Jet lag and time change is kicking my butt.

I purchased gin and vermouth yesterday and ended the day with a couple martinis. This helps me fall asleep but then I usually wake up. With the time change, my body is confused. I did manage to get sleep in last night, but Eileen slept fitfully (her report).

It is after noon local time but we are still moving slowly in our rooms. Apparently Lucy, Matthew and Sarah had a rough night last night as well. We are all content to take it slowly this morning.

Sarah and I went to Tesco together last night. That was great fun! (Hi Sarah! Sarah tells me that she read my blog post yesterday afternoon while breast feeding Lucy…. I find it sort of interesting when family members are checking up on me via the interwebs when I’m so close…. suspected the same was going on with Mark and Leigh when we stayed with them.)

Sarah drove us. Also she was a great help in pointing me at quality and less expensive goods. Besides booze, I stocked up on fruits, vegetables, meat (for Eileen, coffee, and other sundries for our rooms so we are self sufficient. By the time we got back to Sarah’s house, Eileen (who had been watching Lucy) was ready to crash for the night. We came home and fixed food. We turned on the TV for the first time. Surprisingly there were many USA shows on. Eileen found an episode of NCIS.

Eileen has figured out the clothes washer and the dish washer. We brought fewer clothes with the idea we would have access to a washing machine. British stuff and lingo is just different enough to be interesting. It’s like waking up in the next dimension over. It’s similar enough to figure out, but also many differences in the details. Since many of these are quirky language differences (“cooker provided” means there’s an oven in our room), I enjoy figuring stuff out. It helps to have read tons of English literature (and junky stuff as well).

The interweb continues to be very helpful when I can get access to it. I am keeping up with reading my New York Times. Yesterday while Sarah, Matthew and Lucy were busy, I missed having my David Foster Wallace novel The System of the Broom, with me. But I was able to go online and pull down an ecopy from Mark’s online library and continue reading. Cool!

I am enjoying chatting with Matthew as well as Sarah. It is interesting to hear his ideas about politics, both US and England. I realized recently that he has spent his entire life as a British citizen in the European Union. Although, he has had some “buyers remorse” about his initial support for Brexit, he is hopeful that it will work out well for England.

The Conservative Party has been holding a Conference in Birmingham, not too far from here.  I noted to Matthew the increased use of the term, “foreigner,” in British public discussions (instead of immigrant or migrant). This is a term that seems to permeate the Chinese way of looking at things as well.

It’s interesting to follow local politics when abroad. Matthew says that he finds his own local politics disheartening and enjoys following American madness (my term, not his). Madness, indeed.

Stepping Over the Dead on a Migrant Boat – The New York Times

I read this article on my tablet, but didn’t see the stirring photographs included in the online version. The movement of people trying to escape dire awful situations continues world wide. Today’s OED word for the day seemed apt.