Back to LA!
Monday 10/23/06
I started to try and sleep at 1am it does not appear I had much success until sometime after 3 – I am totally knackered because before I know it, the time is 5:50 am and it is time to jump out of bed like I had enough sleep and get that refreshing shower that makes everything seem right. About the shower/tub, every time I have stepped in it during this trip I felt like it was going to give way and send me hurtling down into the dark sewers. I know it is an irrational thought on my part but I can’t help it. The other thing is Papa Tony does not have a shower curtain so the small mercies is it is a hand held shower the other end of that is I feel like a religious supplicant when I am in it. You get the idea - no need to further feed your mental images!
Papa Tony was nice enough to make breakfast which consisted of pieces of the wonderful bread he made the night before and some strong instant coffee. As a good father, he accompanies us for part of the way to make sure we get to the highway safely. Once on the highway we turn on Maude but decide to ignore her recalculation entreaties because she feels we are going into going into heavy traffic ahead. She is right but she fails to realize that her recalculated route would have added an hour to our trip from Brighton to Heathrow airport and that is entirely unacceptable. Also, since John is really the one driving and this is his neck of the woods, I am not really inclined to differ.
Arrival at the airport took some time because of the traffic but we are there on time and check-in, security, and passport control all go without a hitch. The only small disappointment is we do not get an operational upgrade to business class – the economy plus cabin is not full enough. No matter the seats are great with enough room to have a good ole snooze.
Considering I did not get to see any of London, this has been a most interesting trip. I had occasion to meet all of the Briginshaw lot in England and I also got to see where my husband gets some of his traits. It was very funny to me that both John and Papa Tony were having a serious conversation over how many decimal places it comes to with Papa Tony being a day older than 70. They started going for who was more right and settled on he was 70.0027 years old on Sunday – Papa Tony is the mathematician and John is accountant. It would have been even more interesting if you added my father to the mix because he is a Pharmacologist and he deals in quantities as a profession. I guarantee he would have waited for the debate to be close to an end and given the final word on how old Papa Tony is when he is a day older that 70. It also made me laugh watching Grandpa B with Thomas because he talked to Thomas like a serious adult (the kid is 3!). John does the same with Thomas – maybe on a lesser scale – and it makes me wonder if he is really serious about having our kids read the NY Times by age 4.
Jane on the other hand is the peacemaker that creates the smooth flow of family. She and John brought everyone together. I can’t say much about the rest of the family but they are all pieces in the Briginshaw theatre that I will continue to meet over the next few years. As an onlooker and new addition to the family tree I can only attest to the symphony, chaos, and glee and have loved the privilege of being a small part of it. Rob turns 60 in 2 years – that should be even more interesting! Maybe by that time I would have figured out what Papa Tony’s Japanese name “Shoto” means or by then he would have a new one for me to decipher.
Adios amigos until our next adventure!!
