Greetings from the Minneapolis Airport Hilton! As the snow was finally cleared from Heathrow Airport in London, a snowstorm was wending its way to the Atlanta airport. I could have made it to Atlanta today, but connection to Dallas was cancelled and I wouldn't have arrived there until Monday earliest. So yet another rebooking - the fourth. (Christmas next year will involve a journey of no more than 100 miles!) Christmas night in an airport hotel isnt what I would have chosen for myself, but I had three diazepam's on the plane so I'm in very good spirits! And had a grilled ahi tuna sandwich with honey bacon and wasabi mayonaise for dinner downstairs which beats boring old turkey and sprouts any day.
Tomorrow morning it's on to Dallas at the crack of dawn. Flight on to Atlanta for visit with Lucy & co. has been postponed till New Years Day so I'm not losing any of my vacation time. And later arrival back in the UK. Have just seen the first photos of Christmas at Lucy's in Atlanta. Apparently Jacob is now a cowboy (the pround owner of a plush rocking horse) and Andrew has fallen in love with Toy Story and is carting Woody around all over the house with him.
It's 1am in England and I'm already drifting....
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
Christmas adventure, part I
So apparently it takes at least seven days to get out of England! My flight to Atlanta on Saturday was cancelled after just one and half hours and three inches of snow. The airport claimed they were working like mad to clear it and get planes flying. We watched out the windows for five hours after it stopped and saw nothing. Nobody was doing anything. BAA is full of crap!
But people are terrific. As we collected our bags a young chap overheard me tell my father that my phone was running out of juice. He offered me his charger, and when my flights bags came onto the carousel he told me to keep it and send back to him at my convenience. So kind! Dad was able to get me rebooked for a Monday morning flight so I headed home. We all packed onto the Heathrow Express. When I got to Paddington the Tube was out of commission so I joined the queue for taxis. Only an hour wait and my driver and I chatted about the history of his cottage in Essex. In the queue I chatted to a family who had been on their way to Shanghai for a wedding planned around their coming out from England - they bought the tickets in February! I began to think I wasn't so hard done by. Luck was definitely on my side, as I made it onto the last Thameslink train from St Pancras back out to Luton that night. I even had a seat!
While so many people slept on the floor at Heathrow I was tucked up warm in my little flat. My bedroom is very cold, so I've pulled out the sofa bed and moved into the living room - watching the 37" flat screen telly from my bed - this isn't pretty nice. The airport is still frozen solid so today's flight was always cancelled. Thankfully they announed it online last night so I was saved the horror of travelling to Heathrow again today. The first available flight was on the 25th, but at least I went to bed last night knowing I could sleep in and I had a new flight arranged. With five days - and not too much more snow forecast - I may just be third time lucky.
I'm in good spirits considering. I just need to keep as busy as possible. I spent much of today at Paddy and Mike's. Now only four days to go.
But people are terrific. As we collected our bags a young chap overheard me tell my father that my phone was running out of juice. He offered me his charger, and when my flights bags came onto the carousel he told me to keep it and send back to him at my convenience. So kind! Dad was able to get me rebooked for a Monday morning flight so I headed home. We all packed onto the Heathrow Express. When I got to Paddington the Tube was out of commission so I joined the queue for taxis. Only an hour wait and my driver and I chatted about the history of his cottage in Essex. In the queue I chatted to a family who had been on their way to Shanghai for a wedding planned around their coming out from England - they bought the tickets in February! I began to think I wasn't so hard done by. Luck was definitely on my side, as I made it onto the last Thameslink train from St Pancras back out to Luton that night. I even had a seat!
While so many people slept on the floor at Heathrow I was tucked up warm in my little flat. My bedroom is very cold, so I've pulled out the sofa bed and moved into the living room - watching the 37" flat screen telly from my bed - this isn't pretty nice. The airport is still frozen solid so today's flight was always cancelled. Thankfully they announed it online last night so I was saved the horror of travelling to Heathrow again today. The first available flight was on the 25th, but at least I went to bed last night knowing I could sleep in and I had a new flight arranged. With five days - and not too much more snow forecast - I may just be third time lucky.
I'm in good spirits considering. I just need to keep as busy as possible. I spent much of today at Paddy and Mike's. Now only four days to go.
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
Christmas starts here
For me Sloane Square means Christmas: Partridges, Holy Trinity, blue trees and sparklers...Christmas starts here.
Had a very successful Christmas shopping expedition this afternoon, and bought myself a present...I'm a sucker for pretty dresses.
Had a very successful Christmas shopping expedition this afternoon, and bought myself a present...I'm a sucker for pretty dresses.Friday, December 03, 2010
I've made an exciting discovery today. Most of my family were so hopelessly poor they never show up on records other than the parish registers. But working as a researcher for the past five months has introduced me to all kinds of new records, and I'll be darned if I didn't find some family in a place I never would have expected to see them.
They were occupying cottages marked on the map - to be honest I wouldn't have been surprised to learn they'd been living under a hedge somewhere - but no they're on the tithe. It's nuts. 
Cottages labelled 68 are the ones my family were living in. I'm trying to determine if the cottages are still there. And if they are, well I might just go bother the people who live in them.
I was looking at the tithe map for the Beds village of Whipsnade (Whipsnade is my special place) and found my family listed on the tithe apportionment.
They were occupying cottages marked on the map - to be honest I wouldn't have been surprised to learn they'd been living under a hedge somewhere - but no they're on the tithe. It's nuts. Cottages labelled 68 are the ones my family were living in. I'm trying to determine if the cottages are still there. And if they are, well I might just go bother the people who live in them.
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