Sunny Day in London Town

Here I am in London. Arrived yesterday on a nice flight via Calgary. Although there was a crowd at the customs area at Heathrow, we moved along nicely. Took the tube to Kew where I'm staying in a room in someone's private home. Nothing fancy, but clean and very cheap (about $260 for 8 nights stay).

When we were landing, I noticed that the houses were all variations of the colour brown with brown roofs of various materials. Riding along on the tube, I caught backyard glimpses of peoples lives and fleeting glances at a number of quaint little towns. I saw several of those same towns again today as I had to take a roundabout detour on the bus because several tube lines are closed due to pre-Olympic upgrades.

Major frustration: no phone service for some reason!!

Spent yesterday at Kew Gardens. Lovely. Actually, that hardly begins to describe the place. I only had three hours there before it closed, so found myself walking rather quickly to the few places I was able to see. Did manage to get a great overall look, however, as I opted to take a hop-on-hop-off bus tour through the whole gardens. Bonus: heard them setting up for the Bryan Ferry concert that was to be held in the gardens last night. Later in the evening, when I was out for a walk around Kew village, I could hear him singing! Sure beat paying the £35 admission!

Should be able to save a fair bit re food while I'm in London. There is a shopping centre with a Marks & Spencer store and a Boot drug store 1/2 block from where I'm staying. M&S has lots of prepared meals and packaged salads, so I can easily heat things up in the microwave in my room. Also have access to a wee fridge, so that helps, too. Did pop in to The Original Maids of Honour for tea and one of their namesake pastries. Must say I'm more enamoured with Maids of Honour pastry than anything my "self-appointed brides maids" have come up with (Penny, Roz and Marcia, take note).

Hoping to meet up with my old boss from Canadian Library Association days. Barbara lives in Greenwich. We are to meet at the Victoria & Albert Museum. Since I don't have phone service, I'll have to hope to get her on a public phone or just hang out at the entry for a while in the hopes that we meet up. At least I don't have to contact anyone else via phone while I'm away (at least not that I know of). Will try to keep my Momzy contacts up to date via email.

More later.