Ha! Ha! I've arrived and have made it through immigration without being detained!
I roll my bag through baggage claim and follow the well-marked signs to the tube. Since I learned how to take the regular Piccadilly line to and from the airport, there is no way I'm going to shell out 15 pound just to save 30 minutes.
I drag my butt onto the tube make my way through to Covent Garden. I have a reservation!
Before I was to indulge in what I assumed was to be the biggest treat of the trip, I had a small matter of business with which to dispense.
I left the tube at the Covent Garden station and luckily there was a Vodophone store right in front of my face. Well, not really luck since those things are everywhere, but fortuitous if nothing else.
I rolled into the store and purchased a new SIM card with 10 pound of minutes/data on it.
Pretty simple. I just hand my phone to the dude and he puts the thingy in it and activates it. I hand them a note of a few pound and off I go.
I drag my bag around to the famed Fortnum and Mason. Fortnum and Mason is rather a rivalry to Harrods. It has less of an obscure selection but what it has is steeped in tradition.
By this time I was starving and ready for my tea. I wheeled my bag up to the elevator and hit the button for the Diamond Jubilee Tea Room. It claims to be the first tea room in England. Now I could go on about how tea was a thing that the rich fat ladies of the country estates liked to do and blah, blah, blah, but... nah. Let's get to the good stuff.
I got off of the elevator and was greeted by a lady at the reception desk. I was able to check my bag, so I did.
 |
| Tea room filled with tourists. |
I was thirsty and when the waiter came to take my order, I really wasn't in the mood for alcohol. Instead I ordered a sparkling apple cider. It was really tasty. They gave me a glass with ice too, which I found odd, but maybe that's a standard thing with Americans.When I initially sat down, I had planned on just your average run of the mill tea. But then I was offered the Savory Tea with Oeufs Drumkilbo, which is a fancy name for an omelette with lobster. It's supposed to be the Queen's favorite dish. When I heard that, well, you know I had to try it. And yeah, It was good. And cheesy. I also got the royal blend tea, but tea is tea, so no big deal there.
 |
| Oeufs Drumkilbo |
After ingesting about 30 thousand grams of fat, I was brought the cake plate. Oh my, oh my, oh my. It really is hard to screw up pastries. And, NO, they most certainly didn't screw it up. Since it was just me, and I had the omelette, I was only given a few things to nibble. Nibble, of course being a really polite word for what I did.
If you study the above pic, you will see a three tiered plate on the left with jars of stuff. From top to bottom: Devonshire cream, which is right before butter, raspberry preserves and finally lemon curd.
CURD- An ugly word for a beautiful creation. Unlike what Little Miss Moffet ate, this is heaven. If you don't know what lemon curd is, think of the filling of a lemon meringue pie with more intense lemon flavor. When I opened the fresh jar of lemon curd and drizzled some on my scone, a light shone from the heaves and Angels came down and sang to me. ANGELS I SAY! I was nearly moved to tears. That's saying a lot for NOLA girl where good food is pre-requisite. But OH! that curd. I haven't had anything that tasty in if not forever, a really, really long time. The preserves were good too, as was the pre-butter, but man... I wanted to take my knife and scrape the jar of lemon curd and swipe it on my tongue. So good it was. SO GOOD.
I knew I couldn't buy a case of it since I had to take an EasyJet flight in a couple of hours, and I wasn't quite sure that I could bring the stuff back to the States. This caused me a little heartbreak and I was sad to see it go.
I had eaten my fill of pastries and did my best to consume an entire jar of lemon curd. I had to move or my rear end would be permanently stuck to that seat. Not that it would be a bad thing, but I had stuff to do.
While I was eating, I'd texted my number to those in the area and made a date to meet up with a former classmate.
I had a little while to kill, so I retrieved my bag and set out for a nice long walk. I got lost somewhere around Russell Square. Yes, okay, go ahead and laugh. I did stay there for a week less than six months ago, but no one ever accused me of having a good sense of direction.
I found myself eventually after asking several people for directions and met up with the Lovely Lady Victoria by the Baker Street Station Statue.
 |
| Not sure which incarnation of Sherlock it is, but it's a great statue. |
LLV suggested that we go to a pub near by and I readily accepted. She explained that this particular pub was part of a chain and not as desirable because it wasn't one of the quaint little places. I likened it to a Darden place as opposed to a mom and pop. Either way, I didn't mind. The music wasn't loud so we could chat.
We enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine and tried to solve the problems of the world. We didn't get too far past the entertainment industry, but one must have priorities.
Several hours later, I followed LLV's instructions and got to the train station, got aboard the right train and got off at Gatwick Airport.
From the airport, I followed the signs to the airport shuttles to the airport hotels. After about two hours of travel, I got to the Britannia Lodge.
At least I think that's what it was called.
This place is a 'Park and Stay' place. More like a motel than a hotel. It was an annex building off of a bigger and more luxurious hotel. I didn't mind really, I was only going to be here a couple of hours anyway.
The room was small and the bathroom light didn't work. That was okay. I was by myself and I had enough light for a shower and stuff.
I plugged in the tea service and the water heated up. That's good. I plugged in my phone to charge and nothing happened. What? How is that possible? I unplugged the tea service and plugged my phone in there. Nothing happened. Huh.
After more investigating, I deduced that the issue was with the power converter. Yes, one of the really nice power converters I'd purchased a few months earlier.
By this time it was way after 11 and I had to be on the airport shuttle by 4am. There was nothing I could do but set the alarm on all of my devices and hope one of them had enough juice to be able to make it to 2:30 am. As it turns out, I really didn't sleep so that was a moot point anyway.
 |
| THIS BASTARD decided to break! |
I crawled in bed and pretended to drift away, still thinking of the lemon curd and the pain in my gut because of it.
The end of day one.
