bye London

Rosemary is sad to see me go back to the States.

4 Tisbury Court, Soho

Was still able to find it instinctively from Picadilly tube after 20 years.

--
Andria Tay
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spikely.com
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art exhibit?

No, just a depressing display of modern travel at Stansted security.

Electric House

Went to see "Nochnoi Dozor" member's screening, though we missed the first half hour due to a combination of waking up late and Maryann totally underestimating how long it takes to walk from her house. We liked what we saw, though, sort of Crow meets Matrix meets Prophecy or something. Went upstairs at the house after to lazily read the papers and have brekkie.  

cool bar

Beach Blanket Babylon in Westbourne Park. Terrible name, awesome building with lots of cool details and little warrens all over.

sometimes a hill...

Notting Hill actually is a hill-or at least more so than New York's so-called Murray Hill which is barely a gentle slope.

Rough Trade

Cool! They still have a record shop here.

Kensington Gardens

Taking a nice break for a nibble and chai tea latte here in Kensington Gardens, where there are quite a few people despite it being a little overcast today. Last night, after meeting up with Graham at Paddington for sushi on his way to Heathrow to go out on tour with the Bloodhound Gang, delivered Michele back to St. Pancras for her train. I met up with Maryann Bowers at Soho House for drinks.

Royal Garden Hotel

Will always be special to me.

Portobello Road

Utter madness on a Saturday!

the real Vernon Yard

Also the name of the label home of the Verve, this is just a little mews (interesting pun) in Notting Hill, just off Portobello Road.

Paddington

...And 15 minutes later, as advertised, we glide into Paddington station. Ah, the old stomping grounds-everything so familiar, like coming home, really.

first night out

Just a few more stops to Soho to meet up with MA and Lozza at Wagamama. I'm starving! Mind the gap...

monkey lights

In a Soho storefront.

Heathrow Express

Boy, am I beat. Didn't get much sleep on the plane unfortunately, had a huge headache that made me a bit queasy. Much better now that I'm here, though!

the other Maryann

Met up with Maryann Bowers at Soho House for drinks Friday night. Had not seen her in probably 2 years! She also looks great and is settling down in London after a tough first year or so and nearly 4 years married to Andy Melchior. Serendipity led her into a position as Product Manager for Live 8 and she's since been consulting for telcos on entertainment projects. Andy had just spent the week with Mick Rock shooting 20 bands for GQ's style issue, so was pretty fried but rallied to come out to see me before he heads off to Cambridge, Manchester and Berlin.

Michele

Dear Michele came down from Nottingham, but a little later than expected after having managed to nearly asphyxiate herself with suede spray the night before, bless her. She'd sold a pair of thigh-high boots on eBay for an extremely nice profit (112 times what she paid for them!), and was cleaning them up like the blue-star eBay seller she is, but soon found herself coughing and having great difficulty breathing. Scary stuff! Luckily she managed to avoid a trip to the hospital, and rallied to come down to London on a later train, though still having periodic coughing fits and having to take it a little slow the first day about town. We also hooked up with Natasha later in the evening for drinks at Harvey Nick's 5th floor bar. She looks fantastic and seems very happy at Sony Computer Entertainment; sadly I forgot to take a photo of her!