Arrival and Getting Settled in England

So yes, the flight was long, but that was expected. And it was $483 to upgrade all of us to coach plus, with more legroom… no thanks. We watched a lot of movies (Hurt Locker, The Brothers Bloom and Terminator Salvation for me and Scott), ate two meals and I restrained myself after only one lovely vodka tonic ~ this is no time to be lowering my immunity after all. :)

We were all tired and ready to get out long before we landed, but we counted our blessings as the connection gates were read out as we landed… many people on our flight were traveling on to all over the world from London.

One exciting little note on our landing ~ after we landed, the pilot came on and asked us all to remain in our seats even after we reached the gate because there was a MEDICAL EMERGENCY on our flight! Scott and I hadn’t noticed anyone getting special attention, so we figured it was someone with an upgrade from coach, not in our cabin. The pilot repeated his admonition to stay in our seats about 20 times between landing and arriving at the gate, but he came on one more time as we arrived and said Really, everyone, please do stay in your seats until the medical personnel have been able to help the passenger in need off the plane. Everyone on board was respectful and did remain in their seats.

So we’re just waiting for the ok to get up when two large, armed UK POLICE OFFICERS come walking into our section and stop on the aisle about 3 rows behind ours! They removed a young man from his seat (he cooperated, looking a bit abashed) asked him which carry-ons were his, and escorted him off the plane. After he left, the rest of us (still in our seats) started making eye contact with each other and there were a lot of raised eyebrows. I noted to my neighbor across the aisle (an Eastern European looking man about my age with a Kazakhstan shirt on) that they didn’t look like EMTs to me, and he laughed and agreed. Scott later saw them searching the arrested young man’s bags in customs. Interesting.

We arrived in London at 7:30 in the morning, which felt to us like 11:30 at night. Our sponsors (Scott’s new boss Kevin and his wife Linda) met us at the airport and got us to the shuttle. The driver got us out of Heathrow and on our way to RAF Croughton. We asked some questions along the way, but he was a little hard of hearing and we had to keep repeating ourselves, so we mostly just watched the cars flying by, passing in the right hand lanes… that will take some getting used to, but we’ll probably be really good, careful drivers when we do start driving.

The countryside was lovely as we passed through on the motorway, the trees are all changing colors. The motorway reminded me of the highway between Atlanta and Savannah, with big tall pine trees and lots of greenery. We saw a rainbow on the road to Croughton, that was pretty cool. Both girls fell asleep on the 45 minute ride.

We exited the motorway and went through some small, fast traffic circles, crazy stuff! We arrived at the Temporary Lodging Facility (TLF) and found that we have a 2 bedroom duplex. It is comfortable, but a bit small with only one small bathroom and not a lot of counter space. Add that to the fact that THERE IS NO INTERNET CONNECTION and we were immediately ready to get out and look at houses to rent off base.

We are making a substantial per diem profit while we are here though, so financially there’s no rush. So now it’s a tug of war between comfort and profit. The TLF will be one of Scott’s facilities in his job here, so I’ve made it *very* clear that internet should be a priority. We feel like our hands are tied, trying to look at houses online, communicate with friends and family with an 8 hour time difference , bank, get the school’s lunch menus, and everything else you do online, while having to walk over to the library or community center to log on. I am learning to work offline and upload when I get there, but simple things like bus schedules and maps and what not are a hassle without internet service.

Meridian made herself right at home by taping up a bunch of the pictures she took the last few days in California. I had given her my old film camera, and she took some really good pictures.

I think she and Cambria are enjoying sharing a room, and being able to see each other but having their own beds.

After we got our luggage put away, Kevin and Linda took us around the base to familiarize us with the surroundings, and to introduce us to lots of people (and to do their best to keep us awake). We also started our in-processing (ID cards, mailbox codes, etc.). One thing I checked out right away was the list of ITT (Information, Tickets & Tours) and Outdoor Recreation’s planned events and trips. There’s canoeing on some river system, a shopping trip to Bath (that I think we’ll sign up for), trips to Cologne, Amsterdam, and Germany, Euro Disney packages and many others. We just missed the trip to see Wicked in London. These services are going to be a great resource!

Kevin and Linda took us into Adderbury to a Red Lion pub (I believe it’s a chain) that evening, and we had our first dinner out. Fish and Chips for me, what else?? The fish had skin on it… that was different. It was very good though. The waitress was European, but she had a bit of an English accent on top of it ~ when I asked her what beers they had on tap, I didn’t understand a SINGLE WORD of her reply. I looked blankly at Kevin, then at Scott, to no avail. I asked if she had a stout, she looked confused. I asked if she had Guinness and that she understood. Ah, the universal language of Guinness. LOL

That's Cambria's hand in the photo of my dinner above, she was eating some of my peas. She has a tooth that is about to fall out that she's being very careful with ~ she's only been eating soft foods.

Kevin was pleased to learn that I like a good stout, he’s an avid beer fan. He told us about some local breweries we might like to visit. Now if Scott and I become fans of cricket, we’ll probably be his favorites! LOL The other services flight chief Al and his wife both went to dinner with us. Al was very friendly, I think he’ll be great for Scott to work with. Everyone else seems to have experience at so many bases overseas ~ they’ve all been to Italy, Germany, DC, and even England previously. I feel very lost compared to them, but they all understand since they had their first overseas post at one point too.

Poor Meridian was so tired (she didn’t sleep at all on the plane, neither did I), she kept falling asleep anytime she sat down all day. Cambria was tired, but did better since she slept for a few hours on the plane. We’ll have to do a better job sleeping on future trips.

And now, we’re beginning our house search!