It’s been a long day to end a long trip. No scones or crumpets this trip. No visits to Abbey Road or Jane Austen’s house or Stonehenge or Bath. And you know what? I’ve been here five times now and it’s ok that I haven’t done everything that I want to do. I’m very fortunate, and I’ll be back.

This morning I met a colleague for breakfast and had a very successful client meeting. It’s so rewarding to know that I am making a positive impact for my company. 

Taxi’d to my office and spent the afternoon catching up colleagues — many whom I’ve worked with for years but never met face to face. The team has two tv screens in their area of the office, so when the news hit about the tragedy in London today, less than a mile from the office, I went into crisis management mode doing what I needed to do for my job. I’ll forgo commenting here on the response of my colleagues and many others around the city — let’s just say for this public forum that I was disappointed by the actions of the people I interacted with over the next six hours. 

After my plans to finally have an afternoon of tea and scones were foiled, and taxis and uber wouldn’t bring me back across the river in the direction of my hotel (or a restaurant I was hoping to check out), I made my way to the Underground.

By 9:30pm, I was back at the pub where I had dinner at last night, still in the heels that I had put on 15 hours earlier. Grateful for the bartender from last night who remembered me and within minutes had my dinner and beer ready. Apropos that the beer I wanted to try wasn’t available last night, but tonight it was! The message on the Flying Dog Easy IPA bottle reads: “They say that life isn’t easy.” Well ain’t that the truth. My thoughts and prayers for those affected by today’s horrible actions.