed an amazingly vast array of exhibits. This added for some very good laughs over the visit, some pictures of the Bristollian and me making funny faces (which the Vegetarian had trouble taking with her new phone :p), we wandered through the lands of South Asia, Japan, and Beyond before returning to examine huge pieces of art and contemporary British appliances. Then wandering through aisles of gold and silver (with big green eyes) we were told that the museum was closing and so wandered outside, but not before I decided to revert to my childhood instincts and went round the revolving doors twice :D, after a good chat with the Bristollian and the Vegetarian I showed them the tube station and left them on their path home and to boring old UCL :p"
The Vegetarian would like to highlight, as a counter to her camera FAIL, the Bristollian's lexical incompetence during this visit - a knife is now a 'cutty thing'. That is all.
(The Imperialite can expect severe 'beetinz' on our next meeting as a consequence of his slight to our Camden Kingdom)


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Pinch Punch, first of the month 1-12-10

Beginning of the end of the year : ( BUT 25 days to Christmas : D As shown by our newly purchased advent calendars : )  We hit the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, a market modelled on the traditional markets of Germany. It was festive, with decorations and Christmas fayre, including mulled wine, hot chocolate, hog roasts (not so good for the Vegetarian amongst us, but never mind) and pretzels. There were rides, including a ferris wheel and numerous carousels, along with arts and crafts stalls. We tried the pretzels and the hot chocolate, both of which were delicious, and took in the sights, smells and sounds of the market. It was freezing and the air was filled with Christmassy music and spirit. It was very enjoyable, to be honest, despite the relative naffness and creepiness of the animatronic moose and tree that talked to us. We had a great festive time : )
A few days later, we took a small mosey down to Heal's on Tottenham Court Road in order to buy various things for people as Christmas presents. (Chocolate pizza anyone?!) We love this shop because we feel posh when we go there, a nice antidote from the poverty of studenthood (not that we ever can afford to buy anything!), and all its wares are classy and innovative. Plus it's within walking distance of UCL, so makes for a good distraction from Russian grammar - we like to see it as a practical demonstration of verbs of motion : p
This is the final one for this semester, as the Vegetarian whisked off to the sunny lands of India prior to the end of term (alright for some! - Bristollian) so we were unable to have a final exploring Wednesday before Christmas. Never fear, next term will have all kinds of travels in store. Or so we hope, anyway.

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Short and sweet 24-11-10

The Pet Shop Boys sang "Go West". So we did; to Westfield shopping centre. The Bristollian was rather disgruntled at the lack of real fields and tractors, however, was satisifed by Starbucks and "snowies" (those white chocolate buttons with sprinkles - helping us get into the spirit of Christmas!) Good times.

Westfield is HUGE; too much to see in one day. After 3 hours, we were zonked so had to call it a day. To be continued, when we have more money and more energy. Short and sweet this week, like our coffee and chocolates.

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A surprise for you all! 10-11-10

Today we have a treat in store – guest writers! (Not because we’re too lazy to write our own accounts you understand…: p) 10.11.10 saw UCL students march down from the campus past Trafalgar Square to join the masses outside of Whitehall – here’s what they had to say:

"As is often the case with plans, our one for the demo didn't quite come together. We had intended to meet in the UCL quad at around ten o'clock but instead met at eleven – after everyone else had long since left.

We attempted to catch up with the main protest and walked towards the intended start point of the protest – Horseguards Avenue. We didn't realise at the time that we wouldn't stand a chance of getting there, due to the 40000 other people also there.

As we approached Trafalgar Square, we began to hear chanting. The sight that greeted us was that of a river of students, marching unbroken from Strand onto Whitehall. Peckish, we were content to sit at the base of Nelson's Column and observe. And eat lunch.

We sat there for more than 40 minutes, as a seemingly never-ending train of students walked by. Eventually the procession reached a standstill; one can only assume that there was no more space for students between Horseguards Avenue and Trafalgar Square.

Not wanting to be standing stationary for ages, we elected to take the scenic route, crossing the river and walking parallel to the demo route, rejoining it by the Houses of Parliament, once it was in full swing. There we met an old friend (who featured in a previous instalment of this blog) and continued on the march, which by now had reached a snail's pace. The atmosphere was defiant and angry, but never violent or tense.

