England does it better

On Dec. 27th I landed at Heathrow. For the first time I was smart about travel - no make up getting on my cross-planet journey... instead I had it all ready so that I could cover up the dark circles from the flight an hour before touch down. Marc said I looked amazingly fresh for someone getting off a 10 hour flight. Success!

But more than that, Marc and his dad were there to pick me up and take me on a wild ride across London to the Far East Side. Since we were coming from the West (Heathrow, we did a drive through London on the North side of the Thames). We saw the Eye, the Tower, amazing architecture and more than I can now remember.

We stopped in the old neighborhood to get pie, mash & parsley eel sauce - aka liquor. I was thrilled... real pie & mash. We got to the snug house of Marc's father & step-mother, Linda. Tea was served and then lunch of pies & mash. The sauce was poured on my plate before I could test. Good thing for me, I liked it all. Also good for me, I had just had a marathon 2 days of eating with Christmas Eve at Dad's and Christmas day at Brendan's house. I got 3/4 of the way through the mash down along with all but a few bites of my 2nd pie. Needless to say, I was done - only a couple hours of nodding off on the plane with a big lunch - I was out cold for 2 hours.

They got me up and ran me back to make a run for beigels. Marc's father is Jewish, more by family than practice and they have special bagel shops, beigels. And yes, they were good. We had them with corned beef and a healthy serving of bubble & squeak. Thank you Linda! I had knocked out two traditional English dishes, loved them both within 8 hours of setting foot in London.

Our evening was filled with me getting trounced with Who Wants to Be a Millionaire... The theme for this trip: Despite the language, we are not from the same culture. Such little things, the phrasing of thoughts, words and little social things. Lucky for me, I didn't get too dinged for not knowing what Princess Stephanie said to the media that caused hubbub - something like Nuff-off!

Sunday we were up to a yummy breakfast of beigels and eggs and tea. Lots of tea. Then to the graveyard to visit Marc's grandparents and put the stones we had picked up for them on a beach walk with my mother. I was sad that I didn't get to meet Rosie, his recently past grand-nan.

Sunday night was a walk about Cuffley, where Marc's mother lives and where we've spent most of our time. North London - and I say not a city, as there are fields and livestock. Our walk took us past the parental home of Posh Spice - very fun. I got a taste of cider at the local pub. What struck me there was how similarly the teen boys looked to my local teens.

Alright - time for bed. I'll write more tomorrow.