Tales From London Town

As you know, April is my reserve month. Earlier this month I was on Airport Standby, and I got pulled out for a flight to London, Heathrow.

I was literally sitting in the waiting room, constantly refreshing my app on my phone to check if they had put me on a flight, when I saw I was going to be called out for London. The great thing about this is I actually know people there, including Jarryd who was currently there to start off his Eurotrip with BFF, Ryan, whom I'd previously attempted to meet up with in Barcelona earlier that month.

I immediately messaged everyone I know there to let them know what time I would be arriving and where I would be staying. Because it was around 3am, nobody was checking their phones, so I hopped on a plane, eager to get to the hotel to see what their replies would be 7 hours later.

I arrived in London, checked in to the hotel, connected the wifi (thank GOD for modern technology, right?) and found the following messages:

1. Sarah (an old UCT friend) wasn't going to be in town that weekend.
2. Neither was my other old UCT friend, Aura.
3. Rahma (an old UCT friend/ the reason I started working at Amazon/ sister from another mister) had recently moved back to London (like 2 weeks before) and was going to busy, so she could only meet up with me that night.
4. Jarryd was at a place called 'Hole In the Wall' just outside of Waterloo, one of London's underground train stations.

I texted Jarryd to let him know that due to the location of the hotel being so near to the airport (but far away from the city), it was going to take me roughly 2 hours to get to him, meaning he needed to stay put because once I left the hotel, I wouldn't have a way to contact him. He told me that they were watching a football match soon, so they would be there for some time.
GREAT!

4 other crew had decided they wanted to head out into the city too, so we missioned together. We caught the (free) bus just outside the hotel to the nearest train station, and at the station bought our tickets. I figured I will probably be returning to the UK pretty often with my job, so I invested £5 in an Oyster card, which is a rechargeable card one can use for the metro and buses, and if you ever decide to trade it in again, they will reimburse you whatever amount is on the card, plus the £5 back. Constantly buying a single-trip ticket can rack up unnecessary charges, so buying an Oyster just made sense. If you ever go to London, trust me when I say investing in an Oyster is totally worth it.

We boarded the train and made our way down the Picadilly line for the next hour and a half. I was so happy when I found that one of our Senior Flight Stewardesses (SFS), a girl from Cape Town, was going with us, so we bonded over our love and desire for a braai on that long ride, whilst the rest of our crew gang took naps.

Once we reached Green Park station (can you tell I'm now a pro at the London Underground?) we all went our separate ways.
2 people we going to check out the city.
3 others (myself included) were splitting up to meet friends.
We all said that we'd get our friends to text each other to let us know what time we would be heading back, in the hopes of maybe catching that long ride back together. (This never happened because we all completely forgot).

I switched lanes and ended up at Waterloo. I walked outside, and could not find this Hole In the Wall  place at all.
I asked a guy at the sandwich shop if he knew of it, he had never heard of it.
Crap.
Had I gone to the wrong place?
Had Jarryd given me the wrong information?
Luckily I asked a group of people walking towards me, and they had just passed by it, so they directed me towards its location, down a quiet alley, in the middle of nowhere.

I walked inside and it was the most cliched British pub you can imagine. Men, sitting around talking in their various UK accents, discussing "the game", drinking beers, smoking cigarettes, watching the TV. Every so often you'd hear "come on, boys!" or something similar in support of whichever team was playing (I think it was Aresenal vs Wigan, maybe?).
I looked around the room and could not find Jarryd anywhere. I walked back outside, just to make sure I was in the right place and maybe they had stepped outside, but nope.
Nada.
Crap.
Don't tell me he left?
I went back inside, and just as I was about to leave again, I saw the back door open as someone came in, making me realise there was an outdoor section.
I headed that way, turned the corner, and there sitting at the table with two people (including Ryan) was Jarryd!
I found him!

That was one of the coolest things I have ever been through so far.
I genuinely felt like I was on my own version of the Amazing Race.

So we jumped up and down, hugging like a bunch of kids who were so excited and happy to see a familiar SA face after months of being away from home. We all talked a bit, asked about each other's lives, and stayed till the end of the game, waiting for one of his other friends to arrive. Just before the sun was about to set, we all then headed out in search of food.

We didn't have to walk far before we reached Southbank, an area I've come to love, just along the River Thames. I hadn't planned on doing any sight-seeing on that trip, because my only goal was to meet up with friends, but we just so happened to pass by an area where we could see the London Eye and Big Ben.

As we were walking we saw this odd-looking statue that one of us joked was Nelson Mandela.
It was genuinely a joke because the thing looks nothing like Madiba. At all. But then we came closer, and apparently it WAS a Madiba statue!
Who know we would have to go all the way to London to find a statue of Tata?

