Entry tags:
I went to London and Istanbul and all I got was this lousy virus
So. My company scheduled an all-hands meeting outside of London for a week at the end of July. In early August, my nephew was getting married in Istanbul (her family is from Iran, but lives in Istanbul). It made no sense to go home in between.
So on July 23, I flew to London. I met up with other people from the company at Heathrow, and we got an Uber to the site, which is out in the country and has lots of outside space. This turned out to be very useful. The meetings went well until the third day, at which point two of the major contributors both tested positive for COVID-19. After that, we carried on (minus them) outside. There was one more case, but that was it.
After the conference, I headed to London on Friday. I met![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
helenraven at Waterloo Station, where she lent me her spare Oyster card and Kew membership card, and pointed me to the correct bus to get to my hotel. I had a hotel reservation at the Crescent Hotel through Booking.com. The location was great and the price was right. Sadly but not unexpectedly, there was no air conditioning, though there was a fan in the room. The one difficult bit was that the shared bathroom and toilet -- which I knew about -- was a floor and a half away, so I really tried to not need to go there in the middle of the night. I had a very pleasant time walking around Bloomsbury and going to museums.
On Saturday, I spent the day at Kew Gardens.
On Sunday, I methelenraven for lunch, and then we went to the Globe to see The Tempest. It was a bonkers production, with Prospero as an entirely unsympathetic beach bum sort of wizard, but quite good. We were groundlings, which made for a great view but sore feet by the end.
On Monday, I went to the British Museum.
On Tuesday, I met a friend from Ravelry one day and we went to the V&A in the morning and the Science Museum in the afternoon -- and then spent a couple of hours in a pub drinking cider (me) and ale (her) and chatting.
Wednesday was a day of indulgence. I went to Harrod's for afternoon tea, and in the evening I went to the Shaftesbury theatre to see &Juliet, in which Anne Hathaway decides to do some revision on R&J. Very silly, but also some very good messaging.
On Thursday, I went to the Natural History Museum in the morning and the Wellcome Museum in the afternoon, where I saw Napoleon's toothbrush and Darwin's walking sticks, among other items. That evening, I had dinner athelenraven's (tomato galette) and dropped off some of my luggage that I didn't want to shlep to Turkey with me.
On Friday, I flew to Istanbul. I allowed four hours -- one hour to get to the airport and three hours at the airport. I needed it all. I lost about twenty minutes to security because the agents wanted a prescription for the bottled water for my CPAP. I ended up tossing that. I'd run out of actual distilled water by then, but it was purified water. The flight was uneventful, thankfully. Uber is hooked into the local Yellow Taxi system, and I was able to get a taxi from the airport to my hotel. For slightly complicated reasons, I made a hotel booking for my first night at close to the last minute, and just picked something from Booking.com that was cheap and in the right area. I lucked out. It was clean, modern, and had working air conditioning.
On Saturday, I left that hotel and went to a Marriott-affiliated one that I stayed at the rest of the time. It was also quite nice, but at about twice the price. I signed up for an all-day tour on Sunday, but there wasn't anything available that appealed for Saturday. I decided to go to the Grand Bazaar. Getting there via Uber/Yellow Taxi was no problem. I spent a couple of hours walking around. I bought a glass of orange juice that I saw squeezed in front of me -- delicious. I bought a few other things, but mostly just rambled and looked. Unfortunately, getting back wasn't so easy. The Yellow Taxi drivers kept canceling with Uber, and I eventually paid a comparatively exorbitant amount to an off-meter driver. After some recovery time, I finally managed to get an Uber driver to take me to the bride's apartment, where there was a gathering. I'd met some in person and some through Zoom, but a lot were new to me.
On Sunday, I took a group tour. In the morning, we went to the Hippodrome, the Blue Mosque, and the Hagia Sophia. Lunch was included as part of the all-day tour. In the afternoon, I had a guide to myself because I was the only one who'd signed up for the tour of the Topkapi Palace. It's an amazing place and full of artifacts, though my major interest was its connection to Pawn in Frankincense, the fourth of the Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett. My step counter said I walked around 16K steps, and I was a bit sunburned.
