My flight left from LAX at 430pm on Monday and arrived in London Heathrow around 11am Tuesday morning. The last few days prior to my flight, I have to admit, I was nervous. You may be wondering whether or not I had cold feet, and the answer is an honest yes. I can't stress how easy it was to get back into a comfortable routine when I was home. I was around my family, my friends, my interests. I learned how to play racquetball in last few months and have been totally hooked since. For my entire life up until this point, I have been a free and independent woman. The world has been my oyster, and I've done what I wanted without having to think twice. Yes, getting onto a plane that took me across the world to settle for the next two years was scary. Change is scary, and I felt that more in the past few days than I ever had before. Anticipation, fear, excitement, overwhelming anxiety, too many mixed emotions all at once. The thing is, I knew this day was coming. The problem was that it felt so far away, and it started to feel totally surreal as it got closer. I had been comparing it to a cliff jump I did at the river a few weeks ago. I watched everyone else conquer it, and I wasn't too afraid to try it myself since it didn't look so big from inside the boat. It was during the hike to the top that my stomach started to flutter. Then, standing at the top and looking down was terrifying and it hit me. I almost couldn't jump. My thoughts and emotions almost got the best of me, but I had to let go of everything and just go for it.
My feelings towards leaving were very similar. It was so far away, that I didn't need to worry about it until it got closer. The same thing happened, thoughts, emotions and fear entered my mind, but I had to let it all go and JUMP. And that's exactly what I did :-)
In the meantime, my flight was great. Direct flights are definitely the way to go. It turned out that Heather Locklear was on my flight. Dad recognized her as she went through security and she took a picture with us :-) I only know her from an episode of Scrubs. That was kind of exciting. I sat next to a really cool couple who I think were drunk the entire flight. I wasn't able to sleep as much as I would have liked to--it's painfully awkward to sleep in such a cramped space. I traveled with Air New Zealand, and although Peter had been really impressed by them, I have to say that I think I like Virgin Atlantic more. Although, they had a great selection of movies. The first movie I watched was Tangled--which is now my new favorite movie! Then I watched Lost in Translation and a few others that I think I must have actually fallen asleep through.
Getting through immigration this time was a piece of cake and I didn't have a single ounce of worry :-)
The officer simply asked a few questions like, "Will this be your first time living in the UK? Is your husband traveling with you? When did you get married?...Thank you!" Beautiful, what a relief among other things.
My boy was there waiting for me just outside the gates and it was great to finally see him again (duh!). We got all my luggage back to the car and decided to have brunch in Windsor, since it was close by and on the way to our hotel! It was a much better alternative to London since it was hot out and I was exhausted. We stopped at a cute little Greek restaurant and sat outside and literally marveled at the fact that we were back in each others presence. Then it was off to our HOTEL!! I must say, this hotel is stunning. Our room wasn't anything special, but that's okay. It reminded me a lot of the Hotel Del because of it's age, the creakiness of the floors, and how confusing it was finding our room (every time!!) After I took a short nap, we went to the bar for food and drinks. It took us a while but we finally decided to share a salad. Forty five minutes later, we asked where our salad was and found out that they'd run out of one of the main ingredients. So we cancelled our order and Peter went to the grocery store around the corner instead. I was taking a bath when he came back with a sandwich, sushi, fruit and a chocolate bar for dessert. He sat in the bathroom with me and we ate while listening to music--it couldn't have been a more perfect night together! The next morning we took full advantage of the complimentary breakfast and then we were off to play racquetball! The courts are actually squash courts, so it was a bit frustrating for me since they're 8 feet shorter and have ridges along every wall and beams at the ceilings. Either way, we both loved it and now Peter claims that he's hooked :-)
Later the same day, we had two flat viewings. One in Boughton Under-Blean, a little village just on the outskirts of Canterbury, and the other was one we had almost said yes to, just up the main road in Canterbury. Both of them are £750, but after seeing the size of the first one (in the small village), nothing would ever compare. The size and proportion was perfect, and to me, worth being a few minutes away from Canterbury. It's so crazy the difference in size that you have to sacrifice for location. So since the place in Boughton was a two bedroom, we have asked Peter's roommate JP if he'd like to join us, and he's said yes after seeing it today!! The agency called us yesterday to let us know that there were a few people interested and asked if we wanted to give them our information to be considered as well. So we did, and the land lord chose us!!! JP saw the place this afternoon and I am pretty sure I witnessed his jaw hit the floor when he saw the size. A very good sign. It's also about two minutes from the golf course which is perfect!! I'll leave it here with that bit of good news, and until next time....
Sneak Peek of the Place!
