jtChatter

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Like Facebook, but with cider on tap

Ahhhh, Pubs: food, beverage, social networking, and atmosphere. Enjoyed a nice dinner downstairs, in the Red Lion.

When we checked in, the front desk lady asked if we wanted "tookies" for our room. As I struggled to process that question, Robin said "Yes, two keys might be helpful." She's so good with foreign languages.

Robin contacted friend Richard Kindersley, master stone carver/typographer/designer (www.KindersleyStudio.co.uk ). We met him in Rome about 12 years ago while with a group studying the lettering on temples and monuments of ancient Rome. Robin had a one-day stone-carving lesson in his studio a couple of years later when we visited London. We're planning a rendezvous with him next week.
Brilliant. Lovely. Indeed.

A Fairly Yummy Start

For the first time ever, I enjoyed the two hour layover at Houston's International Airport, on the way to London.

The ESPN Sports Bar restaurant that used to be in this gate area of our connecting flight has been replaced by a Pappadeaux's Cajun restaurant. coconut shrimp and catfish po-boy sandwich. Mmmmm. The Great Chain of Being seems to be in order (according to Elizabethan philosophy).

We hopped a bus at Heathrow that dropped us off within half a block of our Red Lion hotel in Uxbridge where we'll be for two nights before moving to Robin's B&B semi-permanent home for the next three months in London.

Off to the pub downstairs for a pint of cider and a fish & chips dinner. Tomorrow we take the one-mile walk to Brunel University so Robin can register and take care of all sorts of foreigner stuff.

Cheerio, brilliant, and all that.

Monday, January 3, 2011

We'll soon be enjoying airline cuisine...

Back to London

Robin and I are on our way back to London. She'll be there for three months, teaching at Brunel University (named in honor of a famous engineer with the coolest name ever for a non-rapper or non-athlete superstar: Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Deal with it P. Diddy).

I'll be there for two weeks, sketching, snapping photos, eating pub food, drinking pints of cider, sketching, riding the Tube, exploring old graveyards, drinking half-pints of cider, writing, iPadding, laptopping, etc.

One of my goals on this trip is to sketch more. I've roughed out some plans to meet up with London artist Daniel Worth for a fun sketch session. Updates on that later.