The Story so Far

Monday, September 27, 2010-Tuesday, September 28, 2010

DH drives me to airport after spending frantic morning at last-minute self-employment deluge. Appear to have left without hair brush. Figures.

Trip begins auspiciously with gluten-free beer in Delta Terminal bar/sushi bar of the Tucson Int’l (snort) Airport.

Guess I shouldn’t snort. They have GF beer. Surrounded by happy travelers with lovely smiles. Sat next to only funny Jewish Couple from Detroit, MI. They tell me about website: Old Jewish Men Telling Old Jewish Jokes.

Land in MN airport on-time (go Delta!) with no travails. Lured to Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant by siren smell of pizza. Happy to settle for a Chinois Salad which may (or may not) have GF dressing. I have faith and am rewarded.

Money exchange around corner staffed by an engineering/creative writing dual-majored young man. Praised him up and down–more smiles. Armed with British Sterling (or at least paper with Queen’s face) I depart from gate 6.

I sit next to the nicest missionary ever. Indian by birth, but has lived everywhere and before becoming a missionary, ran architectural firm in New Delhi.

Watched Ewan MacGregor in Ghost Writer. So. There it is.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Managed to get about 2-1/2 hours of sleep. There was no gluten free meal for me on the plane, regardless my confirming it twice, so was happy for the Chinois Salad as there was no breakfast on the plane.

lack of dinner, but gluten free This was my cobbled together meal–leftovers from First Class and Steerage. I love that he left me the pat of butter even without the bread. Nice of him to take the bread off, anyway.

Landed in Heathrow without a worry. Tramped along, queued up for Passport Check, meandered off and got bags, got lost looking for Heathrow Connection as opposed to Heathrow Express. Found that they left from the same track.

All was good.

The hat was a lucky guess. It’s turned out to be very handy in misty rain and wind. That, plus it looks pretty nifty.

The double D is pronounced “th”. So, yeah…Wales was neat.

This was taken on the train to Brenda and Tonia’s place.

It got dark and cloudy enough that trying to take a pic out the window really only took a pic of me. Here I am on two hours of sleep. I think that’s not so bad.

What you can’t see is the sign that says “Potatoes Filled To Take”–I just wanted to take the whole shop back to the US. A corner Deli with a take-away potato service. Ah me…

This is the tidal bay in southeast Wales. I’ll have to look at a map to point to the exact location, but the two ladies you see looking out the window were…yes, knitters. Shortly after I took this, they turned to me and asked what I was doing as they were fascinated by a stitch I used. They were LOVELY and we had quite a nice time until they had to de-train. Shortly after I de-trained myself and found a pub at which to wait for Brenda and Tonia.

. The pub. They had some excellent Welsh Cider, for which I cannot recall the name, and were absolutely NOT, “and keep off the Moors…” to me at all. I’m always a bit nervous in a small local pub. Don’t want to ruffle the locals or intrude too much. The chap at the bar was quite lovely, though, and impressed that (a) I was in Wales and (b) had wanted to come to Wales for a good bit.

Truman the Wonder Pup. I was quite smitten.

Then again, I didn’t have to get up with him at the crack of O-My-God-Not-Now every morning.

The drinks trolly. I didn’t get a pic of the really nifty one. It had a spout and a button and the trolly captain would push the button to get the hot water for tea or coffee. It was a rawther brilliant design. Okay, the double L is pronounced “th” as if Sylvester the Cat were saying it but with a bit of a wider mouth. I’ll try to phonetically present it here: thla-ne-thly. I’ve been practicing since I heard the train announcer say it.