Whew. Today it’s 8 days since we got back from our England/Scotland trip. As they say, traveling brings you two great joys: once when leaving, and once when coming back. While the trip was marvelous, it was great to be back, and one of of the first things I said was “now, please, give me a long time before mentioning trips to me again – at least a week or so!” 😀

Then again, we went straight into a week-long marathon of straightening out various tangles, problems, and assorted troubles that had accumulated in the month we were away. Not to speak of thousands of e-mails and unread news. Anyway, most extremely urgent stuff has been taken care of, merely urgent stuff is being looked at, and “normal” life – whatever that means – will resume Real Soon Now. Possibly as soon as next weekend, anyway.

One unexpected find in our ship’s library was Alain de Botton‘s book, The Art of Travel. Well written and to the point, it’s one of the few travel books that actually discusses what the point of travelling may be. Highly recommended.