En Angleterre

Looks like it's definitely set to be a white Christmas up here in the north of England... Just arrived after about a 13 hour door-to-door trip from Nice to Liverpool. Granted, I arrived at the airport stupidly early as usual, but the real problems began when the flight was delayed. Of course, they didn't announce it until the last minute when we were all stuck beyond security with nothing to do. First an hour's delay, then another. Then they announced boarding and then called it off, leaving us all to stand around hopefully for another 20 minutes or so. Some amusement was provided by the dude who had bought a duty-free bottle of red and consumed it in its entirety in the departure lounge.

Finally, we were off. No problems (apart from the screaming brat sat next to me) until we got to Liverpool safe and sound. Where we sat, and sat, and sat waiting to get off the plane. For 1 3/4 hours. Apparently it was too icy for us to get off safely. Wtf? Did the 2 hour delay not give them enough notice that we were coming? Seriously, why does England go to pieces completely whenever there's a cold snap? Granted, this is the snowiest I've ever seen it, but it's not as if I've spent my whole life here. Moscow copes every winter (jackass schemes about cloud-seeding notwithstanding) - what's England's problem?

Oh and then I just found that they destroyed my luggage's locking mechanism. It wasn't enough for them just to cut off the padlock. Or just to cut off one of the pull tabs for the zip. No, they chucked the padlock away, took the entire zipper off one side, and took the pull tab off the other side. So now it doesn't lock, I have no padlock, and it's difficult to even close. Thanks a fecking lot you dicks. Everywhere else they at least do you the courtesy of telling you to remove padlocks if necessary. It came all the way from Auckland to Brisbane, Brisbane to Dubai, Dubai to Milan padlocked - but Nice to Liverpool - oh noes, let's break in! Plus the top layer of all my stuff is wet. And a promising young bar of chocolate, only days away from consumption, was ruined. Tragedy.

Anyway, I'm tired, and sick and grumpy as you might be able to tell. But I'm here! Reunited with the fams, looking forward to Christmas and shopping and Englishy things. Of course no-one will even read this blog since I am currently using the only familial laptop, but oh well, I enjoy me. Someone doesn't though - I notice I have one less 'follower'. Boo :(