the departure

hah! today is the day. more correctly perhaps, tonight is the night. herself flies out from newark at 10.10pm on her way to glasgow.

newark being the most intriguing word in the above sentence.
why you might wonder? herself and i are old hands at flying between jfk and the uk, we are what you might call seasoned pros, cross atlantic flights hold no terrors for us. my lady lives but half an hour from jfk, an easy taxi ride, no problems.
when we first met i was residing in a small market town called buckingham, a mere toddle to drive to heathrow. of course myself can turn even this straight forward trip into something of an adventure. the first time my lady came to visit, i picked her up at heathrow and proceeded towards buckingham on the m25. as i remember i think her flight came in round about 11.00 pm. a little while into the journey herself indicated she might well be in need of a pit stop.i pulled in at the next services. herself visited the ladies and we enjoyed a cuppa.

it was a dark and stormy night, there are many entries and exits to these services. the uk is a nation of traffic circles and i am but an innocent south african unused to the complexities of travel in the civilized world. half an hour later, i started to wonder, the road seemed comparatively quiet and darker than usual. herself started to give me "the look" (my very first experience of said look!). "eryll, are you lost?"... of course not, i don't get lost, i sometimes take the scenic route. and then... drum roll ...i noticed the road sign. oh yeah, i was driving my honey home...via wales. whoops! a less than august start to my lady's first visit to my side of the pond!

of course, i have since moved (thoughtlessly!) to scotland. in pursuit of togetherness we now have to journey an extra leg ... heathrow/glasgow and vice versa. the extra flights are pestiforous, time consuming and expensive. herself, a highly educated lady decided it was time for some research. dicovery... there are two flights a week from newark, direct to glasgow. less expensive and no running from terminal to terminal at heathrow.
now ... and herein lies the crunch...herself must now catch a train into penn station and then catch another to newark and then take the sky train to the airport terminal.perhaps a little more complicated than her previous, half hour taxi trip to jfk.

the journey begins to assume the proportions of an epic adventure! do not giggle younger people! ourselves are no longer in the first flush of youth and my lady, unlike myself, has no nomadic leanings. she has spent the past thirty plus years living in ONE house, in ONE street, in ONE town. i realize you may find this fact hard to believe, but i swear it is the truth! so, after much thought and a trial run, the princess has decided to bring only one small bag, which she will carry on board, thus making the multiple train journeys a little easier.

however, tension still runs high, sleep evades my darling and her appetite is lost. please send positive vibes, white light and rainbows. let the journey be smooth and uncomplicated, then all i will have to do is...
spend the next two weeks reminding herself of why i am worth all the drama!