Monday I mostly spent recovering from Sunday. I spent some time at local cafes, but didn't do any official touristing.
Tuesday evening was a night-before-the-wedding river cruise. It was four hours of loud music and dancing and hors d'ouevres and drinking. Once the sun set, it cooled down a bit and was quite pleasant. It was a couple of hours too long for me, but I'm not much of a party girl.
Wednesday was the wedding. My nephew had arranged a shuttle for a bunch of us, including the bride's parents. This turned out to be convenient, because the half-hour trip took almost four times that. Partly it was the horrendous traffic, but partly it was that the driver went to the wrong place. It was a wrong place with the same name, so understandable, I guess. The wedding was lovely. It was secular, but incorporated some of the traditions of the two different cultures.
On Thursday, I flew back to London. I got to the airport way too early because I misread the departure time. I was feeling a bit off, but I assume it was due to being underslept and overheated. The flight was uneventful, and once we landed I made my way toheleraven's place where I was staying the night. I also collected the luggage I'd left there and recombined everything. I probably should have used my last COVID-19 test at this point, but I didn't think about it. If the US were still requiring a negative test before flying there, things would have been different.
On Friday, I flew back to the US. Tedious but uneventful. After I got home and rested for a while in the air conditioning, and rehydrated, I realized that it probably wasn't just heat and travel stress and potential dehydration that was making me feel off, and I used one of my home COVID-19 tests.
The pink line lit up very quickly, and I discovered I had a slight fever (100.2). After a couple of ibuprofen and some rest, I felt much better. I didn't sleep very well that first night, but that was probably jet lag.
Friday, I felt almost well (and spent the day working, in fact). And now, Saturday, I feel almost recovered, though I'm still testing positive. I'm somewhat congested and my throat is somewhat scratchy, but my temp is normal. I feel as if I'm in the recovery phase of a cold. So I decided to skip Paxlovid, because of the trade-off of side effects. I hope I don't regret that.
(I keep sniffing a bit of chocolate just to make sure my sense of smell is still working. That's one of the nonlethal symptoms that scares me the most.)
And that's how I spent my summer vacation.
So on July 23, I flew to London. I met up with other people from the company at Heathrow, and we got an Uber to the site, which is out in the country and has lots of outside space. This turned out to be very useful. The meetings went well until the third day, at which point two of the major contributors both tested positive for COVID-19. After that, we carried on (minus them) outside. There was one more case, but that was it.
After the conference, I headed to London on Friday. I met
helenraven at Waterloo Station, where she lent me her spare Oyster card and Kew membership card, and pointed me to the correct bus to get to my hotel. I had a hotel reservation at the Crescent Hotel through Booking.com. The location was great and the price was right. Sadly but not unexpectedly, there was no air conditioning, though there was a fan in the room. The one difficult bit was that the shared bathroom and toilet -- which I knew about -- was a floor and a half away, so I really tried to not need to go there in the middle of the night. I had a very pleasant time walking around Bloomsbury and going to museums. On Saturday, I spent the day at Kew Gardens.
On Sunday, I met
helenraven for lunch, and then we went to the Globe to see The Tempest. It was a bonkers production, with Prospero as an entirely unsympathetic beach bum sort of wizard, but quite good. We were groundlings, which made for a great view but sore feet by the end.On Monday, I went to the British Museum.
On Tuesday, I met a friend from Ravelry one day and we went to the V&A in the morning and the Science Museum in the afternoon -- and then spent a couple of hours in a pub drinking cider (me) and ale (her) and chatting.
Wednesday was a day of indulgence. I went to Harrod's for afternoon tea, and in the evening I went to the Shaftesbury theatre to see &Juliet, in which Anne Hathaway decides to do some revision on R&J. Very silly, but also some very good messaging.
