Kelly's Weblog

Carrie's wedding was perfect. They arrived at City Hall in a horse-drawn carriage led by two big Hussars in uniforms with swords! The civil ceremony was very cheesy in a perfectly appropriate way. The church service, on the other hand, was solemn, as befitted the setting: the slightly decaying but very grand little chapel of Gödöllő's historic castle. I sang the Ave Maria (adequately, as video evidence proves) from a fine little baroque balcony above and to the left of the sanctuary. Whee!

The reception was at a small local restaurant with good food and great cake, and there was a very great deal of exuberant dancing to the strains of a pair of Rolands in the hands of a single man who seemed to have the international lounge hits of the 80s at his fingertips. And Carrie looked as if she was having such a great time all evening. István is a sweet man with a great sense of humour. We think they're going to do very well.

Robyn and I moved to Budapest today (we had been staying in Gödöllő) and took the waters at the Gellért spa complex, which has an indoor pool with grand pillars, tiles and mosaics, an indoor mineral pool, and an outdoor wave pool (you have GOT to try one!), as well as terraces, patios, endless lobbies full of niches and statues, and options on various therapeutic and beauty treatments which we passed up. We passed a fantastic few hours there and left all refreshed to cross back from Buda into Pest. We looked at souvenirs on Vaci Street, bought a phone card to call a taxi for our airport trip tomorrow, and then lit out for dinner. Luck was with us. The terrace we had chosen for our meal was adjacent to a makeshift bandshell where an open-air performance of really good folk music was taking place.

So: dinner with entertainment, then a torpid stroll back to City Hotel Matyas. Shortly we will retire, so as to get a good start in the morning! Altogether a satisfactory sort of day.

A free day in London! Seems hard to believe, after all of the scrambling of last week, and the excitement of Tom and Anne's wedding last weekend. But Robyn and I made the flight, and arrived here smoothly last night. Long lineups at passport control upon our arrival at Heathrow were the only clouds on the horizon.

Today started out clear and grew overcast later in the day. Robyn met her sister Andrea, and they're out seeing things. I had an excellent lunch at Le Pont de la Tour with Colin and Licia's housesitter Jenny, sitting on the terrace looking at Tower Bridge. Then I set off on foot and had a nice wander before visiting the Tate Gallery for a look at some fine Waterhouses and Sargents. (They have a big Turner collection too, but I'm not really a fan.) Thought I'd take the opportunity here at easyInternetcafe in Trafalgar Square to post quickly before we leave London tomorrow morning for Budapest; no telling how easy I'll find it to get online there! Both Robyn and I are looking forward to a visit with Carrie very much.

The end is in sight! The sale on the house closes on Friday; Paul, Jamie and I drove up yesterday, and I've started the final packing and sorting stuff. There's still an alarming lot to do, but the imminent deadline will give me all the incentive I need to get busy and get it done.

Bill's coming today to take away another few pieces of furniture and some of my tubs of books for storage. It will be great to have a little visit with him...but even greater to have some more stuff leave the premises! Now, as the boxes start to pile up, I've got to get smart about how I'm staging stuff so I can tell what is supposed to go with which group of movers.

Soon this will all be over and I'll be on holiday!

This weekend we did a day trip up the Hudson to Rhinebeck and Hyde Park, where we met Chris Jones and Christine Williams from Boston and their new son Sebastian. We had a fine day in spite of not-perfect weather: visited the FDR estate and Presidential Library, toured the Culinary Institute of America (but, alas, did not eat there; they were fully booked, the cafe was closed, and I had to do a McDonald's run - sacrilege!), and had a nice late lunch.

Jamie did some roaming on the grounds of the CIA; I think that was the best part of the day in his mind.

I've been knee-deep in logistics for several days now, booking movers and cleaners and junk removal people and working on a storage space in Toronto for the stuff that won't fit in Brooklyn. I think it's almost all together; the few days from June 14 through 17 are likely to be extreeeeemely full. Fortunately, my mother will be there for Jamie! And there's a chance Paul will be able to help with some of the preliminary sorting and shifting the previous weekend, though it doesn't look like he'll be in Toronto for very long at all.

I'm looking forward to Carrie's wedding in Budapest very much; it will be a break in several senses. It will certainly be strange not to have Jamie with me, but I suspect I'll really enjoy the freedom. And it will be great to have Robyn's company. Strangely, we've never really travelled together!

The car goes in for servicing next week, in preparation for the logging of many highway miles. I suppose I should start to make a list of things that have to go with us on the 12th; the three of us will be making the drive together, so I have to make sure I leave room for a passenger in the car!

Thanks to Ian Bell and Tom Leslie, Exultate's new database is purring along beautifully. I've just completed a pretty extensive cleanup of the garbage data; now to catch up on straight data entry!