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i am now in london. so far, it’s been relatively painless. the flight from birmingham to atanta was uneventful. it’s only 28 minutes in the air. the flight from atlanta to gatwick airport in london was decent, 8 hours in the air. the plane wasn’t full so there were a lot of empty seats. luckily, there was no one sitting next to me. however, i still really wasn’t able to sleep. the recliners in first class looked way more comfortable, but the $650 to $4000 comparison is no contest.

the only truly interesting part of the whole trip thus far has been the holdup by the immigration officer. she was nice enough, but asked way too many questions. apparently, she thought there was something strange about coming to london to watch football matches for 3 months and only have somewhere to stay for the first 6 days. i should have tried to get a copy of the notes she was taking. where are you staying? how are you going to fund this? how much cash do you have? what teams are you going to see (should have said west ham at this point and it all would have been over, but i didn’t find out until later that that was her team). after a round of questions, she went to this little booth with other immigration officers, chatted a bit and then came back with more questions. this had to go on for at least 30 minutes and then it was on to searching my bags. after locating my bags, relatively easy since everyone else was already gone by now, we went to the customs area where they have tables to search bags. first, my laptop bag, which had the only interesting bits, she took moose’s card and a valentine’s day card from my parents to copy for “my file” (why?), as well as a business card. i think she took some other stuff to copy, but i don’t remember what exactly. then then searched my rucksack (backpack). it was much less interesting since there was only clothes in it. luckily she didn’t take everything out. although, some socks tried to escape. first the dryers now at customs.

after searching everything, and not really finding anything, we went back upstairs where i waited a bit while she copied everything. she brought my stuff back, stamped my 6 month visa, told me to go to a west ham game and i was finally on my way. this would have been much more entertaining if i had recorded it. i don’t think my no-sleep banter was helping the situation either (“i don’t know” is apparently an insufficient answer). in the end, i think that she was just confused by the whole situation and just kept asking questions to see where it would go. i was never in doubt that i wouldn’t get in the country. for future reference, if ever planning a trip such as this, it’s probably a good idea to get your visa ahead of time, even though it’s not required.

a short (30 minute) trip on the gatwick express train and i was at victoria station. very crowded. it’s a main hub. lots of foreigners. i just walked from there to my hotel, the melbourne house.

it’s nice enough, the room is a single, no shower, no toilet. those are shared.

i’m boring myself. after checking into the hotel, i grabbed a sandwich at this little coffee shop that had internet access (they were still cleaning my room). i think the 3 girls that were working there were all french. the place was tiny, i don’t know why they had 3 people working there, and another guy doing the internet access downstairs. whatever.

now for some important stuff, didn’t need the power convertor i got at radio shack for $18 or the adapters for it, another $18. in fact, i can’t even use them with my laptop since the convertor won’t take a 3 prong plug. i was able to get just an adapter at a place named dixons (like radioshack) in the victoria station shopping area for £8. speaking of pounds, coins are annoying. they have 1 and 2 pound coins. i see now why the dollar coin didn’t make it in the u.s.

i asked the guy who runs the hotel (everton fan) about getting football tickets. not much help really. he said that he normally just gets tickets fromt ticketmaster and only “super fans” have season tickets. thus far, i would have to say that football over here is really no different than pro american sports (including college football) to the general population. it looks like getting tickets for a good game is down to an expensive ticket broker or a scalper (whatever they’re called here) outside the stadium. i think i’m going to attempt to hit the fulham vs arsenal match this saturday and get tickets outside. worst case, i can probably watch it at a pub near the stadium.
i would also say that london is similar to chicago and new york in that all the attractive women appear to be foreigners. it’s not the same it the south.

i still have to find somewhere to live the rest of the time and get a pay as you go mobile phone.

cheers.

p.s. – wordpress rocks.

yesterday was unproductive. i came back from lunch, accidentally fell asleep and woke up with my ear killing me. it was a pressure type pain. it’s better now, but i ended up not doing anything else for the rest of the day. i took some sudafed this morning and that seemed to help. now, i seem to remember this happening the last time i flew. some sort of delayed reaction to the pressure.

