Where am I going, and who am I meeting ?

Sunny London, England, United Kingdom, Great Britain, or whatever the
name of this crazy island is.

Either way, this is where I'm to make my home for the next week or so.
For some reason all my friends are jealous of the exercise but I keep
trying to explain to them that I'm not actually whooping it up in the posh
part of Kensington, I'm not spending my time at the Tate Gallery, nor am I
rubbing shoulders movie stars or billionaires.

Instead I'm stuck in a town on the edge of the city that bears the scars
of the soulless town planning of the 1960's and unless I want to spend the
evening in the local bowling alley, or hang out in the pub, there is sod
all else here to do. A friend of mine pinged me, and when I told them I
was at dinner the response was,

"How's the food ?"

There was really only one possible reply :

"English"

Pub Grub: You can have anything you like as long as it comes with mash and
a beer. Breakfast of Champions. And don't get me started about the
coffee. Frankly when it comes to the fine art of a well balanced
combination of freshly ground beans and just the right amount of water,
the English make a very good cup of Tea.

Still, I have noticed that I tend to write better when I'm all bitter and
twisted, my sarcasm has more room to maneuver. So I'm certainly getting
creative value out of the exercise. I have no hesitation in saying that
I'm in the kind of place that you only see in movies, where someone gets
murdered in the first reel and the rest of the cast are working class
dropouts living in housing developments.

My bitchiness is also because I've really had no idea what I was doing on
a day to day basis and have had to play it by ear. I found I kept asking
the local sales team if "...I'll be close to London, so I can find a hotel
that doesn't smell and get rid of this expensive rental car."

Not only was I adverse to being stuck in another Village of the Damned,
but I was also trying to get myself over to Italy for the weekend or
anywhere else that would get me the hell out of dodge. I had even heard
of a 3 hour meeting in New York on Friday that I was supposed to attend.
I had not only considered going back across the pond for the weekend, but
had even booked the flights before my calendar was magically filled.

I got the phone call about an hour after speaking to my travel agent and
suddenly I was supposed to be in London on both Friday afternoon and
early Monday morning. This blew my trip to New York out of the water and
also screwed my plans for Italy, all the flights on Saturday were booked.

Meanwhile my friends were asking me when I was going to be back on town
so we could go out and, you know, have a social life. Well, my kind of
lifestyle not only doesn't offer that sort of luxury, but I also found
out that my company wanted to thank me for all the hard work by flying me
to the Bahamas for 2 days. Next Week. This was just what I needed,

"Thank you for all the hard work and travel, why don't you jump on a plane,
again, and fly on a Sunday, again, for 2 more days away from home"

They even said I could bring a guest, where was I going to find one at
such short notice. Thanks guys.

Still I was finally able to get rid of the car, ( Although, doing 70 miles
per hour on the motorway, on the wrong side of the road, in the rain and
fog, with a stick shift, is an interesting experience ). I also found a
really nice hotel in London by the river. It was actually a yacht, with
large rooms, a large bed, internet access and nothing outside my window
but the water and a few ducks. I even get to stay here for 5 days.

So, somewhat grounded, I'm now stuck on a train, with no leg room, nowhere
to comfortably put my laptop, my left leg going numb and a strange pain
developing my right elbow. I'll be here for 2-3 hours while I head to
the south-west of this island for, presumably, a 1 hour meeting. I will
then turn around and head back again.

C'est La Vie. I did sign on for this mission.

It looks like next month I'll be going to japan as well.


Tags travel,london,hotel,restaurant,trainairline