Tuesday, October 25, 2016

London

Morning Rush:

Awaking at 5. 30 am today, drafting a blog post, responding to email—this has become the order of the day for me. I also sent out an invitation to a few friends to Afternoon Tea at my place this coming Saturday. I would have liked to have them over for a meal but my little flat does not lend itself to such lavish entertaining. A Tea, I could do more easily. Hopefully, they will respond soon.

For some odd reason, I hurried today through breakfast (the last of my muesli with yogurt and coffee–should buy some more) and a shower and left my house at 9.10 am for my appointment at the National Gallery at 10.00 am when it opened to see the special exhibition entitled ‘Beyond Caravaggio’–as he is my favorite artist of all time. With me, in a separate bag, was my edited manuscript. After the exhibition, I intended to spend most of the day in my office double checking annotations and citations on my Works Cited page as I prepare my manuscript for final submission.

Disappointment at the National Gallery:

On the Central Tube to Oxford Circus–then a change to the Northern Line Tube to Charing Cross, I arrived at Trafalgar Square even before the Gallery opened. About thirty people were sitting desultorily on the ledge waiting for the museum to open. Five minutes later, I was inside and looking around for Raquel. No sign of her. I texted her–told her where I was seated–by the Main Info Desk.  No response. She was probably in the Tube. Waited another ten minutes. Sent another text. Hoped she was not in the Sainsbury Wing where we’d need to purchase tickets as this special exhibition was not free. At 10.20, when she hadn’t yet shown up, I called her! And guess what? She was home! Not because she forgot about our plans but because I wrote the wrong day on my calendar–it seems we are due to meet tomorrow! I had texted her this morning to say I would be there at 10.00–but she assumed I meant tomorrow. She did not realize I would go there today!

Really annoyed with myself (as I had so much work and felt I had completely wasted my time), I jumped into a 24 bus and rode it to Bloomsbury to my office.

Postal Chores:

I was in my office by 10. 45 and went straight to the Porter’s Lodge to start chores on my parcels. I intended to finish posting them off today. Wrapping each one carefully and writing out addresses, I finished all three and walked off with one of them to the Post Office on High Holborn near Drury Lane.  I wasn’t taking all three together as they were much too heavy.

The nice man at the counter (Tamilian? Keralite?) who kept referring to me as ‘Lady’ (as in “Yes, Lady”, “Maybe Lady”) weighed it and told me that cheapest postage would cost me 13 pounds–that is one-third of what the Keralite woman had told me a few days ago! Well, I wasn’t going to question him. I paid with my credit card and left and resolved to return with the two other parcels before he left home for the day! If he was giving me a deal, I didn’t want to miss it!

At Work at my Office:

I was tempted to make a little detour into the shops on my way back–naughty me! I had so much work to do and could hardly afford such sauntering. Still, I supposed I could work extra hard and finish it all before I left for my dinner appointment at 6.00 pm with my friend Michelle at Euston’s Diwana Restaurant.

I bought myself a tempting packed of Chocolate Hazelnut Biscuits made by Borders as I felt hungry quite suddenly and opening the packet, there and there, on the road, I began munching and walked back to my office.

For the next two hours, I worked on three chapters. At 1. 30 pm, I left my office and went downstairs to the Faculty Lounge to eat my soup and sandwich lunch. After lunch, I set off for the Post Office again–with the other two parcels (for which I paid the same amount! yaayy!) Mission Accomplished! I will probably have one more Post Office run to do just before my final return to America.

Back at my office, I was hard at work for the rest of the afternoon and into the evening and at 5. 30, I had it all done. There was no hurry, you see, because at about 4.00 pm, I received a text from Michelle to cancel our dinner plans as she was unwell and wanted to go straight home. Such a shame! I was so looking forward to meeting her. Well, maybe it was just as well.

As my colleagues began to leave their offices to go back home, I went to the Copy Room and photocopied all the pages I needed for our driving trip in France. Now all I need to do is to book our B&Bs. Llew needs to rent us a car–and with that, we will be all sorted. Over this weekend, I intend to finish up those tasks. So, with my photocopying all done, I placed my papers back in my bag ready to undertake the last bits of editing at home on my Works Cited Page and I’d be that much closer to getting my manuscript ready for submission. It had been a day really well spent with my Post Office work done and a whole lot of editing accomplished. It was time to get home to relax.

Quiet Evening with TV and Dinner:

About 45 minutes later, in a very packed train, I got back home. It was a little after 7.00 pm, but I decided to have an early dinner–this meant skipping Tea, which was probably a good thing! I srtaed with a cup of soup and had Ravioli with a chilli cheese sauce and made a salad with lettuce, spinach and corn and I ate Black Forest Trifle for dessert. As I watched, I caught up with Cold Feet on ITV Player and at 9. 30pm, since my eyes were closing, I decided to make a very early night of it and go straight to sleep.

At 9. 30pm, I switched the light off and went straight to sleep.

Until tomorrow, cheerio…