This past summer I flew over to London on the Sardine Express…they really jam you in...I was grape jam, strawberry jam, whatever kind of jam...I was a man in a jam...8 hours of jam...I was the jam with the bread squished up against me...a flight to hell, but then the very British and very cheery flight attendants started bringing around the food cart but more importantly they started serving drinks...gave you your choice of red or white wine...not a big wine drinker, but for that price I suddenly became a wine connoisseur...took a flier on the red and since my wife doesn’t drink, I told her to get another bottle of red that I could drink too...tasted pretty good to me and I downed them like a Spitfire...and with nothing on my stomach, and the aid of a couple of beers or so at the airport, I started to fly a little too...then as luck would had it, another attendant came by and asked if we needed anything...I had the audacity to ask if my wife and I could have some more wine and damn if she didn’t bring us two more bottles...not full size bottles of course but bigger than the little ones they usually give you...well, the contents of those two disappeared like D. B. Cooper before long...feeling a little sleepy by this time since it was a redeye to start with and we had a four hour wait...put a blanket over my head and block everything and everybody out...fell asleep...after what I thought was a long nap...woke up and found out that only twenty minutes passed and we still had over six hours of flight time left...put the blanket back over my head and earbuds in my ears and listened to music to pass the time, just jammin’ with Bob Marley, Bob Dylan, and a lot of people not named Bob...just bobbin’ and weavin’ trying to make it through this 15 round 8 hour long championship fight...must of listened to every song on my iPhone...I’m about to stay in my corner and throw in the towel when we finally arrived at London Heathrow and I found most of the locals spoke English and were very helpful...standing in customs line...security man says “Carry On”...good to know some English people talk like we think they do or like they’re portrayed in the movies...cab ride...a lot of Muslims walking around the poorer neighborhoods...they say London’s not what it used to be but I don’t really know what it used to be...maybe all the men in suits and bowler hats, carrying black umbrellas...the ladies in casual dresses preparing tea…???...downtown now and it’s a little insulated world, it feels isolated from the rest of the city, double decker buses, black taxis scurrying about, people driving the wrong way, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, statue of Churchill...Friday night fish & chips at St. Stephens Tavern on Bridge Street...dark now after dinner...walking around the Eye...laying in the grass at Jubilee Gardens...delightfully cool...light mist falling, not wanting to get up, time passes, beautiful...float back to the hotel...smiling, thinking about actually being in London...maybe tomorrow at Harrod’s, or go over to the British Museum...see the mummies...Carnaby Street because I’ve always heard about it...a tour of the city by bus...Picadilly Circus, Houses of Parliament and all that...boat ride on the Thames.
