That Was a Day, My Friend

Yesterday I had one of THOSE days, though with a happy ending. I had a job interview in London, for a job based a bit closer to home.

When I go to London, I have a choice of stations -- Victoria or Waterloo. I go to Victoria.

[Hindsight: Should have gone to Waterloo.]

I arrive at Victoria at about 11:30, plenty of time for a leisurely lunch before my one o'clock  interview. I debate with myself: do I use the pay toilet at the station, or wait until I get to a cafe?

Now wins, so I pay 30p to pee.

[Hindsight: Excellent choice.]

I head toward the tube, and realise that the headache I hoped would go away, isn't. I detour into Boots and buy fast-acting ibuprofen and a small water bottle. I take the ibuprofen and stash it and the water in my shoulder bag. (This is an important detail.)

I descend the escalator to the District and Circle line, and see that it is seething with people, and hear an announcement about delays. No problem, I think. I'll just walk part of the way, and stop at a Pret A Manger.

I leave the station and find out immediately why all the tourists are taking the tube. It's cold. And windy. And snowy. And cold. Again, no problem. I'm a New Englander, I'll walk part of the way and get some lunch before I hop on the tube.

I take a left out of the station.

[Hindsight: Should have taken a right.]

I walked past Buckingham Palace, wending my way through the tourists shivering for the sake of the changing of the guard. I feel bad for them. They probably booked their vacation for the week after Easter because they thought the weather would be normal. As in a sunny spring day with a cool breeze.

I walk past St James's Park, along the Birdcage Walk. It's becoming clear to me that I won't get any lunch unless I deviate from my route. But time is getting short, so I don't think I can.

Did I mention it was cold?

I descend into Westminster tube station and see that I can walk underground to Victoria Embankment. Excellent, I think, my interview is on Victoria Embankment. Maybe there will be food.

[Hindsight: Should have gotten on a train at Westminster.]

Above ground, it's still snowing. And Victoria Embankment is lined with government buildings, so there is no food. The wind off the river is strong.  I am cold, time is short, and I have no idea how far I am from my interview. I pull out my map, and a woman asks me to take a picture of her and her husband with the London Eye in the background. What I want to say: "OHMIGOD I HAVE NO TIME! I HAVE A JOB INTERVIEW!" What I do say: "Sure." I take three pictures. Just to make sure it comes out nice.


Finally, I am approaching a tube station. I duck under an overpass to pull out a tissue to dab my eyes, which run constantly when it's even just a little bit cold. It's also a good chance to check my mascara, take a sip of water, and pull out my phone to check my email.

[Hindsight: Should have made sure the water bottle was tightly sealed.]

Half of the water is gone. Thank goodness my tissues absorbed so much of it. Only the remainder leaked on the little notebook I use to take notes during interviews, and on my sample book. Just a little bit remained to pool at the bottom of my bag.

Blackfriars station

I am just about out of time for getting to my interview. It's about 12:15, and I don't have time for lunch. At the station, I buy a granola bar and get on the train. I arrive at Blackfriars station (which is brand-new and very nice, and the toilets are free) with 20 minutes to spare before my interview.

No disasters after that. Well, except for the interview. That didn't go well at all.

I went to Waterloo station, bought a sandwich and was on the 2:20 train home.

But I promised a happy ending: When I got home, I had a voice mail from a recruiter with a job offer. I start Wednesday.

Zoom out on the map to see the route.

Playlist: Fave Songs of the 70s and Almost-70s

As my 50th birthday approaches, I'm putting together a playlist of songs that set off my nostalgia alert. Some I loved then, not so much now; some I didn't know then and like now; some span the years. Hoping to download as many of these as I can before my birthday. Please comment with your suggestions!

