One day to go ...

By the way, that's not my jacket! It belongs to Geezer, my broad shouldered colleague from the Melbourne broadsheet who I had the fortune of catching up with last night for a few pints of - as he describes it - the brown booze. Having a limited wardrobe, I borrowed the swizzy coat for this photo op, but I think you'll all agree that it looks much better on me than him. He's such a cool dude. Real debonair! It was fun to get some gossip from back home and to hang out with this affable lad and his Pommie mates. Midnight closing time was the only sour note.

I'm not sure how long I would have lasted out on the tiles anyway. Friday was huge. Firstly I went to Scotland Yard (for questioning, but no charges were laid) and then the guard changing at Buckingham Palace, which I missed out on last time. Then I went to see if the British PM, Tony Blair, was at home in Downing Street but I didn't make it past the armed guards. London is a swell city for sightseeing, when it's not raining. I had a look at the London Eye, Westminster Abbey and Big Ben as I'm not sure when I'll see them again. The thought of it makes a tear well in the eye.

I then decided to go on the Piccadilly Line out to Arsenal, home of the Gunners. My chances of going to see a soccer game (I refuse to call it football) are next-to-none, so a tour of their home ground at Highbury was the next best thing. For £5 I got inside the stadium and close to the hallowed pitch. This picture was taken in the players' dressing room. Considering this is their last season at the ancient venue before they move to the larger state-of-the-art Emirates Stadium nearby, I'm glad I was able to see it first-hand. I didn't see any action, other than grass growing under artificial lights. That was more exciting than, well, watching grass grow.

In between all of that, I picked up my Contiki tour ticket. There was jubilation then desperation earlier in the week when I missed out on another tour run by a rival company after seemingly having my spot on the bus assured. But my travel agent got me the last spot on Contiki's 16-day European Encounter (not 18 days as I blogged earlier this week). The bus leaves London first thing tomorrow morning, hence the subject line. First stop? Amsterdam!