Takin' London by storm…or not

A friend and I went to London on Saturday in celebration of both our birthdays. We did stuff that I’ve always wanted to do but never have because before I met this friend no one wanted to go to these places or do these things. I’ve found someone as strange as I am!
Our first task was to visit Tube stations we’ve been intrigued by when we’ve seen them on the London Underground map. My friend’s choice was Pudding Mill Lane (we thought the Great Fire of London started here but later found we were sadly mistaken) and mine was East India.
We were making quite good time before we boarded the wrong line (the Circle line does it everytime!) only to be sat next to a suspiciously broad shouldered woman holding an even more suspicious package. We couldn’t decide whether it was a snowboard or a dead body. We finally made it onto the Docklands Light Railway and were well on our way to Pudding Mill Lane. As we alighted, we should have taken note that no one else got off at this stop. I’m sure the other passengers on the train thought we had the wrong stop and were laughing at our naivety. There was no one around for miles. No one and nothing. Tumbleweed blew across the huge industrial wasteland ahead of us and a black cat walked behind it. I’m sure the cat was laughing at us too. The remarkable thing was the strong smell of a bonfire nearby…..our minds playing tricks on us? Nah!
Staying on the DLR we headed off to East India to be greeted with similar dissapointment. We decided to head back into central London when lo and behold! The Millenium Dome! Neither of us had ever been this close to it before so we backtracked and walked towards a group of posh new Barratt homes on the riverside. What a great view we had. We watched the local birdlife as the sun broke through the clouds in steady beams.
We rounded off the day in central London, milling around the Covent garden markets, visiting the open air ice rink at Somerset House and trying to find somewhere to have a meal in Chinatown. It was difficult to find a table due to the New Year celebrations but Lok Ho Fook restaurant not only gave us a table but served us the best Kung Po prawns I’ve ever had. To repay them I almost sent a waiter and his spring rolls flying! The look on his face was a mixture of horror and relief.
It’s funny, I saw nearly as much of London on Saturday as I did the three years I was at university.