"London...where my heart belongs" a London Travel Page by vivimero

London Today was the first day in London as with my usual luck I went to NINE WEST to buy a pair of brown shoes,the one that I am always looking for. The other day in Via Torino,at the Camper shop,the brown pair was sold out and today at NINE WEST,where the leather of the shoes is soft and you can walk, the brown shoes that also Paolo liked, were sold out in the number I needed. Can you believe it? This is UNLUCK. Paolo and I today went out from the tube at EMBARKMENT and walked along the gardens,saw the SAVOY hotel and walked and walked, I was sure to know where I was going but Paolo left home the book, and I did the same. We saw a shop with all the movies stuff,as 12 inches action figures, magazines ect.There was a commercial that said that you can send a picture to this guy and he will make the face of a Barbie or GJ JOE with your features,that's too cool. Then we saw some shops but just Paolo bought a rusty sweater,that is the colour we call "mattone". We ate a sandwich and a smoothie at Pret a manger, and then we walked so much that stopped by for a tea and another half sandwich at AROMA (I went there with Giovanni). Saw some stuff at French Connection,brown short trousers, and accessorize,that I wanna go back.For other stuff…no good deals…for today.We are now waiting for Udu,so we will get back later to you. Saturday, 09 December 2000 We went to dine at my favourite place, TIGER LIL at Clapham Common tube station, but this time I over did with the sauce on the food as I choose before a mild one with coconut and some chilly just on pineapple, then I choose squids and I told the cooker…"Lil's special" that is so spicy that Paolo would have been effected. It was too much.I was crying. We saw a lovely scene this evening at the restaurant as on the table behind us there was a couple and he gave her during the dinner with friends the engagement ring. He was down on his knees…and she was very happy. Then I spotted on the queue a goodlooking young boy. He should have been maybe 20,you know the lordy type, very british, blue eyes, elegant, thin, high…anyway… he was drunk and gay as he was hugging like a lover his friend. Then Udu joined the line to have his second cup and the guy tried to hook him. REALLY. This is true. He was in a rugby team. For who doesn't know about TIGER LIL, you pick up in a cup row food,and there are seafood, veggies,meats ect.. and the 3 cookers make them up in the wok. Then you choose if you want noodles, sauces ect…chilly… Paolo said that in Italy a place like that could have close by the sanitary board in 2 days.They clean the wok with a spounge, over there…row food is on a stand… Yes, here they are morons, because TIGER LIL is a great place. The only think that shocks me about London is that they have mouses in the tube.
09/12/00 18:38:28 we are waiting for Sian.she is late. Udu is downstairs after a long day searching for his car that still lies in a mechanic yard in Camden.I still fear to hear phone calls on Monday by the union, I will let Amo answer. We walked in Notting Hill but there was Portobello so it was so crowded that was impossible to walk and we decided to head to Kensington, my area! Shopped a bit and found shoes but not in Nine West, also if they still have some nice black shoes. High heels.

