billrider2013

My flight from Orlando was okay, however I didn’t get much sleep.
One positive was that I didn’t have to reassemble the bicycle. All I had to do was fit the handlebars and the peddles.

I caught the train to Clapham Junction. I noticed that good number of the passengers of the train were asleep. Clearly, they had had a bad night’s sleep as well. I wonder what their reasons were.

I rode from Clapham Junction to my hosts’ place.

Staying Awake
After an all-night flight. The trick is to stay awake for as long as possible and to wake up at a ‘normal’ time the next day. This gets your body into ‘sync’ and avoids jet lag.

I spent the day sorting stuff out like getting a SIM card and confirming the arrangements for my lock-up.

In the evening, my host cooked and excellent meal – baked salmon. After the meal slept in a very familiar bed. My Fitbit told me that I had three awakenings.

Starting the Rituals Stuff
The next I headed in the West End. I will never cease to enjoy wondering around

London, particular this part of the city. It is truly the ‘centre of the world’.
One of my annual rituals is beer in the St James Tavern on Shaftesbury Avenue off Piccadilly Circus. It isn’t nearly as good as it was in the late 70’s and early 80’s when it was my favourite ‘watering hole’ on Friday night. However, I still have very good memories of the place.

Another ritual I completed a couple of days later was eating a Welsh Rarebit and Fortnum and Mason.

Lord’s Cricket
In the evening headed to the Lord’s Cricket Ground where I met up with my host. We had tickets to watch the West Indies play in a T20 charity match against an ICC International XI. The proceeds of the match went the cricket associations in the Caribbean whose cricket grounds had been damaged in the hurricanes last year.

Before the match, Chris Gayle came across to the fence below where we were sitting to sign his autograph and have his photo taken with fans.

The Windies batted first. Gayle was in terrible form and couldn’t getting going.

Fortunately, the other batsmen were in good touch and WI’s got to 199 in their 20 overs.
This was to prove too much for the International IX.

Notwithstanding the match didn’t have an exciting finish, it was entertaining. Lord’s is great place to watch cricket. We were sitting in good seats. There were a group of blokes in our row who obviously worked together. They turned out to be very good patrons for the bar. As the night went on, the conservations got more and more amusing. One of the blokes, in particular, was very quick witted and had everyone within hearing distance laughing. The more he drank the funnier he got. Some of his funniest comments were about Nassar Hussein, the former England Captain who was an ‘on field’ commentator for the match.

Bill Burr
I always like going the Royal Albert Hall. I checked out was on. Curiously there were no orchestral concerts on in the week ahead.

One of the shows that was on was a American comedian called Bill Burr. I had never heard of him. Anyway, I thought he must be good if he was on at the Albert Hall and bought a last-minute ticket on-line.

As it turned out, the ticket was in a box. The other people in the box were a couple of Americans who were visiting London for a conference and some young English blokes. They were all fans of Burr.

The show was really good. Burr has a really sharp wit. His observations of American society and politics were very incisive. I particularly like his observations on the Americans’ obsession of lauding their ‘military’. Check out the You Tube video clip. He used these comments in his show.

The Future is Here at the V&A
Another thing I like to do in London is to visited the Victoria and Albert Museum. The ‘permanent’ exhibits are always good to see.

However, the ‘temporary’ exhibitions are often a ‘stand out’. Last year they had and exhibition on Pink Floyd. It was fantastic.

This year, one of the temporary exhibitions is called ‘The Future Here’ it is about the impact of technology on our lives. It is worth a visit if you are in London.

Servicing the Bike
I took my bicycle to BikeFix in Holborn. They are able to service the Rohloff hub and always do a good job.

APECer in Town
It seems that very time I am in London there are other people I known visiting the city.

This visit coincided with a visit by one my colleagues on the APEC 2007 Taskforce. She was visiting the city on holiday from New Delhi with her husband and young son. She is working in New Delhi at the Australian High Commission.
It was great to catch up with her and to meet her husband.

Seeing West End Shows
My hosts are good value when it comes to providing advice on which West End show to see. This year they suggested ‘Tina’. This is musical based on Tina Turner’s live and music.

I was able to get a ‘returned’ ticket.

The show turned out to be really good. The girl in the lead role was particularly good.

I also managed to see ‘Wicked’. This is a very long running musical. I finally got to see it.
Another show I saw was Oscar Wilde’s play the ‘An Ideal Husband’ – a political satire.

One the stars of the show in Susan Hampshire. Who can remember her in BBBC dramas like ‘The Forsyte Saga’ and ‘The Young Churchills’ ? She is still working and is 81.

Flickr Links

London
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmgRZ6Jj

Lord’s Cricket
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmkMBuXb

Royal Albert Hall
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmn4MXNT

The Future is Here
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmmcLkES

Tina and Wicked
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmmdZpSY

Bill Burr on YouTube
Making fun of the ‘Military’