This morning I awoke with aching calf muscles and, as i sit resplendent at my keyboard in stripy pyjama bottoms (I don’t really wear them but I think it’s good for my boyish charm reputation!), I’m thinking back to the triumph of yesterday.
I bought an oyster card at the beginning of the week and, in case you don’t know, it’s like a credit card for the London underground, you top it up with money and your journeys are much cheaper. However, travelling on the underground – as much as I love it – is no way to learn the geography of a city. That privilege lies in your feet, above ground! And so it was that I took the advice of a trusted colleague and determined to walk as much of this week I could.Yesterday I commuted three miles to my first appointment (and three miles back) courtesy of my sturdy legs. Now I know where Hyde Park is, where it is located in relation to Mayfair, Green Park, the Ritz and Berkeley Square (I couldn’t hear any nightingales). When you walk you locate yourself but, more importantly, you digest everything around you, buildings, opportunities, subways and landmarks. I realised that there were dozens of opportunities in Wimpole Street – home to all the medical types (I believe they call it a niche market!) – and I now know where the Royal Society of Stonemasons is located as well as the capital’s top hotels. So what, I hear you call?Well, if you travel on the underground – and so often it is necessary – you see lots of people and you get to where you are going quickly, but you will not come to an understanding of your surroundings, or expose yourself to a city’s geography and, only that way, can you truly begin become part of a place, to understand how it ticks, to do business. And the triumph of yesterday?A tourist stopped me for directions and I was able to take them exactly to where they needed to go. As Ii delivered then to the door of their destination, my American hosts looked at me and said: “thank God we found a local guy!”
