Saturday - October 29, 2011

back at last in mind if not body …. read all about it.

Been away so long hard to restart but have a thing or two to share.

Wasn’t aware Drew not here until I got the pc back from where it was stored, and rehooked things today.  To be honest, I’d like another week off from doing anything except breathing.  Brits have a word for being tired but well beyond that.  Exhausted doesn’t cover it at all. Brits would say “Shattered” and that’s about how we feel.

For the first time since moving to England, and the first day back, I experienced in full what a grey, misty and chill to the bone, that damp, cold feeling you can’t shake, feels like.  Sure, we’ve had damp days and rainy days and cold days and stops in between.  But nothing in my experience like Wednesday. Clammy all day long. Btw, how can one sweat when one is cold?

Coughed my way across the Atlantic on Virgin Air.  Had the foresight to book exit row seats at extra cost for the leg room. But the seats are narrow of course because we were in peasant class. 

I’ve never been able to sleep on a plane, and flying LA to London and back not anything I want to do often.  In fact, I may not be too eager to return to the USA for a long time. Which is the subject of another post/rant.  Anyway …

Not much jet lag on trip over, but it hit us big time on return trip to London.  Where btw … the civil servants who are in charge of the border and immigration, really, really are civil.  Not at all like the self important bullies at LAX.  I’ll have more to say on that later.

So, back to a damp house. Turn heat on, don’t bother unpacking and fall into bed and hope eyesight returns to something approaching normal.  Oh, I should mention I was seeing double and having trouble with focus.  Coughing again and can’t stop so up rest of the night.

It actually started a few days before leaving Calif. There just seemed to be a problem (to start) with my distance sight. It wasn’t that I couldn’t see, but that things I normally could see I had to be closer to.  Like road signs.  When walking, once or 2wice I lost a bit of footing. Nothing major but I’d lose balance for a second or two and sort of drift to one side or the other instead of walking straight.  But since it wasn’t all the time and only a few missteps in the house, I just blamed it on Bush and moved on.

When we finally landed at Heathrow and while exiting the plane, I felt light headed and instead of being able to walk straight off, I seemed to drift and stumble to the left.
An attendant asked if I was okay and did I need any help.  It was really a creepy feeling and as I walked out and followed the signs to arrivals, things in the distance were kind of blurry. Not like the movies, but just not clear. Not a lot out of focus, but just enough so I’d know the difference.  And no. I hadn’t been drinking anything but water and one tea on the flight. 

The evening before the flight I hadn’t much sleep at all. Was up fully by 2am. Breakfast around 8:30am to 9.  Back to room and repack cases and double check nothing left behind, checked out about 10:15 and waited for our ride to LAX, who was 12 minutes late picking us up.  Another good reason to always arrange pick ups long before needed I guess.  So, two hour ride, perhaps a shade longer, struggle to release one of those carts for luggage they charge $5.00 for at LAX but which much bigger ones are free here in England at Heathrow. Which also has better airport restaurants then LA. At least on departing platforms.
And then the long wait to check in, because we’re more then the three hours required to do that, and the Virgin baggage weigh isn’t open.  Once it does, and we’re rid of three very heavy cases, one of which weighs 62 pounds, it’s back in line again for security checks, which this time are not too time consuming at all.

A thought occurs to me, as our carry on bags are put through x-ray on the conveyor.
I begin to wonder if on the USA side, they aren’t too worried about what gets carried across the Atlantic to England or Europe in hand baggage, as opposed to what comes the other way.  (of course I know they are but ) On leaving England for LA the prior month, they were taking everything out of everyone’s carry on and checking things twice to see who’d be naughty or nice. And those lines moved at a snail’s pace. 

Customs at London busy but seemed faster and fewer people then last year. So, thru customs, meet wife on other side, being a Brit she went through another line first.
Eyes continue to bother, getting a bit worried at that point, found a porter and got our luggage, exited and our car (late model Jag) and driver (Brian, our regular guy) there to meet and greet.  So then … off we go for the final leg of the overlong and exhausting journey. And the really scary thing starts to happen.

I’m now seeing double. Never had that happen to me before but there it is.  Can’t focus on anything for long.  There are three lanes of traffic going one way.
Lanes divided by dotted lines. So there’d be two white dotted lines on the roadway separating the lanes.  Except what I was seeing was a third dotted line running between the two, and any car in front of us appeared as two cars, with the dummy image showing up on the far left and sometimes I saw it as though it were on the other side of a fence where there was nothing but fields. And there was this car and traffic lane floating along in the field. 

We finally arrived at the house, when I tried to put the key in the door lock, I stumbled forward a bit because I was seeing the door somewhat closer to me then it actually was. 

Saw a doctor next day …. result was, he said, low blood pressure. So, I was taken off one of the meds I had been given and taken last couple of years for something else, but which does lower blood pressure.

Now all I honestly need is a week of bone tired sleep.

Posted by peiper     on 10/29/2011 at 05:23 AM   
Filed Under: • Personal •  
• Comments (9) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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