London and My Sentimental Old Age

I've decided that... I might like to take a trip to San Francisco next year. I'm setting my next book in LA or San Fran, so I'm thinking... maybe I should visit one of them once the book is underway.

This may all come to absolutely nothing--I wouldn't go until next year. I need time to save up the moneys. And maybe I won't be able to save up the moneys! But I'll start looking into it, see how much it would cost me, so I can figure out if it's an achievable goal. Then I'll look around for a travel buddy (the Fernando doesn't mind staying home to catsit--he's not about the globetrotting.) Maybe one of the parental units, or my bro, since they're all out west, and it doesn't cost any of us very much to fly.

My heroine is from LA, and the hero from SF, so I've got to decide which one to use for most of the story. In other words... I'm deciding to set my story in SF rather than LA simply because I'm more interested in visiting the former. I bet all the writers do it and then lie about it later. "Oh I simply had to place the story in Maui..."

On the Subject of Travel Partners:

I actually learned in London that I love traveling alone. I got up when I wanted, took as long as I wanted to plan my day, went exactly where I wanted to go, spent as little or as much time as I wanted at each place, spent as little or as much money as I wanted, took breaks when I was ready, pressed on through sore feet when I chose to... it was perfect. The one day I spent with Gilby going to Oxford was fun, but I missed a couple things I really wanted to see because I needed more time to figure out where they were, or I needed to double back when I realized my mistakes. But with someone waiting for me (I only bought the guide books once we got there) I felt too guilty to take all the time I needed etc. Gilby never ever complained, but... I couldn't help it. I worry too much about the other person having fun.

BUT... I doubt I would have stopped in at the Tolkien-CS Lewis pub and had a drink if I'd been alone. So I do have to thank him for that. :-) And we agreed that when you bring your friendship into a whole new country, it has reached a wholly new & exciting level. And I should add that while touring alone was fun, it was nice to have someone to watch Office episodes with at night. And it was like a high school sleepover when I would sit on the edge of the tub (clothed except for my poor sore feet, which I was soaking), and he would sit on the hallway floor, and we would have Heavy-Deep Conversation.

So if I travel with someone, I just need to carefully weigh out the Together Time versus the Alone Time.

...
...
...Now I'm feeling all sentimental, looking through my London scrapbook. Missing Gilby, and missing London. And missing travel. I hadn't traveled in a long time, and it painfully reminded me how much I love it. Unfortunately these things cost money-money-money, and I have chosen a low income life.

Clippings from the Powerpoint Scrapbook
(Clik on them if you want full powerpoint size!)

My trip to the East End to see where the Elephant Man lived.
This is Bedstead Square where he would walk around at night.

This is the exact building where he was put on display, when
Dr Treves first saw him. (It wasn't a saree shop at the time...)

The Oxford Route.

The Eagle and Child (or Bird and Baby) pub where
The Inklings met. It's no Chenoys but... it'll do.

Gilles is Gilby's other pseudonym.

"I had neither kith nor kin in England, and was therefore as free as air -- or as free as an income of eleven shillings and sixpence a day will permit a man to be. Under such circumstances, I naturally gravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained. "
(Dr Watson in A Study in Scarlet)