Sounds of silence as I head home

There were no singers or musicians when I arrived at Covent Garden for breakfast this morning.

The romantic in me likes to think it was because it’s my last day in London, the last day of this incredible trip.

In reality, it’s because I had rolled in earlier than I had every other morning, trying today to squeeze the most out of my remaining time in London.

I’ve come every day because it’s such a treat to have breakfast and listen to some of the most accomplished buskers you will hear anywhere. Food for your stomach and your soul.

The silent nothingness when I arrived today definitely matched my mood. I’m not quite sure how I feel about going home. Ambivalent, yet again?

I’m really happy about seeing my friends again – I’ve missed them. My Mum and my favourite Aunty are coming to visit me in Melbourne and they will be waiting for me when I get home, so I’m also looking forward to that.

Usually by this point in a trip I’ve well and truly turned my mind to life and work and home, and I’m looking forward to settling back into my routine at home and sleeping in my own bed.

This time around, there’s no real routine to go home to given a lot of things are up in the air and there’s a sense that going home means facing reality again. I’m unemployed.

While I’m still giving myself a couple more months of long service leave and I have a couple of further trips planned, I will need to get organised and start to look for a job.

I have to say, London is shaping up as an attractive option. This city really gets a buzz about it in summer. People seem light and happy compared to other visits I’ve made when it’s been colder and darker.

It’s been a very musical visit to London for me this time around and that’s given me a really strong sense of connection. As well as taking in the buskers every day, I’ve been to several wonderful musicals in The West End, my absolute favourite being the new musical ‘Once.’

I also took a rock and roll walking tour around the streets of London.

Having already referenced ‘The Sound of Silence’ twice in blogs during this trip, it cropped up again during the walking tour. We stopped at the building where a music company famously rejected Paul Simon when he turned up with that song, which as we all know, later went on to become a number one hit.

It’s always funny when something comes up once and then you keep seeing it everywhere. But this story of rejection, followed by success, resonates really strongly with me right now, for obvious reasons.

So with that in mind, I’m heading home to Melbourne to start facing the music.

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For a donation of a pound or two, you can enjoy top quality performers at Covent Gardens.

This busker managed to combine magic tricks and balloon animals without skipping a beat during his largely classical playlist.

The London Eye and Big Ben on a hazy London day.

Tower Bridge, taken from the back of a ferry.

No photo gallery of London would be complete without a shot of the Tower of London.

A new addition to Trafalgar Square since I was here last: ‘Figure 101″, which stands 4.11 metres high and weighs3.1 tons.

Another new addition to the London skyline since I last visited – The Shard.

Next time you’re in Trafalgar square, take a moment to watch people struggling their way up onto the platforms with the lions. It’s hilarious! Loved this particularly moment with one schoolgirl pulling another one up!

Managed to snap this picture of Big Ben from the back of a moving double-decker bus. A very lucky get!

Mills Music, in Denmark Street – London’s equivalent of Tin Pan Alley. This is where Elton John (then Reg Dwight) worked as an office boy and where Paul Simon famously was turned down when he offered them ‘The Sound of Silence’.

The Soho club where Jimi Hendrix last performed on the night he died.

Now a record store, this Soho building was previously the pub where the Rolling Stones were formed.

The Bag of Nails in Soho, where Paul and Linda McCartney first met.

Carnaby Street was a focal point for the punk movement and it’s where our walking tour guide once sported a pink mohawk and charged tourists a pound for a photo of a real London punk. As he told us, he’s still making money of tourists in Carnaby Street, only his mother is much happier with him!