Two hours in Amsterdam and half a day in London...

I wandered around Kuala Lumpur airport in complete boredom waiting for my connecting flight to Amsterdam. Lots of high priced shops in the duty free area, but also a Malaysian Jungle built in the middle of the airport, which you can enter then walk the boardwalk. It was night, so dark, but they had lit it up with floodlights. Very hot – at least 27C and muggy, so I didn’t stay in there – but at least it relieved the boredom for 10 minutes. I could hear frogs, but am pretty sure it was a recording. In any case I didn’t see any despite staring at the undergrowth for a while.

Finally boarded the plane at midnight Malaysian time. Lucky the plane was empty so I was able to put the arms of the chairs up, and stretch out. Because of this, I took a sleeping pill as soon as I got on the plane. I was out like a light. I woke up two hours later and was very bewildered because the plane was still on the tarmac – a slight 2 hour delay while they fixed a problem! As the plane finally left, I took another sleeping pill and lay back down. I woke up 6 hours later with about 6.5 hours left to go on the flight. So took one final sleeping pill, and woke about 5 hours later and then played solitaire on the flight gamer until we landed. Felt absolutely rested, only miserable with my cold/flu!

I chose the Asian breakfast from the plane menu. Not sure what I was expecting, but had some prawn and shrimp meal with rice. The meal was so spicy, it completely cleared out my sinuses – my cold almost went away. It came with a little plastic packet of peanuts and dried shrimp that you are meant to add to the meal. Which I did. The peanuts were lovely. The dried shrimp looked like those dried cat treats we used to give to our cats. They never ate them, but used to biff them all over the floor. Now I understand why. They come with a coating of superglue, and they stick to the roof of your mouth. No amount of tongue yoga moved them. Fortunately the breakfast also came with a croissant. That at least was pleasant and also was the antidote for the superglue, so I landed shrimp free, and wondering if I would have been better off with the English breakfast!

I went through Amsterdam airport very very quickly, came out and Anne was nowhere to be seen. I went up to the nearest warm body and asked if they could phone her, which they did, and we arranged a meeting place. We arrived there at the same time. Lots of tears of happiness to see each other.

7 minutes later we were at Anne’s flat and getting showered and changed, then had to hightail it back to the airport to get our next flight to London. We arrived at Luton airport at 11.00am, and were in London by 2.00pm. We dropped our luggage off at Anne’s old place of work at the London University, then caught a Tube to Oxford Street. I was astounded at the message board at the Tube station...

Wandered down there to the Hummingbird Bakery to have a Red Velvet Cupcake. Very yum. The café next to it was incredible too with the most amazing desserts/slices, but we stuck with the Hummingbird.

A bit of shopping down Oxford Street.  I bought some makeup which is so cheap in London in comparison to NZ. Unfortunately it ended up expensive as when returning money to the money belt, I must not have put it back properly, and I ended up losing about 70 pounds. Most annoyed. Let that be a lesson in security. It could have been worse and I’m not letting that spoil my holiday. No point in getting upset, as there is absolutely nothing I could do. However, some lucky sod is 70 pounds richer. I only hope that it went to someone who needed it.

We then tubed to Covent Garden to meet up with some of Anne’s friends at the Punch and Judy pub. Mitra was able to meet me for a couple of drinks there as well – so pleased to see her after 15 years, since she moved back to the UK. She hasn’t changed a bit – still very young looking!

It was lovely to meet up with Anne’s friends – they all looked so familiar after seeing them on facebook in the photos Anne had uploaded over the past couple of years. I loved their great senses of humour and their fun attitude to life. I really enjoyed myself.

After the pub, we walked to charring cross so I could get up on the bridge and take a few photos of London at night. Pretty bridge. Lots of people around.

We then caught the tube back to Jays flat at Clapham. I couldn’t help but notice a man standing in the tube, pale, sweating, thin hair, looking a bit freaky, and reading a book ‘How to tell a Psychopath’.

Was very glad to get to Jays’ – foot incredibly sore and swollen, and I was parched. Jay made me the best cup of tea I’ve ever had. Anne and I repacked all our gear, and got ready for our next days trip to Santorini.