Coming home to snow

I'm having trouble believing that the Super Bowl was only a week ago (and I'm bummed I never had the opportunity to blog about it or really enjoy the fact that the Steelers won.) I had to get ready to leave on a business trip to Spain on Tuesday that would be followed by 3 days vacation in London (The Wife was going to join me in London). It's been a hectic week. The business trip was generally fine as business trips go - no major hassles and we accomplished what we went there to accomplish.

London was expensive. I made the mistake of booking The Wife on a bus from the airport (then booked myself two days later on the same bus). It took FOREVER - traffic was tremendous and it was the middle of the morning. I can't even imagine what rush hour must be like. I had The Wife's best interest at heart when I booked it - I didn't want her to have to haul her luggage on and off the train and then drag it through the station to find a cab. We took a cab and the Heathrow Express train on the way back and it was painless and barrier-free (and took less than an hour door-to-door).

We saw an old friend (who will be referred to as the Italian former boyfriend who is gay...TIFB) who was a wonderful companion (along with his husband) for the wife when she first arrived and who spent Friday and Saturday evening with us. It was his 39th birthday on Saturday and he hosted a fab party in a gay bar. MMMMMM, BEEEER. We had a good time with the "Hi, I'm TIFB's former girlfriend" angle - unfortunately The Wife picked up a nasty cold in London so she was back at the hotel and this caused some confusion among the attendees. Apparently two of them were arguing about whether or not I'm gay. HA. TIFB's husband (after several mojitos) was asking all kinds of amusing questions which I, tongue well loosened with Hoegaarden beer (there's something really wrong about a lesbian drinking something called HO garden) was indiscreet in answering.

I will now say something that may surprise you - we had good food in London... It was Indian food, not "English" food but wow, was it good. We don't have an Indian restaurant near us now and I really miss Indian food. I ate it all the time when I was in grad school. I also had a "pasty" filled with steak, stilton cheese, onion, potato, and maybe turnip. It was good.

I had the opportunity to interact with my English counterpart - The Chemist (aka the pharmacist). The Wife woke up with a cold on Saturday morning so I went to "Boots, The Chemist" to get some things for her. Unlike here where I could stand in the cough and cold aisle and browse (and read ingredients etc ) in the UK some of the non-prescription items are behind the counter so you have to ask for them. Not knowing what anything was called or what it contained I had to ask the Chemist. I also had to lie through my teeth to the Chemist (is she taking any other medications? Just some Tylenol...).

To be continued...