Category: 2004-05: LHR & CDG

Or “put to bed” or whatever.
All the entries for this past trip have been made and the Gallery has captions on most of the pictures that need it.
I think that’s it. I’ve been a bit jet lagged for the past few days. I’ve been passing out around 2100 each night since I got back and waking up at 0500 because that’s when the sun gets up in London!
But I think I’m getting back to Pacific time. For instance, I slept to 1100 today!

I hate taking Super Shuttle.
They always give last priority to Richmond District residents. Meaning we get dropped off last. It took an hour to get home from SFO.
Even though I was waiting in line first, the driver decided to drop someone off in Pacifica first. You have to drive down SR1 and through Devil’s Slide. Down the hill and past the Taco Bell. Then you make a left and go into the hills where the roads turn into potholes.
In short a 40 minute detour, 20 in and 20 out.
Pain in the Ass. But at least I made it back home.
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One of the benefits of Premier Exec is that you get free access to ANY Star Alliance club when you are flying international that day. Here’s my capsule reviews of the Star Alliance clubs at LHR.
Red Carpet Club (UAL). Mickey mouse. No food. No internet. And a big sign on the outside that says “No outside food”. Inside, just some beverages and biscuits. And rooms and wireless internet is sometimes available for a fee. A fee. Nice.
Silver Kris (SIN). Nice. Decor is plain but has a waterfall in reception that adds to the tranquility of the place. Free internet terminals but no wireless. Food! Along with bottled water (both kinds), Coke and related soft drinks in cans and Tiger Beer! Tiger Time!
SAS/Air Canada/Thai. Neat. Modern design that looks more like a trendy hipster bar. Fountain drinks like Red Carpet Club. Didn’t get to poke around here much because this is where I discovered the “Last Call” on the monitor here. Has potential though.
So try to guess which one I prefer. Clue: it has FOOD!

I flew out of Heathrow today. My flight went doors closed at 1005.
I thought it would be easy. Drag the red monster and roller bag to Paddington Station, jump on the Heathrow Express and chill in the Silver Kris lounge with some breakfast before my flight.
My good mood sank as I arrived in Paddington and saw that the Star Alliance had in town check in at the station. Why did my mood sink? Because United doesn’t do this. They suck.
The train ride to LHR was uneventful, meaning it was fine. Then I got to Heathrow. There’s one stop for Terminals 1-3 and a further for Terminal 4.
Signage is crap, meaning that you really need to hunt for a sign or ask someone. I found that UAL was in Terminal 3. Thus began the “Heathrow Death March”. 1/4 mile later, I made it into the Terminal and checked in.
Then it’s another hike through Passport Control and their HUGE Duty Free shopping area. Since these are UK prices still despite claiming they’re “TAX FREE”, I passed through to get to the Club.
By the time I got there it was about 0900. Check in on my Boarding Pass said 0920 so i wolfed down the fastest bowl of Honey Corn Flakes in my life and stuck my nose into the other lounges (future entry) before I saw on an monitor:
“Last Call”. WTF??
So I’m outta there, heading for Gate 17. It’s pretty far and the UA people said “you need to be in the gate area 45 minutes before departure” and another said “we set the time early like that so everyone will get here”. Which story is it?
Long story short, even though I woke up at 0600 and budgeted enough time, the poor design of Heathrow which was “designed by a bunch of chimps” according to some nameless airline staffers, sucked what free time I had budgeted.
The chimps need to be hit with a shoe.

is the name of the new Montecristo cigar, the first since 1971.
It’s a 52 gauge and just slightly longer than a robusto.
It was released in London today as it’s “birth” to the world. I was at the release party at Dunhill London. How did I wind up there?
If you read yesterday’s entries, you’ll know today was shopping day. I completed my tasks and decided to check out St. James’ st. This street is one end of Jermyn Street, a three block street that has awesome cigar shops and the local stores of Davidoff and Dunhill.
I ducked into Dunhill, wanting to see the humidor room. I was invited into the launch party where they had bigshots from H. Upmann (Montecristos are made in their factories in Cuba) and a roller (who was in reality, the deputy production manager), the London distributors for Montecristo and one woefully underdressed tourist (me).
There was free champagne and coffee but you still had to purchase a stick to smoke it. Which I did. I figured, I haven’t gone out since I’ve been in London so this is OK. �14 for a Montecristo Eduardo. Do the conversion yourself.
I hung out, drank several flutes of champagne and had an expresso afterwards. Heard some history about the brand and it’s relationship with Dunhill. Did you know that Montecristo was initially created for Dunhill shops and that they used to have that on the bands and boxes until the early 70s? Or that pre-70s boxes were twice as thick? Etc etc.
The UK has some stupid law that says you cannot promote a tobacco event because it would “encourage” people to smoke. Likewise for promotional events. Usually if there was a roller making cigars like at this event, they would be free with a purchase, etc etc. Now they have to charge, but usually a small amount. Here it was �5 for a freshly rolled Cuban leaf cigar.
Got one!
No pix though. It was an event, to take snaps would have been incredibly tacky considering the big shots there and I was told media was there eariler. Bummer!

