We moved from a hellish hotel suite nine stories above a not very-well-buried-at-all Underground (the Circle and District lines). So it was trains every 20 minutes. Also we had a view. Which you never get in London. There are no views cuz everything is equally short. But this building, on a forgotten highway named for Oliver Cromwell was very tall, train infested, and pretty horrible. Also, just in case you think NYC rents are high -- that place rented for $5000/month for a studio! We are now in a studio duplex that's only $4000/month in Chelsea. Not too bad. Glad I'm not paying it. Rents are horrible. And it's actually cheaper to buy a place, but that's extremely expensive. And food is twice to 3 times more expensive than in NYC. Unbelievably brutal. The subway system was designed before anyone came up with the concept of express and local trains, so it is local all the way (Imagine the 4 and 5 running on the 6 track all the time, and at half the speed of the 6 and twice the delays.) And it's more expensive and based on a horrible zone system.

The buses are cooler, though. It's great going upstairs and sitting in the front. That's the best view in london. The other day the terrorists struck and blew up a bridge. I think the bridge is still standing, but it's closed for several months. Traffic is now worse because of it. Diane and I almost got on a bus today, but then decided to walk instead to the Portobello road market. We stayed consistently ahead of the bus the whole way!

Anyway, the old place had great cable TV, and a terrible internet connection, so i lost two weeks of my life to the TV. Saw Polanski's first film, A Knife in Water, that got him an Oscar nomination and an escape from Poland, and set him on the road to fame and fortune and his wife being murdered by Manson. It's a cool film about competitive behavior between an older and a younger man on a small sailboat. Crazy ending. crazy like a fox.