11:30 am - Started the day with some sandwiches at a nice little sandwich shop near the tube station. We even had Florida orange juice (in bottles, of course). Then it was off to purchase a one day travel pass for use on the London Underground for access to the various shopping venues.

Store codes:
T - Trendy
C - Club Wear
E - Expensive
G - Great bargains
O - Odd
L - Leather
R - Rubber
S - Shoes
V - Videos
Y - Toys
H - Helpful clerks
B - Bitchy clerks

Regulation - [L, R, Y, H] A large leather and rubber store with a great selection of pretty out-of-the-ordinary clothing and accessories. Randy had fun trying (tying?) on various items while Matt waited patiently, chatting with the store clerk about British colloquial terms. Apparently sneakers are called "trainers" and there's a new scene developing in London based around sportswear fetishes. If any of you out there have inclinations in this direction you just might be a "sneaker pig," as they're called in Berlin.

Expectations - [L, R, Y] Another leather and rubber store, not quite as large as Regulation, but with its own distinct character.

Matt amidst the tank tops and tight shirts of Sports Locker.

Sports Locker - [T, C, H] Nice little store on Floral Street in the SOHO area. Lots of great club/dance wear. The owner knew several of the owners of some of the shops back home in the Castro, such as Citizen, InJeanious, and Rolo.

Starbucks - Ok, not a shopping destination, but a good caffeine buzz was needed for the rest of the day. It's kind of disturbing just how many of these there are.

Name Workshop - [T, O] Sort of a snooty little store. We'd have looked great in any of the items had we both been skinny and six foot seven.

Boy - [O] We'd heard this was a great little shop for cool menswear, but walked into a store with clown wigs and costume jewelry. We left very quickly.

Prowler SOHO - [T, C, V, Y, B] Described as a gay department store, they had a wide variety of items crammed into a fairly small space. The clerks weren't exactly the friendliest in the city. (Side note: while leaving, one of Randy's shopping bags set off the stores security alarm. Seems that an empty box with a security tag had fallen in while the bag was being held behind the counter. To make up for the inconvenience, the clerk offered him free bottle of poppers. Cheers, mate!

Randy strikes a pose in front of rows of cheap clothing stands in what Matt referred to as "Wide Stitch Alley."

American Retro - [T, C] Returned here so Randy could pick up a pair of camo pants seen yesterday (the camo pattern was pixelated to look digital... they were really cool). Unfortunately we discovered the joys of arbitrary European sizing scales, as a small was about two sizes too big.

Tread Mill - [S, H] Randy found a great pair of Airwalk sneakers that he had been looking for. Kind of ironic to have to go to London to find the right pair of American shoes.

Wagamama - A very nice ramen noodle restaurant (which Matt had gone to the night before on his date) ... exactly what we were craving. While waiting for the food, Randy noticed a very cute waiter walking around who smiled back pleasantly. During diner we shamelessly cruised him until he came over and introduced himself as Phillipe, from Nice, France. We chatted for a while, then he had to get back to work. At the end of the meal he came over and we found out that he was getting off work in about half an hour. He wanted to get together, but was headed over to a friend's to watch a movie and couldn't get out of it. He was disappointed to hear we were leaving the next day. Ah well, things can't always work out. And we never did figure out which one of us he was interested in.

Matt patiently waiting in Wagamama for his ginormous bowl of tasty ramen.

N S C O - [G, H] A smaller store that seemed kind of touristy and cheap, but actually had some really cute items at great prices.

Carnaby Clothing Company - [G, H] Another shop on Carnaby Street with some additional bargains. This was one of those places where you just tune out the swarthy sales clerk. Everything was, "Oh, yes... dat fits you perfectly!"

Top Man - [T, C] - A large department store with a few great finds spread around. Matt found exactly the style of jacket he'd spent months looking for.

8:00 pm - Head for the tube station to return to the hotel. A very full and productive day of shopping indeed! Ordered room service, worked on the website, and watched a movie.

(We'll just forget the "apple pie" incident, if you don't mind).