~7 hours in London? No problem! - Part 1

My first rotation home was absolutely awesome and totally not what I expected all at the same time. It was destined to be awesome no matter what simply because I was coming home for Christmas & New Year and the plan was to spend time with family and friends and try to sneak some snowboarding in. The reality involve a bunch of dentist trips and a whole lot less free time than I thought I'd have meaning I didn't get to see everyone that I was hoping to see. To those of you I missed seeing - I'm quite sorry!

The worst part about any rotation is the day that it ends. Some quick goodbyes, some running around, and a trip to the airport meant I was on my way back to Madagascar. 15lbs heavier... yes, I had accomplished my goal and succeeded in eating Christmas.

All trips out of EIA start out with a brief stop in the Air Canada lounge to see if they have any of the awesome beers they used to carry.. Once again disappointed in the budgetary cuts resulting in us freeloading lounge folk not being able to have a Boddington's preflight I settled for some hummus and chips and some sort of terrible concoction they call "water".

The flight to London was blissfully uneventful, unless you count the fellow a row ahead of me who snored loud enough to defeat the jet noise, noise cancelling headphones, and music - it was sort of like being at home again. Air Canada did it's usual best to stuff me full of moderately less terrible food than you get in economy and we arrived in London mostly on schedule.

Due to the way the flights work out on the way to Madagascar it's pretty common to have an fairly lengthy layover regardless of the city you hop through. As a result I was left with just shy of 7 hours in London. Thanks to the fact that South African Airways and Air Canada no longer have a baggage sharing agreement I already had to enter London to pick up my bags so I figured a quick hop into town on the Heathrow Express was probably a good idea.

Bags obtained (woohoo), stored (oh god they want how much?), and Heathrow Express ticket (SEVENTY DOLLARS? ITS A 15 MINUTE TRAIN RIDE!) purchased I was off to Paddington station.

I was immediately disappointed in the lack of bears.

From Paddington you hop on the tube - seriously I'm not trying to be Eurotrash here, it is ubiquitously referred to in signage / etc as the tube/London Underground - and like a good tourist head immediately for Picadilly Circus. Up, up, up you go and you pop out to a view that looks something similar to this.

If only all buildings in Edmonton looked like this...

Picadilly is within walking distance of all kinds of touristy stuff and at one end of the theatre and shopping districts. I did some walking around the theatre district as I had never walked through there before.

This is a run of the mill "mall" in the area. Why can't our stripmalls look this awesome?

A beatles show?!?! Sign me up!!! .. No matinees :(

Because after my Christmas binge I needed to get fatter.

All pubs at home should look at least this awesome before being allowed to open.

At that point I realized the direction I was heading was away from all of the other awesome touristy stuff so I popped down a side alley along a Casino and headed towards the Thames.

Here is a blurry photo I accidentally took of my feet.

Theatre square on the way back complete with Christmas decorations and no less than 5 movie theatres. 

 

I stumbled upon the Lotus store. It was totally awesome and even had one of their 2010 chassis hanging from the roof. Unfortunately prices started on everything at a cool 25 year mortgage. The interest rates were terrible to boot.

A wild coach store appears!

Another view of Picadilly Circus crossing.

Once back at Picadilly I headed towards St. James park down a road whose name I cannot remember. It was lined with totally awesome buildings though. I don't think I'll ever tire of the architecture in London.

Building under reno - but check out the entryway. Totally awesome.

You're not a tourist without a photo of a double decker bus.

And a phone booth (Tardis)

And an Obelisk complete with some random guy on it. Said guy turned out to be Frederick Duke of York. He's been dead for a long time. At least he has a cool obelisk thing.

Just past the deadguyelisk is a street you have to cross to get to St. James. The day was totally not stereotypically British dreary... it didn't rain.

Which brings us to St. James park. Just in time to miss the changing of the guard at Buckingham palace.

Finally after walking for what seemed like forever (~1KM) I'd made it to St. James park.

