I arrived on the morning of 10 January from the overnight bus in Victoria Coach Station. London had had its first snow of the season – quite a rarity – so I was treated to a glimpse of the suburbs blanketed in white.
After locating the right tube, I headed out towards Heathrow and got off at Hounslow West. Tried to phone the Healys, but the number I had didn’t work! After trying unsuccessfully to verify the local phone prefix with a Turkish news kiosk worker and the station master, and trying to find a bus or taxi, I resigned to using a small private taxi service across the street run by Indians.
At first it seemed shady enough, but they invited me in from the cold and offered me tea. Then, as I waited for a cab to come, an attractive young Australian girl selling knives stepped in and did her spiel for the owner of the tiny place. It was like a throwback to my Cutco days.
After about 10 minutes, my driver came along and we headed out on the 10-minute, £12 trip. He tried to talk me into paying more, but I stuck to my guns. In the end, we had a nice chat about his job troubles, living in England as a foreigner, and how warm and friendly Irish people generally are. We arrived at Staines in no time.
Tina and Aoife were quite surprised to see me arrive at the front door of the house, but there I was, and I explained my predicament with the phones. Apparently, I had been dialling just one number too much!!
With my state of fatigue, I basically just relaxed all day, and I had seen most of London’s tourist attractions on previous trips anyway, so I was happy to just rest. In the evening, when Martin came in from work, we headed out to a nearby Thai restaurant for some amazing food, washed down with a few pints from the pub downstairs. Aoife got a bit restless while we were there and began dancing around, and eventually ended up in the kitchen, chatting away to the Thai staff. The manager came out and began telling us how the owner of the building, another Thai woman, was kicking them out the following day, because she was selling the business. It was quite sad to see that happening, as they seemed like hardworking people and were incredibly friendly and hospitable.
The following morning, Martin dropped me off at Gatwick to catch my easyjet flight to Madrid.
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