Looking West...

It was a great time in the Northern county of Suffect and town of Saxmundon visiting Rupert's parents. But a notable story before leaving... I left his London flat Friday morning to be greeted by a summer rainfall, and to my surprise saw the streets entirely deserted with police line tape on either side, and police cars, men, and dogs behind it. I walked out rather confused until a policeman called me over. "A suspicious package has been delivered to the local Mosque, and we are taking it extremely seriously." Luckily evacuation of the flats turned out not to happen, and soon enough the police determined it was nothing dangerous. The neighourhood is wonderfully diverse, with a heavy population of Turks and people from the West Indies, and Muslims as well. I rarely see other Caucasions walking down the street, and the food is excellent!

The time up north was "positively lovely" as a Britisher might say, we "had a crack" and now I'm "knackered" (every now and again here I need translations of items into American English). It was nice to take a break from avoiding 18 foot long double decker English buses on London's midievel streets-- they've got to be the most confusing in the Western world! I went with Rupert and his roommate Rebecca (one of those rare Irish Jews-- whose ancestors probably knew mine back in Lithuania and Latvia), and another Irishman named Sean, with more friends coming later, as well as Rupert's brother Charlie on leave from his military camp. Being all meditators we had a pleasant (or as pleasant as it can be) group sit on the train, boarded a local train, and got off to await a passing storm before biking a few miles to the house and being greeted with cold homemade elderberry juice. There we stayed in a beautiful cottage whose rooms reminded me as being out of C.S. Lewis' Narnia series or Peter Pan. We were treated to some exquisite vegetarian food during our stay, sitting round a large wooden oval table in a beautful study/dining room with views of the garden and rows of books behind us.

The next day we had an early sitting and drove out to Rupert's father Philippe's boat. We took a slow ride away from the dock and got off at a shingle beach, crossed it on foot and beheld the sea. We went back to the boat, got off at the pier, and took hold of the bikes we had brought with us all the way from London. On beautiful country roads we passed farms, many wild rabbits scurrying into bushes, castles and churches, fields and fields of crops-- many wheat, and had a brief encounter with some pigs as we tried to discern their peculiar habit of chewing rocks.

After a few hours we ended up at Rupert's mother's house, where we were treated to another splendid meal and in a splended garden, after which a bout of fatigue descended and seemed to wash over everyone. With great effort we managed to rouse the crowd and take to our bikes again to take another leisurely ride home, making it about 50-60 km in total.



We collapsed in bed and had a solid sleep, another great breakfast and set out with sore bottoms to walk to the ruins of an Abbey from the 12th Century. Rupert took us foolishly on a "public footpath" that lead through barbed wire fences and into patches of thistles and stinging needles and ultimately into someone's backyard. The Abbey was impressive in scope and size and beautiful and tragic in its ruins. We walked through the site and on a grassy field played an hour or so of frisbee, the juxtaposition of this lighthearted fun on such a ground being quite interesting. After a brief ride to the beach to walk the dogs (who also gathered stones in their mouths in order to encourage them to be thrown), we took the train back to the City, having another group sit, and then went out to again brave the 18 foot double deckers after having a very jolly dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant. Everywhere you go in the world the City and Country distinctions seem similar in many ways, and this was no exception.

Now I am finishing last errands today (email and the purchase of English tea) before heading back tomorrow. I may leave the house as early as 4 am and brave layovers in NYC and Dallas before arriving late in Colorado Springs. The next day I'll be back in Salida, and the following day my mom and I will attend the last half of a Vipassana course near Denver. Then it will be a slight rest...