Stepping away briefly from the gravy train?

A status report for the convenience and delectation of the small cell of obsessive critics who anonymously comment virtually every day upon my vicious words and my appallingly amoral deeds:

Now that my wife and I are in England, we’re entirely on our own dime.  You can disbelieve that as you choose — somehow, surely, innocent tithepayers are being abused and the widow’s mite cruelly extracted! — but we’re here (1) to spend some time with close members of our family, who will arrive in England on Saturday, and (2) because we need to be back in Israel next week or so and didn’t want to cross the Atlantic twice more in order to be there.  But no, I won’t provide the names, birthdates, Social Security numbers, or bank account information for the family members with whom we’re meeting, and no, I won’t explain why we’re meeting them in England.  To do so would be to leave you folks with no challenge beyond putting your customary negative but inventive spin on what I’m doing.  And, anyway, your otherwise distinctly limited associate the Mini-Stalker is quite capable of inventing things out of whole cloth wherever needed or wanted.

Anyway, you’ll be happy to know that what you’ve chosen to interpret as the for-profit portion of this trip is temporarily over.  My lavishly-compensated role of providing twelve to sixteen hours of daily commentary and lectures, on and off the bus or the boat, absolutely every day of the week, has come to an end.  (I like these trips and so, they say, do those who come along on them, but they’re both exhausting and demanding.)  In that capacity, almost all of my travel, food, and lodging expenses were covered, so, just like the airline pilot who is regularly given free trips (!) to Europe and/or Asia and/or Latin America on top of the salary he’s paid, I was plainly on the road to enormous — indeed, virtually unfathomable — wealth.

Now, though, I’ve taken a detour from that road.  And I’m very happy to have done so.  Those relaxing and luxurious trips to Israel, Jordan, and Egypt are quite demanding.  We’re up early every morning and moving throughout the day, in areas that are often hilly, almost always unshaded, and without good paths.  And, at this time of the year, the weather can be very hot.  So some rest and relaxation are most welcome, and where better to get a bit of R&R than here, “in England’s green and pleasant land”?

Posted from London, England