Eventually we ended up at Wagamama where we had a great Thai supper.
The awesome thing about London is that there is this free wifi called 'The Cloud', and it is practically everywhere.
I connected to it, texted Rahma to let her know where I was, and then waited for my meal.
Halfway through eating, she casually strolls in to Wagamama, and I shouted her name with a mouth full of rice!

Already on a happy buzz just from finding Jarryd, I was even more amazed that she was able to find me!
That entire day was just the best feeling ever. I can't even begin to explain to you how it all just worked out perfectly.

After supper the two other friends of Jarryd had said they wanted to go to for drinks in this place in Leicester Square. Even though Rahma and I don't drink, we tagged along, not wanting to end the day.
Somehow though, those two girls got away from us and we had no idea where they went.
So the rest of us casually just made our way to Leicester Square, enjoying the hustle and bustle of the city nightlife.
Eventually we met back up with them and headed to that bar around 10pm, passing by more things that Yazeed told me I should check out whilst in London, like the M&M store.

Around 10:30pm, Rahma and I decided to leave because the trains stop running at 12am, and I needed to get back to the hotel, otherwise I'd be stuck.
We said our goodbyes, which I was so sad to do, and headed towards Picadilly Circus, stopping by a Cinnabun first.
Rahma explained to me that 'Dilly' was a word used to describe a prostitute, and back in the day one could come to that area to literally pick-a-dilly. Hence the name.
Ha! You're so clever, London.

Rahma caught her train and I caught mine, and we went our separate ways. Although I was sad to be leaving, I knew I had had the perfect day.
I got to see my friends, spent an entire day with them, and even managed to throw in a little sight-seeing along the way. What's not to love?

When I reached my final station just before 12, I stepped out of the train and who should I see but two of the crew who traveled with me earlier that day! Who knew we were just next door to each other for the whole ride back?
We headed upstairs to wait for the bus, and (I swear to God I'm not making this up) the SFS who was with us earlier also suddenly arrived, because she had taken the train just after ours! Seriously, what are the chances?
We call caught the bus back to the hotel together. THE END.

No not really.

We went back to the hotel but were all still in too much of a good mood to sleep, so we headed out to McDonalds (another Mickey D's down, YES!) to grab some food.

At the McD's I suddenly realised that my ear was giving me a lot of pain. It had started paining when we were descending in the aircraft, coming in for landing to London, but I ignored it for the day, determined not to let it ruin any plans.
I thought maybe it would go away, but that night it was really giving me trouble.
I spoke to the SFS and let her know I was going to sleep on it to see how I felt in the morning.

As a cabin crew member, ear problems are not something we take lightly. Because we are constantly flying, the pressure build-up at 40 000 ft can be extremely painful if you have a blocked ear.
The next day I woke up and still had the same problems. In fact, it seemed to be getting worse, and I really wasn't feeling well at all.
I messaged the SFS and she said I should give our SOS medical team a call.

They told me not to fly, which meant that I was going to stay in London whilst everyone headed back to Dubai, and a doctor was going to come and see me.
I hung up the phone, crawled back in to bed, and slept a few hours before the doctor arrived.
He assessed me and said that neither of my ears were popping and it was a good thing I never flew back as the pressure build-up could have actually burst one of my ear drums.
He gave me medication and advised me that I was not hotel-bound, that in fact I could do with going out and getting some fresh air.
I thanked the doctor; said goodbye; messaged me friends to let them know I was still in town, and then passed out again for the rest of the day.
The next day I woke up with the sharp pain in my ear, but fully rested and eager to get out into the city again, (just following the doctors orders, k?).

As it was now a Monday, Rahma had to be at work, but because Jarryd and Ryan are on holiday, I arranged to meet up with them at Primark in Oxford Circus. Primark is basically the Mr Price of the UK.
After nearly 2 hours of train-travel I arrived at Oxford Circus (now even more happier about the fact that I had bought that Oyster card) and walked for about 20 minutes until I reached Primark. Once inside, I connected to the Cloud (seriously, London, thank you for that) and texted Jarryd, who was like "oh, but we've left Primark." (-__-)
Eventually I managed to find him and Ryan in Pull & Bear, arms loaded with shopping bags, because apparently these boys like to shop.
We wandered around Oxford for a bit as they continued to rack up the credit card charges, whilst I just enjoyed their hilarious company and the surprisingly sunny weather London was having.

