So the company for which I work has me in London for a week transitioning the project I was leading since the beginning of the year to our UK office.

I arrived early Friday morning (on the trans-Atlantic red-eye as it were), stopped by the hotel to unpack and freshen up and spent the rest of the day in the UK office.

After lunch I started getting really tired - it’s the closest I’ve come to hallucinating due to lack of sleep. I think I managed to avoid embarrassing myself but will have to wait until Monday to find out for sure. :-)

I had dinner w/my US colleague P (the fund manager for whom I’m leading this project) @ ‘Punjab’ - a Punjabi restaurant. It was worth the wait - a very nice meal.

I went to bed a little after midnight and didn’t get up until about noon Saturday so hopefully I’ve avoided the jetlag experience I had when I travelled to Munich in 1993.

Following a shower (which has to be experienced to be believed, check out the shower head - apparently London isn’t concerned about water restrictions) I learned that a matinee showing of “Wicked” was @ 2:30p so I navigated the Tube (the Journey Planners are awfully helpful) and scored a ticket on the first row.

When the intermission (er, ‘interval’) started young people carrying trays of sodas, candies and ice cream came down the aisles - at which point I began to hear cries of “Ice cream Dad! Let us have some ice cream!” - my children would’ve blended right in. :-)

Following the show I found a Spanish Tapas bar (La Tasca) - kinda like Spanish Dim Sum.

Exiting the restaurant I found myself directly across the street from Westminster Cathedral and walked into a service in progress.

Catching a train from Victoria station to Covent Garden I saw a group of young women wearing rabbit ears and tails - a bit like walking across a gaggle of Playboy Bunnies. According to one who I asked this was “fashion” for a girls’ night out. Oooohhhh kkkayyy - this must be part of St. Patrick’s Day celebration with which I’m unfamiliar.

There were signs exiting the Covent Garden station strongly advising me to take the lift instead of the (193) stairs. After taking the stairs I could see why.

I had a shandy at each of “The Crown and Anchor” and “The Crown” (the latter being a less expensive option, I guess “and Anchor” rates a higher charge). Each place was crowded and noisy and nothing at all like 6th Street.

A couple of comments regarding the exchange rate (and I suppose the prices which the super-wealthy are accustomed to paying).

Based on the exchange rate I get the feeling that the British visting the US are kinda like us Americans visting Mexico. I decided to check out the cost of having the hotel do some laundry for me and quickly realized that the price of cleaning anything would cost more than I paid for the clothes themselves.

This includes socks.