FINALLY Arrived in Manchester!

View from my bedroom window right now. The white things are sheep. Loud sheep.

After a grueling day and a half journey to get here, I've finally made it to Manchester! I left St. Louis about 4:00 Thursday. We landed in Washington Dulles and I had to hustle to make it to my gate, but since Dulles is my home-town airport, I made record time. Of course, once I got there we were delayed an hour because of inclement weather. When they did board us, they had to take us off again. When we finally got on, our take-off was delayed twice because of the storm. We sat on the runway for TWO HOURS! The winds descended and the floods came and beat upon our plane, but it fell not, because Margaret was too engrossed in watching the Big Bang Theory on her monitor.

It was great finally seeing land after being over the Atlantic for so long. We saw Ireland first - at least I think it was Ireland. It was very green and very pretty. Then there was some more water and then we were over Wales, I think. Then England, which was greener and prettier than all the rest because that was where I was going!

Naturally when I got to London they had to give me a new ticket for my connecting flight to Manchester, then that one wouldn't work so they had to give me another one! Then from Manchester airport I took the train and there was a very cute little boy sitting next to me. His name was Hamish and he was from Edinburgh (I'm not making this up).

View from my other window.

My friend came to collect me at the station and our first stop was Morrison's to do some grocery shopping. My first two purchases upon returning to the UK: Ribena and Cadburry Flake bars. Yum! After a luxurious hot shower, I had a good natter with my friend's mother in the kitchen while she prepared dinner - feta and spinach quiche. Double yum!

Now it's 8:00 PM and I am about to bed down for a solid 10 hours. There are sheep outside making a heck of a racket, but I don't really mind.