Work Trip to London

I went to London for four days for a set of business meetings. The travel is a major part of the trip. We start at the camp with a 10km ride in the Toyota Landcruiser Desert Edition units to the airstrip. Our crew plane is a Let 210. They are Russian made and build tough! The flight back to Hassi Messaoud is about 45 minutes. This time of year the temperature is perfect - about 15-20 C on average. We do get some flies...but more about that later. At the Hassi airport, we have to go through some superficial security then wait for the Airbus 320 ride to London Gatwick.
It takes around 3.5 hours to get to London. The only real snag in the trip up was passport control in Gatwick. There are two lines, one for UK and European Union residents, and one for the rest of us. I was in line with a bunch of ladies from Russia, about 10th in line or so - looking like a quick trip through Customs. The UK/EU line was stupid long... Well, there is some kind of crack-down on Eastern Europeans coming into the UK, those ladies took 5 to 15 minutes each to get through! I walked up, they went STAMP, STAMP and off I went in 15 seconds. We should appreciate the strength of our Canadian passports!
I had to go to our offices in Canary Wharf, in East London, or the Dccklands. I took a train to London Bridge (It's falling down! Not really, the new one is in good shape) then the subway or Underground as it is called there, or The Tube which is more common. There are a dozen routes covering the city. After I had completed my work at the office, another tube ride to the Hyatt Regency in Portman Square near our other offices for the meetings the next day. The Hyatt is the old Churchill Hotel, build post war and named for Winston Churchill. Pretty cool old hotel with a very nice restaurant and pub.
The meetings were meetings, no need to discuss that here.
The ride home was similar to coming out, with one exception. I was fleeced by a London Cab driver! I was going to take a cab to Victoria Station to take the Gatwick Express train out to the airport. It was Raining very hard and didn't want to walk the six blocks to Bond Street tube station. I thought a cab ride to Victoria would be about £10, then the £16 ticket to Gatwick. The cabbie told be that the rain had caused the low areas for the tracks to flood, so I would have to go by road. He took me to Heathrow, so I could take the National Bus to Gatwick. I realized about two thirds of the way there that I had been had. The fare was at £30 and climbing. The final fare bill was £53! We haggled, I refused to pay the full rate and we settled at £30. I added an hour cab ride to the 1.5 hour bus ride instead of a 15 minute cab ride and a 35 minute train ride and paid £50 instead of £26. I checked at Gatwick airport - "what flooding?". Nice. There is a sucker born every minute...