Walking in the Wild West End.

Stepping out to Angellucci's for my coffee beans
Checking out the movies and the magazines
Waitress she watches me crossing from the Barocco Bar
I get a pickup for my steel guitar
I saw you walking out Shaftesbury Avenue
Excuse me talking I wanna marry you
This is the seventh heaven street
Don't you seem so proud
You're just another angel in the crowd

And I'm
Walking in the wild west end
Walking in the wild west end
Walking with your wild best friend

And now my conductress on the number nineteen, She was a honey
Pink toenails and hands all, dirty with the money
Greasy easy Greasy hair, easy smile
Made me feel nineteen for a while

And I went down to, Cha, Cha, uh, uh, Chinatown
In the backroom it's a man's world
All the money go down
Duck inside the doorway, duck to eat
Just ain't no way,
You and me, we can beat

Walking in the wild west end
Walking in the wild west end
Walking with your wild best friend

Now ah, a gogo, dancing girl, yes I saw her
The deejay, he say, here's Mandy for ya
I feel alright, saying now, Do that stuff
She's dancing high I move on by
The close ups can get rough

When you're
Walking in the wild west end
Walking in the wild west end
Walking with'cha wild best friend

Walking it, Walking it

I'm in London again, big day tomorrow. 

So, for some reason, all the budget hotels were full, including the one I'd checked out a month ago, so I'm staying at the Thistle, Marble Arch, on Oxford street. 6 minutes walk to the U.S. Embassy.

I'm up on the balcony floor, about three rooms this side of the centre.

This new beached whale thing, almost opposite.

In the distance, in the east, the Gherkin, and other high-rise buildings around the City of London. 

The greenery is Hyde Park. The Marble Arch is below the sight-line.

And I've been walking, walking, walking to New Orleans... No, I mean, Walking in the Wild West End, but I'll find Walking to New Orleans too....

So, I checked out the route to my interview, wandered back by way of Selfridges, where I saw some ridiculous things....

There's a bit at the west end called the Wonder Room, where a load of high-end bling sellers set up their stalls. Like gold bling cellphones at £6,600.

Rolex Breitling Tiffany Cartier Hermes..... How about an Ostrich-Leather travel-bag, with Swarovski Crystals? £10,500............................................

Where else could you buy a  toy sports car for your kids and drop 24 and a half thousand pounds on it?

Rock Star, baby!

The Malay Chicken Curry on the top floor was good though.

Back to the hotel for a shower and snooze, then out, just wandering vaguely south-east toward Piccadilly Circus.

Watching the world and starting to feel hungry, so to Chinatown but HORROR OF HORRORS!  Lee Ho Fooks is no longer there. I'd been eating there since even before Warren Zevon included it in 'Werewolves of London', and it's GONE!

So I had to pig out at Mr Wu's all you can eat buffet instead.

I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand
Walkin' through the streets of Soho in the rain
He was lookin' for the place called Lee Ho Fooks
Gonna get a big dish of beef chow mein

Aaahoo! Werewolves of London
Aaahoo!
Aaahoo! Werewolves of London
Aaahoo!

Ya hear him howlin' around your kitchen door
Ya better not let him in
Little old lady got mutilated late last night
Werewolves of London again

Aaahoo! Werewolves of London
Aaahoo!
Aaahoo! Werewolves of London
Aaahoo!

He's the hairy, hairy gent, who ran amok in Kent
Lately he's been overheard in Mayfair
You better stay away from him
He'll rip your lungs out Jim
Huh, I'd like to meet his tailor

Aaahoo! Werewolves of London
Aaahoo!
Aaahoo! Werewolves of London
Aaahoo!

Well, I saw Lon Chaney walkin' with the queen
Doin' the werewolves of London
I saw Lon Chaney Jr. walkin' with the queen
Doin' the werewolves of London
I saw a werewolf drinkin' a pina colada at Trader Vic's
And his hair was perfect

Aaahoo! Werewolves of London
Draw blood
Aaahoo! Werewolves of London

Then I went north-ish, across Shaftesbury Avenue, through Soho, across Oxford Street again, found a Sam Smith's pub, sat outside in the warm evening drinking a pint of Old Brewery Bitter. North a bit more then westish, Harley Street, Oh, Bentinck street, I walked past the place where I had my medical... westish, regent street, northish to Nash's splendid

church,

Langham Place, the BBC and a light beaming into the clouds, westerly more, bit by bit to Portland Place, found some interesting little streets, restaurants and pubs, galleries to peer in windows.

New Alfa Romeo, first decent looking car they've built since the seventies,

And so, eventually, back to my hotel. I'm all ready. Papers in a folder. otherwise empty pockets, no belt, no phones, no coins tomorrow, I want no drama with the security screening.

So, I'll just insert some photos in this, and go to sleep until my 6:30 a.m. wake-up call.

Oh, and as we're in Memphis now: I can't resist adding Chuck Berry's rocking little tear-jerker of a song.

MEMPHIS

(C. Berry)

 Long distance information give me Memphis, Tennessee
 Help me find the party, tried to get in touch with me
 She would not leave a number but I know who placed the call
 'cause my uncle took a message and he wrote it on the wall

 Help me information get in touch with my Marie
 She's the only one who'd call me here from Memphis, Tennessee
 Her home is on the south side, high up on the ridge
 Just a half-a-mile from the Mississippi bridge

 Last time I saw Marie she was wavin' me goodbye
 With "hurry home" drops on her cheek that trickled from her eye
 But we were pulled apart because her Mom did not agree
 And tore apart our happy home in Memphis, Tennessee

 Help me information, more than that I cannot add
 Only that I miss her and all the fun we had
 Marie is only six years old, information please
 Try to put me through to her in Memphis, Tennessee.

7th floor lobby

I'm down here, about halfway to the horizon, on the left.

Yawwwwn! 

G'night All.