London - Day 2

In which Jay rides the Tube and does the tourist thing.

Up and at ‘em as we tried to recall anything from the night before (not that we were that drunk – but that we couldn’t quite remember all the funny things that made us laugh so hard). Time to hit the town. We strolled to the Tube. On our way I learned that there aren’t too many grocery stores as we know them in London. Mostly they do all their shopping in convenience store sized grocery stores. This means that Mike has to shop more often – but because there are a lot of these sprinkled throughout, it is easy to do. It made buying fruit on the go very easy – but what wasn’t easy was trying to discard anything in London. There are no trash cans anywhere! I had to carry a banana peel around for half an hour. Damn terrorists.

I was tickled though to see painted on the ground at every crosswalk the words, “Look to the right” Being one of the last places on earth that still has people driving on the left, they decided to continually remind pedestrians which way the traffic will be coming from!

Now the Tube. The most complicated transit system I had ever encountered was in Toronto – and that’s dead simple. I had no idea that there were so many routes! You can get to almost anywhere in London via the Tube. To keep the flow moving, most people use what’s called an Oyster card. Basically you prepay $X onto this car and then simply press the car at the entrance (and exit) every time – simple and quick (and you can load up your Oyster card online!). A famous phrase in London is Mind the Gap. Many of the Tube stations are on a curve and when the subway stops, there sometimes is a pretty large gap between the train and the platform.

Day 2 was a day of walking though. It was unexpectedly blue-skied that day too! We saw a lot of the mandatory tourist-y things like London Bridge, Big Ben, the Eye and 500 works of Salvador Dali. Ok that last one isn’t mandatory – but we did see that. It was very interesting collection of Dali paintings, drawings and sculptures. It was great to learn about his influences and even some of the meanings to his art.









We walked all over. I saw a small peek at Buckingham Palace, but had no interest in getting closer. It's so neat walking around and everywhere you look it's interesting architecture! Every street seemed to want me to take a picture of it! In one park I found this weird floral arrangement dedicated to those worshipful barbers...weird.

Mike had to duck into work for a couple of hours so I meandered around by myself. I stumbled upon a really old cemetery Some of the graves had people that died in the 18th century. It was a bit creepy but mostly interesting as I tried to read the faded epitaphs.

After meeting back with Mike, we headed home and Mike made a truly fantastic meal that included herbs from his mini potted garden outside his back door.

Mike had a ticket to a see a band that night that he wanted to see – but he only won the one ticker from iTunes. I stayed home and read a book I bought that day about jokes and why they’re funny. I also read this book that Mike had about a London street artist named Banksy. This guy is amazing! He does stencil paintings on public walls (so yes, graffiti). All his works are either funny, have a social message or both (mostly both). I was mesmerized by the talent, humour and audacity that this Banksy had. Mission #2 now became the quest to find an actual Banksy in the streets somewhere. Here are some examples of what Banksy does (found on the Internet - not in real life...yet):

London - Day 1

In which Jay flies to London, meets up with a long time friend and finds some knickers.

After being on planes for a ridiculous amount of time (here’s a tip: don’t book online for flights if you’re inexperienced with international travel!), I landed in Heathrow and did my best to follow the directions my friend, Mike Wood left for me. His directions were perfect – up until I got off the plane. Having accomplished none of the instructions put forth to me, I still managed to find his flat (oh yes I learned new words...be on the lookout for bollocks, footie and especially knickers).

I know Mike through a mutual friend. We did many comical things together like acting in plays, performing at busking festivals and even performing stand-up together under the moniker, Mike and Jay: the Famous Comedy Trio. Mike moved to London a few years ago and when I decided I was going to visit another friend in Greece this summer – I found out that I could tag a week’s visit in London with Mike.

Mike’s flat was small but also very nice. We chatted and I mentioned that I had a goal to hear someone say the word ‘knickers’ while we were here. Mike nodded and accepted the challenge. Mission #1 was afoot. We decided to do a bit of a walk-around, but before leaving he wanted to demonstrate something pretty cool about London. He pulled out two beers from the fridge and said, let’s go. We walked outside with the beers and I was surprised to learn that we could walk around with open alcohol anywhere in London! I felt like I was in Vegas again (editor: Jay Cormier: International Man was in Las Vegas Spring 2007)!

We journeyed throughout his neighbourhood and he did his “duty” and pointed out quasi important landmarks and explained certain historical significances of the surroundings.

Here’s an aside (warning: there might be learning here). Back in ‘the day’ (this is an easy way for me to recount a tale without the accuracy of facts and dates!), when literacy was very low, the pubs (which, incidentally, got their name from the word public, as opposed to more exclusive establishments) would call themselves some sort of noun. They would put a picture of that noun out front, along with the word pub and that’s how people knew which was which. “Meet you at the Fox” for example. Then, wouldn’t you believe it, pubs became popular and more of them opened. Apparently they ran out of nouns as they started repeating some of them. This of course, caused a bit of confusion so they had to add a second noun. And so was born the English pubs as we know them: The Cat and the Mutton, The Fox and the Hound etc.... Neat!

We explored Brick Lane which was full of crafty stalls and edible treats. He also pointed at how business, having run out of space anywhere else, started opening shops underneath archways of the train bridges.

For dinner we went to the Lauriston – a nearby pub that served great tasting thin crust pizza. After eating we chatted and drank some British ale.

As the place became more and more packed, two ladies/girls/females asked if they could sit at our table. But of course, we said. Instantly the famous comedy trio of Mike and Jay returned as we were both on fire, humourously as we chatted up the ladies. It was times like those that Mike and I wished it had been recorded as there were so many funny things said that night!

At one point, one of the girls, Sian, mentioned something about her trousers. Immediately Mike pounced with, “and what’s underneath your trousers?” She responded as if it were obvious, “...my knickers.”

Well, any onlooker might have expected a footie match was on the tele and our team just scored the winning goal. Mike and I rejoiced with a huzzah and a high five. Mission #1 accomplished.

As the night continued, Sian’s friend left while Sian, Mike and I kept yammering away. It was possibly the funniest time I’ve ever had in my life. What a great day to start my vacation!