Wednesday, July 23
This morning I got up and texted Angela about coming to the house to visit her either today or tomorrow. She said she was free either day.

When Ron got back from his walk—about 1.5 hours—and brought pain killers and soda pop, I left.

The computer said it would take an hour and a half and it did actually take that, even with me having to walk to two different stations. Of course, Forest Gate is only one long block from Wanstead Park, where I got off the Barkington train.

Angela picked me up at the station parking area and we were off. We put money in for 4.5 hours, but she said she didn’t expect to stay that long.

I bought a denimish skirt. I found some red shoes but didn’t actually try them on. I found a nice suit, same thing.

We ate lunch at The Slug and Lettuce. At the end of lunch, which we stretched out to an hour, I think, the baby woke up. I carried Josiah and we began our next round of shop tours. I bought a book on friendship in Plato and Aristotle, thinking of the Shakespeare paper, and she bought a book and a quiz game.

We went to a baby shop and a children’s bookstore. Finally she stopped in Poundland for milk. Josiah and I waited outside in the shade.

We got to the car but it was so hot I couldn’t put the baby in right away. We left the doors open to get some breeze. Then I tried to put him in the seat but it wouldn’t stay buckled. (It was hot and I was trying to keep it from his legs with the blanket, so that might have made the buckle too taut.) I ended up just holding him in the back seat the whole way home.

We hung out for several hours and I talked about my t&p and showed her mine and another example.

Jon came home early and we left for church, though planning to eat dinner first. We went to The N (needle? noose?) and food was excellent. A new pork menu item tempted me but I decided it would be too much food. However, it had nothing I was allergic to and the pork just fell apart. (Jon ordered it.)

Afterwards they brought me to the flat and we went to the Landseer. Angela and I each had a coke and shared a chocolate cheese cake. The cake was quite good, though served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, which was odd.

I read the book London Lore by Steve Roud. Interesting, though lots of more modern ghost stories took up at least a quarter of the book.

They left around 10. Ron got home around 9:30 from Maker space.

Thursday, July 24
I slept in till 10. I had taken 2 Benadryl and apparently my body thought ten hours of sleep was what it needed. I did wake up enough to realize Ron was coming in and out of the house, but that’s it.

I put on the new skirt I bought in the charity shop in Brentwood, and make up, and fixed my hair. Ron was like, “Whoa! Where are you going?” I told him wherever he was going.”

We took a 1.5 hour tube trip out to a craft store on some edge of town. This place really is more like Houston than I think of it. People stay in their suburbs with their cars. Some people come into town to work, but most don’t.

We ate a very late lunch at Subway—almost 4 pm.

Then we went into the Outfit, which kind of looked like an outlet store, but didn’t have the prices to match. Ron bought two shirts, including one to wear to the cabaret tomorrow night. I bought a pair of off-white frilly socks to wear if I need them.

We got the second bid on the air conditioner.

Also, I called Morgan Stanley again and got my account information. That took 20 minutes, but it was worth it.

Ron went to Maker last night again. I don’t know what he did but he came back exhausted.

We talked about money for a bit and then I said I thought we should get the full replacement. I called to see when they could get it done… It looks like maybe not till Monday. I’m not happy about that. I’m going to call them back this morning.

The other bid for this part was more money, and these guys have worked on my ac for 2 years, but I don’t want the guys living in my house to be without ac for a full week. That’s cruel. It will be 99 tomorrow and 100 both days this weekend.

Ron went to bed and I stayed up till 2.

Before I went to bed I filed all the flex I could.

Friday, July 25
I’ve set my phone to ring so I can call and see what the ac people have to say.

Ron said I should file the Boots stuff for his glasses with Flex, too.

..I wonder if I filed my glasses stuff. I don’t think I did. That means when we get home I need to find it and get it done.

I went through my suitcase and couldn’t find the receipt from the third osteopath, but then I looked in my notebooks and it was in there. For some reason I thought it was several sheets, but it is only one.

I thought about taking pictures with the iPad. That might work. Otherwise I will have to find somewhere to scan the pages.

Ron went to get his head shaved; he had let it grow too long to do it himself.

I did a load of laundry this morning.

I also changed the sheet on our bed. It’s gotten dirty. The duvet cover has too—and they have another one—but I am not sure I know how to get those on and off. Plus, I wouldn’t have anywhere to lay those out to dry right now. I almost don’t have enough room for our clothes on the one drying rack and then the window/door rack.

I went to Morrison’s to get Coke Zero and DP. They didn’t have any diet DP. I went to several little shops along the way, as well as M&S, but no one had diet DP. Not even individual bottles. I wonder where he found the ones he brought home yesterday.

