Plan was: US Airways from Charlotte, brief layover in Philly, 8am arrival in Manchester. It’s now 2:20pm and I’m sitting in the BA Lounge at Gatwick. But that’s not the best part.

The best part was getting delayed out of Charlotte and missing our Philly connection, having to fly straight to London instead, but not getting to land because of snow, having to reroute to Manchester to refuel, which should have been our final destination, but not being allowed to get off because customs and immigration deemed we enter by way of London, sitting on the plane…IN MANCHESTER…for four hours before being flown back to London arriving six hours late, missing our connection back to Manchester, and getting bumped to another flight which we’ve just been told is delayed 2 hours (and counting).

The whole ordeal was made worse by the TSA tossing a ‘too sharpy’ Christmas Present I forgot to check with my luggage, and The Euro’s shaving foam which he special orders from France.

But the BA lounge has good cheese. And a shower. So that’s something.

Next week we’re going back to England. It feels more hypothetical than done-and-dusted and that’s probably to do with the busy we’ve been keeping. The Euro’s been filming for over a month, and I’ve been eating, sleeping and breathing 1 of 2 manuscripty projects since mid-October.

Yesterday I walked home – it was freezing and I stuck paper towels in my ears to keep the cold out. It’s the only exercise I’ll get this week and it’s no where near enough. I’m just shy of stir crazy and the knitting someone suggested isn’t doing the trick. (I just want to poke things with the needles.)

Last night my neighbour was lighting his house and his tree and this made me want to light something too. We’re not putting up a Christmas tree this year. Not even a Christmas Twig. This makes me feel a little like Charlie Brown but not too much because Holt House always has a wonderful tree and that’s where we’ll be.

Speaking of Christmas, barring books for my besties I’ve done zero shopping. That leaves six days and counting to get things sorted Stateside. I am totally freaking out.

Orson Welles meets HG Wells and someone was there to broadcast it. (Please note the misspelling in the video title is not mine.)

HG is lovely. And asks Orson about the film he is making – Citizen Kane.

Orson Welles: “It’s a new sort of motion picture with a new method of presentation.”

HG Wells: “If I don’t misunderstand you completely I think there will be a lot of jolly good new noises in it.”

Delicious.