Home Again

I am safely home in Milton Keynes. Had a great flight, and even slept the whole way, so feel pretty close to back on time zone. I had a horrible time at the holidays, which I attribute to age and a bad cold, but this time I seem okay. Made it a whole business day without headache, erratic behaviour, or excessive flakiness.

Got my laptop from work, so now I access to email all the time and all kinds of websites BI blocks. For example, I can now get directions from streetmap.co.uk, thus preventing me from getting lost on my way to new places. I can shop online, I can read blogs and websites that discuss politics and controversial subjects, and I can even choose to download music, if I were to get an ipod someday.

I'm pretty excited about being back. I am now here for the long haul, with no currently scheduled date to return home. (Spring is the best I can say right now for my next visit, inquiring minds.) Can't decide what to do next. It's a big world out there, but it's time to get started looking around.

Some of you have asked me why I haven't done more exploring. Well, what have you done since November 1st? Holiday stuff, work, getting caught up on sleep, maybe a week of flu or a cold that slowed you down...add a trip to Vancouver for 5 days and 4 weeks at home, and you'll see why my only major activities happened when visitors came. Ah, the trials of being a thirty-something professional.

It's time for a trip to Ikea. There's one in the north suburbs of London, and now that I've successfully driven the route (I was in the neighbourhood when I came from Heathrow), it's time for end tables and a coffee table. I have nothing upon which to rest my glass, which, when it contains red wine or other intensely colored liquids, is not a good thing for a klutz like me. Good thing the rug is dark.

I have ordered a digital camera. Photos to arrive soon.

Any suggestions on meeting people? I need to make friends. Last time I did this I was 27 and it was easier then. Plus, I was in Seattle and EVERYBODY needed to make friends because they'd just arrived and were all dewy with enthusiasm for their new lives.


Comments

Coaster Punchman said…
Email Babeth & Heidi - I gave you their info. Also, please stop with the silly British spelling. What other nasty habits are you acquiring that we'll have to break you of later? Consider yourself warned: the minute you start talking to me in kilos, we're through!!!
5:22 pm
Pam said…
1. Take a class. Seriously, haven't you wanted to learn how to knit or something?
2. You have uke, right? You gotta go to the uke club meetings.
12:20 am
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ways other than Paul Blart and lipstick to combat economic depression

They say that, when the economy tanks and you can't see any way through your pile of bills and are wondering who you'll look wearing one of those barrels with shoulder straps, women buy lipstick and everyone goes to upbeat, escapist movies to take their minds off their troubles. But I'm here to tell you that any lipstick worth having is nigh 'bout $20 or more and you'll just end up regretting it, and Hollywood has not caught up with the times yet. Plus, it's Oscar season, so once you've seen Slumdog Millionaire your choices are sexy Nazis seducing children, attractive suburbanites mourning the death of their dreams, and nuns and priests talking about child abuse. (That said, I hear Gran Torino is a good diversion with a message, and if you don't hate Brad Pitt as much as I do you could probably sit through that Owen Meany movie where he ages like he's from Ork .) And while I'm as big a Kevin James fan as the next person, you can't ask him
Read more

Executive MBA 2006-07 Director's Prize

This prize is awarded to the Executive MBA student who is judged by his or her peers to have contributed most to the overall success of the programme. Awarded to: Me I'm really happy about this - I've been the stream rep between the administration and my fellow students, which is the primary reason I've won this...I've managed a lot of situations and helped sort out problems, and while it's been a bit of work it's also been quite fun. I've got all sorts of thoughts and feelings, and in about an hour I'm calling my mom to hear about Thanksgiving with my brother and to tell her the news, but the over-riding reflection I have is this. My dad would be very, very proud. This would have made his day.
Read more

Planning Funerals

We've been picking out hymns and suits to wear at the visitation and crematory urns for the ashes and cemetery plots with a good view. My dad passed away at 1 PM on Father's Day. He'd been in excruciating pain, which progressed as the week went on. By Thursday night we had to up the morphine dose so that he slept all the time, but at least he wasn't writhing in pain. Metastasized bone cancer is an ugly, ugly thing. On Friday, I spent the day with him. I sat in the comfy chair in his room and read him my Managing Strategic Innovation prep work and case study. I guess I'm assuming it was the morphine that kept him sleeping, but we'll never really know. On Saturday, my mom and I played scrabble by his bed most of the day. There were some rousing plays, especially since she refused to let me play 'squab' and 'nori' because these were not familiar words to her and we didn't have an official scrabble dictionary handy. I called her a dirty cheater,
Read more