The British Invasion

(From Wednesday) Well, boys and girls, it’s that time you have all been waiting for again. Yes, Terri and I have kicked off the second leg of our adoption tour. This trip starts with a nice detour to London. I have always wanted to go to London so I made sure I bugged Terri about coming here until I was more than a pain in the arse and she had to give in to get me to shut up. We left San Antonio on American Airlines for Chicago O’Hare—after a delay of forty minutes due to wind sheer in Chicago! Nice. Fortunately we had enough time between flights for this delay to not cause us a problem. In Chicago, we shuttled over to the International Terminal for our British Airways flight. It, too, was slightly delayed because the incoming flight experienced strong headwinds. At the counter they checked our passports and ended up giving us a seat in between us so we could stretch out. It was really nice that the flight was not very full so everyone had room to spread out. British Airways is good flying, the people were incredibly nice and the captain was the cheeriest I have ever heard—and you just got to love the way they say schedule. Our plane was a Boeing 777, very nice and roomy. The only downside I saw was that the movies weren’t on demand nor could they be paused, so I came in late on the movies and missed a lot while getting food and drink orders settled. Still, just a small thing on what turned our to be a really great airline. At the end of the flight Terri started to not feel too good as we ended up in a circling holding pattern, which when combined with reading a magazine made her feel very none too good. Landing, customs, and baggage were all uneventful and we soon found ourselves in a taxi to central London.

We are staying at the Thistle Kensington Park near the center of town, in walking distance to many attractions. We checked in and ordered room service and decided to sleep a while—no need killing ourselves so early in the trip. After a significant amount of time in a coma, we hit the streets around our hotel in search of dinner. We finally settled on a small Indian food restaurant called Siljam Little India based on an amusing pronouncement on the door: The owner eats here. Well, if the owner will eat at his own restaurant then that is proof enough for me that it is of the highest standards. It reminded me of a restaurant in Alamo Plaza (San Antonio) called the GM Steakhouse. Not by any food sense mind you, but in the fact it had a very small storefront but went back fairly deeply, as if Salvador Dali decided to open a restaurant. The food magically appeared from a dumbwaiter on the wall—the poor cooks exiled to a subterranean London existence. Despite any cosmetic peculiarities the food was quite good and we had curry 'til the cows came home (uh, sorry, cows are sacred in the Indian culture, but the vernacular doesn’t work otherwise). After dinner we walked past a local pub, looking through the windows at all the patrons mesmerized by a football match on the big screens. We then stopped into a small local grocery store for some water and a beer. Then it was back to our room to plan out tomorrow’s itinerary—and have a beer. It is nice to have this diversion built into our trip but we really do miss the boys. Lena sent us an email saying she has checked in on the boys a few times and that Aidan is waiting for us, and the caretakers let him know we will be returning soon. So he will either be happy to see us or quite miffed—I am banking on miffed. But soon both boys’ lives are going to go through some huge changes and there are a lot of people back home who can hardly wait to be part of their lives.