London - 22 Jan 06

22 January 2006

Notes I scribbled down in a McDonalds off of Trafalgar Square…New diet: take a two week trip to London and don’t spend any more money on food here than you would back home in the States. This would guarantee a weight loss of 10 lbs. As an American in the UK I am happy every once in a while to see a familiar menu, even if it is at McDonalds, but they are everywhere here and I find that to be sad. Starbucks and McDonalds seem to be the largest contemporary American contribution to the UK. I would definitely be willing to sacrifice this little slice of Americana if the British didn’t like it, and I have a hunch that a sizable group of them do not enjoy the plentitude of golden arches in their city.

Also, British people never talk amongst themselves. You can ask me to just live with that and tell me that is the way it is, but that doesn’t change it from being a silly way to go about one’s day. They are so obsessed with privacy. Privacy, privacy, and privacy!

Today I took a stroll through the National Gallery. The place is huge. I did quickly see all the highlight paintings. I also walked down to Parliament to take some pictures. The organ recital at the Abbey was awesome. It was at 5:45 and there is a service immediately afterwards. I will go to it some Sunday in the future.

Americans are absolutely spoiled with television and I had no idea really. British TV sucks. I like the news, but other than that the only thing that is going to get me watching is a familiar movie from the U.S. of A.

I lost some weight once I got to the UK. I don’t know where I lost it from because I wasn’t a portly 6’9”, but I lost it. Starbucks, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, and KFC don’t seem to be the largest contemporary American contribution to London, they are. The same day I wrote this in my journal I stopped into a Waterstone’s and scanned the bestseller rack. A book titled, Is It Just Me or Is Everything Shit?: The Encyclopedia of Everyday Annoyances, caught my eye. One of the first annoyances I read about was the plethora of McDonalds in the UK.

I made a gross stereotype in this entry. British people do talk amongst themselves. It is Londoners that don’t talk to strangers. If you even say hi, nod your head, or give a hint of a smile Londoners think you are a nutter. They are somewhat justified in their phobia because there are many mad people in London, but it makes for one cold ride on the bus or Tube.

From now on when I write about the “Abbey”, I mean Westminster Abbey.

I ended up loving British TV. There are some good shows on. I enjoyed Top Gear, any televised football rivalry, and a lot of Channel 4 documentaries. When you buy a TV in the UK you pay a licensing fee to the BBC. Thus, there are no commercials on the BBC. That was nice. There are two incredibly popular British soaps. Someone told me you either grow up watching Coronation Street or EastEnders in Britain. I didn’t catch any Coronation Street, but I did watch EastEnders a few times. I never watched it enough to know what the hell was going on. It is a soap, so I never got into it. I didn’t mean to imply that I enjoy American television by pointing out that we are spoiled by it. I meant to say that American television does have one thing going for it, variety, something of which I didn’t have while I was over there because I had four channels on this small, ghetto TV in my room. It was all good though, I didn’t go to the UK to watch TV.