London

This is the exterior of Temperley's shop in London!

Well, I made it to England mostly in one piece.  The total travel time was over 24 hours, including a 10 hour layover in San Fran.  Either way, all is well.  My back did great on the first 5 hour flight, but got a little worse on the next two legs. Still, I managed to rest fairly well, and I'm really really happy to be in England.

It's quite cold here.  Fortunately, I packed properly and my cold has recovered pretty nicely too.  I arrived to my little flat in Chelsea on Sunday evening, and then spent yesterday (my only full day in London) sightseeing.  I walked around Notting Hill and then took the tube to the West End, walked to Trafalgar Square, toured the National Gallery, saw a movie at the Prince Charles Theatre, and then walked back to Chelsea, passing Buckingham Palace along the way.  

That evening I met up with Kelly, a friend of mine from Hawaii.  Then this morning I caught up with my friend Benjamin over tea at Wolseley's (a fancy little spot).  After tea, I caught the train to Bath.  So far Nicole and Andrea are here.  We're just waiting on Helen.  The house we're staying in is nice -- and next door to a nice pub/cafe!  Yay!  It's in a great location.

Starting tomorrow, the real fun begins.  We'll be attending lots of workshops and forums and the literature festival starts on Saturday.  It's going to go by so quickly.  I hope I can soak it all in.  More later.  I still have to do a lot of reading and writing before we start tomorrow, so more later!