Getting current

Wednesday morning 6 Apr 5 0400
Draining my battery in the silent dining room. Too hot and too noisy and too pumped to sleep. We slid in and down over the North Sea, leaving the storybook farmland of Belgium and the Netherlands behind. More of the same on the other side. Flat farmland and increasing motorways and urban sprawl as we came in up the Thames estuary, did a couple of loops around a beacon east of London – tantalising glimpses of the metropolis if I risked neck injury. And then we were on the glide path, great views of the city out of my window, and down , down, over urban fringe until we hit England with a thump and roar of reverse thrust. A long taxi past dozens of huge jetliners, and then we were disembarking. The young lady in the aisle seat left her book behind in the pocket, and I asked if I could have it. Registered it, stickered it up and released it in the queue through immigration on one of those benches for writing entry cards.

Customs was a doddle. Declared my Tim-Tams to a chap in a turban, and he sent me through the green channel.

Had a quick look for anyone meeting me, not that I was expecting anybody on a workday. My bright yellow Bookcrossing bag signalled my presence.

Bus to the tube station and a change at sunny South Kensington. Getting hot under my cotton top, lifting these bags up and down flights of stairs. It all looks very normal, different signage and brand names aside. The Underground looks to be very user-friendly, with a lot of thought put into colour-coding and systems.

Blackfriars Station. More stairs and then a trundle of a few hundred metres along streets that are just on the edge of odd. The green man/red man rhythm is off. Washington has the best system I’ve seen, counting down the seconds. I’m not game to take chances crossing roads, not with so much baggage and a lack of familiarity. The dome of St Pauls, glimpsed above office buildings, gives me a thrill.

Hot by the time I reach my hostel and the first thing I do is take a shower and get into fresh clothes. Makes a world of difference. Another cold shave – I work out how to get hot water into the basin only when I finish. Odd system. Cold water comes out of the red tap and to get hot water on the other tap, move the toggle backwards. Hmmm.

Five beds in my room. None occupied. I yearn for horizontal, but the day is fine and I still have a few hours before dark.

St Pauls. I don’t go in, but I take a picture of Bilbo Kiwiberry (who is sitting beside me as I write, his long nose teetering him forward occasionally). A wide walkway leads south across the river over a footbridge, and I take it, the Great slab sides of the Tate Modern beckoning me in. I don’t yield. Later.

Walk back over a different bridge, find a post office and get a couple of books in the post for British customers. I save weeks in delivery time and many dollars in postage. And get to see the inside of a British Post Office. As yet they haven’t succumbed to the Australian disease of turning themselves into office supplies and souvenir supermarkets, and it’s all a little quaint. Layer upon layer of modernisation over what must have been a grand old Victorian post office.

Starbucks across the road, and I enquire about WiFi. Starbucks at Ludgate Hill, the chap behind the counter tells me. Apparently the signal from the hotel next door leaks in. It’s just a block or so away, but I can’t make it work, and fork over 30 pounds, about 75 Aussie dollars for a week’s access to the Starbucks-approved network. Considering that the internet machines in the hostel take four pounds an hour and I don’t have the convenience and security of my own machine if I go that route, it’s a no brainer. Mind you, I may yet spend a fortune on coffee. Filling up my yellow mug takes 1.35 pounds, so you can add that to the hourly rate!

I spend a pleasant couple of hours until it closes at seven. Even manage to find a power outlet. Take a picture of Bilbo Kiwiberry making a journal entry. Release a book in the brochure rack. Catch up on mail and Bookcrossing. Rarsberry has uploaded her pictures from the flash mob into the Convention journal and has done an excellent job. There’s a couple of me, flat out.

Speaking of flat out, I was increasingly conscious of a need to get a bit of sleep. I went back to my hostel, had a meal of fish and chips in the café – a very ordinary serve of fish and chips that wouldn’t be out of place in any takeaway in Australia – and got my head down a bit after eight. I wasn’t the first in bed, neither.

I zonked off quickly enough, and the next thing I knew it was eleven o’clock. “Cripes!” I said to one of the other inhabitants, when I glanced at my watch with its multiple time zones and dials “Have I slept through breakfast?”

“No, it’s still night.” came the amused reply.

But I was awake at three the next morning. Too hot to sleep, and too noisy. Someone in the room was snoring, and it wasn’t me!

So I got up and typed my notes made on the plane, found BBC’s 24 hour news show in the lounge, and registered a few of the books on the shelf. All at once. I won’t say that the ergonomics of this comfy chair and low table are the best, but it’s quiet and convenient.

Looks like a fine day today. However, the forecast is for a decline in the weather, so after breakfast I’ll make my plans for the rest of the day. I’d like to walk down to Old Kent Road and kick off the book.

Test email

As suggested, I'm trying out the email upload feature. This will, in theory,
allow me to make entries offline and upload them automatically whenever I
get access.

Pete's Day

This was intended to be my day off to recover from travel, but I can't say
that I've needed much in the way of recovery. Yet.



The forecast was for heavy rain, and after a bit of thought I decided not to
head all the way out to Old Kent Road. It's a long walk and I don't have an
umbrella. So I set off to have a quick look around nearby London. I found a
few books that could usefully be released, mainly 84 Charing Cross
Road, which Littlemave had given me specifically for the purpose.



But first, I checked out the "Go Hunting" page for London. Interestingly, this showed a book - a good book - within
easy range in time and space. So I had something to do with my day. Just to
sort of "get acquainted" with the place.



