England swings like a pendulum do...

The ordeal of being cooped up in three different sardine cans commonly referred to as planes, seems to fade away with the sights and sounds that make up London. If I'm sounding naive to you, then you'll need to log off now because I'm unashamedly amazed about witnessing all the symbols and icons that I've used to create my idea of London, for the very first time in my life. I travelled in a black London cab from the airport, driven by a real Londoner. Within seconds I'd seen red double decker buses and those royal mail post boxes, black wrought iron fences around city gardens and that big bullet shaped building they call the Gherkin. Oh my god the Tower Bridge is just sitting there, like in all the pictures! I'm blown away! And it's really warm and humid, which is weird. A walk down to a park near the hotel and I saw 2 squirrels within 10 mins. Doesn't seem to impress anyone else, though!

After the initial buzz of arriving, I was overwhelmed with exhaustion, and realised that the dreaded jet lag was lurking. I had always just assumed jet lag meant that you felt tired, but I actually felt like the floor was moving underneath me and my sense of balance was off. A quick check of the time revealed that it was 2am in Australia, so no wonder I was sleepy. Apparently the best thing to do is get out into the daylight and force the body into the new day/night pattern. So I went for a walk and wandered into The British Museum,which is just a city block away from my hotel. It is home to a large collection of Egyptian artefacts that the Poms pillaged from pyramids and other sacred sites.