the motherland, part I

Remember how the gods smiled on me on the way home, and I walked off the plane at 11 on the dot and my bag was the first one out and I had a travelgasm? Yeah, that did NOT happen on the way to London.

I didn't check any bags for that leg of the trip because I wanted to expedite the process in any way I could, and I knew waiting for a suitcase at baggage claim would not be the best way to achieve that. I wanted to be off the plane, through passport control and on a train as fast as my little legs would take me. And I would've been, had my plane landed at 10:45 p.m. as scheduled. Instead, it landed at 11:30 (fairly inexplicably, really, since we'd taken off on time -- I blame black holes) and I knew that by the time the train got into Paddington the tube would no longer be running for the night. So instead, I swallowed hard, got money from the cash point and just committed to the cab ride. I did have to birth my first-born child in the backseat of the car before I left and also saw off one arm and BOTH legs, but it was worth it to be delivered right to Sarah's door by just a little after midnight.

I didn't allow myself to be fussed by it, because I was so happy to see Sarah. And of course what I couldn't have known then was that we would go on to drink for free (as in, no money, not even a LITTLE) on New Year's Eve, so I think the expense was entirely balanced by the otherwise total cheapness of the trip.

Within 10 minutes of arriving at Sarah's, I had a beer in my hand and I'd had many, many hugs from Sarah and my friends Jenni and Pete, as well as Sarah's lovely boyfriend Simba who I'd just met. What can I say, I love hugs. And I was so happy! To be! In England! GLEE!

And as I sat there, sipping a beer, it just felt like nothing had ever changed. Like I'd never been gone. Or maybe I had, but just for a week, and not to somewhere very far away at all. Everything just clicked right back into place. It was an incredibly bittersweet feeling -- heavy on the sweet, of course, saving the bitter for the plane ride home.

We stayed up til about 4 in the morning when I eventually crashed out. And at around 11 the next morning when we all roused, Jenni, Sarah and I sat around the kitchen having tea and plotting out our plans for the night, for it was indeed New Year's Eve. At that point though I wasn't yet excited about NYE, because I was too busy being pants-peeingly excited over the fact that I was drinking Tetleys and eating HobNobs dipped in tea. It's always the little things.

Up next: A walk around Covent Garden, the most incredible tee shirt that ever was, a jaunt through Camden and the beginnings of a spectacular New Year's Eve. (So spectacular I felt it necessary to text everyone I knew about it. Christing Christing Christ.)


cheers,
elizabeth