London 2022

From the antique place I hopped on another train and went to Leah on sea. It was a bit of a process getting there. Google took me all over the place. I had to take two different trains and then hop on a bus that took another half hour to get to Leia on sea. At the bus stop there was a creeper the first one that I've ran into. There's a long line for various buses and he followed me from line to line and would wait until I was looking at my phone to double check and he inch closer. I quickly figured it out and went and huddled next to an older couple. Quickly figured out my bus and hopped on. He stayed at the bus stop hunting other marks. The only thing I had on my backpack that he could have gotten was a Star wars book I found at the last stop. He would have been sadly disappointed and I would have been very pissed off. The good stuff I kept in front of me and my purse and always had my hand on it. He's the only creeper that I've had this whole trip so far.

So after all that I thought oh yeah I'm finally going to see the ocean and play on the beach. Well that did not happen. Their beach is crap! Nothing but mud and on top of that it's a weird inlet thing. So you can't even really see the ocean you see a spit of land that's full of old factories and ugly buildings. There were a couple neat shops in the town but the whole place was really a bust. And then I asked Google how to get me home and the f***** said I only needed to take one train. Well what the hell!? It took an actor Congress to get there but I only would need one goddamn train to get back? I was not impressed. To top it off the long train systems apparently are also used as children's school buses. So I was in a bus full of rowdy teenagers that just got out of school for the day. Not the best afternoon to be honest.Read more

I got off the main train. And turned the corner to get on the DRL and found a castle! This is why I freaking love London. And apparently there was a goddamn castle where I was earlier on Leia on sea and completely missed it. But anyway. I stumbled on the Tower of London and was able to FaceTime my baby and show her. My baby has a fever and didn't sleep well last night Papa was up taking care of her. She has a cough and just isn't feeling very good. So I was able to have her walk with me for a little while and around the castle. Apparently I was so focused on talking to my baby I forgot to take pictures. Oh well!Read more

The day started out with some serious pain in my ears. Awful pressure. There's big storm front coming in is the only thing I can think of. My ears hurt pretty bad when I got off the plane when I landed but it was gone within 24 hours. Last night after I got out of the bath they were killing me to the point where it hurt to touch them. I was able to knock myself out and sleep through it, but I woke up and it was still pretty bad. Be damned if that was going to stop me though!

I got up at 5:30 and went in to Woolrich which is my favorite spot to lark. It usually has tons of pottery. But will Rich was incredibly sludgy and gross again today. So I pretty much jogged back to the train station and went downtown into zone 1. If there were tons of people mud larking across from where I was looking of course. So I traced my way to where they are and when down into the shore. Pretty sure two of the authors of the book that I just bought were down there larking, neither one of them were very friendly and both of them made sure I had my license. These two guys think they're pretty hot stuff apparently. I wasn't very impressed but I did tell them that I had my license. I went on my way and stopped at a spot where a young gal was larking. I saw that she had some garnets set aside at which point I asked her where she found those and how she found those. She was so sweet! She got out of flashlight and showed me where and how to find garnets. She suggested that next time I come out to bring tweezers. She also said that a lot of times when you find the garnets you also find pins. And be damned if she didn't lead me to a spot where there was a s*** ton of garnets and pins. Pretty soon there was a group of about five women and one gentleman that were all in the same area looking for various things. One gal really wanted to find pins and I told her I found a spot with pins so she came over and looked with me and I found her a couple that I handed over. In turn she found a couple garnets and handed those over. Another gentleman wasn't having any luck looking for garnets and he said that's what he came down here to look for. I said I had a good spot for those so he came over and took over my spot while I went over to his spot. Everybody was so nice helping each other look for what their passion was. I had so much fun! It was absolutely wonderful I can't describe how awesome this morning was! The downside of this was that my knees are now literally black and blue because I didn't have any knee pads. And the pain in my ears was so bad I was starting to get nauseous so I had to bag it up earlier than I would have liked. But I found a handful of pins and garnets. I also found a piece of Roman glass and odds and ends of other things. But the garnets and pins were amazing and the company that I had will doing this was also wonderful. I'm just sorry that I was in so much pain that I had to come back to the apartment. I took some Ibuprofen and I've been trying to clear up the ears they don't hurt as bad right now. I'm really hoping that it'll subside by the evening so I can go back out for one more lark before I have to go to bed and get ready to come home! All in all it's been a wonderful trip!Read more

This will be my last update for the trip. I got home and the baby and husband were waiting for me at the airport. I didn't see Sheila at first she was hiding and jumped out to give me a big hug. She made me a sweet poster too. By the time I had landed in Boise though I was in a lot of pain so we dropped shillelagh back off at home and Andrew took me to urgent Care for my ears. Apparently I have swimmers here in both ears. We then had to go to a pharmacy that was crowded and a bit of a mess and took over an hour and a half to get our medication. Then there were two days where I was in so much pain and dizzy I don't remember much of any of it. I think I'm recovering at this point I'm not dizzy and I'm able to hold my phone and make up dates. Very thankful that I'm back when I'm this sick.Read more