Almost the tropics

I had my first piece of chocolate at 10am this morning. Not going to be a good day.

I had a great weekend in Nashville after I negotiated the airlines and actually got there. They cancelled my Friday flight that morning by robotic phone call and tried to push me onto am 8:00 pm flight which would have gotten me to Nashville at 10:00 pm. Too late. Too late. I managed to get myself on an American airlines flgiht which was a much bigger plane although curiously empty and arrived in time for all scheduled activities. The weather was so warm there that people were pushing the season a little I think by wearing shorts but I was totally supportive. when I lived in London I was forever talking about going to Portugal so that my bones would get warm. I never did. I kept on going to Paris and stayed cold. This past week I was thinking fondly of some warmer climate and the beach so Nashville was a pretty good stand in for warmth. We went to visit the Belle Meade plantation, which is now the center of some of Nashville's and the country's most high priced real estate. On to a new hot restaurant in the germantown neighborhood which actually was very New York in ambience with a high tech factory setting, ambitious Tuscan food and incredible noise. All good.

Home again to the cold. Yesterday I was really dragging my feet and hating my coat which is warm and heavy. But then I've complained about it before. Endlessly.

Had lunch today with my cousins Lucy Banks, McKay and one of his Middlebury friends Mitchell. Had just a sip of a Margharita which saw me through the afternoon.