Hakuna Matata

Our 747 left Phoenix only an hour late, and the flight to Heathrow was fine except the light above my seat didn't work, so I had to lean into K's space to read.  Slept much of the 9.5 hours, and the four of us were met at the gate by our driver.  Seemed like a nice enough guy, and wanted to talk about science, specifically calcium carbonate, so I obliged him.  Turned out to be a real nut who would talk about nothing else.  Him, I mean.  Has the idea of drilling holes in the beds of the world's major rivers deep enough to recharge the aquifers.  Got to the point when we would try anything to jog him off the subject of calcium carbonate "Is that a baby chair in the back?"  What kind of car is that over there?"  "How 'bout them D-Backs?"  Nothing worked.  On and on and on he went.  I began banging my head on the window - He looked back quizzically, too a breath and carried on.  Longest damned ride of my life, and in a turbo-diesel so the fumes, the erratic driving and the goddam calcium carbonate combined to bring me to the edge of effluvia.

Sunday morning we went to the Tower of London, saw the crown jewels again (a 500 carat diamond - what's that, 10 times bigger than the Hope in the Smithsonian?) and then tradfatted off to the Lion King at the Lyceum near Covent Garden.  Pretty good for a musical, I guess.  First musical I've not fallen asleep in.

Better get back to the Blades Hotel here in Westminister and pick up K.  We're off to ride the London Eye before hooking up with Betty and Chuck at about two, our time.  That's four a.m. in Phoenix.  I don't want to think about it.