London Pt. 1

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If I've ever needed proof that I am an idiot, the start of my trip will do.
Tevia dropped me off at the airport Saturday afternoon and I walked over to
the ticket kiosk to get my tickets. When I went to print them I noticed
something very odd. My flight from Chicago to London wasn't until Sunday
morning. I thought that there must have been some mistake so I took out my
itinerary - and sure enough, the second part of my flight wasn't until the
next day. I don't know how I could have been so dumb not to notice that
(and believe me, I quickly checked my return ticket!). That meant I was
going to have to get a hotel in Chicago for the evening. My darling admin
(Tevia) came to the rescue and was able to get me a reservation so that
when I landed I could go right to the hotel. In the end, it wasn't all
that bad. It split the long trip into two parts and my flight the next day
was fine. The only issue: I had planned on having an entire afternoon on
Sunday in London. In the end I arrived just before midnight.

Knowing that I had to start training on Monday (me training people, not
vice versa) I tried to get to sleep quickly. I was able to fall asleep
fairly quick and then woke up about an hour later with a HUGE headache. I
haven't had a headache like this in years. It hurt whatever position I was
in. I had thought to bring some ibuprofin and so popped about 4. After 30
minutes they had not had any effect. I finally reached out to Tevia to see
if talking to her could at least distract me. The trick worked, though I'm
afraid I scared her to death. When I awoke in the morning I felt rested
and good to go. I've had no issues since.

Monday I walked to the office which is a wonderful office situated around a large pond and lawns with ducks and other wildlife. It was sunny. Last
year when I came to London it was sunny the whole time (though chilly).
This time it was perfect. Sunny and warm (not hot). The forecast had said rain every day, but it only rained for about 30 minutes on Monday. After work I headed to the tube and went down to Piccadilly Circus. I ate some Pret there for dinner (fond memories of Hong Kong!). Afterwards it was nearly 8 PM but the sun was still high in the sky. I decided to walk down
to Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. It was a great walk through a large park and past old war buildings. I tried to take some pictures. After soaking up Big Ben and area, I walked over to the river Thames and just sat and watched it. The Eye of London was across the river. I chatted with my mom on GTalk and enjoyed the evening. Once in a while it would drizzle, but never enough for me to take out my umbrella.

Tuesday I woke up and did my routine at the office. I had some late
meetings so I got out later than on Monday. I decided to stay in the area
around the office which is called Chiswick. It is like a suburb and is
what I would describe as quaint. I looked up some places to eat around the office and saw that there was a Pizza Express about 2 miles down the road.
This is another place we loved in Hong Kong. So I walked down the street and ate outside while the sun shined (and it was nearly 9). Afterwards I walked a few miles to the river and walked the bridge and then headed back to my hotel.

Wednesday morning I checked out of my hotel, took my luggage over to the office and finished my training there for the day. Caught a taxi to the St. Pancras train station to catch the Eurostar train to Paris. It was fun
being on the train. At first I had the unfortunate luck to have a rather
large and smelly girl sitting next to me. But once we started moving the
guy in the seats on the other side of the aisle got up and so I moved there
and had the entire row to myself. I listed to Jesus the Christ and some
French lessons as I watched the green fields go by and then headed into the chunnel. The chunnel wasn't nearly as long as I thought it was. Around 10 PM I arrived here, got a taxi and arrived at the hotel here.
This hotel is very 'no frills'. Not much English spoken here, though was able to communicate fine. The bed is quite hard (reminds me of Hong Kong). I can't figure out how to work the 'free' internet. But I am happy to be here. Tomorrow I head out to see if I remember where the office is and do my training. Not sure what I'll be doing tomorrow evening. Not much here at the hotel, so if I'm not doing anything with people from the office, I'm sure I'll try to find my way to downtown Paris and take advantage of the fact that the sun does not set here until after 10. It's a great time to be here.