Plum Crazy

I'm sitting here in BA's Club World Lounge waiting for my plane to board. Yes, that's me sitting in the lounge, talking on my cell phone to Bruce, since he was being sluggish and, instead of being at his desk ready for a video chat with me, had already gotten into bed! You'd think it was nearly 2 am in New York or something.

I got here 3 hours ahead of departure, as I thought, mistakenly, that security would be extra tight in the wake of Thursday's terrorist attacks. But have laptop with wireless card, will travel. The coffee in the lounge is actually pretty good, which is in stark contrast to the coffee on the plane itself. As I was drinking it on the flight out, I was amazed they even had the nerve to call it coffee.

Despite the tragic events of Thursday, I enjoyed this trip. Sunday I spent two hours touring the Tower of London. I then hopped on the tube and went to the Apple Store in Oxford Circus. Sadly, they did not have what I wanted. Walked over to Piccadilly Circus, hopped a tube back to Tower Hill, and met up with a colleague who was in London this week too. We had a bit of lunch and then took a boat down the Thames to Westminster. Walked back and ate dinner.

Monday I took the Eurostar to Paris for the day. Ooh la la. It had been 20 years since I was last in Paris, and I loved it. Ate a croque monsieur for lunch, then took the Metro to Ile de la Cite and went to Notre Dame. I then walked across the bridge to my favorite part of Paris - the Ile St. Louis. Who says you can't go home again? I found the same dessert shop where I had gone a couple of times during my days as a high school exchange student. That poire belle helene? Tasted every bit as good as I remembered it. Walked across to the main part of Paris and took the Metro to the Louvre. Walked through the Tuileries and got on the Metro to Montmartre. I don't care what anyone else says, as far as I'm concerned, Le Sacre Couer is the most beautiful church I've ever seen. After touring that, I went back to Gare du Nord and took the Eurostar back to London.

I worked the remainder of the week, but we did head down the pub every night after work with our London colleagues. Fantastic people. I'll miss them all when I'm back in the States.

Well, cheers for now. Some thoughts on why London deserved to win the 2012 Olympics, why I changed my mind and realized it would have been good for New York, and why New York did not win it, when I'm safely ensconced in my apartment.