Getting to Islay is actually rather difficult. Especially if you have to be on the ground dialed into things for work at certain times as I do. So today is spent traveling. Early morning flight out of Gatwick up to Glasgow. I have to say, the security at Gatwick is quite fancy. All automated stuff and facial recognition. Despite that it still takes forever because I get hung up because they think my fancy laser cut, steel comb (Thanks Dad) is a knife. Get through that, short flight up to Glasgow and then an eight hour layover. I spend the day in their “lounge” working before my flight to Islay where I think we spent a total of… 15 minutes actual flight time. This is despite the fact that it’s like a five hour drive. Finally land on Islay, meet my driver for the weekend and head to my hotel the Bridgend Hotel. Which is a cute, no frills B&B more than anything. This place and the petrol station down the way are the only things on this part of tehe island. So I’m grateful when the girl at the desk inform me that they had booked me a table for dinner that night unbidden… because no where else to eat. They have Lagavulin for $5 a glass so I have that and their fresh caught Islay seafood platter which was quite good and included… just about everything before heading to sleep.

Productivity has not been nearly where it needs to be the past couple of days and tomorrow I’m leaving for Islay so once again today I’ve just buckled down and worked on finalizing that trip and getting some other things done. Some of which are annoyingly time consuming without the processing power of my old desktop. Had a quick bite in our restaurant and then attempted to take the train to Gatwick airport so I’d be near by for my early flight in the morning.

Holy crap! So glad I did that. Leg one of the journey is fine, hoof it up to our train station with my bags and take the Overground out to where I’m supposed to change trains. Hustle over to my platform and waiting… Train is delayed due to a “delay” (their precise words). No worries, I sit down and wait. It finally turns up and it’s a complete madhouse. People packed to the gills. Well the board says another one is coming in 15 so I figure I’ll just wait. Naturally… that train never shows up either. I find an alternate, slightly slower, train that’s still going to Gatwick. That one is delayed as well. Finally a train pulls in (that I thought wasn’t supposed to even stop at our platform, or so the sign said) and I see a bunch of people rushing on yelling that this one is going to Gatwick so I follow. Well it takes me all of one stop to realize that this train is not going to Gatwick and is, in fact, heading in the total opposite direction. Finally, I say “fuck it” get off and call and Uber to take me to my hotel… which I should have done in the first place.

Dropped off at my hotel for the evening, safe and sound. It’s right across from the terminal so it’ll be easy to catch a 6:30 flight in the morning. Checking in and they can’t find my reservation! I show them my reservation number. “Oh, you want the Premier Inn.” Confused I take a step back and eye the sign behind the counter which reads… “Premier Inn.” I look at this girl in confusion. Turns out there’s actually two and I’m at the wrong one but if I go outside and look up I’ll see the big “Premier Inn” sign and that’s where I want to be. Unfortunately, that’s the exact process that led me to THIS Premier Inn but whatever. Off I go into the night, trudging over highways and through medians with my bags before finally making it to my Premier Inn!

Another morning out with a free walking tour in London. My vague understanding was that this was the same company that did the walking tours we did in Belgrade. Truth be told I liked the Belgrade tours better but that had more to do with the guides. I think I’ve mentioned that the Serbians are easily the nicest folks I’ve encountered so far. We walked around to all the predictably major tourist sites in Westminster; Trafalgar Square, St. James Park/Palace, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben etc. The timing was such that we also got to see the changing of the guard. Which I thought was cool, I didn’t realize how much ground that ceremony actually covered. After that I had to rush up to our Bedford Square office to be in position for work… only to find that the internet there wasn’t working. I went to another place called the Timberyard which is a co-working/coffee place that was also awesome.  I spent the rest of the day there and in the evening just went and walked around town until I ended up down on the Thames at this place The Understudy which is at the national theater.. Had a few drinks there and then came home.

Having at least attempted to catch up on work yesterday I wanted to get out into the city today. In the morning some of us went to the British Museum, which a person could literally spend days in. Only having the morning I focused on their Egyptian galleries which are , as near as I understand these things, fairly renowned. As I was walking out I ran into a group who was headed over to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese which is a famous old (1600’s?) English pub. In true London fashion it was raining the whole way so I ended up getting quite wet before we arrived. I think it helped me appreciate English cuisine because when you’re cold and wet nothing sounds better than steak and ale pie and a dark beer. After lunch I went over to The Hoxton Hotel which basically lets folks use their lobby as a co-working space. I’ll certainly be returning there. I’ve been needing a haircut since some time in Belgrade so in the evening I went to Ruffians to finally get my hair cut. It’s a cool place, little hipster for my taste but they handed me a beer as soon as I walked in so they met with my approval. I decided to keep the British Pub thing going (partly because I’d just spent something like $100 on a haircut) and I headed up the street to the Lamb & Flag for dinner.

The weekends where we change cities always set me back a bit on work. Between packing, unpacking and arrival and departure festivities I always lose so much time. That means today is rather uneventful. We had our city orientation meeting and for me the rest of the day was just spent with my head in my laptop trying to get ahead on work as well as plan some side trips. One of which is this coming weekend. I had a decent pizza for dinner in the restaurant in our building and that was that.

First day in London and the thing that strikes me as I walk outside… is that I wasn’t immediately hit by a wall of heat. In fact, it’s quite nice out. As with all first days my plan is to just wander aimlessly around and get my bearings. Despite my… extremely limited… exposure to all public transport thus far in my life I take the underground into the city and wander around. I hit some of the major tourist sites; Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, The Eye, Buckingham Palace etc. Nothing in depth, just strolling by to see where things are. I had lunch at Burger & Lobster, a place that only serves… burgers and lobsters. Foolishly I opted for the burger which was just ok. Then I made my way back to The Collective for our welcome event, which ended up being quite cool. We took a double decker bus tour through the city complete with champagne. After we were dropped off things went as they normally do and we hit as many pubs as possible before calling it a night.