Navigation looked pretty simple - straight down Fleet Street/The Strand, and
turn right at the end. I knew that 84 Charing Cross Road wasn't quite where
the number sequence might indicate, but I also knew where it was, thanks to
thebiblioholic's research.



First step was to make sure that all my books were registered. I've been
using Mundoo's trick of using a preprinted label number and sticking in my
own label. I also use the preprint for jotting down notes about the book,
such as title and ISBN and release info. This is great for organisation, and
on the road, organisation is key. Usually after a day or so of living out of
bags, everything is in a terrific jumble.



Somehow I'd picked up a copy of The Da Vinci Code. I
thumbed through it for one of the London locations, and Temple Church hit my
eye. So that was my first objective.



I've got to say that London is full of churches. All of the most charming
sort constructed in the finest of style. Temple Church is no exception, and
the only difficult part was finding it. But it was found, and the book
released. With a couple of photographs. I'm not enough of a Da Vinci Code
fan to go inside and take a good shufti at the details. But hundreds do.
Thousands.



My photography isn't up to much - a large percentage of my shots are coming
out blurred. Perhaps it's the dim light or the excitement or something.



I've been looking for the New Zealand High Commission so as to let Bilbo Kiwiberry see
the place. I thought it might be near Australia House which was on my way,
but no.



Australia House was a good spot for releasing one of my favorite
Bookcrossing titles - An Indecent
Obsession. Like my release outside the Australian embassy in Washington,
I wondered if I might get shooed away by a security guard for leaving a
dodgy parcel outside, but no.



Trafalgar Square looked pretty bleak when i got to it. The wind was blowing
the spray form the fountains all over the shop, and I wondered about its
suitabiloity as a release location. Thousands of tourists, and if I left a
book there, it might not last long enough to be photographed.



The release notes mentioned an Orange Internet Cafe at Trafalgar Square.
Nothing struck my eye, although I'd spotted an Orange network cellphone shop
nearby, and possibly that was it.



I took a photograph or two of Bilbo on a convenient stand. He's hard to
photograph because he's so small and flimsy. If I stand back to get a decent
shot of a landmark, poor old Bilbo disappears down to a pixel or two. And
falls over or blows away. Actually, he hasn't blown away yet, but I live in
fear...



I poked around some of the nearby shops, and just as I was about to go and
hunt up that cellphone outlet, my eye was caught by an orange sign
advertising an Internet cafe. Aha!



Inside were rows and rows of computers and my heart sank. Anything left here
wouldn't last long. And there had been no specific location instructions,
such as "Beside terminal 20". But I walked up and down a bit, and there it
was! just lying there beside a young man furiously internetting away.



"Is this your book?" I asked, and he said it wasn't, which meant it was
mine!



As is my custom, when I find a wild release, I leave one of my own books
there in its place, just in case someone turns up on their own hunting
expedition. So I pulled out a book with an appropriate title, and left it in
Captain Corelli's place. Pictures from an
Expedition, complete with pictures.



That really made my day. So often I go hunting and never see the book I'm
searching for. Wild catches are few and to be treasured when they happen. So
I was on a bit of a high as I went up Charing Cross Road.



Bookshops aplenty, and I staunchly resisted temptation. I kept an eye on the
numbers, and I saw the Pizza Hut that one might expect to be at Number 84.
But just over the road was the real deal. I checked that there was a plaque
advertising the history, and that it had a Bookcrossing sticker on it. Yup
and yup!



Photography was important here, and I went across the road to check that I
could get a good shot. Starting to rain, and I sheltered in a phone box
while I stamped and stickered and bookmarked and ziplocked the book, making
sure I had the BCID in my Daytimer. Then back across the road. The only
decent spot was on the footpath at the base of a column. A bit out of the
main traffic flow, but not much.



Then i quickly recrossed the road and set up my shot.



As usually happens, the man with the walkie-talkie chose that moment to send
a stream of traffic my way. Big red London buses, blocking off the view. And
when the road was clear, someone would walk in front of me. Curses.



And then I saw a man walk past, hesitate, stop and bend down to pick up the
book. Arrrgh. It's OK, just don't walk off with it before I get my
photograph!



But he unwrapped it, studied it, and walked off with it. I got a reasonable
shot, and
I figured that there was a sporting chance that he'd journal the book - I
mean he'd obviously been attracted by the cover, and I suspect he'd made the
link as soon as he saw it. Right?



The finder is the chap in jeans and blue jacket under the sign saying
"Crossing Zone" (or something zone). He's looking at the Bookcrossing stuff.



And I'm hoping like mad he likes what he sees.



Anyway, he strode off before I could get anything like the photograph I
wanted, but that's OK.



I was so excited that I hunted up a nearby Internet cafe and made release
notes on the spot. For all the other books as well.



And for good measure, I released a book at my terminal. The mouse was a
little sticky, so the title "Of Mice and Men"
seemed appropriate.



On the way back, I spent a bit more than I should on a battery recharger -
for the camera - and a British extension lead so that I can write at night
in the cafe and be plugged in, rather than draining my battery. It's a nifty
little charger. it does NiMh, which is what I use nowadays, and it comes
with US prongs as standard - they flip out - and two adapters, one for UK
and one for Europe, which simply clip onto the prongs. It might be a while
before I can save enough on foreign battery purchases to make it worthwhile,
but it's a useful bit of kit, and light as a feather.



And now, if you don't mind, I'm feeling absolutely exhausted. Perhaps it's
something to do with all the yummy coffee I've been drinking, but I think
it's the lack of sleep and the walking around and the having a grand old
time.