Today is the day!

Today I take the overnight British Airways flight to Heathrow. That means today and tomorrow will be one long combined day! Hopefully I will be able to sleep some on the flight. My friend Kristin from Boulder happens to be on the same flight! Small world. I have my book to finish about the wild year of 1066 when the Norman Duke William the Bastard invaded England and had himself crowned as king on Christmas Day. After that he has been known as William the Conqueror. The thing about it that I find amusing is that when he set foot on English land at Pevensey he fell flat on his face! William had the Anglo Saxon aristocracy destroyed and gave all of their lands to his Norman cronies. It took a long time for the language of the aristocracy to return to English.

Speaking of English, those of you who have not been in Great Britain may not know that British English and American English are two separate languages. Having lived in London for six years I tend to speak a bit of both, as those of you who speak with me have probably noticed. For instance, tomorrow I will be utterly knackered (exhausted). Or in Cockney rhyming slang, cream crackered. By the end of the day, to use a phrase of a London friend, 'me plates of meat will 'urt' (again, Cockney rhyming slang for my feet). She does not usually use that slang, but I love it when she does! More common differences: an elevator is a lift; a car trunk is the boot; the bathroom is the toilet or the loo; to form a line for something is to queue; it goes on and on. The grammar can be different: someone is in hospital, not in the hospital. And spelling - well let's just say that I can never remember what is English spelling and what is American! So my speech and accent is from somewhere about in the middle of The Pond (the Atlantic Ocean). It will not be long before I am right back into a full-blown English accent. I was never as proud as when a little old lady mistook me for a Brit when I lived there! No hint of American. Usually the r gives Americans away.

Tomorrow I meet my friend Karen from New Mexico who is currently deployed at RAF Mildenhall, both a British and American air force base. We have a wonderful weekend coming up. Stay tuned!