My weekend at the London Meetup

Hi everyone I am back in the States. I had such a great time over the whole weekend, and the two days at the meet-up at the Thames Festival were great. I met 15 people there, 6 of whom had never attended a meet-up, and not one of us could smell each other. We met under the umbrella, it was easy to find each other, and we walked to the other side of the festival along side the Thames and sat outside surrounded by musicians performing and food stands all around selling foods of all kinds from around the world. We talked and got to know each other well very quickly – probably much faster than if we had not shared a common malady. I'll be writing many posts in the following days about all the very interesting things we talked about; but mostly we just enjoyed being normal and wandered around the festival taking it all in.

Then, we strolled along the riverfront as we saw the boats racing, the musicians playing their instruments, the vendors selling their arts and crafts and ethnic foods. We reached the London Eye where there was an amphitheater along side of it with live entertainment and great food and drink stands all around.

On the second day, we took a cruise on the Thames that left the hotel where we had gathered at one end of the festival, that took us all the way to the other end of the Festival. It was a beautiful, bright sunny day with a cool breeze that induced a serene sense of well-being. We saw thousands of people along the waterfront enjoying the festivities. Then we went to a pub on the upper deck of one of the ships that was docked on the river, and talked for what felt like a lifetime. We talked as if we had been life-long friends who shared our deepest thoughts knowing they would all be understood by everyone.

We walked clear across to the London Eye again, got our dinner and drink, threw a blanket on the green lawn and listened to the sounds of the music from the amphitheater and the bustle of the people all around as we watched the sunset. We enjoyed the show under the stars until it was time to go.

Sadly, it is now over. We can only look forward to the next time when we’ll meet the same faces again and hopefully many new ones.