Thursday, April 30, 2009
London

I did not do anything very exciting today which, I suppose, is just as well as I had so much work pending. I awoke at 7.00 am which pleases me no end, but at the same time, I am no longer able to get done all the writing I used to when I awoke at 5 am! So I am now losing two productive hours of work!!!

I spent the entire morning transcribing an interview I did with one of my subjects last week. I started at 10.00 am and by the time I finished with it and was able to send it off to my work email address to be printed, it was almost 2 pm at which point I stopped for lunch.

The drizzle which had wet the place this morning had stopped by the afternoon and with the skies bright again, I could not resist the thought of getting out and about for a bit–I had, after all, been chained to my PC for the entire morning. So I had a shower and hopped on to a bus from Holborn and took a drive and then a long walk in Primrose Hill, a part of London of which I had heard so much and wanted very much to explore.

Primrose Hill is just north of Regent’s Park. I wasn’t exactly sure how to get there, so I hopped off at Camden Market and walked all along the periphery of Regent’s Park. This brought me to the very pretty Regent’s Park Tow Path along the Regent’s Canal–a lovely space filled with houseboats on the water. I took a few pictures and continued my walk, asking for directions as I went along. Finally, about 45 minutes later, after going by the entrance to London Zoo, I arrived at Primrose Hill. This area is mainly residential and has become very upscale in recent years what with a few English celebrities having moved here. I thought I would find some nice stores in which I could window shop, but all I saw were a few coffee chops and a large number of estate agent’s offices. There were some interior decorating stores that I browsed in, but apart from that, well, nothing much and I was disappointed.

Back home, I was getting ready for my meeting with a friend named John with whom I would be visiting the Cittie of Yorke pub that is in my very building and boasts the largest bar in all of London–in fact, it is so large that one book describes it as being “more of a baronial hall than a pub”. It also proudly states that it serves beer from Yorkshire’s oldest brewery.

But just as I was getting ready to meet up with John, Chriselle called me about a change in her dates for her visit to London and now as things stand everything is still up in the air. Since her time here will now overlap my proposed dates for a visit to Paris, I am trying to see if I can get her a Eurostar ticket to join me in Paris on the Chunnel train. This is assuming the folks in France can also accommodate her at their Paris apartment in addition to me.

Oh well… I guess we will all have to take these changes in our stride. I am happy for her as the reason for the change in her plans is that she has rather suddenly landed the part in an important commercial in the States and is looking forward to her role in it. I am really glad for her and I am now keeping my fingers crossed that everything will fall into place and that we will spend quality time together no matter where it might be.

John did ring my doorbell on schedule and we did spend a very pleasant evening together talking about my research and our mutual interests. Over a glass of white wine, he gave me many ideas and suggestions for more places to explore in the vicinity of London and I am looking forward to covering all of them.

I reached home an hour later and spent most of the evening trying to resolve the issue of dates and flight timings and that sort of thing. I was quite wrung out mentally by 10. 30 and fell asleep after brushing and flossing my teeth.