GO...NO GO...GO!

Sun 16 Jul

What a disaster!

We are up early to pack and have breakfast before being picked up at 0945 hrs for our trip to Heathrow. Initially, all is well as our bags seem to have passed the weight test and our boarding passes are being printed and then the British Airways lady asks about our visa into China. When we bought our tickets, Qantas categorically stated that a visa was not necessary for us as the stay in Shanghai was a short one. Based on our Hong Kong experience this seemed reasonable. Not so, says BA, who are liable for substantial fines and the costs of return fares to London if they allow an 'illegal' entry into the country. We could understand their caution.

After much research and consultation, BA advises that a stay of 48 hours does not require a visa for Australians. Our stay is for three nights and consequently we are required to cancel today's flight and leave tomorrow (Monday) to arrive in Shanghai on Tuesday and to depart for Sydney by Qantas on Thursday. BA were very good and found us seats on Monday's flight. We rang the hotel in Shanghai then sought overnight accommodation at Heathrow. The Jurys Inn hotel near Terminal 4 had a reasonably inexpensive room and we spent the afternoon and evening there.

Mon 17 Jul

Packed up again, we made our way to Heathrow to find that BA had developed 'cold-feet' on the issue. It appears our stay in Shanghai would necessarily be 56 hours rather than 48 and they were not prepared to take the chance over the 8 hour difference.

It proved literally impossible for us, or anyone at BA, to speak to the Chinese Embassy in London. Consequently, we had no option but to accept the BA decision not to let us board and to wait for the next flight to Shanghai on Wednesday. This flight would arrive on Thursday morning and we would depart for Sydney that evening to arrive Friday morning.

We were both feeling seriously p...ed at this stage as our original three day stay was gone as was the unrefundable $1500 AUD accommodation and tour package we had taken! Further, it was proving very difficult to find two night's accommodation in London as the Fairburn Airshow was the hottest ticket in town and all hotels were full. After some hasty re-organization, the Victory Services Club came to the rescue with their last room available: a very, very modest twin with shared facilities. Who were we to argue? We caught the Heathrow Express train back to London and settled into the Club determined to make the best of our enforced, extended stay.

The weather is extremely hot and our non-airconditioned room is stifling so, in the late afternoon, we walked down the shady side of Oxford St to Oxford Circus, then left into Regent St and left again into Wigmore St which eventually becomes Seymour St and the Club.

Oxford St is recognized as a shopping 'mecca' and the number of people on the street bears this out. We are simply not used to these sort of crowds in Australia except perhaps on Family Day at the Ekka. We see all the famous names such as Selfridges, Debenhams and so on and admire the building styles of the era, but otherwise, find little to compensate for the crowds, the traffic, and the noise. The journey back towards the Club is far more peaceful and we notice familiar names such as the BBC Broadcasting House, Harley St, Wimpole St, and the general area frequented by Sherlock Holmes in Conan Doyle's novels.

Of interest was a fenced private park in Portman Square along Wigmore St where it becomes Seymour St. The park has attractive gardens, a tennis court, children's playground and picnic facilities. The park is only accessible to keyholders who live in the immediate area or to those prepared to pay an annual fee. We had seen similar parks in Dublin last year however, those Georgian surrounded areas are now open to all.

This evening, after our third visit to Cafe Uno (it really is that good) we go to the nearby Odeon Theatre and enjoy the 'Da Vinci Code' movie. Interestingly, it is in this location that Tyburn Gallows stood where public executions took place until 1783. Not much sleep tonight as the room is hot and airless.

Tue 18 Jul

The plan today is to walk the Princess Diana Memorial Walk around Hyde Park. We start at Speaker's Corner which is adjacent to the Marble Arch and continue down the Park Lane boundary of the Park until we reach Wellington's Gates. The grass is noticeably brown and the plants in all the gardens are suffering from an acute shortage of water. When you think of it, since leaving home, and even there, we have seen the affects of changing weather patterns and forced changes in environmental behaviour. For our children's and grand-children's sakes it seems to us that we can no longer afford simple band-aiding by restricting water use and so on...the big picture needs to be addressed now and it will need people-power to goad the politicians away from political cynicism into positive long term action. The continuation of exporting coal to China for our short term economic benefit and seemingly without regard to the inevitable long term pollution is to my mind both hypocritical and self-destructive.

Continuing our walk towards Kensington Palace we come to a restaurant set upon the banks of the Serpentine which is a relatively large expanse of water used for boating and recreation in the Park. We have lunch on the outside verandah and watch the birds and the world go by. There is definitely truth in the observation that as soon as temperatures reach and exceed 24 C in London, people take their clothes off and behave out of character. We saw it all as the temperature reached 35 C.

The path around the Serpentine leads to the upper reaches known as the Long Water and all the way along there are numerous deck-chairs painted in colourful designs or printed with quotes. The water looked unattractive for human use but the many waterbirds were right at home.

Adjacent to the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain is the Lido Cafe which has a swimming reserve alongside in the Serpentine. There were plenty of swimmers in what we though was pretty turgid water. Like hundreds of others, Donna cooled her feet in the cold water of the fountain which forms a circular stream bubbling over several different surfaces and produces a pleasant effect. Over the Serpentine Bridge, we walk on and find ourselves at 'The Fountains' built in Italian fashion at the Marlborough Gate entrance to the Park. Along Bayswater Rd back to Marble Arch, we visit the church attached to the Tyburn Nun's Convent. This Benedictine group is dedicated to the memory of the 115 Tyburn Martyrs who would not renounce their beliefs during the Reformation. They also have a convent near Sydney.

This evening we had a light dinner and enjoyed the air-conditioning at the Odeon Theatre during a screening of Johnny Depp's latest pirate film, 'Pirates of the Caribbean-Dead Man's Chest'. Back at the Club we keep our fingers crossed that all will be well for our flight to Shanghai tomorrow.