London Bridges

I've had a couple of errands waiting to be done since I arrived. The most important was to acquire an EE sim. I had read that they were the only ones which would work in Scotland. After the nine-hour delay in Sydney, I thought, well, at least the accommodation will be open when I get to London (which it wouldn't have been at 6 a.m.--the original estimated time of arrival) and I will be able to get a SIM card from the airport shop (which opens much later than the arrival time of the original flight).

The SIM shop in the airport was open, but they were not selling EE SIMs because the network was down on the 6th of July. I knew Telstra would not be shy about charging me for any time that my phone was active without a wifi carrier. I left my phone on flight mode except for about a minute last night when I was trying to get the WhatsApp group for "my people" registered on my laptop and needed to scan a QR code.

Two seconds after that I got a $10 bill from Telstra!

I promptly returned the phone to flight mode and did not turn it on again until this afternoon when I got the EE phone number that came with the new Sim. I made do with asking station staff or civilians for directions to my stations when I got lost. I did the research for the tube stops last night, using my laptop and the hotel wifi.

Good news is, I got the SIM, from a convenience store this afternoon, despite the EE shop closest to me saying that a sudden rush of tourists had cleaned them out today. Would I like to wait until tomorrow? 

Still not sleeping regular hours; it will take about a week to do that, based on my previous experience. Bright and early yesterday, I set off towards Russel Square tube stop and took myself off to Little Venice, which I'd seen in a British movie last week and determined to see with my own eyes. Here it is. 

I walked along the towpath or an hour or two and then followed the people I could see walking on the street, reasoning that they must be going to a tube stop, and they were. 

I went to Tower Hill with the aim of walking across the Tower Bridge.
After weaving back and forth across the Thames on three more of London's bridges--London, Southwark and the Millenial Bridge, as I was crossing the Millenial Bridge I saw the Tate Gallery waiting for me. I went in to see the Surrealism exhibition. 

I found St Paul's tube stop and got home much more quickly than I could have predicted because while I certainly didn't know it at the time--I have a shocking sense of direction--I had been walking along the banks of the Thames in the direction of Russel Square. 

Tomorrow I'm off to the Camden Community Market. The following day I leave London for York at sparrowsfart.