Pubs have bartenders, but they don't come to your table to take your order. You have to leave your highly expensive computer gear sitting at your seat while you go ask for food and a pint. In Redmond you wouldn't care, but on the tables here they have signs that say "Who has your stuff right now?", to warn of people who steal your things while you're not looking. Highly comforting. So far, so good though.
Taking the District Line from Bayswater to Paddington is much better than taking the Circle Line, because the District line lets you off much closer to the trains than the Circle line. Every minute counts when you're trying to catch a train around here.
Meal portions are substantially smaller here than in the States. Not ironically, so are the people.
The Tube is highly efficient, easy to understand, and makes me wish Seattle had a subway system. I can get anywhere at any time without so much as a brief look at the map. Simple and convenient. Every city should do this.
The pubs have double-door entries, and for some reason one of the doors is always locked. It's inevitably the door you try first. I'm convinced it's to confuse Americans.
One of the channels on my TV appears to show nothing but professional wrestling. I'm not even remotely kidding. And no one but little kids follow it here, I'm told. And no, you can't get that channel banned from your TV. I asked.
They LOVE Cricket here. Cricket, for those who don't know, is a game that has no understandable rules. Plus, all the players wear sweaters, which disqualifies you from being considered a 'sport'. The rules are this: Some guy runs for a while, then bounces a ball at a guy with a flat bat, which he either hits or doesn't. Either way, everyone on the other team jumps up in the air and hugs each other, like they haven't seen each other in years. The Referee waves his finger to say "no", at which point the whole pointless exercise starts over again. This is probably why the games can take as long as four days to complete (or, roughly as long as it takes an NBA game to complete its final two minutes). Oh yeah, and they take tea breaks. Are you reading this? Tea breaks! Cricket is, in my estimation, utterly useless. I'd rather watch competitive knitting.
Tottenham doesn't play today, which also means it's a day where they won't lose. Go Spurs!
The Fire Prevention Representative of England is not, sadly, Smacky The Frog, as I was lead to believe. I was disappointed. They actually have no fire mascot representation at all. That position is currently open.
Guinness is immeasurably better here.
Everything is more expensive. Except Guinness. Therefore, I love it here.
American accents in England aren't nearly as impressive to British people as English accents are to American people. I've only been asked once where I was from -- the rest didn't much care.
The Brits are HIGHLY interested in the US Presidential Election, and they are overwhelmingly for Obama. The papers all think Palin is an embarrassment, and from what I'm told, even the traditionally conservative papers (like The Independent) agree. There's nearly 24x7 coverage here of the election, and I've learned more from the BBC about the real issues at stake than I have over the past two years from the US news channels. Makes me sad.
That's it for today. Here are some pics I've grabbed on my iPhone recently...
There's an indoor shopping market here where you can buy all sorts of 'questionable goods', like unlocked cell phones, "used" computer equipment (wink, wink), and all kinds of paraphernalia.
Here's a look down the bazarre.
Life-size Boop.
My local pub. I shall miss you, fine purveyor of Guinness!
Mmmm....meat in a window.
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