So here i am in my oldest friend's London flat, blinking away the glaring sun. You heard that right. It's sunny and then some here. You can imagine my amazement when i woke up reaching for my sunglasses. I guess the whole trip's been that way so far. I never usually like London. It always seems dreary and wet and cold, and just blah. Blah to everything, to the people, to the food, to the architecture. But this time around, it's been not too wet, and besides for that everything's just been really fun.

Last night i accidentally found myself on the Waterloo bridge and then lost in Soho and Chinatown, all little neighborhoods with people everywhere and outdoor tables, and generally just lots of life. It had rained in the morning but lucky for me i haven't been able to drag my jet-lagged/hungover/lazy butt out of bed before noon and missed it. It cleared up later though and the light outside was amazing. Naturally i forgot my camera. Because i can't change too much, i did make time for some sub-standard art in the form of short film. It was free and very loud. By someone named Steve McQueen, not the dead actor but the British film maker (?). At the end i was not so impressed. It was about gold mines in South Africa. Did i mention that it was really really loud?

Today i'm up at a decent hour and i'm travelling to the north to see a man i'm doing some work for. It's fun to have "clients" all over. It makes me feel like a real jet setter (except for the poverty part). The other thing about London that always bugged me that hasn't changed this time around is how friggin expensive everything is. It's like $3 for a subway ride that takes you four stops! And speaking of the Tube, i was waiting in this insane line, err qeue, the other day to buy a ticket, the machines were broken and the guy at the window was like 200 years old. It took me 30 minutes to buy my train ticket, and i really wish i were exaggerating. I was all fidgety and pissed off and i kept looking down the line (out the door by this point) to see when someone was going to start causing a scene, but everyone was just very politely waiting. I couldn't hold it in after 20 minutes and finally turned to the man behind me and cried, "This is craaaaaazy! Is this normal?" He explained that the 30 minute line was very abnormal and that he was not happy either, in a very subdued and polite manner of course.

I could just imagine anything like that in a nyc subway station. They'd have to call the police. In riot gear. People would be sooo angry. I've seen insults hurled because someone isn't finding their wallet speedily enough. I won't even get into how often my dreamy california driving style gets honked at when i'm not 10 miles down the road the second the light goes green. Anyway, moral of the story, carry enough coins to use the ticket machines.