Home again, home again...Jiggidy Jig!

5^th May, local time unknown (probably something around 17.00), Flying over the Atlantic Ocean

Dimmie went home on Friday, and I really didn’t feel like writing much in here after that. Suzi came in on Saturday night, and, on Sunday…we rested. Today, it’s back to the USA and our regularly-scheduled lives.

I do have one great anecdote, relating to a restaurant called The Texas Embassy. We saw this place as we were taking a bus tour of the city, right there, overlooking Trafalgar Square. I looked and saw the Texas flag, outside this place that looks like a restaurant. Turns out to have really good food of the sort we have here. Dimmie took me there on her last day in England. (note that in the picture, the sign says "Michelob IMPORT!" hehehehe things are different in other countries)

The place surprised me, the music, food, and ambiance are all very authentically Texan. I may even write the place up for E2. Over margaritas, I explained the concept of chicken fried steak to Dimmie (even thought that wasn’t what I got for dinner).

Chicken fried steak, called “country fried” or “southern fried” virtually EVERYwhere outside the South, is basically a cutlet, tenderized, breaded and fried. Served with cream gravy and usually with mashed potatoes. Great stuff…not exactly health food, but very tasty.

So, instead of chicken fried steak, I opted for nachos, while she got a salad with fried chicken strips. The nachos were authentic, the beef was a little better than you’d usually find, the sour cream mellower, and they were a touch stingy with the jalapeños, but nacho making is NOT an exact science, and these were well within the parameters for a regular order of nachos. The nachos were good enough to make me homesick and the salad was bigger than my dainty Danish dame could finish. That was another accurate thing, huge portion sizes.

She’s never been to Texas, but she did catch one minor inaccuracy. Upstairs was a cantina, and over the bar hung a huge and lovely painting of a completely naked lady. Not hard-core, but definitely nothing you could show in a PG-13 movie.

“She’d be wearing something if these were actually Texas, wouldn’t she?” my travelling companion asked.

She learns fast.

Dimmie and I had a lot of fun. We walked and talked and shared, we saw London together and talked. I miss her, but we were together the right amount of time.

Suzi also had a good, if exhausting time, at the wedding in Cornwall, then spending time with Jess. I am constantly impressed by the level of friendship and love she’s found with this little tribe of amazing people…individuals she met, more or less by chance, on the Internet, of all things!

In 26 years of friendship with the woman whom I think of like a sister, I have seldom seen her so happy, so comfortable, so ALIVE, as when she is discussing her british friends—the adventures they’ve shared, the fun they’ve had, and the plans they are making.

Between my experiences with Dimmie, and the happy times Suzi had with Chris, Kat, Jess, Walter, Matt, etc etc etc etc … I could hardly be happier.

6^th May, local time 5:02pm, in my room, Richardson, Texas

It’s been quite an adventure! I slept 12 hours last night, and maybe the jetlag will have worn off. It’s a little bit weird to be back home, back to my quiet little life, but it was the best holiday…errrm…I mean vacation, that I could have ever hoped for.

Now comes unpacking, getting back to work, figuring out my finances (the airplane tickets were a gift, but the hotel stay was a big ouch!), going over two weeks of junk mail (that’s a lot), and generally trying to re-organise my life.

Big thanks to everyone who read about my trip, who helped out, and who rooted for us on our big adventure. It’s been magical.