Take That, Jet Lag!

I managed to stay up until about 7:30pm last night, and I slept soundly until 5:30ish this morning, which should go along way towards keeping me on the right sleeping/waking schedule.

To stay awake, I visited the Dickens House Museum. It was fun to be in a place where he wrote some of his books, and it was interesting to see the original, serialized versions of some of his novels. Plus, I saw Dickens's comode chair!

After the museum, I found a decent place to get pasta, salad, and wine, and while I ate I started the David Liss novel, which I'm loving because it's just steeped in c18 London! Steeped! And, I must say, I just love my little spot over in the Bloomsbury/Russell Square area. It's becoming my own little London neighborhood when I visit!

Then today, I took the train to Wales. A long trip, but relaxing and beautiful. Perhaps I like Wales so much because it looks a lot like Central California (if Central California had more rain and more sheep).

Spoke to hubby, who was getting the kids ready for school (it was morning there, afternoon here). The boy didn't want to talk to me (he was engrossed in an episode of Survivorman, so who can blame him?), but the girl wanted to talk. How cute is a four-year old on the phone? Very cute. Her first question was, "How many days until you come home?" Then she told me about the fun they had camping. Camping is a great diversion when Mommy is gone. I can tell she misses me, but I think she'll make it. As for the boy, he's much more practical about my absence, saying, "It's just a week, Mommy. We'll have lots of fun so the time passes quickly for us."

Now I'm futzing around on the computer while watching what seems to be a British version of HGTV. Soon, it's dinner downstairs in the hotel. Then, back to my room to either

a) do academic work
b) read the David Liss novel
c) watch Buffy
d) watch How Green was My Valley
e) watch more home shows on the "More" channel

or some combination thereof. Tomorrow it's off to the library and my first meeting with the supervisor!

post-post edit://After a small dinner here at the hotel, I took a taxi down to the shore to watch the sunset over Ceredigion Bay (I've never had such good weather here!). Then I stopped by one of my favorite restaurants here to have port and a chocolate torte! Mmmmm. But I also read two articles, so I wasn't totally playing hooky from the work.