After three entire years away, I finally find myself here once again on the slightly better side of the Atlantic - we're in a hotel adjacent to Heathrow, and will begin our journey northwards soon. The flight over was ghastly but only by virtue of it being a flight - it left on time, was very smooth with only minor pockets of turbulence, and was tolerably quick at only six hours. I took a heap of electronics with me, but only ended up using the 3DS - and I can't say I've ever swooned over airline food before, but when they served a breakfast that included Danish bacon and a pork sausage, it was difficult not to feel encouraged. The flight attendants were all absolutely charmed by the stuffed rabbit I was clinging to, and were asking me if he had a name, perhaps mistaking me for a giant mutant baby or some sort of escaped mental patient.

I always get a supercharge of energy through an absolutely renewed appreciation for life at that moment when you feel an aeroplane's wheels touch the ground, but having been up since four in the morning in Boston, that didn't last long this time - we took the Terminal 5 underground future-pod thing followed by a bus to the car rental place, blearily chose one that we could fit our luggage into, and trundled it along the road into the hotel car park.


Next time the map will be slightly more informative. Tomorrow we start towards Oxford, and the perceived danger of being on a flight will be replaced with a very real danger to everyone else as I attempt to remember to drive on the left.