Our flight back to London from Seville on Thursday afternoon was unusual in that it felt like we were on a school bus. We were surrounded by a large group of friends or family, all adults who were very happy to be traveling together, and they chattered away at each other the entire flight, sometimes kneeling on their seat to talk to the people in the seats behind them. Nobody could hear the announcements, I couldn't hear myself think, and reading was out of the question. Fortunately it was only a two-and-a-half hour flight, plus their noise drowned out the crying baby.

The passport control officer at Stansted was as nice as the two at Luton when we arrived in August. This time Gord's fingerprints were able to be read by the scanner, perhaps because he hadn't been on his computer for two weeks--can fingerprints grow back in? I doubt it.

When we were walking from King's Cross Station to our flat, three guys ran across a fairly busy street (York Way) next to us. One of them was very drunk and fell in the street in front of a taxi. He then just lay there on his back with outstretched arms and didn't move for about 30 seconds. The taxi driver couldn't get past him and just quietly waited, no honking or anything. The guy finally moved and started blabbering something. His friends had disappeared but somebody went over to him and helped him up. I don't think he was hurt, he probably didn't even feel a thing, in his condition.

Then, a half block from home we saw a very large fox run across the street and then stop. We stared at each other for 30 seconds or so, and then we carried on. After dropping off our bags, we walked to Bibigo, a Korean restaurant that Gord had discovered while I was in Italy. It is about a mile from our flat, a perfect distance after a meal. And it was very good. We also walked past a pub I had read about for its large selection of offerings on tap, The Craft Beer Co. We stopped in to check it out and had a nice little chat with one of its customers, a guy who seemed very passionate about the place. I suspect Meg and Korey will like it when they visit in a month.

It was good to be home. Friday and Saturday was spent doing laundry, working on the blog, and giving my knees a chance to recuperate from the cobblestones. Saturday night we had dinner plans with Brea and Marty. We were meeting up at The Bunch of Grapes pub in Knightsbridge before our reservations at the Hawksmoor Knightsbridge. Gord and I were early and stopped at Harrod's for a quick look around the food halls and then down to their wine shop. They are pretty spectacular, after all, and we hadn't gone in yet this trip. We met Brea at the pub, and Marty joined us at the restaurant. The food was delicious and abundant, as was the wine. The wait staff were very gracious about a mistake with one of the orders. We had a great time, as always. I meant to take a photo to prove that I really do have a niece in London, but I forgot. Next time.

Sunday morning we walked over to Dishoom for breakfast before buying groceries at Waitrose. We had a half hour wait to get in, which meant we just missed their breakfast hours. So we had lunch instead. No problem. And they handed out bottomless glasses of hot chai while we waited in line outside.

I worked on the blog some more when we got back and made a Sunday dinner. Monday I finally was able to finish the second and final blog post on our Spain trip. I went out in the afternoon to do some errands, including mailing our absentee ballots!!

Today, Tuesday, I was planning to head out and do something, but I was a little under the weather, a cold or allergies I guess, so I stayed in. I vacuumed, purchased some tickets online, read, etc. That seemed to do the trick because I felt better by evening. Gord suggested going to Chinatown for dinner. We found a small little place with a line out the door, Bai Wei. We only had to wait about five minutes and we later learned why. When we placed our order we were told that we couldn't place a second order (in other words, don't order too little because they were not going to let us add to our order later). So if you wanted more than one drink or if you might want dessert, you had to tell them now. And they don't let you linger after your meal either. We saw them tell one table that it was time to leave because people were waiting to sit there. Funny. Anyway, the food was good and their Cultural Revolution murals were interesting.

We walked around Leicester Square and Covent Garden for a while before heading home.

Watching: Broadchurch Season 2

Reading: London Stories, edited by Jerry White, four centuries of factual accounts and fiction, set in London. So far I have read Thomas Dekker's "London, Lying Sicke of the Plague" from 1603, John Evelyn's "The Great Fire of London" from 1666, and Daniel Defoe's "A Ragged Boyhood" from 1722.