Monday 6 July: A London welcome

I rang the bell at Ola’s apartment in Ealing and was greeted by Marah, her sister. Ola and Marah had both moved to London a few years, having both studied at the Department of Engineering Science in Auckland. Ola was in my year and is one of those glue people who bring folks together, initiating food-related catch-ups, encouraging final-year project room shenanigans, winning department baking contests with her epic cakes, and of course, organising her annual group tramp ft. The Shared Gear & Menu Spreadsheet. The last one I went to was the Pinnacles in the Coromandel with a group of about thirty, and two of Ola’s highly coveted cakes survived the walk up. I had met Marah on that tramp, and also during a brief season of social football at the Auckland Domain. I also interviewed Ola alongside two other Palestinian-Kiwi women when I was volunteering for Storyo five years ago, a platform by my friend Elina that shares stories of marginalised communities, following the escalations of the 2021 Sheikh Jarrah evictions. You can read the interviews here: Ola, Nadia, Wajd.

After storing my bike in the safety of their garage, I settled into their spacious flat onto the huge fold-out couch. Lots of personal touches around the home reminded me that Ola’s already been living here for a while now. Polaroids with friends, three clocks that showed the time in Auckland, London, and Gaza, and framed photos of the New Zealand bush adorned the walls. Sliding doors led to a big balcony, but the curtains were drawn and there was tin foil covering the other windows. London was in a heatwave, and the houses here are designed to trap heat.

I washed off the day, having started it in Dublin that morning on the ferry. Ola soon joined Marah and me after work, and we went out to get shawarma for dinner. A friend of theirs had apparently found a place that does it better than Ola & Marah’s current favourite, Goodies, so it was imperative that this was verified. I could think of nothing I wanted more after a long day of travel than a shawarma at a grill, hand-picked by Ola’s friends.

It was an Iraqi/Kurdish restaurant. We got four mains, including an entire grilled marinated sea bass which is is a signature Iraqi dish. The entree tasting platter alone included hummus, babaganoush, jajik (cucumber yoghurt), tabbouli, pickled onions, olives, some crispy fried bread bits, and soft chewy pita, for only 7 pounds!!! Marah thought the chicken shawarma was good, but not as good as their favourite from Goodies, although the rest of the dishes were hard to beat in terms of value for money. The entire meal was 31.50 GBP, around $75 NZD, and we’d been stuffed and had leftovers to take home! When the Kurdish woman asked how it was, Ola said they could consider increasing their prices.

To compare shawarma quality, we went to Goodies afterwards. This turned out to be an Arabic supermarket, and a bit of an institution on this side of town.

Inside was a supermarket with an array of fresh vegetables, Middle Eastern spices, snacks, other goods, and also:

• A roastery where I bought dried mangoes and spiced nut mixes.

• A grill selling shawarma; tragically the person in front of us in line bought the last chicken shawarma, apparently the One True Flavour, so we had to settle for mixed meat. I also bought a pottle of hummus to re-calibrate my hummus palate for when I make it back at home.

• A bakery/patisserie selling Arabic breads and sweets.

• An ice creamery. Arabic ice cream comes rolled up like a log cake, a thick layer of vanilla-looking ice cream filled with pistachios and other things. The guy cut three slices and folded them like rose petals into a cup for us. The texture was thicker and creamier than western ice cream or gelato, a bit like the dessert halawet el jibn which some Syrian friends had made for me back in Wellington, creamy with a hint of rosewater.

What a start. Already I was thinking, “aww yeah this is what London is about!!!”

Tuesday 7 July: Natural History Museum

In the early version of my itinerary, I had planned to be in London for two weeks. It was my first time in the UK full stop. Having grown up in a British colony, I had heard countless travel stories since childhood of friends’ family trips to Monopoly board locations, West End, and the Tube stations which are mentioned in books and movies. However as my cycle touring ambitions grew, I ended up shortening my stay in London to just three days. I figured whether I was here for days, weeks, or even months, I would be scratching the surface anyway. I relaxed into being selective about what attractions I see, without stressing about exactly which few things would be the absolute “best” choices.

Whittled down to the Natural History Museum and Tate Modern, I (mentally) flipped a coin and the former won out. A Lime bike and tube ride later (the tube turned out to be like every other metro system except older and screechier), I was standing awestruck. The museum building was crazy, like what the heck, seriously.

I thought I’d seen my fair share of epic architecture around the world, but this still induced a significant amount of awe. The sheer size, the plants and animals carved into every column and stone, it seemed to scream “spare no expense”. I’ve seen cathedrals that are similar in scale and artistry, but the fact that it was dedicated to a secular pursuit seemed to set it apart in my mind.

I had been hoping that I wouldn’t like London too much, lest it induce some regrets in how I’ve spent my 20s (i.e. staying in New Zealand and not doing an OE). Walking into the museum, I immediately thought, “Fuck! I really like London.”

