life in the old lane

The good news is I don’t have Covid.  The bad news is that I have a crappy cold/sinus infection.  And, I feel shitty. Hopefully, I will be lots better by Saturday when the barge trip starts.  

Felt cruddy this morning, but I was pretty sure it wasn’t Covid. So, I headed out.  Out to the Orangery Museum. The entire museum was built to house 8 HUGE water Lilly panels by Claude Monet.

 I am sorry, I didn’t feel the love. Fortunately, there were some lesser impressionists pieces in the basement that I was interested in. 

Decided that I would ride the Batobus up and down the Seine instead of walking it. This would be a concession to illness and age.

I got a two day Batobus ticket. I plan on being much healthier by Wednesday! The Batobus bus is just that. No tour guides,no food, no bathrooms. Just nine stops in a big circle.

I got off at the Zoo.

Three hours later, I came back and he was trimming the same bush!

I went to La Ménagerie, the zoo of the Jardin des Plantes. It isn’t the main zoo. But it is the oldest zoo and it has some awesome snow leopards.

It was a fine little zoo. And about all I was up for today.  

Had a fine sandwich at the zoo. Took the Batobus back to the general area of the hotel, had a nap, took my Covid test, did the blog. Don’t feel like going out for dinner. Don’t think I will waste away if I miss one meal. 

Fortunately, my travel mojo returned overnight. 11:30 I was at the station for my 13:30 train to Paris.  40,000 plus ticketless Liverpool fans apparently went to Paris for a match against Spain. Spain won but the returning fans appeared be happy or maybe still drunk.

The train to Paris was only a little over two hours.  I had a little lunch and bang we arrived.  

It was a nice afternoon, so I decided to walk to my hotel. It took about and hour. 

Along the way I was always happy to see an unmistakable landmark that confirmed that I was going the correct way.

 I was overjoyed to turn the corner and see the hotel.  It is a sweet little hotel. The front desk people speak excellent English. it is sort of in an alley, but the location is super.

I walked 5 miles today and ate a whole lot less. Something about being fed giant plates of food 3 times a day that makes eating less seem like a real treat.

well it is approaching 10pm. Going to inspect the map of Paris and think about what to do tomorrow. Then off to sleep. 

It is 10:37 pm. Just got back from dinner. Totally exhausted.  Leaving for Paris at 9:30 tomorrow morning.  I feel like I should be checking into a sanatorium for a cure.  Hoping for a good night’s sleep.  And a new perky self tomorrow morning.  

Today’s best dish was this very fine “starter”. With the bread, it was more than enough for the entire meal. But there were two more courses.

Sally and I ditched the group meal and opted for a private meal of booze and excellent hummus. I had had too much togetherness and Sally humored me.

Packing up and heading out to another hotel tomorrow. Then I go to Paris on Sunday. If I can figure out how to get to the correct train station. And if I make it through two more gardens.  

Amd finally, the day is a wrap with the best chocolate brownie ever, 

And the brownie was huge. I was doubting that the restaurant deserved it’s Michelin star.  Then the brownie arrived.  

Two more days of the tour. Then it is off on my own for a few days before the barge trip.

A very long day. And it ended in a new, elegant but less than efficient hotel. It took two and a half hours for a preordered dinner.  Well past my bedtime. 

Towards the end of the day, Sally and I find ourselves hiding in the bushes during a cloud burst. I was soaked. Thank goodness for heated towel racks. Dried my clothes in a jiffy.

It was crazy crowded.  Rather like a celebration in Tokyo.  

Dessert came with directions about how to eat it. Dessert was two scones and 4 little pastries each. Moderation only leads to long life.  

they had flowers. 

Tomorrow. It is on the tour bus to the Cotswolds. Whatever a Cotswold is.

First half of the day was pretour.

Second half of the day was tour time,  all things considered, I liked the first half of the better. But I would be hard pressed to find fault with the food,  or drink.

Breakfast at 6:30am tomorrow. Then off to spend all day at a flower show. With booze at 6:00pm.  A very long day.

There is not enough WiFi or Cellular to get today’s images out of the basement.  Which is unfortunate, because today was a great day to be a photographer in London.

 It was sunny and warm. Businesses were being wrapped in flowers.  Expensive automobiles prowled the streets. Young women in tiny summer frocks were all long legs and giggly bosoms.

It was a great day. For me the UK part of the trip is already a winner.

Also no nose bleed, passed Covid test,. Great dinner. And a pink gin. How much more British can I get?

Monday morning. Got signal. So pictures. 

 

We made appointments for Covid tests tomorrow. And found another person who is on our tour.

Bummer is when I returned to my basement room this evening I got one of my periodic nosebleeds.  It is more or less stopped if I don’t get a sneezing fit and stay out of the water.  But, I am concerned about the Covid test.  Flunking it or starting up the nosebleed.

wreckage of the future peg wreckage of the future.

Got the OldBat Cave ready to get new windows Monday.  That was today’s only big task. Other than that just the normal, check-in online and last-minute fussiness. 

I wore the shoes today, so they are taking some air before I stuff them in the pack. I filled all the empty space in the bag with granola bars as is my normal practice. And a small amount of dark chocolate. Figure I will run into chocolates along the way. 

The black and white bag is my “personal item”. Everything in it can fit in the pack if I end up on some budget airline. 

The plane is supposed to leave at 10:40 PM, but it doesn’t have a stellar online track record. But, I am in the travel-zone mindset now.  Go with the flow. 

And I still have 6 days with no reservations or plans at the end of the adventure. I could always come home early. NOT.

Just got another memo about the elevators: 

Today Fairfax County inspectors assessed the most
recent upgrades performed by Otis Elevator on elevator
#5. Unfortunately, they identified additional work that
needs to be completed before the final inspection.

BTW: we don’t really have five elevators for the residents to use. We only have 4. So, ½ of them are not operational. Still. But we have memos. 

9.8 stones sounds better than 137.5 pounds. Heck, 62.3 kilos sound better. But, it is what it is. Hope to return with it under 140. Because the travel pants gotta zip.

Got all day tomorrow to do last-minute stuff. Stuff like buying a tin of mini-Altoids. (You didn’t seriously think I would get a regular tin.) Stuff like moving my damn expensive external monitor out of the way of the window installers. Who are scheduled to install new windows for me on Monday.  I hope my crows like the new windows. 

Management sent out a memo about our elevators this afternoon. Memos don’t get elevators working. I can actually walk up 11 floors to my apartment. Most people can not. I am considering funding the Peg Bethany Chair of Elevator Maintenance here at The Asylum. That way we would have our own elevator repair person. It could be an old elevator mechanic. One who worked on our elevators back in the day. When he wasn’t working on elevators, he could doze in the sun in the atrium with the residents. 

It’s going to be great to get out of this place.