ARGH!!!

frieking london - Thursday night - 9:00 pm
So, yesterday the rental car company told me that my car was diesel. Alright, I thought, I'll fill it with diesel today. So, about 5 minutes away from the hotel (after a trip to Oxford, more later) I fill up the car with diesel (50 bucks UK, which is like $4.3 million US dollars). And then, about 30 seconds after leaving the petrol station, the car starts making noises. Scarey noises. and then acceleration disappears - 15 mph the whole way home. uh oh. I'm only right next to Heathrow airport, there isn't traffic around here, at all.

Crap. After about 6 restarts, enough beeping to scare anyone I finally get home. The rental car place, which is luckily located right in my hotel, said wait till tomorrow morning to talk to their manager. Alright, whatever. I have the super insurance, which I purchased once before in LA which was good because I wrapped the car around a parking deck and they couldn't do anything about it. This time, I may have destroyed my little VW's engine. Screw them, their fault.

Before that, I should tell you that I did get a bit better at driving British Style. In fact, I should say, I've now broken my own speed record - 100 mph. Yes, while driving on the M40 today I passed triple digits JUST TO KEEP UP!!! The speed limit here is 70, but that is about the funniest joke I've ever seen. If I went 70, I would have been passed by the 18-wheel trucks in the slow lane.

That was fun.

Oxford, the place I went to see today, was even more fun. Its what Cambridge (MA) would have wanted to be if it didn't suck so bad. The best bookstore in the world is located in this fine little univsersity town - blackwell's bookstore. I actually had to walk out of the store for fear I would spend too much money. Absolutely amazing. I did, however, find a poster-sized version of "The Great Bear" which is a work of art that takes the map of the London underground and replaces the station names with that of famous people - different professions per line. Its kinda brilliant and I've never seen it in poster form. woo hoo! I bought some books too (one on water systems in urban areas), but nothing super important.

I also talked to a planner for the area around Heathrow airport today, but who cares about airports right???

Hopefully, if I can get a new car out of the rental company, I'm off to Stonehenge/Land's End tomorrow and the Lake District tomorrow.