Thursday

So I got up from my nap around 8 (a bit later than I’d hoped) and it was snowing, those big, wet flakes that only fall when it’s like 32.5 degrees. So of course, I decided to go for a walk. I needed to figure out where the British Museum was, apart from it being at the Russell Square station. So I found it a few blocks from the station, walked around aimlessly for a while (well, not entirely aimlessly; I need to find a place to buy an umbrella), then went back to the hotel to get some dinner. When they brought my bottle of Newcastle, I found out that in the UK they have recommended daily allowances for alcohol! Pretty neat.

I was unable to find a hall last night, but I'm sure I'll figure something out when I go on my British Museum tour tomorrow.

My cellphone is completely useless here. Not only is it out of service, I can’t charge it through my laptop like I thought I could (what’s the point of a USB cord then? Well, aside from data transfer) and it is apparently not even all that great at figuring out what time it is locally. So now I need to get a watch.

I don’t want a watch. Looking at it becomes a nervous habit for me, and I’m trying to reduce the number of nervous habits I have (I think I’m down to 37). However, I need to do things like make it to trains, ferries and planes on time, and a watch is probably going to be helpful in that respect. But I haven’t found a store that sells watches yet. If I want a laptop or a camera or a PDA, there’s about a billion of those stores around, though.

Best thing I overheard yesterday:
"Gelato now!"
"You're not getting a gelato I just got you one!"

Everything else I heard during the day was in other languages. Seriously. There are so many people here speaking every language you can imagine. Also English.

On the schedule today is checking out the British Museum for a bit, maybe peeking into the Natural History museum (they have a Darwin exhibit! WOW), then maybe doing some semi-touristy things. I dunno.

I got a full English breakfast. No black pudding, but there was an interesting egg. Now, I've eaten a lot of eggs prepared in various ways, but never one that was impervious to my fork! I had to use my knife on it. Pretty crazy.

Well, I'm off for now! Wi-fi is rare and expensive!