So now it’s 36 hours until I head back to the land of the limousine liberal. I’m got all my dirty laundry packed away and sealed, not to be reopened until I’m dragging it up my staircase.
Tomorrow is the big shopping day. I’ve got requests ranging from candle sconces to Burberry dog raincoats (don’t ask) as well as assorted omiyage.
Small omiyage since purchasing power here is 1/2 what it is back home. Even Tokyo is cheaper in most ways!
And Asia has all the stuff I like and can afford…

It’s a big college town, since much of the town (I mean City) is made up of the 20 something individual colleges that Oxford University is.
The best way to look at it is the University sets certain guidelines and protocols and the colleges execute them in the best way they see fit. They all have their own admissions policies and are in essence, 20 something independent schools. Kinda like the Federalist system of government that we have in the States.
Oxford is what college towns such as Davis or Cambridge (MA) or even Berkeley want to be compared to.
Davis doesn’t count because it’s not walkable. If it was, what’s the point of bringing your tricked out Honduh Accord or Toyota Camry (TRD special type) to school if you don’t need to drive it? I’d guess that they’d lose a lot of their student body if that were the case.
Berkeley and Cambridge (MA), they’re too crowded, the neighborhood isn’t consistent with the sprawl of university facilities and Oxford is way too clean and not too crowded. I didn’t see one bum, the walls were free of grafitti, I didn’t smell any pot or have to walk around anything or anyone.
What I did see were some very nice girls (younger) and some really old old old old old (way older) buildings.
The canal is pretty neat too. They landscaped part of it to look like a riverbank and there’s some history about it. Seems that the canal was dug back in the 1800s to help move coal down to London. When the railways made it here, the canal was redundant but they kept it for recreation.
Green water.
Did I mention that I think we passed a big Nuclear Power Plant on the way here? I’m researching…

Oxford. Legendary town of learning. Well, actually a city since I was told by one of the people here that since they have their own cathedral, they are considered a city.
Didn’t know that.
I took the National Rail to Oxford from Paddington Station, 5 minutes from Grim’s place. Verrrrry convenient. The ride was just about over an hour. Within 15 minutes I was asleep and within 45 minutes, the Conductor woke me up to do a ticket check.
Embarassing. But at least the mighty roar of diesel engines masked the quiet hum of my sleeping. Yes, you read right. National Rail still uses diesels just like China Railways. Except (train geek stuff coming!) that China Rail uses an engine and tows the passenger cars along, no differently than a freight train. National Rail cars have no engine, but are self contained. Imagine a Tube (or MTR or BART ) car except it runs on diesel instead of electricity. Mighty locomotive sounds like a really big MUNI bus.
Once we got out of Reading, it instantly turned into countryside. England is very green. Green trees. Green meadows (with the occasional yellow patch, what ARE those plants?). Green water. Green sky.
Ok, not green sky. Just seeing if you’re awake.

I wandered back to Picadilly and puttered about. Eventually I found my way back to St. James’ Park.
The entire park is closed off to cars on Sunday so I was able to walk from Admiralty Gate to Buckingham Palace on a road festooned with Union Jacks and people out enjoying the unseasonably warm weather.
There was still a healthy crowd at Queen Victoria’s monument directly in front of the Palace. A MetroCop told me that that’s the best place to watch the changing of the guard that happens each morning.
It was still a warm evening so I made my way to Mayfair going through the parks. Had dinner at a pub, the King’s Arms and had a proper meat pie cooked in ale (note to chef, ease off the spuds!) and a pint of London’s Finest.
And since I had all those carbs and beer in me, I thought, how about I walk back to Grim’s place? So I walked through Hyde Park and Green Park (what a redundant name, eh?) and wound up at Kensington Gardens and boy did my feet hurt.
I need new custom made boots. I’m getting too many blisters on my little right toe….

I went to the Victoria and Albert Museum today.
It’s a museum about the decorative arts. Iron works, jewelry, interior design, furniture, statues, body armor, katanas and the like.
It has exhibits covering Chinese, British, Japanese, South Asian, Indian, Italian, various European and even American items.
But the museum is confusing because not all the staircases reach all the floors so you need to follow your map.
They used to have an exhibit on arms and weapons but that’s been taken down in favor of expanding the miniatures exhibit.
Political Correctness? Who knows?
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Before the museum, I had a snack at Oriental Canteen, the closest thing I’ve had to hawker food. Red chopsticks and red spoons? Basic decor? Sounds like Maxwell’s to me!
But, �3.5 for wontonmein? That’s not Maxwell’s prices!
After escaping the V&A (as they like to call it), I went to Cafe Creperie de Hampstead for a Ham & Cheese crepe snack. It was pretty good.
And you’ll have no trouble finding it, it’s on the road to the Museum from the Tube and they’re next door to each other. (!)

Today is Sunday, a verrry lazy day for me. I got out of the house around 1300 and decided to take the bus to Citibank via Oxford Street.
Half of the basi was filled with Filipino amahs on Sunday holiday. They had their kids with them and they looked like they just got out of church and they were talking a lot (gossiping?).
Then they reached their stop and they all got off.
I had a Hong Kong flashback for a minute. Just a minute though.
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Some words of advice for those who are reading this and contemplating a visit to London. Learn these words.
Tesco
Sainsbury’s
Marks and Spencer
These are grocery stores, cheepest to not so cheep. They also have daily made ready to eat wraps and salads and sandwiches. Since you’re taking it to go, there’s no VAT, unlike eating in a restaurant. Remember VAT is 14.5% plus usually a 10-12% service charge. Bleech!
If you’re going to be here (Dean) and want to watch your spending, this is the best way short of being at a place with a proper stove and oven.
And I’ve not seen a lot of instant noodles here either…