anyway, today i was going to try and get into the fulham vs arsenal match. unfortunately, it didn’t quite pan out. i was going to attempt to get some tickets outside the venue, but i ended up not getting there until a little before half-time. arsenal just scored their second goal on their way to a 4-0 route. it’s so peculiar to have a nice neighborhood right next to a stadium. by the time i had gotten to the stadium, all the gates were closed. it didn’t appear i could even get in if i had a ticket.

after hanging out at the stadium a bit, i started wandering about. here’s one for mom from bishop’s park. it’s all saint’s cathedral fulham.

i ended up walking all the way down king’s road from fulham to sloan square tube station. from there, it didn’t seem like much point to paying 3 pounds for the tube so i just walked the rest of the way to the hotel. i did run across this place in chelsea.

i wouldn’t say that chelsea or fulham is really my kind of place. a lot of expensive shops with clothes, shoes, art, etc. not very interesting. i don’t understand how all these little independent shops survive. i guess that’s why the crap in them is so expensive. i did notice a couple that had multiple shops in different areas. chelsea is a little too yuppy.
i went in this place tonight to eat dinner (not that great) and they had the real madrid vs athletico madrid game on live. nice. nobody seemed to be paying much attention to it. i think barcelona was coming on afterwards. i think it was on sky satellite.
i haven’t had much success finding a place to stay yet. i was attempting to use craigslist, but there aren’t many posts for london. i think the ads that are there are just spammers. today i found gumtree.com which seems much more promising. maybe things will get sorted by monday.
the new camera seems to take pretty good pictures.

i’m going to try and get to the tottenham vs blackburn match tomorrow. maybe i’ll get lucky.

my ears are still clogged. it seems to have moved from inside my head to closer to my eardrum. consequently, i can’t really hear that well. it’s so nice to dull the cacophony of useless crap coming out of peoples mouthes.

anyways, not much for today. my sleeping is still way off. i’m not even on an american sleeping pattern. i think i went to bed around 21:00 last night, woke in the middle of the night sometime and then didn’t get up until 13:00 today.

i decided not to try and make it to the tottenham vs blackburn game today. i instead went to look an apartment in chelsea (technically fulham, but it was blocks from stamford bridge). why would i want to live there anyway? alas, it was a dump. spider webs in a door way into the kitchen, multiple water stains dirty carpet and not exactly cheap. i should have been less responsible and tried to go to the game. i also checked out the clapham commons area. there’s supposed to be a place there that’s rooms in a victorian mansion. decent price, but i wasn’t impressed with the area.

tomorrow i suppose i’ll go look at this place near bayswater and royal oak stations. it’s some guy who owns an oriental carpet store. foreign. this should be interesting.

i’ve really got to sort out this tube situation as paying 3 pounds per trip isn’t going to cut it. they have day passes and an oyster card i just have to actually figure it out. i still need a personal assistant.

it’s sort of shocking/annoying how many american brands there are here. i would expect it accounts for most of the chain restaurants. mcdonald’s and starbucks are everywhere. kfc seems to be pretty prevalent too. odd. i’ve seen a couple of local places that claim to be bar-b-que joints. i haven’t been able to bring myself to try them as i expect they’ll suck. also, i’m not sure if it’s just me, but everywhere i go the french fries/chips suck. they seem dry and like they were made by pressing together a bunch of that powder stuff you make instant mashed potatoes with or something. not good. i have to wonder if the people that go to starbucks are americans? the mcdonald’s and kfc at victoria station is slammed the times i’ve been in there. non-americans, probably brits.

i’ve really got to find a place to live so i can get on with my life. surely there’s someone you can pay to do this. if i don’t see a football match soon i’m going to go crazy. i wonder how difficult it would be to get to the wigan vs manchester united game tomorrow…

i sorted out the tube issue. you can get an oyster card, some sort of smart card, at any tube station and then put cash on it. you then swipe when you go in and out and it caps your fairs for a 24 hour period to something less than what you would pay for 2 1-way tickets. nice. there’s no reason not to get one if you’re going to use the tube for any amount at all. it also works with the buses, and dlr (docklands light rail). i haven’t rode either of those yet. it’s also interesting that they want you to register your card (you have to if you do it online). they could then effectively track all your trips for at least an 8 week period. at least, that’s the amount they allow you to view yourself. i wonder if this system was added before or after the bombing. i think it’s fairly recent.

