Tuesday AM - Aug 3. I arrived today and was able to struggle to a taxi and rendezvous with Kimerie Mapletoft at a local breakfast spot. As a civilian she couldn't drive onto RAF Mildenhall, so we met at the Running Chef in Barton Mills and I had my first English breakfast. Of course there were two Running Chefs within sight of each other, but the cabbie picked the right one.
After breakfast we start for Maidenhead by car. Quickly I remember, from previous visits to Britian, what a chore it is getting used to sitting on the left without driving. I'm always reaching for the steering wheel, which I now realize is as much a balancing hand-hold as it is part of the car's guidance system. We chatter away about Unity and England and Missouri as the English countryside flies past. Driving on the left is contrary to programming for Americans, but it's amazing how rapidly you adapt. Well, it helps to have good conversation and not being the driver, too.
I am pleased that the third floor flat at the Silent Unity-UK building is as nice as I remembered it. Well, it's technically the "Second Floor" because the British call the walk-in first story of a building the "Ground Floor" and start numbers at the second level. That of course does nothing to elminate the extra set of twisting narrow steps to climb to reach my second floor abode. Some of the Unity folks graciously help carry my cumbersome travel bags up the steps to the Silent Unity loft apartmemt. 
It is now early afternoon. Since I've been awake for nearly two days and unable to sleep on the cargo plane, I decide to push toward evening before calling it a day. So, I set up my laptop, hook into the Unity hotspot wify, and spend a few hours working on the online course I'm teaching this summer, HTS 665 Emerson and the Transcendentalists. I also answer e-mails, some of which come from Unity Village offices and seem like the authors don't know I am off campus, six time zones to the east. Then I look at my PowerPoint lessons for the two-day seminar on Interpreting the Hebrew Scriptures which I'll be teaching all day Saturday-Sunday.
Yep...that's a minister's vacation.
Okay. Enough work. I close the computer and saunter down the lane to the great cultural center which Britain has given the civilised (UK spelling) world: the local pub. On the way, I get confused about what seemed like simple instructions. Probably due to fatigue (although my students might disagree). A gentleman emerges from a house and gets into his car, and I ask directions. He very kindly insists on giving me a ride the rest of the way and so I climb into the driver's side to ride the last few blocks.
It is 8 pm local time. As I write this, I'm sitting in a pub called the Pond, about a half mile from my Unity-UK home. Sipping a chilled lager, watching a soccer game--excuse me...a football match, while waiting for my beef roll-up sandwich and chips (fries). Haven't slept since Sunday night, so I am getting a little woozy, and I am certain the food and good British brew will accelerate the process. Suddenly I wonder if this is all a dream and I'm still on the damned plane. Ah...cold beer and hot food. Do not wake me!
This will be my last entry BCJ--before Carol-Jean arrives. She's flying in Thursday. Kimerie and I will pick her up at London's Gatwick Airport. (Picture below.)
2 comments:
Being a British colony they drive on the left in Barbados as well. It really does take a certain level of mental and spatial reprogramming to steer from the other side of the car. My mom (or should I say mum) is visiting me now in Lee's Summit and we both walk to the same side of the car: me with the intention to drive, she with the intention to ride.
It is so cool reading all of your blogs sort of at once. Of course, I should be finishing my paper that is due before the night is over. But breaks are allowed.
I am definitely envious of your experience. I guess I will have to set my sights on doing what you're doing some day and then share my own blogs with students, faculty and the world at large. Very interesting and entertaining stuff, Dr.Tom.
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