384- To London

(note : I found this copyright-free clipart to which I added text)

Before travelling, I imagined composing entries on the go, to edit and publish with Blogger app on my phone. But, the truth is, I barely had time, nor will nor energy, though some of it was procrastination and playing my games on the phone instead of talking to it, composing and editing errors from Google Speak recognition. 

I also thought I could post everything in one entry, but when I saw over 4000 words, I decided to break it down Thus, this entry is about the trip in general, and in each of the following entries, I'll discuss a day or two in more details. 

Although titles may give the impression that am about to go, I didn't change the date, to pretend that I'd posted in due time. 


Travelling has never been easy for me. This is because I suffer from several anxiety disorders (GAD, but also have terrorism trauma, and so, travel, its organization and eveything surrounding it, all cause me anxiety). Hence, I seldom leave my home city or region.

After refusing many invitations to leave the country, to visit Belgium, Portugal, Spain, and the UK, I finally took the plunge and headed to the latter of these, to London, with my wife. It was also a birthday gift to ourselves. We were to sleep at her cousin's previous flat, more precisely in a room of one of his mates, in Lewisham. This trip was for 5-15th of October this year (2018) and included flights in and out, direct from our city to London, and my first planes since I came back to France, in 1995.

The idea of taking a plane had caused additional stress and anxiety. Prior to our voyage, I asked my CBtherapist for advice, as I really feared my emeto would be triggered. She explained that since it's not a boat, it's not the same kind of movements, and that to parry the rest of my anxieties about it, I had to think about the positives : being pampered, travelling faster, and not to worry about it aspPlanes are statiscally safer than many other transporation means. 

Considering the price was actually cheaper than bus rides and much faster, I finally decided to go for this faster route. However, faster doesn't mean "very fast" as a friend picked us up at home, drove us to the airport, where we had to be a good hour before boarding, then the usual delays until we actually took off ; once in the UK, we had to take the Stansted express to Tottenham Hale, a tube to Highbury & Islington, the overground to New Cross Gate and then, finally arrive after a 15 minutes walk, to the flat. Still, it was much faster than many hours on buses. 

Plans had been made to meet a few friends - some that I knew online and was going to meet in person for the first time, and some that my wife had met, and most of those are in her cousin's entourage.  We also planed to visit a mueseum or two, and ended switching, changing and both reducing and expanding our plans according to availabilities. 

It turned out that a few of my online friends couldn't come and had told me about it beforehand, and then a couple others didn't manage to come due to their personal reasons about which we discussed after the appointed days. These were the reductions,  but the expansions outweighed them, so let's compare plans to reality :

Plans included flight and travel to and from the flat on the 5th and 15th ; a day off, and a day of activities, to better withstand all the standing and walking entailed.

Our initial intensions included Nunhead cemetery on Sunday the 7th ; St James Park + meeting of friends on Tuesday 9th ; Trafalgar square + National gallery + meeting a friend on Thursday 11th ; packing on the 14th, and grocery shopping on off days, as needed. 
I also thought I'd have time to listen to podcasts or vlogs, and skype with friends on these off days, and had brought my headphones for these needs. 

It so happened that I had no use for the headphones, as there was almost no break between activities. We'd indeed gone to Nunhead and met Iris (a friend of my wife's) + with the cousin and his friend Graham, whom I'd met before upon their visit to France. That Sunday, Graham saw that I was reading Tolkien's book of lost tales 2 and suggested the Tolkien exhibit in Oxford, which was the first additional outing, organized for Friday 12th. 
A talk with the flatmates not long after our arrival yielded another addition to our plans, that of visiting the Victoria and Albert mueseum (aka the V&A), on Wednesday 10th. 

Thus it came to be a much busier trip, expanding londonian visits and going all the way to Oxford, with more or less fun and some progress in my battles against anxiety - albeit in limited fashion and contiunal struggles which I'll detail in my next entries, and embed with information about each visit.