There and back again and really want to go there again
I've managed to sit down with my netbook and NOT find I'm sharing it with a cat after a few minutes.
Hayfever and work are conspiring to limit my internet time - especially when work internet goes down and my lunchtime surf treat doesn't happen. It seems hayfever is causing havoc to people not normally affected so at least I feel fairly normal for a change.
Last weekend I had an ADVENTURE and went on an expotition to our great capital. Other than my journeys to and from Heathrow for Eastercons, I last went properly to London when I was nine and that was really quite a long time ago. So, this was EXCITING and doubly so because we were having a first face-to-face Worldcon meeting.
I'm an real country mouse person when it comes to big cities and I felt ridiculously excited to be travelling to London on a train route I've never travelled on before. We then headed downwards onto the underground which didn't feel as freaky as it did when I was nine or when I last used the underground in foreign parts.
The underground is a fabulous connection to so many different parts of London but I wouldn't want to be on it when it's busy and manic - Sunday is obviously much more genteel! It's a very strange sensation travelling in an anonymous tunnel under so many stations which are so well known as words - rather than actual places in my own (warped) mind.
Things that struck me particularly - greengrocers, every other shop - wow. The fruit and veg was so tempting and so varied in some, it was hard just to walk past. Green, it's all very green and tree-ish and in one park there were exercise machines for, presumably, Mr. Public to use - weird. The Plane trees are fabulous and I had to stop to take a couple of photos of the bark - grey and blotchy and very lizard-like. I think my hedge-cutting skills could find me work in London too because so many hedges I passed were huge and hairy beasts that were spilling out into gardens and onto pavements.
People were very smiley too but of course that may be because I tend to grin at people which probably makes them smile back in case I'm a real, live lunatic.
Returning was brilliant because we travelled first class and that felt very fancy and definitely the way to travel - although I understand the toilets are no nicer which is a bit disappointing. I came back clutching a new book from fjm (thank you!!) and was horribly antisocial all the way back - and rather sorry that we were on the direct, super-quick train. We had free tea and crisps and biscuits and were so comfortable we almost forget to get off at our stop!
And that was it, my adventure to the big city. I have come back with my head FULL of ideas for Worldcon and for drawing tree trunks but so far sneezing and work and zombified evenings of antihistamines have not actually produced more than thoughts.
Hayfever and work are conspiring to limit my internet time - especially when work internet goes down and my lunchtime surf treat doesn't happen. It seems hayfever is causing havoc to people not normally affected so at least I feel fairly normal for a change.
Last weekend I had an ADVENTURE and went on an expotition to our great capital. Other than my journeys to and from Heathrow for Eastercons, I last went properly to London when I was nine and that was really quite a long time ago. So, this was EXCITING and doubly so because we were having a first face-to-face Worldcon meeting.
I'm an real country mouse person when it comes to big cities and I felt ridiculously excited to be travelling to London on a train route I've never travelled on before. We then headed downwards onto the underground which didn't feel as freaky as it did when I was nine or when I last used the underground in foreign parts.
The underground is a fabulous connection to so many different parts of London but I wouldn't want to be on it when it's busy and manic - Sunday is obviously much more genteel! It's a very strange sensation travelling in an anonymous tunnel under so many stations which are so well known as words - rather than actual places in my own (warped) mind.
Things that struck me particularly - greengrocers, every other shop - wow. The fruit and veg was so tempting and so varied in some, it was hard just to walk past. Green, it's all very green and tree-ish and in one park there were exercise machines for, presumably, Mr. Public to use - weird. The Plane trees are fabulous and I had to stop to take a couple of photos of the bark - grey and blotchy and very lizard-like. I think my hedge-cutting skills could find me work in London too because so many hedges I passed were huge and hairy beasts that were spilling out into gardens and onto pavements.
People were very smiley too but of course that may be because I tend to grin at people which probably makes them smile back in case I'm a real, live lunatic.
Returning was brilliant because we travelled first class and that felt very fancy and definitely the way to travel - although I understand the toilets are no nicer which is a bit disappointing. I came back clutching a new book from fjm (thank you!!) and was horribly antisocial all the way back - and rather sorry that we were on the direct, super-quick train. We had free tea and crisps and biscuits and were so comfortable we almost forget to get off at our stop!
And that was it, my adventure to the big city. I have come back with my head FULL of ideas for Worldcon and for drawing tree trunks but so far sneezing and work and zombified evenings of antihistamines have not actually produced more than thoughts.