Audience of Strangers

Home in land where the hot and cold water come out of the same tap plane delayed in Newark love you all oh god it's 36 minutes to 7 in the a.m. and all the streets are in a grid here I'm home I'm home

sleep now

...and here the chemist (over the counter is actually over the counter here, very odd) warned me that the cold meds might make me drowsy. They are refusing to deliver as promised, dammit!

On the plus side, all my pics (1041 of them) are now rotated to be right-side-up.

Ran across one of the ones I took of the Tower ravens that I'm actually really happy with while I was doing that. Not uploading most of them, since Photobucket is being a pain lately (and there are *1041*, did I mention), but I actually wanted to toss this one up.

...sadly, after six tries where PB is telling me about a "network error" that interrupted my upload, I figure it's not gonna happen.

ETA: LJ's scrapbook is being slightly more cooperative. Pic is here. I *love* the shine and pattern on his shoulders.

That said, some notes from Highgate:

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Highgate Cemetery, March 18th, 3:47 p.m.

I feel I have *seriously* underestimated the time it will take me to get through here. And IIRC, it closes at five.

I think I've taken about a hundred pictures already and I'm about twenty yards from the entry gate. Tops. The only reason I'm stopping, in fact, is to clear the memory stick on my camera.

It's not quite beautiful, it's not quite immense, but... I could sit here all day and just look.

4:19 p.m.

Still in sight of east gate. There are three paths leading off it, so it's not quite as bad as it sounds, but gah. Emptying camera again. Also sitting down to do so, and the worm's-eye view here is pretty neat.

I've been to cemeteries before. I've been to *North American* cemeteries. Highgate... I guess most of the graves I'm seeing aren't that much older, but the way they're jumbled together, and the paths, and the holly and the ivy (evergreens--seeing so much of them puzzled me for a bit until I remembered); it keeps making me think of that line about how what London is built on is mostly London. This is not a filing cabinet for the dead. It's a place that's grown up around them.

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And after that I just kind of... wandered. It's a very peaceful place.

Had dinner, came home from pub, lay down for just a minute. Woke up and am *not* feeling great.

I cannot be sick, dammit. It is not allowed. Not now. Not here. >.

Okay. ...damn, I have 302 photos. Figure I'll ramble a bit and get impressions down before I forget.

Yesterday, went downstairs in the triumphant expectation of My Coffee(TM), only to find that the cleaners were in the kitchen from 9:30 until noon.

Oh the howls of pain. Went out to the coffee shop next to Mornington Crescent, then grabbed food at the Sainsbury's and sort of wandered down Camden High Street. There were books, mostly. :D Also a bit of jewelry.

Got back to the hostel and dropped off stuff, then went down to Leicester Square and caught Franklyn (lovely movie), wandered in a vague circle that took us past an Internet café so we could slake our 21st-century lusts, grabbed dinner at a pub (this will be a common theme, by the way; funny that), and heard out to see The Woman in Black which is an *excellent* ghost play. I kind of bought the book. And the script. And the program.

Came home and kind of fell over.

Today, woke up at 7-8-ish. Contemplated the world, then promptly decided to lie down again for a nap. Got up at noon. Whoops.

Headed down to coffee, and wandered around the garden... innner courtyard... thing that they have here at the hostel. It's very pretty. I shall take pictures. There is one rose that might bloom before we leave, not sure.

Headed down to London Bridge, and can I just say that I *love* the Tube? Really. It's so *quick*. (I mean, I'm sure that having said this, I will promptly be swamped by delays, but for the moment... fast! convenient! cylindrical!

....alright, that probably sounded filthy.

Got a map. This will doubtless be handy.

So, we stopped at the Mudlark for ?lunch? (as lunchy as you can get at 3:25 Gotp.m.) and had green beer and sandwiches. Slightly confused the bartender when I said I wanted coffee *and* a beer. Then we got the London Bridge Experience, which is a half an hour of the history of London Bridge via tour/recreation and then forty-five minutes of a haunted house in the plague pits. It was *awesome*. I cannot emphasize this enough. Hysteria-inducing. Lot of screaming. *Mad* fun.

Wandered around down by the Thames for a bit, and I found and mailed postcards. The HMS Belfast was sadly not open anymore and oh dear god she is huge. Then we discovered that the leaflets which had been saying the Clink was open until 9:00 p.m. every night failed to mention the important words "during the summer".

Mid-March? Not summer.

So we went down to Southwark Bridge[1] and then turned left on... bah, I don't remember, but we were through the Borough Market and back at the London Underground station in ten minutes. Came home and are currently planning on going out for food. Also probably more green beer.
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[1] Dear London: wish to object. You have far too many bridges. Also what is this about the Tower and London Bridge not being the same thing. Also the wind is cold blowing off the Thames. Yrs sincerely, put-upon tourist.[2]
[2] (No, I *knew* there was more than one bridge. I'm just saying.)

