Monday 22 October Day 143

https://bulkresizephotos.com/ once I’ve persuaded Google Drive to display another folder on the desktop.

It’s raining again. Woke up at 8, determined to not piss about and meditate as soon as I’ve had my cup of tea but I’m still sitting here with a second cup of copy fiddling with pics and my blog and writing to B.

So I finally meditated at 12 after sorting out my pics from yesterday and starting a letter to B and emailing Belle. And then just carried on as before (why not? Given every time I looked outside it was either grey to black, or actually torrential downpouring). O, and I did the laundry. And meditated again at 6:30. And booked a flight back to England for anti-christmas. Feeling v pleased with myself until Felicity emailed and asked me to change it so I would be there at the same time as Joe. Fel a bit resentful, as I've only followed (and re-confirmed) the original plan, but Joe can't be arsed, so we all have to swivel to accommodate him - made more irritating  by the fact that I will only have just said goodbye to him in Hanoi. I can fly earlier from Limoges or Poitiers, but it's another £30 or £40 on top of the£30 I've already paid, and a hassle and expense getting to and from Limoges, and the dates are wrong - meet up with Joe slap bang in the middle so a rush if I'm to go up Suffolk to H and P.

We’re going out for a full English for dinner just around the corner - smash and sausages.

Only we're not - it's shut on Mondays, so we went to the West Lake steakhouse and had a nice comfort meal. Roads awash, and tipping down. I resisted the urge to wear the conical hat, which would have been very practical, and Aden lent me a coat. Got home with my trousers soaked to the thighs, but warm, so lovely.  

Johnny thanked me for the axe, but not a peep out of Ingrid in reply to my email. Aden said he'd had similar with her recently. We think she might be depressed, or in a lot of pain. Sad. Don't know what I can do, apart from get her a nice Christmas present. Really don't want to see her if she's the same as last time (not even an offer of a bed, or a meal, as much as she could do to give me my post).

I got a response to my BlaBla car ad, from Alison, who's leaving from Basel Hbf on Nov 7th and can drop me at Chateauroux where I can get a train to Poitiers. But she wants €40 for the ride, and the train from Chateuroux to Poitiers is €40 and 4 hours, and I can get a through train from Basel to Poitiers for about €80 with my senior discount card, and it only takes 5 hours altogether, as opposed to 9. Would have been to have done BlaBla. Something else might turn up.

Quite tempted to buy this Dell Latitude that I've 'hired' - I checked prices on the web and it's about what I should expect (in fact the first one came up as $214 which is precisely VDN5,000,000). Seems very solid and works fine. I spent a useful(?) day syncing up a Google Drive folder and sorting out my photographs and uploading them to facebook, including a couple of nice videos of mass at St Joseph's and the dan bau player in the knick knack shop.

A late night call to B, which was nice, but very frustrating. Poor link and we kept going quiet and then both talking at once and being much too serious for midnight. I asked her to write back to me in German. I think she said she would (without too much Schwyzzerisch).

Tried to sort out a hire car for my week in England, but everyone insists on a credit card, and humongous deposits - one wanted £1,500. Only Alamo said they would accept a debit card. And they all want two current proofs of address, which might be tricky (not photocopies or electronic bank statements).

I did meditate twice.