And So To Home

 

All good things, bar heaven, come to an end and so did this exeat to London and the UK. A final trip to the all day breakfast on Grays Inn Rd, thanks PA, a foray to St. Albans, Holborn, and a few pints at the Lamb and the Rugby followed by a plate of carbonara at Ciao Bella on Lamb's Conduit Street. So tasty.

Then back to LHR, Terminal Three, a total nightmare, and onto a sardine can masquerading as an international flight. I tell you, getting the bus from Victoria to Chepstow in the 1980s was more dignified and comfortable, which isn't saying much.

some rando curry house onna Strand

10 hours later you're back home in the Texas Free State, and that felt good. There's an expansiveness and freedom to Texas which England just doesn't have. That said, it was heart-wrenching to leave the Old Country. Partly because it's my homeland, especially London, and also because of its great beauty and interest. Everywhere you look there's something to stay the eye.

Texas? Yes, the same, but here everything's new, right down to the newly pioneered land of the place, to say nothing of noxious strip malls and the appalling DFW metrosprawl we call a city. Still, good to be home in the free atmos of the Lone Star State. There's air to breathe.

Look, my olde flatte!

So what's the scoop, the story on the UK? Well, their government's imploding, coffee shops are ludicrously abounding, the Pound is hideously weakening, cigarettes are stupidly pricey as is petrol. Red Bull is cheap, wine is cheap too, but you can't afford to get a house unless you're stupid rich, and... everyone believes in the vaccines, big time.

"Oh, better run off and get my booster," says one quondam anarchist and off xe goes to burn incense on the Altar of Big Pharma Pfizer. Climate Change too; everyone's convinced the Ice Caps are gonna melt and flood Martha's Vineyard in a few years. Quelle serious disaster, go tell the Obamas.

Look, a meat market the asset strippers are about to shut down

So, globalist agitprop looms large over the Sceptred Isle though they'd call it common sense. Mask up, vax up and toe the NWO line of your elite overlords. That aside, all's normal except for all these ridiculous coffee shops, beer at 4.50 a pint++ and hordes of electric bicycles and scooters in London. Oh, and it's getting hard to pay with cash.

Cash, gentle readers, is being phased out in England. What could possibly go wrong.

Your Expat Pal,

LSP

All Set Up

But where? At the Strand Continental Hotel above the London institution that is the India Club, just down the Strand from King's and a shortish stroll to most everything central. Absurdly cheap too, which is a bonus, and right there in the heart of it all. 

Fancy

Is the SCH fancy? No, it is not. Is it clean? Yes, it is. Has it changed much from the 1940s? Apparently not, and I like that.  So pleased with the setup I headed East to Tower Hill and the Princess of Prussia pub to meet some old friends. What a good pub! Go there if you can.

Always wondered what this building was

Then back to the Strand which, unlike the SCH, has changed since the 1940s. In fact, it's changed in the last five years, but that's another story again. In the meanwhile, it's simply exciting to be back in London, there's a greatness to this city and you have to wonder at the Victorians who pretty much built what we see today. Yes, there were clearly giants in those days.

More anon as this adventure unfolds.

Cheers,

LSP