A Week of June-ness: The Mulie Trip to London (part 2)

Evening all!

Welcome back to part 2 of the tale of 'The Mulie Trip. Previously I covered the Evanescence concert and told you all about how you can get your mitts on some cheap ribs. Today I will be telling you all about the remainder of the time we spent in London.

So without further ado, let the tale continue....

DAY 2:

We woke up the morning after the concert still aching from the night before; we'd been on our feet all day after all. The weather was still very warm which was great for us being able to explore without the threat of a downpour, not so great for us to be walking about in all day.

First we went to the V&A museum as Matthew had never been before. I had been but years ago so couldn't remember what exactly was in there. Turns out what was in there were collections of architecture and artifacts from around the world. Being as silly as we are, we did have a laugh mocking the positions some of the statues were in and made little stories for them all as we went around. It's a very big and grand museum and it took us a while to get round the different sections and by the time we got round to the European section, the tiredness caught us up and we both had a little snooze on the chairs before the sunlight woke us up. While it is an impressive museum, you couldn't see it all in great detail in a day and it would've been better if we had a guided tour rather than going around aimlessly by ourselves. I think out of all the museums I'd been to so far in London, my favourite by far would have to be the Imperial War Museum. It's both great and poignant to walk around the Holocaust exhibition; seeing the huge pile of shoes stacked up and a small scale model of Auschwitz itself along with the factual displays and films really makes you stop and think about how truly awful it must've been. In fact, while you're walking around, you can hear a pin drop as everyone falls silent to read the homages to the Holocaust victims, almost as if everyone is silently paying their respects to the dead.

After our wander round the museum, we had to find somewhere nearby to duck into for about an hour. I'm not sure if you remember me saying yesterday about an interview? Well I had an interview for a software sales job working for the same company as Matthew. I've had some sales experience and experience of writing advertorials for other businesses in order to promote them so I saw the potential in this job. Matthew recommended me and I was then chosen for an interview. Now just to find a location and not balls it all up......

 We headed over to the Shard as we thought it'd be a nice view and somewhere I can sit down and prepare. Normally it costs about £30 to have a view from the Shard, however, the bars are free and have just as good of a view. The only problem for us two was that we didn't know there was more than one bar and when asked what bar we wanted to go to, we were stumped and had to Google on the spot. 'Aqua' was where we ended up and we were shown in for a security check before getting the lift up to the 33rd floor. When we got up to the bar the view was great- you could see for miles across London. The only thing we had a problem with whilst we were there was the feeling that we didn't quite fit in with the calibre of people they normally get in this bar. We felt quite out of place and we couldn't help but feel a few judgmental eyes on us from the staff at the lifts and also in the bar. To top it off the drinks menu was beyond extortionate with a cocktail costing just shy of £20 each.

View from the Shard

We instead ordered a coke and a lemonade and watched as the waitress walked off with a "pfft, cheapskate!" look on her face. As this was merely a stop off, £20 for a single drink was pushing it. The time was nearing for my interview and I was so nervous. Matthew had put his word in for me and I felt that whatever I said would reflect on him. Plus I was so glad to be chosen for interview for a job waaaay above my current pay grade that I wasn't sure this was anything but a fluke at this point. But I'd try my best anyway. My phone started to buzz and with that the interview started. Then finished a minute in. My phone had cut the call! I checked before the call that I got signal and I did- plenty in fact. I decided to walk to a different part of bar to see if that made any difference. I was mortified. Thankfully they called back and we got the interview under way. For about 5 minutes until the call was cut AGAIN!! I was so close to having a meltdown right there and then. I was still a bit flustered when they called me back and thankfully my phone then behaved up until when the interview ended. I walked back over to the table still in shock at what had just happened. "That was the worst interview I have ever done" I told Matthew as I sat down and sighed. To top it off, because of all the interruptions I'd forgotten some of the most important stuff I had to say! Now looking back I should've stopped the whole thing and asked for another time but in that moment I was too mortified to even string a coherent sentence together. It was a complete cock up and I felt so ashamed of myself. I knew better than that. But what was done was done and all I could possibly hope for was that they had a knock to the head and somehow decided to offer me a face-to-face interview.

