Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Deepest Darkest Peru

Today was the longest day ever! I managed to get a couple of hours sleep on the plane, I was sitting next to Roxie - she's from Granada Hills and was on her way to Jordan. She didn't look like a chatterbox when I sat down but she just went off the moment they closed that door. She was also having hot flashes so no need for a blanket on the flight with a little human heater next to me. I enjoyed talking to her but at some point in the night you want to tell her just to stop talking, I'm too nice to just tell a stranger to shut up. Our flight arrived early and our gate was occupied so we had to offload remotely down some stairs and onto some little bus to the terminal. Roxie missed her connecting plane because it took forever to get the buses out there and it didn't help that the ride in through the back roads of Heathrow was like Star Tours, complete with near misses of some pretty big luggage trucks. I helped her find ground staff to get her on a new flight and then went on my way to Paddington, I told you I'm way too nice to strangers/elders.


I caught the Heathrow Express to Paddington - completely worth the extra cash over the tube. It was a quick walk over to the hotel I have for the night and I was able to take a little nap. I'm moving to my other hotel tomorrow, this was one I had to book because I was silly and did not check my dates when booking the Parkwood for the Blur concerts and realized I didn't have a hotel for my first night here. London is in the middle of a heatwave and its not supposed to let up any time soon, it's hotter here then it is in LA. This hotel is small and does not have AC fitted for the rooms, not sure if my other one does either. I've left the window open and now have a couple of pretty sizeable flies as roommates, they don't stay long though. A quick nap and then a shower in what is a surprisingly roomy shower for its smallish outward appearance. I wanted to try to get some top up minutes for my pre-paid phone but didn't make it over to the shop on time. I'll have to sort that out tomorrow.







I took the tube to Oxford Circus then wandered around there and walked up to Regents Park, the park was closing soon so I set off for Trafalgar Square to watch some opera. There were giant screens set up in the square and thousands of people were there to watch the broadcast from Covent Garden. I only stayed for a short while because the toll of the day and the humidity was starting to hit me and I wanted to get back to the hotel before I was completely falling down tired.
I stopped at the Sainsbury local to get a cheese baguette and some of the best cherries. I also found a packet of organic shortbread for just 83p. The sun was still setting and the weather had turned slightly cooler. The view from my room is a residential area, many of the houses have outdoor terraces. This one terrace a few houses down was having a bbq, it smelled so delightful. I snapped a picture of the two man grilling team of Devonshire Terrace, it was such a tempting smell I was thinking about going to find which house they were in but I don't think they'd want a sweaty American showing up at their door trying to get a grilled chicken wing or whatever they were cooking. Just weird that you can still have enough light to grill by at nearly 10 PM. I'm happy it doesn't get dark until late, I don't think I'd want to spend most of the Blur set in the dark.



Tomorrow brings the hotel change, this one is right across the street from Hyde Park. I also have my tour of the BBC Television studios at White City booked in the afternoon.

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