See the chameleon, lying there in the sun

Ten days later, and it's Saturday again. It was supposed to be raining today, but it's only partly cloudy and slightly windy, ideal weather to wash the bed linen, which is already hanging out to dry.

My good friend has left last Monday for a few days in Paris and thence home to Canada. It was a great joy to meet him again and lots of fun, even if we were both bogged down with a cold imported from the Netherlands (and I was berated for living in a country where certain cough-suppressants were not readily available).
We saw a great many things in London, though probably not as much as we would have in a healthy state of being. Still, the British Museum was visited as well as the Science Museum (Babbage's Brain!); we were in Covent Garden, on Trafalgar Square, down the Victoria Embankment, at Piccadilly Circus and around Soho, and in many other famous places besides (including a trip to the Den of Geek which is the Forbidden Planet shop). We were in Cambridge on a hot day, and freezing the next on a bus in London. Pictures were taken, some of which might end up here.

I've got to admit the place feels kind of empty these days.

The good news of this last week is that my x-rays came back. My spine is fine (hooray) and so are the rest of the bones; it's muscle tissue and the nerves, so I've been told to do relaxation exercises and get someone to massage my shoulder and neck area. Uh huh. If I could relax, I probably wouldn't have that particular problem, and if I want someone to massage my neck, I'm going to have to pay them to do it.

For the past week, it's been sleep-breakfast-work-come home-muck around on the computer-sleep-lather-rinse-repeat. The only break came yesterday when David Attenborough of all people was in the BiSto bookshop to sign books. I had planned to go to the shop and just take a picture and gawk for a few minutes, but then BossLady and idahoswede said they wanted to get books signed. Since work was too hectic (people always want to clear their desks on a Friday afternoon and it all gets filtered down to us), the office junior (read: I) was asked if I wanted to stand in line to get autographs. Did I!
It was said that they would only admit 250 people. I was 130. For our amusement, a local reptile shop had brought along some friendly animals, and a natural history club brought along dinosaur models. While I appreciated the dinosaurs - sadly, none of the pictures I took of them survive, kind of like the dinosaurs themselves - the living, breathing animals were utterly fascinating. They had a variety of large stick insects, a giant African snail, a Madagascan hissing cockroach, a giant millipede, a large black pine snake from Florida, a blue-tongued skink, and Ernie the chameleon.
Not only did we get to see these animals, but we were also told about them and, best of all, allowed to touch them. The large stick insect - I forget where it was from, but it was easily larger than my hand - felt like horse chestnuts; the pine snake like silk over warm leather; the skink was also warm, but rougher; and the chameleon was even allowed to walk over my hand. He was a most beautiful creature, his skin made of a moasic of small light green, beige, off white and black little circles like a precious ornament, but soft and warm, and the feet clinging on to my fingers felt rather weird and unlike any other animal.

David Attenborough was absolutely charming. He has presence, and a way of making everyone feel at ease. I passed on the greetings and messages I was told to pass on, had the books signed, and took a quick picture from the side before I was ushered out of the store like everybody else. The store really is not big enough to accomodate lots of people trying to get a glimpse of a famous man. I was impressed by his charm and I was glad to meet him, however briefly, and I am sure he would consider his job well done if he knew that for me, the best part of the afternoon was Ernie the Chameleon.