And this is where I run out of motivation for today's blog post. :) Stay tuned for a fresh edition sometime later.

A somewhat more serious post

Recently a friend on facebook posted about her struggles with her own ongoing medical issues. I thought that perhaps by sharing my own story dealing with a condition I've been going through for the last 4 years it might help. I decided to share that here today as I've never really publicly talked about it and I'll be damned if it didn't feel good to share it outside of my usual comfort zone.

My apologies for the more serious subject matter I promise I have more fluffy bunny stuff right around the corner. ;)

Incoming wall of text:

I absolutely understand how you feel.

Physically I can't identify but mentally I think I can. I've struggled with benign heart palpitations since 2009. I have been through every test you can have whether it be MIBI scans, echo's, ECG's, blood tests, flow tests, etc and some more than once. I have had the good fortune to have dealt with a number of the best heart specialists in Edmonton and all of my own research, the opinions of my GP and specialist's, and others continue to confirm that the palpitations were and are in fact benign. But yet every time I have a particularly bad run of palpitations I feel like I get thrown right back to square one.

It's a tough thing when you're sitting around, or jogging, or cooking dinner, or watching a movie, or doing anything at all really to convince yourself that  yes, your heart just stopped/fluttered/thunked but you're not immediately going to die. The feelings of helplessness, anxiety, unease, and especially for me the thought that it might "all just be in my head" were totally and utterly foreign and at times completely terrifying. So much so that in the last 4 years I can tell you I've lost count of the number of times I was totally convinced that I was experiencing my last moments and let me tell you, it can really ruin your day. :)

I'd come to believe that we live in a society where internalizing is seen as a positive and externalizing and sharing your thoughts and pursuing resolutions in the medical system are seen as negative. I've learned with the help of Lisa, family, and friends as an "internalizer" that the healthy reality is much, much different. In the beginning it came with receiving proper medical care and diagnosis. It's one thing to say "I need to go to the hospital" but it's totally another to make sure you pursue the medical professionals for a PROPER diagnosis - one that feels right to you based on your symptoms and medical science. This took all kinds of effort and badgering as Dr's like everyone else are just people. While they have more responsibility than some it is important to remember when dealing with getting a diagnosis it is still just a job to them and they  sometimes require an enormous amount of encouragement.

Obtaining a diagnosis that fit was a 1.5 year journey involving a ton of stress, bitterness, doubt, and a an unhealthy amount of fear but I got one. I've since spent the better part of 2.5 years struggling with my own anxiety and worrying tendencies "believing" said diagnosis. That to me has always been and will always be the hardest and most difficult part of it all. Though I know and BELIEVE my diagnosis it is very difficult to stay logical when the symptoms "feel" so wrong.

It was honestly not until very recently that I was able to discover and admit that to me these horrible feelings really center around my own issue with relinquishing control. I am a person that likes to feel as if I am 100% in charge of my own existence - it's why I hate flying, riding on public transportation, or otherwise taking part in anything that I feel I don't have the ability to influence the outcome of. In the case of my palpitations I feel all of these terrible things when they occur BECAUSE of the fact that they occur and there is nothing I can do to stop them.

The epiphany for me occurred when I discovered some random fellow PVC sufferer's post on an obscure support forum that I discovered buried in the annals of the internet during a bout of palpitations. Terrified and absolutely feeling doomed I stumbled across a paragraph that really resonated with me and has helped me understand that I cannot - no matter what - let the condition control me. It has helped me remember that during those struggles that the feelings I am having are temporary, that suspending logic and my decision making faculties is not healthy, and most importantly that despite how I might feel at the time progress is always being made. I will never be without these palpitations but I hope one day to be able to accept and get past them.

Sorry - I rambled on a bit but I hope the mental side of my struggle might help you a bit with yours. I've never really externalized it outside of Lisa, who hears about my bullshit all too often but I hope it helps. :)