WILLERTONS WORLD

London, United Kingdom.

March 31st, 2017 

I arrived in London in pretty good shape considering the flight came straight through Dubai and took 29 hours.

My brother Andrew suggested I use some hydration anti-jetlag pills and they really worked although drinking 5 L of fluid over 29 hours meant I was up out of my seat a lot !

At the Auckland airport bar I met the first of the interesting people that I expect to meet on my journey.

Ben was an emergency doctor from England who had graduated from Oxford and was now working in emergency medicine on the Gold Coast of Australia. His partner Emma was a pharmacist and together we talked about life in the UK and how wankers always drive Porsches!

Ha ha I did tell him and his girlfriend really paid out on him.

On the flight I was sitting next to the ex national team goalkeeper for Malaysia. I can’t remember his name now but he was off to London with his son who had just graduated, to watch Chelsea play at Stamford Bridge. It was his first long flight for some time and he was hurting even though he had only come from Malaysia.

Checking into the Tower Hotel to meet my friends Graham and Aly Ryan after they had been to a show, I spent the afternoon at the wonderful Tate modern.

I have never been here despite living 3 1/2 years in London. It was fantastic to have time on my own to stop and look at whatever I wanted to and be alone in amongst what was hundreds of young people including children at the Museum.

Meeting Aly and Graham for a drink and then dinner, it was great to spend time discussing my plans with two great people who are very experienced walkers and travellers.

We had a blast at a lovely Italian restaurant and then followed it up with another couple of beers looking at the tower bridge at night.

Waking early in the morning I decided to go for another walk to wear my boots in. I discovered a bit of a problem in that I started to get hotspots high on my ankle with my new boots. Uh Oh! Is this going to be a problem?

I went back and used my brother Andrews Guerny goo but it continued to give me problems all the way through the rest of the day.

Walking east from the tower hotel I went through Wapping and all of the new Docklands developments there and discovered an old canal path to return back to the hotel on a beautiful spring day.

Stopping in for a refuel of a flat white at a cafe in Wapping, I met an ex-professional footballer who had played for a year in Valencia, Spain. He had also played in the state leagues in Australia and was very interested to know about football in New Zealand.

He was having a laugh at my accent and he will not be the first one to do that! I met Aly and Graham for breakfast before heading off on the tube to Heathrow airport to catch my British Airways flight out to Madrid. My journey really starts to become real now.

STEPS: 24,014 on the 1st & 16,091 on the 2nd

MID LIFE CRISIS THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Sharon & I could live anywhere really. How cool would it be to have a flat in Wapping?

WEIGHT: who knows after a few beers !