Short update from the U.K.

Well, bloggers, I have been away from home for a week now, and here is a short list of my accomplishments:

• slept the minimum amount to still be a human being
• breakfasted, lunched, dined, and taken tea with international academics for two days
• wrote and delivered, with my colleague, a paper, with stellar results
• saw a splendid retrospective of the work of Kiki Smith (at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, during a lengthy layover)
• saw a great exhibit of the drawings of Michelangelo at the British Museum, as well as terrific exhibits on writing in Egyptian society and also the Elgin marbles, just for good measure
• saw a series of four gigantic Cy Twombly paintings at the Tate Modern that just blew me away. Also a gorgeous Joan Mitchell painting, a beautiful Arshile Gorky, and some really cool boxes by Susan Hiller and a surrealist guy that I can't, at the moment, remember.
• Ate three splendid dinners at Exmouth Market in Farringdon.
• Took a very early plane to Aberdeen from Luton airport (note to self: Luton is in the sticks)
• spent the day in the charming village of Inverurie with the princess of Scotland, Miriam, going to the organic green grocers (Aberdeenshire honey), library, two charity shops, a chemists, and the Tesco, this last a grocery store which I inexplicably find utterly entrancing. We bought really good crisps (potato chips) and excellent Danish and jelly doughnuts. Then we took naps and made dinner and entertained another set of grandparents and went to better.

Today I almost feel human again. (it's not a static process, by the way, with international travel). We're off to Inverness this morning. Cheers!

[Pictures to come.]