If you want to type the “£” symbol on the US/Windows keyboard, you need to dig out the old ASCII codes… £ is ALT-0163 for those of you who are curious. (Use the key pad numbers, not the numbers above the regular keys.) For those that do not understand this suggestion, try using the character map–in Windows normally Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Character Map; also accessible internally from most word processors.

I use Yahoo! to convert money, like US$ to GB£.

FlyerTalk.Com continues to amaze me. I’m amazed that these people let me read their comments, let alone occasionally post questions and comments of my own. Interesting London Threads I read while preparing included “London During The Week From H#$*,” a charming post by MEX1K.

Theatre Thoughts

After doing some searching on the London Theatre Guide, MT and I settled on two different plays: Fucking Games and The Royal Family. You can guess who picked which one.

There were 58 plays on the stage during the three days we were in London–a wide range of choices, including the Vagina Monologues (a play that has caused a stir in Bloomington with the billboards that promoted the play’s November 2001 performance), and The Complete History of the US (abridged).

Booking tickets for Fucking Games was very straight forward and easy to understand. The London Theatre Guide pushed me onto the Royal Court Theatre’s web site and from there it was easy.

Tickets for The Royal Family was significantly more difficult. At first I started by using the London Theatre Guide’s ticket purchasing mechanism–that mechanism limited me to £37.50 tickets. I tried another search engine, which also limited me to £37.50 tickets, along with an expensive per ticket surcharge of something like £6 or £9. I forget what site that was, I didn’t go back or bookmark it. At the last second I searched Google for “Theatre Royal Haymarket” and then I went directly to the theatre’s web site, which then directed me to Ticketmaster/UK. That particular ticket search actually allowed me to search for the lower priced tickets, and we opted for the £25/ticket seats (Section Upper, Row E, Seats 9 to 8 — to be exact), with a £4 service fee for the order, not per ticket.

A warning for burglars.

Something for my statistics students.

no comment.

The big sign for RENT... I kept in small, so that....

so that Adam Rickett could be large. Need I say more? It opened December 4th (2001) in London.

We left London Gatwick, onboard Northwest Airlines Flight 31 to Detroit, scheduled at 1:40pm but more like 1:30. Upon arrival in Detroit about half an hour early at 4:50, we went through immigration, customs, and the often overlooked APHIS. We then connected homeward. I took NWA #1869 leaving at 7:05 to Indianapolis and She was onboard NWA #1475 to New Orleans. My flight was scheduled to arrive at 8:13, but managed an early arrival at 8:00.

I managed to work my way through the second and third Harry Potter novels while winging my way home, as well as finish grading memos written by my students, so I felt like it was a good flight home.

After getting off the boat, the first store we saw was this shop... located just seconds west of the prime meridian.

The observatory is really impressive--especially since we climbed up a long hill to get to the top.

Here I am, split down the middle between the east and the west. It was an odd feeling.

We arrived at the proper part of King's Cross.

With the muggles out of the way we could see the signs pointing us to the platform.

We had a nice reminder of proper behavior, so although I wanted to fly and practice for Quidditch, I didn't.

The "Full English Monty" breakfast looks like this-- Not quite the Full Monty I was expecting. We did see a version of Ben & Jerry's ice cream for sale called "The Full VerMonty." I will have to look for it here in the states.

Thursday started with a tube ride to King’s Crossing Station, where we visited Platform 9 3/4. I even took some pictures, so take a look!

This entrance to the Cabinet War Rooms did not exist during World War II.

After Harry Potter, we wandered to look at #10 Downing Street, but couldn’t get very close to the house due to security. The Prime Minister’s house was very close to our next destination, the Cabinet War Rooms, where Churchill hung out during World War II. The Cabinet War Rooms were well worth the trip–highly recommended.

We managed to finish our tour, leaving us 40 minutes to kill before the ferry would take us to Greenwich, so we wandered around, and found a bookstore where MT bought some books–I managed to restrain myself, but barely. After that we traded in our passes and got our “River Red Rover” for all day river travel on City Cruises. An hour after boarding the boat we arrived in Greenwich.

Interestingly, along the way we had a mini-tour from the crew, and we went past the Mayflower Pub–which had Timbers from the original Mayflower in its construction. It didn’t occur to us until later, but this was actually highly appropriate for Thanksgiving Day.

Once in Greenwich, we went to the Royal Observatory — Where time began, and I made a point of being both east and west at once. The museum was really good and really interesting–it was well worth the trip–even if I didn’t get to stand on the prime meridian and be in two hemispheres at once.

We then had dinner (for some dumb reason like–”why not?”) at a Tex-Mex restaurant in Greenwich. It was a big mistake.

Here it is: the Gloucester.

That was followed by a beer at the Gloucester Bar in Greenwich. This was the gay bar featured in the movie “Beautiful Thing” < related sites: sony classics | imbd | popcorn q | official site | beautiful-thing.com | NYC Production >, and was directly across from the Observatory Grounds. We had to leave early because we had evening plans, so unfortunately we didn’t hit the pub during prime time.

See more Greenwich Photos

For our last evening in England we went to see “The Royal Family” featuring Judi Dench at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. . The play was enjoyable — we were in the second balcony, so we were way up there, although there were worse seats in the house.

Afterwards we ate a late dinner, and then returned to the hotel, where I achieved my goal of finishing the first Harry Potter book, and then went to sleep. MT also finished the book she was working on.

So I'm in a phone booth. Call me a tourist. Shame on me.

On this day we started out in Soho, having coffee at a chain coffee shop named Cafe Nero. We had to hang out there because the Silver Moon Women’s Bookshop had closed its store front three days before we visited the store. A disappointment, but it was on Charing Cross Road, the setting for one of my favorite books, 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff. We walked by the spot where it appeared to me 84 Charing Cross Road would belong, but it was now a Pizza Hut. A vast unimprovement. We also stopped by Vintage Magazine where I picked up a couple gifts, and also by Prowler, to name a few stops. We had lunch at Livebait.

In the evening I visited the Victoria and Albert Museum (which I viewed with both my eyes). I particularly enjoyed the Radical Fashion exhibit, which showed clothing I have never seen anybody wear, nor can I imagine anybody wearing.

I also managed to buy some more books (I bought two in Cheltenham) — this time (finally) falling victim to Harry Potter, although since I was in England, I found Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone–not the American Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. (Check out the £499.99 offer!) I purchased all four in paperback and started reading the first one Wednesday night.

This is the Aarden Hotel.

Out the window, we had a mini-balcony with a great view of, well... not much.

There was the doctor's parking space on the street next to us.

This was our first view of the London Eye after we got off the tube. It is quite impressive no matter how you see it.

I took this picture on Thursday from the River Thames--the opposite side from the first picture.

Looking down on the next car being loaded as we started our 35 minute "flight." The Eye is sponsored by British Airways and they don't let you forget it.

With the next car and Big Ben in sight, the London Eye was a really cool way to start our days in London.