Final set of Europe photos

Here's the last lot: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29322&l=18de5&id=703999762

The home straight - part one

With memories of NYC specifics fading fast the accuracy of the below cannot be guaranteed...

Last time I posted Andy and I were about to head out to Mercury Lounge, with high hopes. Again we couldn't quite understand how the shows are meant to hang together. I don't remember any of the bands and I don't really care (what could beat the Shackletons?) So we went round looking for a bar called Whiskey Ward. Here's a testimony to NYC's friendliness: we went up to a bloke on the street, they kind of guy who you probably wouldn't talk to on a street in many places, and asked him. No, he said, but I'll find out. Pulls out his phone, googles the place, and directs us round the corner. Awesome.

Saturday we reprised our running escapades up Park Avenue, this time starting from further downtown, up round Grand Central and into the Park again. Many more New Yorkers out and it was just as cool a feeling to dominate the streets with feet and tyres, Andy and I both were absolutely stuffed by the end of it though. Luckily we got back to the hostel in Chelsea just in time to see NZ's very good run at the rowing. We're not overly patriotic people, but we were yelling at the tv screen as the Evers-Swindell's approached the line. Headed out to Brooklyn again that night and caught a wee bit of quite a nice (but in no ways dangerous or revolutionary) band that was playing at a cool venue in back of a record store. After that another authentic NYC experience: seeing a heap of cops blocking off Bedford Avenue with a helicopter circling overhead. We dived into the subway and headed to Cake Shop for redemption. The band was called Hidden Power, just a bunch of crazy kids from Queens who didn't care what the scene thought they were or should be, they were there to have fun. And they had floor toms out the front for us to hit while we danced, and we're their number one fans now. http://www.myspace.com/hiddenpowernyc

Sunday...last day. Oatmeal again for breakfast...so cheap and healthy. Then we went...I don't know where. Oh that's right to Roosevelt Island which sits in the East River. It used to be an asylum/quarantine but now people are flocking there to live. I can see why...the peace and quiet, only a few hundred metres from Manhattan, was palpable. Last night in NYC and we had to repent again musically...where else but Cake Shop? And another great band called Boat were playing the end of their set. Then there was a break so we talked to Boat from Seattle, and they were cool and we're number one fans now. (Pattern complete). Some of them are teachers and heading back to school soon so this was near the end of their tour. http://www.myspace.com/boatmusic

Monday was sad and happy...leaving NYC and the fine company of Andy, and also happy to leave the place well before I got sick of it. Got on the old subway out to Queen's then a bus rest of way to La Guardia to catch my flight to Portland, Oregon for Fulbright Orientation.

Arrived!

A post about the home straight since NYC will come later on, but for now some more photos of Europe:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=28567&l=167c1&id=703999762

New York Cares

New York Cares is a volunteering campaign by the city which features black & white photos of famous New Yorkers (Whoopi Goldberg, Jimmy Smits) encouraging citizens to give up some of their time. It's also a lyric by Interpol. Everywhere you go in NYC you find things you vaguely recognise but never understood, until now. This is a "short" summary of what we have done, realised and discovered since Andy's report on Saturday.

Saturday
First up for the evening we went to Katz's diner on Houston for an authentic NY Reuben sandwich. Yes it cost US$15, but it had about half a cow worth of pastrami and it tasted amazing. After that we popped along to the performance in the urban park by the artist John who had cycled from San Francisco. Needless to say, it was unusual. It involved planned improvisations with various gathered/garden objects, a lot of water and risk of electrocution. It also involved the rest of the audience probably thinking we're missionaries: saying you're from Christ Church seems to have that effect on people so now we just say Wellington.


After the performance we went down Houston St to Mercury Lounge. That's where the Strokes and Beirut cut their chops and made a name for themselves, so we felt sufficiently infused with history. Best $10 we had spent in NYC. We arrived to the start of the set by a band up from Pennsylvania called The Shackletons (cool name huh?). They got both Andy and I moving (nobody else dances in NYC, its not cool enough) and pretty quickly won us over with a very indie, very NYC-tinged, very rocking sound. After their set we talked to the lead singer for ages and pulled out the line "we don't have XYZ like you guys back home" for the first of many times. It worked, we got their album, signed, for next to nothing, and instantly attained number one fan status. We think that bands in the US are so good at what they do because there actually is a chance they could make it one day, and The Shackletons were a great example. Remember that name and this tip... Click here for their MySpace page if you're interested in the music. Rest of the lineup was trash, Shackletons killed!


