Holland Park

I was doing some house cleaning here today and I just happened to run across my little spiral bound pocket map of London. I know, I talk about London all the time. For some people who read this, they might get sick and tired of it because I live in California, I'm an American, and I should be dealing with living here instead of dreaming about living there. But you know what? I have some fond memories of the three visits that I made to London. So, whatever!

So anyway, that particular movie that I mentioned earlier sparked this memory in me today as I was driving through San Francisco. This was March 2001, and I was on a business trip. The business ended on a Wednesday, so I took the rest of the week off as a mini-holiday, and left on the following Sunday. I had three days in London by myself.

I'm walking through London, it's March, the sun sets early, it's dark and chilly, and I get off the tube at...let's just say Holland Park. I get on Holland Park Avenue, and I start walking around, and then I remember that Holland Park itself was very close to where I was. I figured, well let's take a look around the park just to say that I've done it. I don't remember now the significance of Holland Park. Maybe it's something special, I don't know, it could have been a place to meet cute guys.

So I'm walking through the park, taking my time, listening to my music, smoking cigarettes, sitting on the benches, and eventually it was nighttime. The sun was completely gone and it was dark. I started walking again towards the other end of the park. When I got there, the gate was closed and locked. I thought, "Well, what's this about?" I looked around for another gate, and there is one, but it's locked, too. I thought, "Holy shit. What am I supposed to do?" I started walking very quickly back to the Holland Park Avenue entrance to the park hoping that there would be an open exit there. But no, that gate is locked, too. Essentially, I'm trapped in this park, and I started to panic a little bit. I'm a tourist in a foreign city, locked in a park after dark, and what the fuck do I do, sleep in the park overnight? Give me a fucking break.

Then, out of nowhere, two kids walked right past me. I thought, "Maybe they know where the exit is. I'll just follow them to get out." They reach the gate at the Kensington High Street side of the park and they jump over the fence. I'm all, what the fuck? Why didn't I think of that? I felt like such a moron for not thinking of the obvious. The gate was barely up to my chest, so it would not have been an effort whatsoever. I guess it was just that my bag was heavy, I was tired, I didn't feel like exerting myself if I didn't really have to. So I climbed over the gate, and I thought, "Wow. I'm free!" You have no idea the terror that filled my head in the fifteen or twenty minutes that I was stuck in the park. It was nonsense. I thought I might be trapped there forever or arrested for trespassing.

There was a scene in the movie last night that reminded me of this episode, and I just thought I'd share for posterity's sake.

Roommate comes home tomorrow, and I'm so not looking forward to that. I've got a lot of crap to finish here before then. I will miss the peace and quiet. That's for fuck sure.

I was silly enough to write this at 6:34 PM