...aaand off again.

We found that 98% of the shops on The Royal Mile selling clan tartans, etc, were owned by chinese shopkeepers and all their stock was made in the PRC. Took quite a while but we eventually found the right goods.

Boarded the train for London and it's virtually the same as Sydney suburban trains. Hard seats, half of them face forward and the other half face t'other way. May as well have travelled in the luggage compartment. If you're thinking of doing this, don't.

Got into London King's X and was walking out to our hotel next door when my new suitcase 0 already badly damaged by baggage handlers suddenly had a wheel failure, slewed in front of me and arse over I went again. Some young cockney raced over and said "Hang on old fella and I'll help you up!" Didn't know whether to thank him or punch 'im up da froat!

Anyway, had lots of fun, toured here and there, including the Tower of London, cheated the queues and saw everything including the crown jewels and all.

Then, onto the Eurostar! Under the channel at around 300 kph and the trip was smooth as silk. Food from the bar was good and we were soon at the Gare Du Nord - the biggest railway station in Europe.

Unfortunately.

France is being overrun by africa, badly. Won't go there again, and it was compounded by the hotel saying our booking was cancelled (clerk african) and quite rude about it, so we had to pay for 2 nights again. Contacted our travel agent who gave us all the info to disprove it and early next morning I descended on the front counter and started to get angry. Clerks 1 & 2 (african) were going through all the computer stuff and still denying so I released Mr. Really Angry and got very loud.

Clerks 1 & 2 were joined by Clerk 3 (chinese) and Manager 1 (very attractive white french woman early 30's) and they were all hammering away at keyboards so I let them know that Expedia hadn't cancelled, but the dates were changed - back in January. Suddnely the paid account was found by a series of computer searches and voila!! A refund of 480 Euro was produced. factor that X 1.6.

In the meantime the lobby was full of people trying to get a room as Dubai was flooded and the shit had hit the fan. Igrabbed Jan, smiling, and we went sightseeing to the Notre Dame & Eiffel Tower. They were great, as was the cafe next door where Enri served us and kept us entertained.

Train back to the hotel and it was packed with africans who smelled, were belligerant and generally unattractive.

Next morning, over to terminal 3E and life got worse. Herded into the cattle races for ticket & luggage processing by black african nazis, then eventually on the aircraft for the worst flight in our lives. France & Air France - never agai!!

Interestingly enough, while sitting at the boarding gate, the flight before ours went to Cincinnatti (or somewhere similar) USA.

Once the flight was boarded and the doors were closed at least 8 to 10 people arrived to board, most running. They demanded the plane come back so they could board, threatened legal action, screamed, wailed and gnashed their teeth but were still sent back to the service desk.

Anyway, next morning we arrived in Narita Airport, Tokyo and everything changed. But that's for the next episode.

_________________

Chris O'Keefe
R43136
Ex WO Chippy
19th MOBI Intake
July 65 to July 85
HMAS Nirimba X 4 -Penguin-Sydney-Queenborough - Creswell - Moreton - Stalwart - Platypus - Coonawarra Reconstruction Team 76 - Platypus - Hobart - Cerberus - FHQ - Coonawarra.

Anyone can be ordinary. Shipwrights choose to be extraordinary!