The Misspent Life

Settling Down for the Summer

I feel like I am 19.  Well, perhaps that isn't correct.  I don't actually feel like I am 19 since I am no longer as spry and limber as I once was now that I am edging ever closer to the big three naught.  But as I look around me I see 19 year old things.  You see, I am living in a dormitory for the summer.

In London

I am now writing this to you from London, where I am for a few days visiting a friend who works in the City.  Gosh, things are expensive.  And crowded.  It is much more crowded than I remember, but then I don't think I ever have been here in the summer.  All my previous trips have been in the Spring or Fall. 

Let me tell you something.  Never fly from Miami to London on American.  Their first class is not as good as other carrier's business class--I am thinking of Lufthansa, specifically.  Not worth it.

I walked around the City today and took in the National Gallery and the British Museum.  Unfortunately, half of the National Gallery was closed for some repairs for the weekend so I missed out on their later galleries.  The British Museum was good, except they let you take pictures which means that you have to move around dozens of people with their cameras out getting pictures of the statues and themselves next to the statues and their friends next to the statues, etc.

I also took a trip down Jermyn Street and stopped off to get some shaving soap from Trumpers.  Using fancy soap and a badger brush is one of my small luxuries that makes living in penury not as bad as it could be.  It gives a man a measure of dignity unavailable to him otherwise.  Speaking of dignity, or rather lack of, here is a picture that will probably make you mad. Most of you have heard about it, since The Roger wrote about it in The New Criterion when it was first unveiled (I can't link to the article since their website is problematic).

Disgraceful.  But I will not dwell on the sad state of Britain since that would take all day, and we are all in kind of a sad state when you think about it.