adventures in jet lag

in honor of my first post, i would like to share three extraordinarily important things that have happened since i arrived in london four days ago:

1. on sunday, i roused myself from my sloth jet-lagged stupor and fulfilled a long-standing dream of seeing the pearly kings and queens in person. even better, it was as part of the costermonger's harvest parade, which included morris dancers young and old, donkeys, and a west highland terrier. (video to follow, at a time and date of blogger's choosing, apparently.)

2. having just had our hot water heater at home replaced by our extremely affable plumber (who revealed to us that it is not inexpensive to have one's daughter be married on the grounds of copsaholm), i arrived in london only to find that there was no hot water in my flat. after much fiddling with thermostat covers and wires, as well as prayers to ward off electrocution, i managed to fix the hot water heater tonight. here's hoping it stays long enough to finish the load of clothes i just put in the washer. i can handle sponge baths and washing clothes by hand, but not together.

3. i learned that the answer to having the lid mysteriously fly off the enormous canister of salt you're about to scan at the self-checkout at sainsbury's is to brush the salt off the scanner into the basket, scan all your other sundries, pay, and then walk as quickly as possible out the door before anyone notices. if you don't turn around, you won't see the enraged stares.

here's hoping they let me back in. costcutters just doesn't have that great a selection, and the owner of the organic food store seemed rather offended when i asked if they had reusable bags for purchase so that i could feel extra-sanctimonious as i carried home my over-priced flax seed (he didn't).

stay tuned for even more exciting london adventures, pictures of old clocks, and searching questions such as "do the brits really think that selling freezer bags with naught but a twist tie closure will really keep food from getting freezer burn?" and "which is more addictive: the great british bake off, or cocaine?"