July 10, 2007

• Thanks for Your Prayers!

  Here we are in the lobby of the hotel. Please note what TGD
  and I are wearing in the picture.
  

  

   
  Yes! Our bags finally arrived. After countless, fruitless
  phone calls for two solid days, we got a call this morning, “We have located
  your bags. They will be delivered sometime today.”  I immediately called the automated delivery
  service line to confirm that they were sending them to our hotel in England and not to our home in Pennsylvania. (The file from British
  Airlines said, “Delivery Instructions: To Permanent Address” causing me much
  unnecessary grief and panic.) 
  

  We had planned to tour the Reading Museum
  and visit the Abbey ruins today, and we saw no need to alter our plans on the
  off chance the bags could arrive.  We spent
  a pleasant morning snapping pictures, looking at old biscuit tins, and
  examining Roman floor mosaics.  TGD
  wanted to go to some math talks in the afternoon, so we split up around 1:30.
  

  I went to Marks and Spencer.
  

  Marks and Spencer is a staple of English commerce, I
  believe.  Imagine a smaller version of
  Target with a nice grocery store attached which specializes in trendier food
  and not many fruits and veggies.  I just
  wandered around with my silver shopping basket, soaking in all the different
  names.  Want an ice cream bar on a
  stick?  Here they are called “cream
  lollies.”  Want some fresh cherries? They
  are only £ 6.99 per pound—which was a half-price sale. (You double the pounds
  to get American money. $14 a pound for cherries? No, thanks!)  I got chocolate-covered, break apart
  digestive biscuits (think Kit Kat), cheddar cheese crackers with onion and
  poppy seeds, Jelly Babies (I prefer Dots, thank you.  Also, the purple Jelly Babies are nasty!), a
  bag of sea salt and vinegar crisps (thicker than American potato chips and
  quite yummy), and a box of four raspberry bakewell tarts.  I’m quite keen to eat one tonight with some
  tea. MMMM!  I also got a reusable M&S
  shopping bag in black for only 99 pence! (In case you didn’t know, which I
  didn’t, English money is also a base-ten decimal set. There are 100 pence in a
  pound.)
  

  
  

  My hotel room desk yesterday afternoon. I thought it was worthy of a picture and my time! (Yes, of course that is tea. It looks rather coffee-ish in the picture.)

  

  
  

  After this jaunt, I bought some postcards (£1.20 for four)
  and postage to mail them to Am
  erica
  (£2.16).  At this point, I’d been walking
  and on my feet in non-supportive sandals for five hours, so I decided to head
  back to the hotel.
  

  When I walked in, the fellow behind the desk said, “Your
  bags are in your room!”  (The staff here
  has been quite solicitous and concerned over our missing bags, especially Katy,
  who even called from her home this afternoon to find out if the bags had come.
  I think she was about to loan me some of her knickers.)  With a spring in my step, I jogged up the
  three flights of stairs to our room, flung open the door, and beheld all three
  of our bags.  Blissful sight!  Praise God for His goodness! I’m fully
  convinced it was your prayers and His Mighty Hand which are enabling me to wear
  nylons right now.
  

  I spent the next two hours leisurely preening and
  unpacking.  Razor, nail clippers,
  conditioner, real toothpaste…aaaaah, the luxury of it all.
  

  TGD returned to the hotel around 5:00 and enjoyed his own
  ablutional bliss. We headed out for supper at a trendy pub called The Back of
  Beyond which TGD found earlier in the day. Good choice. We both ate for £10
  total!  That’s an American price!  (Do I sound like a raving miser? I’m really
  not.)  I had the crispiest, most
  delicious fish.  TGD had chili, rice, and
  tortilla chips.  We both left happy and
  not stuffed to the gills but full.  I
  like that feeling.

  Queen Victoria statue in Reading. She makes a nice roost for the pigeons.

  

  
  

  I am in the process of writing a nice, long entry about Reading and all the nifty
  things here. I hope to post it sometime this week.   Tomorrow afternoon, we are taking a bus trip
  to Windsor Castle. Thursday, I might take a day
  trip somewhere by myself. Friday, we are to go to Winchester and Chawton—Jane Austen here we
  come!

  Flowers along the Abbey wall.

   

   
  

  
  

  Archway at the ruins of the Abbey in Reading. The Abbey was built in the 1100s, commissioned by Henry I who was buried there,  and was dissolved in the mid-1500s by Henry VIII.
  

  
  

  

  
  

  Right now, TGD and I are in the hotel lobby. The TVs are on to a show which is called Three Fat Brides, One Thin Dress.  Imagine one of our reality shows, but a bit more over-the-top. The host of the show, a 50ish woman, made all three women go one at a time into a port-a-potty and make a “poo.” This poo was then brought out and shown to her, the other two contestants and all the television viewers with much commentary from the host. Eww!  Also, she laid in a bed in a store window with two of the grooms and ate healthy food in an erotic way.  I don’t think I’ll rush out to buy the DVD of the series.  Glad I’m blogging!

  I think of you often, each of you. I think, “Oh, so-and-so would enjoy this!” Even though I’m not on your blogs, it doesn’t mean you aren’t on my mind.

  To my kiddos–I miss you! Be good!

  • 3:59 pm
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