  So here I am, bloggin live from B10! Its only my second day ever in England, but luckily the learning curve is not as steep as worried about :) The fun all started on Friday, when I awoke at 3am after only 4 hours of sleep to drive to Zurich, where I would meet Reethi and Sunshine and catch a flight to merry olde England. The day started out with lousy weather. Most of my driving was through rain and I could only hope that my decision to have brought only warm weather clothing would not be a horrible mistake. About 5.30 am, I arrived at the Zurich airport, parked the car, found the check in termal, changed some francs to pounds and waited for my two travel companions to show up.
Luckily, they were not too late. Sunshine looked the same as ever, but Reethi came with a new hairstyle, now without the blue.. The plane ride to London was for the most part uneventful..we nodded off a bit, but I awoke to discover us in a circling delay to land in London Heathrow. Although we were delayed a bit, I enjoyed the circling pattern as I got to take in some of the sights of London from the air. I even recogniyed the snaking bit of the Thames that one sees at the start of every Eastender episode! Eventually, we landed, and we took the next leg of our trip southward starting with the Underground Tube. Thus, I also got to see London from below ground - although I admit there was not much to see except a lot of people packed like Sardines reading their morning papers which either talked about the English football coach being cleared of his latest problems, or the more amazing revelation that one of the Big Brother candidates was actually a man earlier in life, but female now. The headline read, "Father of Big Brother candidate - I always wanted a daughter!!! " When we reached Picadilly circus, it was time to change from the Tube to the Train. Now, as a faithful follower of the Chevy Chase Vacation movies, I remembered Picadilly Circus as this huge roundabout, which Americans seemed doomed forever to drive around in circles in. I looked forward to seeing it and Big Ben, but alas all we had time to do after getting our tickets was to get a Burger King Breakfast to go. We took our seats and we were finally southward bound to Bomo! A few naps later and a few scares from some clouds, we arrived close to the MudMeet Mecca. As we stopped in Christchurch, we noticed Ginge, Zebedee, and Trax walk bz. Christoph banged on the window, but Ginge in his dark glasses could not see us frantically waving at him.
The train went off to its next stop, where Sunshine and Reethi departed to check into their hotel and I went on to Pool and finally got the other spodders attention in their car though a text message. Finally, Parkstone came! It was a much smaller trainstation than I had expected. But probably it was good as it was small as Matt's place was literally right next to it. There I quickly found old faces such as Lorena Huxley, while meeting new spods in person for the first time, although it could feel quite strange, having spent hundreds of virtual hours with them. People were just finishing breakfast despite it being more like 1pm. We broke up into a couple of groups - one consisting mainly of women for shopping - and the rest at the pub next door. I opted for the latter option and found myself quickly going through beer after beer - and then cider (not the American apple juice type) - and quickly worked up a buzz as spod after spod appeared.
I found the people quite easy to chat up and met a few non spodders, including a woman from the English Birmingham, which I found interesting, as my last job in America was in the other Birmingham (Alabama). Finally, it was time to move on to the event of the evening - B2. This was a small, but nice pub with a single pool table - which seemed like something for children as it was smaller than the standard Americna pool table.
The B9 tournament was finally finished, with Dafty beating out host Matt. Games of Twister were to be had, but I never managed to get past 3rd place, despite my trainings in yoga. Although most were wide awake, my early morning start was starting to get to me, combined with the heavy fish and chips I had for dinner. I had to take a walk outside to clear my head. About midnight, we headed back to Matt's and listened to his heavy beats, including the favorite, "Fire Wire. " I was dead tired and managed to actually get some sleep despite the loud music. Everyone crashed around 3am. Saturday morning started with me being the lucky second for a shower, giving me plenty of time to enjoy a "Vegetarian Breakfast" at the small coffee spot down the street. Its now almost 12 and am waiting for the last to finish their breakfast..then the beach comes! 
