Back from London!

 When the only bad thing about a trans Atlantic journey was the terrible airplane food, you know it was a total success! 

From the plane ride to the train ride to the hotels, restaurants and sightseeing adventures, the trip to London was remarkably easy and fun. It is such a pleasure visiting a city with an intricate public transportation system.  Getting from the airport to downtown London took 40 minutes and cost a few dollars. Navigating London streets to my first hotel was easy with my phone and a question asked of a delivery guy I encountered on the sidewalk. (Always look for delivery people when you are uncertain of the area, they know all the streets!) In fact, I used the underground Tube several times during my stay because it, like the Metro in Paris, is easy to navigate, inexpensive and covers the city like a blanket. 

The first hotel I stayed at was in a touristy neighborhood, which was deliberate on my part. I wanted an old, English-style hotel with a lobby, a decent bar and centrally located. While my room was small, it was very clean, quiet and on the top floor. From the hotel, I could walk for miles and always find my way back because of its central location. (I am sometimes directionally challenged in a strange city and often veer off-course.)

London is a huge city with a lot of very old and stately buildings but those held little appeal to me other than to look at them from the outside. I didn't want to spend time in a lot of museums or in historic buildings, I wanted to see outdoor markets and old bookstores and walk across bridges, have lunch in a pub, eat fish and chips. The weather was cold but clear (mostly) and off I went, walking several miles each day, stopping for a coffee (a flat white) when necessary and a pastry. For a country known for its cup of tea tradition, it also has a bounty of good coffee spots. 

Over and over I was struck by the kindness of the British people. Every person we encountered was personable and friendly.  They looked you in the eye, paid attention to what was being discussed and if we needed help, they were on top of it. People said "excuse me" and "thank you."  To us, strangers! There was the feeling of comradery,  like we were all in this, whatever it was, together. It was such a remarkably human interaction that we commented on it over and over. Not like in the US, where everyone seems to be out for themselves. 

The second hotel I picked was in a totally different part of town, not a tourist mecca. In fact, there was a Mosque across the street from our hotel, so it was definitely a Muslim neighborhood. At one restaurant we were the only women and the only white people in the entire place! We were welcomed as if we lived there. In fact, the owner of the restaurant offered to buy us dinner if we returned!

We walked through food truck locations, many outdoor markets, vintage clothing shops, an amazing LP record shop, totally old-school. We saw live music, an amazing production of "Cabaret" that was as gritty and chill-inducing as it was brilliantly staged. I saw the play "Mousetrap" which has been running in London for over 70 years, making it the longest continuous run of any play in the world.  It was delightful.  There was a special photography exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery by Catherine Opie, a California photographer, that was emotionally moving, worth seeing twice. We ate really good fish and chips and pasta and amazing sandwiches, some from food carts, some in fine restaurants. We drank champagne at Harrod's department store which is an amazing adventure all on its own! 

Not only was my trip great fun and thought- provoking, it also renewed my love of travel. I talked to two gentlemen in a pub one afternoon, they encouraged me to come to Sweden.  Another couple described the north coast of Ireland and said it was lovely. People asked us where we were from and we were always hesitant to answer, but once they knew we were from Northern California, near San Francisco, all negative ideas about us were dispelled!  Bartenders, fellow diners, people on trains, everyone was chatty about traveling and eager to share stories.

Where will I go next?  I am not sure, but whether it is by car or train or plane, more adventures are in my future.

Traveling again..... finally.

 After much deliberation and thought and weighing the cost vs the opportunity and finally saying "oh, just do it" I am taking off next week for a short ten day trip to London. Lucky enough to have United Airline miles to get me there and back, I have booked hotels and nothing else. My plan is to simply walk around the city, look in windows, eat  fish and chips and drink gin and tonics. And pints of ale.  And whiskey.  And anything else that sounds good.  I want to eat different food (not just fish and chips) from different countries, or English food prepared in some English way.  Honestly, I have no agenda except to enjoy London, a huge city that I visited once, 40 years ago!

Needless to say, I am quite excited. I promise to report on my adventures when I return.

