New roads

    

This is Day Five in London, and this morning (strolling back from breakfast at Carluccio’s with my Sainsbury’s bag - I invested in a strong one, since carrying groceries home is a regular feature of living car-less) I found myself both excited and contemplative simultaneously.  The future, both immediate and more distant, looks very enticing at the moment. I came up with an excellent, if clichéd, metaphor which I will share with you: back in Sydney I was feeling as if I had reached the end of a road; a broad, interesting, and adventurous road, but one that had ended in a comfortable car park, as it were. Now, I have found an interesting side street out of the car park. The initial few kilometres were steep and sometimes precipitous, but now I have emerged onto a broad plateau where the sun is shining and I can see many lanes, roads, highways and tracks leading off in all kinds of fascinating directions. Close by I can see interesting things to explore. In the distance there are features less clear, but equally tempting of exploration.

Of course (to leave the metaphorical mode) as mentioned I don’t actually have a car, so all this is to be done à pied, but you know what I mean.

Today I spent time on the laptop organising this and that, and also IM-ing and emailing my people back home. New pictures of Pandora have been posted – lovely! I’ve been calling local friends, talking to prospective bankers, researching medical practices, figuring out where one buys sheets and towels and knives and forks in Central London (Harrods?) http://www.harrods.com/HarrodsStore/visiting/store-guide

Tony Blair has a new book out, his memoirs. This is keeping the newspaper pages full at the moment, although one correspondent to The Guardian (I have decided that The Guardian is my daily press of choice) is unimpressed:

‘A quark is considered the smallest particle to exist. If you took a quark and divided it a million times then chopped it in half that would still be bigger than the interest I have in anything Tony Blair thinks, says or does.’

Today I must also pack my little bag for the train trip to Edinburgh tomorrow. It seems that the opening night of ‘Bliss’ at the Festival was a success, and I’m sure the closing night will be also. I am looking forward to our excursion up north.