In the absence of any training to talk about, come on a little journey to London with me.
Whenever I write about London, the song ‘London Calling’ by The Clash always leaps in to my mind – I did a quick google of it just now and to my horror discovered it was released in 1979! How can it be over 30 years old?! Mind you, I think the same thing about me…
I love London. But, in my deep and distant past, having commuted backwards and forwards to the Capital for work tends to make you a bit blase about what an amazing place it is.
I felt pretty okay, not really much of a sore throat left, bit of a cough though but otherwise…not bad.
The weather was stunning for October – clear blue skies, mist hanging low over the fields like a soft white blanket and the different autumn colours were so BRIGHT and vibrant; it was one of those mornings where you breathe deeply and KNOW that life is good.
The car was safely tucked away in the car park and I was on platform two, ticket in hand (well, in my bag actually), with 10 minutes to spare before the 9.27am to St Pancras International arrived.
It’s only an hour into London by train and I always look forward to arriving at ‘St P’ – it’s a STUNNING station and where the Eurostar to Paris and Brussels leaves from; it just has a certain ‘something’ about it I can’t explain.
From St P I walked right through the station to the other end (this takes a good five minutes, St P is huge), down the stairs to the Kings Cross/St Pancras Underground platforms and jumped on the Victoria line to Oxford Circus.
Oxford Circus crosses Regent Street and both of these are BIG shopping streets. How can I explain this to you if you’ve never been to London and don’t know UK shops..?
OK, Oxford Street is your more average Joe, more reasonably priced end of the market and Regent Street is more up market but not quite as exclusive as Knightsbridge et al.
I do NOT include Harrods in that statement – I know everyone from overseas wants to go to Harrods, and please don’t let my opinion as a native shatter any dreams or illusions, but if you want proper posh London, there are better places to go to find it – ooooh I feel kind of mean now!
I’m heading for the National Magazines Company offices – one of the biggest publishers of luxury consumer magazines in the country – and it’s just a 10 minute wander down the road a bit and along the famous Carnaby Street – see, it’s just Carnaby Street to me and it’s only when I see tousists posing for photos under the sign that I remember it has a lot of very COOL recent history.
I eventually arrive at the [Comfort Zone] launch room. I know I’m in the right place because the SMELL emanating from it is just heavenly – think subtle orange and cinnamon – there are candles flickering away in the corners and on tables and lovely relaxing music is playing softly in the background.
Now I’m not generally very girly; I always passed on Barbie, preferring to race home-made go-karts (four-wheelers, call them what you will) and play with my brother’s Star Wars figures.
But THIS sort of thing – creams, candles, lotions, potions and pampering I can do…as long as it’s in relatively small doses (give me nicely manicured nails, the smell of four-stroke engine oil, some motor sport or rugby for an entire weekend and that’s me pretty much happy – I’m easily pleased!).
After being schmoozed by the product PRs it was time for a head and back massage. The massage lady was lovely, very friendly, knew just when to talk but more importantly when to say nothing at all.
With the smell of oranges gently wafting around, and the music tinkling in the background, I was in seventh heaven! I even asked the massage lady if she’d like to come and live-in at my house – can you imagine having a masseur on call 24 hours a day? Bliss!
It was all over too fast and I really could have ‘endured’ hours and hours of such work-torture; the things you have to suffer under the ‘guise of beauty editor!
I had a bit of time to kill so decided to take a little detour to Victoria Station and see what was going on around that part of town – it’s rumoured to be undergoing a bit of a transformation.
So I traced my steps back to Oxford Street and turned left onto Regent Street heading for Piccadilly Circus.
Regent Street is great if you’re a) into clothes shops and/or b) into Regency architecture.
The huge soft crescent of buildings, designed by John Nash in 1811, is the epitome of architectural elegance, in my opinion, and absolutely stunning.
It flows gently down to Piccadilly Circus where an explosion of bright lights, sounds, utter madness and chaos awaits you.
‘Circus’, It’s an appropriate name and the madness is a direct result of five streets all converging here, think of it as a GIANT roundabout where only the bravest will survive.
If you ever feel your driving is missing that certain level of excitement and you want a bit of adrenaline mixed in to your journey just for kicks, then leap behind the wheel of a car and go for a spin around Piccadilly; it should be on the list of those thrill-seeking driver experience days!
Piccadilly is famous for it’s beautiful statue of the Greek God Eros and it’s theaters – time to snap Eros quickly on my phone, then back down underground to grab the Tube to Victoria.
The London Underground is notorious for its complexity but only the insane, or those with a LOT of time on their hands to sit in traffic, drive in London.
If you can master ‘the Tube’ then you are said to have higher powers of intellect; higher powers than what, no one’s ever said but it’s quite something to behold and you will always see very confused, and lost, looking tourists trying to find their way out.
Here’s a quick London Underground 101:
- There are 11 different lines and seven of them are ‘deep level’ (80ft below ground).
- Hampstead, on the Northern Line is the deepest at 221ft below ground.
- The first underground line and stations were built in 1863
- There are 260 stations
- There are 249 miles of track
- There are 422 escalators – the longest and steepest being at ‘the Angel’ (Angel Islington) which is 197ft long and has a vertical rise of 90ft (I know ALL about THIS escalator – when I was commuting in to London, the Angel was my stop and the number of times it wasn’t working was unreal; you wouldn’t need to do any extra cardio after running up it so you didn’t miss your bus connection at the top!)
- Figures for 2009/2010 show that London Underground trains travelled over 69 million kilometers – enough to circle the planet 1,750 times!
Depending on where you are in London, and where you want to go, will dictate whether or not you can go from A to B on the Tube or whether you’re going to have to surf the lines.
To get from Piccadilly Circus to Victoria, I had to go one stop up on the Bakerloo Line (northbound) back to Oxford Circus (there Tube at Oxford Street isn’t called Oxford Street, that would be too easy…it’s done to confuse those who are not native *grin*), then off and onto the Victoria line (southbound) for a few stops to Victoria.
There wasn’t much going on at Victoria that was very exciting – lots of ground work, but a long way to go before anything nice is finished.
Back on the Tube! The Victoria Line again, northbound this time, up five stops to back to St Pancras International (or St Pancreas as I heard one woman calling it on – I had to laugh!) and as luck would have it I just managed to sneak on the 13.30 back home.
I had a lot of fun; it was fun to see bits of Town that I haven’t seen for a while and it’s always reassuring to know I haven’t lost my touch on the Tube.
Although NO CARDIO was the order of the day, I kind of felt like I’d done ‘some’, even if it was just walking down Regent Street and surfing the Underground.
See you later…for more ‘exciting’ ambles through another day in my life under the ‘training ban’! 😉
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