Tour De Bauer/ France - 24: Cycle Another Day

The following takes place between 10am and 7pm on 7th July.

My original plan was a day trip to London to watch the Tour de France (point 10 in my before I'm 40 list) and while I was waiting for Froome and Co to zoom past -  I had time to cross off one of my TV/Travel bucket list too-  24: Live Another Day. Most of the filming was around Trafalgar Square and the Mall which was the end of stage 3 of the 2014 tour.  I killed two oiseasu with one pierre!

The stage 3 finish line was half way up the Mall and along with the line there was the organizers, sponsors, TV crews, bike teams, a lot of security and every car had a French number plate, this meant road and path closures. Around 11am the crowd was scattered around the Mall, but the foreign tourists were more interested in Buckingham Palace than finding a viewing spot of the route.

Before I found my spot I decided to run around London in Bauer style to find the 24 locations with help from wikia.com.  (http://24.wikia.com/wiki/Live_Another_Day_filming_locations )

First Bauer site was along Pall Mall for two locations:

DAMMIT 1!  I couldn’t get to Carlton Gardens where the outside scenes of the US Embassy were filmed, as the nearby roads were closed off for Le Tour. I couldn’t get to the front of the Athenaeum Club on Waterloo Place either.  Outside the Athenaeum Club was where Kate met with Jack to start their bid to save London and where Jack and President Heller escaped the Secret Service for their trip to Wembley Stadium. It was also where Belcheck dropped the President off after their trip.

Athenaeum Club

 

I headed up to Trafalgar Square and took a detour to the Two Chairman Pub on Warwick House Street, just off Cockspur Street. Here is where Chloe O'Brian blows off Jack and goes off with Adrian.

Two Chairman Pub

Trafalgar Square was full of cycling fans (Nelson would be turning in his grave the amount of French around his Column), and this was where Simone Al-Harazi was hit by a bus.

Trafalgar Square

just pretend the lorry is the bus

Across the Square and along Duncannon Street to Charing Cross station and the station exit by Pizza Express where Jack ran out when chasing Simone Al-Harazi.

he ran past the pizza express

The next 5 hours I sat near Buckingham Palace waiting for cyclists to zoom past in the rain. With the French commentary coming out of the speakers along the route and the carnival of mainly French companies passing by a few hours before the riders, I did have to look at Buckingham Palace behind me a few times to remind me that I was actually in England not France.

bikes to quick for a photo

 

After the race I continued to follow in Jack’s footsteps, passed Big Ben and spent 120€ on a Team Sky Rain jacket (and when I get home I have a letter from Sky TV putting up my monthly TV subscription – Merci Sky!) then on to Waterloo Station – where the missile was going to hit and across the Golden Jubilee Bridge where the missile went into the Thames.

 Waterloo Station

where the 'missile' hit

 

I hope Le Tour comes back to England soon or maybe I will get to watch it actually in France. There was an amazing atmosphere similar to London 2012, so it wasn't a bad day like Jack always experiences but I do have a few more dammits:

DAMMIT 2!  I was nowhere near the Gillette Building in West London, where most of the inside scenes were shot.

DAMMIT 3! No time to get to Liverpool street station where Steve Navarro was caught by Jack.

DAMMIT 4!  No time but already been to Wembley Stadium back in 2012 and last year to Camden Lock – Jordon Reed RIP & past the East London mosque, Whitechapel which is in the opening scenes of episode 1 we stayed in the Ibis budget hotel next door (England through the eyes of a Frenchman – London part 1).  

I should get on with completing my 40 things to do before I'm 40 list but I'm sure another weekend of watching another 24 box set won't hurt.

Working aboard – what did I miss?

Before the dust settled on my passport I spent 6 summers working aboard. No SKY TV not even Freeview and in some apartments I lived it no TV at all.  All there was to watch (if I was ‘lucky’) was Spanish/Italian Jeremy Kyle style shows and the news.  The only show I could understand was Friends, as I knew what was going to be said after watching them over and over again. So it didn’t matter what language it was in, as ‘¿cómo te va/come stai/comment tu fais’ was just as funny. 

I did spend a summer working in Florida and after being promised cable TV, ‘lots of channels’ was what my then boss lied to me, but ended up with 20 – 10 of them were news or shopping channels. The only shows on offer were Jerry Springer and Roseanne.  However the positive points of my time in the good old US of A - I watched my first Bones episodes and have good memories of Sunday nights watching Rock of Love on VH1 (Series 1), it took over my life and then the lives of my friends who didn’t even know who Bret Michaels was.

It wasn’t all bad living in the sun, having a busy social life and spending my day off on the beach nursing a hangover with my friends or Monsieur X (it was the shocking low pay and terrible exchange rate which brought me home). Of course I have the memories and the photos on Facebook, but even watching TV can make me think back to the good old days.

My TV Travel memories.

I did look away from the TV sometimes on my travels.

IBIZA 

ER Box sets 1 and 2, passed around the office, scratched beyond repair especially the Storm Drain episode. In return I borrowed Shameless Series 1 and 2 – back when it was good.

PUNTA CANA - Dominican Republic

Armed with a portable DVD Player, living in a empty apartment in between two brothels I watched ER Series 3, a few episodes of Prison Break, thinking this looks good and never watched it since and weirdly Johnny English as it is became Monsieur X’s favourite film that year.

SALOU, Spain

A dodgy DVD copy of Desperate Housewives Series 1 where the sound was so low I had to have put my laptop near my ears to try and listen.  And Lost Series 1 and 2, already watched Series 1 before but watched it again with 'Lost Virgin' Monsieur X and then watched Series 2 together rationing the episodes to two a night so that we wouldn’t run out of things to watch.

ORLANDO,USA

Rock of Love – see above and Roseanne when my workmates christened me with my new name.

CARIBBEAN

Hiding in my Barbados hotel room, away from the angry guests watching the end of Lost Series 3. Catching up on the Desperate Housewives in a hotel room in St Kitts and the Rock of Love Final in Antigua.

SICILY, Italy

Beautiful view from my apartment balcony, but living on 2 euros a hour and with the flat/work mate from hell, hiding in my room was my only option. I watched 24 Series 1 within 3 days and became addicted to the power of Bauer. Spent most of my office time bidding for Series 2 and 3.  

Being away from my family, cats, home and just as importantly my Sky box, there are a lot of programme I missed out on and now that I home and bored I have started to catch up on past shows, such as Cold Case (I’m up to series 3 now) and The Wire (Series 1). Maybe if I ever have a spare month or two I might try the Sopranos and Dexter.

My Mount Eta balcony view every morning