Discovering My Zen-Self

Today was a travel day - from Caterbury to Bath. This was complicated by having to make a stop in London to try to fix our Cash Passports, which apparently were never activated when we bought them (the fault of the vendor, not us). This adventure ended with Tom in a London pay-phone booth encrusted with photos of half-naked women offering "relaxing massages" and other, less child-friendly options. I got to stand outside the booth guarding the luggage and occasionally opening the booth door to pick up assorted things he dropped, because he couldn't reach them himself. Big man - small booth.

The good news is that our money is now accessible.

There was a good amount of train and tube transfering, which gave me an opportunity to work on discovering my zen-self. My zen-self is the state of "we'll get there when we get there and stressing out over it will not help anything, so I'm just going to smile and be mellow.

Tom and I spent some time discussing whether this was blase (pretend there's an accent on that 'e' - I can't find it in WordPad) or zen. In my way of thinking, blase is "something is happening and I'm so over it" while zen is "something is happening, and that's okay!"

I needed that state when we got to Bath. It was extremely crowded, and there had been significant construction since when Tom was here last, four years ago. The crowds, combined with the very poor map that we had, and the fact that our detour in London had made us late all added up to a bit of a stressed-out husband. I kept my zen-hat on and we made our way - with the aid of a friendly taxi driver, who pointed us in the right direction - to our B&B.

It is unseasonably hot and hiking up the the hill was tiring. We did hit the Royal Crescent, the Georgian House museum, the Roman Baths and the Pump Room for tea.

I almost lost my zen along the way, because after I refilled our water bottles in the room, I forgot to put them back into the backpack. Lack of hydration = lack of zen. Tea solved that problem, however, and we spent some time walking along the Avon.

Back to the room now to rest up for a long day tomorrow - Stonehenge, Avebury and the Cotswolds.

Onward!