Whoops, I have neglected to do any updates for…how long? Bad nerdgirl.

I flew back into New York last night after spending about 12 days visiting friends & family in the UK, including attending one of my best friend’s weddings (which was a total drunkfest/university reunion). I had such a fantastic couple of weeks being able to hang out at home and not rush to try and see everyone in three days. I actually got (dare I say it) some relaxation in there too. Heavens forfend!

My rather hilarious journey home, however, was not so relaxing. After checking in and getting through security at Heathrow, I discovered my flight was delayed by two hours. Not so bad, considering, and particularly as my aunt works in one of the business lounges at LHR so I always get to go in there and eat all their free food and drink their free booze. Plus comfy chairs and free wifi, result. About an hour later, I went to check the boards again and my flight had been pushed back ANOTHER two hours, making it one of the latest flights to New York and meaning I wouldn’t be home until extremely late. Knowing I was temping the next day, I went to the transfer desk to see what was up. I managed to get switched onto a different flight, coming into a different New York airport, on a different airline, but at least it would land a few hours earlier than my delayed flight (which I had a funny feeling was going to get cancelled). I ended up making friends with a really cool chick called Miriam, who was next to me in the queue trying to change from the same flight, and we ended up sitting next to each other on the way to New York. A couple of G&Ts later, all didn’t seem so bad, until we landed at JFK and discovered that our bags did not make the journey with us. For me, it was annoying but not the end of the world, as at least I live here and have other clothes & toiletries, but poor Miriam was flying on to LA two days later and was paranoid her bag would not show up in time. We were stuck in the baggage queue for an hour and a half, to get a slip with our info on it and a vague ‘it’ll take 24-48 hours for your bag to arrive’ promise. We decided to share a cab back to the city, as by now it was midnight and we were both exhausted. I then got in an argument with the cab driver, who tried to claim that where I live is not Manhattan (“that is Bronx!” “No it isn’t, I live there. It’s Manhattan.” “No it’s Bronx, I won’t take you!”) and ended up having to just take the cab to Spanish Harlem to my travel buddy’s destination, pay the driver (and take his medallion number to make a complaint) and get out to try and find another cab for my part of the journey home. In Spanish Harlem. At 1am. Luckily, this means one thing – gypsy cab! I got home in record time (although I did think at one point he was going to kill me with his driving style) and for only $12 more. Result!

This morning was a little rough, having only had 6 hours’ sleep and after being up for 22 hours the previous day, but I made it to my temp job and at least I’m now getting paid to be tired. It was back down to earth with a bump after a fabulous trip. At least I made a cool new friend and have a good travel story, plus both our bags should be arriving tonight or tomorrow which wasn’t so awful.

Next post, I’ll tell you about how my town in South-East London ended up trending worldwide on Twitter during the London riots this week. What a fun time to be home!