London fire

Seeing pictures of billowing, black smoke over London gave me a small fright. However, it was a warehouse fire on the east end. It reminded me how I enjoyed a few days I spent in London in August 2005, only a month after a terrorist attack on the subway.

We flew on Air New Zealand from Los Angeles and the flight was quite comfortable. I got up at one point to stretch and check the time on my cell phone. Big mistake. A flight attendant quickly told me in no uncertain terms that if I didn't turn off my phone immediately, I would arrested upon arriving. I complied.

There were uniformed police at many of the subway entrances in London and they were quite pleasant. Quite a few were ladies who acted quite relaxed despite their uniform.

We stayed in a townhome on the west end, or do I write it with capitals as in West End?, where we had a comfortable second floor to ourselves.

Overall, I enjoyed the trip - we were only there about 3 days when we traveled to Exeter for a conference. I'd enjoy going back soon and even conducting business there.

Hey, if you know of anyone in London who needs a writer who can write English . . .

or perhaps in some other capacity. I hope the fire doesn't cast a pall over the city for long.