June 8, 2012
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(written on 18 February 2013)
Now! 50 EUR discount on all iPad accessories if you buy an iPad here!
OK. That broke my resistance. It was early in the morning as I walked into the electronics store in the tax-free area of Schiphol Airport and saw the sign with the above text. I’d been dreaming of buying an iPad for ages, basically since the first version came out. With the release of the iPad 2 coinciding with me buying an apartment, I had to let that one go as well, but with the third generation iPad now on the market and me having just a bit of financial leeway, I decided this was the time. So I boarded the flight to London Gatwick with in my luggage a white box with the word ‘iPad’ in silver letters on the side. Just a shame that I will only really will be able to use it when I attach it to my iTunes on my home computer in four days’ time!
Yes! It was about time again to visit London! I flew into Gatwick and took my time getting into the city (having a coffee in the airport first) but when I finally did, I took an underground from Victoria to Earl’s Court and from there on to one of the least used Underground Stations, Kensington Olympia. My hotel, the wonderfully name Holland Inn Hotel, was just a short walk away. One of the grumpiest receptionists ever (from which you conclude that the hotel was probably appropriately named) welcomed me and gave me the room key… and from then on the relaxed weekend could really start!
Even though the weather was not great, I decided to have a bit of a walk, so I walked down Kensington High Street, going into shops at times, all the way to the West End. The picture of the Routemaster bus was taken at the start of my walk, not too far from Holland Park. In the GAP on the High Street I decided to try on some new jeans and much to my surprise and joy, a size 32 jeans fitted me just fine. What an amazing improvement from the size 36 I’d worn up until four months ago! I bought two pairs of jeans and was tempted to get some more, but decided against it… for now. On Regent Street I walked into a huge and beautiful Superdry store. This brand is rapidly turning into one of my favourites despite the fact that it’s generally worn by people have my age. But yes, I also bought a T-shirt there. A little shopping spree on this first day of my London trip.
Normally I would definitely have walked into the amazing Waterstone’s book store on Piccadilly, and I would have bought three or four books for sure. But not today. Yes, I did walk into Waterstone’s and browsed some of the books, but things are changing when it comes to my book reading. I only read paper books (p-books as I’ve heard then called) when e-books are not an option (say in a sauna for example) but whenever possible I now read books on my iPod. That is surprisingly easy, in both the iBooks and the Kindle apps. Now that I’ve bought an iPad, it’s likely that I’ll switch over to e-books even more. I love Waterstone’s and I would hate to see the chain go down the way Borders UK did… but yeah, I do love e-books. That as well… I returned to hotel fairly early and spent the rest of the evening reading a bit (newspaper) and watching a film on my iPod (for that is something that wonderful machine can do as well)
