London- Round 2

With free time in hand, we headed back to London. Having been sorely disappointed the last time I visited, I had vowed to make the most of my trip this time. Since I was making the arrangements, I actually booked a very nice hotel right in Trafalgar Square. We planned to arrive in the early evening on Friday and meet my boss’s friend for dinner. Saturday was my free day, which I was going to get up early and see as much as I could before flying out Sunday morning for home.

We had dinner at Gaucho Grill again, which was just as fantastic as the first time I had visited. The rain had let up, and the next day had promised to be even better. And even though I was a “third wheel” for the evening, I had a great time with the girls. We stayed out a bit longer than I would have liked, but I figured a little sleep, a nice breakfast, and my giddiness would overcome anything.

How wrong I was.

I woke up the next morning at 7:30 and went straight for the shower. I felt a little off, but figured I must have had a little more to drink the night before than I thought. It was a little bit of a challenge, but managed to get myself cleaned up and ready to hit the day. After all, I was supposed to meet the girls for breakfast and then start my London adventure. I headed for the dresser and BOOM! Something hit me. All I remember is walking out of the bathroom, seeing the bed, and collapsing into it.

About 4 hours later I regained consciousness, writhing in pain. My stomach was in knots, and I literally felt like the alien was going to pop out of my torso. I managed to roll over and saw my Blackberry on the nightstand with messages waiting. I figured to see the “Where the hell are you?” message, but instead got the “Man down”…my boss was in the same boat.

Both of us spent the entire day going from the bed to the bathroom and back to the bed. The only thing that I’ve ever experienced that was worse was passing a kidney stone. There were times I literally thought I was going to die. Thank god for Pay Per View movies and a concierge that ran out and got us both bottles of Gatorade. Finally about 8pm I started to feel a bit better, but that was short lived once I looked at the room service menu. I was finally able to keep a Snickers I had in my laptop bag down…and that became breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the day.

The next morning, we both felt like someone had punched us in the kidneys. It was difficult to stand upright, let along walk. To this day we still aren’t sure what happened. It could have been food poisoning, but Mo’s friend that went to dinner with us ate the exact same things we did and had no ill effects. The cabbie that took us to the airport said there was a nasty bug that had been floating around, which this could have been as well.

All I know is, it was miserable and even though I’ve been to London twice I’ve really not seen any of the city.

I am seriously upset about that fact. I just hope my UK division starts selling soon so I can justify another trip over there and hopefully see something.