London Town, Crazy Ben, & The House With The Orange Door. - Getting Lost

November 11, 2004

London Town, Crazy Ben, & The House With The Orange Door.

Well, after some fiaso upon arrival - I had to kill time until midnight on Tuesday before I could meet up with Ben after work-, I met the very unique, very animated, VERY french, Ben. Among his first words to me were these:

"I'm French, AND i'm a chef, I'm a fucking cliche!"

He's a tall, gangly guy with cornrow dreadlocks, stretched earlobes, and tattoos running the length of both arms. A Pleasant, wild-eyed weirdo, he has great taste in music, good humor, and excellent english once you get over his thick accent. We met up on the Tube (that's subway to you and me) and we took the night bus back to the house in N. London. The house with the orange door is a very artsy, colorfull place chock-full of character and multiple housemates; All of whom bent over backwards to make me feel both comfortable and welcome. Both Ben and myself passed out instantly; he exhaused from his double-shift. and I, so travelworn there were tire-tracks down my aching back.

He was long gone by the time I woke around noon on wednesday.

I conversed with Ben's housemates for a while, picked up a set of keys, and hit the town for a tourist extravaganza. I tubed into central London, walked around Piccadilly and Oxford Circus(es) and grabbed breafast. Then it was off to walking, and walking.. I hoofed to Buckingham Palace, Parliment, Wesminster Abbey, Big Ben, Whitehall, Tower Of London, and London bridge. All told I must have walked a good 10 mi. down the banks of the river Thames. After dark I popped into a hostel to meet with an online friend who was in town, had a few pint's at Belushi's, and snagged the last tube back to Harlesden and Ben's Floor.

Today I just slept late, bummed around, set myself up with a cell #, and wrote Emails. I'm meeting Ben in about 20 minutes for drinks in Camden Market.

I'm gonna call it good for now, this was really acatch-up synopsis of events, expect more introspection and humor when i'm posting daily. It wouldn't hurt if some more folks commented either, instead of lurking :P I miss you guys.

Posted by Caleb on November 11, 2004 12:39 PM
Category:

Comments

Yes, I'm lurking.

BTW, Thanks for coming to the party at my house. Sorry I couldn't be more social, I was in "host" mode.

Posted by: doughnut on November 11, 2004 01:28 PM

ohhh yeah! I want to meet ben now :-) perhaps when i fly over... not date set yet :-(

no lurking from me... I am probably going to be commenting so much, you are going to feel like I am in your pocket before I even get there. And what a fine pocket it is at that ;-)

ya throw a fine party Doughnut... wish I had been more active, but I was feeling poorly, and was stuffed with good food. ohh... and was trapped by a 1974 playboy with great ads. the girls were cool... but the adverts.... yum!

Posted by: kati on November 11, 2004 03:29 PM

Well well well... My old arch something-or-other Doughnut.

I will see if I can hook you up with my friend Artis while you are in London Caleb. I worked with him at VMC doing Xbox stuff. he is a cool cat going to LIPA. Good musician and a great conversationalist.

BIZKeT

Posted by: BIZKeT on November 11, 2004 05:14 PM

Glad to see that Ben is being a good but crazy host...He is one of my favorite people! Give him a huge hug for me! I am happy to see that you are finding your way around london...hopefully the A to Z has helped loads. You should seriously go down to Bournemouth even if just for an evening...especially Sat....they will take very good care of you too! They promised and I quote "Hilary, any friend of yours if of course a friend of ours." So feel free to give Bart a call...he's expecting it! Anyway, I look forward to seeing you when I get into London...I'll give you the Hilary Lobitz Deluxe tour of London for cheap american bastards like myself...anyway i'll call you soon! Take care and say hi to the Queen!

x Hilary

ps I realize this is the longest comment ever!

Posted by: Hilary on November 12, 2004 02:32 AM

Feel free to Lurk, it's hardly mandatory to comment, just nice to know that there's someone reading is all ;).

Posted by: Caleb on November 12, 2004 10:42 AM

Hey Caleb,
I realized that I never got copies of those pictures we took of Takara right before you left. Do you still have them? And if so can you email me copies? The were some of the best I've seen of her.

Hope everything is going well!

Hi Hilary...
Let me know when you've got a perfomance coming up in Portland. I'd love to come see it.

Hugs,
~Si

Posted by: Siona on November 13, 2004 06:49 PM

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