Jet Lag

If you are over 50 years of age and have ever flown from San Francisco to London you know it is sort of an ordeal, first because of jet lag and second because you are going to be flying (usually through the night). So you wind up there hoping you can keep your act together long enough to get into your hotel room and then sleep until you can acclimatize to be 8 hours ahead of your normal schedule in California on a regular basis as long as you are in the British Isles and 9 hours difference if you are in Paris or other European destinations. So, basically as wonderful as it is to go to Europe to See the old country you have to be prepared for the jet lag both going and coming back home.

I can remember when I was not 63 like now and only about 50 and just having recovered and survived a heart virus. At that time it was just me with my 80 year old mother and my then 10 year old daughter flying all together alone to London and then to Edinburgh, Scotland. I wanted to show my mother (before she died) where her mother and father grew up in Clydeband and Ayre near Glasgow, Scotland. When we got to England I was surprised that my 80 year old mother was about 5 times as much trouble dealing with than my 10 year old daughter so I was pretty stressed but still coping. But by the time we had changed flights to go to Edinburgh I was sort of a mess and knew it. Then we landed in Edinburgh and I rented a car and was very very grateful to have booked a hotel near the airport so all I had to do was to get our (I think Volvo Stationwagon) load our stuff into it and go get into our Edinburgh Airport Hotel. I then tried to get us all to sleep and this worked for several hours until I got up about 4 in the morning and started trying to drive our rental car towards Glasgow. This was sort of a mistake because the jet lag combined with everything else made me kind of scary when shifting a manual shift car on the left while driving on the right side of the car and driving on the left side of the road and then trying to go through a reverse (compared to U.S. roundabouts) roundabout. After almost killing us all several times I realized this was not going to be as easy as I once thought.

So, if you are planning to drive anywhere in the British Isles take a couple of days to adjust so you all stay alive. Get your internal clock more on British time before you go take on British roads and driving on the left side of the road while sitting on the right side of the car as the driver.

Since we are planning to do this again soon I'm trying to psyche up for it. For after all I have only driven on the left side of the road on three major occasions, once from Katmandu, Nepal to the Indian border in 1985 in December to  Raxaul,  and for about a week in 1999 from Edinburgh up through Glasgow and then further up to Loch Ness, Inverness up through the Cairngorm mountains where people ski in the British Isles. And finally from London over to see Stonehenge and Glastonbury where the Holy Grail was supposed to have been by Joseph of Arimathea possibly with other followers of Jesus in legend. Glastonbury Tull is the legendary Isle of Avalon where many fabled things happened. It is only an island now when it floods but I then in the first 1000 years after Christ it was an  island in the middle of a lake. When I first got within about 20 miles of it and saw and felt it in the distance I experienced the hair on the back of my neck going up as it is an incredible power spot on earth much like the Great Pyramids, Mt. Shasta, Mt. Kailash, The Tetons of Wyoming and various other places. So, if you are an intuitive or care about such things don't forget to experience Glastonbury Tull.

note: To say I drove all the way from Katmandu to Raxaul, India is not totally accurate. I drove part of the way when it is scenic and one follows a large river with suspension walking bridges across it for a long time. In 1985 we were sharing the road with Buses and dump truck size vehicles that were used to haul freight that were usually brightly decorated according to the religion of the driver owner of the hauling truck. However, then the road was simply a one lane paved road and all vehicles fought to have that one road and not to be driven off it into the dirt and rocks both directions. So, a very intense game of chicken was played by all oncoming drivers often with fatal or maiming results. So, I think I only drove a couple of hours in this before my nerves sort of gave out and I let the regular local driver drive again. We were also sharing the road then in 1985 with People driving their water Buffaloes to pastures, Kubota farm tractors with a top speed of 5 to 8 mph with a whole family being towed in a wooden cart ( the tractors reminded me of small rototillers with wheels), Yezdi Indian Motorcycles which often were driven off the road into bushes or trees by the extreme game of road chicken by all vehicles and one averaged about 20 to 25 miles per hour at best. So sometimes you were going 4 miles per hour and sometimes 40. But at that time there were too many chuck holes in the roads to go over 40 and live for most people.