TAWOMG - One is OK

Dear friends,

2008 is my sabbatical year. After more than twenty years working as an economist and business manager, this year I will dedicate my time to travelling around the world, reading as much as I can and writing as much as I feel like.

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Just after Christmas I went to Brazil, where I spent almost six weeks. Then I went back to Barcelona, where I repacked for the next trip, which may well end up being a trip around the world. Last Saturday I flew to London

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The decision to star the trip in London was depending on the airline that I am flying. And this choice depended more on the flights availability than on anything else. So, this time I am not travelling with KLM, my preferred European airline. KLM is so good that so far they could keep their excellent service level, despite belonging to Air France. That is quite an achievement! But this time I couldn't find suitable KLM flight connections and I am flying Qantas/British Airways.

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I liked the fact to start the trip in London. London is a city that I don't visit very often, but every time I go there I end up saying to myself that I should do it more frequently. The city has only improved since my first time there in 1988. A second good reason to be glad with this choice was mentioned by Ivan, when we had lunch together in São Paulo in January: this is where Phileas Fogg started his trip around the world in the XIX century

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I think that in general I am a good customer, because when I like one company, I usually stay loyal to it. On the other hand, those that offer a bad service seldom get a second opportunity. Being a man of habits (not as much as Phileas Fogg), I chose the London hotel from the same chain where I usually lodge. And it just happened to be on Waterloo Place, on the corner of Pall Mall. A few meters across the street from my hotel was the Reform-Club, where Phileas Fogg used to spend his days. That was a coincidence, and for me somehow a good sign.

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When I realized it, I couldn't help walking from the Reform-Club's door to Saville Row, where Phileas Fogg lived, and counting the steps from one place to the other one. Sorry, not counting the steps, but the number of times that I had to place my right foot in front of my left foot. I had with me my Moleskine Pocket Weekly Diary that Ricardo offered me as a present for this trip when we had dinner together last year in Barcelona. I noted down the figures: 421 times until the corner of Saville Row and Vigo street; another 79 times to get in front of the police station; and I had to place my right foot in front of my left foot another 82 times to arrive to the corner of Conduit street.

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Of course I couldn't remember in how many double-steps Phileas Fogg walked from home to the Reform-Club. If I where a man of my time, instead of having a Moleskine diary in my pocket I would have some smart gadget that would allow me to surf the internet and very quickly find out the answer to my doubt. Not being this kind of person, I continued enjoying strolling around Mayfair, window-shopping, until I arrived to Oxford street, walked into a bookshop and looked for Jules Verne's book. The answer was there: Phileas Fogg used to place his right foot 575 times in front of his left foot and his left foot 576 times in front of his right foot in order to reach the Reform-Club. What means that either he was shorter than I am, and in this case he could live close to Vigo street or he lived close to Conduit street. In any case, the information in Verne's book is quite accurate!

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Saturday the weather was just great in London: it was a cold and dry day, and the sky was blue. It was really worth walking around and seeing people shopping as much as they could. I did the same and in the afternoon went to a musical. I wanted to watch Les Misérables, but as I had The Phantom of the Opera just around the corner, that was my choice. It is amazing how the politeness of theater goers has deteriorated! How can you go to a musical and eat and drink during the show as if you were in a baseball game? Maybe because the Phantom is such an old show, most of the people in the audience were probably tourists spending the weekend in London (like me), and not real theater lovers. Nevertheless, this you wouldn't see years ago.

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Before leaving Barcelona I went to the Dry Martini bar with Angela, Martha and Xavi. No need to mention that it was a pleasure to see them. We talked about the trip that I was about to start and I told them that I was bringing with me a list of the best Dry Martini bars in the world and that I intended to visit as many as possible. This is an old bet that Jan and I made when we both lived in Cologne, back into the nineties: who is going to be the first to visit the best seven bars on the list. I told them that somehow for me this could be a trip around the world in 80 DMs. And as I said I would go back home after the 80th, we all agreed that those that I had that night would count as just one. It was just a warm up, in one of the bars on the list and part of the bet. As you know, the say goes "one DM is OK, two is too much and three is not enough". So, one was OK to start with!

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On Sunday morning I headed to Heathrow, where I took the flight that brought me to Tokyo, on my first visit to Japan. This city is really impressive, but I will write about it next Sunday. Wish you have a nice week!

Maurício