A Tower, Chardonnay and cop glasses...

Trip Start Jul 08, 2011

Trip End Jul 25, 2011

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Where I stayed

St. Georges Hotel

Flag of United Kingdom London, England, United Kingdom
Monday, July 11, 2011

Began the day in the basement of my B&B having fried eggs reminiscent of way my great Aunt Helen makes them in Kansas: boiled in lard...or some other large quantity of fat. Between bites I chatted with my table mate, Uma, from Singapore who was killing time while her husband attended a conference near the Pimlico area where we were staying. We chatted of the places they had lived and worked overseas and the struggles encountered by the professional mate of someone working for the foreign service...of having to give up jobs etc. to follow her husband. From what I have observed even of my own generation, this is the place many women find themselves.... Heady concepts for the am...especially prior to coffee. I think back to conversations with an old boyfriend about changing my name after marriage...which what a surprise, I was resisting. I turned the tables on him and proposed he do the same only to hear the response "but it is my name"...

Anyway, wasn't really sure what I was going to do today so I set out on the underground and ended up on Regent Street, which although quite grand, reminded me of just a large affluent shopping district where my weak dollar didn't have any business hanging out in! Grabbed a coffee and made arrangements with one of my colleagues based in London to meet at The Skybar at the Mint Hotel....conveniently located near the London Bridge. I set off on the Central Line and transferred to the Northern line...going south to the London Bridge station.

Upon emerging from the station, the bridge itself was so underwhelming, I had to ask someone where it was...having confused it with it's more stately neighbor on the Thames, The Tower Bridge.

Shortly thereafter, joined my colleague at the Skybar where we chatted and lunched for a couple of hours. As the afternoon progressed, the sun's glare on the bright white table became too much and the waiter presented us with a black suede hat for my colleague and a pair of dark a'la Starsky and Hutch cop glasses for me. Apparently, the men at the table across the way were wearing all of the ladies hats!

We descended from then rooftop, me in a bit of a wine haze and I headed off to cross the Tower Bridge and wander on the waterfront.

Took a train back to Notting Hill and wandered around a bit before heading back to Pimlico where I shared a table and a beer with a local and we played knowledge wars between his Kindle and my IPad. Debating Exactly where the Buddha had experienced enlightenment and giving a sad pseudo local google map directions to his destination.

Ended the evening at a Spanish tapas restaurant with locally famous sangria...or so they said and some snacks.

The bright blue sky becoming more filled with clouds as the night came on.

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