Arrived in London/Oxford

Well, I'm here. I'm in Oxford. Not sure what to say except that I had no problems with the trip, the landing or the meeting, customs anything. in fact, the whole flying stuff has gone surprisingly easily. Customs in both Singapore and London were as simple as walking up to a desk, chatting with someone, and then collecting my bags and walking out of the airport. I was really surprised at Changi airport that there was no checks of my baggage. However, I suspect they were all x-rayed etc behind the scenes and found nothing to worry about. I did get tested for gun powder at Perth airport before I left.

This was particularly funny as Friday at work, we had poppers (you know the things you pull the string and they explode and throw out streamers), and someone was teasing me that I was going to get stopped at the airport for having gun powder on my hands. So to have the random test done the day after we were giggling about it at work was quite funny. I had to keep a straight face so I didn't look suspicious.

Had a coughing fit when I met up with M&K at Heathrow. So instead of lots and lots of hugs, we had water, cough medicine, and pats on the back until I could stop coughing. Change of temperature something set me off, cause I've been fine since. It's still not as bad as the other day when I just couldn't stop coughing and kept losing my breath.

M&K drove to London so we drove back in their Mercedes Benz. I do love saying that. It's an old one and didn't cost all that much apparently. Lovely car. Similar colour to mine at home. Reminds me of "The Beast" a very old merc that friends of mine were given, yes, given, back in about 1968 and we drove for a while around Europe until it died. It was a car that a traveller they knew had bought, very cheaply, and wasn't worth the time and energy to sell so they acquired it until the poor old thing totally died.

Drive was uneventful except that K took a wrong turn somewhere but didn't seem to make much difference. Was fun to watch the traffic on the M4 (I think) going into London at a standstill while we were moving quite nicely. By this time it was about 8:30 in the morning so everyone was going to be late for work.

It is now later in the day. We've been out for lunch at a place called the Jam Factory which really threw me cause I was expecting jam and stuff and it turned out to be a nice little cafe, with lovely food, but no jam. Apparently the building used to be a marmalade factory which is where the name came from. We also had a bit of a walk around Oxford, I've no idea where we went, but M got his hair cut while K and I browsed the markets and then we all came home.

I've had a nana nap and a shower. Still can't find things, but did find a power board and adaptor so Lara the laptop is now plugged in and charging. I've also had a chance to visit some of the blogs and realise that for some reason I ended up with an extra picture in my last blog. No idea how I did it. K is out at the physio and M is asleep and has been since before my nana nap. He's pretty tired today as well. The cats are ignoring me. when I went up for my nap, Safi was on my bed, and as soon as she realised that I was going to curl up there, she disappeared. I spotted Azi on the stairs at one stage, but as soon as she spotted me, she too disappeared. Wonder how my fur kids are going? Hope they are okay.

Just remembered to change the time on Lara so it's still Tuesday here instead of Wednesday like it told me it was. Didn't realise that computers could be wrong.

No photos this time. Too tired. More will come probably tomorrow as I start to become Oxfordised in my little walks and stuff. M&K are both back to work tomorrow and Friday we are off to Birmingham for Miniatura and apparently I have been booked for the following weekend to go to Cornwall for the weekend. I do love not having to make any plans, all done for me !!

Cheers

Madeleine

Tuesday, 30 September 2008