Tuesday's Blog

This is from Tuesday - it's about the only thing I managed to get done today.

It’s Tuesday and I’m on the flight back to LA. The husband doesn’t understand how I can look forward to going home and be sad about leaving London at the same time. But I’m doing it and I’ve been doing it for a couple of days now.

I didn’t blog yesterday. I had planned to, wanted to – I had gone out on my own for the last time and was looking forward to putting down how it made me feel. Then for some reason I didn’t. The husband asked if I wanted the computer and I said no. I didn’t even download my pictures. I think I wanted to keep it to myself. For some reason, I really felt at home yesterday, walking around in the rain and doing a bit of shopping. It was serene, if I understand the meaning of the word. If I had tried to write it down, it would have cheapened it. This all sounds melodramatic reading it over, but it’s how I feel.

Anyway, we’re chasing the sunset west. The sun went over the horizon for a bit while we were flying north, but we caught back up with it. For the most part it’s just been a red-orange line deepening into that blue you see when you get this high up. I keep looking out the window at it, checking to see how the race is going. I know by the time we land it’ll be dark in LA, will have been for a couple of hours. I hope I see the sun go down and stay down.

Have to say the Virgin-Atlantic lounge at Heathrow beats the LAX lounge by a mile. No comparison. LAX is like a library where you’re always waiting to be shushed while Heathrow is like a coffee shop (but not a Starbucks). We had quite a while to kill in there but it was nice. I even got my manicure – went with a shade that ended up a bit pink, but it’s a nice change for me. As we were leaving we passed a “movie star” in the hallway. Recognized her immediately, but she was carefully avoiding making eye contact. Either way, I’m not in the habit of running up to famous people and gushing all over them. I work in the industry, too. And I know what they make. Oddly enough, she ended up sitting in front of us on the plane. Plus, she got the first complimentary massage, although we were told they choose at random the people who request a treatment. I told the husband the random started after they got through the famous and fabulously wealthy.

The husband is reading this over my shoulder, which usually bothers me, but I’m not minding right now. I just wish he’d stop interrupting me with comments. It throws me.
Really. So stop it.

I am having a hard time realizing the trip is over. We started planning it so long ago and it seemed to take forever to get here and now it’s almost done. I feel like a little kid at Christmas, asking if that’s all there is when surrounded by mountains of opened toys. I’m already thinking about where to go next, but I know that’s a ways off. Got to get back to work.

I did go to Kensington Palace on Monday. Not the building, mind you, but the park surrounding it. When we were there before we didn’t go up the hill and you couldn’t really see that much. It’s very nice, even in the cold rain. When you get to the lake you can see that it’s quite large and the sounds of London kind of fade away. That’s where I started on my own and it’s where the serene comes from. Peaceful. Although there was a Jack Russell Terrier who had “treed” a squirrel who would run around the tree barking, then climb 3 steps up the trunk and fall back to the ground. He did it over and over, totally ignoring his owner.

But I forgot to mention the start of the day. We were lucky enough to catch a London show without having to go out or pay any money. I know it’s not the same, but the BBC broadcast “Jerry Springer: The Opera” – a quick pause while they hand out little tubs of Ben & Jerry’s (man I love upper class) – and it was fantastic. I don’t know if I could have enjoyed it more if I had seen it live. The husband checked the internet and it turned out that the cd was one of the few things we could buy cheaper in London so we went to Piccadily Circus to pick one up. Can’t wait to listen to it at home and at work! I peeled off the parental advisory label to ease its route through customs.

Monday’s breakfast was our last trip to Bakers Oven… I got the sub donut with the butterscotch curls on top. Today I had a Smore’s bar. Both were good.