London Revisited

So I visited London again. This time for no reason at all! Theoretically the client has request my presence during launch but it isn't justified in the first place I do not need to be present there physically when there is the internet. Oh well, so the project is delayed again and I just wanted to spend opportunity to do one more walk around.

So I headed for the Buckingham Palace! Not in some remote place but right in middle of London, reachable by the Underground (trains). Yes I saw the famous long black furry hat soldiers marching. A giant building but with crumbling walls. It isn't a castle. There are streets and streets of classic stone buildings all over at uniform height.

Headed for some shopping place on Regents street. London makes Michigan Ave look very pale. At high end stores I only see wealthy Chinese shoppers and even the sales speak to them in Chinese. Now only wealthy Chinese can afford these ridiculously expensive (probably Chinese made) products.

I especially liked the Hamley's toy store. Makes the biggest Toy-R-Us you have seen look pale. I do not know of any big toy stores in Chicago. There are floors of toys and MANY enthusiastic sales people demoing the toys. Not very cheap but everything in London seems so expensive. It is celebrating 255 years. Yes, two hundred fifty five. How old is the United States? London still have a few bookstores. Guess Amazon didn't kill them all yet. But I do not see coffee shop within.

As I have notice before. No half-and-half in Europe. Whole or Skim milk with your coffee, or just black.

Suddenly the tune "London bridge is falling down" came to mind... ah, accessible by train too! Let's go there! The bridge itself is actually not so elaborate but the Tower Bridge next to it is. There is a giant WARSHIP for display.

Unfortunately "Chinatown" did not come to mind until after my day of walking... should have went there to see. Yes, google map street view can take you there. But I want to see what kind of food they serve, hear what language they speak, perhaps talk to a couple people. Oh well.

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre is still around. But unfortunately didn't come to mind either. Hey I didn't know I get to travel around for 1 day.

Now, the most famous dish at London is "Fish-and-chips", which is fried fish fillet and fries. I had some. Tasted just like here. They call fries "chips". What do they call real potato chips? They call it "crisps". I think "crisp" is probably a better term for it.

Now, what about "porridge"? In some Chinese restaurants, it is refer to the tasty morning rice soup. I decided to spend a few pounds to find out. Oh it is oatmeal! Would not have spent that pounds on that if I know.

Finally, on the road there are lots of speed cameras, well those are everywhere else too. But look a that sign

It is the old original camera! They don't use that to capture speeders don't they?