London Recap

July 20, 2007 by dunny.

We got so caught up writing about Master Theobald we haven’t even written about London yet!  Holy Hell!!!

After the “barbie” with Steve, we drove into London to meet up with Stevie and try to relive some of the Chicago glory of years past.  Tuesday night was reserved for collapsing from the meat coma the Theobalds so gloriously gave us…which extended long into Wednesday.  That night we walked around the Thames and had some meat pies and a few pints, saw some London sites and ended up in a Jazz bar that apparently used to be a public restroom.  Yup, just our kind of place.

Thursday night got a little out of hand…in an awesome sort of way.  Long story short, we went to a boat bar reminiscent of a Louisana floating casino, only 1/18th the size and no gambling.  We had one last fish and chips and a few more Guinies waiting for the New York crew that ended up with Master Theobald the night before, and ended up in an American themed nightclub with a band that played everything from The Killers to Rage covers and danced and drank and played good-cop-bad-cop up to the point when Andy got thrown out…just like being back home I reckon.

Friday we rousted and got cooked breakfast by Stevie’s little brother Andy (yeah these name similarities are confusing us too) and did all our last minute shopping, AND…..dah, dah, DAAAHHHHHH…….found the post office and picked up our passports and international drivers permits!!  After 1000 miles in South England we actually have passports and legality for driving.  Fantastic.

This past evening we graced the official Rally Launch Party at some cleared out warehouse and shot it with a load of other teams, like another New York team we may end up with in Romania and Bulgaria for a few quick climbing excursions…turns out they’re filming for MTV and we may end up in those end-of-the-hour news recaps or some shit.  Oh, and Young Osbourne was there for a spell.  Great.

Now, as for London.  They don’t label streets.  The streets never run parallel.  You enter highways only in spots you absolutely don’t want to.  You ask directions and the person is usually Polish.  Driving in rush-hour puts Houston to shame.  Bold statement indeed.  Whatever.

The mass transit is completely awesome.  I guess that goes for all of England, but you can be anywhere in London and get to somewhere else 10 miles away in no more than 8 hours.  Sport a cowboy hat and you make conversation with whatever streem bums you want…it’s like being a celebrity that nobody really loves but would kill to talk to.  It’s about 4am here and we have to be in Hyde Park by 10 to get ready to go…after a pawn shop stop for a golf club and some paint pens for the Chariot.

Look, London is busy.  But it’s a blast.  We may be country boys but we can roll a city like nobody’s business.  Smarter men wouldn’t do it hours before they have to drive from London to Prague in a day, but dadgum we could go home now and say we had an adventure of legendary proportions.  Smarter men wouldn’t preface the adventure of a lifetime with an exhausting romp around southern England worthy of a college-time summer backpacking trip either. 

Live in the moment people.  Lay worries to rest.  Appreciate every seond you have and you’re bound to meet people who expose you new places and ideas that you never imagined, people who make you realize more about yourself and your beliefs than you’d ever discover in a work-dinner-TV-party-work rotation.  You don’t have to go around the world to do it…just open up to the people around you and be aware of every moment you live and watch the good karma roll in.

We are going around the world though.  Phase 2 starts tomorrow.  Stay posted my friends…the adventure truly begins now…

Skip, out. (SkipLizard Homepage)

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