The Story So Far

So just before I left, my man Randy said that two of our friends wanted to go to the UK, so I brought them along.They preferred to stay in my bag for the trip, but they're pretty jet lagged right now so no real photo ops yet.

I'm pretty jet lagged myself, but here are a few observations from the trip so far:

- It was super warm yesterday, but it's in maybe the 40s here right now. It was sunny when I arrived, but now the sky has that hazy grey that only seems to happen when it's about to snow. It is hilarious, there are lots of people dressed reasonably, but therre are also a lot of people wearing eskimo parkas and furry hats and whatnot.

- I was worried about finding my hotel from the Underground, since the only directions I had said to get off at Gloucester Station. So I figured I'd end up figuring it out...sure enough, it was right outside the station. I can see it from my window!Pretty neat!

- The flight was uneventful. The most notable experience was probably the luggage carousel. WILL I GET MY LUGGAGE BACK??? The answer was Yes, but the baggage handlers do like to keep you in suspense.

- As we were boarding at JFK, I met an American Japanese couple who were very friendly and appreciated my Joy Division shirt. The guy was saying that he wore his similar (but better, his wife added) shirt to a Killers show (who covered Joy Division's "Shadowplay" to great radio success) but no one commented on it. Kids today don't know their history.

- Airplane food is pretty consistently terrible. But the flight did have an audio station featuring the best of New Order, so that was nice. I must have gotten maybe 3 hours sleep on the flight, but not what one would consider quality sleep.

- London's Underground reminds me of a cross between Boston and Toronto. It's about as clean as Toronto (so far), and a lot of it is overground like the T in Boston. There was a busker who played a violin jig version of the James Bond Theme, but at the time all I had was 20s in pounds and some dollar bills that he probably didn't want. Maybe I'll see him once I break these 20s.

Anyway, I'm going to take a nap and then see if I can find a hall around here to go to.