Sunday
Sunday we spent out at Shea Stadium in Queens partaking in a time-honoured NY tradition: watching the New York Mets lose (quite badly, to the Florida Marlins). Nevertheless, the tickets were cheap(ish) and it was an outstandingly American experience, what with planes taking off from La Guardia right overhead, and the 7th-innings stretch (break) where they bust out God Bless America. After that we had good chinese food on Lexington Avenue and arranged our adventures for the next day...


Monday
We got up early and left the Y with the intention of catching a train to Bethel, Connecticut, to have a farewell lunch with a friend of Andy's from "the res"(ervation) in South Dakota. Sadly, after much to-ing and fro-ing in organisation the previous night (including battling with four separate payphones) we got to the station a half-hour the morning train left. So no Connecticut, back to an internet cafe to book some more accommodation for the rest of our stay, which SOMEHOW worked out just fine. Went to the Museum of Modern Art in the afternoon, which is a great building with a great collection. Some of it I really really liked, and I could easily have spent $10,000 in the gallery store afterwards...


Went back to our hostel and "invented" Extreme Table Tennis in the basement bar, where anything goes. Then it was music experience #3, again on the Lower East Side. Every local we'd talked to had been telling us "you gotta go to Pianos and Cake Shop", so we tried Pianos. At $8 for entrance to the music area we thought what the hell? and it was hell. The next day Andy described the NYC bands we saw as "the two worst bands in the world" - I don't think they would get on a stage back in NZ. We were starting to think that perhaps the shine was wearing off NYC...until


Tuesday
I can't recall what we did during the day, but in the evening we headed out to the Alligator (I think) bar in Brooklyn for free pizza with your pitcher of beer. Needless to say it was very good. Then we wandered round Brooklyn for a bit before heading over to the Lower East Side (LES), this time avoiding Pianos like the plague and heading to Cake Shop instead. By day its a Cake Shop, by night the basement opens for your entertainment. And how entertaining it was! 5 musicians, all very good at what they did. Fruit Machine are from Jacksonville, Florida are a punk band with some serious chops. They duelled (song for song) with a friend of theirs who raps along to her laptop, the lyrics cannot be repeated in this setting but were hilarious. Powerful Power is a Japanese-American solo guitar dude who is probably the best guitar player Andy and I have seen up that close, and his songs were great too.

Then it was Ghosty from Kansas City, Missouri, who I'd heard of courtesy of RDU. They played a great set of catchy SIP (Sunshine Indie Pop) that got the New York crowd going (as much as they do move, which is not really at all). After that was Bears from Cleveland who were so great that I bought the CD. We were dancing hard for this last band and they noticed. Because a ring of exclusion formed around us that no New Yorker dared enter... After the gig, yes, "we don't have bands like you guys back home, you should totally come to NZ some time" and again, instant super-fan status just by talking to the bands. We were sooo buzzing after that experience on the subway back about 2-3am, it was our highest high since The Shackletons.

Wednesday
Laundry day - glamourous times round the corner from our hostel in Chelsea. At one point Andy, walking back from buying us some water, almost walked into a store of questionable taste...but didn't. Then it was off to meet Sam, a contact of one of Shaun's former bosses, who has worked on political campaigns and is now in PR for a New York. We had a great chat about NZ and US politics. Sam took us to a FANTASTIC burger place underneath a hotel lobby near 6th Ave, called Burger Joint. After being constantly overwhelmed by the America of Choice (what sort of bread do you want, what sauce, you want a pickle, blah blah blah) their menu of "Hamburger, Cheeseburger, tomato, onions, lettuce, if it's not on here we don't sell it" was a god-send and it deserves its reputation for the best non-gourmet burgers in Manhattan. Plus the chocolate milkshake tasted like the old McD's chocolate thickshake, only it was made in front of me from milk and icecream only. Hmmm.

Finally cooked our first meal that evening, and then did something else you can only do in NYC - go to the Village Vanguard. That's the venue where Bill Evans recorded one of his most famous albums live, with Scott La Faro on bass just before he died too young. On that stage has stood everybody who is anybody in the world of jazz. Unfortunately that act that night wasn't as jazzy as we were hoping, was more jazz-infused singer-songwriter stuff, but was nevertheless very very well done. Went to the Green Room afterwards and said "we don't have..." you get the picture.

