By the time you read this, we'll be on a plane (hopefully) to Merry Olde (England). We handed off our house keys to the housesitter, scritched the cat one last time and then vamoosed. We've done all the sensible things one does when one travels (notify the local neighborhood watch of our sitter, updated our info with the alarm company, polished our wills, all that crap.) Now it's just time to put butt in plane seat and fly for (groan) 9 hours.
It sounds like a long time. It will be. In my heyday, it was nothing. Flying back and forth to Asia from Iowa took an astounding 24 hours, at least 15 of that on a plane from San Francisco (or L.A.) to Hong Kong. 15 hours is PENANCE, even when you're in Business Class. So I will be reminding myself of that during our hours on the way to England. And no, we're not in Business Class, alas. Haven't made it to the "big time" just yet.
The first day there (Wed) is just going to involve getting settled into the B&B, doing recon to find an Internet cafe and finding a pub for dinner. Thurs we hit the ground walking as there is a LOT of research (not just the pub kind) that has to happen during this week in London. How was a court trial conducted in 1888? How were hangings carried out at Newgate? What is the airspeed velocity of a swallow? (Just kidding.*) I have considerable background info on most of my questions, but need more "depth" and you get that depth by trudging through museums, asking (hopefully) intelligent questions and keeping an eye out for that one piece of detail that makes a scene sing to the reader. Sometimes you find it. A lot of times you don't. It's a crapshoot.
I'll post reports as time and connections allow. It's going to be a hectic, but fun trip. Right now that sounds very appealing.
*Monty Python & The Search for the Holy Grail
1 comment:
European swallows or African swallows? BTW, i just got an e-mail from Amazon offering me a deal for your next book. Have fun in the UK.
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