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August 13th, 2006 § 1 Comment
i have to admit, even though i’m not one who is prone to pessimism, i had all sorts of doubts about trying to get to the UK after the whole terrorist situation. even when i looked at the flights, they were all full, and the flight from atlanta to edinburgh was getting more and more oversold. the cincinnati-atlanta flights didn’t look very good for standby so i ended up listing myself from cincinnati to nashville to atlanta.
first off, let me say that i really hate making connections. so the fact that i had a 3-leg standby trip to get to scotland made me not-so-sure about the odds of getting there. second off, let me say that i REALLY hate checking bags, but given the security situation, i didn’t have a choice and with all the changes i ended up making on my flights from cincinnati to nashville to atlanta, i was sure that my bags wouldn’t make it. but make it they did, as did i (in business class to edinburgh no less)! somehow the gods of non-rev air travel were smiling on me. it was quite odd, in a good way.
sam greeted me at the airport, and i hadn’t quite thought about how good it would be to see him…and good lord, has it really been a year since i was last in the UK? it doesn’t seem like that long ago.
anyway, i followed the same plan as last year, which mean going back to sam’s flat and taking a nap, then a shower while sam puttered about and listened to music (god love ‘im). then we took the bus down to the city centre (see that? i spelled it “re” not “er”, you brits should be proud) and then walked over to kublah khan’s (sp?), a mongolian bbq restaurant. after a bit of miscommunication involving the hostess and really thick scottish accents, sam and i decided to have dinner there. it was your basic mongolian bbq, where you pick all your ingredients (meats, veggies, spices, sauces) and they cook it for you on a big, round, flat griddle-type thing. so i picked out just about all of the red meats, including kangaroo, venison, springbok, wild boar, zebra, and ostrich. it was a bit strange to have all of these types of selections but MAN were they good. for dessert, i asked the server what she recommended and before i could even get the last word out she jumped ahead and said “stickytoffeepudding!” and said that she lived for it. so i ordered it, and i’ll be damned if it was near-orgasmically delicious. god, i love food that does that.
after dinner, we went back to sam’s flat where we drank another bottle of wine and i forced sam to watch sleepless in seattle. although he doesn’t want me to say, he told me he likes cheesy romantic movies. 
haha!!! the secret is out!
so that was my first day in the UK for the third time. we’re about to go out and…do something, go to a park, eat, whatever. winging it is the best part of any vacation. i’m off!
[...] and some potatoes and mixed veg. okay, i didn’t like the ostrich so much. i liked it when we went to kublai khan’s back in 2006, but as a steak? not so good. it tasted sort of metallic, and sam considered [...]