Monday

This morning I woke up, showered and wandered into the house to find Duncan's parents. They had the kids over the weekend and had just dropped off Juliette at school up the road and Monty at the childminders (babysitters) before droping by to fix some electriacl thing in the house. We talked a bit and when they learned I was interested in going out to Tunbridge Wells, suggested the bus and proceeded to instruct me on how to go about it. Duncan's dad was very thourough and we even went online to see schedules and routes. I was feeling confident so after checking on the fish (They are all fine by the way) I wandered out to the highway to wait for the bus. It's very different traveling through the country in the top of a double deck bus. For starters, you are well above the shrubs and hedges and often get clear views of the countryside for miles. Additionally it is much slower compared to rocketing down roads in a Mercedes where you just get a blur of green if you dare look to the side. I wandered around the center of town for a bit, stopped to have coffee and read the sports section of The Guardian. Page after page devoted to English Football. Fantastic. I did a little shopping and some more sightseeing before calling Duncan for a pick up. He works in Crowbourogh, just a few miles away. Now I'm back home relaxing.

Sunday

Today was bright and sunny. Nearly everyone I saw this morning commented on how much better I was looking. And then they would chuckle. The auction started a bit after 10:30am and I bid on a few items. I wish Brenda were with me. I could use her suitcase to bring them back into the US. I also picked up a few of Brian Chittenden's handmade glass aquariums. That will be a trick to get them home. I think 2 will go in the suitcase and 3 will carry on. We will see. We said goodbye around 3:00pm and nearly made it back to Croust House (Duncan's house's name) before dark. I hadn't seen Duncan's fish room yet so we unloaded the car and went down to put fish away. We set up some temporary acclimation tanks and a couple for my Priapella olmecae (Yay!) and my Girardinus denticulatus. The latter is from Cuba and was collected in 2009 by Don Kenwood. If I can breed it by the ALA convention next April it should be very popular as I'm not sure if there are many in the US. David McAllister will be mailing some Priapricthys annectens tomorrow and I should be able to take those home as well. Now we are sitting in the office, sipping tea and watching football highlights of the matches we listened to in the car... Bliss.

Insomnia

I am happy to report that after the banquet neither Duncan nor I were even remotely tempted to stop by for a pint or for the Cuban Rum. Unfortunately it's 4:30am and now I can't sleep. Tomorrow is the auction and after seeing some of the fish here I am tempted to try and bring some home. We shall see. I have no idea what we are planning for the next few days. I'm actually hoping for not much. Tuesday should be a football match, but we haven't decided on where as yet.

Saturday

I think Duncan fared worse then I did last night. I was still suffering from a knock to my head that I had suffered Friday morning at Duncan's house. Apparently some builder decided the certain doorways should be about 5'8" high. It still hurts 36 hours later and I've had a headache ever since. I nearly cried washing my hair this morning. The hangover didn't help either.

We spent some time at the convention this afternoon, then took off for Meadow Lane, the home of Nott's County Football Club. We got in a bit before kickoff and were treated to a good County win 2-0 over Plymouth Argyle. The stands were fuller this year and the noise from the Kop end was great. The play was better then 2 years ago, but Nott's County were promoted into the 1st division last year so one would expect the quality to be better. The down side was that they no longer sold Pukka Pies, but the pies they had were good. Upon leaving we stopped in at the team store and I got a new scarf and splurged on a new kit. It was cold, very cold and Duncan got rather chilled so he's trying to warm up in the bath. We have the banquet to attend in a little under an hour and then if we are smart will go to sleep. If we are really, really dumb I'm told Howard saved the high end Cuban Rum for tonight.

Back to Friday

After waking up and showering, I wandered Duncan's country estate. It's nice. Very Nice. It turns out my apartment that I'm staying in was once the piggery. Duncan made it home and we left for the North around 3:00pm. Traffic was pretty rough and after a stop for dinner we arrived at Nottingham around 8:00pm. The checked in and headed down to the convention room where most of the fish had already arrived for the show. There are some amazing fish here. I'm still impressed with the display racks. They look so good. We then went to the bar and sat around as people continued to arrive. It was great to see people and catch up and meet some new ones. We had several pints, I don't know how many and around 1:30am left the bar. We should have gone to bed. Instead we accepted an invitation to share a bottle of 12 year old rum from Jamaica. We staggered to our room at 3:30am. Needles to say we missed breakfast and likely couldn't have stomached it if we had made it. I'm never drinking again. Ever.

Note to Self:

Never, ever, EVER stay up drinking with Brits. More later.

Well, the flights went without a hitch. However, we did learn that there was a strike on among immigration agents at Heathrow, so there were some delays. It wasn't too bad, in fact I think it was faster then last time. I had my little card filled out and ready on the off chance I got the snotty girl from last time. Duncan arrived a bit later and we were off to the train station at Sevenoaks to go into London. He had meetings at the Gherkin that day, I am certain the building has another name and resembles a Faberge Egg, but it does look a bit like a giant pickle. I wandered around London on foot for about six hours, wandering by St. Paul's, and the London Eye. I visited the Sea Life Aquarium, formerly the London Aquarium and then made my way back visiting the Globe Theatre and the Golden Hind before waiting for Duncan at a pub near the London Bridge train station. We then went to get Juliet and Monty, Fish and chips and headed home. Juliette is a slightly larger version of what I recall, but this time she'll actually talk to me! Monty is huge and has hair and has no problem talking to me. The fish and chips are still fantastic here. I would have posted this last night, but after 30 hours awake I couldn't get the internet to work so I slept for 15 hours instead. It's Friday Morning now and I am waiting for Duncan to get home and then we are off to Nottinghm for the convention. I have no idea if I'll have internet while I am there, so it may be a couple of days before I post again.

So it's been 2 years...

... since I last blogged anything. I am once again going abroad, back to the UK and the BLA Convention. This time sadly Brenda is not with me. I hadn't thought that I would blog about this trip, but here I sit at PDX waiting for my flight and I find I have the time, means and Wi-Fi. I love PDX's Wi-Fi. It's free. many other airports charge you. I'm looking at you Wayne County/Detroit. Anyway, so far, so good.
I left the house early this morning in order to take the MAX to the airport. I gave myself an extra 2 hours, both to give me a cushion and also so Brenda could drop me off on her way to work. On the way to the station 5 minutes away we overheard an announcement about MAX delays due to a car on the tracks. As I'm silently chanting "Clackamas, Clackamas, Clackamas" they tell us its at Lloyd center and the MAX is not rinning between Lloyd Center and Gateway. Guess what section you have to go through between Beaverton and the Airport? Not Clackamas. I quickly called Kevin to see what he was up to. For the record, I had parlayed for a ride earlier in the week and the timing wasn't going to work for him. I figured it was two hours earlier and I only needed to get from Lloyd Center to the Airport. It all worked out, though I fear I will owe some form of reciprocation in the future. All is well and here I sit. The only thing to worry about would be a freak snowstorm in Chicagoland or an Icelandic volcano with an upset tummy. What are the chances?