The Tea Tastes Great, So I Must Be In...

Ahhh....London. All of a sudden, here I am in South London. It is early in the morning, and everyone is still asleep. I'm sitting here with an excellent cup of tea (title of this post refers to this other post) and a plate of Jacob's cream crackers (since I'm desperately hungry and it was the only thing I could find without disturbing my host's kitchen cupboards) and looking at lovely cloud patterns through the window, and some beautiful shafts of morning sunlight from time to time. And I'm listening to the birds.... and some seriously loud snoring from upstairs. Would not have predicted that I'd be here at this time. Tuesday saw me doing hectic things at work back in LA, as usual. Then I decided. I called the airline, got a seat, and that afternoon (after a mad dash across town, making it to the gate one minute before the flight closed) saw me in the air, headed to London. And here I am. Purpose of trip? Just to be there for my sister, Carol, who yesterday was giving birth to her first child. All went well. Hurrah! We are an Uncle, again. What else shall I do while here? Well, I've got jetlag, my laptop, and a wireless connection and I've three more papers to be working on, using this convenient setup - one came out last week; I'll be telling you about that physics very soon - and I've got several other writing projects to work on.... and I will probably be helping out with things like shopping and other errands from time to time. And then, when I can get away, I think I'll go to some old haunts to drink it all in, such as South Kensington, Bloomsbury, and Soho. I'll go to a John Lewis to buy some household items like one or two more pieces of the Denby Greenwich dining set and a set of placemats and coasters, have a look in some museums and bookshops, and -oh yes- I'll definitely buy some essential food items to take back with me: Green and Black's chocolates, Maldon Sea Salt, good English Breakfast tea, etc, etc. (Must also remember to get some Hendrick's gin on the way back through Heathrow.) See here for a previous haul my mum brought me when she visited last. Sure, I could get all that latter stuff (but not the gin) from one of the English shops in Santa Monica. But it is such an effort to go all the way over to the West Side. If I'm going to go all the way over there, might as well go all the way to London. Time for another cup of tea. -cvj