Thursday

Ok I'm exhausted. As much as I enjoy moving locations, the actual process does suck me dry (could be because I feel a need to get EVERYTHING unpacked and put away in record time).

Actually, most things are finding homes and coming together nicely -- it helps not to move an entire house; the lack of toys alone is fabulous! I do like living "light;" I'm sure my husband will love it when we move home and I get rid of 2/3 of what we've accumulated...

As for being wired in, I'm now thoroughly confused. BT, which canceled my phone order twice, now tells me I don't need an engineer and that my phone line should simply be active. (Since our phones aren't charged I can't begin to tell you if that's accurate or if he's blowing smoke you know where.) Meanwhile I received a text message confirming that a BT engineer will be at my house Friday at 120 pound charge. But guy on phone says no engineer, no charge. Are they really working for the same company?

Internet of course CAN'T come on until Monday; they couldn't give me a good reason for that. Let's just hope it actually does work when the time comes...

And the TV people have given me the typical "appointment" timeframe: just be home between 9 and 6 on Friday, ma'am. I was told yesterday that TV service here is a misnomer. So we'll see what happens on Friday in TV land.

In the midst of all my organizing, unpacking and cleaning, I danced off to a St. Johns Wood Women's Club meeting and my Ancient Britian Class yesterday. Fabulous break!

At the first event there was a speaker who talked about Olympic Park. Apparently the area in which the village is being constructed boasts the worst five boroughs in all of England. So as money and construction pour into the place, efforts are being made to create facilities/infrastructure that can be maintained longer term. Unemployment is part of what is being addressed within the community -- will be interesting to see how much success the effort has in future.

It turns out Olympic Park will be at the end of our tube line, about a 20 minute ride. Olympics, here we come! (Provided we're still here, naturally.) Tours are given of the Park as it comes to life, so I think the SJWWC is looking into one for fall -- would be fun to see it before it's actually up and running.

The women at the meeting seem like a neat group, variety of ages and backgrounds with many different interests...hiking, lunches, teas, book group, stitching, theatre, happy hours, etc. I anticipate fitting some of their activities in to enhance my time in London.

My Ancient Britain class rocked; we'll go to Stonehenge in a couple of weeks to actually see what we've been learning about. Families are welcome so the kids and Joe are coming, too.

After class it was back to reality with house stuff, though such a gorgeous day that we had the doors thrown open and Ava's picked half the community garden to decorate our kitchen table. (Maybe that's why my eyes are swollen? Hello pollen!) Apparently it's one of the warmest Aprils on record here. They must have known I was coming and that I simply can't handle the slightest chill.

Cheers and happy Thursday!