We finally made it to the UK, only 15 hours late!  I’m quite proud that I didn’t completely freak out about having to change all our plans due to the delay.  A year ago I would have flipped, as all my carefully timetables things fell apart but this year I nearly took it in my stride.  I figure by the time I finish Don’t sweat the small stuff I’ll be so laid back things like this will just wash over me.

I may have freaked other passengers out by crying during most of the plane journey.  If you’ve read The Book Thief you’ll know why.  If you haven’t go out and buy it. It is AMAZING.  Maybe not life changing (as claimed by the NY Times) but a really fabulous book.

Also the sun has been shinning and the sky has been blue for the 3 days we’ve been here.  It must be some kind of record!  We’re planning a walk on the beach and a ferry ride tomorrow though so I’m predicting grey sky and drizzle!

Our flight was finally pushed back to 10 am this morning after much waiting about and a distinct lack of information.  Now while I am glad the broken part was noticed and I would rather be delayed than plunging out of the sky, I AM going to moan because BA - for crying out loud you are an international operation, get your act together!  Some tips for you:

Tell people what is going on it seems to sooth them, even saying we don’t know but we’re trying to find out is better than ignoring us.

If your going to direct a plane load of tired/angry passengers to the ticket desk to get hotel and taxi vouchers you might want to tell the ticket desk because when they claim no knowledge about it, things get ugly.

Do not change the baggage carousal with the quiestest announcement ever.

When the new carousal breaks, to not spend 30 minutes restarting it/tinkering with it/getting a thoroughly pissed off employee to throw bags down the ramp.  Especially when there are 13 other carousals standing empty.

Do not cancel a 6.40pm flight and finally get people moved form the airport at 11.30pm.

Oh, and you might want to think about keeping spare parts for your planes in one of your hub airports rather than havng to fly them in from NY.

I will forgive you all these things if I get upgraded or possibly if there is nice breakfast food in the lounge!

I’m sitting waiting for a new part for our plane to be flown in from New York and I’m indulging in two of my favourite things, blogging and people watching.

On the people watching front I’m noticing the huge range of things people wear to fly in and wondering how they decide. Yes these are the kind of questions I mull over, I’m highly philosophical!

See I opt for smart but comfortable. Aiming for the whole Jennifer Aniston causal chic because I may get upgraded and be sitting next to James McAvoy* (I can dream!) but also it’s a 7 hour flight, I want to be comfy.

Some people in here have gone for all out comfort, jogging bottoms, sloppy hair, huge sweatshirts.  Unlikely to be upgraded guys!  I find them more understandable than the people in business clothes.  I mean this is a night flight! I don’t believe they’re going to land in the UK and rush to a meeting, surely they can pack their suit.  It’s going to be all rumpled after a 7 hours flight anyway.

The people who really baffle me though are the ones who dress like they’re either going to the beach or going clubbing.  On my last flight to the UK I sat next to a girl wearing, a halter neck top, mini skirt and high heeled open toe sandals, I’m not kidding!  It gets COLD on a plane I can not imagine she was comfortable AT all, so why?  Also maybe she’d never been to the UK but I can guarantee when you land at Heathrow, no matter what time of year it is, IT will be grey, cold and drizzling.  Ah England looking forward to going home.

* I don’t know why I have such a thing for JM as he is not only smaller than me (5′7) he’s not that great looking.  I think I fell in love with his character in Shameless though and then of course there was Atonement - swoon!

So the holiday was lovely, lovely, lovely apart from the food.  Only one restaurant, so they had a captive audience and the lack of competition showed.  T got all Economisty about it, supply and demand and all that.

We’re flying from the UK tonight and our plane got stuck on the runaway at Regan so we had a 45 minute turn around at home.  In which time I managed to repack, shower, wash and straighten my hair (yes I do need straight hair for a night flight, we might have been ungraded and who knows who I would be sitting next to!) unpack my amazon/bookmooch books and open my birthday cards.  I was on fast forward.

There was no need to be though as our BA plane is delayed 4 hours.  T is currently stalking the airport in a not very pleasant mood but as I have a access to a computer, food, coffee and the internet, I’m quite content - there’s a lot to be said for being a BA silver member and use of the lounge is one of those things!

