London: I'm home!

[LONDON - 20 September 2006]

Wow ... it certainly feels like home here.

No real complaints about my flight other than that it landed at Gatwick (not on the tube) instead of Heathrow (directly on the tube system). But that was not all of my 'journey' ...

I did have a moment of frustration & mild panic. It was slightly overwhelming to have been awake for so long, to have landed so far outside of the city, having only £5.20 in cash money (which was all spent literally in minutes using the pay phone), a credit card that refused to work (at first) and no one meeting me to hold my hand.



Welcome to Big Smoke! I'm used to it ... and I absolutely love it here.

Mind you, all of the faffing about & bother could have been avoided if I'd planned better (or at all). To avoid disappointment, I never really made any plans for this trip over. I was not even sure if this trip was going to happen until Saturday (thanks Marc!) ... and even then I did not get a ticket until Monday night (for a Tuesday departure!).

Obviously, I sorted it all out and felt instantly better once I had £30 in cash in my hand and was back in London proper (after waiting an hour for the cheaper, post-rush hour train ticket from the airport).

The next two hours were spent on the tube to North Acton (far west) to get a key to Alan's flat and then journeying back to East London to his flat. I finally arrived here at about 12:30 PM ... sweaty & knackered!

Did I go right to sleep? Of course not! I had to make a dozen phone calls and do a few things online. I finally laid down for a nap at about 1:45 PM, setting the alarm for 3:30 PM.

The plan was to get up, shower and meet Androo at around 6 PM at First Out (gay vegetarian cafe ... yes, really!), as they are the only place in London with good nachos.

When I woke up at *5:30 PM* and finally stopped screaming, I ran to the phone and rang Androo with pleading apologies ... left on his voicemail.

Turns out he was still shopping in Camden Town and suspected I *might* oversleep.

:-)

Smart boy.

Thus, I decided to stay in tonight, watch some telly, make more phone calls, chat with Alan and make some plans for my remaining time here in good ol' Eng-er-land.

I'll be in Hull for two days so I won't really have *that* much time here in London ... so I best have a game plan.

So many people to see, so little time ...

Richard