Before I get all retrospective, I guess a quick account of what I've been up to for the past couple of days wouldn't go astray.

I *finally* made it to the Museum of London the other day to see the rest of what was there. Not content with having seen the development of London merely through the stone age and Roman times, I decided I needed to find out about the Saxon period, then the Norman invasion and subsequent settlement, and then following through the Tudor reign, Early and Late Stuart… it was all rather fascinating although I must say I got less fascinated as it got closer to present day. I also wondered why so many fights and so much effort have been directed towards that little patch of ground astride a river on a fairly rainy island. Ah well. I guess it's nice and close to a lot of places after all…

This weekend I've been off at another Morris gathering in the lovely little town of Thaxted. I won't go on too much about the details, but it was really cool because I met heaps of people, saw a whole lot of new dances, and on Saturday arvo we did a tour of some of the small villages surrounding Thaxted, which included some absolutely beautiful countryside and great little old houses.

At this point I've got to say a big big BIG thanks to Andy and Annie Dehany-Stevens for being such a pair of outright legends and extending their hospitality to me this weekend.

It struck me the other day whilst on the bus leaving the village of Stansted that I've been over here for more than a month now. It's amazing, because whilst it doesn't seem like that long since I left home, it really seems like ages since I left home.

I can't honestly say I've been properly homesick yet, although there have been many instances where I've been looking at or doing something and thought to myself “I wish XYZ were here to enjoy this”. It's so weird to be so far from my friends, and not able to just contact people whenever I want. Of course email's a great thing, and it's been really cool to get all the messages from everyone – maybe that's a reason why I don't miss everyone as much as I thought I would ?

Of course, 4 or 5 weeks isn't a long time, so I'll probably change that attitude completely in 2 or 3 weeks' time…

One of the main differences which has struck me – and this may sound a tad stupid, but I'll press on anyway – is that pubs shut at 11pm over here. It's totally disrupted my rhythm really… at home I would tend to get to the pub about 9ish, settle in for a couple of hours, and then you'd get your best quality philosophising and other prattling done in the stretch leading up to midnight… but over here I find I'm just getting settled and they start booting you out ! Hardly an insightful cultural finding, but hey – it's my website and I'll say what I like.

I've just had a quick look through my other posts and discovered that I haven't gotten around to mentioning my plans for the next few weeks! Tonight I'm off to Glasgow for a week – my first taste of Whiskey Country !! I'm going to be staying with a guy called Grahame who I used to work with back in the old days at Mindvision. I'm really looking forward to Scotland, although I suspect there's going to be a learning curve to go with local accents and place names…

Following that, next Monday I'm off to Paris to catch up with Jon and Tim Salmon. Later that week I'm going to hook up for a week or so with Nick Klau, and plenty o' malarkey shall ensue I feel. After that the plan sort of peters out, so I can't really tell you any more !

All of this means that again I'm a bit uncertain about when I'll have a chance to update this thing. I've got some photos already, but until I get back to my laptop in London we're gonna be without pictures.

Alright, time to head off to Glasgow now. I mean, tayme tae heed off tae Glasgee noo.

2004-06-07 : Is that the time already !?
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