Thursday
Which brings us to yesterday and last night. During the day we took the Long Island Railroad out to Stony Brook University to meet Joel, a good friend of Rob's from their student days. His dissertation was in a pretty closely related area to what I'm interested in right now and he had some wise words of encouragement for my first year. Definitely worth the two hours trip each way (I think LIRR is some of the slowest railroad in the world).

Another shocking music experience last night, this time over in Brooklyn, where its apparently all at these days. The place was called The Trash Bar and we should have taken the hint, but the headline act's music sounded OK through the hostel computer's rubbish speaker so we decided to take the punt. First up was Very Early 90s Riff Rock with Anti-Establishment Lyrics - so bad they cleared the room after one song. Disillusioned, we went and got an outstanding cream cheese bagel for $1 down the road. Returned to the crime scene just in time to see the headliners, who Andy described as a band doing an ironic style-over-substance thing, but without any style as well. Left after one "song"...wow. So the score so far is:
- great bands playing in NYC but from elsewhere 5+
- native NYC bands that suck 5+

Friday (today)
Earlier today we went to the Bronx to see Yankee Stadium, possibly so that we could say we've been to all four of New York's major boroughs. Saw some really top skateboarding in front of the courthouse, indy kickflips over flights of stairs and everything. Then wandered round Harlem again and tried to go to a famous diner which was closed, so split and came back to the hostel for dinner.

Tonight we head back to Mercury Lounge hoping for some more magic. And after that I'll have only two nights left in New York!

Stealing from Andy is really OK

In the interests of getting somewhere back near writing about the same week that I'm in, I'll steal from Andy's recent group email. Steal the entire thing in fact. Thinking of staying in NYC for all of next week too, there is just too much to do here.

From: Andrew Horwood
To: Everyone
Subject: It's fun to stay at the YMCA

Howdy,

No, I'm not gay. I just like Wayne's World.

It's not long since my last groupie but things are going so fast here that I had to write another. If you haven't worked it out, this is also my diary.

I shuffled through the city (Manhattan) on August 6. I'm staying with Shaun (from Huge in Japan) which is excellent, as you'd imagine. We both arrived late at night on the 6th so we drank some beers in our rooms and caught up on Europe/SoDak. The YMCA is a weird hostel as it has many small, single rooms.

On the 7th we hit the ground running. We went to the United Nations building which was unremarkable. Then we went up the Empire State building which was worth the wait in line and the US$19 fee. We got some kai and took the subway top Harlem which is an amazing neighbourhood. We were the only white people on foot (the rest were in a double decker bus). The place oozes black-ness. I expected it to be like Compton or Inglewood (in LA) but it was just a funky soul party. We walked past the Appollo theatre and saw a store that sold full on check pimp suits for US$100! We resisted but if I wasn't living out of a backpack...You can get your hair braided 'African' style and but local indie rap on the streets. It is an alive neighbourhood and I felt as safe and welcome there as I have everywhere else in Manhattan. Manhattan seems like red carpet sometimes. When we arrive at the subway station, the train arrives. When we arrive at an intersection, the lights change our way. I want to use the red carpet metaphor in a song to go up against other Manhattan songs ('My Blue Manhattan' comes to mind). If you beat me to this then good for you.

After Harlem we went to the Lincoln Centre, outdoor arena for some free live jazz from a French trio (gat, bs, drm) and flamenco dancing which was part opera, part tap, part ballet and all passion. It was good and the price was right. We finished our eventful day by hitting Times Square, that houses advertisements more than Moorehouse Ave hosts car yards or Manchester St is home to prosties. It is possibly the only thing more retina burning than the Bang! Bang! Eche! myspace page.

Yesterday we met up with a friend of Shaun's who is off to Geneva to work for the World Health Organisation. We strolled around Greenwich village (which is full of homosexuals and places to eat), then headed to the Lower East side which is the Indie district. This is where the Strokes cut their teeth and Ryan Adams makes many references to it in his work (Houston and 3rd, etc). We stumbled upon an urban community park in which we met an artist who biked from San Fransisco (respect). We are going to party with him tonight. He sort of lives in the Park which is maintained by members of a volunteer group. It is not large, maybe 8m by 12m, but it is an urban oasis. We talked to him for a while and Shaun tried to control the karaoke machine he had plugged in that was delivering feedback and not much else. I had a go on his clarinet which he got for free, intending to teach himself. The whole thing was a little surreal.

