Day 1: Meeting our Host

Ah, good ol’ Heathrow airport, finally. Les and I were planning to take the train to our host for the weekend…you may know him, Peter Chan. He was one of my groomsmen at our wedding and is one of my best friends. He moved out to London earlier this year for his job at the Willy Wonka Factory, and he was nice enough to move in time to provide us lodging for our trip. What a guy. He was even nice enough to hire a driver to pick us up at the airport! Unfortunately, he didn’t request a pick-up for Mr. Belvedere as I had asked.


One thing we didn’t do last year was drive or take a taxi in London. That’s probably a good thing because traffic here stinks. I mean, 5 miles = 1 hr. Single lane roads, stop lights everywhere. I thought the Sunol Grade traffic was bad. What is impressive is that everyone is a pretty good driver though. I suppose when everyone drives either a Mercedes, BMW, Mini, Ferrari, or Rolls, you would probably tend to be careful of others. I think I saw a Prius around at one point, but no.

So we finally got to Peter’s apartment, and interestingly enough, it was almost exactly like his place in the Marina: 1 tiny bedroom with oversized mattress, 1 living area, small upgraded kitchen, guitar near the stereo, and bike in the corner. Come to think of it, it’s the same as his place in NY. Even though we haven’t seen him in a long while, it’s kinda like we’re back home. I guess it says something about a good comfort level with this guy. (Ladies, he’s single!)

Anyways, we take a stroll around the area…he lives in a fairly gen-x typish sort of neighborhood. Think Haight and Ashbury. They have this wall around the corner that artists paint with new murals every 2 wks or so. Legal graffiti, if you will.

Next, we headed over to a Café/Clothing store that apparently had the “Best Barista in Europe” or something. I don’t drink expressos, but I think the cool thing was how he made a picture of a flower with the cream. What a great pick-up trick.


Fish and chips. Check.
Strawberry Beer. Check.
Odd look from the bartender when I ordered it. Check.
Dinner at Jamie Oliver’s restaurant, Fifteen. Check.
Finding out who Jamie Oliver is. Check.