Road Again III

So far as I know this post will have no point to it. I'm waiting for a plane. I want to know why airports provide almost no electrical outlets for people. Maybe most people aren't hopeless geeks.

I'm rather tired of cigarette smoke. We get spoiled in those states that disallow public smoking. Yes, I oppose the blanket ban on it. I'd rather let restaurant owners and the like decide. And frankly, I have little patience for people who complain about it. But I mean complain out loud. I'm complaining silently here, not bothering anyone, not asking for a change in policy. Just observing.

Strewth, cig smoke doesn't bother me much at all. No more than would, say, an open sewer.

Anyway, Heathrow has these enclosed smokers' dens, cloudy places enclosed in Plexiglas, the yellowish, wrinkly people inside hunched over in personal shame as the rest of us walk briskly by, averting our disapproving gaze.

I probably walked five miles yesterday, on top of riding trains and buses, wandering again by myself. Got to the Royal Observatory ten minutes before closing and was priveleged to rush through the place and see about half of it. There is a green laser shooting north along the 0 meridian, visible as it crosses the Thames late on a gloomy afternoon.

Strange day: Woke late, hit the rails, never broke fast until about three and wasn't particularly hungry then. Maybe when we walk fast enough, our bodies react by shutting down the hunger center, I don't know. But the previous days' overeating prepared me for a day of relative fasting, I think. At three I lingered over the Daily Mail and a steak and ale pie at the Spanish Galleon down in Greenwich. The Cutty Sark, nearby, is near totally disassembled for restoration.

Some tube lines were down for repairs so the underground ant farm was even more hectic than usual, especially as the evening wore on. Unimaginable crowds of people, mostly young, some drinking, pressed through every tunnel going in every direcetion. It was hot and crowded and noisy and fun. Fun if you don't have a curtain time to catch.

I caught a bus at random to ride the upper deck and watch the night streets below. Got off when I realized we had gone past the northern edge of my map and walked back through neighborhoods of suspicious glances. But my instincts are American: there were no threats. London has a reputation for some crime, but I never saw the meat of it.

Well, I'd gabble more but they just annonced my plane and I'm not going to presume I can log in again today.