1968	Midnight Confessions	The Grassroots
1968	Sympathy for the Devil	Rolling Stones
1969	Sugar, Sugar	The Archies
1970	Spirit in the Sky	Norman Greenbaum
1970	Moondance	Van Morrison
1970	In the Summertime	Mungo Jerry
1970	One Toke Over the Line	Brewer & Shipley
1970	proud mary	Ike & Tina Turner
1970	Who'll stop the rain	Creedence Clearwater Revival
1970	Signed, Sealed, Delivered	Stevie Wonder
1970	I Think I Love You	The Partridge Family
1970	All Right Now	Free
1971	Don't Pull Your Love	Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds
1971	Get it On	T Rex
1971	Baba O'Riley	The Who
1971	I feel the earth move	Carole King
1971	It don't come easy	Ringo Starr
1971	Joy to the World	Three Dog Night
1971	Maggie May	Rod Stewart
1971	Never Been to Spain	Three Dog Night
1972	Superstition	Stevie Wonder
1972	Lean on Me	Bill Withers
1972	It Never Rains in Southern California	Albert Hammond
1972	Iko Iko	Dr John
1972	Stuck in the Middle With You	Stealers Wheel
1972	Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard	Paul Simon
1972	Long Cool Woman	The Hollies
1972	I can see clearly now	Johnny Nash
1972	Reelin in the years	Steely Dan
1972	Saturday in the park	Chicago
1972	Rocket Man	Elton John
1972	Brandy	Looking Glass
1972	A Horse With No Name	America
1973	Drift Away	Dobie Gray
1973	Radar Love	Golden Earring
1973	Band on the Run	Wings
1973	Midnight train to Georgia	Gladys Knight and the Pips
1973	You're So Vain	Carly Simon
1973	Goodbye Yellow Brick Road	Elton John
1973	Bennie and the Jets	Elton John
1974	Rock Me Gently	Andy Kim
1974	What's so funny bout peace love & understanding	Elvis Costello
1974	Nothing from Nothing	Billy Preston
1974	Come and Get Your Love	Red Bone
1974	No woman, no cry	Bob Marley
1974	Rock Your Baby	George McRae
1974	Lady Marmalade	Labelle
1974	Waterloo	Abba
1974	Workin' at the Car Wash Blues	Jim Croce
1974	Already Gone	The Eagles
1974	Killer Queen	Queen
1974	Let it Ride	Bachman-Turner Overdrive
1975	Young Americans	David Bowie
1975	Born to Run	Bruce Springsteen
1975	Thunder Road	Bruce Springsteen
1975	Ballroom Blitz	The Sweet
1976	(Don't Fear) the Reaper	Blue Oyster Cult
1976	You Make Me Feel Like Dancing	Leo Sayer
1977	Alison	Elvis Costello
1977	I want you to want me	Cheap Trick
1977	American Girl	Tom Petty
1977	One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer	George Thorogood
1977	Running on Empty	Jackson Browne
1977	We Will Rock You	Queen
1978	Surrender	Cheap Trick
1978	Lawyers, Guns and Money	Warren Zevon
1978	One Way or Another	Blondie
1978	shattered	Rolling Stones
1978	Take me to the river	Talking Heads
1978	Boogie Oogie Ooogie	A Taste of Honey
1978	I wanna be sedated	The Ramones
1978	Rock Lobster	B-52's
1979	Another Brick in the wall, Part 2	Pink Floyd
1979	Heart of Glass	Blondie
1979	Cruel to be kind	Nick Lowe
1979	I will Survive	Gloria Gaynor
1979	London Calling	The Clash

Mean Streets

The streets of Bulitworth are safe.

The Village

When you're an American kid and you see movies and television about village life in England, you think it's all pubs and tweed and walking large dogs and wellies and men smoking pipes and hand-rolled cigs and everyone knowing each other.

It's all true. At least it is here in our bucolic little village (which I will from now on refer to as Bulitworth, pronounced 'BEW-lit-worth'). Except maybe the pipes and tweed. But it isn't autumn yet, so there's still time for tweed.

Movies and soap operas might also make you think there's a dark underbelly to English village life -- a gentlemen who may or may not have locked up his mad wife in the attic; a wealthy spinster who lurks in her darkened manor house, plotting to break young men's hearts; a population of friendly eccentrics. The first two are not true; the third kind of is. I hope to write more on that in future posts.

Based on movies, you might also think the pub is the center of village life. Sadly, that is no longer always true. In Bulitworth's one pub, it is.

A recent Saturday night at the pub:
A live-music duo doing covers. The village 'ambassador' works the room, says to people, "Have you met John and Donna? They just moved to the village."

It's important to note that I stand out. To start, I dress in bright colours (not very English of me). And people don't always understand my accent, espciallly when there is a band playing.

Band members picked me out of the (small) crowd and asked about where I was from. At which point the village ambassador seized the opportunity to request 'Massachusetts', which made me a little bit homesick.

Next weekend, it's all happening in Bulitworth. A classic car and motorcycle show on Saturday and a music festival on Sunday. Watch for more dispatches.

A Triumph car club meeting at Bulitworth's only pub

Summer Time

Nothing written for four months, and now two posts in one day. It's just, you see, the title of my last post reminded me of Madness' performance at the Queen's Jubilee concert, and then that reminded me of the Jubilee celebration we attended in our new village, which reminded me that maybe I should write something about this exciting summer. After all, everyone else is.

The days are long here in the summer. Today is 16 hours, 32 minutes and 51 seconds long. The day of the summer solstice will be 16 hours 38 minutes and 19 seconds long. I can't sleep with all this light. When I wake up and see that it's light outside, I'm convinced that either my alarm is about to go off or it hasn't and I am going to oversleep. Since the latter is less likely, I lie awake waiting for my alarm to go off. And it doesn't. See, that's because the sunrise is at 4:44 a.m. I have one hour and six minutes before I have to get up. I wish someone would tell my sleepy brain.

But I promised you excitement.

We spent the four-day Jubilee weekend celebrating after a fashion:

• In London on that Saturday to soak up some atmosphere without the wall-to-wall people. 
• In our present village on Sunday to go to a rain-soaked hog roast that I'm not sure was so much spoiled by the weather as by the fact that it was a hog roast. So we bought beer and picked up fish and chips and watched the Thames pageant in our nice dry living room. 
• In our new village on Monday to see a coronation memorabilia display in the village hall, watch a tug of war, and say 'aawwwwww' during the 'dog show'.

Okay, not that exciting. Maybe for the Olympics.