Afterglow of the London Trip

That is me on their left holding up the camera.

See the whole Rod Stewart thing -
Rod Stewart Video

(Note - my friend Fred said he saw me in the video at 1:46 and Lulu at 1:47)


It is 5 AM and I am wide awake. We went to bed right away at 9 PM last night after neighbor George picked us up at the airport. It is already 10 AM across the pond at Piccadilly Circus - but it is still the dead of night in Tallahassee.

I am wide awake - I am not one of those guys that tries to fight jet lag. I just take it as it comes. In about 3 days - we will be back to normal - but I am not sure what normal is anymore. We love to travel to England - but love returning to our home in Tallahassee and the charm of this Southern city.

I slept like a log - this old house is so quiet - of course sleeping without hearing aids makes it quieter yet :-) We always do a special cleanup right before we leave. Our bags are always packed early - and Lulu and I are usually staring at each other for an hour before we go to the airport. So we do a real good cleanup of the house - laundry - dishes - floors - bathrooms - kitchen. That way if our plane goes down - our family will not be embarrassed by the mess we left.

Lulu and I are on a diet - but over the last 16 days we let go a little. We did not want to miss out on the good food the road offers. I left Tallahassee 213 pounds and returned at 216 pounds. 16 days of real sugar cokes - sticky buns - hot chocolate - meat and potatoes - pubs - yellow matter custard buns will do that to you. It is not too much damage in the scheme of things.

We visited Germany - Luxembourg - Scotland - England. We were to the cities of Luxembourg - Trier - Glasgow - Blackpool - London. We went to 4 plays or shows. We rode red double decker buses - black cabs - subways - trains - and planes. I got to see Andy Murray and Roger Federer play a tennis match. We enjoyed the Christmas lights of Oxford Street.

Thanks to Joan and Jodi - we stayed in two places which would have been 5 star hotels.

We enjoyed the use of our iPhone 7s for 15 pounds each. We chose the EE company - and their package was great. We each had 10 GB of data - but only used less than 2 GB of it. Their plan even works in the Tube now. It is also good all over Europe. We saved the Sim chips and will probably use their service again the next time. It is so much better seeing Europe when you can use Google Maps - Wikipedia - and yes - call each other when we need something. It is also great being able to post to my web page - or Facebook right from the iPhone - or read email.

There were lots of highlights - but stumbling on Rod Steward at Picadilly Circus and listening to him singing Handbags and Gladrags was just beautiful.

We may be stopping in London in the spring when Lulu has business in another country. Also we plan to spend July 2018 there when Lulu teaches a course at the FSU London Campus. But as you get older - your realize that you must savor each trip like it may be the last time you visit. I never get jaded by it all. I thank Lulu for providing all this. Werner Von Braun is not my hero.



This is Lulu's recording of the event.