Chapter one: Tankles

So I managed to only read one chapter of The Joy Luck Club on the flight over, spending more time fiddling around with my personal screen and watching classics like Lady and the Tramp and a surprising comedy wild Hogs... surprising as it was actually funny and really enjoyable. That was the first half of the flight. The second leg was bad. A crappy old plane, sat in the last seat in the tail (not good for nervous fliers, IE; me) NO personal screen and in the isle... actually that was the saving grace as I downed around 3 litres of water and needed to frequent the ladies. So. Not much sleep as having the last seat in the plane means that the rest of the passengers who need to use the facilities or just a stretch, would use my chair as a lean. Holding on while they ran on the spot or hummed and swayed to themselves (and me). One man was the straw and got landed with my best scowl and swift elbow recline onto his fingers.
Flights over, Joe met us at Heathrow and generously drove us back to his flat, making himself late for work the naughty boy (but we love you for it mate). Stuff dumped, showers had, we took off to explore Ealing. Lovely actually. The sun was shining so we bought ourselves coffee and mint tea (for me) and sat in the park... where as I rolled up my jeans to inflict people with the pain of seeing my lily whites I noticed that they were more like tree trunks than stems. Jesus Mary and Joseph I exclaimed, I am surprised that I can walk considering I cant actually make out a trace of ankle! Mikes were also slightly swollen, but I took the cake, well actually it looked as tho I had taken 20 cakes and devoured them daily. It took the weekend for my ankles to return and sleeping on camping mattresses on the floor really helped straighten the kinks out. By the Monday we were roaring to go, feeling very refreshed and tall. We both considered getting a firmer mattress when we got home... thanks again Joe and Sharn, your hospitality is second to none, you are both ACE!