St. George's Day Festival in Pinner

I am not sure what St. George really did, but in this case, the festival celebrates the slaying of a dragon. I think it's a little like July 4. People carry around flags and there are related flag kits you can buy to be more patriotic.

The main feature of the Pinner festival is a wheelbarrow race that involves running with the wheelbarrow, drinking beer, and then running some more. This is the first-place team taking an early lead.

Lots of people are gathered in the high street. Pinner is a very traditional looking town, with many of the white and dark-wood pubs and shops from the 15th/16th centuries.

Contender for the 2028 race.

St. George is now St. Georgine!
People also do traditional dances on the high street.

We missed the dragon contest, where little kids can dress up as dragons. This might have been a better choice for the little wheelbarrow racer since it's more for people in his age range.

Snow Day

Yesterday it snowed and I went to a baby birthday party.

View from my apartment

Babies like to play with pink paper. I think he liked it more than the present itself (clothing- not a baby fav).

The baby and I are pals (with the parents looking on)

Foozeball finals- I lost in the first round girls' match. The championship boys' team won by one point. Sigh. While you can't see it from this view, the baby was not so much into the finals. He started to cry and had to leave the room because it was too intense for him.

I think I've Figured Out Nagasaki's Bus System

I was pondering why the hell anyone would think ending public transport from 9-10:30 was a good idea. Who goes home at that hour on a weekend? Now that I've experienced the London drunk bus system, I get it. London is a)flat and b)has not discovered all-you-can-drink, so the puke potential is relatively low. I am sure there there is some puking potential calculator the Japanese transport systems use to decide when to shut down. Basic factors to consider in all towns-> average nomihodai start time, average # of drinks consumed per person per hour of nomihodai, time at which puking potential is reached. From here, you calculate an average bus ending time that guarantees the buses will remain puke free. However in Nagasaki, half the routes are puke-worthy even while sober so when you calculate that in it's like one 2 hours of nomihodai-ing before critical puking mass is reached and the buses must shut down for fear of being overrun by puking salarymen. Average bus end time = 9:45.

This, however, doesn't explain the trams ending at 11 or the ever popular Beer Tram.

I think London should run an experiment and run a Beer tube on the Picadilly Line from Heathrow- that tube is pukeworthy even on a good day and seems the most likely to have people wearing really strong fragrances on it, for some reason.

Umbrella Death Count = 2

So far I've killed 2 umbrellas here in London- one of them wasn't mine. Whoops! I guess this is better than my Japan record where I killed 2 in 15 minutes, but really you can't feel too bad when you are spending like $1-3 a pop. I think the one I killed today was $1 max.

Regent's Canal

Regent's Canal links Little Venice to the Thames. I went from Camden Lock down to Islington- away from Little Venice. One day I will go the opposite direction to Little Venice. I got harassed by some kids on a balcony on the way- great parents they had.


Lots of birds.

Crazy retro-futuristic apartments.

St. Pancras Lock

Some strange circular structure with the dome in the back that's the new St. Pancras Eurostar terminal.

Nice place with boats.

I was just thinking

My salary in Japan was about $32K a year. The student budget here for 9 months is $28K. Scarcely 3 months in, people have torn through the first $14K and are broke. This is a bad, bad sign. Meanwhile in Japan I managed to save from $500-1000 a month and it is supposedly so expensive. What was I missing? Apparently the UK- no wonder my British friend was in awe of how cheap Japan was. Granted my high-end apartment at a whopping $550 a month would probably be cheap anywhere- and the average of closer to $375- my god wouldn't that be heaven right now. I'd take $550.

However, I'd miss central heat- but you know law school in Japan would be fun, right? My classmates would love nomihodai- such a deal after roughly $7 per pint when you can get a nomihodai for 3 hours at 1000 yen, or sometimes a girly rate of 800 yen for 2 hours.

I miss Japan.

Happy New Year!

I didn't get to go to Belgium, but no matter. Despite having bronchitis, I rushed around London with a friend and saw quite a few new things. I could probably live here for years and not see everything though-
The Tower of London. It's expensive to go in but worth it. We spent about 3 hours inside but I think you can spend longer if you have more time. We were there close to when it was closing and already dark so we couldn't take as many pictures as we'd hoped.


Inns of Court- this is where you live and learn to be a barrister. People training to be lawyers join an Inn and then have to eat 12 dinners at the inn with barristers from the inn, maybe. There are 4 inns. It seems much better than the US system, if you ask me. I want to join an inn and eat some dinner.


Once you join an Inn, you can go here to the Royal Court of Justice- which was featured in Bridget Jones's Diary 2. We were too cold to see her apartment and the fight scene area so I guess this was our Bridget Jones lore of the day but I WILL see her apartment before I leave London.

This is the inside of the Globe theater- it was insanely cold and windy so luckily there are no shows in the winter. Maybe when it gets warmer I will attend one though- God knows I will have tons of free time with only 2 days of classes per week.

Westminster Abbey interior- it was a very cool church. I felt like it had a lot more to offer than the Italian churches but maybe the literature was better for this than it was for the Italian churches and more importantly the heating was good so you felt inclined to stay in for a while. St. Francis' Basilica was pretty awesome though, despite needing a parka to stay in.

Greenwich

Greenwich is the home of the Prime Meridian and the Royal Naval College and some Palaces, which was where Henry VIII had another palace. The Prime Meridian is up a hill in Greenwich Park at the Royal Observatory. I would have a picture of the marker clock, but Blogger seems to limit me to 5 pictures in one post.

Royal Navy College

Royal Navy College

View of Canary Wharf from Greenwich

Me at the Prime Meridian in 2 Hemispheres at Once

Inside of Royal Naval College

I'm starting up a new blog for my London experience. I'll leave the old for my more general rants.