Travel Advice

I took this photo from the top of a number 48 bus on our way to Bethnel Green. Home sweet home!

Got back from a week in Britain with a killer cold - hell maybe flu. I did have a temperature for four days and felt like living excrement as the saying goes. This affliction struck at Gatwick Airport on my way home, where I seemed to attract the attention of every security guard, Man in Blue Suit and body searcher in sight. This wasn't just Gatwick. Try El Paso and Atlanta too. Here is my advice for not attracting unwelcome attention from goons. (1) Don't travel alone. (2) Take a piece of check in luggage whether you need it or not. (3) Do not wear a long black coat or a quilted anything. (4) Watch movement patterns of other travelers and do not step away from the herd (5) Do not carry a black Sierra Club ruck sack. For some reason my black cotton Chinese MaryJane shoes were the object of deep concern, Because they were fleece lined? They were nice and warm and easy to dry in a dryer if they got wet. (6) Do not be old. I personally believe that goons seeking to fill their requisite quota of passenger harrassments prey on the meek for obvious reasons. (7) NEVER leave the loading pen once you have entered it!!! I decided to go to the bathroom right before I got on the plane so I wouldn't have to bother people more than once (window seat). They ran after me screaming for my passport and when I returned I was dragged off into a corner and searched and interrogated. Would any nefareous person be that obvious? Oh well never mind....
Once I got on the plane we found the video and audio system did not work in our section. Fortunately I was sitting next to a nice person from BBC One who was going to SXSW in Austin. I don't think I talked too much as I didn't feel too good. I did tell him about my niece's partner's up and coming band. He seemed to make a note of it!
I spent a day walking the tow paths of the industrial rivers and canals in the Bow area of London. They are already flattening old bomb debris and preparing to prepare for the new construction for the 2012 Olympics. I talked to an old Cockney man who told me he had lived in the area all his life. He said they will find a lot of unexploded bombs. He told me he lives on a disability pension of 400 pounds - $700? a month. Considering it takes 3 pounds to take a single ride in the Underground that doesn't sound very good.... I had a guide I printed out before I left, and it was fairly good for the first few miles, but a lot of the tow paths etc have been closed off or just gone since it was updated. I therefore got very lost and ended up at a tiny cafe in an industrial building. It was full of men from the Middle East. They told me how to find the Tube station, but in the end I took a bus and ended up in a different Zone, so I should have bought another ticket, but a kind person let me in on my invalid ticket, no doubt seeing I was a confused tourist.
Goodnight.