After I left Cambridge, I had a cross country trek to Keele. The lovely Gemma drove me to Nottingham and I then trained it from Nottingham to Derby and then changed to the train to Stoke on Trent. The cabbie got me to Jan and John’s quite quickly and there were copious amounts of tea ready. Jan and John are always the most fantastic hosts and the usual welcome mat was out. Their house is lovely and huge so it could be filled up with sister wives. Grace was also staying, so poor John had a harem of Aussie women. We kept laughing about Big Love and giggled as we all went our different ways and then returned to John in the evening. The highlight one evening was the hedgehog that Reggie found for the sister wives amusement.
Jan and John are so lucky to be living on campus and as we walked down past Keele Hall and through the woodlands it was like a scene from Pride and Prejudice. I really expected Mr Darcy to emerge from the lake. Again, it was busy, but I loved spending a few days with the sister wives and John. I had great meetings at Keele, and Sue, Head of School, was totally lovely and I expect to be back there soon.
The train from Stoke to London Euston is super quick. John delivered me at the station and made sure I knew where I had to be. The only downside has been that I lost my damn glasses somewhere and had to buy a cheap pair of magnifiers. I have been experiencing awful travel sickness and I do wonder whether it is something to do with the glasses – but can’t see without them so just have to sip lemon and ginger tea and put up with it.
Euston to the lovely Pullman Hotel was a really short walk, and it was so nice to sit quietly and feast on Scottish salmon before falling in to bed. I knew I had to be up to catch the train to Paris from St Pancras so of course tossed and turned all night.
How cool is it that I was whisked from St Pancras to Gare Du Nord so quickly – from the Pullman in London to the lovely Hotel Bastille Marais in under three hours is a bit surreal.
Sleeping under the stars 