10 Downing many-a-drink (get it?)

After 2 weeks of no bloggage, I have much to catch you all up on! I'll break it down in a few posts so you won't get mad bored. Here goes!


Two Fridays ago, on the 11th, Jules, David, Lee (David's bro in law), and I all met up for our private tour of Parliament and special visit to 10 Downing. This was by far the best time I've had on my trip - if you don't already know, it's impossible to get a pic in front of #10 if you're a regular Joe shmoe or Canuck traveller like myself. Fortunately I got this rare opportunity thanks to Lee, who is a police officer and is usually stationed at the Downing Street gates. It was great - the four of us walked through the crowd of keen onlookers who were clasping the bars like prisoners of the clink, faces pressed up against the Downing gates in hopes of getting a glimpse of the famous residence. As soon as they saw Lee, the guards opened the high security gates and we walked right through. We proceeded to a security bunker where they scanned our bags and bodies, and after some flirtatious banter with one very cute guard, they concluded we weren't planning a malicious attack on the PM and gave us the OK to go. We walked down to the end of the street to the famous door that was guarded by one of Lee's buddies who gave us the go-ahead to take as many pics as we wanted. This was amazing as we thought we'd get one or two shots at best before getting the boot. We posed in every single possible combination and got some great shots and made some hilars memories. One in particular will be forever remembered - Jules and I were posing together and were dared by Lee and the guard to knock on the door. After refusing to do so many times, the boys' persistency prevailed and we summoned up the balls to knock on the door, which immediately flung open revealing the insides of the famed house and a very ticked off door man who looked like he was going to murder us. After sincerely apologizing, the bitter man closed the door in our faces and we realized we had just seen the inside of 10 Downing. AMAZE! Regretfully we couldn't take it all in as we were too caught up in the awkwardness that surrounded the mome, but in hindsight that was well worth the risk. Haha!


So after our photo-op Lee led us across the street to check out the new Parliament building. We entered through the secret back way, went through security again and got some special badge pics taken for security purposes (when I say special I mean it in the sense that in my pic I look like a very special person (made a face, surprise, surprise)) and so began our tour. By this time it was around 6:30 and the buildings of Parliament were practically empty. Lee guided us through the MP basement passageway (which is a thousand years old, sooo oss), leading us to Westminster Hall which dates back to 1097 -- this massive Hall was where many ceremonies and famous trials were held, including that of Sir Thomas More, which I obvi was very excited about. We then proceeded to the House of Commons and House of Lords (google pics, it's worth it - unforch we weren't allowed to take any), and stumbled on a room that had amazing portraits of Henry VIII and his 6 wives all lined up in a row, a very rare sight indeed. We had the best tour, compliments of Lee who served as an amazing guide. And what better way to end an historical walking tour than at the Parliament pubs, which cannot be accessed by the public so it was a rare treat. At the first stop Jules and I got a glass of vino, the boys opted for Guinness, and we settled at a table on the pub's balcony which overlooked the Thames. We had a breathtaking view of Southbank including the Eye (as seen in pic). It was just sooooo amazeballish. Just the best. When we had had enough of the glorious view, we headed to pub #2 where we ended up staying for almost two hours.


We had amazing chats and laughs about the characters in the pub who all work for the government - it was jokes getting all the gossip. Needless to say, by the end of drink 4 Jules and I were feelin' fine Reiffenstein, and I realized I had to book it to my next engagement. I said bye to the crew and hopped on the tube, got off at South Kensington where I was to meet up with Miss Alicia Miller and friends for a night out. At this point my cell was out of minutes and navigating my way through Alicia's area a little tipsy with no guidance proved to be more difficult than I thought, so I sought out directions from a beautiful Frenchman and his buddy who I stumbled upon outside one of the pubs. Very helpful they proved to be, and I finally spotted sweet Alicia a block over, blonde hair blowing in the wind, her echoing heckles of "dear! dear!" reverberating off of the ancient buildings. We had a glorious reunion followed by a tour of her house, which is such a perfect and comfortable abode. We had some drinks and drunk-dialed our Mom's - we were only able to reach Betsy who was thrilled that hers and her best friends daughters were partying it up in London. We were supposed to head to The Punch Bowl which is Guy Richie's pub but we realized it was way too late to go to the popular spot as it was Friday and would be impossible to get due to the inevitable domination of the after-work-turned-party crowd. Ironically enough, out of all of the amazing places to go in London, we ended up at Sketch (where I had celebrated my birthday, picture of us at Sketch on the left), but had an amazing time regardless.

After our night we hopped on the bus that took us as close to Alicia's neighbourhood as possible (Tube closes WAY too early over here, for a system that's so efficient you would think it would stay open later than 12:30 considering London's one of the world's biggest cities!), where we were forced to complete our journey on foot. Mumsie - don't worry, but we ended up being followed by a persistent group of boys and had to seek refuge in a random Lebonese restaurant (pictured left - Alicia waiting for the coast to be clear) where we waited for the boys to finally leave us be. They were harmless but it's always good to be safe and be cautious. It was good practice for Italy needless to say. We finally made it back home and crashed right away. That concludes my Friday.

I had to wake up ridic early on Saturday morning as I was to meet my Uncle Stephen (my Mum's bro) and my Aunt Mary for breakfast. Getting up was torture due to the booze that was consumed the previous night combined with the minimal hours of sleep I got, but I fought the broodleness, dressed myself in the clothes from the day before - hot - and ventured to Marble Arch tube station where I was to meet USAAM (Uncle Stevie and Auntie Mary) at the Victory Services Club to break my fast. Story of this day and the rest of my weekend to follow!