And just to let you know, in case anyone actually reads this besides Donna, the obtaining of the new passport was incredibly easy.  All done online and the new passport was in my mailbox in less than 4 weeks.  If you don't have a valid passport, get one. Online, through the mail, or go to a nearby post office and they can handle all of it for you.  A passport is not just a travel necessity, it is a statement of citizenship.  Everyone should have one.

Cheerio!

 

Thoughts on Renewing My Passport

 The passport I currently hold was issued ten years ago, 2016. For some reason, that doesn't seem like so long ago, but look at what has happened in those 10 years: the first fascist POTUS's term, Covid, Covid vaccine, uprising in terrorism across the globe, the death of George Floyd and its repercussions and the BLM movement, the rapid advance of AI, Jan. 6 Capitol attack, the overturn of Roe v Wade, the war in Ukraine, the death of Robert Redford, California on fire, the second POTUS fascist regime and so much more.

But some positive things took place as well: advances for LBTGQ rights, the Chicago Cubs won the World Series after 108 year drought, Wordle was invented. So was Taylor Swift. California got out of a drought, the James Webb Telescope was launched and sent back amazing photos of deep space, and maybe some other things that have been eclipsed by the evil that is taking over the world right now.

But back to my 2016 passport. Sadly, this passport was hardly used.  I have many other passports that documented my adventures with entry stamps, visas, exit stamps. This current one shows me going to France twice in ten years, and for those two journeys I am so grateful and had so much fun. And I went to Denmark, to Copenhagen!  Almost forgot about that, which is silly because I had such a great time in Copenhagen and might go back just to support the Danish people in their adamant refusal to relinquish Greenland to the fascist POOP. 

As I think about it, other things happened in the past ten years to me personally that are not noted on my passport or in the history of the times: I witnessed and survived the devastating fires of 2017 that wiped out an entire neighborhood 2 miles from where I lived at that moment; both of my knees have been replaced with new, fake knees; I took a solo road trip through the south, meaning Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and was made richer by that trip; my daughter married her amazing wife; seven dogs that I loved died and I mourned them all, especially my beloved Cooper; for the first (and possibly the only) time I officiated at a wonderful wedding; I was fired from two jobs and hired for a third; I saw Bruce Springsteen live (!), I moved into my current abode, a tiny cottage on a large property that I love......  and so much more. 

So it isn't true that a passport defines one's travels. It can document the foreign excursions, but that's about all.  Everything else, the memories, the pain and the joy of everyday life, the movies we see, the books we read, the hugs and kisses and broken hearts we experience, those are all ours. We hold those. Those are our true travels, whether here or abroad.

Hold them close. Life is mercurial. Memories can hold joy and happiness, and those are good.

A New Year But The Same Old Crap

 At least so far. 

Same old political deceit as 2025. Same old price hikes as 2025. Same old angst about everything as 2025.

But then, at this age, what is ever really new? In my earlier years, like 30-40-50 years ago, so many  things happened for the first time. First time falling in love, first marriage, first child. First time buying a house, a new car, first time cutting down a Christmas tree, the first time getting a puppy. All these first-time experiences had power, they had excitement and wonder. This is what life is about: the smack-you-in-the-face of the newness of it all, the amazement you feel every time something unique is in front of you. 

Now, all these years later, there isn't much new stuff left to happen.  I am sure I'm not going to fall in love again, or buy a house or a new car or a new puppy.  Certainly not going to have those kind of one-in-a-lifetime adventures because they can only be new once. There isn't the passion of discovering the rush you get in your earlier years. (In fact, sometimes there's no passion at all, except for the passionate screaming at what is happening to our cities, our state, country, world.)

So here we are, two weeks into 2026 and I am already feeling jaded and tired of everything, when a new year should give at least of month of hope and energic striving for something good. But perhaps it's not 2026's fault, nor the fault of all the crap that is happening right now in the world. Maybe it's simply that I am getting old and holding on to hope feels more and more useless and almost child-like.  Maybe being depressed and cynical is a more realistic approach to the world.  After all, being depressed and cynical means that any tiny ray of sunshine (metaphorically) can be good. Maybe we don't need an entire sunny day, a ten minute window of blue sky might help.

We'll see. 

Above is my attempt at trying to lighten the mood.