well if there is a prize for most effort getting to a dawn service then we are in the running for it.....we got the 10.0pm train to charring cross on tue night and as we had a bit of time up our sleeve i thought we could wander down the mall to where julia's brother stephen has a place in belgravia...which would have been fine if i could have found the mall straight off.....but getting past 11.30 so decided to take a tube but one we got to was closed so had to get taxi in the end.....was pretty staggered to find out that london sleeps at night......no tubes , pubs shut 11.00pm and only the clubs open(which are a very expensive way to wile away the night) so just as well we had somewhere to kip for a few hours.....up at 4.00am and away with a bit of a tantrum by yours truley who couldnt get the deadlocked front door open(apparently i had locked it.....good old kate to the rescue).....we were a relatively short walk to hyde park corner but i still did my best to get lost....service was bang on 5.00am...a big crowd there....over 1000 i would guess and we got a good possy......service was at our memorial this year which as i said is 16 large metal spikes driven into the ground on an angle at various angles ....each one represents something and the tops of some are lit to represent the southern cross....a small maori group did the welcome and obligatory haka to finish.....took about an hour and was cold as hell....then we did wreath laying a hundred yards away at the aussie memorial which is a huge marbel wall with the name of every town and village/area in aus.....then as we were queued to sign the book of rememberance it started to rain a cold shitty type of day that only south otago could reproduce in mid winter!!
walking back to stephens for breakfast..., i got us lost and we ended up in knightsbridge which isnt a million miles away but the way they name the streets there it is not easy to extract yourselve esp map reading in pouring rain so we were like drowned rats when we got there..me more than kate as she had a small brolly....dried out we were on the way again....took tube this time to westminster....wasnt sure where cenataph at whitehall and was going to get a taxi....just as well i didnt as i asked a cop ....who actually knew where he was and said cenataph was about 200m away......here they had more wreath laying and one of the military bands in action and quite a large march by vets.....all the while it bloody rained from leaden skys.....ifound we were beside an aussie woman who was trying to take photos while holding onto a very large brolly.....naturally i volunteered to hold said brolly for the whole ceremony making sure of course that i was well under it as well so that saved the day....then we moved over the road another few hundy meters to westminster abbey for the 12.00 grand finalle service which took about another hour....and involved a lot of ceremony .....we were mostly in the transept which is the cross bit that you have in an abbey and you couldnt actually see all what was going on in the bit that runs up and down but there is a "grand" alter at the top end where the speakers were and there as lots of flag bearers going up and down as well....we got the full-monty service complete with a high ranking turk doing their bit.....i dont know what the abbey holds but there were lots there.......out in the street we were caught in a bloody thunderstorm and it really rained....i had by this stage run out of aussie women with brollies so i made a sprint for the tube station complex.....then i discovered i had lost something....ie kate ...in the downpour she had lost sight of which entrance i went in and she took another.....fortunately she stayed in the one place and i eventually found her ( i had both cel phones in my pocket so no help there) ...she was a bit grumpy when i did find her , just to understate the issue a bit..........
after the dawn service i had had a long chat with another aussie while kate was queuing to sign the book of rememberance......she was ex-navy and had been living in london for a few years....she said most people go to a pub called the "walkabout" after the last service and it is just down the embankment from westminster.....so once i refound kate in the station we went for a wander down that way as the rain had stopped for a while......she must have been an irish aussie as that pub was bloody miles down the thames and kate was as lame as an old ewe by now as the heels she had operated on wre playing up.....i should have known by the name it would be an aussie pub....modern and low end like the outback in dunedin used to be .....and so crass that even aussies must cringe when they go there ....menues like "the great aussie barby steak" and the "where-the-bloody-hell -are -you burger "...sort of style and expensive beer.....so the thought of washing some of thst down with fosters was too much for me so we went back on the tube and out to shepherds bush where bert and barb used to be and washed down scampi and chips with a few rums.....and that was anzac day ala london.........and of course we finished the day by waiting on the wrong platform for an hour for train back down to ashurst....going to attempt to add a few photos here so shouldnt need to link to facebook with a bit of luck....rh
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