I took the tube over to Camden, To wander around

At the back of my Lonely Planet Travel journal, I have a list of things I plan to do and see in London, in England and in Europe. It really helps to keep me focused on what I came here to do, and I'm slowly, but surely, making my way through the list, ticking them off as I go...but, it seems the more I do, the more I find out about, and so the list has grown a bit of late.

The weather forecast for the weekend just gone predicted showers on Saturday, and on Sunday, thunderstorms in the morning, with light showers and sunshine throughout the day on Sunday. Although the weather forecasts are not always entirely accurate, I made my plans accordingly.

Caitlin and I made our way to Clapham Junction a bit before lunchtime, and got on a train to Vauxall, via Queenstown Road- we didn't mean to get off at Queenstown road, but Caitlin had her i-pod headphones in, and caught the tail end of the announcement that the train was going via Vauxall. She thought we were actually at Vauxall station, and made a mad dash out the door! The women we were sitting across from us said "This isn't Vauxhall", which I also knew because I was paying attention (!), and I chased Caitlin out the door, and narrowly escaped being left on the train or jammed in the door!

Caitlin was all flustered, pulling out her earphones, and I was shaking my head, saying "This is Queenstown Road station!" and pointing at the sign. Caitlin was looking around, very confused, when the train driver poked his head out the side window. "Where do you want to go to?" he asked, "Vauxhall!" I replied, and he let us back on the train, via his little side door. Thank goodness we had been on the first carriage, because otherwise he wouldn't have seen us floundering around on the platform like chickens without heads. I was too embarrassed to go back and sit in our seats opposite the women who saw the whole thing, and were giving us knowing smiles, and so I stood for the remainder of the trip.

It didn't take long to make it to Vauxhall, where we were able to walk over the Vauxhall Bridge (from which we had a really amazing view of the Battersea Power station- as featured on the front of Pink Flyod's 'Animals' album cover) to the Tate Britain.

The Tate Britain Museum is fantastic, in terms of both content and structure. As per usual, I decided to head straight to the section containing Historic British Art, which was absolutely superb. I now have a new favourite artist, the exquisite painter, Sir. John Everett Millais. Millais' works, such as Flowing to the River, The Vale of Rest, Ophelia and Christ in the House of his Parents were enthralling. Paintings also of interest, featured in this section, were John Brett's The British Chanel see from the Dorsetshire Cliffs (which was simply stunning!) and the work entitled Lucretia Borgia Reigns in the Vatican in the Absence of Pope Alexander VI was as equally captivating as the story behind it! The nature and landscape section of the Historic British Art was stunning, and I was particularly taken by the landscapes and impressions by John Constable. His works are like looking in the 18th and 19th century British landscape; the paintings and landscapes are equally divine.

Following the History section, I wandered through the Turner Galleries, which I quite enjoyed, though not nearly as much as the Historic British Art, or the Contemporary British Art, which included the likes of Gilbert & George and the Kettle's Yard feature (I have now added the real-deal Kettle's Yard in Cambridge to my list of must-dos...the whole thing made me think of Melbourne's Heide Musuem of Modern Art...how I love Heide at this time of the year in Australia. It's just so beautiful...feeling home sick pangs coming on...(must.stop.this.nostalgia)

The final section of the gallery that I made my way through was Tudor and Stuart Portraiture Section, which houses an amazing collection of works from the 14th and 15th century, and has
brought on a new obsession (which involves me wanting to know everything about King Henry the VIII and that whole shamozzle) after seeing a fabulous portrait of Elizabeth I...and so the googling has began. But more about that another time.

We ended up spending hours at the Tate Britain Museum on that Saturday afternoon, and after walking back to Victoria Station, past Westminster Abbey and the [New] Scotland Yard (where some friendly policemen poked fun at me for taking a photo of the revolving sign!), we decided to head home and rest for the remainder of the evening (we had planned to do this on Friday night, but around 10pm, our housemate Ben arrived home at Cabul Road, silly as a wheel, and convinced us to get up off the couch and head down to a club called 'Revolution' in the Clapham Junction. His enthusiasm and complete silliness inspired us to walk the five minutes in the pouring rain, down to the junction, and without intending to do so, we ended up having a rather late night).

The following morning, refreshed and revived, I awoke to thunder storms, but by the time we were organised, and ready to leave the house, the sun was shining. Welcome to English weather! We caught a train, via Waterloo Station, to the North, to wander around old Camden town. Camden is renowned for it's Gothic/punk inspired scene and markets (as well as a crackin' general arts and music scene), and it did not disappoint. Trouble is, or was, is that Camden is such a tourist hub, and the streets were packed, and given that there was nothing that I needed or wanted to buy necessarily, we decided to cross over the Lock Bridge, and go and sit on the banks of Camden Lock. When I first heard of Camden Lock, I thought it to be 'Camden Loch' (as in a lake)- and presumed there was a lake there. But, no, rather Camden Lock is a very scientific-type-process-feature on the Regent's Canal. There is no way I could possibly explain how this whole process takes place, but somehow, people open and close gates, to raise and lower the canal's water levels (so they can move under bridges!) as they leisurely steer and sail their little tug boats through canals, and make it out onto the Thames river. We sat on the bank of the Lock, looking at the poor duck (just the one), floating alongside coke bottles and a pineapple (just the one), and watching the whole Lock process take place. It was rather impressive, indeed.

It was decided that we would spend the remainder of the afternoon watching the French Open tennis final at the Earl of Camden pub, where we watched Roger Fedderer win very comfortably over his Swedish rival- it's fair to say the Swede sitting across from us at our table was less than impressed. But thems the breaks, as they say.

All in all, a splendid weekend. Tick, tick.