Various stops were made for a tea or a hot chocolate, after miles and miles of walking. But even a short tea was quite a pricy break. Sunday for lunch we stopped by with Sian in a PIZZA HUT AND WE choose the filled crust (mozzarella's) large one topped with peppers, spicy pork and pineapple, ham and …so on. I had the feeling that Sian was bored by all the walking and shopping we made instead of going to see some exhibitions, but Paolo was more interested in walking around.Oh, saturday in Kensington he wanted to stop by for lunch in a fake Kentucky fried chicken, where we had the HOT CHICKEN burger, and the sauce was hot. I didn't want that kind of food but he likes it. Another time we stopped for lunch in PIZZA HUT for the ALL U CAN EAT buffet (£ 4.99) but ordering a large pizza maybe is just better as you don't have to fight with onions all around the slices. 12-12-2000 The British Midland misadventure I am finally back from London but we did with a day delaying because BRITISH MIDLAND cancelled the flight after 2 hours we were waiting. It was shocking, even because they don't re-booked for us the flight but I had to do it with my mobile, and thanks God I had it because otherwise...I think they had to rebook the flight for us, as they should have done that by the Warsaw Agreement.I should go to see the IATA web site and what they say about that. Anyway, suddenly as we were all already at the gate # 25, Heathrow'airport- but at 9,30 instead of 7,30...the girl said that the flight was cancelled because of the weather. No hotel, no meal vouchers, no explanations,just a telephone number to rebook. This is simply unbelievable.Then we went downstairs to catch the luggage. LOST. The guy SAM of the luggage claim in the airport made some phone call and he came out with "they never left the airport, so they should be somewhere around here". You can see, this was a very supportive and professional, exaustive answer. We went upstair, trying to ask to the lady of the customer service. She was RUDE and said not to be upset, and to....calm down! she was even upset by our request! Unbelievable. English tourists in Italy, if ever would have happened something in one of our airports they would have made a fuss like, "always the same, those italians" and I might say the same of your company.... BRITISH MIDLAND doesn't have a customer care service, this is sure and I am thinking and asking myself why Lufthansa cooperates with them. People really didn't inquired about the luggage at all and you wanna know why? Because we found out once arrived in Milan that the 2 suitcases were already there arrived with the previous flight that the lady of the check in, first of all, should have suggested us as we arrived in the airport 3 hours before. Usually...it's done this way. So I wonder what people was doing while they said they were enquiring about my
luggage. A siesta? Well, no suitcases....a flight that MAYBE was not even leaving at 7.30 the morning after because of this bad weather that was covering London.Where, I have no idea. unprofessionals and SCROOGEs those British Midlanders. We slept in the bloody Heathrow the whole night..if sleeping can be used here.

No place, we had to move a set of 6 benches because it was put right behind a door that was always opening letting inside a fresh air. Plus...the BAA shut down the heater at the night time so the lobby was even colder.Paolo let me wear his duvet, as he was fine with his HUGE WOOL water proof, weather proof sweater. He should have survived in the POLE, and infact I survived with 2 jackets on to the night in the airport. It was like the time was never flying (and with British Midland...nothing ever flies correctly) , we spent time with 2 other italian couples, one old man with his wife that was telling stories about his trips (always with a sad end) and 2 young boys of Legnano that I suppose to be still in London as they were not able to book again on the flight of 7,30 am and the one of 1 o'clock that they were supposed to take was cancelled. So it said the girl here in Malpensa. They were on the waiting list for our flight but, even if not full, we haven't seen any of them. Have they called people on the waiting list or was too much of a hard work to do for more than 100 people at the desks b and D of the company? Anyway....finally they started to work again at 5 am. First shift. Still no nice people. Maybe being NOT NICE,SNOBBISH and UNFAIR was part of the requested notions on the CV you have to send to BM. Still no news about the luggage. They didn't want me to fullfill the form for the claim because they wanted to give all the messy job to the people in Italy. Asking again about the luggage: "don't worry guys...it's on your flight this morning, it's tracked with you..." yes...it was already in Italy. Another woman, the most unpleasant one that was teaching something to a indian man (maybe how to be unpolite) ,even walked away trying to show us that she was cooperating. OOOPPPPS! The morning after, THE LIE of the wind blowind like a hurricane on Heathrow, turned out to be a JUMBO of the British Airways gone out of track and stopping a lane to take off. NOT ALL the flights were cancelled that day, just some (mine....ah,ah). The Independent reports an article about the plane. At this point I should have had an hotel room by the company and a meal, but they lied about the reason so they didn't spend a penny on us, leaving 800 people with nothing for one long and chilly night. Hoping they will have a great profit for the investors this year with all that they saved. This is all about the misadventure....hope nobody will use them again.
Then headed to Covent Garden..too busy also there. Found the wheel, it's at Embarkment so we will get there tomorrow morning or Monday. We went to Maroccan restaurant called La Kasba and we had couscous the Royal one with lamb and chicken = hot sausage that I was still digesting after 3 hours. Then we went to see the new movie with Woody Allen, "2 small crooks" that was very funny. I always like him.Sian slept over and it's the 2nd day we are trying to connect to the net as it's impossible to do it with this telephone line, you have to do something that we are not able to do. Will wait for Udu. Sunday night we went ut for dinner again. Udu suggested the spanish place "La Rueda" that he likes a lot but honestly it is always so crowded that we had to pass. We waited a bit and watched some TV, a James Bond movie's if I don't remember bad, and we headed off to South Bank (Waterloo station also) to check out about the LONDON EYE, the panoramic wheel. I tought it was open in the night time but opens just till 6 pm.