f4f3 | On The Road Days Six and Seven: And breathe...

As Inigo would say, "Let me explain. No, there is too much, let me sum up."

As in Prague, I acquired myself a guide in London -

widgetfox was free, and we met up so that she could show me Muswell Hill on Thursday, and then again to do stuff in Central London on Friday.

I liked Muswell Hill - it has a similar feeling to Glasgow's West End, even if the houses are smaller and more expensive. I found a lovely bookshop (which should surprise no one) and bought a copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Tales of the Jazz Age" which will be coming to the States with me.

We then popped by

widgetfox 's gym for a quick bit of healthiness. We may have spent four and three quarter hours in the hot tub and pool.

We had some food after that, and then I continued my streak of bad transport choices by getting a cab which took me to Harringey Station, not Hornsley. Which is in the opposite direction. No harm done, and I was still back in my hotel at a reasonable hour.

Friday was more Central London - Fortnum and Mason's (I bought Orange Pekoe teabags to take to Providence) Hatchards (I bought books) The National Gallery (I didn't buy anything) and Hagen Daaz (I bought ice-cream: they do salted caramel now).

Covent Garden is still a great place to wander around, and there are some healthy places to eat - well, healthier than Hagen Daaz.

widgetfox then introduced me to the John Soames' Museum - a place I'd heard of, but never visited. I liked it a lot, a junk yard for cultural junk, and some really good paintings (they have Hogarth's "Election Night" which I'd never seen in the varnish).

After that I took a bit of a punt and joined

widgetfox at a One Light Spiritual Gathering. My problems with religion are well documented (and will be again) but she explained this as an organisation who try to combine the key parts of all religions, learning their ways and treating them equally. I thought that approach sounded interesting, and since I'd missed out on any sort of spiritual experience on my holiday (bar walking through Prague and London, always something that buoys me up) I thought I'd give it a try. I'm glad I did - there's not enough space in a summary post to go through the whole thing, but the programme was concerned with Justice, and had elements of Judaism, Paganism, meditation, and finished with the Metta bhavana, one of my favourite meditations. I came out charged up, and that's got to be a good thing.

After that there was time for the Worst Italian Restaurant in Notting Hill Gate, and then off to Euston to catch the sleeper. I'd booked a standard single, which is supposed to be a shared compartment, where all you know is that your bunk-mate will be the same gender. When I arrived, though, the Steward told me that I could have a compartment to myself. I love sleeper trains, and this was probably the best yet - yes, the compartment is small, but the beds were comfy, the heating could be switched off, and it didn't seem too noisy. I slept through from about 12.30 to six, which is as good as I'm getting elsewhere.

Now I'm chilling for a bit over breakfast in MacDonalds, before driving the 140 miles to the cottage. This gives me a chance to get ready for the drive, and for the traffic to die down. I'll be heading up the M9, then over the A80 at Stirling, picking up the A83 at Balloch. That means I'll miss the Glasgow traffic. The next couple of days, getting ready for the trip to Providence, will be pretty hectic, but details can wait till another post. I have a ticket, and somewhere to stay on Monday night. The rest will sort.

My immediate concern is that the cottage keys weren't where I expected them to be when I got back to the car. So there will be some frantic searching in my future. But I'm going to treat the drive as a chance to enjoy Scotland.

I probably need to do a post about the whole holiday - it has flown past, and maybe I did too much, tired myself out, but the overall impression is that it was something I wanted to do, and I've got a lot out of it. And I still owe myself a week or two on a sun-lounger.