Meanderings: July 30, 1999

Friday,
July 30, 1999

As you can tell, this is being posted after the fact, basically because the weekend was devoted to Traveling to England. Today was interesting, in the way that "May you live in interesting times" is an old Chinese curse.

Well, no, it wasn't that bad -- but it would've been easier if I'd been able to rent a car. Dratted Vägverket. After spending the night finishing my dress, packing, and doing what tidying I could, we set off for the airport around 5:30 am -- the plane was leaving at 7:00 am, which meant we had to be there by 6:00 am, which meant that Mellie Did Not Get Any Sleep That Night. Checked the bags, staggered to the gate, staggered on board the plane, and tried to grab what sleep I could before facing the events of the day.

See, since we couldn't rent a car, we would have to 1) take a train from London Stansted Airport into London proper, 2) catch a Tube line across town to Paddington Station, 3) take the Great Western train service out to Taunton, Somerset, and 4) catch a cab to the hotel. All of this while humping two of those extendable handle carryon cases, an overnight bag, and assorted carrier bag on and off various transports. Ironically, we probably got there the fastest using this method, as the M5 was absolutely jammed, and it was certainly cheaper than renting a car for four days. But in the state I was in, I just wanted to collapse in a cool corner and wibble.

Stansted to London went without a hitch (I got off the plane and went, "Whooo -- I forgot it's Summer in the rest of the world!"), as did the Tube trip. At Paddington, we stopped off and had a quick bite before getting on the train, which is when we discovered that it was now de rigeur to reserve a seat on a train. In the olden days, you just tripped on board and found an empty spot. Not any more -- car after car was filled with seats that had little "RESERVED" slips on them. To say that we were dismayed would be an understatement -- to say that we were hot, sweaty, tired, and ready to crack (well, I was) is more accurate. But Lyndon, my genius, found two seats that weren't going to be filled until Taunton, so we collapsed in those and watched the green, green, GREEN countryside pass outside. If England's warming trend continues like this, it's gonna be the Bermuda of Northern Europe in a few years.

In any case, we did make it to Taunton, I did collapse in the lovely inn the groom had arranged for us (I know you're reading this, Dangerous, and thank you ever so for bringing Travel Inn to our attention -- it's going to make our lives much easier when we go to England from now on) while Lyndon headed off to get brown shoes and other accoutrements. Said accoutrements also included a lovely navy blue leather handbag and dishy hat, for me, for the wedding. I married a man with exquisite taste, I really did.

After repaying part of the sleep debt, I got up, took a shower, and headed off to the pub associated with the hotel to find Lyndon, who had met up with the wedding party for dinner. Real English fish and chips, yum. Then we chatted with with Dangerous and Cara's folks (including the sublime Rex and Kathy, a couple we met in 1995 when Dangerous came over for a visit and took us to Massachussetts), and back to the hotel for more sleep. Now if we could only find a place before the wedding that sold greeting cards. . .

TOP