Today my friend from Norway, Kjerstin, arrived with her son, Sebastian. We joined with a few others from different places on the planet for a trip to London. Our group consisted of people from LA, Russia, Norway, and Clearwater. We went to the Gatwick Airport and took the express train to London. It was a very nice train; very quiet and smooth riding for about 45 minutes until we arrived at Victoria Station.

And then it became the ‘herding cats phenomena’. Gads! The Russians saw a McDonald’s and they had a child traveling with them so off they went. But no one else in the group knew where they went! So like good little soldiers we waited and looked around etc until I finally decided ENOUGH! We would carry on and they could find us later. We piled into a taxi but not before a stranger assaulted me for jumping the queue. He pushed my shoulder and jabbered something about going to platform 2. I had no idea what he was talking about until later I found out that there was a line and a protocol on how you got a taxi at the airport.

By the time I finished brawling on the streets of London the Russians showed up all well fed and refreshed. Hmm. Thank goodness for the joy of waxing enthusiasm! So off we went to the fabulous London Org.

Those of us who hadn’t eaten decided to find food before touring the Org. We wandered around nearby streets only finding that all the food places closed at 3PM. Who knew!

Finally one of the ladies in our group asked a local for help. He led us to a wonderful restaurant called THE SOCIETY. It was very ‘hip’ done up in that industrial minimalism interior decorating style. They had large photos of famous movie stars on the wall and great jazz playing so it felt like Los Angeles!

The food was super and very reasonably priced.

Then we took a tour of the London Org. WOW WOW WOW

It is very efficient and upstat looking. We were there after hours so most of the people and staff had gone but what a great facility. LRH would be proud to hang his hat in that Org for sure!

Then we again taxied off, going to the Fitzroy House. This is the home of the original London Org that was run by LRH in the early 1950’s. He did much of his policy research and writing there. He also wrote ‘HAVE YOU LIVED BEFORE THIS LIFE’ while based there. It was really great to see his presence there in the form of photos and early writings. They had a display of each of the Basic Books in its original publication along side the current edition that we now enjoy. What an evolution we have experienced in the past 50 years or so.

After this tour the group split up a bit. My friends and I took a taxi heading back to Victoria Station but along the way I asked our taxi driver, John, to share with us any of the sights that he could tell us about along the way. Well that turned into a full blown private tour of London. We were laughing and having a ball as he showed us famous landmarks like Buckingham Palace, the Parliament, Big Ben, and the Eye of London (which is a beyond belief huge ferris wheel that overlooks the city and is right on the Thames River).

We reached Victoria train station and had a lovely, smooth train ride back to Gatwick. There, we separated and some of us went to an Indian Restaurant in East Grinstead. We had some very authentic fine Indian food and some rousing fund raising for the IAS. It was nice to be among such generous and caring people.

Sheryle made it the hotel sometime during the day and has a story to tell which will need to be it’s own chapter in another blog. I haven’t seen her yet. So stay tuned for more adventures from Merry Ole England!