Went up to London and toured the V&A yesterday. Saw a lot of nifty stuff, but oh my was there a lot of walking involved. Feet still hurt today. Bought a couple of books that I could also have got in the US, but were slightly cheaper here/now given the current exchange rate. Also went through Harrod's and Hamley's but didn't buy anything there, though the "Christmas Red" loose tea at Harrod's was nice. They also had "Monkey Picked Oolong" which made me think of racerxmachina. :)

Am back from England. Had a lovely trip despite never fully adjusting to the time difference, and having a low-grade illness for much of the trip. (Had some of my last batch of salsa last night. Whatever bugs are in me are dying as I type. I find pleasure in this. Dunno if it's the capsicum or all the vitamins in the stuff, but it works.) Especially nice was spending some time with Serge and Morag in Cambridge. ^_^ Got some neat books, discovered one of the antique booksellers in Cambridge has apparently gone out of business, and got in our traditional expedition to the top of Castle Hill, albeit shiveringly. :)

The flight back was mostly uneventful. I finished watching Hairspray, and quite like the movie. The music was not so impressive, but how what I thought was going to be a fluffy piece ended up with a real social revolution commentary to it, was. I knew going in what the story was about, but I didn't think it would pull it off as well as it did. Also watched Transformers again, though not all that attentively. More like read and embroidered while listening to it.

Incidentally, the security people at Heathrow Airport are MORONS. They confiscated my embroidery scissors. The ones with the 1" blade, which is well within legal aviation specs. The same pair I have been flying with for three years to three different continents with no problems. Including having flown both into and out of Heathrow with them before. Wonderful Husband had to walk back down to the Virgin Airlines counter--under escort by Security no less--and beg a cardboard box off of them that got taped up and checked as another piece of luggage. I was upset at the time. Now I'm just pissed.

Slept for twelve hours last night, came in this morning to discover (as expected) my desk buried under undone paperwork and filing, and a ton of cremains out in the cremains room. Thank goodness I was only gone for four days! However, am jazzed on sewing and embroidery at the moment, so shall see how far this creative spurt gets me. I also want to finish Cygnus pretty soon, and Twin Terrors, and then get back to other, more weighty, stories....

And spend time with hoshikage, who is visiting for the next week!

Heading to Heathrow in a few more minutes, and then flying back to Cali. Wonderful Husband is dreading the flight, I'm fine with it, hopefully we'll even out or something, and then get home, nibble some food, and collapse unconscious into bed just prior to both going into work with an extreme case of jetlag tomorrow morning. And these are our plans for the next day and a half....

Will miss England, and our family and friends here. But we can't be in two places at once, unfortunately. :(

Awake, at a decent hour of the morning, even, in Cambridge. Totally not fair that I get over the jetlag and into normal sleeping patterns two days before I fly home and have to readjust. Ah well, whatcha gonna do? WQonderful Husband is still sleeping in the bedroom and Serge and Morag are off to church, so I'm here in their living room watching Cinnamon the snake and Pixel the wee cat, the latter of whom is trying to convince me that I should open the door so she can go out into the rest of the flat. It isn't working. I have known too many cats to be convinced by her huge anime eyes. (hoshikage, it's really quite amazing. If Mandi were an cat, she would probably look like Pixel. ^_^)

Went rummaging through a used bookstore or two yesterday, found one of the Scarlet Pimpernel novels I don't have for 50P. Discovered another used bookstore yesterday evening that I thought had closed down but is still there, but Douglas thinks they'll probably be closed today, alas. Went out to the remains of an Iron Age settlement, and got rained on (ahh, Britain...). And tonight, of course, is the New Year's party, which will be fun.

Well, it is Thursday the 28th and my sister's birthday, so happy birthday elenisiliel!

Wonderful Husband and I are still in the Southampton area and are planning to spend today mostly in Winchester and visiting his grandmothers. Hopefully I'll be able to take care of most requests today (um... two postcards, a rock, a snowglobe, and mushy peas, I think... plus the new Jamie Oliver book for my mother). Tomorrow we head up to Cambridge to visit toothycat, both of them! ^_^

For the Mebifanwriters, anyone else want to take Mirai and Ryuuji for a while? They're stuck in my head and getting very annoying because they're there but not giving me any story. Yes, sandpanther, this means you. Make them give you the rest of Curry or something.

Arrived in England safely, after a blessedly uneventful flight. Due to the freezing fog at Heathrow, our plane was late arriving and left LAX about an hour and a half behind schedule. The seats we had on the plane were less than stellar--the first row of three seats in the center behind the section of four seats in the center, which meant that the televisions in front of us were offset, which made watching the inflight entertainment more difficult. That said, Virgin gave us free reign over what to watch and when, which was wonderful. Neither Wonderful Husband nor I slept much at all, and he has problems with plane flights, but all in all it could have been worse. We're still not adjusted to local time, but hopefully that will change in the next day or two.

Arrived in Britain safely. Have had a nice Christmas, complete with flaming pudding and presents and in-laws, whatnot. Have also started on the next piece of blackwork embroidery. All is well. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.