Then we caught the ferry over to Liberty Park, NJ, to see Radiohead, the New Pornographers and Andrew Bird at the All Points West festival. There were other acts but we were there for those 3 reasons. The crowd was large but still. Radiohead to 2 encores, totalling 8 songs but none of the Americans clapped loud enough to deserve them. The festival was interestingly white. I did not see one black person there. America is very segregated like that. All the security staff were black. I have never seen a whitey shining a black man's shoes. I have never seen a woman getting her shoes shined.

Today we ran around Central Park which was cool, particularly because we stumbled upon a new event in which the streets were closed for runners and cyclists to promote healthy living. We didn't know that when we jumped the fence and started running with them though... I felt like Manhattan was not only made of red carpet but was parting like the red sea. Now that's hospitality. I heart NY.

There are a few homeless people on the streets but not as many as I expected. In order to feel good about ourselves, we have bought some apples which we carry around, giving out to those who are begging. This negates the common objection to financial benevolence: "oh, they'll just spend it on booze."

Peace,

Andy

Leaving Paris and the Green Island

So now I'm one week behind on the blogging...but when you're in New York City and the sun is shining you don't want to spend time on a computer. This post will be quite short then...

Last Sunday I snuck out early to go to the last remaining Paris Museum on my todo list, Musee d'Orsay. Another impressive building, another impressive building with an amazing collection. D'Orsay is the home of the impressionists (Van Gogh, Monet, et al), and they were predictably good. Like every other gallery (the theme continues) I seemed to like the minor artists more than the big guns. Speaking of guns, my favourite painting was of a French street (done in classic impressionist pastelly style) with a dead soldier, woman and child in the foreground, powerful stuff.

After that I raced back on the Metro to Pere Lachaise cemetery, and did what every rock n roll fan is bound to do in Paris, visit Jim Morrison's grave. We found it eventually, he didn't rise up or anything. Then it was back to base to get my bag, say au revoir to Kieran and Menna, and get the train to Charles De Gaulle airport.

Really nice Easyjet flight to Belfast, which was COLD and GREY and a little BORING. Got boozed with hostel people on the first night which made it all better. Monday I got on the bus to (London)derry, scene of much of the violence of the Troubles, including Bloody Sunday. I've never actually been anywhere properly dangerous, and Derry is the place of been where there has been the most recent danger. But now its very safe to walk round both Poorer/Catholic/Republican and Richer/Protestant/Loyalist neighbourhoods and look at the murals. More commentary will follow with photos, but it was a good experience.

Next day took the bus through Armagh, (where some of the McGirrs are from) to Dublin. Armagh was cold, but nice. Dublin was a little boring and samey. I'd like to go back to Ireland with more time, and a rental car to see the countryside, the best part of the place.

Paris days 2 & 3

Just found out Kieran and Menna got robbed of a bag at the station leaving Paris yesterday. Of course it had to be the bag with passports, camera etc, so they're stuck in Paris until new passports are issued. Makes me wonder about all the times I've put a bag down for just a few moments while i adjust something, and how lucky i am not to have anything nicked. Kind of taints the whole experience for me, but I'll continue reporting anyhow.

After the big catchup on sleep it took a while to get going Friday morning. When we finally did, we got on the tourist bus again, this time for a proper look at the Arc. You'll see what i mean from the photos, but suffice to say a lot of French history is recorded there.

After that we strolled down towards the Eiffel, but along a non-main road. It always pleases me just how quickly anything tacky fades when you get more than 50m from a tourist route in any major European city. Came across a frozen yoghurt stand outside a cafe packed with Parisians, near the Seine. When we got to the tower the queue for lifts was predictably long. I decided i would enjoy the walk halfway up, and see about as much from there as from the very top. Kieran and Menna wanted the real McCoy, were happy to queue for it, and were happy with it. I was happy with my 670 steps (did i count them? Hell no...they're marked off at intervals) and it also meant i got down about 3 hours before they.

In that time i walked up towards Ecole Militaire along Champ de Mars, grabbed another supermarket lunch, ate it outside Hotel des Invalides, then went to Musee Rodin.

August Rodin was one of the most influential 19th century sculptors (don't quote me as i don't have wikipedia on my phone!), and all his most famous works are at the Museum. Including The Burghers of Calais, The Kiss, Orpheus, and my favourite, Le Penseur (The Thinker). The best thing was that most works also had their predecessor studies in marble or clay exhibited, so you could see the evolution of each work, sometimes over several years. Exhibiting this way helps document the practice of, and i think humanise the work of, the greats. They were selling casts of his major works in the shop, but the price tags (€150-650) put me off!

