An American [Corporate Serf] in London

Recommendations for those heading to London...

Key:
Recommended
Neutral
Lame/Disgusting

Tourist Sites

Tate Modern – Skip the Tate Britain (the British don’t do art very well), the Tate Modern is the MoMA of Europe and well worth the visit

National Portrait Gallery – Unless you like looking at hundreds of portraits of dead aristocracy this waste of time should be avoided completely

National Gallery – Although impressive, it would be my second pick (Tate Modern wins!) if I was to go to only one art museum in London

Buckingham Palace – Rarely can visitors get into the actual Palace, the changing of the guards is disappointing pageantry.

Tower Bridge – Almost everyone thinks THIS is London Bridge, but in reality, the Tower Bridge is more spectacular than the lame-looking London Bridge.

London Bridge – I wish it fell down, and then this piece of concrete would be more interesting. This is actually the 3rd London Bridge, the first, as you may have heard…fell down. The 2nd is in Lake Havasu City, Arizona because some crazy American millionaire is, indeed, crazy. This is the 3rd, end of story.

Museum of London – Lame. If you go around seeing stuff in London, you wouldn’t have to go to this museum. Besides the history of London was fairly well described in

Victoria & Albert Museum – A must see! Britian’s collection of the world’s cultural treasures after nearly 600 years of global rule.

The British Museum – Also impressive, similar to the V&A, but I would see the V&A first, over the BM

Tower of London – executioner’s paradise and full of the world’s largest gemstones and things. Get your money’s worth by poking fun at the Beefeaters and taking pictures. But not too much fun…

Hyde Park (and Hyde Park corner) – save this for Sunday morning when all the crazies come out to speak about their crazy ideas. This is the only spot that the monarchy decreed is was okay to not face persecution from slander laws including disparaging remarks about the monarchy.



Architectural Highlights

· London City Hall
· Westminster Abbey
· St. Paul’s Cathedral
· London Eye
· Royal Albert Hall
· Shakespeare’s The Globe Theatre
· Parliament (w/ special guest: Big Ben)


The Essential Triangle
· Leicester Square
· Covent Garden
· Trafalgar Square

The Essence of London Activities

High Tea – There’s really only two places to do this proper: The Ritz and The Lanesborough.

Yo! Sushi – Tokyo-style conveyor belt wraps deliciousness around you; you pay per plate by color of the plate after you’re full

Nightclubs – While I only heard about incredible stories of China White, wikitravel also suggests Café de Paris, China White, Funky Buddha, Mahiki, Number One Leicester Square, and Paper. If you are into house like I am, then it is an absolute MUST that you visit, the original and premier house venue: The Ministry of Sound!!!

Take a double decker bus at night, sit on the 2nd floor in the front – that is, if there aren’t other drunk American tourists/students there already!

Shop on High Street – now you’re a baller baby!

Foods to try (for non-vegetarians)
Bangers n’ mash
Fish n’ chips
Yorkshire Pudding
Shepard’s Pie
Cornish Pastie

Foods to try (from grocery store)
· Twinnings tea
· Digestives
· Marmite

Beers to try
· Fuller’s London Pride (The Bud of London)
· Carling
· Boddington’s
· Guinness (It’s NOT like the one in America! It’s MUCH better!)
· Kronenburg 1664 (technically French, but still a staple)
· Magner’s Cider – for the girls, but give it a go

Old School Pubs
· The George Inn
· Jerusalem Tavern
· Ye Olde Mitre
· The French House
· The Coach and Horses

Useful notes

Take the Tube from Heathrow into the city; not a taxi – cabs will take just as long and will cost you 3x more

Beer is served at room temperature – it takes some getting used to, but it’s England, you know, old school

For cheap food check out a local grocer

Waitrose – high end = Whole Foods
Sainsbury’s – moderate = IGA, Giant, Stop n’ Shop, Shaw’s
Tesco – low end = Seven Eleven

Final Thought – I lived in London for four months and still never made it to all of the places I want to go. Even though this list is only the tip of the iceberg…it should give you a feel for the crème-de-la-crème of London during a smaller stint.

Enjoy and May God Save The Queen!

Worst Cities in America

Forbes Magazine came up with this ranking of the "most miserable cities" in America. Having grown up in suburban Philadelphia and continue to make frequent visits there, I was extremely surprised to see New York City as "more miserable" than Philadelphia.

Forbes Ranking

1 Detroit, MI
2 Stockton, CA
3 Flint, MI
4 New York, NY
5 Philadelphia, PA
6 Chicago, IL
7 Los Angeles, CA
8 Modesto, CA
9 Charlotte, NC
10 Providence, RI

Chicago more miserable than LA? Chicago was Fast Company's Fast City 2008 and having personally spent time in both, my vote is that LA is a dirtier, less happy place than Chicago.

The devil, as they say, is in the details. The flaw with the Forbes methodology is given equal weight to commute time and violent crime, equal weight to income tax rates and superfund sites (obviously a proxy for pollution). However, I suspect most of us would prefer an extended commute than to be robbed or stabbed. I also assume that most of us wouldn't mind paying slightly higher than average taxes than live next to a toxic waste dump.

So I decided to play with the numbers, giving more weight (1.5x) to unemployment and violent crime, holding superfund sites constant, and giving (0.5x) to commute time, income tax rates, and weather. Miserable maybe, but certainly a second tier of misery.

Zaanlooper ranking:

1 Detroit, MI
2 Stockton, CA
3 Flint, MI
4 Modesto, CA
5 Los Angeles, CA
6 Philadelphia, PA
7 Charlotte, NC
8 Chicago, IL
9 New York, NY
10 Providence, RI

This seems more reasonable based on my own observations of said locales (although I have not personally been to Stockton, Flint, or Modesto)

Do you think a crowd-sourced survey of U.S. cities would yield similar results?

Want versus Need

With the majority of the world’s population living on less than a few dollars a day, how does this guy really expect me to feel bad for him?

If I take out non-essentials: landline phone (you have a cell phone!), cable, entertainment, pet expenses, vacations, and gifts – we get up to $1,030.

Then there’s clearly a double counting issue. If you’re spending $225 per month on household items, which I can only assume include toilet paper, hand soap, etcetera, how are you spending $550 per month on just food? I spend around $150 per month on groceries; that includes food, paper towels, and it includes the fact that I’m not buying inexpensive, I’m always buying high end foodstuffs. I can easily imagine feeding a family of four for a month on much less than $550 per month!

On the other hand, if you’re including TP and detergent as groceries, then are you spending $2,700 a year on pillows and potted plants for the living room? Clearly, you could get this grocery figure down significantly if you really wanted to.

Word of advice: You’ll probably want to increase your annual 401(k) contribution if you enjoy wasting money as much as you seem to do.