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Aloha, I have returned from England. My body is 5 pounds heavier, and my wallet is a couple-hundred pounds lighter.

I had several fun and interesting meetups with various blogger-friends during the 2 weeks I was there. First off, I enjoyed a traditional Sunday roast in South London near the Borough Market with The Cartoonist and Konstantin. We eschewed recording a podcast this time due to the extreme noise levels in the pub.

The following Tuesday, I joined a whole host of London Tiki-lebrities at Sugar Cane in Clapham Junction: Tiki Chris, Tiki Racer, Trader Jim, Cheekytiki, Sian the Exotic Tramp, and Will Kane. The drinks were great, and Sugar Cane's manager, Justin, comped us several platefuls of excellent puu-puus. Trader Jim lavished both issues of his Tiki fanzine, Pocketiki, upon me, and Tikiracer gave me a print of his original artwork. Cheers, fellas! Tiki Chris also filmed us individually introducing ourselves and our websites, which you can view at his 'blog [Link]

Over the weekend, I went flea-marketing at the Portobello Road and Greenwich Markets. I didn't find anything in Greenwich, but I was thrilled to discover this lovely retro-hula girl souvenir glass in a dusty box. It only cost 50p (~$1.00), and it's inscribed "Honolulu Cheerio", so I'm guessing it's a souvenir some British tourist picked up in Hawaii back in the 50s or 60s. Finding Tiki-related items in the UK is an extremely rare event, even for the locals, so I was pretty excited to stumble across this. Click on the image to view it full-size. P.S. taking photos of glassware is a real bitch!

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Finally, I met up with Tiki Chris and Trader Jim again at the London Trader Vic's last Thursday for a few Navy Grogs and Mai Tais. Chris had a wee hangover from the previous evening, so he nursed it quietly while Jim and I did most of the talking. James is an old punk like me, so we had a lot in common. It's funny how most punks seemed to migrate to Exotica over the years. We called it quits around 9:30pm and managed to escape with a bill just slightly over £100; it would've been less, but I just couldn't bear to part with this cool Vic's free Mai Tai coupon! I'm going to frame it and hang it over the bar.

That's all the news that's fit to print about this trip. I'm off to the basement now to start running off my extra poundage on the treadmill.

Aloha,

Mr. BH

Posted by MrBaliHai at 7:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I'm off to the Peoples Paradise of the United Kingdom for the next 2 weeks, and will only have Internet access from work, as I refuse to pay the extortionate fees that my hotel charges for daily connectivity (£25/day!). Consequently, blogging will likely be non-existent until I return.

You kids stay out of my tiki bar and don't throw any wild parties while I'm gone. I've counted all the rum bottles, and if anything's missing when I get back, there'll be hell to pay!

Posted by MrBaliHai at 7:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Check out these great advertisments from Aeroflot's 1968 News for Travellers.

Back in 1966, I flew Aeroflot between Moscow and Leningrad with my parents, and it was indeed a most memorable, if not exactly enjoyable, experience: we suffered through terrifying turbulence that caused the borscht to slop out of our bowls and into our laps, and ugly Babushka stewardesses covered with hairy moles, who looked like wicked witches straight out of fairy tales (except for their pillbox hats and white gloves). And yes, they really did have wooden tables like those shown in the ad.

[Link: John-C's Flickr Set][via Schadenfreudian Therapy]
[Link: Moscow Postcards: 1966]

Posted by MrBaliHai at 8:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)