Off To London For Lunch

Apologies to my many avid readers – I’ve been off to London for a couple of days for my traditional Xmas lunch with ‘the boys’. And a very good trip it was too. Perfect travel with no queues or delays. Great crack with my mates and a delicious curry with Steve, my erstwhile colleague from BT, yesterday. And I managed to get the Xmas food shopping completed as well, although just what state the mince pies will be in after the Nice Airport luggage handlers finished with my bags is anyone’s guess.

So – some observations about my trip.

Travelling British Airways instead of Easyjet was like seeing an old friend whom you’ve missed for the last few years. Classy, unfussy and quintessentially British.

London hasn’t changed in a year. Still grey. Still busy. Still vibrant. But a complete dearth of postboxes – I walked about two miles to try and find one on Monday. Their removal the result of the old bombing campaign by the IRA. The conflict is over now – put them back.

The prices - £75 for lunch (including drinks) and £6 for a glass of wine makes me appreciate my local tavern even more where you can have lunch with wine for about £8.

Tube travel – why pay £4 for a single one mile journey when a taxi costs less for the same distance? This was old Red Ken’s (Livingstone) travel policy which Boris needs to put right. On the tube, it’s the same price, £4, whether you travel for one mile or fifteen miles – crazy economics.

There’s not a single British waiter in London. In all the establishments I used on my trip (restaurants, pubs, cafes and hotels), the eastern Europeans held a monopoly. If they all upped sticks and left, London would grind to a halt.

Waitrose (the supermarket) is still the classiest place to shop. Not the cheapest, but by far the classiest. It’s almost a pleasure giving them your money.

The old adage about saving your plane fare if you went to the US on a shopping trip by taking advantage of their low prices and the generous exchange rate is now almost true about the UK. I reckon I probably saved over £100 by buying various items in the UK as opposed to buying the same things in France. Maybe London will be seeing more of me in 2009?

Bargains you just don’t get in France. One packet of sausages for £3. Four packs for £5. More crazy economics.

The rather disgusting conversation at lunch where two of my mates were discussing their recent colonoscopies. Not pleasant.

So that’s about it. Only other things to report are a fire evacuation at the hotel and spotting a celebrity chef sort of person. He didn’t acknowledge me so I just ignored him!