I arrived in London on Friday evening, a little after the time the host and I had agreed upon thanks to a late flight departure. It was still earlier than it would have been if I'd caught the multi-stage flight that was on my itinerary.

( london )

Thanks so much, rmc28 for coming out and meeting me on not just one, but two days! It was so great to catch up, talk, see a bit more of the UK, go steam-training, and watch women's football!

And then I went to see Twelfth Night at the Globe Theatre - the old-fashioned style theatre that Shakespeare's plays would have been shown in (ever seen 'Shakespeare In Love'? That kind of theatre). Six or seven years ago, there was a Popup Globe that came to Australia, and I saw shows in Sydney and in Melbourne, dragging various friends along, and it was just the best fun. Highly recommended.

On the way home, went and picked up some wagamama munchies - not for dinner, but for lunch the next day while I was on the train. An EastAsian-fusion restaurant, wagamama went out of business in Australia a decade ago and more, but apparently is still doing pretty well here. Not entirely surprising, I guess. We have so much food from Asia - East, South-East, South, not to mention all the other types of food from non-white countries we have in abundance - that something that's 'Asian lite' is not going to get much traffic here.

I got back to the room, and chatted a bit with the host. A nice longer chat, we touched on a bunch of topics, and I was a little disappointed that I hadn't had the opportunity to talk to him earlier.

But the place was excellently positioned, near an underground station with three lines passing through it. My only complaint was that it was a little close to a couple of pubs that were very noisy on a Friday night, although they quietened significantly after 11pm.

And the next day, I caught a train up to Chesterfield to meet the tour group for the Pride and Prejudice pilgrimage...

( Italy and the cities there )

Right now, my roomie is using a fan, and I suspect plans to use it all night. On the plus side, at least I don't have to deal with the full-bore air-conditioning. They don't have that here in the UK in most places.

Had a good time in Amalfi - the scenery is gorgeous. The people were pretty nice, a much younger crowd of women, but with only about half the time together, it was harder to make connections. We all took each others insta accounts and will follow on that way.

Now in London for a couple of days, thence to Derbyshire.

A quiet humidity, a breeze off the sea. The quiet in the middle of the night. The ripple of the water and the way the currents swirl across the ocean. The distant smudge on the horizon of what must be Sicily. Clouds that hover over the mountains, over the sea.

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My tour companions here seems pretty nice. There's a few groupings already formed - several women who already know each other and some groups forming. A very energetic Puerto Rican whose personality bounces the whole group along, and

I ended up in a single room, because my intended room-mate came down with COVID and ended up going home. Which, ugh, it sucks for her, and I'm so lucky to have been able to take those three extra days in HK before joining the Georgia trip, hale and healthy. And I'm so relieved I took the extra time to recover in HK, and feel a lot better now, although still not an unthinking 100%.

Anyway, I have two women from the tour group in the room next to mine, and they're chatty and their voices carry, so I'm a bit jealous in spite of the solo room 'cos I hear them talking! I know, I know, hand in my 'introvert' card. I'm only 60% introvert, though.

Pictures in the next day.