[London] A few more words

The pound seems to buy you about as much as the dollar. But for some reason it is worth twice as much.

I went for a walk after blogging most of the day. The sun began to set and the sky turned warm and sharp. The buildings and leaves came alive with color. It was both startling and familiar, and I realized that I have seen it before in English landscape paintings. The English sky is something altogether different.

I walked across Hampstead Heath. It isn't a normal park -- the swaths of lawn are so huge they dwarf the people who enjoy it. Life changes scale, and I become disoriented and awed.

Simon (Natasha's, the 22 year old's, boyfriend) recommended I go to Hampstead High Street for its cute shops and pleasant atmosphere. There I found 2 GAP stores, a Body Shop, Crab Tree and Evelynn, Monsoon, a bookstore chain I recognised from Norwich, a French Connection, etc. Maybe 10% of stores did not have names I recognised.

London has good pedestrian and bicycle wayfinding signage. The bicycle facilities are OK -- better than in the US but not as good as Germany. There are lots of cyclists, but unlike on the continent, they are all wearing helmets and reflective jackets.

Music is everywhere. The boys at the next table are discussing it. It pours from houses and cars. It's no wonder this is the birthplace of The Beattles....

This business about the cars driving on the opposite side of the road has been a very difficult transition. I think it indicates that my brain is getting old and less agile. It didn't confuse me when I was here 10 years ago (of course I was coming from a year of travel at the time).

I often have dreams where I can fly, but only when I am running away from something scary that's chasing me. Well, in Mallorca, I had a break through: I chose to run away in order to fly because it was fun, and it turned out that what I was running from was just some people trying to spray me with water. I made it to "base" safely and won either a vacation bungalow or a lifetime supply of toilet paper (housed in a tower), I am not sure which.