Wander More Work Less

Awake at bloody 3:30am! I tried to go back to sleep until 4am, then gave up and read messages and my book. I'm going to resort to a sleeping pill tonight to try and break the waking-up-early habit. We had a later-than-usual start to our wandering today because the Warriors were playing the Sharks at 8:30am. That's rugby league for the uninitiated. I was keen to see how they went. Spoiler alert: they won easily. It was after 10:30am when we left the flat and started our walk to the station. We were on the Central Line today, which is faster, underground, and has older train carriages. Oh—and it's very warm inside. 🥵

My day started just after 4 a.m.! I guess that was better than 2:30 a.m. yesterday, but it will be great when I can sleep in until 6! I didn’t have to wait around too long for Sarah, as she was up very early too—just after 6. We had breakfast and formulated a plan for the day: a wander around the inner city, starting near Big Ben and aiming to see the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace at 11.

We were greeted by the sound of light rain this morning. I was listening to it, unable to sleep, from 2:30am until 4:00 am. Eventually, I nodded off again until just before 6:00. Sarah was up slightly later than that. 😉 We video called with the girls this morning. It was lovely to see and chat to them. Technology is great.  Because of the rain, we decided over breakfast to focus on indoor sights today. Everyone will tell you how expensive London is, so you’ll notice a theme to our visit — and to our trip in general. It’s a lesson in how to enjoy affordable, or even free, yet memorable things. We are, as Karl would say, “self-employed” now! Not to be confused with “unemployed”… though in our case (not his), it’s not that different.

The aircraft engineering crew came through with the win. Spare parts were found, and the engine was fixed. We left around two hours later than originally scheduled. Phew. We really didn’t need to spend an unnecessary night in America. Our next flight was with United Airlines, who we flew with on our first-ever trip to Europe back in 1999. It was a 10-hour flight, and we both decided to skip the sleeping pills this time. After a pretty average meal (dinner?) and a movie, we tried to get some sleep—more of a snooze than actual sleep. Maybe an hour in total. Eventually, I gave up, read my book, and then watched some TV. Two more light meals were served—heat-and-eat, army-ration-style. They filled a gap, but I wouldn’t call them nice. We arrived in London just over an hour and a half later than planned, which was fine—we didn’t have anywhere we needed to be at a set time. We picked up our backpacks and cleared customs very quickly. It’s always a relief to see your bags on the c...