I got in around 12:09pm Toronto time. I didn’t know what time it was until I got to the baggage claim area (why don’t airports have big neon clocks all over the place). The flight was uneventful, however, it was a smaller plane so the seats were a bit more cramped.

I typically blog about the sessions when I attend conferences, but decided that offering my thoughts on London culture would prove to be more interesting. Plus, Jason, Paul, Karin and the team at Podcasting News are doing some awesome summaries, so you can just visit their blogs.

Which brings me to my laundry list of the things I liked and didn’t like about London. It’s quite long as I had time on the 8-hour flight to scratch together 4 pages of notes, so skim through now, digest later.

About the iPod

• Thank God I own one. I loaded up on music and podcasts before I left home and kept myself throughly entertained on the flight. This helped to avoid listening to the crappy in-flight entertainment.

About Seating Arrangements

• You always hope that the person who will sit beside you on the flight will be a handsome, intelligent, charismatic specimen. It happened to me on neither flights.

About Being Called “Sir”

• This happened to me twice. Once at the hotel when housekeeping woke me up out of my sleep to ask if I wanted my room cleaned and once again on the flight when the attendant asked what I wanted to drink. Over the phone, I can understand, but I was all gussied up on the flight, wearing a wrap dress and heeled boots (yes, that’s how I travel, so what?). Both times, I got an apology.

About Being Called American

• Got that several times. Now I understand why Canadians wear our flag on their back packs. Makes others know that we want to talk about hockey, not football.

About Smoking in London

• This got under my skin – smoking is allowed everywhere in London. There were many times I got sick to my stomach as people lit up at the table right beside me as I chowed down. Totally gross.

About Wifi in London

• Wifi is at a premium in London. Unlike at Pearson where I just opened my laptop and was able to connect to the Internet for free, at Heathrow, I had to pay £5 per hour for wifi access. At the hotel, it was worst. There was only dial-up available in the rooms and to get wifi, I had to go to the lobby and pay for access (£8 for 1-hour, £10 for 4-hours and £20 for 24-hours). I will never complain about wifi in Toronto ever again. Compared to London, we’ve got it good.

About In-Flight Special Meals

• I ordered a lactose-free meal when I booked my flight. Air Canada interpreted that as meaning vegan. So, I got falafel in a pita while everyone dined on burgers on the flight going to London. On the flight back, I got soya chunks that were meant to look like chicken while everyone else dined on piping hot, greasy pizza. Blah.

About Spending Money in London

• The exchange rate was enough to make me throw up ($2.50 CDN for £1 GBP), however, things are relatively inexpensive in London. Over the 3 days, I spent £120 out of the £200 I took with me. It helped that my breakfasts and lunches were cover and I didn’t do any sightseeing. Plus, everyone wanted to buy me drinks all the time, so that was nice.

About London Public Transit

• Londoners have got it right when it comes to public transportation. They have an express train right from Terminal 3. It took only 15-minutes to get from the airport to Paddington Station (similar to Union in Toronto or Central Station in New York). It was just nice not to have to go outside the terminal to wait for a bus as one has to do at Pearson.

About Cricket

• Talking about sports, I just don’t get cricket. Seems like it’s a big thing to people across the pond, but I can’t wrap my head around it. There’s some big cricket tournament going on right now and I watched a match between Kenya and New Zealand from beginning to end. Still makes no sense to me.

And About London in General

• While sharing a cab ride with Paul Colligan from Paddington station to the hotel, I was shrieking out about how “London” London looked. I saw the red telephone booth and yelled out, “Ahmigawd!” I saw how narrow the streets were and yelled out, “Ahmigawd!” I saw the double decker buses and yelled out, “Ahmigawd!” I saw that they do indeed drive on the wrong side of the street and yelled out, “Ahmigawd!” Of course, Paul didn’t blink since it was his umpteenth time in London. And the chap who drove our cab was probably thinking, “Silly American.”

About the Corporate Podcast Summit

• It was a fabulous event. Anita, the event organizer, did a superb job and I’m looking forward to attending the one she’s planning in the Fall on the American east coast. I met some fabulous people, too many to list right now. One thing I enjoyed was hearing the different accents – English, Irish, Scottish, Spanish, Australian, American, Dutch and of course my own, Canadian. The international mix of accents at the summit is representative of variety of podcasts you’ll find on different topics throughout podosphere. It’s refreshing to be in a place where everyone doesn’t think the same way, doesn’t act the same way and doesn’t have the same experiences, yet our interest in podcasting is the one thing that unites us. Very United Nations.

Tags: corporate podcasting, cpslondon, london