FWIW, at least this time I got some decent sleep before the feathered minions of the apocalypse woke me up with their singing.

It's *dark*. It's going to be dark for at least another hour. It's been dark for ten. Why are they *singing?*

--oh hey I still have foam earplugs in my wallet. G'night, all.

Alright. At the moment the wireless connection would deserve to be taken out and shot, if I could only *find* the thing. But the laundry is running, so I have an excuse to ramble.

...dammit. Not much to say. I kind of wish John were here; I'd love to be going out and seeing some of this stuff with him. Not even in a schmoopy way, it'd just be nice to have him here.

Things in particular to see... the Woman in Black play, maybe Franklyn, the London Tombs tour, my old school, my old home, London Bridge, the Tower, much in the way of tourist traps... and I need to figure out how to get to Dublin. Because hey, St. Patrick's Day in Dublin, when the hell am I ever going to have a chance to do that again? Oh, and Madame Tussaud's. Also feel like going back to Ripley's Believe It or Not. Haven't been there in *decades*.

Hmm, the washing machine appears to be leaking. Not very actively, but it's definitely there. I don't think I'm going to worry about it unless it spreads off the tile. (Did I mention how much the laundry cost?)

--oh, drat, left my wallet upstairs, and I need to plug stuff into the dryer. BRB.

--I think I may have accidentally fed the dryer a Canadian nickel rather than 20p. Feel kinda bad about this.

In any case, it's 7:26, so I'm going to shower, see about leaving a message for Rachel at the desk, and head out.

Apparently I am not quite adjusted to the jet lag yet. Went to bad somewhat after midnight this morning, woke up for maybe half an hour around 1:30--

--and then slept until now. Whoops.

At least it's still light out. I'm going to go get breakfast, and coffee, and then deal with the fact that I appear to have two order numbers for one ticket.

(Written before the laptop turned into a brick.)

Have just realized *exactly* how much stuff I have been storing on my GMail. With the connection having just died, it's a bit odd. OTOH, I need to start boarding, so I'm gonna grab a very fast snack and wander over.

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...holy *crap*.

Okay. Three hours on the tarmac at Ottawa. Left at 6:20. I have to say that flying over Newark at l'heure bleue is *gorgeous*, although holy fuck do you guys use a lot of orange halogens.

Anyway. Got off the plane and into the terminal, customer service told me it looked like my connecting flight was still good, hurried down to the gate, and in the seven minutes it took to get there the plane left.

Sigh.

So after a brief confusion I found the customer service desk, explained the situation, was told the next flight left at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow, said “oh, please” very politely, and got plugged onto a 10:25 flight.

Hauled my ass to Terminal B just in time to see everything closing at five past 9:00, including the kitchen of the one restaurant by my gates (and at this point I hadn't had anything since the cup of chili at lunch). Went to a Relay newsstand, bought a Powerade and a double handful of Nutri-Grain bars, and went back to the restaurant. That's where I am now, and may I say their White Zinfandel is very nice.

And I was *just* about to succumb to my addiction and sign up for a Boingo account when they announced boarding. Ghad. Oh well, it was probably a bad financial decision anyway.

(I got a quick tiny sketch done on the plane while we were waiting at Ottawa. I'll try and ink it before sleeping tonight.)

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...man, people *worry*. XD In at Heathrow, no Wi-Fi, checked e-mail at kiosk, currently typing on laptop while on the Heathrow Express. Heathrow to Paddington in 15 minutes. The fastest way to Central London. Trust me, they make *sure* you know this.

Have left behind the dead brick directly outside Heathrow. Currently going past trees and old buildings. Not bothering with a pic at these speeds. Sky is grey and cloudy; unfortunately, day is also sunny. Damnation, I want rain.

Did not get the sketch done, but have had breakfast. Rachel was waiting for me at the terminal, which was nice. Oh, and my bag didn't arrive with me. Virgin promises that when (if) it shows up, they'll run it over to the hostel.

Virgin serves free booze on their flights. I can forgive much. Also, rye-and-gingers are called whiskey-and-gingers here. Watched Dark Knight until--

ohgod we just passed the hugest old rust-covered reservoir-like silo. Girders and struts, lovely thing.

--until just after James Gordon got shot, and then started watching Mirrors. You know, when the movie is reformatted to fit your screen, it cuts off a chunk of the Joker's magic trick. *Really* undermines the impact, is all I'm saying.

(Holy *crap*, enough wireless networks in range?)

Whole lot of dead brick outside the window now. Am gonna shut down and watch stuff for a bit.

My luggage has been found and they are working on getting it to me. :D

Short version: three hours on the tarmac at Ottawa, missed Newark connection by about seven minutes *tops*, got switched to a Virgin flight (they gave me a free drink, yay), my luggage hasn't arrived yet, and food should be happening shortly.

I feel surprisingly fine.