They say that when man plans the gods laugh. Well, the gods laughed today as we did nothing of what we had planned and also the rain god laughed so hard he peed all over us as we were out and about. A rainy day in London is something to sneeze at if you don't keep dry, so all four of us are now well armed with umberellas.
Saturday started late for us, but eventually Jan and I and the girls got out of the flat and on the Picadilly Line tube into London. Separately, Jan and Tara off shopping to Bond Street, Leanne and I a little later to Leicester Square (pronounced 'Lester Square', but you already knew that. I'm the one who didn't know.) where we met up as a group again. From there, shopping results in hand, we headed off touring again with the girls. We went to Chinatown, then through some very funky areas with a bunch of long-haired hippies panhandling and sleeping in doorways. Drifted toward Soho (essential on any tour of London) where we saw the sex-trade in full flower. Held off on the picture-taking there as some of the trade on display would have asked me for a modelling fee to have their picture taken, I'm sure. The girls totally nonplussed by it all, Jan and I a bit jolted to see all of it out front like that. Sorta like San Francisco. Then off to a pub, as you do in London. We went to Waxy Malone's, then to the Crooked Surgeon (catchy name) where we had a late lunch as well, then finally to Punch and Judy's in Covent Garden to meet up with a friend of Leanne's over yet more beer.
Finally, after much celebration there, off to a late dinner at Zizziz's. Easy to say that, even after beer. At last to a District Line tube stop and thence to home in Acton Town for Jan and I. The girls kept the party going.
Now, I'm as thirsty as the next guy but I've got to taper off a bit on this trip. I guess London is just a pub oriented place and we have fallen into that face first. I'm going to change the name of the website from 'roadtrip' to 'liver's leap', the name of a ski cabin that Jan was in when we were both much younger and could handle this abuse.
