Andrew J. Lederer

Since I was too broke to drink (and eat, for that matter) as much as I have in previous years (of course, I wanted to drink less but whether I would have accomplished that goal without poverty is questionable), I actually lost weight in Edinburgh rather than growing fatter and more dissolute, which is my usual trajectory there.

I probably also benefited from a poverty-induced aversion not just to taxis but to buses and from my visits to Holmes Place gym from which I somehow managed to extract a free festival membership.

But here in London, I have no gym membership, free or otherwise, and the friend with whom I am staying makes paella and lemon chicken and brinks back enormous meat pies from the local fancy schmancy butcher shop(pe). I am clearly bigger than when I got here (though still smaller than when I got to Edinburgh) and would likely be bursting at my fleshy seams if not for the glories of my continuing poverty. To save money – which is even more necessary for me here than it was in Edinburgh – and also to stay fit, I have been walking nearly everywhere.

It's helped me figure out how the city fits together. When you take the tube, you duck into a hole and come out of another one and god know what happened in between – for all you know, you've been dimensionally transported through various wormholes and whatnots and haven't traversed the city underground at all. When you walk, you go from point a to point b experiencing all the fractional letters in between, just as they were intended to be experienced by the master builders who envisioned the future of this town in every detail (in my imagination, anyway).

I know I'm getting' better 'cause last week I was sitting on a bench in Notting Hill Gate reading a free evening paper when I received a text instructing me to meet a friend at the London Eye at 7, It was a quarter to 5 and I decided to walk south to Chelsea and across the Albert Bridge, then to follow the river on the south side 'til I hit the Eye.

It was a mistake for two reasons – 1. You gotta go way inland to get around the Power Station, which adds to unnecessary time to the journey. 2. The river is closer when you're on the north side of it in central London than it is when you're in Notting Hill Gate. In other words, If I had walked to central London via NHG/Bayswater Road/Oxford St., I would have had a much walk to the river than I had from where I began my southward trek.

As a result, at 7, I had only hit Lambeth (almost). My friend and I had to meet further west and I felt a failure.

Not so, however, on Sunday, when I tested my theory and got from my friends place (some fifteen minutes farther west than Notting Hill Gate) to the NFT (farther east than the Eye) in about an hour and 40 min. And I've since figured even shorter routes! (Ah, London is my town.)

Last night, I was walking the brief hour and change it takes to get where I'm staying from Tottenham Court Road, when the heavens parted and poured their liquid bounty upon me. Now, I can take a lot but I'm not a goddam monk. So, I decided – pennies be damned – I was going to take the bus.

But by the time I got to the bus stop I was already drenched. And I realized that even if I took the bus (it was too late for the tube), I would still have enough of a walk to the flat to get me well and truly waterlogged.. So, I decided to walk as long as I could take it and I ended up walking an hour in the pouring rain.

It cleared up toward the end and only my trousers were heavy with liquid anti-drought by the time I was finished – the rest of me was fairly dry.

But I gotta get some money.

(And not eat so much.)

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Last edited by andrewjlederer on Wed Sep 20, 2006 1:44 pm; edited 1 time in total