London Is Calling [Travel]

If I’m going to be doing a lot of traveling for work, London is pretty alright with me. Sure, I had to take the red-eye flight to London, and it was a 70-hour trip for a 7-hour deposition, but London is an enjoyable destination.

But first, after I was settled into my seat–before takeoff from DFW–a woman sat beside me and kept mentioning that she hopes no one sits next to her husband so that they can sit together. (He was sitting in the bulkhead.) Never did she ask if I minded switching, and never did I offer. Maybe she wasn’t be passive-aggressive, but if she was it didn’t work on me. The husband apparently asked the gentleman sitting next to him, and he switched with the wife.

Then, on to London we went. I did get a lot of work done there, which is always good. And though, during various cab rides, I did pass by Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Parliament (Look kids, there’s Big Ben, and there’s Parliament.), I never did any real sightseeing. (I did manage this inconsequential Piccadilly Circus, though it’s good to know there’s a Pizza Hut buffet nearby.)

Late on Thursday afternoon, I managed out to a pub in Soho and watched a few of the UEFA Cup games involving Premier League teams. As I’m used to watching these sorts of things in isolation, it was odd–and enjoyable–to watch them in an atmosphere where an entire bar crowd is watching the games.

Nothing much else happened. I went to the deposition on Friday, went to our London office in the afternoon, met a colleague in the Harrod’s toy department, which is much like the FAO Schwartz on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, and we went to dinner. Though almost everything there cost twice as much as in the States, football jerseys, equipment, and fan paraphenalia is much cheaper. So, I got Speed a Man Utd jersey and all the girls an England jersey. Layla and Emma both got Rooney jerseys, though Emma has complained that hers is too big (it’s not).