19
Jan
2008
Flight of the Condor
Went for a walk this afternoon. For about 8 hours. First stop London’s Condor Cycles.
Condor has supplied custom bikes to World Champions and Tour de France Teams. Very high end bikes that are ultra-PRO. Not only do they make their own frames but they also had all the gucci models like Hetchings and Colnago. Super tight Rapha Condor Team issue. I have a feeling we are going to be seeing a few of these in the Hills of Portland in the coming year.
Interesting custom fit bike used to get precise frame size and stem height. 
Now it was time to wander around and see what was going on. London is great for getting lost and finding something new. With a veritable labrynth of streets, alleys and nooks it is easy to make discoveries. If you get bored of London, you get bored of life. 
I have been finding skating rinks all over town. This one is over near Charing Cross….I think. 
Then a dip into the National Gallery before it closed. I only saw part of it, but what I did see was Baroque style paintings of incredible detail and scale. Some portraits were a couple of hundred years old and had almost photographic lighting effects. This place needs more time. 
Trafalgar Square. 
Big Ben is not actually something you can see. Big Ben is what you hear. The name refrences some fatty bureaucrat for whom the 13 ton bell is named after.
Across the Westminster Bridge is the London Eye. Each observation room holds about 25 people and this thing won’t be running until Monday. It is interesting, but seems really out of place when next to all of this old gothic architecture. 
It’s been a tough week on my trusty camera. The hard drive is failing causing it to grind for long periods of time. The photo below is unaltered and is one of the only photos that looks cool when this is happening. A new camera has been shipped and I should have it Monday. 
When I first got off the plane a few weeks ago the first ads I noticed were for Nokia. WK did these ads for a phone that plays music and the ads are these really tricked out headphones. The media buy must have been massive because they are everywhere. After a good week of working on Nokia I think I can safely say, Now You’re Nokia™. 
At this point my hips hurt from walking and standing all day. As I dragged myself from one train to another, along with a ton of other people, a little bit of magic happened. It is these little things of a large city that never cease to surprise and pick you up.[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvCLMxbpl7Y[/youtube] Cheers!