On Thursday, I went to the Natural History Museum in the morning and the Wellcome Museum in the afternoon, where I saw Napoleon's toothbrush and Darwin's walking sticks, among other items. That evening, I had dinner at
helenraven's (tomato galette) and dropped off some of my luggage that I didn't want to shlep to Turkey with me.On Friday, I flew to Istanbul. I allowed four hours -- one hour to get to the airport and three hours at the airport. I needed it all. I lost about twenty minutes to security because the agents wanted a prescription for the bottled water for my CPAP. I ended up tossing that. I'd run out of actual distilled water by then, but it was purified water. The flight was uneventful, thankfully. Uber is hooked into the local Yellow Taxi system, and I was able to get a taxi from the airport to my hotel. For slightly complicated reasons, I made a hotel booking for my first night at close to the last minute, and just picked something from Booking.com that was cheap and in the right area. I lucked out. It was clean, modern, and had working air conditioning.
On Saturday, I left that hotel and went to a Marriott-affiliated one that I stayed at the rest of the time. It was also quite nice, but at about twice the price. I signed up for an all-day tour on Sunday, but there wasn't anything available that appealed for Saturday. I decided to go to the Grand Bazaar. Getting there via Uber/Yellow Taxi was no problem. I spent a couple of hours walking around. I bought a glass of orange juice that I saw squeezed in front of me -- delicious. I bought a few other things, but mostly just rambled and looked. Unfortunately, getting back wasn't so easy. The Yellow Taxi drivers kept canceling with Uber, and I eventually paid a comparatively exorbitant amount to an off-meter driver. After some recovery time, I finally managed to get an Uber driver to take me to the bride's apartment, where there was a gathering. I'd met some in person and some through Zoom, but a lot were new to me.
On Sunday, I took a group tour. In the morning, we went to the Hippodrome, the Blue Mosque, and the Hagia Sophia. Lunch was included as part of the all-day tour. In the afternoon, I had a guide to myself because I was the only one who'd signed up for the tour of the Topkapi Palace. It's an amazing place and full of artifacts, though my major interest was its connection to Pawn in Frankincense, the fourth of the Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett. My step counter said I walked around 16K steps, and I was a bit sunburned.
Monday I mostly spent recovering from Sunday. I spent some time at local cafes, but didn't do any official touristing.
Tuesday evening was a night-before-the-wedding river cruise. It was four hours of loud music and dancing and hors d'ouevres and drinking. Once the sun set, it cooled down a bit and was quite pleasant. It was a couple of hours too long for me, but I'm not much of a party girl.
Wednesday was the wedding. My nephew had arranged a shuttle for a bunch of us, including the bride's parents. This turned out to be convenient, because the half-hour trip took almost four times that. Partly it was the horrendous traffic, but partly it was that the driver went to the wrong place. It was a wrong place with the same name, so understandable, I guess. The wedding was lovely. It was secular, but incorporated some of the traditions of the two different cultures.
On Thursday, I flew back to London. I got to the airport way too early because I misread the departure time. I was feeling a bit off, but I assume it was due to being underslept and overheated. The flight was uneventful, and once we landed I made my way to
heleraven's place where I was staying the night. I also collected the luggage I'd left there and recombined everything. I probably should have used my last COVID-19 test at this point, but I didn't think about it. If the US were still requiring a negative test before flying there, things would have been different.On Friday, I flew back to the US. Tedious but uneventful. After I got home and rested for a while in the air conditioning, and rehydrated, I realized that it probably wasn't just heat and travel stress and potential dehydration that was making me feel off, and I used one of my home COVID-19 tests.
The pink line lit up very quickly, and I discovered I had a slight fever (100.2). After a couple of ibuprofen and some rest, I felt much better. I didn't sleep very well that first night, but that was probably jet lag.
Friday, I felt almost well (and spent the day working, in fact). And now, Saturday, I feel almost recovered, though I'm still testing positive. I'm somewhat congested and my throat is somewhat scratchy, but my temp is normal. I feel as if I'm in the recovery phase of a cold. So I decided to skip Paxlovid, because of the trade-off of side effects. I hope I don't regret that.
