Much to Mom’s Relief we we’re not whisked off to Russia by an Ersatz Cabbie

We arrived at Heathrow!

It was nice to stand up after so long. I have to admit there was something a little magical about seeing the signs for “litter bins” and “toilets” – a sure sign I had actually arrived in the UK. We walked what seemed to be at least 3 more miles (avoiding as many stairs as possible for Mom’s sake – and she doesn’t do escalators either) and arrived at customs (or whatever they call it, you know the place where they check your passport). Two delightful blokes checked my passport; they were ever so funny, there was a short one and a tall one. The short fellow had dark hair and more of a Scottish accent, while the other was a tall, rather gangly fellow who looked like he could have been the long lost brother of my friend Sara – there was something very Griffin about him. They checked us in, gave us the green light and I FINALLY GOT A STAMP IN MY PASSPORT!!!

We worked our way down to Baggage claim and retrieved our luggage and then made our way to the pickup area. We had been told that there would be a man there to pick us up, and just like in the movies he’d be holding a sign with our name on in. Sure enough as we made our way I spotted the fellow (a rather good looking bloke, mind you with a David Tennant type accent). I spotted him first and made my way over to him, he asked if we were the ones he was looking for (more or less) then crumpled up the sign faster than you can say Jack Robinson – I had secretly hoped that I could keep it as a souvenir – or at least snap a picture, but that wasn’t going to happen. We made our way to the “Car park” to his car and along the way saw several old time “London Cabs”. The cabbie made light work of our suitcases and we hopped in the car and started our journey to Corringham. We soon found ourselves on “Europe’s Largest Car Park” – the local’s term for the M25 – lucky we were headed in the right direction, the opposite side of the road was stopped for what had to have been miles!

We arrived at Auntie’s at about 1:30. She was “ever so pleased” to see us and greeted us each with a kiss on the cheek. Once we were all in, introduced to our rooms, we settled in on the couch in the lounge. We had a abit of supper (at least I think that’s which meal it was) or ham sandwiches (bread, butter and ham) and fresh tomatoes from Alan’s garden, along with some “Victoria Sandwich” cake. From that moment on, pretty much we sat about fighting off sleep so as to stave off the jet lag. A little later we had dinner—we had some delicious pork with fresh green beans and carrots from the garden, new potatoes, all slathered by gravy. We also had a sliced of homemade apple pie with a bit of ice cream (yum!)

The rest of the evening was spent in the lounge listening to Mary and Dad chatting.