Day 1 - London

Beer drunk: 1/2 litre, Distance walked: further than you'd think - Heathrow sprawls, it took me 10 minutes to walk from the plane to the immigration area.

Well, I've arrived.  Nothing much to report regarding the flight.  It was a long-haul flight in economy so it was long, uncomfortable and boring.

The universe was exercising its sense of humour on me today.  On the first leg of the trip, from Melbourne to Singapore, there was a family with 5 (five!) children under the age of 7-ish sitting 2 rows ahead of me.  However, there wasn't a peep out of them until 20 minutes before landing, when we started to descend.  The second leg, Singapore to London, was supposed to be on a lightly loaded A380 but at the last minute it was switched to a (stuffed) 777.  Mechanical problems apparently.  However, I got an empty seat next to me on both legs.  Finally, one of my cats was poorly when I left so I spent the first part of the flight worrying about him.  However, according to my house minding cousin he perked up the next morning and is back to his usual self.

If this is all part of a cunning plan on the universe's part to teach me to not get so easily stressed but have faith that everything will turn out OK, then the universe and I need to have some words.

I'm staying at the Harlingford Hotel in the Bloomsbury area, near the British Museum and the University of London.  It is an old Georgian terrace house in a crescent overlooking a garden.  The Hotel Inspector would approve of this place.  While it is cheap (for London) everything is also clean and in good repair.  And the towels are left on the towel rail.  My room is in the basement, with a window out into the area.  My only complaint is that the only ventilation for my room is from this window and there is none at all in the bathroom.  I can have fresh air but only if I don't mind the noise from passersby in the street.  It also sits on top of a Tube line so I get to hear regular rumbles from that also.

While I'm on the fence about the hotel so far, I love the area.  It is a cross between Carlton and Brunswick but not nearly as grotty or tacky as either.  There is hardly any car traffic even though it is smack in the middle of a large city.  I get more past my place back home in the suburbs.  Long may the congestion charge reign!

Dinner tonight was at the North Sea Fish Restaurant - overpriced fish and chips for tourists but it was conveniently located.  The fish (haddock) was good - moist with a crisp light batter, the mushy peas were tasty, the beer was lethal (5.2% abv) but sadly the chips were disappointing - they'd only been fried the once so weren't properly crisp.  The beer I had was a bottle of Old Speckled Hen as it was the only thing on the menu I recognised and very good it was too - rich malt taste and smooth, pleasant flavour.  Only drawback is the serving size - 500ml bottles!