Angleterre enfin!

I am a bit late with this post. Had intended on posting first thing monday morning.... but life the universe and everything conspired against me getting any computer work done.

We had a fabulous time in England, although it was a bit dubious whether we would make it or not. The Eurostar basically fails when it snows or there is ice. You would think that in a cold climate they would know that the train would come in contact with these things and manufacture equipment that stands up to the weather. Sensible non? Well, it seems that sense and public transport are polar opposites.

Prepare for start of rant.....

I was supposed to be on the first Eurostar of the day leaving Paris. When I woke at 5am there was a thick coating of snow outside. Pas de problem. I called a taxi. "Sorry we cannot access your area this morning due to the snow". Ok, mild anxiety. Try another company. And try again and again for 40 minutes, until finally a taxi agrees to drive almost to our street to pick me up. Try to take suitcase downstairs and up (yes - uphill) to the nearest cross street quietly.... whilst trying to remain upright and not end up with a bruise imprint of the cobblestones on my backside. Sigh.

Anyway, taxi finally arrives, get to the train terminal a few minutes before departure and race through security etc. Jump on the train and before I can find my seat the doors close. A very close call.

Then the train sat there for 30 minutes without moving whilst they removed snow from the engine carriage.......

A very very slow trip to Calais where we once again sat whilst they de-snowed and iced the engine carriages. Then a slow trip through the tunnel and a slow trip to London. A 2 and a half hour trip turned into 5 and a half hours. One ray of sunshine is that we were all offered free Eurostar tickets to be used anytime within the next year. You know I will be taking them up on that offer!

End of rant, back to lovely trip.

I had 2 glorious though very short days with a girlfriend who I haven't seen since last september. If only I could have slowed time down so we could have fitted more in. At least I know that with my free ticket I can go and visit again soon without breaking the budget.

After 2 days in Surrey I went back to London to visit with the outlaws - oops I mean inlaws. Wayne joined me there and we had 2 days of eating, drinking and general merriment. One of the highlights was dinner on saturday night (which was our wedding anniversary coincidentally).

My SIL cooked a fabulous meal, followed by delicious British cheeses with water biscuits. Then the piece de resistance - dessert made by the youngest niece. A truely scrumptious confection of puff pastry, caramel and apples, served with vanilla ice cream and real english cream. Delicious! As you can see, plates were scraped clean and quite quickly too!








As always, we came home with suitcases filled with goodies. A shopping trip to Boots, Primark, Holland and Barrett and M&S is compulsary. All sorts of goodies found their way into our bags till they were full to bursting point.

Tonight it is cumberland sausages and mashed potatoes with gravy and peas. There are Scottish fishcakes tucked away for later in the week, and all sorts of other tasty treats just waiting to tempt our tastebuds. You just know that regimes and sensible eating are out the window whilst we have these goodies in the house!