There was an exhibit called “Fixing Our Broken Planet” which I perused as a matter of professional interest (climate/science communication etc.) and actually learnt quite a lot. It covered a wide range of issues and showcased a particular scientist working on a solution for each issue. Many were related to climate change, for example crop failure - one case study was the development of a new grain that is more resistant to a wider range of conditions than wheat. I was delighted to see that my data/climate hero, Hannah Ritchie of Our World In Data, was highlighted in one of the profiles.

I eavesdropped on two British high schoolers debating on how to best help animals impacted by climate change. This was much more encouraging than the two American high schoolers I had overheard at their Natural History Museum in Washington DC a few years back. They had been pointing at a taxidermy kangaroo, debating about whether they really exist.

Wandering home after the museum, I fell into a temporary inner turmoil. Every time I rounded a corner I would think “nooooo don’t show more cool things!!!” It was terrible news to me that London does actually seem to live up to the hype. I also unfortunately learnt that starting age for the youth mobility visa that most kiwis use for their OEs is 35 years old, not 32 like I’d previously thought, thereby giving me real choice in the matter. Terrible! I wished I had spent some of my 20s flatting with Laura in London, like Ola and Marah were doing. I wished I’d spent years exploring museums and art galleries and eating foods from every culture and going to West End musicals with Laura and meeting people from all over the world and pumping up my CV with “international experience”. What’s worse, I’d recently received an email about a dream role that had opened up at Our World In Data working directly with aforementioned idol Hannah Ritchie (it is still open aghhhhhh). But we’ve just moved and bought a house in Christchurch! Ugh! True first world problems.

Later that Tuesday: BTS concert

Well, I finally got back to the apartment after being distracted by every shop and building and poster on the way home. I had a quick turnaround before tonight’s BTS concert. BTS is a South Korean boy band that Laura and I have been fans of since our early 20s almost ten years ago. I don’t like all their music and there’s a lot I don’t like at all about the K-pop industrial complex. However, I’m very fond of them because they were a catalyst for the unraveling of some internalised racism I had from childhood and opening up to parts of Korean culture which I’d rejected for a long time. I was coinciding with them on their world tour Europe stops, and seemingly miraculously, I had managed to nab some of the highly coveted tickets during presales many moons ago.

My engineering friends Dillan and Helen, who had both been at Jack’s wedding in Ireland, joined me. Dillan had admitted to rabbit hole-ing slightly on K-pop after watching K-pop Demon Hunters and being curious about what a K-pop concert in general would be like. Helen was an OG K-pop fan in high school, familiar with the “second generation” K-pop bands of the 2000s. And both of them are generally easy-going “try random things for the sake of it” types who are always fun to do things with.

To shortly summarise, it was objectively a fantastic spectacle with impeccable stage design, sound quality, creativity, etc. but, I think I’ve missed the peak.

I’ve missed my peak of fan fervour; I’m no longer as into them as I once was. And, controversial opinion, but I think they’ve also peaked in terms of ambition and energy. They’re no longer the underdogs pushing the limits of first the corporate-dominated South Korean music industry, then Asia, then testing how far an all-Korean, Korean-language act could make it in western markets. Years ago Laura and I would pore over emotional videos on YouTube of previous concerts, seeing them hungrily throwing their whole selves into the performances and ending up in tears on stage in constant disbelief at how far they’d come each time. Now they’re on top, and this concert had a definite air of “this is the 20th stop in our 100-stop stadium world tour, and we just gotta get the job done without putting out our backs because we’re in our 30s now”. Also, the London crowd, on a hot sweaty day, wasn’t the best. I’d been mentally prepared for the screams and the annoying sea of phones, but not the mild head-bobbing. I’ve danced harder at a Mumford and Sons concert.

Having said all that, it was surreal to see them in person, and my only regret was that I wasn’t able to share it with Laura or mum.

Afterwards, every tube station within a 30 minute walk of the stadium was packed with concertgoers, so Helen, Dillan, and I went into a nearby Colombian bar (as you can just do in London) and watched a FIFA game that was on. It was such a different crowd from the one pouring out from the stadium onto the street outside. We sat next to some Irish guys who had never heard of BTS and watched the match while waiting out the crowds before parting ways.

Wednesday 8 July: Lime Bike Tour

After a nice phone call with Michelle (of the Vietnam bike tour) in the morning, I hopped on the brand new Elizabeth Line to Liverpool Street (“Lizzy Line”, zero screech).

I met up with Ola and another Engineering Science friend Jack (not recent-wedding-Jack) for lunch. Jack and his partner are moving back to New Zealand very soon after 8 years here, which I think leaves Ola as the last of our year group in London!

