September 4th 2025
Started out difficult. American Airlines talked about possibly flying to Chicago with no bathroom available. Didn't sound like a great idea. But the issue was alleviated, so to speak.
We came off the plane in Chicago to find that Randi’s bag got damaged. The handle was only connected to one of the two posts and left only the one sticking up. It looked like a cane. It still sort of worked but not great to see the bag break on the first leg of a month long journey like had ahead of us. We were pretending that maybe the ‘cane bag’ could become the new style in London.
We came back meet their beautiful young adult daughter Devon, who we had not seen since she was eight maybe? Devon is social media influencer. She is trying to get to a 15k followers plateau. I think I said that right. I really don’t understand it. I still only influence a few family members and friends and they don't always like it.
We also met Devon‘s friend, Malaak, who has lived with them for the last six months. Wonderful kids and good friends. Their black cat Geebs or GB kept us all entertained, watching him walking the walls of his new outdoor patio space. Geebs was very friendly and would look right at you with his beautiful emerald eyes.
Ross received delivery of his new bike shed, which most of his neighbors had in their front driveway, sans an automobile. He thought it came with assembly but they left many heavy boxes out in front and drove away. So we removed everything from the boxes and got a start on what turned out to be our weekend project. The good news is that someday I’ll have a round plaque on it commemorating my work.
Afterwards we went with Ross and Val for drinks at the Old Ship and then The Dove. We had a couple Sipsmiths orange flavored gin and tonics…really good.
We each went over stories of how we met each other in the Guinness smallest bar room. Ross being present at the infamous SGI Sales conference weekend in Santa Monica, California, where Randi and I’s love story started.
Then out to dinner for Turkish food on High street, to a restaurant called Hatch Meyhane.
The next morning I woke up to hearing Val helping Ross putting together MY bike shed, so I got right out there. We finished the bike shed, mostly, before taking the Tube into London. We got off near St. Paul’s cathedral and bought tickets to climb to the top for a view of London.
The cathedral was founded in 604 AD and was built on a hill over the Roman town at the time of Londinium. That cathedral burned to the ground in the Great Fire of 1666. The current structure was completed in 1710 and was designed by the amazing Sir Christopher Wren. There was a display there showing the many accomplishments of Christopher Wren and what he meant to the design of the entire city of London. He was an architect, astronomer, mathematician, physicist and definitely not a slacker.
It's 540 steps to the top of the cathedral. Most of the steps being standard size with ample headroom but not all. The climb made Randi a bit nervous/tight. She said her calves hurt for the next few days because of it.
We did an audio tour of the cathedral and crypt that was very interesting. One of the more moving/disturbing displays I've ever seen in a church was the 7 minute video titled 'Martyrs (Earth, Air, Fire, Water)' 2014, from the artist Bill Viola. As the work opens, four individuals are shown at a time when there is a pause from their suffering. Gradually there is movement in each scene as an element of nature begins to disturb their stillness. Flames rain down, winds begin to lash, water cascades, and earth flies up. As the elements rage, each martyr's resolve remains unchanged. Finally it ends in their most violent assault, the elements represent the darkest hour of the martyr's passage through death into the light.
We had lunch at the Salad Project, which was like the Crisp and Greens back home and was very good. We walked around town a bit and ended up at a pub called the ‘Fox and Hound’ for more G&Ts.
That night we played Telestrations with their daughter Devon and her amicable live-in friend Malaak.
On Sunday morning we put some more finishing touches on my new pride and joy bike shed before going for a walk down Thames Way and over Hammersmith bridge. We went through an outdoor market. Along the way Ross gave me a pretty thorough explanation of cricket. I had almost no understanding of it prior to that but came away with a genuine interest now and am hoping to get a chance to watch a match sometime soon.
In the midafternoon we went for a traditional Sunday roast at a pub called Boars Head. We had a choice of Turkey or beef roast, with potatoes. Afterwards we walked along the river Thames in Chiswick, stopping at the ‘Bell & Crown’ and the ‘The Copper Cow’. All the pubs seemed to be offering a similar Sunday roast.
We came home to watch the NFL red zone and have Thai food delivered. The worst thing about that night is that we saw Aaron Rodgers threw for four TDs in his Pittsburgh debut. When I told Randi about it she just said “isshh”.
The tube went on strike the next morning and we took a very expensive Mercedes 750E Uber the next morning. Fortunately we were able to borrow Ross’s special British F5 carry-on, and then could exchange our bags back again in a month when,
we returned back through London.
we returned back through London.
