Covent Garden

London is awesome when the weather is good.

Perfect for a nice stroll around Hyde Park, or a spot of shopping, or general gawking in Covent Garden. I did a lot of each recently....

I saw this on the streets - the good old red buses again! Mayor Boris Johnson apparently started an initiative to get them back again. Well done him. However, the most reliable mode of transport is always going to be the Underground.

Covent Garden is quite possibly the funnest bit of London - there's something for everyone: shopping, weird street performances ranging from magic shows to opera singing, awesome restaurants, bars, clubs, etc etc etc.

Here are some regular sights:

Man in Gold Bikini Rides the Crazy-High Unicycle act. Always gets a huge crowd. He does this regardless of season, pity him when it's freezing and he's prancing about in his gold bikini thing.

Mr I Am Going to Throw a Playing Card Onto That Far Roof. Does random bits of magic in between, altogether very entertaining because of his showmanship rather than skill in magic. He DOES throw the card some ridiculous distance onto a roof though, so respect to him.

That's him flicking the card some crazy distance, in a cool(ish) hold-my-hat pose.

Various 'Statue Buskers'. This is where they stand around and pretend to be mythical creatures or statues. Here are two of my favourite in a rare having-a-chat situation: Hunky Orc and Quiet Tinman.

Hunky Orc normally stands on a pedestal and snarls at passers-by, usually gets a load of giggly girls and for some reason gets a LOT of attention. I've always wanted to put my camera under his loin-cloth type thing and snap a picture just to see what he'd do.

Quiet Tinman is one of my favourites just because he's the most statuesque of the lot! A lot of them don't even look like statues but Quiet Tinman on the best of days looks exactly like a bronze statue of a tired worker.