AGOL Takes UK: Chocolate & Champagne

My personal and major objective today was a chocolate run. There was no way in heck I was going to land tomorrow without buying some Cadbury and Galaxy chocolates. My ride home from the Trampa airport depended on it!

Waitrose was to be my source for trafficking chocolate to the US. Around a dozen chocolate ingots weighing 400 grams each and packages of other Cadbury and Galaxy varieties plus three oddball packages of McVitie's Digestive Biscuits came to £45 pounds or $90 worth. The AGOL doesn't play around with her chocolate. Friends and family were being gifted with chocolate.

Yes, there is a picture of the treasure, but you will have to go to Yummy's site to see it on the grocery checkout conveyor. Poor thing. He had never seen so much chocolate purchased at one time. Has he ever had an American Halloween? Didn't think so. Even I must admit it was bordering on obscene, but I didn't care. I just had to get it on the plane.

We dropped the chocolate treasures home before going out again to The Lanes to visit Riddle and Finns for lunch. Not risking any choco meltdown. Too much was riding on their safety. Ha!

Yummy had heard good reviews about Riddle and Finns and we had put it on our mental list of places to try a week before. Here was our chance to sample it since dinner at The Saint was still hours away. Seafood here we come.

The entrance was quite nice and the inside simple with white subway tiles on the walls. The dark wood tables were set quite high. Lunch was almost over so we were the only ones inside. Our order was taken right away and the waiter extremely pleasant and personable. He served us slices of bread with little ramekins of smoked mackerel pate, garlic mayonnaise, horseradish, and onion in vinegar with a side scallop shell filled with butter. What a great way to start.

We had ordered the specials scribbled in chalk on the outside sign. Our starters were the same: crab and feta salad. For the main course, Yummy had Haddock and Chips and I tried Poached Brill with Fennel. Downed with wine, everything was delicious!

Walked around a bit before heading home for an energy nap. Tonight required alertness for all the fun to be had...

Anna, Anton and everyone's friend, Brian came to pick us up. Brian was specially invited into town earlier in the week and we were lucky to have him on a Friday. I found out he was flying to Raleigh, North Carolina the next day about 15 minutes after my plane's flight to Trampa.

We visited two pubs before heading for The Saint where our reservations were secured by Yummy. This Party of Five was definitely starting to get really fun. Did I hear sirens? Just kidding.

I won't enumerate the menu, but suffice it to say everything was great. We all had starters, main course and sinful dessert. A bottle of champagne was popped open for our celebration, liquid gold was poured into our glasses garnished with raspberries. It was indeed heavenly. My time here started with champagne and Yummy felt it fitting to end with some more. What a sweetie! Wine came, too.

Smiley friends: Anna & Brian


Yummy & Anton: Best friends doing their impression of The Clash: Fashion Calling.


Getting happy: Anna, Brian and party crasher, Sean.


Sprinkles & Yummy having had too much sun and now getting striped with wine.


Drinking heaven garnished with a raspberry.


There was a surprise -- a party crasher named Sean. His partner had gone off to get drunk pre-celebrating his 40th birthday. We invited him over and gladly he was fun. Another surprise was Anton remembering him from his school days. Sean didn't remember him, but they had mutual friends he recognized. It was a small world. The evening was wearing and we invited Sean along to our next and my last boozer on this trip.

We took cab rides to The Eddy to complete our beer sandwich. This pub and others will have to deal with the smoking ban taking effect July 1, but for tonight it was smokin' in more ways than one. Loud, but recognizable music played when we came in. Beer-thirty was enjoyed by this (now) Party of Six!

Midnight crept in. It was time to walk home for most of us. Hugs all around. These were good people to meet and a blast to hang with...Too much to drink to think seriously about organizing my things. Of course, I can start packing in the morning before I leave. (Gulp!)

AGOL Takes UK: Chocolate & Champagne

AGOL Takes UK: Meeting Yummy

The AGOL has landed...

Seeing the sun on the horizon while flying was a weird feeling, but only because I wasn't expecting it when I woke up from a short snooze. Very soon I was seeing English coast and spans of green land with bright gold patches of canola fields as I landed into Gatwick Airport. The scenery reminded me of Wisconsin, but it was definitely English with the pastoral theme. I could see clusters of buildings where little towns were located, other similar clusters peppering the countryside. British Airways provided a smooth landing to a very smooth flight...

Like rats in a maze, we passengers shuffled along the walkway to Immigration. I filled out my forms and shuffled again this time in a Disney-type queue weaving us around each other while waiting to be called upon by Immigration. The lady who called me interrogated me in a too intimate manner that was not to my liking. I played along because my bladder urged me to and I needed her to stamp my passport so I could empty said bladder.

Trying to locate my luggage was just another part of the game. I finally hustled to the BA counter and was told it would be on Carousel 5, but I only heard crickets when I arrived at that carousel. It looks like it had never been turned on. How lovely. I turned around to be greeted halfway by a BA employee who asked me if the suitcase he was toting was mine. He answered for me, "I can tell it is yours. You have a big smile on your face." Thankful, relieved and anxious not to be any later, I made my way to real air.

Peter/Yummy knows that I have crowd blindness that befalls me sometimes and I made it clear that I may not see him, but he had assured me that all I needed to do was put one foot in front of the other and he would get me on the way out. I didn't even have to concentrate that much; I picked him out right away.

It was like opening a present seeing him for the first time in person after months of e-mails, IMs, skype conversations, text messages and phone calls. We had sent enough pictures of each other, but seeing the real person was a treat. It turned out that he was late too since he went to the wrong terminal first, but thanks to immigration chickie, I was still later than Yummy for our meeting.

What seemed like a flash, I found myself riding the train to Brighton next to Yummy. I couldn't decide whether to talk to Yummy more in my nervousness or gaze outside and feast my eyes on the land passing by. I managed to do both, I think. Too nervous to commit everything to memory apparently. The surprise in gazing outside how the land reminded me of drives in Wisconsin.

We arrived at the Brighton train station and hiked it up the street where his home is tucked in. I was caught by the big lily display near left of the door. Long stems rose in the front garden not to be outdone by the fuchsia blooms by the gate. Pictures of the lily blooms below.

Yummy opened a bottle of champagne and we made mimosas with orange juice. We laughed much and later he made us a hearty breakfast which was a nice first meal on English land. Time flew and we found ourselves gathering our gifts for his godson's Oskar's first birthday being held at a park.

Children & Chinese...
My recent forays into children's parks in the Trampa Bay area couldn't even hold a candle to this park. My God. The grass undulating around the sloping park and around the trees was absolutely beautiful. The children's slides and swings were not surrounded by rubber floors or ground rubber tires. It looked normal instead of an industrial accident for kids.

Meeting Yummy's friends after hearing about them and talking to them a bit on the phone was great. They were a happy bunch and were very active with their own kids on the equipment. I liked that part a lot. Below are pics of Oskar's big sister Klaudia (Yummy's goddaughter) with her paternal grandmother and another pic with Yummy's best friend Anton and his son Oskar. I was intrigued by his new ride.



The party disbanded and we walked with the birthday boy to his house and shared more champagne with the family. By this time, the day was starting to get to me a bit and Yummy took mercy on me and we went home and ordered Chinese. Let's just say Chinese food is not the same on every continent, but it was still good. Day One in England with Yummy receives five smooch marks out of five.

AGOL Takes UK: Meeting Yummy