Bodhi Bum

At the moment I'm currently still in London and living the student life at Queen Mary University in the East End. The residence runs as a hotel in the summer when the students are gone home, and since I'm paying my own way on this contract and don't get to live in a free, fancy hotel, and I'm going cheap. Most hotels in London run upwards of 60 pounds a night minimum, which can get costly where you're living there for two months. So this place is 19 pound, 50 pence a night, which is still costly for most places, but for this city it's dirt cheap. And I've got broadband in my room to boot, which you usually don't get in a hotel, and if you do you have to pay a fortune for it. Here for 10 quid I get a month of internet.

So as I'm working from home for two months, my life has been pretty boring so there ain't much new to report. My day consists of waking up, walking two feet to my desk and working all day. Or at least until I get bored and decide to play online games. Then off to the pub for a pint and some dinner, and early to bed. Not much fun, but it's a nice break from the travelling. And since the boss is a continent away over on the West Coast of the States, I can get the work done on my own time. Which usually means working over the weekend, so I can goof off a little during the week.

Anyways, I did get adventorous last weekend and decided that I should get off my ass and go see Stonehenge. Since it's only a 90 minute train ride from London, it was an easy trip. I got up early and headed down to Victoria station and caught the train to Salisbury. I even passed through my old town of Basingstoke on the way, where I worked for a month back in February. Then from Salisbury, I caught the tour bus about 20 minutes away to Stonehenge. Now Stonehenge is world famous, and when you hear the history of it going back 4,500 years it is pretty amazing. But to look at, well, it could hardly be called awe inspiring. It's a couple of big rocks kinda jumbled up, with half of them missing (I guess they said people used to take them for building and stuff over the last few thousand years). So now they're only half of them left. But just being there and saying that I've been to Stonehenge now is worth the price of the train ticket. I could have taken a tour from London which would have cost about 60 quid. But I did it on my own and it only cost me about 16 quid for the whole thing. Mind you I didn't buy a ticket for the train on the way there, and no one asked me so I got the ride for free. On the way back I got nailed though, and I guess with my accent he figured I was clueless tourist. Although I claimed I was only going from Basingstoke to London, so the ticket was half what it should have been. I know, sneaky, but getting free train rides through Europe is almost like a sport for the locals here, so I just joined in.

After Stonehenge, I stopped in Salisbury and went looking for Salisbury steak. But the restaurant I had lunch in didn't have it on the menu, and the lady just laughed at me and walked away when I asked. Now Salisbury Cathedral was an impressive site. The tallest church spire in England, and a huge church. But we weren't allowed to take pictures inside so I got none to show. The coolest thing there which I didn't know was there, is that Salisbury Church is the home of the "Magna Carta". That's the early consitution written up god knows how long ago which was the precursor to the US Constitution, and pretty much every democratic constitution. I really wanted to get a picture of that, but the place was packed.

Well, it's Saturday and I'm here for another three weeks (or at least till the students come back mid September and I get kicked out of here). Then off to who knows where. Wherever the next job happens to be.