Christmas surprise!

Well here I am at the end of a very hectic day! This morning I travelled with my father over the Dartford River crossings and into Essex to pay a visit to the Air Gun Centre near Southend On Sea. The idea was to upgrade my Weihrauch HW97 Spring action air rifle to a PCP, (Pre-Charged Pneumatic) to increase the power and accuracy, (as well as enjoyment of use,) and to attempt to take out a few more bunnies in the new year that are currently ripping our newly planted trees apart. What a helpful bunch of people in that place. Job done! I returned hom minus my HW97 but with the aquisition of a beautiful new HW100.

Now to the Christmas surprise. I had my suspicions for part of it. In the summer, I reported going on the London Eye with Fleur and we commented then on how great a night flight would be. Well, she went one better and we started the evening with a guided night time river cruise and then a night flight on the Eye. What a fantastic evening. The necessity of a very high ISO on film speed as things were moving and light was low resulted in these somewhat 'noisy' pictures but I think they capture the flavour of the evening.

First, setting off at dusk whilst enjoying our complimentary hot chocolate and cruising past Westminster Palace where the bell commonly known as 'Big Ben' resides.

Limit of navigation was Tower Bridge before the return trip.

Then onto the London Eye.

Soaring above the twinkling lights.

Then finally some Christmas light spotting and Hamleys shopping in Oxford Street and surrounding roads.

London was an interesting place to be this evening as there was frantic activity and hi tech equipment at every corner with sound companies testing sound things, lighting companies testing lighting things including projecting images right across the entire Shell building and barges laden with fireworks being pulled into place on the Thames. It did make us discuss and the current plans are to return to London tomorrow evening to see int he new year celebrations and fireworks displays. The only question remaining is what to do before then. We've tried to get tickets for a show but not possible without paying hundreds of pounds so it looks like we may resort to the Winter Wonderland fair at Hyde Park.