Making a List, Checking It Twice

No, it’s not Christmas in April. It’s just me trying to get ready for my trip to London. We leave on Thursday. This is going to be a hectic trip. We arrive at Heathrow at 7 a.m. Friday morning. Then we have to take the train from Heathrow to Paddington, meet up with C and J, and take another train to Plymouth in Cornwall. From Plymouth, we hop in a cab, which takes us to a ferry. After the ferry ride, we hop in another cab to get to our hotel. All this on probably no sleep. I have a lot of trouble sleeping on planes. Maybe I will catch a nap on the train, but I actually want to stay awake to be able to see the countryside. M and M’s wedding is on Saturday. I think I have finally figured out what to wear. It’s been a dilemma—finding something that will be appropriate for a wedding, but will also travel well. CW is cleaning out her closets in anticipation of the big move and gave me a great BCBG jersey dress, very much in the DVF style. It will work perfectly and will come out the suitcase not horribly wrinkled. CW also lent me an adaptor set. This is crucial as my new haircut will be impossible to maintain without various electronic devices (although they are predicting a lot of rain while we’re there, so my hair may be a lost cause—humidity is not my friend).

Tonight is laundry night. Pretty much everything I own is dirty. I’ve been holding off on doing laundry, as I figured it would easier to pack if I had my entire wardrobe to choose from. Then tomorrow night will be ironing and packing night. I am busy making lists of what I need to do before I go (laundry, buy camera batteries, install new memory card in digital camera, etc.), and what I need to pack (about 4000 things, including three cameras—I really like taking pictures). I have a great London guidebook and Brian and I have been poring over it figuring out where we want to go. I am really big on lists. I am always in a panic that I will forget something really important, like my passport.

On the agenda are the following: the British Museum, the V&A (two good exhibits there currently: Queen Maud of Norway’s dresses and Arts and Crafts), the National Gallery (for the Caravaggio exhibit), Sir John Soane’s House, St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Great Fire Monument, the Temple Church, and a whole bunch of other things. Yes, this is a lot to pack into less than 5 days in London, but I run a tight ship on vacation, so it should work out ok. (If you think vacations are for relaxing, you probably don’t want to travel with me. Although I will relax if I’m at the beach or somewhere comparable.)