Impressions of London so far

If there's a job in the world that consists of traveling to different cities in Europe and figuring how to get around on their public transportation systems, that's the job I want. I've said this before, but I just love being dropped in the middle of a city somewhere and trying to figure out how to get from one place to another. It's the same feeling of satisfaction that we all get when we work through a complex tax return: you know it makes sense, and you know that the right answer is out there somewhere, but you have to navigate through a maze of complexity to get there. What could be more rewarding than that? So, to chart the course of my life, after I'm done doing this law thing I've been stuck on for the past fifteen years, I want to work in hospice care. When that's over, I want to get back into astrophysics and do some research in that field. Then I'd like to hold some sort of political office for a while. And then, to wrap it up, I guess I need to be a transportation engineer. That's going to be challenging.

Anyway, back to London. I survived flying coach. That which doesn't kill me makes me stronger, right? I have to say, the whole left-side thing is unsettling me a bit. As we were descending into London, I saw a roundabout. I watched cars approach it, enter on the left, and drive clockwise. That's just wrong. But it sure is nice to end up in a place where I can understand the signs and understand most of the language, although it's a bit tricky if they're speaking softly.

And another complaint about electrical outlets: I outsmarted myself this time. Like I've said before, the Swiss, being the Swiss, have electrical outlets that are unique to Switzerland. If you want to go anywhere else in Europe, you need an adapter because the Swiss outlets aren't the same. Well, I planned ahead and brought the Swiss-to-Europe adapter for my laptop. But it turns out that not only are the Swiss the Swiss, but the British are the British. Their outlets are also different from continental Europe. Sigh. So I now plug my Swiss cord into a European adapter, which plugs into a British adapter, which plugs into the wall. Sheesh. I could have just brought the U.S. plug for my laptop because I'm at a hotel that has U.S. plugs as well as British plugs. I should have thought of that. Anyway, that's part of the fun of being an American living in Switzerland on a trip to Britain. And of course, no euros here. I had to get a pile of British pounds. I'm sure we'll be doing a family visit here sometime, though, so they won't go to waste.