Chelsea gets a free ride. She entered college at the same time I did. She took a semester off to campaign for her mom, so as to have plenty of photo-ops, and still graduated in May. I busted my butt for my degree, but then, my Daddy was not a lying liberal hypocrite who was worshipped by the academic elite. Now she goes to Oxford, no doubt to get another free ride while globe-trotting with her taxpayer-supported security detail en tow. Next time there's another disaster, I'm sure she'll be there. Watch for Chelsea to materialize in London if bin Laden succeeds in a British terror strike. "Oh yes, Chelsea was jogging by Canary Wharf just before the British Airways concorde plowed into it...Bill and I were so distraught, we didn't hear for her from hours."
Canary Wharf - I worked on a construction claim for the London Underground back in 1996, when they were building the Jubilee line. I forget the name of the station, but it was right outside of the LU's Office tower.
Anyway, the first weekend I was there, I left the hotel (sorry don't remember the name, but it was across the waterfront), with a Pepsi. By the time I got to the other side, the can was empty. It was a weekend, so there weren't many people around. But for the life of me, I couldn't find a trash can. I walked into one of the stores to get a newspaper, and asked if the cashier if she had a trash can, because I couldn't find one outside.
Much to my surprise, the cashier said there are no trash cans outside. I asked why. She said: "bombs". For the first time in my life, I was exposed to life dealing with terrorism. For Freepers/Lurkers that have never been over the Pond, it was an incredible experience on how everyday life carried on, while the ever present danger of a bomb going off was as unexpected as a rainy day in New Jersey in November.
In fact, there was a high rise building a few hundred yards down the street that was bombed a year or so earlier, that was being rebuilt. A number of buildings that surrounded it had all the windows blown out by the explosion. Yet life went on, the security was pretty tight down there, but definitely not something I was accustomed to here in the US.
Oh, I forgot. The food was indeed terrible (sorry mate). But the people were friendly, and I learned how to play snooker (it was on TV every night because there was some famous tornament going on). Great game (Sure beats 8-ball). Cricket was also on TV, but two day events were far worse than 4 hour baseball games...