In late February I headed to the UK for a week. I spent the majority of it in Bracknell, a mostly industrial town about 1 hour west of London. I got whacked with jetlag pretty badly for the first few days. I tried some of the traditional cures to no avail: - Expose yourself to local sunlight first thing in the morning: Um, it's winter in the UK. There is no sun, and there won't be for a few months.
- Work out either first thing in the morning or in the evening: Right. I can barely stay awake in my chair, but somehow I will find energy to run on the treadmill...
I finally went the grad school route and snagged a case of Red Bull. That did the trick. Thank God for the local grocery chain Sainsbury's across the street from the hotel. Whilst there I: - Snagged some (to us Americans) import UK CDs from their used CD section (Kroger should do that here, yo!)
- Bought some UK-only food that looked interesting. To whit; Kit Kats in orange, mint, and cappuccino flavor. Tasty. Also crisps (potato chips) in flavors that appeal to the large immigrant population of the UK: lime corriander chutney for the Indians, Peking prime rib five spice for the Chinese, and roast chicken with thyme & aged cheddar with red onion chutney for the white folks. Those crisps were the shizz!
Also, I witnessed some soccer hooligans get into it in the front entrance. Mmm...violence... So it was pretty exhausting. Each day we met for breakfast at 7am and drove to the office. Note: driving stick (which is more common there) on the opposite (left-hand) side, on roads where the traffic goes in the opposite direction, is a recipe for disaster. Let us just say that the hubcaps on the left side of the car were scraped to crap and leave it at that. (Good thing others drove!). We started at 8:30am (which felt like 2:30am to us Texans) and went all day to 5 or 6pm. Then we'd hit the pubs for drinks and dinner, and get back to the hotel by 9 or 10pm. Things I learned in the UK: - I now understand why there is a brand label called London Fog. That stuff is crazy thick! There was a day or 2 where you literally could not see more than a car-length ahead of you.
- The formula for naming your pub is: "The" + (Adjective) + (Noun). Examples would be: The Red Lion, The Golden Retriever, The Obstinate Farmer, The Slightly Embarrassed Griffin, etc. You get the idea.
- British food is not as bad as everyone says. That being said, it is pretty bad. Things tend to be overcooked until they are very dry. Lots of meat and potatoes and breads. Thanksgiving comfort food, in other words. I can now say I have eaten fish & chips inside of England. That was a whole fish underneath the batter, but it had no bones! HOW DO THEY DO THAT?!
When the week was done, I headed back to London, where I stayed with G. Love (that's Gloria Lin, nee Yuan, for you old school Ohio-ans) and her family. It was good to see her and Frank after many years. Here's some shots of London decently near Hyde Park, in their general neighborhood:  
Here's some pix of G. Love taking me to Abbey Road. For a Beatlemaniac like myself, I was pretty much stupified the whole time.  
 
The Lin family walking: 
Leftover red lanterns from Chinese New Year, and then walking to Chinatown. The narrow streets were very Harry Potter-ish.  
 
Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery:  
A big ol' archway near Trafalgar Square: 
Leicester Square, where they apparently do movie premieres (Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman were there earlier that week for the "The Other Boleyn Girl" movie), and the famous London telephone booths. I will take a picture of them, but I will not take a picture with me in one. I am not that touristy. Gimme a break; I have some standards.  
Frank and Noah peep the Horse Guards at Whitehall. Note the warning sign for litigious Americans! 
Heading towards Big Ben and Parliament, we passed some demonstrators. The ones on the right were pro-Kosovo independence (which had just been declared that week), while the ones on the left were anti-independence Serbians and Russians. Wacky Serbs...genocide is for kids! 
They were demonstrating, apparently, across the street from the Prime Minister's house on Downing Street...  
...which is guarded by these nice men with machine guns. Eddy Wong, I thought of you. Heading further down the street, I saw this juxtaposition which was weird... 
...a quaint London street with historic buildings and a traditional red double-decker...emblazened with that a$$-kicking American icon, John Rambo! Here's the London Eye, Big Ben, and Parliament: 
The Westminster Station to the Tube, and some shots of Westminster Abbey itself: 
Scrollwork, and the Lin kids, Noah and Isaiah:  
An indoor/outdoor market which reminded me of Seattle's Pike Place Market: 
Here's a charming place called "Feng Sushi," because, you know -- Chinese and Japanese stuff is the same. At least they got the Chinese words right. 
Here's a place which made it into a Harry Potter movie. I sense these words are from the English language, but I do not understand them. It sounds vaguely dirty. In a good way. 
(I'm pretty sure it means "3 very nice sausages in a roll for $7 USD [which is] as cheap as french fries." Those wacky Brits.). I also saw a red-haired man in a bright green kilt, peeling potatoes by hand into a bucket. Seriously. This market was the bizz-omb! St. Paul's Cathedral on the River Thames, and London Bridge: 
Buckingham Palace at night: 
Everyone on the couch! (Yes, I am aware that I am wearing a yellow Bob The Builder construction hat. Noah insisted, and he is very strong. He threatened my lunch money.) 
 
Big ups to the Lin Family for hosting me! | 
