Home Again

As I write this, I am sitting on my couch in West Hampstead, having coffee and a peanut butter sandwich and happy to be home. I'm exhausted, of course, but I've still been running around and unpacking and watering orchids and starting laundry and cleaning bathrooms. (Dave's housekeeping isn't quite up to my exacting standards, and of course I say that with love and I think he'll laugh when he reads it. I think.)

I saw Olga only briefly before she went out with her dog walker, so she and I have yet to catch up.

The flight home was uneventful. The overseas leg was just as empty as my flight to Florida two weeks ago, so again, I had plenty of space to spread out. I think I was even in a premium economy seat, which I didn't ask for -- I guess British Airways is taking care of me since I'm a frequent flier. (Or was before the pandemic!)

I landed in England about 10:10 a.m. and cleared passport control and customs quickly. The airlines checked my Covid test results and UK passenger locator form (which tells the government where I'll be quarantining and where I sat on my flight) before I boarded the plane, but I was surprised that none of that happened again at the border. I just sailed through.

And yes, I do now have to quarantine, though apparently not for the full ten days. The UK is changing the rules for so-called amber list countries (which have some risk of Covid but not a huge risk -- the USA is on the amber list). As of Monday quarantining is no longer necessary. So I guess I just have to quarantine until then. I do, however, have to take two Covid PCR tests, on day two (tomorrow?) and day 8.

Holy cow -- the GARDEN! It is a veritable wall of green. I can't believe how much it's grown in my absence. I'll share photos tomorrow.

Today you're seeing an old photo that I took in downtown Tampa back in the mid-1980s. I shot a roll of film while walking around the city, and then at some point I threw out all the negatives and I no longer have the prints, either. I thought they'd all been lost. I was happy to find this print at my brother's -- I guess I gave him a copy at some point. Preserved for posterity! Kind of a shoddy masonry job, wouldn't you agree?

And speaking of masonry, which reminds me of Freemasons, here's a dollar bill I got in my change while in the states. The pyramid with the eye -- often considered a Masonic symbol -- has sometimes been seen as a sign of political conspiracy. I guess that's what this person was thinking. I wonder if he/she (probably he) writes this on all his/her dollar bills? That must be fatiguing.