London
Jazz on the sofa.
Today is my transition day between Reading and Germany, which I spent in London. The reason for this was two-fold. First of all, my aunt and uncle were going to be away for the weekend, so I was going to drop by and feed the cat, Jazz. However, they left enough food to feed the cat for the weekend, so all I’ve done is dangle the little fish on a string with which the cat likes to play. Looking after cats is a much easier chore in my opinion than looking after dogs. Dogs require your attention on a regular basis. Cats on the other hand are quite content to hang out by themselves and stare out the window for hours. Next to fish, you really can’t beat looking after a cat. Except for the litter box. Fortunately this time around, I’m not here long enough to need to deal with that. Next time though…
The highlight of my day so far has been root beer. Barq’s Root Beer to be exact – two cans from the Canada Shop which I made a point to go and visit. It was my first taste of root beer in over six months, and let me tell you, I missed it. I also managed to find a rather large Canadian flag which I plan on hanging in my window or something else entirely cliché. The funny thing is, in the few days before my trip back to Europe at Christmas, I was unable to find a Canadian flag at home. But I have one now, and I guess that is the main thing. Even before I found the Canada Shop while I was wandering around half lost (using as my guide a map a sketched out by hand from a map on the internet over a week ago), I found a Jessops. Jessops is a photography store and I have been looking to get a couple of filters for my camera because I am starting to get into black and white photography. The place in Reading I investigated yesterday didn’t have what I wanted, but Jessops did – so I bought a red and an orange filter. They were cheaper than I was expecting which is always a plus.
Given the time I’m going to be spending traveling in the near future, I am always on the look out for cheap books, so I went into a few used bookstores to see if I could find any Clive Cussler novels. He is the author I am currently enamored with but I tend to go through his books fairly quickly (evidence of my enjoyment of the books, not their length). Instead of paying £7 a pop, if I can get them used in the £2-3 range, I’m happy. Today I only found one used one, but that gives me something to read when I finish the one I’m on now.
Now, I’m just making sure that I have everything I need to get on the plane tomorrow morning. In order to save money I am going to go to Stansted tonight on one of the last trains out instead of getting a cab or other shuttle out in the middle of the night. I’m not taking my laptop with me, so I might be out of touch until I get back. I will likely check my email at some point, so you can reach me that way, and I will have my mobile with me as well.