Pitstops

All good things come to an end. So there was a sense of inevitability as the break wound down and turned into a slightly long haul back the the boat. But before the end, there were still some good times to be had :).

Apparently there are a lot of buses that ply the road between Boston and New Haven, so come the last weekend of the break, I hopped on one of those and headed west! I don't think I'd ever been driven down that sort of a distance. Usually, on the interstates, I do all the driving :). This was a welcome change.

I watched the scenery fly by in a bit of a daze. The rain made obscure patterns on the world, blurs, streams, the occasional solitary drop sliding by. I wondered where it all was headed. There was also the rather entertaining and somewhat cathartic Book of Awesome! So there are other people in the world who believe that the small joys of life deserve our affection :).

I arrived, at what has become rather a fondly familiar address by now, in rather high spirits. Things just got better from there! I imagine the old liver would have a word or two to say about that. But hey, a good birthday party is a good birthday party, the whopping hangover is acceptable collateral damage :).

I suppose there are certain advantages to packing the bag a gazillion times. I can get it right even with most of my senses on hiatus. Thus it was, that I headed to New York, cringing behind the sun glasses at the slightest hint of sunshine, thanking the rather well maintained train tracks for a reasonably bump-and-rattle-free ride into Manhattan.

A shower, some food and a quick nap can do a world of good in many a trying situation I guess, and I was feeling almost myself again by early afternoon as I set off to explore parts of the city I'd thus far never seen. In the process, we went all the way from Brooklyn to Jackson Heights, took in a screening of The Bourne Legacy downtown, and even packed in an awesome dinner surrounded by the celebrations of Eid.

I must say, my state of happiness wasn't at all hurt when I finally managed to find that Kindle in a store! I wish I could say I grabbed the last remaining box over the outstretched arms of a bunch of other people. But in fact there were two. I suppose the joy of grabbing what appeared to be the last Kindle Touch in the North Eastern United States was destined to fall to another :).

I took it easy on the last day, woke up late :). There was one final stop before the flight out. I have to say, kids do grow up faster when they are little. Between almost-one, and almost-three, this one had turned into a full fledged person! With a knack for inventing indecipherable languages and a fondness for Hot Wheels!! Instant time travel, I swear!

And with that, the break was finally over. I got a fairly nice look at the Manhattan skyline in the rear-view mirror on the way to JFK, and then, surprisingly, given the weather, the best look I have had yet at London. The tower bridge, Westminster Abbey, the Gherkin, the Big Ben, all floated past under a grey overcast sky. All distinctly detailed and perfectly unreachable, as the aircraft circled above, waiting to touch down at LHR.

After that it was just another hop skip and a jump on to Aberdeen, and a long, sleepy ride out to the middle of the sea while I finished off with that last paperback, Gaiman's Anansi Boys. I have to say, the man just keeps growing on you!

But now it's back to work. And I suppose it could be worse :).

Thinking: oh! what an end to the last few weeks :)
Listening to: Thomas Newman - Road to perdition