I See London, I See France...
... and they are both Bloody Hot!
5 - 14 July 1999: I
See London, I See France, and They're Both Bloody
Hot
I landed early in London and
went straight to my hotel, the St. Ermin, on Caxton Street. After going to my
room, I headed up to the Citibank on Oxford Street, to cash a cheque the Royal
Post sent me for 42 British pounds. They wouldn't cash it or let me deposit it,
despite it being my bank. They suggested I got to the Midland bank, on which it
was drawn. I did, and Midland said, go to the *branch* upon which it was
drawn.
Ugh.
I
was able to cash in Kathleens 6.5 million Turkish lira with no problem (it was
just 8 pounds), but I could not get a the cheque of a major bank from the Royal
Mail cashed.
The Celine
Prophecy
Afterward, I visited
Voyage Vacances and met Celine, the delightful woman who booked my trip to
Paris, and I paid her in cash since the evil Chase Manhattan doubled my debit
card withdrawal, and then refunded one at the same time La Celine issued a
refund. La Celine had no idea her agency had not been
paid.
Cash. It
works.
Later, I made the near fatal
mistake of having a wee snackette at Burger King, overlooking Picadilly Circus.
I was served by Celine, a West Indian
woman.
Then I went to the Body Shop and
stumbled across some fantastic sales. Vanilla bath gel for just a
pound-fifty.
Then I returned to the hotel
and checked over something with, yes, Celine, the trainee behind the desk. The
St. Ermin is commited to only having trainees at the front desk, at all
times.
I then headed over to the QEII
Centre, which is across from the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey, to
our conference, Application Development '99. I went to the safety training. I
met overly enthusiastic volunteers. I got really
tired.
I went down for a slight nap at 3
pm and woke up at 10 pm. Nothing is really open then, and having the bloody
mini-bar for dinner was not all that appealing. So I ventured into the sticky
evening and found a Sainsbury open. I dined on yogurt and pasta salad.
Basically, it's a supermarket.
I slept
well that night. The next three days were work work work, meetings, etc.
Tiresome stuff I won't bore you with.
Posted: Mon - July 5, 1999 at 02:27 AM