This is Nick Baggarly. Today we rested again in
London
Hello from the team. Todays jounal entry is for December 16 and deals with one of our rest days in
London, the city on the Thames.
Nick and Todd jouneyed out into the English countryside to meet James Taylor for an interview. Not
James Taylor the American musician, but James Taylor the British Land Rover guru. Mr Taylor has
written numerous books and articles about Rovers and is considered a serious expert on the vehicle. He
wanted to interview the boys about the trip and possibly write an article on the teams exploits. Needless to
say it was a great honor for Nick and Todd to get to meet the guy.
Jeff and Doug had hooked up with Jason, a friend of Jeffs from California who now lives in London.
Jeff and Jason worked together at Engage technologies(Nasdaq ENGA). Jason went on to open a new
office in London while Jeff went on to world travel and unemployment. Jason was nice enough to let Jeff
and I crash at his pad for a few days . His girlfriend had already flown back to the states for the
Christmas holiday so he was glad for the company , and we were just glad to see a familiar face and enjoy
the comforts of an actual home. Thanks again Jason!!
While Jason was busy being a responsible member of society, Jeff and I checked out his neighborhood.
We walked all over the place, finally stumbling upon Harrods, so we went inside to see what it was all
about. The place was massive and a pre-Christmas madhouse. Thousands of people were scrambling to
spend their pounds on holiday goodies. We figured that this would be a great place to do some shopping
for Annette and Jodi so we headed off in the direction of the jewlery counter. I ended up getting a Gucci
watch for Annette and Jeff bought Jodi some designer earings. It was at the jewlery counter that we had a
celebrity sighting. Jeff noticed some gal (that's odd)at the other end of the counter that resembled Baby
Spice. The salesgirl that was helping us did a cursory examination and cinfirmed that it was indeed miss
Emma Bunton aka Baby Spice. We almost went up and said hello, but decided to let her enjoy her day of
shopping. Besides, the boys back home would have been quite disappointed if we actually went up and
talked to her. 437 University protocol stipulates that you can look at a woman, talk about going up and
talking with them,but that you can't actually go up and talk to them. We can't recall who laid this rule
down but we weren't about to violate this ever important code.
We went back to Jasons pad and hung out some more, before we took the train to meet him after he
got off work. Jason took us to dinner at a great noodle house and then we hit the local pub. The place
was insane. It was two-stories high and jam packed with partying Londonites. We had gotten a late start
because of dinner and the rest of the pubs inhabitants had clearly started without us . Everybody was quite
smashed and dancing to 70's American dance hits. They all knew the words and sang them loudly. The
place was just plain fun and we were bummed when eleven o'clock rolled around(closing time for pubs)
and we had to go. We didn't have to go far though because practically across the street was the "O" bar, a
cool club we had gone to a couple of nights before. Earlier we had decided to sort of take it easy because
we had to fly to Amsterdam the next day. Right! We ended up staying until about three A.M.; combined
with our late night McDonalds run and we didn't make it back to Jasons until four or so. We were hating
it the next day but it was totally worth it. We were fortunate enough to have Jason show us around, but if
you're in London and don't know where to go, checkout the pubs and clubs of SoHo, they rock. I don't
know if it was the impending holiday or what, but the Brits know how to party. Talk to you later, D.
