jaeclectic | (belated) vacation highlights

Arrived in London to 70+ degree weather and sunshine -- in November! it must be global warming... but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

It was really nice spending some time with ML, and nice also to spend a little time with Jo, whom I had met before but only briefly and when he was completely jet-lagged.

Also had a good visit with my friend Barbara. It occurs to me that since she was in her 70's when I met her, she may be in her 80's by now. Eeeep. Anyway, she took me to a luncheon at a church in Kew, a charity event apparently by & for what we would call Senior Citizens and the Brits call Old Age Pensioners, since who else is going to come to a charity lunch on a Friday? Anyway, a culinary treat (homemade soup, and apple pie made with applies out of somebody's cousin's garden, yum) and a cultural experience to boot. Then to take advantage of the good weather, I got the free tour of Kew Gardens, really a tour because Barbara volunteers as a guide there.

Also did some actual tourist stuff, i.e., the Gothic exhibit at the V&A, the Below Stairs exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery, and a ramble around the Tate Modern including an overpriced lunch at the cafe there (but hey, you're paying for the view).

Didn't manage to get to the theatre, however. Next time...

Then wended my way to Essex for a couple of nights with Neil and Ann, including a day trip over to their new cottage in France. The village is called Ponches Estruval and I still haven't really figured out where it is. But we had a nice drive down and rambled around some of the local towns, including a stop for lunch in Montrueil sur Mer.

We first tried a restaurant that N&A knew, but it was full... then tried one that had been recommended to them, also no luck... but they handed us a card for a place across the square which proved to be completely empty when we walked in. Normally, of course, this would be considered a Very Bad Sign, but at this point we were all hungry and obviously not having reservations was a bit of an issue. So, Ann gamely trots out her well-practiced French sentence to inquire whether we could get a table for 3 -- at which point the waitress gives a big, stagey look around at all the empty tables and says "Non", and then bursts out laughing. During the course of the meal, which proved to be excellent, we concluded that the place must be brand new, hence the lack of crowds (although more people did filter in) despite the good food and exceedingly charming staff.

The next day was Monday, and Ann had to work, but Neil had time off so we went for a ramble around Leigh-on-Sea, a tiny village consisting mainly of pubs and seafood shops, that is apparently overrun with tourists in the summer but was almost vacant and extremely pleasant on a mild day in November. The following day, Neil graciously drove me to Suffolk, stopping for a walk (and a very fine pub lunch) along a canal somewhere in the wilds of Essex.

We arrived at Heather & Allan's before either of them were home from work, found the key and let ourselves in, and located the dog who greeted us by raising her head and blinking, then going back to sleep. The dog, Honey, is a retired greyhound, and seems to have used up all of her lifetime's worth of energy racing. She has only been with H&A for a few weeks, so perhaps in time she will become a bit more possessive of her home, but for the meantime she is exceedingly easy to get along with, albeit of no value as a burglar alarm.

After one lazy day in Suffolk, Heather and I headed off to Firenze. I hardly know where to start... maybe I'll wait and post another entry when I've got pictures. Basically, it's a beautiful city, chock full of amazing buildings, many of which are also full of amazing art. And we found a excellent restaurant (OK, used the Lonely Planet guidebook, so it's not like our personal discovery) with charming and friendly staff, including one completely fluent English-speaker, which was nice since that made it easy to ask for recommendations on the wine and to explain that Heather needed to avoid cow's milk... anyway, we went there twice because we liked it so much the first time.

Aside from all that, it was really nice spending some time with Heather. It had been a really long time, and I had started to feel like we were drifting apart, but we do still really like each other :)

The main miscalculation of the trip was not having a car for the last few days in Chillesford -- I had incorrectly assumed that Heather would be able to take some more time off work, but it turned out that she had a training class, so I was stranded out in The Middle of Nowhere, UK [tm]. I was there for three days -- the first was fine, as I can enjoy just being lazy for one day, but the second day I got really restless. I eventually got a cab to Woodbridge and did some shopping, after some hesitation due to being short on cash -- but when I finally got up the nerve to call, and asked if they could take a credit card, the cab company person actually suggested that I could stop at a cash machine (which I had felt a bit shy about mentioning as an option).

Anyway, that evening had dinner with Cheryl -- not quite enough time to really get caught up, but it was really good to see her, she seems to be doing well, and now at least I have her current email address!

And the following day, took a cab to Aldeburgh (my alternate home town) and spent the day with Shelagh. Which was also really good. And she plans to be in Las Vegas in March for her 60th birthday, so hopefully I will be able to vendevouz with her there.

Now back to humdrum existence. Things are a bit too quiet at work (hence me writing this during the work day! shhhh, don't tell) as Sun has not yet decided who will be taking over the project that I've been working on, much less whether they will want to continue employing me on that or anything else. So here I am, all ready to hand things over but with no one to hand them to...

But the cats are glad I'm home. (I missed them, too.)

(belated) vacation highlights

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