I've been in London with my 15-year old, Thomas, since Monday and ... it's been hellishly hot. Not hotter than Greenwich, CT but it's wicked hot for the UK -- high 90's -- with high humidity. It's so pleasant in the tube stations that aren't air conditioned and the trains that aren't air conditioned with the whole of humanity taking the underground trains to and fro and here and there.
I have actually been pretty amazed at the effect of the heat. It's very hot in a world that isn't made to handle heat. There's very little capacity to air condition and the smaller shops are doing their very best with what appears to be no ventilation systems. We were in the Fred Perry shop the other day and it must have been 120F in the shop. It was actually hard to think. I think I would have bought the apple green shirt with the yellow and pink stripes just to be able to do something other than stand there in a stupor. It was just bizarre.
So, I've spent a lot of time in London and I finally feel like I know my way around in a macro sense. Better, perhaps, than New York. I feel like we've been on a world tour while we were here. We started out with a day on Hampstead Heath (staying in Hampstead) and then spent the whole of the next day walking around Knightsbridge, South Kensington and the Portobello and Bayswater areas. I forgot that it would stay lighter here longer so we've been out late almost every night without really realizing it. Thomas and I just marvel every day at the size of the muslim and middle eastern population in London. On Wednesday we went to the British Museum via a long walk because we got on the wrong line of the underground and ... they were doing a full evacuation of the British Museum so we walked all over Picadilly and Oxford and Regent and Jermyn Streets until we nearly passed out. That evening we went to dinner at a friend's house who I have not seen since I was 16. It was fun to see someone who I knew so long ago and who I met when he was just a bit younger than my son is today. The next day we spent in the Tate Modern and, again, walking all over creation. And then on Friday we went to the Camden Town markets and I swear Thomas felt like he'd walked into a surreal world made just for teenagers. The place was just teaming with youth and chock full of goth, punk, techno goth and vintage clothing stores and there were more colors in the hair and the dread locks and the mohawks than there are in the rainbow. We rounded out that day with a second aborted visit to the British Museum because once we were there we realized we just didn't feel like it ... and then we woke up and went to Portobello Market for the morning before we hightailed it out to Southampton to visit friends.
It's been fun travelling with Thomas. It's not nearly as chaotic and angst like traveling with one teenager than with the whole family. We've walked all over London and then some and had some fun times, good experiences and relaxing times. We're staying at the fab house of a great friend in Hampstead and it's just great to have a place to come back to at night and really be able to kick back and relax. Of course I've had time to read a few books ... will post those at Just Books when I get home.
Off to the New Forest and some lunch ... hoping the vampire teens wake before tea time ... and thankful that it's not nearly as hot on the south coast of the UK as it is smack dab in the center of London.
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