Ow. My brain.

Ow. Ow. Ow.

I did not sleep at ALL on the plane. Not at all. I dozed a little, but no sleep.

There were so many screaming children on the plane, I can't even begin to tell you. There were these two girls which were really bad, but they were so adorable I couldn't loathe them. It was obviously their first time on a plane and they were SO EXCITED and poor mom had another baby strapped to her chest, so it was dad's job to chase them around the plane.

Anyway. No sleep.

So I land in Gatwick. Train it to London.

What do I do now? Look at the tourist map.

Head to Covent Garden Market. It's too early.

Find a McDonalds, because I know they have free internet. Manage to find the sketchiest McDonalds in the whole world. Relish in free internets.

Head back to the market.

It's getting busy. I have a huge backpack.

Stop and listen to this very good quartet. Two violins, a cellist, and a flutist. The guy who was kind of leading the group was one of the violinists. He was black and had teeth that had a space between every single one, and when ever someone dropped money into their hat he would scream: "THAAAAAAAANK YAAAAAAAAAOUUUUUU!!" as loud as he could.

They played classical music, but it was very excellent. They could do schtick and play at the same time, which always impresses me.

The opera singer that followed them was not nearly so well attended.

Left there. Went to the British Library. Discovered the manuscript room was closed on sundays, and anyway, I wouldn't be able to handle them because they require government ID plus proof of address in order to get a pass to handle the manuscripts (let that be a lesson to you all).

I am disappoint.

But only a little disappoint, because let's face it, I'm in London. Life is pretty awesome.

I found I could not stay awake any longer while I was in the library. If I stopped moving, I was nodding off.

So I pulled a Dad and found a bench. I didn't want to stretch out entirely, because the security guards were like bad tempered cats, and I didn't want to look like a hobo. But I leaned against the wall.

All told, I think I had about four half-hour naps, all on different benches.

I feel like I can last until tonight, even though I am still very tired.

I resisted most of the things in the bookshop, even though there were some interesting books on the Lindisfarne Gospels (which the British Library owns; I saw it!), and a massive tome on medieval dress as depicted by illuminations...but I resisted.

Until I found a DVD of illumination-how-to, using all period materials. I ALMOST passed it over, and then I thought: "WHAT THE HELL ROSEMART? WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO FIND SOMETHING LIKE THIS AGAIN?!" Especially with all period materials.

So I bit the bullet and bought it.

And now...I am stealing internets from McDonalds again. Gonna go meet my lovely cousin Miriam soon. Perhaps I should go find an adapter so I can actually plug in my computer...