The other museums were mostly shut by that time, so i met up with Menna and Kieran at the Louvre for a quick run-through of the majors. Free entry for 'youth' (under 26) on Wednesdays and Fridays after 6pm! There was plenty more classically-themed sculpture (the French love that stuff), plenty of artifacts from ancient Mesopotamia (now mostly Iraq) and Egypt. It was the largest display of archaeological stuff I've ever seen, and i felt pretty dodgey looking at it in a French museum. It's all very nice that Western publics have access, but that stuff should really be progressively returned to where it was, and lets not dress it up in khakis and a silly hat, mostly stolen from.

Then it was to Aphrodite (Venus de Milo), some French large format paintings, including Napoleon crowning his empress (can't remember artist or full title), and of course La Joconde (Mona Lisa). I think its hilarious the the Louvre's two most famous works are both generally known by other names. Not sure who the joke is on though...

After a few hours of browsing and gazing we were stuffed so headed back for a nice pizzeria dinner (very French! But cheap...) before bed.

Next day, saturday, i headed to the Georges Pompidou centre, which among other things houses the Museum of Modern Art. Commentary of that really has to go with the pictures, but there was plenty of good stuff to see, including several good Pollocks, and a few more artists for me to follow up on, mostly minor surrealists that i liked.

As the weather had cleared a little by the time i was done, i took a gamble and headed out to Versailles. Couldn't get in to the Palace because it was closing early that day, but i was more interested in the architecture and gardens anyway, which are free to wander round. It really all is bloody impressive in every respect, and its great the Republic held onto it after the former occupants vacated. It was reasonably quiet at the end of the day and very, very peaceful strolling.

In the evening i met back up with M & K at the height of Parisian cuisine, the Hard Rock Cafe, and then had a horrendously expensive beer back near our place. And that, my friends, was most of Paris!

Paris day 1

I'm writing this on a bus from Belfast up to (London)Derry. After Europe (yes i exclude the isles), Ireland is visceral, edgy and dirty. For example, this bus seat has chewing gum stuck to the seat in front. Reminds me of home.

Anyway, Paris! I spent wednesday back in Riseley/Bedford. Menna, her friend Katie and i tried to be cheap sods and go to the local swimming pool using tokens off the kelloggs box. When we got there, the buggers had a sign up saying 'only applies to children with a paying adult'. So we paid and swam anyway, fighting our way through hordes of elderly patrons in the 7 lanes that weren't roped off, or slow people in the one that was. Then there was the nasty one who a) had a go for us being in her way and b) had a go for us getting too far out of the way next time.

Back at the ranch that evening we packed for Paris and turned up to Bedford station at 2.30am. Shit that was a fun ride into London... At St Pancras we boarded the Eurostar, which really is a dream. Plus it bloody goes underwater for a bit...brilliant! I may have even slept. Got to Gare du Nord at 8ish and had a cheap breakfast in the vicinity before checking into hotel nearby. Then it was time to hit the sights.

Jumped on an open-air tourist bus that i thought would be crap but wasn't. Ok the pre-recorded commentary was rubbish ("there are over 6000kms of roads in Paris" wow thanks man) but it was nice to be sitting above the traffic but still experience the atmosphere of the street. Sounds cheesey, i know. And it was a ripoff, but it was a pleasant way to get round.

More detailed, humorous and possibly fabricated commentary of the sights will come later with the photos, but for now here's another list thing.

- Cathedrale Notre-Dame: impressive, i kept saying it like an american, people who can't turn off the flash or shut the hell up in churches really piss me off, should have yelled at them in faux Italian or something
- Lunches de supermarche: the only way to not burn money in europe is to avoid eating. At any kind of establishment. With the ready availability of supermarkets in Paris i reinstated if tradition Joe and i followed at camp. Fruit, salad, liquid. €3 yeeha!
- Bastille: a mildly unimpressive statue in the middle of a hilarious roundabout commemorating some kind of revolution or something. When will the French get over their Republicanism? I resisted the urge to remind them that about 20 minutes after libertee, egalitee, fraternitee, they embraced a ruthless dictator who made himself emperor then tried to take over all of Europe.
- Place de la Concorde: was expecting to see a fast plane parked up here but was sadly disappointe. Until i looked round and realised that its pretty much the centre of the republic. With an ever better roundabout, awesome.
- Champs Elysee: Anglo-consumerism is the latest conqueror to march relatively unhindered through the Arc, and set up camp here. Slightly more than mildly offensive, somewhat less than downright outrageous. I guess the French need somewhere to buy touristy tat as well as tourists.
- Arc de Triomphe: large, another excellent roundabout.

