A brighter, shinier, fancier London

Well, I guess compared to 1983, New York City is brighter and shinier too. The last time I was here, people sported outrageous mohawks, neon streaked hair, giant doc martens and a super cynical attitude. Thirty years later and we may be in the middle of a global recession, but I'm not seeing a lot of people hanging around on the dole. Had a lovely first half day after my amazing flight: I had an entire middle row to myself, so I could lay completely flat. After popping two Tylenol PMs, I had the best night's sleep I had in a while. I was so awake, in fact, that I easily managed to take the tube from the airport into town with my bags (wouldn't it be nice if there was an easy, direct way to do that in NYC?) and locate my hotel, just two blocks away from the tube stop. The weather is slightly gray and rainy--I guess you could call it stereotypical London weather, but it was cool and nice for walking--I strolled to Covent Garden (too touristy!), then back tracked to Bloomsbury and Russell Square--Bloomsbury was the neighborhood I used to hang out in back in my University of London Days, and when I stopped into a pub for some dinner, I ended up sharing a table with three 24 year olds. One was getting her masters in global health policy, her boyfriend was a designer and their friend was studying something called "horology," which is the study of clocks. Except when they explained it to me I thought they were saying the study of "cocks," which I assumed meant...cock fighting. After a few minutes of nodding and smiling and trying to decipher the accents, I asked, what do you do after you study cocks, and the woman said, Well, work in a museum. It was only then that I realized they were talking about time pieces, not roosters or a part of the male anatomy. I guess there's a language barrier here after all. One of the nicest things about today is that I realized I had gone at least five hours without remembering that I'd been laid off. I guess that means I'm happy and relaxed. I must be on vacation!

The tube from Heathrow. So clean. So civilized.

A good place for a guiness. If only I liked beer!

 

 

 

Bertram Russell slept here. If only I knew what he wrote!