Jack also works in data science and had always been very good at coding and maths stuff. This is by no means their most impressive achievement, but Jack and Toby (another engineering friend) once built a Settlers of Catan settlement-placement-optimiser for fun. Talking to him about his work reminded me of how far I had strayed from tech and data science. I feel quite out of touch with what’s relevant in the field these days (AI, it’s all AI 💀). During this trip, I had intended to think through where I want my career to go after my current role, but I haven’t… bothered to ponder on it, yet. I felt a twinge of discomfort (nothing on Jack) in being reminded that not being intentional about it was defaulting to a fork in the road anyway — the one that leads away from technical skills, towards management.

After lunch, Ola and Jack recommended an optimised (naturally) itinerary to make the most of my last afternoon in London. The first stop was Horizon22, a free high-rise where you could see panoramic views of the city:

Even though everything was grey-brown and quite ugly in my subjective opinion, the sheer scale of the city was still remarkable.

Randomly, when I was asking a woman nearby to take a photo for me, she turned out to be a BTS fan from Ukraine. With very little encouragement, I was talked at for 20 minutes. She was going to all 10 of 10 Europe concerts, spending over $2000 on tickets alone. She had even changed her flight from London to Munich (their next stop) in the hopes of getting to Munich early, so she might have a chance to meet (stalk?) RM, the group leader and her favourite, at art galleries (of which he is partial, although I highly doubt he’ll be perusing art galleries during tour stops for this very reason). “They must have some kind of magic, other artists don’t have this effect. People go crazy for them. Not in a bad way, in a good way. I don’t know how they manage to captivate people so well.” she gushed without pause. “Highly engineered marketing and parasocial relationships,” I thought privately. When she said she’ll wish for me to be able to go to many more than just my one London concert in future, I didn’t have the heart to tell her I doubted I’d be going to another since I hadn’t totally enjoyed the first.

After the high-rise was the start of Ola’s Lime Bike Tour (Google Maps link here). It’s a 1-2 hour loop that’s Optimised™️ for a great attractions-to-distance/effort ratio, using my favourite mode of transport (that being bicycles, not Lime bicycles specifically)!

The route ended with a skirt around Hyde Park. The green space was nice, but to be honest it just felt like a large Hagley Park. I suppose a lot of Christchurch was modelled on England. One unfamiliar delight were the rollerbladers weaving gracefully between rows of cones.

While I am usually a completionist, I got a bit exhausted in the heat and skipped the Speaker’s Box in favour of an iced matcha. I also wanted to get to a particular store in Mayfair before it closed, both for the monopoly board experience and because it housed a dress that I’ve been coveting. Thankfully when I tried the dress on I looked like a sexy fish - sexy, but still mostly like a fish - so now I am longer tempted to buy it and am many dollars richer for it.

The day concluded with Sudanese for dinner with Ola and Marah, which included many interesting curries and breads that were unfamiliar to us all. A highlight was a flavourful deep-fried eggplant dish called Salata Aswad (“eggplant salad” even though it was a warm dish, almost like a dry curry). There was one dish on the menu, mahshi (stuffed eggplants), which wasn’t available, to Ola’s disappointment. She resolved to make some at home tomorrow night.

Thursday 9 July: Blob day

I decided to stay an extra day and rest properly before embarking on my main cycle tour. I needed some time do nothing and gather my wits, which had been frayed by the heat and bustle of London. One thing about London that consoled my OE fomo was that there’s so much j-walking, j-biking, and j-driving that it honestly reminded me of Vietnam. It seemed an order of magnitude more hectic than other large cities like Berlin, Paris, or Warsaw.

I spent the day blobbing on the couch-bed, doing laundry, watching B-grade romcoms, and writing. This whole time, I periodically wet my top in the sink, put it on, and positioned the fan right in front of me to cool myself down. Every curtain was drawn, and the windows still had the tin foil. Even though the mercury was only in the low 30’s, it somehow felt much worse than hotter temperatures elsewhere.

Ola, Marah, and I went back to Goodies supermarket after their work for ingredients to make mahshi, the stuffed eggplants we missed last night. There were Moroccan flags everywhere in the carpark; there was a Morocco vs. France game tonight. We spent the evening in front of the TV, coring the eggplants and stuffing them with filling based on voice note instructions from Ola’s mum while watching the game.

These few days in London was everything I had hoped it to be. I knew I could only experience a sliver of London life, but London life it was, full of things that you only really get in a huge metropolitan melting pot: culturally diverse boroughs, delicious authentic foods from around the world, epic architecture and history, arts & culture events both big and small.

Ola and Marah were such wonderful hosts here, as they had always been in Auckland as well, and the food is always such a highlight. I’m looking forward to seeing them back in New Zealand over the summer around Abel Tasman National Park; I’m sure that will be another epic group hike for the memory books. By the end of my stay I felt refreshed and ready to embark on my big bike ride from here to Sweden, for wedding number 2 in a month’s time.