Good Grief.

I've just returned from a week-long trip in London, a sort of final-closure visit with the family and friends of one of my oldest adult friends who died last summer.  Had a fabulous time seeing everyone, but was surprised how out of touch I felt, going a week without my aggregator (the laptop stayed home for a variety of reasons, most of which was this was NOT a work trip).  I made one stop into a NetCafe on Oxford Street, but only stayed for about twenty minutes (most of which was spent cleaning out the listserve posts that had filled my hotmail account) because the keyboard and especially the mouse were positively disgustingly dirty.  I immediately washed my hands when we left.  Ick.

Anyway, my friend's grave is in the churchyard of this beautiful little village called Orsett, in Essex.  The headstone is absolutely gorgeous and the inscription was beautiful.  I left an empty film cannister hidden in the headstone as well (he was never without his camera), and spent a few days with his family and especially playing with his niece and nephew who are just darling.

 The biggest non-potential-war-related news from London was the continued stoppage on the Central Line, which was a particular issue for me as my friends live right off of that line.  I took the Express Train from Heathrow to Paddington, and was on three trains (going a grand total of three stops--wrong way on the District line, wrong way again on the Circle line, and then arrived at, err, Bond Street, I think) before I made it to the Jubilee line to get to within a 20 pound cab ride to their place.  Argh.

Now I need to finish going through my Aggregator and finish reviewing my work e-mail.  There's a lot to go through.