Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

I did take a pair of shorts to England, but there were only a couple of days when I could have even considered wearing them, and in the end, they did not make it out of the bag. So it has been nice to come back to San Francisco and be greeted with warm sunny weather (at least until the passing rain storm forecast for Saturday morning). That’s one reason at least to be happy that I am back home (my current home, at least, not my original home), and also a great cure for jet-lag, as I always say.

The last few days in London did have the sense of an epilogue, as we caught up with various friends, and took in some sights, from the neighbourhoods I lived in for years to the world-famous landmarks in the middle of the city. The last of the showery weather gave way to a couple of lovely spring days before we left. My back, which had been acutely painful, depending on how I moved, on the Friday, got progressively less sore day by day, and didn’t prevent me from doing anything that we had planned – though I was certainly moving more slowly than usual, and the days out and about got pretty tiring by the end.

Thankfully, the long hours on the flight home were no more uncomfortable than usual, though the long day started to have its effect as we waited in a lengthy passport check line that only got longer as various officers ended their shifts and were not replaced by others. It was a telling contrast to the experience at Heathrow on the way out, where we had walked straight up to automatic booths and passed through without delay.

The last of my bike components arrived while I was away, and I have been able to get riding again, with new wheels and a complete new drive train. Of course I feel terribly unfit, though at least my back is not impacting my riding, so I am taking it relatively easy. We ate a lot of good food in England, with many chips/fries and a variety of puddings.

And now it is all in the past, and it is mainly by looking through the many photographs that I can really appreciate how much we packed in to the last few weeks.