there and back again.

What a mad, mad, mad, mad week. I am now officially quite behind in several areas of my classes, exhausted from lots of crying and jet lag, and might possibly be getting sick (although I think that's just the exhaustion talking). But I made it back to York without any significant problems of any kind and after tomorrow morning, I have all weekend to spend playing catch-up, so I think I'll be all right in the end.

The funeral was hard, but not quite as hard as I had expected. It was an enormous comfort to me that Pastor Steve performed the service - it was just a simple, quiet day. I was really touched, too, to see all of the friends of ours in the area who had sent flowers and plants. The chapel was filled with them, and now our house is the same. There were so many lovely people there, people who I didn't even really expect to see like some of my teachers from high school and relatives I haven't seen in ages, and it was good to see them even under the circumstances. I also got to learn quite a lot about my grandfather, things I never knew about him. It makes me sad that a lot of the time people save their stories until it's too late to tell them.

The military service the next day was a lot harder. It was much smaller, mostly just family, and much more solemn and official and formal and final. There was the gun salute and the playing of 'Taps' etc. etc. and we all ended in tears, but perhaps it was a bit cathartic.

I meant to call a lot of people this weekend while I was in the US but I just ran out of time. I was just too busy helping my mom and dad and trying to put together a little celebration for my dad's 50th birthday in the midst of the madness and visiting my grandma and saying goodbye to aunts and uncles, etc. etc. It just wore me down.

And now I'm here again until Christmas. Which is really only about six weeks away - not too far off. I hope my mom's remembered payment on the flat.

When I flew out of Minneapolis I had a quite interesting little flight to Detroit. There've been some very bad storms in the Indiana area, and some of the winds were backlashing, apparently, and there were like 40 mph winds in Detroit so there was a little turbulence on the plane. I didn't think it was too bad though, and then we came in for a landing which didn't seem to go terribly badly although it did seem to me that the plane stopped rather a lot more quickly than they usually do, although I didn't think much of it for awhile. Well, then, we sat on the runway for a few minutes when the pilot announced that someone was going to check our landing gear. Turns out that when we landed the left wheels of the plane totally blew. So we had to wait about another 20-30 minutes on the plane until they could send an employee bus out to fetch us and lead us into the airport via an employee entrance, although then apparently someone forgot to inform security because we were accosted as we began entering the airport terminal through the employee entrance.

For the first time in my life I caught a couple hours of sleep on the plane from Detroit to London, which was good. Then I had about nine hours to bum around in London before my train, which turned out to be great because it was a beautiful beautiful day. Sunny and autumn-y fresh smelling, just cool enough that I didn't need my coat and just warm enough I didn't get a bit cold. I spent ages in Hyde Park - I got a strange sense of deja vu being there by myself and not with Krystle, but I enjoyed myself. And then I went to Oxford Street and dreamily did some window-shopping. I must confess I pride myself on not purchasing anything. I came close but remembered how broke I now am just in time.

All in all, I'm pretty glad to be back. Even though I'm tired, it's nice to be back in some kind of routine again.

I'm also looking forward to going to Cafe Nero tomorrow. The last few times I have been there, there's been this guy there at the same time which has been odd because I go at such random times. We never really speak to one another - we just kind of look at one another with our loads of books and nod and smile in approval and go on drinking our coffee and eating our muffins. Don't get me wrong, I don't think he's that cute or anything - and his girlfriend was there with him last time anyway - but it's fun to recognize someone who is of the same kind.