We've arrived!

And so it begins! A decent flight with a strong tailwind got us to Heathrow well ahead of schedule. In an attempt to avoid the awkwardness of our Customs experience in June, we placed our landing cards in our passports such that the visa pages would be the first thing the agent saw. It worked well, except the agent then stamped those pages as they would any other blank page in a passport; you can't even make out my birth date or nationality now. *sigh* I think both Tea and I cried a little (inside) to see the fruits of no small amount of labour vandalized in such a fashion. Of course, we said nothing, and were through in no time; here's hoping the next Customs agent who looks at them doesn't bat an eyelash.

Oh, and one final note on Customs: I saw Michael Geist in line behind us with his family. I didn't introduce myself, however, so that's all I have to say about that.

Since we were well ahead of schedule, we decided to see if we could catch an earlier National Express coach to Cheltenham. Tea had paid extra for this option -- in case Customs tripped us up -- and for an additional fee, we were on the 7:15 a.m. coach, Caffè Nero snacks and drinks in hand.

We sent James, our landlord, a text message on the way asking if showing up early would be a problem. He said that so long as we didn't mind him under foot for a bit, it was fine with him. He's quite the funny guy, actually -- Tea says he reminds her of our friend 'W', and I can see why -- and we all hit it off really well. (We'd met his wife, Linda, on our house-hunting trip.)


Malvern Road BridgeAfter dropping our bags, and going through their list of important things to know and the inventory (they're very organized), it was off to Waitrose to see what the nearest grocery store had to offer. As if the fifteen-minute walk door-to-door (with convenience stores much closer than that) wasn't sweet enough, we got to take in the beautiful Honeybourne Line Cycle Path while doing so. Add to that that there are many lactose-free products available at Waitrose -- there are none at Tesco, and I was beginning to wonder if that was indicative of the whole town -- and a free delivery service, and you can understand why I was grinning from ear to ear as we left for home.


Our kitchen tableThen it was time for a nap; Tea's was only slightly longer than mine, ;-) leaving me time to finish The Falcon and The Snowman and have a good long chat with Kae.

We decided to have take-away delivered from The Everest -- a favourite of ours on the June trip -- for supper, and used the Waitrose and Tesco Web sites to plan what groceries we'd like delivered over the next two days while we waited for it. Our supper arrived in no time, piping hot; the balti chicken was just as good as I remembered, and it was a great experience all-round: I've never shaken a delivery guy's hand before! :-)

Back home (for a month or so)

Looking at our pictures from yesterday, I found the urge to blog was still there and thought, "Why not?" Yes, we're home for a bit, but very shortly we'll be back in the UK, so why break the habit.

I was up early yesterday and had some time to work on my drawing class before Tea got up. We decided to continue working on the inventory we'd started the previous evening -- the inventory of our books, music and movies has been done for some time, but now we've finished the furniture, most of the kitchen and some of the electronics. (I still have to take photos of everything too.) Tea dictates and I type; we both feel like we have the easiest job, which works out well.


She's about to have another piece
Then Kae came by for a visit, bearing a gift for our wedding anniversary: a fantastic chocolate cream pie! As you can see from this picture, we're already well into it a day later.

Then the inventory of the kitchen continued, but with the wine flowing now as we looked ahead to our anniversary supper at one of our favourite restaurants, Fiamma, just a short walk away. As you can imagine, our pace diminished -- at some point I started echoing Tea as I typed so she'd realize how far behind I was falling -- 'til Tea gave up entirely and called her sister. The two of them decided to have an interactive opening of the birthday presents Tea'd sent her -- over Skype -- and much hilarity ensued.

Then it was off to Fiamma. Foolishly thinking that the sidewalk was a safe place for a slightly-inebriated person such as myself, in one of those both-zigging-when-one-should-zag situations, I was almost run over by a young man on a barely-coasting bicycle. Thankfully, the rest of the walk was uneventful.

We began the meal with more wine, an anti-pasti tray, and PEI mussels in a white wine and garlic sauce. Yum! Tea had chicken parmesan with fettucine alfredo, and I had linguine pescatore with scallops, squid and more mussels. They really know how to cook pasta at Fiamma, and this time was no exception.

Then it was home for a bit of drunken cribbage. Tea was kickin' my butt all over that half-acre, so I decided to call it a night. At no point did I fall asleep in the middle of a hand -- ah, the advantages of being the blogger/historian.