16 Mar 2009

I removed all my sketchy London blogs from this page, reformatted and corrected them (there were misspellings and just plain erroneous information in them) and added photos to a new page here.

A few of the better photos: Britishness, Big Ben from the London Eye, USMC sticker on a Beefeater's apartment door, Baby-faced Tower guard, a watchful Bobby.

I had a wonderful time in London. As my account makes clear, I love that place. There's something to discover on nearly every street. It's a Disneyland for history buffs like me. London: A Historical Theme Park That More Than Seven Million People Happen To Live In.

I'm still mildly jet-lagged, I think. I woke up this morning at 4 AM even after having to gone to bed at my usual time, and now I feel loggy and disinterested in everything. (But that may be the usual post-vacation workplace culture shock.) I couldn't even muster enough motivation to shave, let alone put on a tie. The weather isn't helping, either - this weird, gray, half-daylight we exist in right now. I feel like crawling back to bed.

I'm on page 128 of 822 of my John Lennon biography; he just met Paul at the church fete. Which would lead to the formation of the Beatles, which would lead to a recording contract, which would lead to recording at the EMI Studios in Abbey Road, London, which would lead to my daughter's visit...

I am really surprised that people aren't getting killed trying to reproduce that famous album cover at the zebra crossing in front of EMI. It's a busy street, and the City of Westminister hasn't yet constructed a small traffic island that photographers can stand on while getting the picture. They might as well. Let's face it, given the fame of the Beatles, discouraging people from trying to get that shot is impossible. And it must be a pain from drivers, too, since there are Belisha beacons there. (The black and white poles with the flashing lights on top - it means "If a pedestrian walks onto the street, stop.") If my experience is typical, people are crossing that street repeatedly just to say that did it.

And EMI abandoned trying to keep people from scrawling things on the low white wall in front of the buidling... in fact, people are now encouraged to write little honorific things. (Well, that's what the girl at the counter of the little Beatles store at the St. John's Wood Tube Station told me, anyway.) Meredith was sorry she didn't bring a Sharpie.

These don't require a lot of imagination: "All You Need Is Love" is popular, with "Here Comes the Sun," We All Live in a Yellow Submarine," etc. One I liked was, "This is to notify the general public that I, Simon the Celebrity Spotter, came to this very spot last week and attempted to spot at least one celebrity."

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