...And we're home!

Twelve days of vacation in England and Paris gone in a flash. I knew it would happen like this as it always does. You wait and wait for it to come and then it comes and is gone before you have time to enjoy it. Jared said to me yesterday it didn't even feel like we went anywhere and it's true. However when we were there, it felt like we'd been there forever.

I decided to put my writer-in-my-head issues aside and brought a notebook with me so I could remember all the good stuff and I'm so glad I did. I have pages and pages of funny things and happenings that I need to write about. I'm excited for all my new material!

I think our flight out there was eventful in it's own right. We left our house after only three attempts, which was pretty good I thought. After we were certain we'd not forgotten anything and decided four times was too much, we left to stay over at my parents for the early morning flight. Up at 3 a.m. and on our way to Newark was not a fun trip because we were all tired and Jared was driving. Of course our flight was leaving on a snowy, sleet filled day. My mom and I sat in the back seat gripped with fear we would die on the way there and Jared just carried on like everything was hunky dory. But we made it and said farewell to my 'rents and headed to the plane.

Everything was fine until they started seating people. They (Virgin Atlantic) were calling up by row but they only called one group of rows and then no others. Jared and I being the good people that we are did not get on until our row was called. However, there were about a dozen people left and they said everyone else can board. I was pissed because they did not call our row and now we were the last on the plane due to our politeness. So of course when we got to our seats, yup, that's right, no more overhead compartment room. I was FURIOUS! EVERY time I get on a plane, I always put my bag under the seat because I have short legs and I like to get into my bag. Well this time we had three bags and two jackets and NO space. What the HELL! I pretty much started ranting, Thank You, everyone for taking up all the space and not leaving any for us. Thanks for bringing on everything but the kitchen sink so that my poor, long-legged husband has to be cramped for six hours. I did not stop bitching until Jared noticed the stares and begged me to shut up. Honestly, I NEVER take up overhead compartments and leave it to all those fuckers to take advantage and not leave me any space just because we are polite. ARGH! Makes me furious all over again...

So we were on our way and getting off the flight to see my father-in-law (FIL), Colin was great. It was so nice to see him. We fit all our luggage, miraculously, into his little car, and made our way to Gidea Park, Romford.

After sleeping for a very long time to make up for our lost hours, we woke up and Jared walked me around a bit to see where he grew up. It was so fun to see it! This is their house and how most of the semi-detached houses, as they call them, are in the suburbs of London.

The house was really nice inside as Colin is an architect and a pretty good carpenter as well. It was a lot bigger inside than it seems here, especially because they have the end unit and a much bigger garden.

One of the biggest surprises was palm trees. Never in a million years did I ever imagine the suburbs of London having palm trees. But as my mom says, to each's own, right?

This is where Jared's school was when he was a little boy.

Now, these guardrails are here for a reason. It's to keep the pedestrians alive. See, the English drive like maniacs, and on the wrong side, yes that's right, the WRONG side of the road! So these guardrails prevent deaths of poor pedestrians. I'm really not kidding when I say they drive like maniacs. Driving with Christine, my mother-in-law (MIL), I thought I was going to die more than once because of the sheer velocity of which she went from zero to 80 after a traffic light.

The English sure to like their pubs and their drink. We went to a few which I'll talk about in later posts. But sometimes they may like their drink too much you think? They can't really paint straight lines on roads.

Ha! I'm just kidding. The zigzag means as my FIL tells me, you can not park here.

The local fish and chip joint in Romford where we did have dinner one night. It's definitely a cholesterol frensy but hey, one must be naughty every once in a while. Especially with the donner kebab, fish, chips, shrimp, all fried, loads of salt, vinegar, and a side of tarter please.

A photo of Jared's school. He said the playground is still the same as when he was there. It looks so cute!

Here we are on a bridge overlooking Romford at night.

And of course, last but not least, the biggest grocery store I've ever been in. It's walking distance from Jared's house and he used to work there as a teen. Two floors of all the groceries you could ever want and electronics and clothes too! Yeah, this Tesco kicks Super Wal Mart's ass.