Time in London coming to a close

Today was an eventful day in London, with a customer interview early afternoon followed by anticipated (bad) news from work and then closed out with a fabulous dinner with our local vendor. More on all that shortly. I've been here 11 days now and although I'm ready to go home, I'll miss London.

The energy here is palpable, but not overbearing or frenic like I often feel in NYC. The tube (subway) is turning me into a germaphobe, but also serves as a great way to get in stair climbing. The food is frightfully fattening, but it's the best I've had in all recent memory. And the people tend to mind their own business, but are so polite and really quite lovely if you engage them in conversation.

I could totally live here....if Cameron and the puppies came along...and a place to live wasn't many multiples the price of my current home in low cost-of-living Memphis. Well, I guess Id need a job here too. :-) There is always something to do, especially when it comes to the arts and theater. The markets on the weekends number more than a dozen. There are community farms, along with organic, free range and fair trade everything. The variety of ethnic foods is never-ending.

There are downsides, of course, as well. Congestion charges to drive in Central London, noise and air pollution, unexpected delays on the Tube, throngs of people at every desirable restaurant starting on Wednesday nights and a serious lack of public bathrooms (free or otherwise)!

Even still, it is a cool place that would be loads of fun to live in for a few years. Maybe I'd even get the courage to ride my bike like so many other crazy folks we see every morning on their daily commute, zipping alongside and in-between the crawling masses of cars, buses and trucks.