London Day 1

The one thing I haven't really been able to do is blog about London. Well, it's Sunday night, it's been raining off and on all day, and my heels are blistered to tears. Tonight is as good as any to write about my first six days in London.

Day 1

I am happy to say that my flight arrived a half-hour early. After a long, but delightful lay-over in Philly (thanks Erica, Marty, and Finn), I was very anxious to get to London. Immigration and customs were a breeze. I figured that my journey to the hotel would be the same because my FB friend, Simon, had given me excellent instructions on how to navigate the Tube from Heathrow to my hotel. The only problem was my luggage. Of course, I had over-packed. Of course, there were no lifts at a couple of the stations. Thankfully, angelic gentlemen helped me carry my bag to the top of the stairs. On the way home, I will be taking a cab to the airport.

Once I checked into my lift-free hotel, I zoomed to the post office to exchange some traveler's cheques. Apparently, the post office here offers every service possible: utility payments, money exchange, bank accounts. Anyway, Simon had said that he would be by my hotel around 4:30 for food and drinks, so I rushed back to shower and change. When he got there, he had a little surprise for me: a Squeeze gig at the Pelton Arms. It is a small, intimate setting. We first grabbed a little food at the Cutty Sark and then back to the pub, where the guys were running through a quick sound check. Glenn caught my eye, gave me a big, surprised, happy face. After the sound check, he stopped to chat for just a minute - big hug and kiss greeting. Then, the crowd started to fill in. I began to meet many of the names I had been seeing on Facebook and the Glenn listserve forever: Mitzi, Mark, David. I was feeling a little jet-lagged and shy, so I just soaked up the atmosphere. The wait wasn't long. The band ripped into a vigorous set and I was lucky enough to be directly up front, about four feet from Chris Difford's nose. I can't even tell you all of what they played. The best for me was Labeled With Love - which I had never heard because they don't play it in the States. I pointed that fact out to Glenn and he agreed immediately. That was probably the best Squeeze gig I had ever experienced.

I'm kind of tired right now, so I'll play a little catch up tomorrow.