Eye on Myself

Last few posts have been a little self-indulgent, don't you think? With our heroine appearing without the scrim of shop window contents and reflections.

Well, here's more.

Have you ever seen the London Eye?

Well, in 2002 I had a business trip to England. I had to meet with customers in London and environs, give a speech at some conference there and take a day trip to Glascow to give a pitch. A fly in and fly out speech was my nightmare. No matter how I balanced the decongestants I arrived deaf. Add in the accents and I would have trouble understanding my customers' questions. Of course, they had to overcome my Texas accent to understand my answers! Anyway the fun started at something like 7AM, London time, on a Monday.

My mother was in the hospital, very ill. This trip to London was the only time during her almost hundred days in the hospital that I left. I'd agreed to the conference speech and I was only going to be gone a few days. I finally decided not to cancel. I told my assistant, though, to get me in on Saturday. I couldn't imagine arriving jet-lagged on Sunday, risking delay and then having to be conherent at 7 on Monday. I arrived in London about 11 in the morning on Saturday. I checked into the hotel and went to sleep. I kept intending to get up and find food and drink that wasn't in the mini bar. I kept sleeping and sleeping. I think I could have slept all day Sunday. But I didn't. I had to get in the time zone. About nine the following morning, twenty-two hours after I'd crashed in the room, I decided I had to stop sleeping. I guess I didn't know how weary I'd gotten working, going to the hospital. Anyway I got up, showered, put on my black jeans, hiking boots, black blazer (at least the shirt wasn't black!) and had some breakfast. I bought an Underground pass and went to London proper. (I was staying at the airport.)

One thing I did was ride the London Eye. Somehow I figured out that at a certain point they took a photo. (A camera was mounted on arms of the giant ferris wheel.) So I moved over to the right part of the car at the right moment. No one else seemed to be aware of this or maybe they thought it was silly. When I got off, I went to the kiosk and bought this photo.

Hand on backpack slung over one arm, that's my travel self. And no, I don't keep really valuable stuff in the backpack. Just stuff like bandaids and mints and reading material. Maybe a camera.

I look pretty relaxed here with my twenty hours of sleep, doing some touristy things to get moving and get in the right time zone frame of mind. I was feeling really strange and out-of-it though. I got this picture to show my mother. I hated leaving her and she had told me to bring some souvenirs for her. I did that, too. She enjoyed seeing the photo and the stuff I brought her. We then took her souvenirs home and she never saw them again. The other day at my dad's house I saw a dish towel that had garish graphics celebrating the Queen's Golden Jubilee. Must have been one of the things I brought her.