OK, back from Vermont and Burton’s HQ. That was a one day stint. Oh you gotta love those there-and-back trips. Good for the internal gas. Another 24 hours in NYC and then right back to JFK, where I am now on a first name basis with the Hudson News ladies and its off to London. I haven’t been in London in about 4 years since the last Streetwise One Exhibition. I had forgotten how amazing this city is. I think many people are currently turned off to London because of the Pound Sterling and how its basically treating every other currency in the world like monopoly money. Put it this way, I changed $300 US Dollars. I got back about $145 British Pounds. OUCH! Not to mention a ONE WAY ride in the Underground (subway) costs just shy of $9.00 US Dollars! An order of fries? Oh, $14. Seriously making New Yorkers look like we are low income bums.
But you do get what you pay for. An incredible city with great history, architecture, culture, parkland, diversity, commerce. I mean, I don’t think I’m saying anything ground breaking here. London is after, well, London. But I felt very comfortable here. It wasn’t like I was staring in awe of London. But immediately felt at home and settled in.
The hotel I stayed at probably helped. Nothing jiggy. Just a small simple affair called Ceasar Hotel in Queensway near Hyde Park. I highly recommend it if you’re not making J.K Rowling money.
Sorry…ubiquitious postcard shot. Had to do it.
Not only did I feed one my ice cream cone, I also kicked the sign.
Kojiro from Headporter and Fragment was also in town by chance. Nice to hang out with him outside of Tokyo for a change.
It just so happened that we were in town for the kickoff of Gumball 3000. You know, its that thing where insanely rich people drive their insanely expensive cars and drive an insane distance (Europe-Asia in 7 days) to reinact their favorite Burt Reynolds fantasy from Cannonball Run. Anyway, it was fun to see some of the sick rides. You can pretty much drive whatever you want. Even a tank might work!
Also met up with good friend Raoul Shah who runs Exposure. Raoul (or as they say in England “rowl”) was just voted #1 in Guardian UK’s Top 30 Ethnic Minorty Power List. Congrats Raoul!
(He would quite obviously be, the non-white person in this photo. haha…)
I plan on coming back very soon. I am very enamored by London. I also discovered Europe’s version of Jet Blue, called EasyJet. A very inexpensive and convenient way to hop around Europe. My next stop is my other favorite European city, Berlin.
With all these thousands of miles logged in the air, I highly recommend what Samsonite has been putting out. Samsonite might have the dusty old rep of being your grandpa’s luggage, but recent design developments like their Black Label Collection and collabs with Alexander McQueen and Christina Ricci have upped the brand status.
On the left is an eyemask for when you sit next to that person that absolutely HAS to keep their windowshade up all flight. This one is cool cuz it has earplug holsters on the side. Nice touch. On the right is a luggage lock with a cable hook so its much easier to attach. It is also TSA compatible. Which means no more snipped locks when Homeland Security is looking to swipe your PSP…er…I mean protect you from terrorists. I also just realized…What terroritst would use a TSA compatible lock? I think by using this, your bags are much less likely to get checked by security in the first place. But then again, maybe the baddies know this and use reverse psychology on us! Hmmm…the war on terror continues.
Next time you are in London drop me a line and I’ll bake a cake and invite you round for tea.