Monday 6 June 2005 - Last day in London
I remember being fond of Asterix as a child. One of my favourite stories was the Twelve Tasks which Julius Ceasar set Asterix 12 impossible tasks to rival those that Hercules did - if he could complete them then he would prove he was a god and Caesar would bow down to him.
One of those tasks was to go to "the place that drives you mad" and obtain a form from the clerks. Of course the clerks sent Asterix all over the place with contradicatory advice until he almost went mad. Today we had a similar experience with the British Post Office.
Chaucey and I wanted to post some excess items to NZ rather than cart it all over Europe. We boxed it up, went to the post office and asked how much - 56 Pounds! No advice was given on how to reduce it (even though Chaucey asked) and they wouldn't accept credit cards for mail transactions so we went and did some research. It turns out that is we posted the items in two lots it would cost less than 10 pounds each carton.
We did this, and went back - this time we struck a helpful and knowledgable postal worker who knew what to do and we got the parcels away.
On the way out Chaucey grabbed a 'Service Standards' brouchure. It promises to respond to queries quickly and to deliver on time, but not to be helpful. I promise never to complain about the NZ Post Office again. Or at least for six months.
This ended up taking most of the morning so we had lunch and then went to Trafalgar Square and Westminter. Trafalgar Square is a lovely plaza - I had been expecting another Piccadilly Circus - with fountains and lots of open space. While we were there a film crew were making a show, not sure what it was but the actor slapped a "Property of USA" sign on one of the lions on Nelson's Column.
We walked along to Westminster and there was a long queue of people waiting to get into the public gallery at Parliament. We had a look at the Abbey and then went back to the hotel.
Afterwards we went to "We will rock you" - the musical with Queen music. It was very corny but the music was excellent. It was a little spoilt by the Germans in front of us who didn't understand the jokes so one of the group kept translating for the others. They were shushed several times by others.
After the show we headed back to the hotel as we have an early morning tomorrow - off to Prague.
One of those tasks was to go to "the place that drives you mad" and obtain a form from the clerks. Of course the clerks sent Asterix all over the place with contradicatory advice until he almost went mad. Today we had a similar experience with the British Post Office.
Chaucey and I wanted to post some excess items to NZ rather than cart it all over Europe. We boxed it up, went to the post office and asked how much - 56 Pounds! No advice was given on how to reduce it (even though Chaucey asked) and they wouldn't accept credit cards for mail transactions so we went and did some research. It turns out that is we posted the items in two lots it would cost less than 10 pounds each carton.
We did this, and went back - this time we struck a helpful and knowledgable postal worker who knew what to do and we got the parcels away.
On the way out Chaucey grabbed a 'Service Standards' brouchure. It promises to respond to queries quickly and to deliver on time, but not to be helpful. I promise never to complain about the NZ Post Office again. Or at least for six months.
This ended up taking most of the morning so we had lunch and then went to Trafalgar Square and Westminter. Trafalgar Square is a lovely plaza - I had been expecting another Piccadilly Circus - with fountains and lots of open space. While we were there a film crew were making a show, not sure what it was but the actor slapped a "Property of USA" sign on one of the lions on Nelson's Column.
We walked along to Westminster and there was a long queue of people waiting to get into the public gallery at Parliament. We had a look at the Abbey and then went back to the hotel.
Afterwards we went to "We will rock you" - the musical with Queen music. It was very corny but the music was excellent. It was a little spoilt by the Germans in front of us who didn't understand the jokes so one of the group kept translating for the others. They were shushed several times by others.
After the show we headed back to the hotel as we have an early morning tomorrow - off to Prague.
posted by Michael at
11:53 PM
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