View from the Sky Garden

At 5 that evening, we had tickets to go up to the Sky Garden. The Sky Garden is a viewing platform with a garden and restaurant inside that you can go up to for free providing you have a valid ticket and ID. The tickets go up 3 weeks in advance but the only thing is, you have to be quick. These tickets sell like hot cakes for obvious reasons so keep checking all the time for a free slot. My mood hadn't really changed from the earlier events up at the Shard. I couldn't shake the feeling of shame I had in the pit of my stomach and of course the feeling that I had also let Matthew down. Add that to the thoughts of "you should've ended the call and explained", " you should've waited until next week" and "you should have said this, you could've said that". You could say I was feeling rather wounded and sorry for myself. But as Matthew said, it's a learning curve and something to improve on which is true and did cheer me up a little. We were in London together to have fun and enjoy some quality Mulie time after all and while I was disappointed, there will always be other jobs out there and other interviews for me to really sell myself at and hopefully they'll be right under a mobile phone mast!

I'd been to the Sky Garden before but Matthew hadn't and again we were put through security before going up in the lift to level 35- the bar area. When we got to the top we explored the gardens and of course the 360 degree views across London. We sat down for a while and just watched the world go by which was a lovely change to the past 24 hours. I'd cheered up since the interview and resigned myself to the reality of the situation; that I didn't get another interview opportunity and that the fiasco that had unfolded had to be learnt from in the future, but for now there was nothing I could do but just enjoy this moment watching the sun setting with Matthew.

6 o'clock came round and people in very fancy evening attire were starting to enter the bar and after catching a glimpse of a leaflet on the table, we realised it was time to head out as there was an event going on that evening. As it was still relatively early, we decided to head back to the hotel and then go out for dinner to one of the Vietnamese restaurants by the hotel.

The Vietnamese restaurant we went to was called 'Saigon Saigon'. The inside was nicely decorated with a candle on each table and all the side doors had been opened wide to let some air in. I squid for my starter and curry for my main and Matthew ordered a starter of crab and had duck for his main. The food was nice and we chatted about the day we had, our plans for tomorrow and just how quickly our holiday's had gone as the next day was our last full day in London. After we finished our food we got the bill as we were too full for dessert and noticed after the waiter had gone that there were some mysterious looking sweets left on the table as an accoutrement to our bill. I was just looking over the receipt when I looked up at Matthew and saw his face all screwed up. No, he wasn't having a stroke, it turns out he was in the middle of eating one of the mystery sweets. "You have to try this!" he said further contorting his face. Judging by the way it had mucked him up, I wasn't overly keen and instead decided to sit there laughing and taking pictures as he struggled to get this thing down. It was like watching a taste test episode of GMM when they're trying to eat something a little too wacky. After his continued pleas to try the sweet, I bravely stepped up to the challenge and boy, did I regret that decision! At first it wasn't too bad but as I continued to suck at the sweet, it's true terrible taste came sharply to my taste buds. It was so sharp and spicy with an unpleasant taste kick added in that neither of us could fathom. Matthew was now the one laughing and taking pictures of me enduring this thing. It seemed like an eternity when I finally got this thing down but eventually I did and with that the waiter came over again to take our payment "what was in that sweet?" Matthew asked him, "Tamarind" was the simple reply and with that the waiter smiled and added "it's nice, yes?". With nothing good to say to that, me and Matthew both looked at each other, nodded and laughed as if to say "HELL NO!"

As we wandered back down the road to the hotel for the evening we both couldn't get the thought of that sweet out of our head, nor could we quite forget the taste. I think Matthew really summed it up when he said it was "the worst thing I've ever put in my mouth." A bold statement there, but one I would concur with.

 
DAY 3:

