Well--I arrived in London at 6:30 this morning. My flight from Dulles wasn't the worst I've ever taken, but it wasn't the best either. I've definitely grown accustomed to taking flights longer than 14 hours so being able to upgrade. This was rough. I had two kids in front of me that keep jostling around and asking for more food from the flight attendants, and two Irish high-schoolers next to me that were trapped in and traveling with a couple other girls that kept coming over to talk. Then, I seemed to be surrounded in general by the entire geriatric crowd going on a Carnival cruise. Of for the love of peter, paul and mary!
Anyway--I arrived, quick trip on the Heathrow express and a taxi ride and I was happily ensconced in my hotel. A shower and a nap do a lot to revive you!! So I slipped on my keens and started walkin'. A few hours later I'd covered Covent Garden, Leicester Square to get theatre tickets and whatever neighborhood I'm in (near University of London). I also caught up with a friend from Darfur who's here finishing up school. I went to see Wicked--an early birthday present to myself (and if I don't really eat much here for the next week I should be able to cover my ticket with my perdiem). It was fantastic. Lots of Americans there......And lots of people in really weird and IMHO inappropriate clothing for the theatre. The weirdest thing was that it looked like a movie theatre when we left---water bottles and candy wrappers all over the floor. Strange, strange, strange.
Anyway, tomorrow I'm going to hit Regents park and maybe the Thames.....it all depends on if the weather is as lovely tomorrow as it was today!
So, I'm off to bed....
Cheers mate,
Jane
anglophile
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Oye--I really need to sleep!!
Well--for those of you who don't want the minutia of my life....skip this one!! It all started last Monday.
I took Lily to the vet for some nasty skin infection. And, after a mere $180, we are on the road to recovery. But, the antibiotics she's on for two weeks increase her water intake and (apparently) decreases her bladder. On Tuesday, I came home from work and discovered Lily had peed on the stair landing. Hmmm. So on Wednesday I blocked the stairs...hehe. Not so much, she peed in another spot on my carpet. Blech. So I blocked her in the kitchen on Thursday with a "target" in case she had to pee and her dog bed. She peed all over the dog bed. Eww. Friday I blocked her in the kitchen with nothing, and she peed on the floor. Now I can't really feel angry becuase she can't help it!! But she's also unable to make it through the night either. So she's woken me up at 3 or 4 a.m. every night.
I thought things would be better over the weekend becuase I could let her out. But I foolishly signed up for a sprint triathlon run by my tri club on Saturday. So I had to get up at 5 a.m. Lily wanted to make sure I was awake so she woke me up at 3:30.
On my way home from the race, my duty officer blackberry rang. For those of you not in the know (and why would you be), each of us has to be on duty for 1 week every six months. We answer USGS earthquake notifications and alert staff, and are available for others as international disasters are identified. So I was on the receiving end of a call from USAID-Tbilisi (Georgia) where Russia has decided to attack. Oye. After dealing with that, I came back, took Lily to the park, and took a nap. I woke up hungry and decided to have some edamame from costco. Bad move, something didn't sit right. By 4:30 pm I was on the floor of my bathroom, sweating so hard my clothes and the bathmat were soaked! And let's just say I cleared the edamame, and all other food, out of my system.
After a few more hours of resting, I settled in to watch the Olympics. I walked Lily multiple times and let her out at midnight after watching the women's 4x100 relay. (My friends Stefanie and Mark are there--so cool!!!) So I had a chance of making it through the night---if it weren't for that pesky war! The State dept operations center called me to find out what our response plan to the disaster declaration would be. Apparently, some people weren't communicating as well as they should!! So, up at 4, I figured I would be proactive and took Lily outside. After a few more hours of sleep, the blackberry rang again.
So it's Sunday a.m. and I haven't slept through the night since last Monday a.m. I'm so tired. And Lily has another week of antibiotics so I'm not in the clear until at least next weekend. Yikes.
Well--at least the tri went well....though I have a lot to do before IronGirl in a few weeks!!!
Maybe I'll go take a nap---it's only 8:20 a.m......
Jane
I took Lily to the vet for some nasty skin infection. And, after a mere $180, we are on the road to recovery. But, the antibiotics she's on for two weeks increase her water intake and (apparently) decreases her bladder. On Tuesday, I came home from work and discovered Lily had peed on the stair landing. Hmmm. So on Wednesday I blocked the stairs...hehe. Not so much, she peed in another spot on my carpet. Blech. So I blocked her in the kitchen on Thursday with a "target" in case she had to pee and her dog bed. She peed all over the dog bed. Eww. Friday I blocked her in the kitchen with nothing, and she peed on the floor. Now I can't really feel angry becuase she can't help it!! But she's also unable to make it through the night either. So she's woken me up at 3 or 4 a.m. every night.
I thought things would be better over the weekend becuase I could let her out. But I foolishly signed up for a sprint triathlon run by my tri club on Saturday. So I had to get up at 5 a.m. Lily wanted to make sure I was awake so she woke me up at 3:30.
On my way home from the race, my duty officer blackberry rang. For those of you not in the know (and why would you be), each of us has to be on duty for 1 week every six months. We answer USGS earthquake notifications and alert staff, and are available for others as international disasters are identified. So I was on the receiving end of a call from USAID-Tbilisi (Georgia) where Russia has decided to attack. Oye. After dealing with that, I came back, took Lily to the park, and took a nap. I woke up hungry and decided to have some edamame from costco. Bad move, something didn't sit right. By 4:30 pm I was on the floor of my bathroom, sweating so hard my clothes and the bathmat were soaked! And let's just say I cleared the edamame, and all other food, out of my system.
After a few more hours of resting, I settled in to watch the Olympics. I walked Lily multiple times and let her out at midnight after watching the women's 4x100 relay. (My friends Stefanie and Mark are there--so cool!!!) So I had a chance of making it through the night---if it weren't for that pesky war! The State dept operations center called me to find out what our response plan to the disaster declaration would be. Apparently, some people weren't communicating as well as they should!! So, up at 4, I figured I would be proactive and took Lily outside. After a few more hours of sleep, the blackberry rang again.
So it's Sunday a.m. and I haven't slept through the night since last Monday a.m. I'm so tired. And Lily has another week of antibiotics so I'm not in the clear until at least next weekend. Yikes.
Well--at least the tri went well....though I have a lot to do before IronGirl in a few weeks!!!
Maybe I'll go take a nap---it's only 8:20 a.m......
Jane
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