Video of Saturday's mission to the Tate and Borough Market

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The only photo I took of our trip to the Tate Britain

Can you guess who got what? 

Am I said I'm missing out on Thanksgiving? Yea, sorta. But to be honest the only time I lament its celebration is when people mention it. Considering this food fest of a holiday is MIA on this rock, it's never  brought up, therefore I hardly think about it.

Check out the picture I snapped of myself with the handy dandy webcam built into my even handier and dandier IMac.

Working hard.

Video

In case reading about our trip into town wasn't enough, you can relive part of the journey with this video I shot. Sadly the memory card ran out room before I could capture more exciting moments. Anyway, enjoy.

Occupy London Continued

So, after a quick train change at Victoria we finally made it to St. Paul's Cathedral - ground zero for the London franchise of the Occupy movement. Note, I'm no Ansel Adams so my photos aren't anything to speak of, but they do give you something to look at as you gloss over the text. Eventually I'll get a proper camera and take quality photos to give you a better idea of what's going on.

Lauren and I approached the church from the backside and initially did not see any activity. We rounded a corner and immediately came across tents hugging the walls of the church.

Hippy shantytown or noble protest site? 

The area was lively. Police officers, tourists, journalists and protests were all mingling about. The camp was freely accessible to the public. We were allowed to walk around the tents without any trouble.

The majority of the tents were for habitation but a number of them had been set aside for specific uses. Among others we saw a University Tent, a food distribution tent, and several journalism and media broadcasting related tents.

The Occupy London Times 

Broadcasting tents of some capacity

The front of the church saw the most activity. A man with a megaphone was yapping about pseudo religious topics to a crowd mostly composed of curious tourists. We saw a handful of people wearing Guy Fawkes masks and wearing Anonymous shirts. For people watchers like me this place was a gold mine.

Mega phone guy

 It was nice to check out the camp in person after reading about it almost daily. Time will tell if anything meaningful will come from the occupation but I wish them the best of luck.

Saturday

 Saturday was a busy day for Lauren and myself.

Lauren had a doctor's appointment at 10 am, so we woke up bright and early at 9.

Hurry up Lauren, we'll be late! 

A 15 minute walk later we found ourselves inside Heritage Medical practice, our local doctors office. Situated inside in an house on Northcote Rd, Wandsworth's busy commercial street, my visit to this office would be my first exposure to universal healthcare - a foreign concept to an American like me. Lauren recently registered with this doctor and was able to land an appointment only a week or so later. Considering it was a Saturday, the office was relatively empty. The wait wasn't too bad either. We were out of the office in 30 minutes. Hooray for socialism!

Next stop, Starbucks. I was surprised to find coffee on this rock was given to you in straight mugs (if you're sitting in) instead of paper cups like they do in America Land.

Here Lauren finished her portion of our letter to my friend Patrick. He is currently making his way through boot camp in Georgia.

After a quick stop at the post office to mail the letter we hopped on the overground to the center of London.  This is the abandoned power station at Battersea viewed from the train. Plans are in the works to convert the area into a bustling city within a city.

Our first destination was the Occupy London camp. Ahh we're getting close!

To be continued...

The Night Before Bonfire Night

London is alive with fireworks this weekend as Britain celebrates Guy Fawkes Night, or for the PC observers, Bonfire Night. Check out this video I shot this evening of some of the festivities.

In other news, I sat next to a golden retriever on the Tube tonight. Commuters around me would normally have been miffed at the thought of a coveted seat being occupied by a K9, but it was such an adorable dog he received more friendly pets than scowls.