Today was our last full day in London and it was going to be another very busy one. We left the hotel and headed over to Westminster as we were going to use Tesco Clubcard vouchers to get on the river cruise with 'City Cruises' going up to Greenwich. It was still lovely weather outside so we planned to sit on the top deck when we had our cruise. But before we went down to Greenwich on the tour, we went over to the London Dungeons as Matthew had a 2 for 1 offer on Merlin attractions courtesy of a Kelloggs cereal box. I'd never been to the dungeons before as I have a history of panic attacks so I was worried they'd all jump out screaming and drag me away into the darkness never to be seen again. However nothing like this happened and the tour around the dungeons was actually a very good experience and one I would recommend. From being a traitor sent down the river towards the traitors gate and impending doom, to the Great Fire of London and entering the barbershop of the infamous demon barber of Fleet Street, it was really fun and the acting was great too. Matthew did at one point get picked on to take part in a scenario where he was helping an inmate escape prison and later was imprisoned himself! He was dubbed 'Mad John' and I thought I finally had rid of him until they let him back out again of course. After our 2 hour tour fictional tour around historic London, we ended at a bar where they were offering free drinks. Me and Mad John, I mean Matthew, chose cola slushies and sat down saying how we were very pleasantly surprised by our dungeon experience. It wasn't like any other Merlin attractions we'd been to where you could tell it was trying a little too hard for your money. We soon headed out again for some lunch by the river before going over and catching our tour boat.

As we set off along the river, our guide talked us through the history of London and the Thames while pointing out significant buildings and tourist attractions. The guide was actually a Thames waterman and he had worked on the Thames for many years thus gaining a lot of valuable knowledge. We went past the Tower of London, the Globe theatre among many other famous landmarks and all the while cruising through many of London's bridges including Tower Bridge.  As we got closer to Greenwich we saw the Canary Wharf and the old docks that were now filled in. In their place stood luxury apartments which included a block of apartments that was designed in such a way that provided every single apartment with a river view. If you're thinking of owning one of these apartments however, you'd need about £1 million. Pocket money really! How about one for every day of the week perhaps?

the rush for the toilet

After an hour and a half we arrived at Greenwich and decided to have a mooch about before getting the penultimate boat back to Westminster. As I'd been to Greenwich before, I told Matthew about a walk way that goes under the river to the other side. We walked down here and by half way we started to regret it as the tunnel was longer than we had anticipated. It was such a long walk that by the time we got to the other side, we were bursting for the toilet! With our desperation we started to look for the toilet and even split up to try and find it faster but to no avail and after exhausting our search, we decided to go back through the tunnel again. Even then we struggled to find a toilet and instead went into Zizzi's to use their facilities and thought while we were there, we could have a little spot of lunch before our return journey. We had arranged to meet my friend Jade at Waterloo for 630 so we quickly got the next boat which should hopefully get us back in time.

Thankfully we made it to Waterloo in time and had a few drinks with Jade. It'd been so long since I saw her and had a good catch up. Not to mention this was the first time Matthew and Jade had even met. As Matthew had got us tickets for the London Eye for 8, we could only stay for a few but the hour we did catch up was lovely and Matthew and Jade seemed to get on fine too! We'll have to all catch up properly soon.

It was now 8 o'clock and we were in the queue for the London Eye. We'd had so many different views across London over the last few days but as the Eye was in a different part of London and the sun was now setting, we'd no doubt get some very nice views from up there. We'd been told on our cruise that the Eye had 32 capsules; one for every London borough. The sun was just falling behind Westminster St Pauls cathedral which made for some great photos. Once we'd done a full circle on the Eye we wandered back across Westminster Bridge and sat down to admire the sunset view of the London Eye and the Southbank one last time before we headed back. We'd had such a busy week exploring London and it was safe to say that as we got into our room, packed up and finally got into bed, we were exhausted.

DAY 4- HOME TIME:

We woke up early and headed to the tube station to go back home. Matthew at this point was really struggling with his throat. He'd caught some kind of lurgy which was hardly surprising as we had been very busy bees over the last two weeks. We got home around lunch time and Matthew went back to Abingdon shortly after to rest his weary head. I too took the rest of the weekend to have some R&R before going back to work the next day.

All in all, London was fab; we'd eaten some delicious 80p ribs courtesy of Hard Rock Cafe, got all cultural in the V&A, elevated to the heights of the Sky Garden, the Shard and the London Eye, been terrified at the London Dungeons, had a catch up with Jade and of course for Matthew, the cherry on the top of this huge cake was that he got to see one of his favourite bands live at the Hammersmith Apollo. This Mulie adventure to London was the last of an incredible two weeks of Mulie-ness and I still miss it all even now.


So, that's all folks! The end of 'The Mulie Trip to London (part 2)' I hope you enjoyed reading our adventures as much as we enjoyed experiencing them! See you tomorrow for some more June-ness.

Bye for now :)