Sinatra Lied

I have had yet to see even one foggy day in London Town. A couple of times today, it wanted to rain, but it never really did The temperature never got above 59 degrees. I just came back from an evening walk, and it's 57 degrees now. My Elvis jacket sure came in handy. I did some walking around Bayswater (which is where I'm staying) after walking the length of the park to the rose garden and then coming back by way of the road outside of the park. I was struck by one edifice within a cluster of stately manors, known as the Spire. The facade looks like an 18th century church (thus the spire), but it is now very pricey apartments or maybe condos. Some very expensive hotels are interspersed throughout the area, but most seem to be private residences. Though I do see young people walking around these areas, I'm not sure how they could afford to live here. I looked in the window of a real estate office in the area and saw two bedroom flats going for anywhere from 345,000 pounds to over 1,200,000 pounds. Some of the buildings looked nice, but that's a lot of money. Some said for sale and some said for leasehold, whatever that means. I think it has to do with whoever owns the land. Most of it in this area is owned by some duke whose name I forget. He owns the two priciest areas in London. The US Embassy is on one of those areas. We usually own the land our embassy is on, but he wouldn't sell it. According to another tour guide, he did say he once owned land in the US that he lost after the war (Revolutionary). He'd be willing to swap. It was in Northern Virginia, and maybe some guy named Jefferson now owned it. That might be made up, but he does lease the property to us for $1 a year. We are apparently building a new embassy on land we purchased. Anyway, the duke leases the land, but it's as if the people own it. Imagine how rich this family is (I obviously know it can't be the same actual guy after 200+ years!). Too bad their name isn't Ellingham. Regular apartments in this area go either weekly or monthly. They do have "special"rates for students abd set a limit on how many people can share an apartment. They make South Florida and Chicago rents seem reasonable.

I bought two more novels by Murakami which I haven't seen for sale at home. I did a lot of reading today, after watching Germany lose in soccer. I also gave people directions to somewhere today. Amazing. I went to a laundromat, as well. I know my friend Terri said it's just as easy to throw out the old clothes, but I figured I'd give them a wash. It cost 3 pounds for the washing machine and 1 pound 50 pence for the dryer. The detergent was also 50 pence. I noticed a weird thing about the water. It is so soft that soap can not be washed off in the shower. Texas was kind of like that, but this goes way beyond. I hope I don't start sweating again in my clean shirts. I may start sudsing.