Foreign Coffee – DAY 18 of 19
DAY 18
Saturday
17th March 2007
Wow, our last day in London and we actually managed to get a lot in! Tom had an Alpha Course day away, so we bid him farewell in the morning.
We got going pretty early. Since Julie was not accompanying us this time, she aided our travels by giving us a London “A to Z” Map Book, some station names, a couple road names & off we went.
Our schedule consisted of making our first stop at Oxford Circus station where we would visit Hamleys, the store itself is on the left side of Reagent street as you come out of the station – they have an Apple Store there too.
Our second stop was the Holborn tube station, where the next road to our right was Great Russell street, it was on that corner where we were supposed to find an American Express to exchange some travellers cheques.
Our third and final stop was the “Playin’ Games” store, it was in Museum road which intersected Great Russell street. We were then to travel back to Shepherd’s Bush station – I must say, it was quite convenient that everything was located on the Central Tube Line.
During our journey, we topped up our Oyster Travel Cards with another £5.00 each.
We arrived at Hamleys at 8:40am & had to wander about the block for 20 minutes whilst waiting for them to open. Once they did, I finally purchased myself a Simpsons Uno Deluxe game for £9.99 as well as a Homer Talking Magic 8 Ball for £12.99. Total £22.98.
At Russell street, we battled to find that elusive American Express – seems that their website is badly out of date. We visited a Thomas Cook’s on that corner instead, they take £2.00 commission for every £100.00 American Express travellers cheque that was cashed.
We then visited the “Playin’ Games” store. According to our till slip, we purchased the following…
PLAYIN’ GAMES
1x Trivia Tin £ 11.99
1x Nano Fictionary Card Game £ 14.99
1x Playing Cards £ 4.99
1x Treasures & Traps Card Game £ 12.99
1x Eco Fluxx Card Deck £ 8.99
1x Frank Bresee’s Card Games Mix £ 4.99
(actually a tongue twister card game called “Pass Out – The Pocket Version“)
VAT £ 8.77
Total £ 58.94
Most of the neat games we bought were for my games collection & the “Eco Fluxx” was for Brandon. I definitely think that Melissa will have to help me pull together an embroidered SuperMan cap for him. 
The tongue twister pocket version of the “Pass Out” card game was for Wayne’s mate, Pom.
After all this, we were still back at Julie & Tom’s by 11:15am, not too shabby, hey Nige! Well, we showered, ate some brekkie & packed. Julie organised a taxi to pick us up at 14:00 and take us to the airport; our flight out was at 17:55.
As for all the stuff we got for Vaughan & Bronwyn, we left it all, along with £10.00 for Julie to post it for us. It’s all just waiting for one of them to give Julie their actual postal address.
The taxi arrived on time, unfortunately however, it smelt quite terribly of smoke, but we were grateful not to have to take the tube to the airport. During our earlier outing we had heard that due to some issue or other, there were no trains going to the airport for a certain period of time… I mean, can you imagine!
Our cab trip was a silent one, unlike our previous UK transfer trip, our current driver was not much of a talker. We arrived at the airport, paid our smoky taxi driver £19.00 for the trip & then proceeded to wait for over an hour to check in. Once again, we got slammed for airport tax and once again, due to our previous visit to the airport, where “Paid” had been written on my ticket, we once again only had to pay £20.00 for one of us. At least it covered our cab fare. 
Then we visited the Duty Free store where we purchased “some” choccies.
DUTY FREE
3 for 2 Toblerone 400g £ 8.00
2x Gold Lindt Hazelnut £ 8.30
Total £ 16.30
There was a pound/rand exchange rate on a monitor next to the checkout till; it is now R15.65 to £1.00!! With any luck, that was the sell price.
Whilst waiting in the airport, we ended up spending around £5.00 on a tube of original Pringles & 2 Coca Cola buddy bottles… That’s enough to make you bleed a little. *gasp*
My last UK purchase was at the tax free Hamleys, I purchased 2 “Hurtle Turtle” Splashy Dashers to add to my bath toy collection, total £10.20.
What was annoying was how when we left Las Vegas, we had to pay $35.00 for being overweight. I was 28KGs & Wayne was 27KGs. But leaving London, we were allowed 32KGs. *grumble*
Anyway, the flight back from London was ok to start off with; I relaxed and watched a little in-flight entertainment:
- an episode of Spongebob Squarepants
- The Devil Wears Prada
- How to Eat Fried Worms
A movie based on a book I read many, many moons ago.
Unfortunately, the smell of the airline food soon made me feel really nauseas. I tried to sleep, but couldn’t. The minutes seemed to drag on for what seemed like forever in the early hours of the morning… Knowing that we were due to land at 7:00am South African time & that it was only about 2:00am! At least my watch was correct for this journey.
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