Personal notes from the week in London

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• I haven't blogged in a while because I have been out of town. I went up to Chester and to some places around London to make a few friendly business calls.
• One of the meetings had catered salmon sandwiches.
• In Chester (near Manchester), I had breakfast at a Subway restaurant. Who knew Subway made breakfast? Before you judge me, let me say this - it was pretty good. And I had wheat bread.
• My taxi driver in Chester asked me why Americans always tip at restaurants. The taxi driver went to New York ten years ago and he found the idea of tipping at a bar even funnier.
• But Mark's cute Swedish roommate said that she loves when Americans come into her restaurant, because they always leave a tip. And hardly anybody else does that. So not everybody hates us!
• There are three free newspapers in London right now - London Lite, Metro, and The London Paper. There are HUNDREDS of promoters on the streets offering to shove a free newspaper in your face near every tube stop. Most of these free papers are filled with old news and celebrity gossip, so I have not read them. But you can't beat the price.
• The Guardian and The Evening Standard seem to be good London papers.
• While watching TV at Mark's place in London last night, I noticed that the Chanel No. 5 commercial with Nicole Kidman is pretty hot.
• Basic cable TV in London is only five channels.
• I found an amazing snack at the grocery - Mattessons Chicken Bites. They are "ready-to-eat Tikka Flavour" bites of 100% chicken breast. I ate the whole pack on the train back from Chester. Very healthy and very nutritious. I hope these come to the states.
• When I first started exploring London (like the West End and the Covent Garden area), I had a hard time finding bathrooms and trash cans.
• But now I know that there are never any trash cans in the tube stations, and there is always a bathroom in a McDonald's or a Starbucks or in a museum.
• I walked around the famous British Museum for most of the afternoon today. It was great and the Egypt section was the best. The modern art prints from North Korea and Japan were cool, too.
• Tomorrow Mark and I are going to try to go to the Tower of London to see the Crown Jewels and the Beefeaters tour.
• I have been going to the grocery store at least twice per day. They sell milk in these little pint-sized bottles, or 1-Liter and 2-Liter jugs. And small portions of sliced meat make a good lunch meal.
• I finally got to go to a gym today. It only cost me $15. The other gym wanted me to take an introduction class ($35 fee) and then pay a $10 day fare.
• There are CCTV cameras everywhere. It doesn't bother me, just interesting. They even had security cameras all over the gym.
• We saw Avenue Q in the theater on Tuesday night. I had never seen it before (missed in NYC in 2004). Good show and good songs.
• I think this is the most walking that I have ever done in a big city. I am very comfortable with the tube now, but I still end up walking a whole lot. Having a bike in Amsterdam really spoiled me.
• I fly back to Atlanta on Sunday morning.