Blushing "Get off your Jacksy and get me another pint" Whale and Mr. Crab were shopping last week in Chapel Market, our local street market n Angel Islington, when we were accosted by a group of young women in red aprons begging for us to buy their fish. That's right, fish.  That's when we noticed that the girls were surrounded by two camera crews and several producer-types holding clipboards.  Turns out, they were filming a challenge for the next edition of "The Apprentice UK."  The challenge apparently involved setting up a fishmonger market stall. Unfortunately, the few fish available were overpriced, underweight and pathetic-looking compared to the seafood available at the nearby professional fishmonger, Angel Fisheries.  One contestant pleaded for me to buy a £20 lobster (that's $40!!) and offered to throw in a free grubby piece of cod. No thanks.  I took this quick snap on my camera phone, and was about to take another when I was shooed away by one of the young producers who looked like she was about 14 years old.   After I put the camera away, another group of contestants came out, this time all men wearing blue aprons. We didn't stick around to see who won. But it definitely wasn't the fish.

After a gorgeous start to September, autumn (Brits don't say "fall") has finally arrived. It is now downright crisp. Blushing Whale, who has clearly been de-sensitized to cold weather from all his years in Los Angeles, is already wearing a coat and hat.  So has Mrs. Crab, but she's always been overly sensitive to cold weather.  Mr. Crab has actually had to wear real shoes (no more Tevas) and long-sleeve shirts.  It was only 58F when Whale and I went to the British Museum this morning. When we came out a few hours later, it seemed like the temperature had dropped by about 10 degrees!  I had to go to the museum to do a bit of research for my upcoming trip to Mexico. But we also hit the Greece room to see the magnificent marble sculptures that were stolen removed from the Parthenon to London by Lord Elgin in 1801. In a few weeks, we'll be in Athens to see the real thing. 

One of the few American TV channels we receive in London is ABC1, a network that airs old episodes of ABC shows like "8 Simple Rules," "Ellen," "Hope & Faith," "Home Improvement," and most recently, "Commander in Chief" and "Ghost Whisperer."  This afternoon, ABC Television ceased transmission of ABC1 on all UK cable and satellite providers. Bastards!  The only remaining American channel we get is CNN, which is actually CNN International. We also get Five US, which airs American shows such as "CSI" (which stars Archie Kao, an old classmate of ours from George Mason University!).  Five US also shows odd crap shows like "The Fall Guy" and "Joey." The saving grace is its overnight programming: Five US shows American baseball and football games.

Uhhh, I'm out of things to say...