London Calling

After a very involved process of research, anti-malarials, vaccinations, subscription cancellations, contact accumulations, turnover, Passover, layovers, and ofcourse the all important going away party...I have finally left Canada to begin my exciting journey. First stop - Jolly Ol' Blighty, otherwise known as London, England.

I lived in London for one year in 2000/ 2001 where I worked with AIESEC UK. This is my first visit back in 4 years. In many ways, this is a homecoming for me. I think I would be very hard pressed to find any better hosts than Adela and Hywel for my return back to the big smoke. Adela and I worked together in Calgary on the AIESEC International Congress, which took place in 2002. It is such a treat to see her again and spend time with probably the most cheerful person I've ever known. It has been a fun and relaxing time so far with much more in store over the coming few days.

Last night, my hosts organised a worldclass impromptu barbeque, equipped with loads of Pimms and Lemonade, followed by an incredible reunion of old friends who came out of the woodworks for drinks at the very posh Jewel Bar in Covent Gardens. We later ended up at an underground 'Buttoned Down Disco' party at Millennium Club and madly danced the entire night away. After spending 40 minutes trying to hail a 'legal' black taxi cab, and failing to find a kabob shop that wasn't trying to take advantage of hungry, pissed up club-goers (8 quid for a shish kabob is scandalous), a group of us devoured some homemade french toast with beans back at Hywel's cosy flat in St. Jonn's Wood.

Thanks so much to Hywel, Craig, Caz, Aaron, Tristram, Ash, Paul, Denise, Danutza, Millsy, Fee, Chris, Saurav, Lisa, Stephen, and Mostyn for coming out last night and especially to Adela for arranging the whole thing. It was an absolutely brilliant time. I am including a link to a site where Hywel has uploaded his photos from last night's gong show.

See http://www.ofoto.co.uk/I.jsp?c=82t8iw1.1393mzb9&x=0&y=-hpxhkr to view the photos. Don't worry about signing in, just click view photos to see all the thumbnails.

Stupidly, I forgot my digital camera at my girlfriend's flat before I left Canada but luckily I have an amazing girlfriend and she is sending my camera to me by post. I should receive it before I leave for Uganda.

A few observations about London in the few short days I've been here are:
1) I feel very comfortable in this city. Despite four years having gone by, I still know my way around and I have wonderful friends and acquaintances here.

2) I miss the nightlife. Calgary is wonderful for so many reasons but I really love being in a city that feels alive and has a thriving arts and entertainment scene.

3) Public urinals. I have never seen this before but it makes a lot of sense. The city has installed centrally located public urinals. Not toilets, but actual uncovered, very visible plastic urinals that come out only at night, where drunkards can relieve themselves in public instead of soiling store fronts and stumbling down dangerous alleyways after the bars close down.

4) Politics. I arrived in London on election day and it is amazing how engaged everyone seems to be in the political process. Last night a bunch of drunk people were having a political debate in the men's toilet. Tony Blair has landed himself a third straight majority government despite the widely held beleif that he misled the country into war in Iraq. My personal highlight within the endless sea of political coverage has been this entertaining interview, which I'm including a link for. It has a controversial but credible BBC interviewer (Jeremy Paxman) questioning an even more controversial political figure by the name of George Galloway who recently switched allegiance from the ruling Labour party to run in a racially tense riding under the Conservative banner.

Here's the link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/blog/default.stm Scoll down the page a bit until you see the still image of the interview of Paxman v Galloway and download the short video. It's well worth it.

I'll try to write once more from London and have more photos for you to see. Thanks for visiting.

Leor