Wandering!
Feb. 17th, 2013 02:05 pm![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
badgerbagWoke up super way too early - Then went out at 8am to wander around in the enormous scooter which was promised to have 20 miles of battery in it. I do not feel so jet lagged! I have hope!
Whooshed through Trafalgar Square. There were no people! No cars! It was foggy and dreamlike. Through the Admiralty Arch which suddenly made sense and stitched together my map of trafalgar square and St. James Park which I had not realized are right next to one another. I thought back fondly to our picnic lunch in St. James Park with everyone and how idyllic it was and how hilarious it was to tear through Fortnum&Mason buying ridiculous amounts of picnic food. Saw coots, moorhens, ducks, a blue heron, overly bold terrifying swans. Sat & watched the swan eye me and then preen itself (like 1 foot away over a little fence) Ogled the early risers photographing buckingham palace. Then on the way back (very cold now) realized battery indicator was dropping fast. Holy shit! Dropping.... dropping... nearly to admiralty arch... dropping another notch... and another... scooter faltering and whining as i went up the slope through the square and past st. martins in the field.... Then began blinking on the last notch. Made it !!!!! My god! Fuck this scooter... battery clearly is shit... 20 miles!!!!!!
Charged scooter, read 3rd book in Scott Westerfeld Leviathan series. IMed wiht zond7. HAd a bath (freezing from my adventure) Looked up things about churches because there was an endless bunch of bell ringing and I wondered what church it was. Did not figure that out but read all about change ringing, which is fucking fascinating. Downloaded Dorothy Sayers book mentioned as having bits about mathematical sequences of change ringing. Read about carillions and bell tuning and campanology. Rubbed myself all over with Voltaren. Fell asleep. (mercifully)
Then v. indecisive and poked at my work email but decided to go out again recklessly. The lure of the open road! Scooter not quite fully charged, might pull a NYT tesla reviewer incident!
Wandered looking for coffee, cafe that is not starbucks that does not have a step and that i will not crash into like giant gundam wing creature. Wandered all over in random walk pattern. Suddenly am in Chinatown! gorgeous! delicious smelling dim sum everywhere! food carts!
Covent Garden. Had coffee in back of Stanfords map/book travel store but could not really fit into it to look at thigns. Still, coffee! And a banana. jolly schoolgirls across from me (college i am sure) having funny conversations about books and their lives and homophobia in the u.s. vs. the u.k. Onwards... and suddenly I am in a glorious Tesco. Wow it was great. I got hot chocolate, bananas, an apple, some carrots, fancy cheese of some mysterious native kind, chunks of roast turkey for sandwiches, 5 seed bread, dried apricots and dried pineapple, and it was like 6 pounds. Food is cheap here? I did not know this, somehow. Yay, food! Realized I am 2 blocks from hotel. Napped briefly, uploaded photos.
Off to have tea with B. in portrait gallery then meet up with my coworkers who i feel kind of shy of. have not thought about work enough.
Whooshed through Trafalgar Square. There were no people! No cars! It was foggy and dreamlike. Through the Admiralty Arch which suddenly made sense and stitched together my map of trafalgar square and St. James Park which I had not realized are right next to one another. I thought back fondly to our picnic lunch in St. James Park with everyone and how idyllic it was and how hilarious it was to tear through Fortnum&Mason buying ridiculous amounts of picnic food. Saw coots, moorhens, ducks, a blue heron, overly bold terrifying swans. Sat & watched the swan eye me and then preen itself (like 1 foot away over a little fence) Ogled the early risers photographing buckingham palace. Then on the way back (very cold now) realized battery indicator was dropping fast. Holy shit! Dropping.... dropping... nearly to admiralty arch... dropping another notch... and another... scooter faltering and whining as i went up the slope through the square and past st. martins in the field.... Then began blinking on the last notch. Made it !!!!! My god! Fuck this scooter... battery clearly is shit... 20 miles!!!!!!
Charged scooter, read 3rd book in Scott Westerfeld Leviathan series. IMed wiht zond7. HAd a bath (freezing from my adventure) Looked up things about churches because there was an endless bunch of bell ringing and I wondered what church it was. Did not figure that out but read all about change ringing, which is fucking fascinating. Downloaded Dorothy Sayers book mentioned as having bits about mathematical sequences of change ringing. Read about carillions and bell tuning and campanology. Rubbed myself all over with Voltaren. Fell asleep. (mercifully)
Then v. indecisive and poked at my work email but decided to go out again recklessly. The lure of the open road! Scooter not quite fully charged, might pull a NYT tesla reviewer incident!
Wandered looking for coffee, cafe that is not starbucks that does not have a step and that i will not crash into like giant gundam wing creature. Wandered all over in random walk pattern. Suddenly am in Chinatown! gorgeous! delicious smelling dim sum everywhere! food carts!
Covent Garden. Had coffee in back of Stanfords map/book travel store but could not really fit into it to look at thigns. Still, coffee! And a banana. jolly schoolgirls across from me (college i am sure) having funny conversations about books and their lives and homophobia in the u.s. vs. the u.k. Onwards... and suddenly I am in a glorious Tesco. Wow it was great. I got hot chocolate, bananas, an apple, some carrots, fancy cheese of some mysterious native kind, chunks of roast turkey for sandwiches, 5 seed bread, dried apricots and dried pineapple, and it was like 6 pounds. Food is cheap here? I did not know this, somehow. Yay, food! Realized I am 2 blocks from hotel. Napped briefly, uploaded photos.
Off to have tea with B. in portrait gallery then meet up with my coworkers who i feel kind of shy of. have not thought about work enough.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-17 05:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-17 07:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-18 04:30 pm (UTC)IOW, you were one lucky traveler (but you knew that).
no subject
Date: 2013-03-03 06:42 pm (UTC)