East Finchley, London, England

 

14 June 2013  

Travel / Travails.  A letter to my husband. 

I'm great.  Feeling wonderful and you will love this place when you come back with me some day.  I'm writing down details in my journal so I don't forget and will tell you all about it over a bottle of wine in our little mountain cabin later this summer.  I slept for hours and hours last night and this morning.  It's 4:08 pm here while it's 8:08 am back home.  The room is quiet, bright, it’s all done in white, and smells of fresh air and roses.  The back wall is floor to ceiling windows that look out over a deep lawn with flower and vegetable gardens. My roommate is very quiet and often goes to the coffee shop to write, so I was tempted to stay in bed all day; however, I forced myself to get up a few hours ago so that I would adjust my inner time clock.

It's cool and bright and breezy.  Green, green, green.  Everything is built of brick.  Flowers and fat furry bumblebees. Big white clouds.  Tiny shops.  The Great White Lion is perfect!  Had fish and chips last night. Fantastic!  Also salad, melted cheese, and fried cauliflower!  

Made the decision to take the Iphone with me to Europe, not so much for the phone but for the camera.  I was worried about roaming charges or whatever goes on with extra charges when you leave the country, so I didn’t really plan to use it to call home, just for emergencies.  Well, the phone never made it to London, or, I should say, it did, but not with me…

The phone must have been stolen because my fellow plane passengers saw me make the “I’m off” call to you when I got on the plane.  Then later I went to double check that I had turned it off properly and it was gone. The crew took the plane apart and my bags looking for it before I left the airport.  They were so, so sweet.  I love the English!  You would love them, too--so polite and sweet and they all look just as you'd expect in their little hats and jackets and such.  Anyway, I left our home address and this East Finchley address with them at the airport in case the phone does turn up.  I cried because they were all so concerned for me, which teared them up a bit as well, and they walked me to my baggage claim and kissed me on the cheek before saying goodbye.  I highly commend the Virgin Atlantic flight crew!  Lovely people.

So, now I'm over that and don't care except that now I have no camera.  This is bothering me already.  There are so many wonderful sights.  Guess what?  The Great White Lion has a sign out front that it has its own Secret Garden, which it does.  The Secret Garden is forever popping up in my life, and it’s always magical.  First, my favorite children’s book, then the garden we began after the devastating bark beetle infestation that killed so many of our beautiful pines, then the musical play – and now here in London, right outside the glass doors of our room and at the closest pub.

I'm going to try to find a reasonably priced camera.  Sorry!  What must be, must be.  There are none to found in this neighborhood, but we're going into the city tomorrow so I'll try again there.  

Tomorrow night is my London Literary Pub Crawl.  Tonight will be writing, dinner, a glass of wine, and early bedtime.  The squirrels here are orange!  The lodge has kitties!  Siamese and assorted others.  Tea and china and a beautiful lawn-- not at all fancy though--very much untouched up.  It's probably looked just like this for a hundred years and I believe it's quite a bit older than that.  

More soon, my love!  I miss you very much and am sleeping with Kathy's Rosary.  Safe and sound with the little kitties!  Kiss the pups!  I love you, Your Hunno

P.S.  I’m going to share this post as my first London Blog and will try to keep posting there throughout the trip.