I Made It!

Oh, where to start! I made it to England. Finally. Barely. The flights went off without a hitch, except for the air pressure murdering my left ear. It helped to have my Philly by my side the entire time, but the journey itself was wonderful...pretty much like riding a bus.What happened after I got here, however, was not so wonderful.
I had to go through the UK Border Agency to get my entry to the UK approved. Well, I must have gotten the wrong woman on the wrong day, because what normally would have been a simple Q&A turned into an interrogation and a full luggage search. By "full," I mean "unpack and repack in front of everyone at Heathrow." Yeah, undies and unmentionables included....The woman apparently thought I was out to rip the country off or something, because as soon as I told her that Phil and I met online, she turned on her bitch switch. It was obvious that she thought I was trying to enter the UK just to disappear as an illegal alien. After an hour of basic public humiliation, they finally let me enter the country. I had to pull a trolley with ALL of my luggage up and down 3 flights of stairs twice...yeah, not a good start.
Then there's the train trip. As it turns out, London Heathrow is on the complete OPPOSITE side of London as our house...I'm sure you can imagine Phil and I trying to keep hold of 4 large pieces of luggage plus our own carry-on bags for a nearly 2-hour train ride. Oh, then there's the walking. And more walking. And MORE walking. With luggage. Up a hill. It probably doesn't sound bad, but I'm American. The furthest I am used to walking is the length of a Wal-Mart Supercenter. My feet hurt.
Phil and I were able to spend some time with his boys, which was a good time. I took a nap while they played on their PlayStation for a couple hours, then we headed to a nice little pub for dinner. The atmosphere is so authentic; rich wood tables with the history of the town framed on the walls. It was a very nice, laidback environment...no hosts, no waiters up your ass rushing you through the menu, just you and your table and however much time you need. You look at the menu, go order what you want, pay for it, then wait for it to show up at your table. I had the most wonderful Tomato-Basil soup with two nice, soft pieces of poppy seed bread, and the most beautiful hot chocolate for dessert.
So now we're back at the house; I'm frantically trying to finish this post before my laptop dies...I haven't bought plug adapters yet, but that's on tomorrow's agenda. I promise the posts will keep coming, and pictures will accompany them, but today was just a hell of a traumatic day, and I need to sleep. Goodnight, dear friends.