JetLagging

I've arrived.  It was quite an exhausting trip.  But, not bad.  I left my house in England at 4.30 in the morning.  Caught the 4.45 train to London, Liverpool St.  Then caught the Tube to Faringdon Station and jumped on the Themeslink to Gatwick.  That got me to Gatwick for 7.00.  Got checked in, no problem.  I was flying standby again (one of my friends calls it "High Class Hitchhiking"), so I didn't know if I'd get on the plane until just before they closed the flight.  But, fortunately, YEAY! they let me on.  And, not just 'let me on'.  They let me on in 1st class!  Wooo hoo!  This is a wonderful thing.  Especially since I hadn't slept at all the night before!  I slept for about half the flight, had some decent food, and watched a couple of films. 

Funny side note - when I was filling out the Customs form, they ask what you're bringing into the US.  And, I could NOT remember what was in my suitcases!  I'd packed them so long ago (4 - 6 weeks) that I totally couldn't remember what was in these bags, and what I'd shipped!  Ooops.  Well, not a big deal, anyway, because if you've owned it for more than 12 months, you don't have to declare it.

Got through Customs in Atlanta, and all the sudden . . . I hear my name!  I look up and there was my friend, V!  She's my "dealer" - my Delta Connection.  She's my wonderful friend that lets me fly on her Buddy Pass.  Bless her cotton socks!  She flew from Louisiana to Georgia to meet my plane!  Isn't she a sweetie?

Here's the photo she took of my plane landing:

And here's a photo of me coming through security:

And finally, here's a photo of me and V together!

I have good friends!  She's such a sweetie!  It was such a wonderful surprise (she had mentioned she might come meet me, but I'd forgotten til I was ON the plane!) to see her gorgeous face.  We sat in the terminal and she had lunch and I had a Diet Coke. And we had a great little chat.  All the sudden, she's saying, "Well, my flight's going to be leaving here shortly, so we'd better get down to the gate."  I was like, "WHAT?!?  Already?"  Seriously, it felt like we'd been there 2 seconds, not an hour and a half!  So not enough time with the fabulous Miss Onigar!

After V got off, I was just kicking around the terminal for an hour.  And then... I didn't get on the plane :(  They didn't have room for me.  Oh well!  So I went down to the next terminal/gate and waited an hour.  And didn't get on there, either!  This was totally dejavu from the last trip I had through Atlanta!  I got on the London leg fine, couldn't get on the first 2 flights from Atlanta, and only BARELY got on the 3rd flight!  It was seriously a close thing!  The gate agents were standing there, in the corridor, checking to see if anyone was legging it down the concourse trying to make the flight.  Since they weren't the put me on the plane instead.  I was literally the last person to get on!  I curled up against the side of the plane, and fell asleep before the fasten seat belt sign went off.... and didn't wake up til I heard the Captain say they were turning them back on because we were coming in for landing!  I was very tired!  I've only managed to sleep in coach (for more than just a few minutes) once before.  Mind you, I wasn't complaining about being in coach.  I was just glad to be on the plane!  And the sleeping was wonderful! 

Anyway, I did manage to arrive to Salt Lake safe and sound.  I've been trying to get my feet back under me, but I'm afraid it's been quite a challenge.  Babies make a lot of noise in the middle of the night!  (Not complaining about that,either!)

Biggin Hill Air Show

I love Air Shows. There's a fabulous one in Biggin Hill, just outside London ever June. And every year I think, 'I should go to that,' but something always comes up. This year I didn't even know it was happening, because I'd been out of town, in Amsterdam and Germany for the two weeks leading up to it. Mom came back to England from Amsterdam with me, and she wanted to go to Rochester Castle on Friday. So we headed off, leaving Colchester in the gorgeous sunshine. But, as we got closer to London, it started to cloud over, and eventually we ended up being poured on from the heavens. So we turned around and headed back to Colchester, which was still sunny and lovely. Saturday, we headed off again to try and go to the castle, hoping for better weather. And about half way there, we started seeing signs saying 'For Biggin Hill use Junction 4 off the M25'. I said, 'Oooh, I keep meaning to go there.' Mom said,' What is it?' I said, 'It's a big air show, but I don't know if you need to buy tickets before the weekend, or if you can get them there.' She said, 'Well, let's go try.' So we did. And it was great.

Some of my favourite shots (Note! If the photo looks like it's upside down, that's because the thing was flying upside down. All of them.):