Bagel, bagel, who's got the bagel?

Even with a seriously nasty case of jet lag, I practically dreamed of a toasted bagel. Loaded with cream cheese. Mmmm....


My friend in the northeast comes down to London whenever I take a few days off to go somewhere. Usually that somewhere is the hospital; I'm hoping that, with the last operation, those days are behind me. There isn't anything else the surgeons can't remove that isn't a vital organ...


When my friend goes away, I go up north to stay there and dog sit. It's great for both of us: she gets to mooch around London, and I get the relative peace and quiet of the countryside. After a few days, we're both ready to go back and resume life as we know it.


I've now been here for nearly a week-and I have satisfied my bagel needs (and then some).I met my friends, who came to help me celebrate my birthday, and that was pretty terrific. But-and there is a very big "but"- I got really homesick. I'm over jet lag (finally-just in time to go back to Britain), I've stuffed my face, I've enjoyed a few days of retail therapy (my suitcase will be heavy enough to give some poor baggage handler a hernia. Or perhaps an aneurism. Or both).I got to my favorite museum (the Museum of Modern Art), and that was great. I'll have to save the Guggenheim for my next trip, because I'm just about out of time.


It has been a real eye-opener.There is construction everywhere; there are people everywhere; the epidemic that has swept the UK is here, too: people walking without looking because they're busy texting, so they will just crash into you without even a "sorry". In that way, it's just like being in England.


In Britain people will happily stab you, or beat several kinds of crap out of you, or even throw sulfuric acid in your face (acid is the new means of attack). Here they just shoot you. But at least here the sentences for major crimes seem to be severe; over in the UK someone will get a life sentence (very, VERY rare indeed) and be out in eight years. Just amazing. The inequities over in England when it comes to crime are just breathtaking.


Would I come home? In a New York minute. In a millisecond. That is a yes. But it would be very difficult for me - mostly because of the immune system problem (thanks Mom and Dad), and, of course, the whole balance thing (gentamicin: the gift that keeps on giving).


That is, of course, a challenge, and I am always up for a challenge. We'll see what happens. Meanwhile, I will just keep coming over and clocking up those air miles.


Now it's time for a coffee-and no bagel, because I'm really bagelled out. In fact, it's time to brave the crowds and take a long walk, and people-watch, while trying my best not to get knocked over...