London - Jan 2004

London Trip – Jan 18 to who knows when?


Jan 19, Monday:
3 coworkers and I finally arrive to London, after a sleepless 11 hour flight. It’s amazing how uncomfortable sitting in the same cushiony chair can be for that long of a flight. We go grab our bags, and of course I’m the one with two suitcases in hand, since I’m staying for a month or so. Nothing like wheeling around two medium to large suitcases around the airport. Thank God we decided against taking the tube into town, as that would have been horrific to carry my suitcases up and down all the stairs. We take the Heathrow Express (like BART) into Paddington Station, where we cram ourselves and our luggage all into one of those cute English taxis.

Of course, when we arrive to the hotel they only have smoking rooms available, so we decide to go get lunch while waiting for our rooms to become available. C’mon nonsmokers – there aren’t many of us in Europe; help out a fellow nonsmoker and get outta your room sooner!

This is Denise’s first time to London, so we decide to take her through the basic tour: Big Ben, London Eye, Westminster Abby, St James Park and Buckingham Palace. Too bad I’ll probably be doing this all over again when my friend Jen is In town on Saturday. Hopefully on the weekend it’ll be sunny and I can take some artistic photographs while everyone else is doing their touristy 'oohs' and 'ahs'. Yes, tourists 'ooh' and 'ah' just like "Wheel of Fortune".

Jan 29:
Just snowed yesterday evening (10am PST) for about an hour. I watched the snow whip around and fall from my office window, and it was great to watch this guy try to clean off his motorcycle before getting on it to go home. He looked a bit confused as to what to do. Anyway, as you can imagine, London doesn’t normally get snow, so within 2 hours that lovely snow became icy slush. Going to the tube station in heels was "fun".

Feb 03:
Yesterday after work I tried to do the wash. I say this because it really was a confusing project. The way my studio is set up, the washer/dryer machine fits into one of the kitchen cabinets, next to the dishwasher. So you open a wooden door to access the washer/dryer. I put in the detergent, the clothes and pushed some buttons, which seemed right. Here are some facts about washing in the UK.

The machine likes to dance like an engineer in a techno party. The machine was spinning like r2d2, which made the whole apartment shake to no end. I was worried that my neighbors would start knocking on the walls because it was so damn loud. Either that or the washing machine would fall out of the cabinet and onto the kitchen floor.

Don’t open that door until it’s finished the dry cycle. The wash had finished spinning and rinsing, so I thought at least I could open the door to check on my clothes. Plus I wasn’t sure if it dried already. I tried to open the door 5 times to the point I was getting worried I had broken the damn thing. I even jotted down the maintenance phone number in case they had to pry open the door with a crowbar.

So I guess the main lesson here is that you shouldn’t put ALL of your underwear and socks into one wash load when you are washing it for the first time in a foreign country. I broke the cardinal rule…but at least I got all of my clothes out in the end, and nicely dried!!!

Now that I’ve been here for two weeks, I feel it appropriate to discuss the food here. Indian, Thai and Italian food here is excellent. I personally wouldn’t try Mexican food here but I’ve seen a few places proclaiming they know how to cook it properly. English food confuses me.

I have had a few good pub experiences, where they serve actual dishes. For the longest time I thought that pub food meant what it does to an American: grease and beer (please do recognize beer as one of the main staples). Anyway, you can order real meals at the pubs; it’s just the fish and chips everyone talks about when you are a tourist here. So far I am in love with the British French fries, commonly called “chips” here. They are my favorite English food so far.

Now let me explain why English food scares me. I mean, confuses me. Today for example, I ordered a salad from the office “canteen.” I normally put together a mixture of the 4 salads offered by visually rating it, and that way if I don’t like one, I just miss out on 1/4th of my lunch. Today I served up quite a bit of what I thought was a potato salad with green beans and snow peas, along with a broccoli and sweet potato salad, cucumber and tomato salad, and some scary beet salad. Well, that potato salad with green beans was actually huge chunks of bleu cheese!! I took a big bite of this before realizing that I was going to eat a big bite of smelly cheese hidden by some creamy sauce. I swear it looked like a potato.


Feb 04: Another weird salad for lunch. And that’s all I have to say ‘bout that.


Feb 19: A few weeks ago I went to a “footie” game. Translation = soccer) Tottenham Spurs vs. Manchester City. I’ve never been so close to a field before; it was just amazing. Spurs was winning almost the entire game 3-0 and then they got lazy and in overtime were smashed by Manchester City. Such a disgrace really if you’re a Spurs fan, but it truly was an awesome game. I tried eating like the locals do: pie and Bovril. So essentially you have this shepherd’s pie looking thing (kinda like a calzone in your hand) and Bovril is really just beef broth sold five times as expensive and in a drinking cup. But it is super yummy when you are in an open stadium in Northern London where it is extremely cold outside. The most interesting thing I noticed in the football game is that this is the one place were British are completely comfortable with socializing with anyone next to them. For the first time I see people talking to strangers sitting right next to them, and mind you there was even eye contact! I’m used to seeing people in the Tube, where they ensure that they either have music to listen to or have a newspaper or book in front of them so as to avoid any eye contact.