I’ve said it before and I’ll reiterate that sentiment: conferences aren’t great fodder for blogs. I’ll further state that neither is sleep deprivation, which has been an issue over the last week leading up to this trip.
I’m once again in London, bidden to come here by a conference. This is the same conference I attended a few years ago, when it was held on the outskirts of Rome. Similarly, this conference is not being conducted in Central London, but more peripherally within London proper, and just a few stops away on the Underground.
We landed at London Heathrow early in the morning and I took the underground to my hotel. Somehow when I do these things I always take the absolute worst exit out of the station, and today was no different, with me dodging cars and trucks that all seemed to be driving on the wrong side of the street.
I checked in and took a brief nap, as the flight time had been short. Early in the afternoon I roused myself from the bed, showered, and headed out, finally finding the correct route to the underground.
Somewhere near Picadilly Circus I went shopping, because I did something foolish. You see, when I was packing, I made sure to include a rain jacket. When I was putting my things in the car I made certain that jacket made it to the trunk, next to my suitcase.
And when I got out at the airport, I didn’t notice, and I left the jacket in the car.
That’s how I got to London without a jacket. Think about it – just consider how that statement is problematic. I made it to London without a jacket.
My goal for the new jacket was that at least it shouldn’t look exactly like the old jacket. As it turns out, I bought the jacket on sale, and it’s the same color.
I left the store wearing my new jacket and spent some time meandering about, later meeting up with my friends Emily and Melissa from the liveaboard scuba trip on May, 2020. We are here at the same time, purely as a matter of coincidence, and it was fantastic. They live in Traverse City, so perhaps we will meet again when I’m up there for work.
As dinner finished up, we said our good nights and I wandered back through Picadilly Circus, past the lights of the theatres and the glow of the big screens overhead.
This is gonna be a great week.
butterblogger 