omg.

[labellementeuse]

So! I'm leaving in two and a half weeks, which is terrifying, but tonight, as I was walking home from work with my big ski jacket on, freezing to death, soaked through in the two minute walk from where I work to where I live - I had a thought. This thought was: So, London? It's in the northern hemisphere. You know the really amazing thing about the northern hemisphere in June/July? It's summer. Summer! I get to spend four days in Bordeaux - in summer! two weeks in london - in summer! A bunch of random days travelling around the country - in summer! OK, it's very late spring/early summer, BUT STILL.

So, I just went back to look at my tell-me-shit-to-do post and I noted that there are a bunch of you who I didn't reply to yet. People who I was going to meet up with - I think this is trialia and gianp - what/when is good for you?

My plan currently is two weeks in London at the beginning of my trip - from the 14th to the 28th. This is my sightseeing/showgoing time. Then I'm bussing to Bristol (I might do this a day or two earlier and bus to Bristol slowly via places) and flying to Bordeaux until the 2nd, then I have a random day and a half in Bristol (lol, inorite) and then conference from the 3rd to the 5th, and then I am basically at a loose end until I fly out again on the 10th. So, basically: for five days I can roadtrip (on, um, buses and trains) around England. I'll probably try to make Stonehenge and Cardiff and Hay in this time. Um. So: given this mad trip state, where should I try to get to? What's to do in Bristol in the random day I'm stuck there?

Also, and this is super important: What should I read on the plane??? Overall that's like, 60 hours of flying. I am going to need a LOT of quality reading material. It has to meet some standards: no books with cliffhangers. Nothing very dense or very light. Nothing depressing. Fiction preferred.

Tips?

Comments

[amarynth.livejournal.com]

That's funny, I had the exact opposite experience - my hayfever has never been better than when I was in the UK.

[roselet.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my asthma was fine when I was in the UK. When I came back to NZ, however... ouch.

[amarynth.livejournal.com]

I guess it depends on what sort of pollen it is you're allergic to.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

IMO asthma is bad in NZ because we fail to heat our houses properly (this is a personal hobbyhorse of mine.) Our rate of asthma is second in the world only to... OK, the UK. But still.

[wienerwald.livejournal.com]

In my case, I came back from the UK to NZ summer, got really really bad asthma and had to be put on flixotide. (Which has made everything mostly better.) So mine was triggered by pollen-y stuff rather than cold.

That said, NZ houses are ridiculous in their lack of heating, and both dust and mould are the main culprits of asthma, I think. So you're correct there.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Yeah - my asthma is exercise-induced and cold-induced more than it is allergy-induced (except CATS) - pollen just makes me unable to breathe through my nose. But, yeah, maybe there's an issue with the contrast as well as with the climate or something>

I just make this massive assertion/assumption constantly without much proof as to whether it's true or not - but it seems likely to me.

[blythely.livejournal.com]

I KNOW OMG if only my parents would have listened to reason.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Heh. My parents try but our house is all massive single-glazed french doors and windows from 1880 (not the actual glass, admittedly, but the frames) so it's always freezing anyway.