I’m off to catch up with you all now, more about the holiday later and pictures!

Something to do in those dull moments.  Pop over here and see what words you use the most.  I put in 10 blog posts (I got sick of copy and pasting after that, possibly I should have got sick of it before that!) and it generates the words you use the most.  I love that love was my top word followed by happy, know and think.

Let me know if you do it.

To see mine big go here

. . .  here I come.

I’m finally ready to go! Today was spent; tracking down the incredible elusive Clinique sun tan lotion for face, having hair ripped form my body (ouch!), making sure I can use my beautiful new camera, (it’s pink!) and of course packing.

The shoe choice was finally whittled down to these,

(No comments about the birkenstocks, I love my birkies, they are not hippie shoes!)

I fear T will force me to whittle further. Also my trainers, I plan to run while we’re there. It’s 70/30 on this happening at present but I like to be prepared.

I’ve also chosen five books, that was even harder. Clothes packing is easy compared to book packing! I’m taking:

The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

The Mediator - Meg Cabot

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Falling for you - Jill Mansell

The Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama

oh and I have The truth about forever in my hand luggage (shh! don’t tell T).

The first week we’re on an Island with golden sands and blue seas and please no tropical storms! The second week a whistle stop tour round friends and family in the UK. So I will not be around much, if at all.

Have fun!

I thought at 30 I would:

be able to apply eye liner

have a hair cut that I would grow old with

wear tights without putting a hole straight through them

have a wardrobe of tasteful coordinating clothes, something for every occasion

be able to grow plants without killing them

never be late

always have what I needed in my, oh so chic matches everything, bag

be able to walk in high heels

cook dinner for six (or even two) without incident or disaster

do small talk effortlessly

be grown up

When I was younger I seem to have thought at 30 I would magically transform into Bree Van de Kamp. (Do you love that she has her own wiki entry?).

So wrong! I am turning 31 next week and I have mastered none of the list. I am more Bridget Jones than Bree but I kind of like it that way.

When I was younger I thought 30 was grown up, I thought at 30 I’d be finished, complete some how. Wrong again, I have many, many blank pages before me, just waiting to be filled up. I want every page to overflow, so I have to scribble in the margins to get everything in, because I am far, far from finished yet.

Today has been a happy day, today colours have been brighter, noises harmonious and smells sweeter. Today I have been flying, overflowing with positivity and glee. When I smiled and the world really did seem to be smiling back.

I don’t know why, nothing special has happened today.

Maybe it’s because I’m leaving for the beach in 2 days or because I have five lovely new books to take with me. Maybe it’s the sunshine or the three happy emails I got today or because I have the new Coldplay album and I love it. Maybe it’s simply because I got seven hours sleep (seven!) and woke up with a happy song in my head.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this post. It’s been rubbing away at me, causing a blister in my head and on my heart. I know I want to change but don’t know exactly what I want to change or how to go about it.

But today, today I felt like I did when I was younger, when I was fearless. When the world was full of opportunity and excitement, all there to be seized. When I knew whatever I chose to do, I would achieve.

Today I want to grab everyone I know and hug them tight and grant all their dreams and wishes. I want everyone to be as happy as I am. Maybe today is a pivotal moment, maybe it’s just a moment. Either way I’m making the most of it.

Can you tell I just bought Photoshop and have no idea what to do with it? I’ve got the book on order from Amazon but for now I am just messing about. It’s very fun.

Waterstone’s ran this very cool What’s your story competition. They gave authors postcards and they had to write a story with or without illustrations that fit on the card. Then they auctioned them off. J K Rowling’s Harry Potter mini sequel of course topped the bidding, selling for £25,000.

I liked Neil Gaimen’s which was fun and clever and very Neil Gaiman and Lauren Child’s which was absolutely positively the cutest story.  Some of them are seriously hard to read though, a ploy to make you buy the book?

If you have a story to tell you can still join in, it closes 19th June.  Or, like me, you can just browse all the weird and wonderful postcards people have submitted. There are funny, sad, sweet and touching stories on there, it’s well worth a visit.

I’m now off to buy suntan lotion and other holiday things, 4 days and counting.