The march sped up somewhat as we approached the Millbank tower, which was the focus of the less savoury behaviour involved with the demo. The courtyard was filled with protesters, most of them no different to those on the rest of the march. the <vandals> had long ago gained entry to the building, although we couldn't see how. We hung around there for a while, but decided to leave as people began emptying fire extinguishers from the roof and setting off flares. We couldn't have timed it much better; as we left, we saw more riot police preparing to enter the building."

So there you have it : )

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Our Radio debut! (maybe) 3-11-10

True to form, here comes a flurry of late catch up posts – just be glad they’re in English and not Russian or French! Monopoly Wednesday this week saw a craving for baguette turn into an impromptu picnic in the autumnal splendour of Regent’s Park : D Magnifique! 

Having purchased the essential components of our picnic (baguette, jam, cheese and muffins) we trotted off to Regents Park for baguette-consumption purposes. However, on our way there, we were waylaid by a BBC correspondent wielding a microphone in our direction. Was this to be our radio debut?! So we gave a brief interview, indeed, very brief as it consisted of only 3 questions, and trundled off, somewhat shell-shocked and mind blown by the whole experience. By the way, if any of you merry bunch heard it, please get in touch, it was on Radio 1Xtra (we think).

Finding an empty bench in Regents Park is rather like getting on a tube at rush hour; nigh impossible unless you're ruthless, classy and determined. Being all of those, after ten minutes, we succeeded, only to be attacked from above! Needless to say, our pigeon-busting skills have improved immensely since arriving in London town!  The picnic was beautiful, the leaves were beautiful and the scenery was beautiful; in short, autumnal London is beautiful. We then proceeded to take artsy pictures and have a ridiculously good time unleashing our inner children. As is probably obvious to our regular readers, this is not a one off event!

And then we went home for tea.

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Hoide Paark 27-10-10

(Yes, one of us is a Bristolian : ) )
It's Wednesday! More specifically the last Wednesday of the month, which means International food stalls at UCL : D Following our new-found tradition, we had empanadas and crepes and then hit the streets. As it was beautifully sunny today (a rarity here in the Big Smoke) we decided to take a stroll in Hoide Paark (Translation: Hyde Park) Having agreed to meet an old friend at the bandstand we proceeded to amuse ourselves with a leaf fight (yeah, we're 8 not 18 : D ) Half an hour later, suspecting something was up, we checked in with our friend...turns out he was at the OTHER bandstand...on a page of the A-Z we successfully skipped : D Checking our watches, we sprinted across Hyde Park (exercise for the week!) only to discover he was behind us (in true pantomime style) After exploring the Imperial accommodation with green eyes, we headed back through Knightsbridge (admiring the estate-agents' windows on the way past!) and reached our Mecca: Harrods : D Zooming through the hallowed halls, we discovered the wonders of non-alcoholic chocolate and lobster while making a beeline for the Krispy Kreme stand. There, fearing our student budgets wouldn't quite cover it, we fled the scene of the crime. Ah well, give it 10 years, we're at UCL after all : p

Next time: Impromptu picnic at Regent's Park and attack of the pigeons
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The Muffin Man does NOT live on Drury Lane 16-10-10

Aujourd’hui we decided to head south to visit Leicester Square (Chinatown! And the Odeon!) and Trafalgar Square. Feeling lazy, we Tubed it down to Leicester Square and emerged into a flurry of people packing up the Moon Day decorations. Despite being sorely tempted by the Chinese lanterns, we put our blinkers on (something we are now very accustomed to doing : P) and headed on. Chinatown, although beautiful, RED and ornate is VERY unsuitable for vegetarians : ( so we moseyed on down to Trafalgar Square. Amid a shouting match between campaigners, we soaked in the very London-y atmosphere and successfully avoided the pigeons ; ) Feeling rather skint by this point, we dug out the trusty (pink!) A-Z to plot a new route back and decided to sacrifice the Tube fare home for a muffin from the famous Drury Lane. HOWEVER, we were shocked and appalled to discover how grievously we had been misled: there is no muffin man down Drury Lane : (

Next time: Farmer’s Market II and counting the bandstands in Hyde Park…good times : )

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