I went ahead and bought a cabbage because Angela’s baby class said that a cabbage leaf will pull out swelling and it was only 69p. I’ve had two on my foot so far and while it feels better because the leaves are cold, I don’t think any actual reduction in swelling is happening.

Turns out I left the door unlocked when I left, because I didn’t realize he had left the door unlocked when he left.

Ron is working.

I need to get started on my t&p again, although really that is what I plan to do tomorrow. …Work for hours, I mean. I wish I knew where there was a building with wifi, plugs, a/c, and comfortable chairs. (We have the first three, but not the last.)

I actually did work for 6 hours.

Tonight we are going to the cabaret. I put on my dress, shoes, and the cute little socks we got yesterday. It looked nice. I think I could also just wear the shoes without the socks, as long as we aren’t walking a long way.

Ron’s planning to Uber there and catch a cab home. That didn’t happen.

Saturday, 26 July
Worked 8 hours on t&p.

Ate at The Narrow with Jon and Angela. She was wearing a pre-baby dress! It’s Josiah’s 3 month birthday.

Sunday, 27 July
Worked 11.5 hours on t&p.

Went to the London Eye with Ron. He was disappointed. The glass is rounded and colored and distorts pictures.

We went to Wahaca for dinner. I had frijoles, chips, and two mini-tostados with chicken salad on them.

My foot hurt by the time we got home. I should definitely have wrapped it. Now my bum is sore from the last 5.5 hours of work.

What I wrote down in the trip diary is only 69 hours of work. But I don’t think I counted any of the reading I did and I didn’t always write down work, since we are supposed to be on vacation.

Considering that this weekend I did 19.5 hours of work, 69 hours doesn’t seem like much. I had to have done at least 100 hours. Or I wouldn’t be anywhere near as close (no matter how far away that is) to done.

Monday, July 28
I called Mindi’s hotel and figured out how she would get from Heathrow there and I emailed her that information.

I also told her how to get an Oyster card, and how much she would need to have on it to make sure she didn’t run out.

Further I told her how much time it would take me to get from my flat to her hotel (1.40).

Ron said I should tell her I will meet her somewhere, but I assume she wants me to come to the hotel because she’s never been in London before and she’s a bit scared. I would have been without Ron so I’ll make the trip to her hotel.

I worked on t&p about 16 hours today. Just when I think I’ve made progress, I find something else I need to fix.

Tuesday, July 29
I don’t actually remember this, but I am fairly sure, because it is about all I ever do, that I worked this morning. Ron and I were up at 6 and we worked till 11.

Then we went to meet our pick up for the Stonehenge trip. It was 40 minutes by bus and train. The train station closest was closed, so we had to walk 1.5 miles. We were booking it—which I was not impressed with as my ankle was still hurting.

Then the bus didn’t even show up for fifteen minutes. We were standing outside in the hot sun. Not fun.

We were the last to get picked up so there were no open seats. That was less than exciting, but Ron did end up with his feet in the aisle, sitting in the very back of the bus.

We had to get in line to get our tickets, since we “purchased” them with English Heritage.

The bathroom line was not long—Thank you, God.—Then we went and got in the shuttle, which is a little wagon of four or five cars and not air conditioned and not all the windows open. The road is a typical English road, meaning there isn’t enough room for the traffic to go both ways and people to walk, even though they do. That was exciting at times.

Stonehenge was much more amazing than I expected it to be, especially since we couldn’t get very close to it. But it was amazing. And the archaeologists they were interviewing… Ron said something and I told him to wait 60 years and they’d be saying something else. He started listening to it better (normally my problem) and realized that they were just making stuff up.

The exhibition is cool.

Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote that giants brought the rocks from Ireland. They came from 200 miles away (or more) and from northern Wales, but they came in on the boat, which would have been what they felt was Ireland… Except Geoffrey of Monmouth was from Wales, so that doesn’t make much sense. Unless Ireland was ruling that area at the time that the story was passed down, which is a possibility.

The blue stones (the center ones) were thought to have healing powers. But they also came from areas with streams and it’s quite possible that whatever minerals the blue stones have leeched into the water and it was healing. I saw a documentary on English treacle wells that turned out to have healing waters because they were full of iron or whatever.

Ron got some great pictures. I haven’t even looked at mine and I’m too tired to look at them.

We were supposed to get back in at 6:30 but we got stuck in traffic and we got off at Trafalgar Square at 8 pm. Then we went to Gourmet Burger Kitchen to eat dinner and went home.

I tried the camembert and cranberry panko-crusted chicken (the menu said crumbed). It was very good. It was good Wednesday night, too, when I ate it with Mindy. On the other hand, it was HORRIBLE when I ate it with M and Bob. They didn’t heat the cheese and they barely put any cranberry sauce on it. It sucked. I wouldn’t go back to that GBK ever and I’m glad it wasn’t my first visit. I would have been truly unimpressed.