trying to get readjusted to the Real World in The England Chronicles - October 2010

OMG. We had SUCH A GOOD TIME. And boy is it a shock to be back. I did not want to come back. I tried my best to get Baker B to pack up the cats and join me. For good. And I think he was tempted. It’s a shame we have to be so concerned about silly stuff like, oh, jobs. And money. Hey, I could work in a pub!

I took something like 3000 pictures. Seriously. I’m currently uploading them ALL to Flickr, and THEN I’ll edit them out. That seemed easier than trying to figure out what to delete before uploading. So, many many pictures will be forthcoming. I’d intended to make some OD updates along the way, but as it turns out, dashing crazily around England taking pictures was a whole lot more fun than being online. We also had sporadic internet access — our lodgings in London didn’t have wireless, so we were at the mercy of Starbucks. We also didn’t have internet at the canal boat, after Kim, ummmmm, broke the modem. The first day. So again, Starbucks was our BFF. And Starbucks is EVERYWHERE. We had no problems with finding Starbucks in London, and they were also in the handy roadside service areas on the highways, as well as bigger towns like Bath. I also learned to appreciate Starbucks burnt, bitter coffee, as our lodging host served us— {GASP} instant coffee at breakfast. Apparently instant is the norm. There are a lot of internet cafes too, but Starbucks was free if you have a Starbucks card. Which I already had, so we were set. But checking email was about all we had time for, and I honestly only did that to keep in touch with Baker B and family and OD meet-up buddies, since our phone was quite expensive to use. Well, okay, I did a couple of Facebook updates too, but only a couple. I feel like I’ve had a really nice computer break, in addition to the incredible vacation. So that’s my excuse for waiting till now to make an entry, and for not reading ANYBODY. At ALL. I’m out of the habit.

I’m also totally and completely jetlagged– going over, I was fine. We were up nearly 24 hours from the time we left Asheville till we arrived at our house in London, barely dozed on the plane (overnight flight– not sure I’d do that again). We were of course way too keyed up to nap after arriving, so we explored the neighborhood – Stratford — and got some dinner, then ended up actually going to bed at 8:00. Slept till 8 the next morning and was fine. Coming home, it was another 24 hour mostly-no-sleep spree (although I did sleep a bit on the NY-Charlotte leg of the flight). Have gotten loads of sleep every night since –and I’m STILL EXHAUSTED. I think it’s also post-trip letdown, and sudden inactivity after two weeks of walking all day long.

But whatever! I shall make a series of posts, with pictures, because we saw a LOT. And did a lot. And were on the go pretty much the entire two weeks. And this needs to be short since I’m at work, although naturally our computer system has been down for nearly the whole week, so I can’t actually do most of the piled-up work I have. I’m not sure what happened, but it went down Tuesday and has been down ever since. Apparently a whole lot of data has been lost, and they are attempting to reconstruct it. They’ve actually had to change the dates for registration next week, and class schedules have gone up in flames, so yeah, this is BAD. And yet another reason to be glad I didn’t get the registrar’s office job…. I’d probably be involved in the horror-fest. Yay for lack of responsibility!

Okay. As a brief rundown prior to the actual entries:

I loved London!! I loved, loved, loved it. We were staying in Stratford, which is east of the main London area, so rode the tube in every day. I loved the tube. (I didn’t love the rush hour quite so much, but still, we certainly got the whole London experience by being crammed in with commuters on the tube). We saw about .00003 percent of what we wanted to see, but we could not have crammed another second in, and I throughly enjoyed what we did see.
I loved the countryside!!! Loved, loved, loved it. And okay, that’s where I’d live given a chance. Which is fortunate, since Baker B loves the countryside too and would not want to live in London. But I’d visit London. A lot.
I just loved the entire country. I loved how NICE everyone is. How CIVIL. How POLITE. How…unlike Americans! Seriously, even Londoners were about a gazillion times nicer and more polite than Americans. I actually burst into laughter upon arriving at JFK coming home, and having the first person I spoke to be snarly and rude. As was pretty much everyone else after our US re-entry. I also loved the fact that everyone drives teeny cars in England. No SUVs!!! That alone is enough to make me move over there.
It is gorgeous, and uncluttered, and there is not fast food and 64 oz sodas and garganto houses everywhere. Okay, I know I only saw a little of the countryside… London to Nottingham, Nottingham to Clevedon down the west side, and then to Bath and around Wiltshire… and I’m sure there is plenty of clutter and over-development and waste. But I didn’t see it. Also basically saw NO one who would be classified as obese. Maybe a few pounds overweight, but no obesity. And I saw plenty of indications that England is worried about its weight– it looks like America in the 70s, maybe. So hopefully they’re getting a handle on things before they get to our state. And it certainly isn’t that the food is healthy. I think the portions are much smaller, though, and people don’t eat constantly. And they walk. Especially of course in London.
We, ummmmmm…. did not take the canal boat out of the marina. Not even once. That is a story in itself. It all worked out, as we ended up taking a three-night trip down around Bath and Wiltshire, which I think was my favorite part of all. (The three night trip started out as a one-night trip, before we realized we could not see Bath, Avebury, Glastonbury, Stonehenge, and a bunch of white horses all in one day. Or even two days.) And we stayed two nights in the most incredible hotel EVER, in Clevedon, which is on a cliff overlooking the bay that is across from Wales — so we could see Cardiff from our hotel room. Our CHEAP hotel room. That looked like an old castle. Duuude, I am SO GOING BACK.
And… I met two ODers! Tall Guy met us in London, and MargUK (who IS still on the face of the earth!) came all the way down to Nottingham from Aberdeen the night before we left! How cool is that?!?

Okay, so details on all this fascinating stuff to come. I’ll leave you with a few pictures to start off. Random pictures!

From the Waterloo Station- London Eye (or as I heard it called- “the London Eyesore”).

Icons! However, many of them also offer internet and email along with the plain old outdated telephone. Apparently I’ve not uploaded any of those yet.

Tube! I have amusing (well, not so much at the time, but amusing now. To me. Probably still not to Kim) stories about how tube escalators + The Suitcase From Hell = BREAKDOWN.

The very photogenic Tower Bridge.

And since I’m hoping to be a little more organized about the remaining trip posts and pictures, avoiding crazy random mismashes like this, I’ll get back to work. Or try to get back to work. Waaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

Last updated January 10, 2019