An Anglophile Reminisces

(So I started writing this entry last week sometime and ran out of time to finish and now it's sat for quite a while. I've finished typing what was on my mind, but oh for the love of time!)

There must be something in the air right now that's whispering in my ear, reminding me about England and Scotland...

While driving to work this morning listening to NPR, I heard a sound bite of Britain's PM Gordon Brown talking from the G-20 Summit. Not really sure what he was talking about because I got so absorbed in his voice. To be specific, it was his accent that caught me. Gordon Brown has a delightful British accent; one that can soothe an Anglophile from her late winter doldrums. Sigh...

Then there's the matter of my favorite library book bag. Really, it's a plastic bag that has ridden around in the front seat of my car for years. It is my library bag. I put books in it when I need to return books to the library etc. So, whatever, right? But what is special about this bag is that it's from the British Library. Yes, the British Library. In London, England. This plastic bag isn't really that special. It's just a bag from the gift shop, albeit made from plastic that doesn't seem to degrade, but it is just a bag. It did get me reminiscing this week as I returned books to the public library and I looked at it. And here's what I thought, "Wow! I've had this bag for 10 years." Yes, it's been 10 years since my adventures in London during a wet and rainy January. The West End, Theatre, a proper cup of tea, the Tube, the Thames, illuminated manuscripts at the BL. A Shakespeare First Folio etc. etc. Where did the last 10 years go and why haven't I been to London since? Sigh....

Add to it that I went to renew my passport about a week ago--Adding insult to injury is the fact that it hasn't been used since our honeymoon (not to the British isles, but Italia) and that the picture it shows is one from college and I got that passport specifically after my London trip to go to Scotland. And here's where not the sigh comes in, but the "blubber blubber sob" sound--what do you mean it's been 9 years since I've been in Scotland? Perhaps it's been the weather lately, the gray rain and cold. The no sunshine factor playing a part. 9 years, really? Blubber, sob, blubber...Now if only I could get the courage up to ride in a flying tin can again...