Express By Holiday Inn Hemel Hempstead

... seeing Spring again let alone Summer (thank goodness we like skiing!)

We are pretty much packed and ready to go but with one day spare still where everything has the opportunity to go wrong. Today I went into Watford to run some errands and found that unbelievably I had gotten lost between Hemel and Watford (a route we drive twice a day, everyday!) This has, in itself, given me some concern for my navigational skills and ...

... decided to join me, in London. After getting on the coach at Sheffield, it took a flying four hours to get to Victoria Coach station in London. After making our way to Victoria railway station to buy our one day tube travel card we hopped on the tube and headed for Westminister. Here we took in the impressive Houses of Parliament and Big Ben and took a short walk along the bridge for a view of the London Eye. We then headed for Westminister Abbey and after a few photo ...

... to look like the Parthenon in this particular room, and the marble sculptures, many displaying battle scenes, took up an enormous space. When I asked the guide if the Greeks were claiming them back, she became quite passionate about how the British legally acquired them, and preserved them far better than the Greeks apparently would have.



Other highlights on the tour were monuments from one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (the Mausoleum at ...

... stand, a small table and a night table with a small cupboard - handy place to keep snacks and drinks. Most important of all - I have wi-fi access. Here is even a hair drying as well as a small electric jug and teabags, sachets of coffee, milk and sugar. I have booked the accommodation for a week, so I try to make myself comfortable. I discover I need to keep the curtains drawn, otherwise people walking by can look straight into my room. But ...

... have been improved upon in a musical. But not this one. Absolutely loved it. So if you get the chance-you should see it. It's amazing. The last days of the week were spent doing all the touristy things in Brighton-the pier, the lanes, the north laine, sussex uni, and arundyl castle (which was actually really cool. especially because people still live there. how sweet would that be to able to say that you live in a castle and are one of Elizabeth I's direct descendants?) They ...

... same corner. I asked my cousins, Kevin and Melvin, if they are still in awe of the history that surrounds them. They both replied that they often forget how much history they walk by everyday. But how can one get used to such beautiful architecture like St. Pauls Cathedral? We tried meeting up with my friend, Bianca, earlier tonight. I've been looking forward to meeting up with her and another ...

... time I had been corresponding with my friend Joe Cushley in London, who was working as the music director for a series of television programs on American blues and jazz artists being produced in London for the Smithsonian Institution in the U.S.A. Joe had asked me to act as an informant for the series, providing improvised commentary to complement the musical performances by Etta james, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Buddy Guy and other featured ...

... only response was a halfhearted snort and, 'you ARE joking, aren't you'... i handed him the ticket, and the catalogue of errors began in earnest. the bus driver refused, for whatever his reasons were, to let us off the bus at pimlico, so we had to continue all the way to heathrow, change onto another bus which took us to gatwick, and race to the check-in desk. the girls there told us we had made it by, literally, 30 seconds. however, now calm, we took our ...

... Have a few things left to do, like phone the place and make sure that I'll be able to check in when I get there. I'm not feeling adventurous enough to avoid a little homework before wandering through the streets of London my second time there at night. Part of me really likes to make sure everything's neatly in place... the other part ...

... as far as pre-occupations, they have them too. It struck me that night that Pink Floyd was all about "perspective". "Do you think you can tell... heaven from hell." Or in the album The Wall... it's basically from the perspective of someone going insane. Then U2 was all about "love" and "magic" and how these two things shape our world. It's like they realize something and then their entire artistic career is a Quioxte-esque attempt to capture this realization and send it out to ...