Getting Warmed up for Europe

Today, we got our first tickets for our Europe trip. The Ceremony of the Keys--the traditional nightly locking up of the Tower of London. We have invited Steve [and Jock] (formerly in Sweden and now in London) and his wife Sabina to join us.

I have been browsing around for things to do during our free time in London. I am looking at the Tate Britain, which is the national gallery of British art. Its website allows you to identify pieces you want to see and to build a tour, which you then print out and take with you. Admittance to the general collection is free and they have some free guided tours. Sadly, the major Turner pieces will be out of the country at the time of our visit.

My friend Elaina, who has been to Europe, has suggested some other places for me to check out--the Rodin Museum in Paris, the British Museum, and taking a train trip to Canterbury.

Some of the hardest part of this is web pages in foreign languages and currency conversion. Babblefish and other web sites help me with those. I am so computer-dependent, I know I will be just lost without computer access on the trip. I don't know anything about wifi or computer cafes or any of that. Another problem is that for many museums, the exhibitions for May (the time we will be in Europe) are not yet listed on their websites.

If anyone has suggestions for "must do" things in Europe or for internet access, please let me know.

Jim's away for a week on a guys-only golfing trip. Jim has golfed in the past but I don't know if he'll be up for it now. But he will have fun hanging out with the guys and riding in the golf cart. There are some courses they will be playing that do allow the cart on the fairway. Otherwise, I doubt Jim could walk the course. Arthritic knees.

And I have a whole week to pamper my menopause. Can be up all hours of the night, play the TV as loud as I like, put the computer on speakers instead of headphones to listen to NPR. I am getting some things done. Yesterday, I replaced the guts in a toilet, did some painting of cabinets and shelves to go on the walls, washed venetian blinds. Jim doesn't like that kind of chaos when he's around, because I can't finish one job all at one time, and leave my tools and mess out all day and sometimes overnight. The house is almost completely tidied up from Jim's move in, and now I am working on filing stuff in my office that has collected over the past two years. And I will have to start planning for income taxes.

Sue, the woman for whom I am a chemo buddy, did really well with her first chemo session. She was scared, but once the infusion started, she calmed down and was fine. She suffered through the Neulasta bone pain, and was over all the acute side effects in about 9 days. She is getting her infusions every 3 weeks (I had mine every two), so she will have alot more "good time" between infusions than I did. Her next infusion is a week from now, and her husband will be taking her.