London Times to Remember

When I reminisce about my first year at SFU, the most salient memory is of walking from residence to C9001 on a damp, foggy morning with too little sleep talking to S about nothing. I remember those mornings fondly: they were happy times. Heading to London this past week, I was reminded of those simpler, happier times immediately when S came to my rescue, and picked me up at the tube station. The pickup ended what had seemed to be a 30+ hour ordeal involving humidity, heat, and a milieu surprisingly similar to what Mr. Bean had to deal with.

I spent 9 great days in London, and 4 of these were with S and his girlfriend S. Amazingly, both have initials SW, but perhaps that is not important here. Back to London.

I admit that I was not overly excited about going to London to begin, but I am very happy with how the trip ended up.

People at HCI 2006 were great: I actually went to London for the BCS HCI 2006 Conference, where I was signed up as an SV. I met some great people from all over England and surrounding area. These people were fantastic, and I had a great time hanging out with them.

London theatre rocks: On the advice of Saul, I ended up going to three different shows: Stomp, The Producers, and Avenue Q. I loved them all. Smaller theatres, excellent actors, great shows... what more could a country bumpkin like myself ask for? After seeing all these shows, I thought to myself, "I am so cultured now." Upon reading the reviews of "The Producers" and "Avenue Q" afterwards, I was disappointed to read things like, "Only the basest of our society would enjoy this humour", "This is great for a rowdy night with the bottom most of society." So much for culture.

London is old: It's kind of weird, but the age of the place is palatable. You can actually feel its age. It made me want to bow. Of course, that would have been ridiculous, so I just gaped.

London's museums are HUUUGE: And there are a boatload of them, and they seem to all be free. Given the limited time I had, I literally sprinted through the museums/galleries I went to. The British Gallery was interesting, and made me think, "What kinds of things would I take if I were an archaeologist?" Here are some of the more interesting examples: (1) mummies! real life mummies! dead bodies! (2) the beard from the sphynx?!

Asian girls with english accents sound smrt: 'nuff said.

English accents didn't throw me: At least, not as much as I expected. I guess I am kind of accustomed to listening to them here. What was interesting to me was listening to the variety of accents -- most of which sounded English, but with their own twists on them. They really cracked me up. But the interesting thing is that they didn't really throw me for a loop. I felt reasonable comfortable. When two Persian women walked by me speaking in some foreign tongue, I actually caught myself thinking, "They're way more tourist than I am." In retrospect, it's far more likely that they were residents.

I didn't get a picture with Tony Tang: One of my little "missions" for London was to track down Tony Tang, an owner of a restaurant, and get a photo with him. S actually helped me track down the restaurant on the first day, and Tony Tang was actually inside! When we finally went to the restaurant, I think I sufficiently annoyed the waitress that when I asked to see the owner, she didn't believe my, "I want to get a photo with him," excuse. It was actually quite a tragic event, and one I will never forget. It also burned a 20£ in my wallet. Lesson of the day: get photos with owners of restaurants before dinner.

In the middle of all this craziness was S. He proved to be an excellent guide in London while I was there. In some respects, while our relationship has been sporadic at best, he has always been an excellent guide to places, and to life. I couldn't have made it out of SFU without him. Thanks, buddy.