(I keep sniffing a bit of chocolate just to make sure my sense of smell is still working. That's one of the nonlethal symptoms that scares me the most.)
And that's how I spent my summer vacation.
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Oh, bother.
Get well soon!
I'm glad it was a good trip! (Other than.)
Do try to schedule followup appointments at 3 and 6 months if your GP will possibly let you. There's actual statistical indications (besides my personal anecdata) that you can have a very mild case of COVID and wind up with disordered blood pressure, heart issues, etc.
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Anything else?
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The last time I had an opportunity to see the full list, I remarked that it had got longer. The nurse said "It has. I don't like it."
What I know about -- and I'm not medical at all and my experience is now half a year out of date, which is an eternity with such things -- is blood pressure (possibly a whole record-at-home week long blood pressure series), an electrocardiogram, various metabolic tests for impaired liver or kidney function, listen to your heart, listen to your lungs -- there's evidence of massive loss of capillary function lots of places, but it's particularly worrying should it occur in one's lungs -- and some cognitive function checks.
Because I was diagnosed with stroke, I got several echocardiograms, too, but I don't think that's part of the general set of "what's it done?" concerns. Same with the CT and MRI of the noggin.
Your doctor ought to have a reasonably current list of this stuff. I know there's a circulating checklist in at least parts of Ontario.
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I hope you get through the plague quickly and easily.
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That trip really had All the Things! Did you take any photos of Kew Gardens?
P.
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P.
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Prospero is entirely shabby sort of wizard -- very powerful and happy to make use of that power but without any clear feeling that he has any ethics to go with it. One of the reviews I read (https://www.timeout.com/london/theatre/the-tempest-review-2) called him "petty," and that's a good word for him. His rich raiment is a bright purple polyester caftan that he abandons early on for a yellow bathing suit that's all he wears for most of the play. Miranda wears a little-girl shortie dress that emphasizes all her assets. The shipwrecked company wears modern European business dress. And Caliban wears shorts and a polo shirt with a badge marked "Staff." The costumes seem to play games with the usual idea of the characters' roles in that the colonial aspects are leaned upon. For example, the abortive banquet toward the end is all fast food packaging. And among the stuff that washes up on the shore is a huge crate of rubber duckies. And when Ariel keeps asking for her (in this case, at least) freedom, Prospero never gives a straight answer but always temporizes. He clearly sees her as property to keep or dispose of as he will. And despite the canonical sexual assault lines in the play ("people the isle with Calibans"), this is a very sympathetic Caliban.
I know The Tempest is one of the shorter plays to begin with, but this was a short production, only 2.5 hours including the intermission. And what really surprised me is that it ends with Prospero's "Our revels now are ended speech," with none of the aftermath. It's delivered very well, but then trails off at the end, as Prospero kind of shoos the audience away. I didn't get the feeling he was going to be any better a duke of Milan now than he was before he turned the whole thing over to his brother and got kicked out.
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I think it's basically always a mistake to end a Shakespeare play on a grand poetic line. That's not how he does it. Ending Hamlet with "The rest is silence" is another example. Just No.
But the rest sounds very interesting. Though I often wonder if producers shouldn't consider how their interpretations would strike somebody who had never seen the play before.
P.
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I'm not sure how to post the photos on DW -- it seems a complicated process -- but if you want to see them, I can put them in Lydy's Discord, if you're there. Or just email them to you, of course.
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I think my first trip to London, I stayed in a hotel next to the Crescent. Cratwright Gardens, right? It's a fun area, though I imagine it's changed loads since that trip--every time I go back, it feels like the whole city was altered. Next time, I should definitely go back to that area.
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I think the last time I was in London was about eight years ago. Some things have changed -- there's an entirely new rail line, the Elizabeth! -- a lot of things were still pleasingly familiar.
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COVID, damn. I hope your case remains mild.
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I do hope your recovery is quick and total.
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WoW!
Most/many/some of the new and improved COVIDs don't take out the sense of smell, but you sound as if your 0^2 levels are good. Welcome home, and best wishes for a complete and speedy recovery.
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