Our first day out to London in a long while and we packed quite a lot into it. First off we had tickets to vist the 'Dali-Cybernetics' exhibition in the Boiler House in Brick Lane, but as we got there with plenty of time to spare we decided to bring forward our planned visit to the TAG Heuer boutique in Spitalfields. Unfortunately they didn't have the new green dial Aquaracer available but they did have several of the new releases from Watches & Wonders in store.
After that we headed off to Brick Lane and the Dali-Cybernetics exhibition. We weren't entirely sure what this was supposed to be as the marketing was fairly vague. It was simply billed as an 'immersive experience including a VR element'. However on arrival we were handed some old fashioned 3D glasses and for a while we wondered if we had been sold a pup!
The first part of the exhibition was fairly unremarkable, some boards on the wall containing text that everyone was trying to read at once, followed be a short film of Dali talking about science and his fascination with all things scientific. Then an installation where you sort of coloured in a picture and 'sent it' to a screen whereby NOTHING AT ALL HAPPENED.
Utterly pointless.
Hmm... so then we went downstairs into the penultimate part of the exhibition, a large room where a 15-20 min film was shown using Dali's art that had been manipulated and in places transformed into 3D (put your glasses on now!). When I started watching this I didn't think it was all that good, but as it went on it got better, and fortunately we managed to snag a couple of deck chairs so at least we were semi-comfortable for the duration.
Then finally we came to the final (and best) part of the whole thing, the VR Experience. This was really good: it was set on the deck of a ship and as you looked around various Dali-esque things flew by or materialised. At one point a huge, flickering candle grew out of the deck of the ship. Meanwhile an ethereal Gala floated off the front of the ship. This part was very cool, though Rose's headset packed up and she had to go and get another one. The only negative thing was the OTT squealing from the other patrons who were enjoying everything just that little bit too much.
After this we headed off again, back past the TAG Heuer boutique that we'd already visited and down Bishopsgate to the Kings Arms on Wormwood Street. We had picked this out as a simple pub where we could get a simple scampi and chips, but unfortunately we did not reckon on it being Saturday dinner time and being stuffed to the gunnels with football-wankers.
So we headed off to our second choice Greene King pub a little further down the road and around the corner, and of course this was also stuffed with footie-fukkers. Gah. So we decided the next thing to do was head off down the road we were planning to go on after dinner and hope we found somewhere to eat.
As luck would have it we came across 'The Alchemist' (a cocktail bar of limited appeal) which served a rather tasty fried chicken and chips (albeit served in a ludicrous chicken shaped wire frame basket). This only served to make it more difficult to eat and while we did think about taking it out and putting it onto the plate, this seemed like something easier said than done, so we just got on with it.
Suitably refreshed, we headed down 'The Minories' toward Tower Hill Gate and the station for the DLR. This took us to Canary Wharf, or actually somewhere adjacent to Canary Wharf. We got off the train and followed the signs for Canary Wharf, only to realise that we were outside and walking alongside a three-lane 'dual carriageway'... we kept following the signs, getting slightly irritated it must be said and then eventually came to what looked the bowels of a multi storey car park.
A sign pointed us up stairs (as if we hadn't walked up enough stairs already) to a small platform where signs promised a train would be along to take us direct into the middle of the Canary Wharf shopping centre. After a couple of minutes a train did arrive and travelled barely its own length before stopping and depositing us in Canary Wharf.
Canary Wharf shopping centre is endlessly confusing, even with a map that seems to have been drawn by someone with autism and so we flailed around trying to find Penhaligons (as usual we just sort of stumbled on it by chance) which was very nice and Rose managed to get the scent library she wanted, and then Watches of Switzerland, which was a bit crap to be honest. Time was running short and so we took the Jubilee Line to North Greenwich for our appointment at the 02.
Back in February Rose had bought me (and her) a 'Climb the 02' experience - which was a bit optimistic considering what had been going on with her back and hip at the time - but thankfully we were able to consider it now. The whole thing was scheduled to take 90 mins and they asked us to arrive 15 mins beforehand. Of course we got there way too early and had to sit about for 20 mins before strolling over to the check in desk. Once checked in (which took several seconds) she said could we go away and come back 5 mins before the start. Seriously.
Needless to say there was a considerable period of hanging about, watching a safety video, getting our shoes assessed, being given harnesses to put on, putting all our belongings in boxes and then heading outside to try and wriggle our way into the harnesses (not as easy at looks, and not particularly comfortable). I have to say though our guide (Theo) was quite likeable and sporadically entertaining.
Then it was up yet more stairs to the main platform where they try and make you pose for photographs, but we weren't having any of that shit. And then we were clicked onto the steel rope and off up the 30 degree slope! This is pretty steep actually and it quickly became quite hard work. Not least because you had to guide your latch through each section, which was a bit of a faff to be honest.
Thankfully after the first (quite long) section the angle reduced a bit and it became a bit easier. It took quite a long time to get to the top, probably 15 mins or more I would say and once you got to the top you were freed from the rope and free to walk around and look at the sights. One of the suggested sights was Anthony Gormley's 'Quantam Cloud' which is actually the other side of a very tall building and completely unseeable from the O2, but never mind. We saw it when we went on the cable cars a few years ago.
Our time on the top was up and we had to make our way down the other side, this was definitely quicker but also quite hard on the legs and knees, especially the last part which was a 30degree drop. Once we got to the bottom we had to wait around pointlessly before they corralled all the fuckwits in our group together long enough to give us back our belongings and expunge us into the 'Up at the O2' Gift Shop - I shit you not.
Of course now we were on completely the other side of the building so we had to walk all the way round the damn thing to get back to the entrance (this took about 4 hours). And then we headed back to the Jubilee Line, changing at London Bridge for the Northern Line and Euston. As we arrived back at Euston with barely three minutes before the next train left for Northampton we realised the thing was going to be rammed with football chanting wankers and so we elected to wait another twenty minutes.
This was a good call as we easily got a seat, although part way through the journey a quartet of football fuckwits came and sat opposite us and spent the rest of the journey discussing the day's events. It was annoying, but not threatening, and if we could have been arsed we could have moved. But by this time were too tired to get up so we listened and ripped the piss out of them all the way home.