In all the time I was in London, we had no specific plan of what we wanted to do. All we knew was I had a map, and we decided to explore the city by the best way possible: the Underground.
First thing we decided to do was head off to King's Cross Station.
Why, you ask?
Two days ago, one of the crew from my flights had said she would have a London flight later that month, so she had pre-booked a trip for the Universal Studios Harry Potter tour.
Whilst deciding on what to do, it suddenly occurred to me that in the HP series, all the kids would catch the Hogwarts Express from Platform 9 3/4 located at King's Cross Station, which just so happened to be in the exact city where we were!
Being the Harry Potter geek that I am, of COURSE I was going to check out if it was actually there. We train-hopped for a bit, arrived at King's Cross Station, and what do you know, we actually found it, complete with a Harry Potter store around the corner.

You cannot even begin to imagine how much I was freaking out when I saw the sign 'Platform 9 3/4'.
I know it's fake, and set up just for fun, but the kid inside me couldn't help but think: "OMG. OMG THIS IS IT. THIS IS WHERE I WOULD ACTUALLY GO TO HOGWARTS. OMG.
OMG I'M GOING TO CRY".

No words for what's happening with Ryan's face.

My "am I actually holding a replica of Hermione's wand?" face.

Along with the keychain, I bought these post cards that I WILL NEVER EVER POST.

As I mentally crossed off another item on my ever-growing Bucket List, Jarryd had mentioned that he wanted to check out the London Tombs tour, which is apparently supposed to scare the shit out of you, but based on timings, in turned out we would have probably been too late for the last tour.

For some reason, we ended up going to check out London Bridge, which is really nothing interesting apart from the fact that you can stand by it and sing the nursery rhyme (which I did. Obvs).
As we got out of the train station, there was a sign saying 'The London Bridge Experience'. Upon approaching the ticket counter to find out what it was, something jumped out of the mechanical bin beside us in an attempt to scare us, and Jarryd and I screamed SO DAMN HARD, I nearly peed my pants and fell on the floor!
We found out that this was supposedly scarier than the London Tombs, so the 3 of us decided to buy a ticket.
Whilst we waited for our tour to start at 6pm, we grabbed some McDonalds (the UK is expensive, okay?), but by the time we got there (10 minutes earlier than what we were supposed to be there by) we had apparently missed the last tour, so they asked us if we wanted to just do the scary part, and they'd give us a partial refund. We said yes, because really, that was the whole goal in the first place.

Let me try and explain what the London Bridge Experience is.
Basically there is a maze underground that they have set up, and each section of the maze has been styled to a specific horror movie, like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or a horror movie theme, like clowns (lol, why is this scary, you guys?) or evil dead children (No. Just... No).

We were told to stand in a line, with our hands on the shoulders of the person in front of us. Ryan went first because Jarryd was scared, and I stood behind Ryan, with Jarryd behind me, because there wasn't a chance I was going to stand last.

The thing is, it takes a lot to scare me, and this wasn't so much scary as it was the whole 'surprise' element that actually makes you jump and scream. The only time I really actually freaked out was when we passed through the haunted baby's bedroom with some creepy children's lullaby tune playing. Even though it's not very bright in there, you can see the entire room, so you think that you're safe because everything is clearly fake, when all of a sudden, the baby crib starts rocking, and someone crawls out from underneath the crib, and it comes running and screaming towards you.
HELL. NO.
I do NOT do well with demented kids.
Ryan got so freaked out for a second that he basically slammed me against the wall, trying to protect me, much like how a driver instinctively does with a passenger in the car.
I was so freaked out I didn't even notice. All I kept thinking was "OMG, GET ME OUT OF THIS ROOM RIGHT NOW". I just remember trying to push against Ryan (who is basically a wall) thinking "MOVE, BITCH. GET OUT THE DAMN WAY" as we scrambled out of there into the next room.

The whole maze was a mixture of anxiety of when the next surprise will come; laughter out of fear; and pure adrenaline.
Once we reached the Texas Chainsaw room we were all freaking out again. We could not see anything. The room was quiet and dark, and the walls were made of wooden panels, with lots of room between the panels, meaning at any moment someone could reach out and grab you. As we were about to reach the end, all of a sudden we heard the start-up of a chainsaw right beside us, and we FREAKED THE HELL OUT.
All I remember was Ryan stomping off in a fit of frightened anger shouting "No! Stop it! Enough!", with Jarryd and me running after him, half scared, half dying with laughter over Ryan's reaction.
Thankfully that was the end of the maze, and we exited laughing our asses off. We bought our souvenir photo which was well worth it, and headed out into the much welcomed fresh air.

I know this may sound like we're stupid, but it turns out the 'London Bridge Experience' is located directly below London Bridge itself, which we did not realise as we wandered around like a bunch of tourists to find where the bridge was.

