Ordeal

I've been experiencing waves of nausea all day. I don't know if it's lack of sleep, low blood sugar from forgetting to eat (just got a chicken salad from Chow -- can't tell if it helped yet). This experience is very disorienting. Four big burly tattooed guys handling (and taking note of) all our possessions. The guy packing up the kitchen said we should open a restaurant. The guy packing our books said we must be very interesting people. My eiffel tower key chain fell apart and I needed needle nose pliers to fix it. Already packed. Wanted to slice a banana on my cereal (consumed in plastic bowl, with plastic spoon). No plastic knife. Alice was very interested and involved up to a certain point, but now she has retreated to her safe space (cardboard box filled with mangy blankets near dryer in mud room). I don't really have a safe space now. Well, maybe judging from Steven's latest report my safe space is in London. Oh, and speaking of which, here's the latest Alice update: After two weeks and many midnight or 7am phone calls to Paris, they finally decided it was time to let me in on the fact that you simply can't transport an animal by plane from Paris to London on weekends. I found that out at midnight Sunday night. So here's what we're doing: Alice and I are flying together on United from SFO to CDG. At CDG we're renting a car and driving to the Hoverspeed terminal in Calais (we've got exactly three hours to make the ferry, which is exactly how long the drive takes -- anybody know whether they crack down on speeders over there?). We will then board the 5:45 ferry to Dover (Hoverspeed is the only ferry service which allows "foot traffic" with pets). From Dover we'll take a train to London. Not sure which one, because I have no idea what bureaucracy we'll face entering the UK. Steven will meet us at Charing Cross Station and we'll take a taxi back to Penzance Place...