to london, back and beyond

me before the trip to london

here we go again, another long spell of blog absence. but before i spiral down into useless apologies, look to thy right. yup, that's me. "was me" to be more accurate i guess. at JFK airport 3 thursdays ago waiting for my flight to london. a "before picture" so to speak. if you're the impatient type, as i know you are coz we all are, scroll down and you'll find the "after" picture. the face is still a bit long (but probably coz of the alcohol and cigar traces in the body) but i must say the frame of mind in that picture is 10 times better. 10 million times better, to be more accurate.

niarchos house

now that you pretty much know the end, i guess it's but fitting to get to trip that was. flew out of jfk thursday night via air india. as usual i was trying to push for exit row seats. didnt get it but within 5 minutes of boarding, managed to score myself bulkhead seats via a switch-a-roo with another pair (note to self: row 27;s the magic row). quite the blessing you might think. well, not really. by stroke of luck (the bad type), i happened to be seated next to some love at first sight moment. not really moment coz it lasted all 7+ hours of the flight.

tower bridge

the 2 love birds decided to drink the flight away on gin and tonics and life stories and cheesy lines. the chick just broke up with her boyfriend ladidadida. the dude is a brit based in nyc blablabla. she used to have a brit boyfriend lalalala. as much as it was some budding romance (or some lavatory pitstop) waiting to happen, it sure was a nightmare trying to sleep. (another note to self: the time you depart NYC is the time you arrive in london—except switch AM-PM).

cool brick lane art

got to london heathrow airport friday morning local time. bit of a line, er queue, through immigrations but as usual i zipped out of there once i was done (oh the joys of not checking luggage and not dealing with those crazy carousels and the constant thoughts of "have they lost my luggage?"). once at the gate i was trying to look for someone i may not recognize—a distant relative based there who was picking me up. i got it on first try. it wasnt hard spotting someone as brown as i was in a crowd, i guess.

phone booths

ate paz drove with the ease of someone on her 5th driving lesson. she did have the funniest stories though and spoke as fast as the car swerved through lanes, so i was comfortably entertained. the very first thing i did notice about london was the weather. of course ive heard of how its grey and bit depressing but i didnt know it was gonna be that claustrophobic. it wasnt raining or what but it felt like the clouds were caving in. either that or i just had a terrible flight experience.

chinatown london style

our very first stop was the house she's been house-sitting for the past 15 years (chelsea stadium really was the first stop but that was more of a diversion). a house owned by the niarchos, greek shipping magnate who at one point was 7th richest in the world or so. though the house sits on the most expensive street in london, no one really lives there (save for some original warhols valued in the millions). although at the time i was there, stavros (ex to paris hilton) was manning the house coz he was doing some work-study thing for 3 months in london.

sightseeing w/ relatives

had a nice brunch at the house which reduced the revolutions in my spinning head by a few counts. once settled in, my niece (who's older than i am) and her son, drove me around town to hit some of the touristy spots. kensington palace, royal albert hall, hyde park, tower bridge, tower of london. it was really a bit of a blur but i do remember that talking to calvin (the kid) had quickly given me a bit of a bri-ish accent, albeit a fake but good enough one.

dinner met el en coen

by nighttime it was time to meet with coen, dutch friend now based in london for the past 2+ months, who i was couch-crashing with. more like sleeping bag-crashing actually. as usual, it didnt feel like we'd been apart for long. well, not really coz he was just here in nyc back in may (and i in amsterdam in march). for dinner we met up with elvira (another dutch friend) up in camden town at a tapas place. was great to be with my 2 closest dutch friends in the world (of course its not like i have 10 million of them). the food was lekker and the company was gezellig. (ayos, nagpasiklab na naman ang bata sa kanyang pananalita).

guard on duty

the first day was capped with a few drinks and a few cigars and lasted til the wee hours of the morning. a successful first day i must say. and the next 3 days no different. the weather got better in most of the days and not too too bad on the days that it didnt. which was great coz coen and i spent a lot of time walking around. hitting some of the must-sees and different areas. tate modern, british museum, hyde park, brick lane, royal air force museum, etc. to stay energized, we kept ourselves caffeinated and nourished. and very much imbibed. and of course, all cigar-ed up.

punks @ bricklane

we also had a chance to have brunch with sherlyn a filipino friend who's recently moved there from manila for a 3-year assignment with shell (thanks for the treat, she). we also had a chance to spend a night out with my cousin (and his sons-in-laws) who took us out to a pub in northern london—pool and all, double jacks and coke and pints and all, and needing to carry our drinks out to continue the drinking at home. he was even gracious enough to introduce us to one of his friends who works at stringfellows.

one of many pints

ask any brit, and apparently they'd know who peter stringfellow is. don't ask me coz i aint no brit but i can say that ive shaken the hand of his brother paul, who manages the bar at their club. venue of the last night in london's i dont remember how many rounds of jack and cokes (on the house) and some entertainment on the side as well. what was planned to be only a few hours worth of night out ended up to be a 3AMer or somewhere around that time. all i remember was the bouncer opening the door to the cabs calling us goveners and eventually making our way home. where another round of whiskey was in order. and a cigar as well (half a cigar to be accurate coz we had to cut the last one in half).

lost & hungover

the last morning needless to say was greeted with a terrible headache. much-welcomed though coz it was a great distraction from all the saying goodbye which i hate. 830am. coen had to head to work and i had to find my way back to the first stop of the trip: the niarchos home. where i were to meet paz and rusty who'd drive me to the airport. what was normally a 20minute walk ended up an hour. i must say it was the funniest thing walking in london without sleep and with a bit of a hangover. looking 5 times to the right and left on each intersection. not knowing where to go even with a map in hand. unforgettable.

me after the trip, back in nyc

i did eventually make my way to the house. had breakfast (not too much coz the system was shutting down from all the ingested crap). ate paz and kuya rusty drove me to the airport. loaded up on water and vitamins while waiting for my flight. god with his funny sense of humour gave me 2 doctors as flight rowmates (just in case i passed out i guess). plane landed smoothly. and i hopped out of the gate and exited with my usual new york quickstep except with an added extra kick of excitement. yup, that face on this photo looks not much different from the one up top. that's probably the head spinning from the flight and all the alcohol and cigar fumes. but what that picture will never be able to say is how grateful i was having a break from my everyday and being able to expose myself to yet another world and way of life and in the process learn more about myself and my own world. (and that means a lot especially for one who grew up sheltered in a gated house protected from the rest of the world by an armed security guard and 5 too many dogs)

---

travelog london page

inpsired by the whole trip, the first project i had jumped on was my long untouched personal travel site. check it out by clicking the image on the left. updated it quite a bit. uploaded london pics and a pdf too. was a great exercise coz ive promised to sustain the travelling in the coming years coz here's the great news. checking my email back from the trip i get the news that my green card application has been approved. just waiting for my status to change but what that means is that this punk is here to stay in new york for quite a bit. well, with the frequent interruptions of travelling Elsewhere every now and then. coz without those dips into different worlds, i certainly will grow insane. or worse, not grow at all.