And that's it. Nothing spectacular, really.

After finally locating London Bridge, we strolled along the river bank towards the Tower Bridge (which is way more interesting).

It was approaching sunset and we wanted to go see Big Ben before the light disappeared, so we hopped the train to Westminster Abbey, arriving just outside ol' Benjamin about 10 minutes before the hour, getting to see and hear the clock strike at 8pm.

The guys had to go back to meet up with family for a dinner, so we headed our separate ways once again.
On the train ride back, I saw I was going to pass by the nearest train station to Buckingham Palace, so I hopped off at Victoria and missioned to check out the palace by myself, before heading back to the hotel.

If the flag is raised, it means the Queen's "in da house", right?
HEY, GURL.
Maak oop. Smaak some sandwiches and tea.

The next day, SOS called and I let them know I still had ear problems, so I still couldn't fly that day.
Afterwards I grabbed some breakfast, and found out what all my friends were doing.
Rahma said she was going to meet up with Sarah for lunch, so I decided to gate-crash that plan and told Jarryd to string along, seeing as Ryan was going to go meet up with a friend.

Because I've got such good timing, I arrived at Chancery Lane 10 minutes before lunch; connected to the Cloud, texted Rahma to let her know I had arrived and found out that Ryan's plans had failed, so he and Jarryd were out shopping again.

Sarah is one of those friends from back home that one could call the glue of a group.
After she left for the UK, I never really saw many of the people I used to see in that social group, so when Rahma said she was going to meet up with Sarah, I was super happy to get to see her again. Not long after I messaged them, I saw the familiar faces coming towards me and couldn't help but think: "Man, I'm so glad my ear is in pain!"

That hour of lunch went by pretty quickly.
Rahma had to get back to work, and Sarah was going to meet up with someone soon, so I said I'd go meet up with the guys again. Sarah offered to walk me to where they were as she knew how to get there, and still had time to kill.
After she left, the guys and I walked around the city for a bit and just happened to stroll towards St James Park, where we chilled for a bit on the grass in the cold-warm English sun, discussing our next plan of action.

We decided to go check out Harrods, which is so ridiculously expensive it makes me want to cry, as well as Hamley's Toy Store, which I remember visiting as a kid.

The Diana tribute inside Harrod's.

It was getting dark again and I was hungry. As we were walking I saw a serviette for Nandos on the ground, and I remember my UK crew batchmates saying that Nandos is pretty popular there.
I also learned that Jarryd had only eaten Nandos twice before in his whole life.
TWICE.
HUH?
So I made us go there. Obviously!
I learned that they do things a little bit differently in the UK.
You come in, the waiter gives you a table number, shows you to your table, and that's it. From there you need to go up, order & pay for your meal and get your drinks at the till. Before taking a seat, you'll need to pick up condiments and cutlery. And then they will bring your food to your table.
It's kind of like a sit-down take away? Weird.
Afterwards, we all headed "home", saying what would be our final goodbye's.

I saw this painting of a Cape Town township and very nearly cried.

As a former KFC-only eater, I can officially say the man has been converted!

 The next day my ears weren't giving me as much trouble, and I was able to pop them, so when SOS called, I let them know I was all set to fly back.
The only thing was, the meds the doctor gave me would make me drowsy.
I needed to take them at certain hours, so I had been taking them just before I headed home, or during the middle of the night, that way I was pretty much awake during the day, but I knew that as a result I could not work a flight back to Dubai, because I would pass out.
Lucky for me I was able to deadhead back, which means to fly back as a passenger, and I even got to fly back in Business Class, my very first time, and on the monster of the plane that is our Big Momma, the A380! (Even though I slept most of the way back, but who cares).

Cheers, London :)

All in all, I had just the best time in London. It felt like a much-needed mini vacation.
I have previously been to London twice before. The first time I recall I was I think about 8 years old. As an 8 year old, London was a cold, wet city that had nothing of interest to offer me. The second time I came back, it was in transit on my way to USA, and we just went out to grab food. This was shortly after 9/11 and security was heightened. It was so cold that I wore a scarf, but the way security guards were looking at me, it made me resent London.
With these experiences, I grew up with a dislike for this city. I never really understood why people raved about it.
Now that I have been back to London by myself with the ability to come and go as I please, I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed being there as a tourist.
I would never want to live there because the cost of living is just too crazy, and some of the laws I find to be ridiculous, like the fact that if you own a car, you have to pay money just to enter the city?
No thanks.
But as a tourist, London is pretty amazing, and if you can ever afford to go, I would definitely recommend that you do.

That's it for Reserve Month. Looking forward to seeing what my May roster has in store for me!