I arrived at Heathrow on the night of the second. As soon as I was in the airport I felt like I had come home. I was very sick. It was my plan to take the tube to the train and the train to Chia and Kieran’s place in Essex, so to prepare myself I had a little less water than I wanted. I had been having trouble keeping water in my body since coming to Delhi and I wanted to get to the house with minimal exits from the tube for restrooms.
Kieran met me and I was extremely happy to see him. When I walked into the house I realized how much I had come to give up while staying in India, most notably a portion of my health. We talked for a while, then I went to bed, seeing Chia in the morning. I was sick and stayed in that day.
The day after I was even more sick, so I went to the hospital. The doctor wanted to test me for malaria, and he did, and for that reason I stayed in the hospital for about six hours. I took three IVs but my body rejected those as well. The nurses were collectively against my walking around and they both denied my requests to be shown to the toilet and returned me to my room when I went to try to find the toilet on my own. I felt that I was well enough to walk – I was rather dizzy about it – but they insisted that I use a toilet-on-wheels that they brought to my room. I was shy to use it because of the work burden it created, but I had to request it five times. They sent me home saying that I was not too dehydrated and that I did not have malaria, and they gave me a box of paracetemol codeines even though I had no interest in them.
The next day – the fifth – we went to the Globe Theatre to see Merchant of Venice. Chia and I enjoyed it and watched most of it; Kieran, Higgs, and his girlfriend Phil had less interest. In my opinion, this was one of the easier plays to follow, but those three just were not having it. I was still dizzy. We went to see “Cleopatra’s Needle” and wandered London a bit afterward, not really having plans but not wanting to go home. The city is good for that.
The sixth I stayed in and talked with Chia about her work counseling the borderline mentally incompetent. Yesterday, Saturday the seventh, I walked to the high street and saw some street performers as they have about one weekend a month there. Chia and I had been talking about a Gilbert and George exhibit that the Tate Modern had ending last May, and when I went to the library near the high street I looked through their comics and saw Grant Morrison’s Filth. That is one of my favorite comic books and upon seeing the cover I recalled the Man Yellow / Man Green characters and realized that they must be based on Gilbert and George. I recommended the book to Chia.
Today we went to Tonbridge and caught the Tour de France as it came by. The Tour this year started in London this morning and it was to end in Canterbury. The town had a party for its passing through. They had a parade before the cyclers and downtown there was a castle where they had a medieval fair. They had warfare equipment on display and performers doing things. What I liked most was a group that had an exhibit called “Mousetown.” They built a city scene out of mostly wood and made everything to scale with some mice. Then they put mice in it and I watched them run around and play. There were mouse wheels in the city as the major exception to the difference between this model and a human city. The mice seemed happy because they were so busy running and climbing.
It makes me happy to eat western food again. I have eaten a lot of beef and cheese since coming back, but everything seems fresh and new to me. When I get back to America I will have to get to gym soon. I weigh just under 130 pounds and I know that I will pick up to my normal weight in a hurry, so I want to get my normal energy back as I get my normal body back.