Africa Journal - Changes in Longitude

Africa Journal

London Preface

September 13, 1995

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Changes in Longitude

We arrive in London at 12:45 PM after eleven hours in the plane and crossing eight time zones. We are connecting with a South African flight which will take us to Johannesburg, but have extended the connection to permit three nights in London. I fall asleep in the taxi on the ride from the Heathrow. Determined to beat jet lag, we resist the strong temptation to nap, and explore the shops and pubs in the Mayfair neighborhood of the hotel. It is a beautiful, warm and sunny afternoon. London sparkles.

Sigrid has a clipping of a letter to the travel section of the August 27 issue of the San Francisco Examiner. The letter favorably describes Lumleys, a small restaurant in Covent Garden, and mentions the manager Roberto. We seek out the restaurant, and enjoy an excellent meal of salmon in a light filo crust accompanied by perfectly cooked vegetables and a light cream of onion soup. After the meal, we ask our waiter if we can speak to Roberto. He looks at us and says "Oh. You must be from San Francisco." Roberto had not worked there since April, and since the letter was printed, they have had a steady stream of Californians through the restaurant, all asking for Roberto. We have a beer at a pub near the hotel, and having accomplished our objective of staying up until 10:00 PM, drag ourselves back to the hotel and collapse.

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NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: This is a back-post / cross-post from my first on-line journal/blogging effort - a journal of our Southern Africa Tour in 1995. Originally posted here, the term "blog" had not yet entered the parlance.   I am migrating the original posts to this blog  and the links to original journal Date Index or Africa Tour Home Page will likely eventually disappear.