We arrived in London on Thursday evening. The flight went pretty quickly, I watched 4 movies but couldn't sleep. We're staying at Nicola's house in Clapham Junction, which is pretty close to the city, and right next to a train station so it's really easy to get around.

We've been taking things pretty easy so far, after the busy couple of days in Tokyo, and the flight we've needed to recharge our batteries a bit. We've done a bit of sightseeing, with Nicola as a guide over the last couple of days. We went to the Borough Market, which is chocked full of great food, like cheeses, wine, and brownies. We also went to Portobello Market, in Notting Hill. This seemed to be mainly antiques and clothes, but was also dotted with some great food stalls. Probably the highlight was a stall making Paella in massive flat pans over 1m diameter.

We also checked out Buckingham Palace and St. James's park where we chased a few squirrels around. Then on to Big Ben, and past the London Eye. Nicola took us to a top mexican restaraunt last night, where we managed to talk our way into some free margharitas from the owner, who seemed dissappointed when we only ordered one course. Good cocktails here too.

On a rainy Sunday today, we went to the Tate Modern art museum.I think this was a bit too cultured for us, as most of the art just seemed to be normal stuff. We didn't really get it, but it was pretty interesting. All this culture made us really thirsty, so we found a nearby pub, and ordered a pint to quench our thirst. We soon realised that everything we'd heard about pommy beer is true. We had an ale called London pride. It was flat, and served at around 7 degrees C. Not exactly what we needed to quench our thirst. I think we'll stick to the imported brews from now on.

Must be time to find a real beer....

Paul.