Tower of London

In my imagination, the Tower of London was the British version of Kilmainham Gaol. When I finally visited it for the first time, I was stunned to see it is a little medieval village on the Thames. It has a moat, a wall - several, in fact - residences, a surgeon's office, and, wait for it, several towers.

Our timing was good, and we found the beginning of a tour and tagged along. The tour guide is a Beefeater in full regalia, and he told some very amusing stories about the major players in the history of the Tower. He took every opportunity to make sly digs at the US ("We had a Water Gate before the Americans did.") After the tour, we saw the ravens that protect the continuation of the current monarchy, and walked through the Crown Jewels exhibit, where cameras were verboten.

Whirlwind in London

Marty and I are traveling through London on our way to Copenhagen for the iGaming conference. Marty wanted me to see some of the things he enjoys most about London, and I wanted to touch bases again with Carol, a distant cousin descended from my great grandfather. By coincidence, another cousin, Peter, was also in town on his way home to Jamaica, so the four of us met at The Audley, a traditional English pub near our hotel.

We had a lightning 2.5 days in London town. We walked across Green Park to see the beginning of the changing of the guard at Buckingham palace, and then we had high tea with Marty's friends, Peter and Angela, at Fortnam and Mason. We did a bus tour of the city, and then crashed.

The next day, we visited the Imperial War Museum, which turned out to be far more interesting than I expected, and the Tower of London before meeting Carol and Peter at The Audley for a half-liter of Guinness and a plate of food to share. This was the first time Carol and Peter had met, and I felt bad that we had to leave after an hour to go shopping for a coat. And Marty was falling asleep. But I think they stayed to visit and compare notes for a while after we left.

About the coat: I had my London Fog raincoat cleaned and pressed for the trip, and I left it at home! So, since it's colder and windier in Copenhagen, I had to get another one. I couldn't find one that fit exactly, but we were both so tired and cranky that I just bought the first one I could fasten shut at Marks and Spencer's.

Next morning, it was all about packing and getting the train to Heathrow. We got there early, and spent some time in the Scandinavian Air Service's lounge, where we had free wifi and a snooze.

Summer's Winding Up

Lazy, hazy days of summer? Well, mayby hazy; certainly not lazy!

L returned from London on time with lots of photos, which she promptly uploaded to MySpace. She says she has them on the laptop on her desktop, and will move them into the "shared" folder so others NOT on MySpace can also see them. She enjoyed the trip: found King Lear "awesome", and was most impressed by Windsor Castle. The "Eye" was operational and she took the ride. (It was closed for repair when P visited a few years ago.)

She jumped right back into lifeguarding the day after she returned, and has been keeping otherwise busy with her summer homework: books to read, movies to watch, and fundraisers to attend. Oh, and she also has been asking for driving practice. She's doing really well, but I still get nervous when she accelerates towards brake lights ... And we've already been shopping for school supplies - filled a bag at OfficeMax and got the 15% discount.

I've decided to try another - shorter - walking race. I've made reservations for a trip to Hawaii this month, and am waiting for the registration form for the 5k Rosie Wall Memorial run/walk. It begins at the Kailua Fire Station, goes along North Kainalu to the end of the road, and back. It begins and ends just a block from Mom's house, so it couldn't be more convenient! I'm thinking that I should practice in the heat, because that's going to be the challenge: heat and humidity.

I set a new personal goal of shedding another 10% of my current body weight. I've been mostly successful during the last 3 weeks, but we had a going-away party this week at work, and I had pieces of BOTH the chocolate cherry and the carrot cakes. But I discovered my Curves workouts are worth a few more exercise points than I thought - wish they were enough more to cancel out the cake - but no. So I've got to walk more and be vigilant about choosing healthy foods.

Do I Know You?

Tomorrow morning, Daughter is leaving with a group from her high school for a 9-day trip - they'll be spending a week in London! Son has been on his own for three years. Husband and I will be sans kids for the first time in many years - how will we know what to talk about?

Everyone will be here tonight for dinner - then Dear Daughter has to pack, and we need to be on the road at 4:30 a.m. in the morning. I-5 has been under construction for the past month, and all the northbound lanes are closed from L Street to Richards Blvd. That means we have to detour off the freeway through downtown and pick it up again north of the roadwork - in other words, it will take longer to get to the airport.

Along the lines of knowing myself - I took part in an exercise last week called Library Day in the Life. A couple dozen librarians volunteered to micro-blog their work days last week, in response to a question from someone who was thinking about going to library school. It was an eye-opener for me. I discovered I don't really do very much of what I was trained to do in library school, forcing me to re-think why I allowed my career to get so side-tracked. I'll be thinking of ways to include more professional projects in my career with Sacramento Public.

Malta is for Millionaires

It was a long trip - I think it was about 24 hours from door to door - but we made it to Malta! We landed at Heathrow, then took a motor coach to Gatwick Airport, and from there hired a cab to drive us to the Copthorne Hotel London Gatwick - about 10 min. from the airport - for an overnight stay. The Copthorne Hotel would have been a great place to spend a few days! It's built on an old farm house and set in acres of woods and gardens. Lots of brick arches and windows onto the wild gardens with walkways, benches, and woods.

I had arranged to meet a couple of distant Soutar cousins, Carol and her daughter Emily, for dinner, and we had a comfortable visit along with the buffet. We've been corresponding for several years, so it was a treat to finally meet them! They drove about an hour from their home to visit in cold and drizzly weather.

Next morning, we took a very early cab to the Gatwick Airport for the flight to Malta. We arrived about 1:30 in the afternoon, and by the time we arrived at the Westin Dragonara Resort, Marty's conference hotel, it was all we could do to stay awake! The time difference of 9 hours, being unable to sleep on the plane, and getting only 5 hours sleep in the hotel caught up with us in spades. We crashed.