At Last!!

Well, I've done it. Look down at the bottom of this post, at the location. Yes, that's right. Notting Hill, London.

I suppose first off I should explain how the whole first-flying thing went for Audrey. Swimmingly, I would say. Not without its little stresses and distresses. One that comes to mind is going through Security at Lambert, and having them detain my carry-on bag. The offender ended up being a small pocket umbrella (or bumbershoot, if you prefer), and after some deep scrutiny of the matter (and the umbrella) the officer generously told me, "Well, I guess we can let you keep it." Thanks. But, that was just one little thing, on the whole, I would rate it as a positive experience. Didn't get a wink of sleep, which now means that I have been awake for 30 hours straight! The shocking thing? I feel pretty darn great right now. Can't say what level my mental functioning is at, but I'm awake, and not dead. Not too shabby.

Of course, the reason I didn't get any sleep was my excitement and anticipation of this whole trip. Let me tell you, once the pilot announced we would be landing in Heathrow in 20 minutes, I smooshed my face up against the window and didn't stir until we had landed, and it was quite a bit longer than 20 minutes. Most of our flight was carried out in a sea of white and grey cotton, there was a lot of fog and low-hanging clouds, so it was definitely worth it to sit like that for so long to catch my first glimpse of Great Britain, which happened to be a small, unassuming white farmhouse surrounded by fields. Beautiful.

I also made it through Customs without any trouble, and was reunited with Little Blue, my suitcase. Success. Later in the day, I, and my three new flatmates, were taken to our flat, located in the aforementioned area of London. It is absolutely beautiful. I don't have any pictures of the inside yet but here is the view from our bedroom windows:

Here is the view from our kitchen window [the charm of the flats in Notting Hill, which is in the Royal Burrough of Kensington and Chelsea (Royal, as proclaimed by Queen Victoria, because she was born in this area), is that they are all arranged in a square, and the inside of the square is devoted to a beautiful, and large, garden, solely for the use of the tenants of those flats surrounding it. This particular picture doesn't even come close to giving an idea of the size and extent of this garden]:

We also took a walk around Portobello Market, which is just a couple blocks down from our flat. It was incredibly busy, but the atmosphere was great, and the food smelled delicious. Also, I don't know who owned this dog, but she was puttering around between a supermarket and a fried-fish stand, gently wagging her tail and smiling politely at everyone who walked past, so of course I had to take her picture. It's rather poor quality because I had to act quickly with so many people milling about, blocking the view. But here she is taking a break outside the supermarket. I think her owner must have gone in to go shopping, and told her to stay put.

To finish off the day, I attended Saturday evening Mass at the nearby parish of St. Francis of Assisi. I had to concentrate really hard to keep from slipping into a British accent myself, when everyone around me was saying the responses and prayers with one.

Overall, I think it was a successful first day in London. I love the city already and am looking forward to continuing this adventure over the course of the next three weeks!! After getting some sleep, though, of course.