On Sunday we arrive in England, the mother country, not mine but Paul's, though not really Paul as he is from Ireland, not part of the UK at all. So neither England nor her queen have any significance for us. We decide to stay however.
Speaking of our queen, again I am astounded by the fact that on arrival in England, instead of going straight to the front of the customs cue, (fellow commonwealth member, same $&@&$& queen etc ) we have to go to the same cue as everyone else. EU members go to the special shorter cue but we are stuck in a really long cue with Americans for god's sake.
We are in at last and commence the next leg of our journey, fast train from Heathrow airport to Paddington, and then the train to Taunton where we will be met by our English friends from our Rhine cruise.
Again up and down trains. A bit more bearable as the trains do not have the huge gap between them and the platform as in Norway. The English Are more civilized at least in terms of their trains. The train to Taunton is full and we struggle to find a seat and room for our luggage. But worse than that, there is a screaming child just behind us. The highest pitched and most continuous screech I have ever heard. ( and I do have some experience with screaming babies as some of you will remember)
We finally arrive at the station. An elderly man at one end of the station waves at me and then walks toward me. I wave and say hello and then realize it is not David and he is actually greeting the person behind me. Very embarrassing and made worse by the real David turning up and Paul telling him I had mistaken the old guy for him. Great start.
It is lovely to see David and Penny again and they take us to their golf club for a sandwich as it is about lunch time. Lovely traditional English golf club. Quaint is the right word.
We are then driven to their house, a fairly new 5 bedroom and 5 bathroom house in a nice estate in Wellington, just outside of Taunton.
OMG.
We get one of the 2 guest bedrooms with our own bathroom. The room and bathroom are bigger than perhaps all our rooms including bathrooms put together. Perfect decorations and obviously they have money and are the perfect hosts. I feel very embarrassed about our 3rd bedroom with the futon with the Clark rubber mattress on top to make it more comfy. Their guest room has perfectly matched towels and everything.
OMG
However we realize that we are unable to charge our phones or iPads as we don't have the adaptor. I had assumed that Paul's European adaptor would work while Paul thought they would be the same as Australia. Both wrong.
And David cannot remember his internet password word so we are off line for 2 days.
Not so perfect after all.
Speaking of our queen, again I am astounded by the fact that on arrival in England, instead of going straight to the front of the customs cue, (fellow commonwealth member, same $&@&$& queen etc ) we have to go to the same cue as everyone else. EU members go to the special shorter cue but we are stuck in a really long cue with Americans for god's sake.
We are in at last and commence the next leg of our journey, fast train from Heathrow airport to Paddington, and then the train to Taunton where we will be met by our English friends from our Rhine cruise.
Again up and down trains. A bit more bearable as the trains do not have the huge gap between them and the platform as in Norway. The English Are more civilized at least in terms of their trains. The train to Taunton is full and we struggle to find a seat and room for our luggage. But worse than that, there is a screaming child just behind us. The highest pitched and most continuous screech I have ever heard. ( and I do have some experience with screaming babies as some of you will remember)
We finally arrive at the station. An elderly man at one end of the station waves at me and then walks toward me. I wave and say hello and then realize it is not David and he is actually greeting the person behind me. Very embarrassing and made worse by the real David turning up and Paul telling him I had mistaken the old guy for him. Great start.
It is lovely to see David and Penny again and they take us to their golf club for a sandwich as it is about lunch time. Lovely traditional English golf club. Quaint is the right word.
We are then driven to their house, a fairly new 5 bedroom and 5 bathroom house in a nice estate in Wellington, just outside of Taunton.
OMG.
We get one of the 2 guest bedrooms with our own bathroom. The room and bathroom are bigger than perhaps all our rooms including bathrooms put together. Perfect decorations and obviously they have money and are the perfect hosts. I feel very embarrassed about our 3rd bedroom with the futon with the Clark rubber mattress on top to make it more comfy. Their guest room has perfectly matched towels and everything.
OMG
However we realize that we are unable to charge our phones or iPads as we don't have the adaptor. I had assumed that Paul's European adaptor would work while Paul thought they would be the same as Australia. Both wrong.
And David cannot remember his internet password word so we are off line for 2 days.
Not so perfect after all.
No comments:
Post a Comment