Claire’s POV
Well, it has been a weird couple of days with jet lag, sleep, sleeplessness, anxiety…and the non-arrival of my books for the book signing. Peeved off? Yeah, definitely.
The best part of the day so far is meeting lots of UK authors, sharing information, skills and how we work. I’ve also seen some of my friends. Some I can’t believe I’ve not seen for 26 years or more. It was awesome to see Emma, Julie, Anne, Christina and her son. It is also wonderful to see my daughters being social, talking to the other authors with enthusiasm; especially considering they’re usually rather un-social girls.
You can now watch the slide show of the book signing and the meeting of old and new friends, twenty plus authors who were all wonderful to chat with. Looking at the displays and the genres on sale. Isabelle found a new favourite author with Laura Morgan. They had a fantastic chat. It was great seeing them so socialable.
We ended the day with my cousins Sarah and Simon who drove up from Boston, Lincs to see us. We had afternoon tea with them. It was a huge laugh. Looking forward to seeing them again at some stage.
Ceejay’s POV
The past couple of days have been…weird, to say the least. I have discovered that I only like planes when I’m not on them…the motions of the plane puts my equilibrium all out and makes recovering from jet lag harder than it has to be. I’m determined to not get on another plane unless it’s a short trip; that includes when I decide to go back to New Zealand…I’ve decided I want to take the long way back and travel through various countries and find the shortest (but safest) plane trip back to New Zealand.
And speaking of the two countries; I have found that England is similar to New Zealand in some ways but also very different in others; for example, the air in New Zealand smells clean and fresh and…well, young. In comparison, the air in England smells old and musty, combined with the pollution of car fumes. The food is good, some stuff tastes the same or similar and others taste odd; like fruit pretty much tastes the same but things like bread from the supermarkets tastes different enough that my tastebuds don’t really agree with it.
On the first day, we went out around 8-ish and then came home around about 2pm and just conked out after intending to only nap and slept until around 6.30am the next morning though there were a couple of breaks in the middle of the night where we woke up. Thursday and Friday were much the same aside from the fact we managed to stay up later.
Today is the book signing. It’s been pretty fun so far despite the numb bums rather frequently. I did have to comfort mum last night as she was being sick and I also had my own panic attack before I fell asleep properly. I also woke up with a wave of homesickness washing over me which was exacerbated by the lack of contact with my online friends and family. I never really knew I needed their support that much and it makes me even more grateful that they’re there for me; so thank you, Amy, Sara, Meg and Kelsi…I love you guys!
Plaisted Travel Blog 