It all makes sense now: I know why we read Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" and not "Walsingham Tales!" You can't get there!

When I planned this study term in London I had two goals: work hard for an A+ and go pray at the Shrine at Walsingham. The former may in fact happen, while the latter has slipped from my very eyes. Shall I share my plight with you?

...So I leave yesterday to visit the Shrine. The plan was to take the Tube to King's Cross and then a train to Cambridge and then rent a car and drive two more hours to the Shrine. The only other option was to spend eight hours on the bus! So I get on the Tube and make it over to King's Cross Station in record time. I buy my ticket and then wait only five minutes to board the express train to Cambridge. We get within eyesight of the station in Cambridge when the bad news arrives, "Okay folks, we apologise for the trouble, but there's been a signal failure and we must wait here until it is repaired." Minutes turned into three hours. Then, of course, the car I had reserved had already been re-released into someone else's hands leaving only a tiny manual drive VW. I got in the car, naturally getting in on the wrong side, and drove off with my Google Maps directions in hand. The directions were fine, it's the lack of street signs in Cambridge that cause the havoc: I hit a curb while lost and flattened the tyre! And for those of you who know me pretty well, I haven't a clue how to change a flat - not to mention the car had no spare. So I call Hertz and they, to my surprise, quickly send one of their colleagues to fix the tyre. The rim, however, is still missing (thank God I bought the insurance plan, which I never do). Mind you, I could have come home to the USA by now.

So now its getting dark, I've had nothing to eat since breakfast, and I have to have the car back by noon today for a lack of after hours drop off in Cambridge, and they're closed on Sunday. I couldn't stay in the area till Monday; my class starts at 8:00am! They did, however, say I could pay 500GBP and leave the car anywhere (what a gracious group!). Suffice it to say, I decide to risk it anyway. So I drive up towards Walsingham, getting as far as Swaffham before I realize I'm too late. It was 9:30 at night by this point. I stopped at a hotel just twenty miles shy of the Shrine, finally had dinner, prayed the holy rosary, and went to sleep a mad little boy.

I'm back in London now, after fighting another train delay this morning, with a lighter pocketbook, and sans the visit to the Shrine. I'm not at all a Calvinist, but perhaps it wasn't God's will?

I'm terribly upset!