anyways, after sorting that out i went and looked at 2 places. sucked. one would have been living this possibly middle eastern guy who owned a oriental/persian carpet type store. he seemed real lonely. that would never workout. i didn’t like the area either. it was zone 2. the other one was a nicer building along regent canal. not really an impressive area either. also too far from the tube stop. i think it might have been zone 2 as well, but on the other side of the city (east). for those who don’t know, the zones are for the tube and start with zone 1 in the middle and go out from there with increasing numbers. back to square one. i may be staying in a hotel a bit longer.

on the plus side, after looking at the last place, i took several tube rides to different areas. mainly piccadilly circus and covent gardens. piccadilly circus is useless. i would think the only reason to go there is if you were going to one of the plays. total tourist area. mostly seemed to be american chain stores. below the big lit up sign is now a burger king. i ate there. no ice by default. apparently, they can’t read the coke labels that specifically mention “best served ice cold”.

the better part was covent garden. it was dead since it was monday night at about 19:00, but still a decent number of people milling around. the majority of the shops in piccadilly had already closed too. covent was more narrow streets, some cobble stone, some blocked off. lots of shops, restaurants and pubs. some theaters too. i guess it’s more what i picture when i think of london. older. piccaddilly and a lot of london i’ve seen could probably be picked up and moved to the u.s. and nobody could tell the difference.

i think i’m just going to explore more areas tomorrow. no sense in setting up apartment viewings in undesirable areas and wasting everyone’s time.

on the plus side, my ear seems to be getting better. i got some hydrogen peroxide and flushed it out. a big chunk of gunk came out of the bad one. it was nasty. i’ll be surprised if it’s not better tomorrow.

i’ve got to find somewhere to watch the champions league games tomorrow and wednesday too. as much as you here about england and football, it’s not in your face much. i guess too much advertising by american corps. i did have the unfortunate situation of waiting to cross the stree, a bus pulls up and there’s freddie ljungberg spread eagle in an underwear add. i could have done without that. maybe you get more football outside of london.

i should have taken some pictures today. maybe tried a video of the guy playing slide guitar in the piccadilly tube station. that might have actually been interesting.

there’s a whole section on the champions league matches. well, at least the ones with english teams.

the weather sucks today. it’s what you would expect. cold and rainy. the past several days since i’ve been here have been pretty good, 40′s and sunny. it’s not really raining hard, but just that annoying amount to make wandering around not a reasonable option. i guess i should get an umbrella or urban sombrero.

i did walk around a bit this morning around victoria street. here’s a few pictures showing the contrast between buildings. see if you can pick out the new ones.

i’m not sure what religion that building is (you know, they’re all the same), but it doesn’t fit with what your normally see around here (cathedrals).

so is it worth ~$500 to see arsenal vs real madrid? i think if it was barcelona i might consider it. i believe the pub up the street will have the champions league matches on. i walked by an italian restaurant near victoria station that was actually advertising for it. i might go there tonight since i’ll be for the non-english side. i think i might go up to highbury tomorrow night just to check out the atmosphere.

rain is a drag. i probably picked the wrong time to leave birmingham since the weather is probably perfect.

i’ve actually broken my new rule for locating a place already. i’m going tomorrow morning to look at a place in canary wharf (google map). definitely not an historical area, but it’s right on the thames and has a roof top terrace, balcony and own shower. potential downside, the other 3 people living there are bankers (the canary wharf area is the second big banking area in london and actually has something like the 3 tallest buildings in london). i think one of them might be german though, which would be a plus.

it’s really a pain eating. your choices are american fast food or more expensive sit-down places. however, i may have found my new best friend, benjys. it’s an english chain. they should expand to birmingham/america. speaking of food, you know what you don’t see in london, fat people. my guess, would be all the walking or the smoking. i’m not sure if they have any smoking inside laws, but it doesn’t seem as negative socially as it is becoming in america.