Then got the metro back to do battle, once again, with a large service organisation in French. Last time it was La Poste in Lausanne, this time Western Union. I don't know about you but I've always viewed WU with skepticism, what with their claims of zapping money across the globe like that (snaps fingers). I'd managed to transfer half of my downpayment on the rental via their NZ website off my credit card, relatively easy. But for complicated reasons the rest had to be done a la Francais. Take a ticket, then this non-employee gives me a form to fill out with the amount, recipient etc. Lucky for me most of the other customers weren't so good at French either. See, Western Union takes care of most of the non-corporate cash transfers of migrant workers, aka remittances. A humbling experience indeed to be worrying about securing my lease while my fellow customers are worrying about whether they earned enough this month to support a family back home. When i got to the counter i tried to credit card it again, but they don't do it. So managed to communicate a la Gesticulation that i needed to know how much cash to bring back to equal X US dollars. Walked up to the ATM, withdrew a shitload, walked/ran back to WU without getting mugged and it all went fine from there. The non employee guy and i chuckled, he had a prayer book so i think he just stands there most days doing customer information/crowd-queue control. I hope they give him a sandwich at lunch. Obviously after all that i was stuffed so went back to hotel and slept for 12+ hours. That was day 1 in paris, and i already had a great feeling about the city.

London

That night after Cambridge (Sunday) I went to London to stay with Alaina and Sam in Wembley Park. It was great to see them having made the successful move over earlier in the year, and they are ticking along nicely. As they work and almost live at a Garden Centre, they have a big backyard which is great for making bonfires, so we did, had a few ciders, and watched suspicious looking cars drive down the road to the reservoir to to dodgey things there at night.

Next day (Monday) they had off, so we all took the Tube into town. God I love Metros, not just because they are a great way to get around, but for the individual character each city's has. London's character is 'stifling hot' - overall I had bloody marvellous weather the whole time in the UK. We had lunch at the second English pub we found nearish Baker St (the one we wanted appeared to be recently derelict) and then I set off alone for a bit of a walking tour: Green Park, Buck Palace, The Mall, St James Park, Parliament and the Abbey, then across to Southbank for a bit. All very impressive old chap.

Then I somehow managed to get to Oxford Circus at rush hour to meet Shaun (no typo) who I worked with a bit on census in 2006. He is now back working at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (Playstation team), project managing the production of top-secret projects for Sony. Needless to say the discussion was nerdy, but aided by several beers (my higher-earning london people always taking pity on this poor traveler despite his protests and proffered cash) we pretty quickly got on to solving the problems of the universe. Then I took the tube back to Wembley (innate sense of mapless navigation functioning perfectly) and went to bed/couch.

Next morning (Tuesday) it was up and at em, sort of, for the Tate Modern, predictably the highlight of my very short and underfunded time in London. Special thanks to all my friends who have visted and raved about it for years, not even the fact there was NO BLOODY PROPER LARGE SCALE EXHIBIT IN THE TURBINE HALL could dampen my enthusiasm. Seriously, it was good, and I got a lot of names of artists new and old I need to see more of.

After my Southbank experience I wandered round St Pauls then tubed to Trafalger Square area to catch up with a fellow Fulbrighter, Olivia, who works for MFAT there currently. NZ House is so classic, kind of garish, kind of nothing, but very tall and dominating the fine works around it. After afternoon tea I tried my hand at rush-hour Underground to get across to Harrods, and did just fine thankyouverymuch. There met Gareth, who flatted with Dan for bit when we were all blissfully un-/partially-employed in the winter of 2006. Went to a cool pub in Notting Hill, which was super-trendy about 100 years ago. Now its Shoreditch, but people debate that. What is clear is the coolness travels east across the suburbs of London...interesting.

Overall my time in London was very nice. Next time I'd like more time, a lot more money (i couldn't stop multiplying to NZ $ and freakin out) and a super-central location. Maybe a cushy summer research posting to LSE then? I see a theme emerging slowly here...