London Orientation

One of the first things people ask me in the States is: Where are you in London? Given that London is a pretty big place, and has more small neighborhoods than I can count, fortunately I have some landmarks that help me explain.

Our flat is located in what is considered central London. We are not in the City of London itself (which is encased within the old Roman walls) but in the burrough of Camden. We are a 5 minute walk from the British Museum, and a 15 minute walk to the Thames (“Tems”). It takes 15 minutes to walk to Covent Garden, and from there we have easy access to the famous West End theatres of London. I once raced Kaela from Covent Garden to our tube stop of Russell Square- she took the tube, and I walked/ran. She beat me, but it took 5-10 minutes to get there.

We live close to the Foundling Hospital- founded in 1739 by Thomas Coram who took pity on abandoned children and started the institution to house and raise them. Coincidence that the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (which owns the rights to Peter Pan) is located just down the block? Don’t know. Even more interesting is the fact that the Charles Dickens Museum, his home where he wrote Oliver Twist is right around the corner. Although the hospital has long been removed, it still is a lovely park for children with a small petting zoo and playground. It was here that Handel donated much of the revenue gained from his Messiah, and it is here he performed the famous music each year towards the end of his life.

Down the road a bit more is Gray’s Inn Fields where one of the two remaining churches still ring the nearly-thousand-year tradition of curfew bells (brought to a neighborhood near you by William Conquerer in 1066). Go north up the street a bit and you hit Camden Market (the Goth central of London), the British Library (where the Magna Carta is held) and Kings Cross/St. Pancras station (of Harry Potter Platform 9 ¾ fame).

Given our location, my morning runs are practically history tours, and I often stop and pinch myself because I cant believe Im actually there. One day I run past St Pauls, then cross the millennium bridge- past Tate modern, wave at the Globe, pass the fishmongers at Borough market, then loop back by Southwark Cathedral, cross the London Bridge, and then wave good bye to St Pauls again as I head home. Another morning I traverse across Oxford Street, run along the side of Hyde park, go through St James Park, skip tea with the Queen at the palace, go to parliament square, see Westminster Abbey, and then run along the Victoria Embankment (the Thames pathway) home while opposite the river is the towering London Eye.

I am constantly amazed at what is here in London, and the sense of history is astounding.

I look forward to writing more.

Wait, What Side Are We On?

It finally happened, and I cant believe it. We arrived in CA last week to spend Christmas with the fam, and to celebrate Heidi's wedding this upcoming week (so contact us if you want, please!!!). This morning I dropped Kate off at a friends to go surfing, and I decided to take a drive down memory lane and just whiz about La Canada and see some of my favorite sites.

As I came to a T stop, I had to turn left onto a road, and it hit me: I had completely spaced what side of the road I had to turn onto. Do I heed my immediate inclination to drive on the left side, and see what happens? Or do I revert to what I think I should do, and go to the right side of the road?

Luckily, the V20 Dodge Ram with 3,000,000 horsepower and 500 yards to he gallon gas mileage rumbling by reminded me that I was in the States, and not England. BUT, had there been a bunch of London Underground workers sitting on the side of the road picking their noses with "Down With Boris" signs, then it might have been a different story.

Fortunate for me, the recent dearth of loitering London Underground limeys in Los Angeles spared me from certain doom.

Disaffected Blogger Syndrome Recovery Program

I guess there comes a point in every bloggers life where they hit “the wall” and experience the three stages of “disaffected blogger syndrome”. Negligence, anger/avoidance, and continuance/dissolvement.

Stage 1: Negligence
It is a deceptively simple start really; 1 day goes, then 2 slip by unnoticed. You promise yourself that you are going to write soon because you are a responsible blogger; a self-respecting participating citizen of the online community. You are not one of THOSE people who just create and start blogs willy nilly; you are committed and have invested time and energy in your blog. It’s ok to skip a few days here and there, anyone else would right? So, still confident in yourself, you set a nearby date as THE day when you will catch up writing.

Oh, but hang on- that’s the day you end up cleaning your flat, or taking the bus tour in London, or sleeping in getting used to the time zone, or the day that your just reading books for a change. People understand why you’re not writing, right? You have to live life sometime! You have to go and do stuff to write about for crying out loud! Besides, its not as if you have a responsibility to continuously write. You’re not one of THOSE people who live their lives surgically connected to their computer spending their life devoid of human contact in small dark holes. Subsisting on microwave dinners, and becoming increasingly fluent in the geographic intrigues of Warcraft III.

No worries, just do it next week. You’re still a good person, you just live for the moment that’s all.

Stage 2: Avoidance
This usually starts about 1 month AP (After Post). Symptoms include increased desire to avoid writing, a heightened ability to find other worthless endeavors to supplant the blog, and aggression towards the blog.

The anger in some deep Freudian way isn’t actual anger at the webspace itself, but at the conflict of who you thought you were, and who you have become. That and your relationship with your father.
You realize that you also fear the blog. Yes, that’s right, fear a thing of your own creation. Like Frankenstein and his monster. Like Like George Lucas and Darth Vader. . Like Sheryl Leach and Barney the dinosaur.
Because you have to catch up, you feel there is too much to do, and it is impossible to really write everything that has happened. You are afraid that you cannot do it. You as the master and creator of an inanimate object, have failed in your responsibilities as master of its universe, and now fear the task at hand. Just like I feared retribution from the 7 Tamagachis I killed by negligence in 1992.

You realize that you are no longer the idealistic net-izen that cheerfully, and wittily contributes to the greater good of the web community at large, but one of the dregs of the online society who takes up space, and relies upon the constant welfare of the webstate to stall constant online eviction. You have become one of THOSE people and, therefore, you join the ranks of cynics before you who have left the online world for one reason or another.


And as a newfound cynic, you avoid the blog.

For how long? I don’t know. Indefinitely.

At least till your consciousness kicks in, and you enter the third stage.

Stage 3
Continuance/Dissolvement
So, do you continue or end your blog? Do you put to naught the hours spent filling its space, or do you become the online Rudy, the come-back kid, the guy who came back swinging when everyone had moved on?

THOSE people quit. THOSE people end their blogs. THOSE people don’t try anymore, but I am not one of THOSE people.

I chose to start again, and finish what I began- and from now on I will do better.

I hope you enjoy our chronicles of England!

Christian