Due to popular demand… Many people have asked… Someone idly asked yesterday… ‘when would this series continue?’ And so, because I am here to give the people what they want, here is what happened on the day The Colonial Went to the B.N.G.

Arising around 8:00 (although the notes for the day state an uncertainty about that time), St. Pancras International Rail Terminal is headed for, with a desire to locate coffee and food. Also, connectivity to confirm that Trudi Topham is still meeting me for the purpose of both delivering some material to me which has been ordered from both small publishers as well as through Amazon UK (which wasn’t available through Canadian sources; mostly books with different editions and/or covers), as well as accompanying me around the National Gallery.

Happily, one can check e-mail over breakfast of coffee and muffin-thing, as St. Pancras Station has free Wi-Fi! HUZZAH!

Sadly, Trudi is at King’s Cross Station on the other side of Pancras Road, but I’m able to see the grandness of this international terminal with its impressive roof of the Train Shed [image, left] which was designed by William Henry Barlow (who’s been immortalised in a statue in the Station). So, in the end, NICE!

I wander across the road, and — after working my way through a teeming mass of humanity down the entire King’s bloody Cross Station’s bloody warren of platforms and levels — locate the lady herself, complete with massive box of books. Huzzah! We head to hotel, dump the shit in my room, and then head to the wilds of the underground, where I buy an Oyster Card so as to be able to move about easily on any number of methods of available public transportation without the need to ensure my tickets not expired, correct change, and so on. For anyone visiting London, this is a boon, as you are only charged for the tickets you would normally need, but the most you can ever pay per day with this card is the maximum daily charge for unlimited use of the system and that flat rate is less than the cost of several tickets. If you plan to use the tube or the bus more than three times a day (go somewhere, go somewhere else, return to where you began), you’ve just saved money, and all you had to worry about was slapping your card on a big yellow disc when entering the tube or when both getting on and off a bus. Brilliant! Get one and make your visit to the City of Western Culture a breeze. You’ll thank me for it, I’m telling you!

The card, oddly, comes in a little yellow wallet with an advert for IKEA on the back. “Oh…! It’s got IKEA on it”, I remark to Trudi, whereupon we say “Oooooooo-OOOOOO!” at each other. Why it’s called an “Oyster Card” and not a BLAN or TORVELD as a consequence of the IKEA sponsorship is good for a few minutes of discussion. It may have something to do with IKEA’s brand-new Family Mobile — a virtual mobile phone network — but I suspect the new London Buses will be built from flat-pack kits. Read the rest of this entry »

Being in the UK and appreciating civilisation’s finest achievements, basically. After some business in the western Midlands from my arrival in the Sceptred Isle until the 13^th of this month, I shall be located in the capital of Right Thinking People (London) until the 24^th. At that point I’ll be boarding an æroplane and returning to my beloved wife here in damp, dark, dank Burnaby. Bleah…

Whilst in the New Jerusalem, however, things such as this, these, and this shall be visited, in between regular consulting of this information, occasional glances at this, and — inevitably — some important consultation of this so as to experience the area in all its forms and incarnations.

I hope to have several business meetings with people in London during the period, as this is an invaluable opportunity to [ahem] press the flesh, as well as meet people whose writing I love and/or intend to publish.

Also likely is some merry jape / caper-like activities. One hopes, at least.

If there is no other goal in mind, there is at least the locating of things such as those outlined in Christopher Fowler’s blog entry here.

I am taking a brand-new, tiny, little laptop with me [see photo, left] and — in conjunction with consulting the ‘free London Wi-Fi’ map above — shall be attempting to summarise events and/or experiences on a fairly steady basis. If nothing else, it will give me a reason to not follow some skin-head into the depths of Soho to locate “the fellah who can gets you any-fing you’se can imagine, and sum fings you can’t… if you receive my meanings, Guv?”

Release the hounds…!