Friday, September 29, 2006

Arriving back in Glasgow (JC)

Our fears of the repaired engine behind us, we still had to land. The last 30 minutes of the flight were bumpy and the plane came down with an awful thump. I think it was the pilot's first day, or he had to put the stewardess down to grab the controls to land.

We walked through Glasgow's terminal to the BA office, hoping to get an earlier flight home. We were having *such* a great time with my family that we wanted to get the next plane out. No luck, no seats for love or money. Only mutants like us fly home from the UK on a Tuesday!

We climbed into our taxi and arrived back at the B&B. On the way to the B&B, I called my uncle to confirm we arrived in one piece. Keeping in mind that a three hour flight is equal to flying from Toronto to Regina or Toronto to Miami, we were dealing with a long, stressful day on the heels of two days of non-stop hilly cobble-stoned walking and shopping. Of course, this doesn't include our three hour stopover in Amsterdam.

We did not hear back from my uncle in the two hours we had been at the B&B. Before we left for Rome we did arrange to meet up for dinner for tonight, but he told us it wasn't written in stone and we were free to change our minds. However, he showed up at 6:00pm on the nose to go out for dinner. No thought was given as to how we were feeling or if we still wanted to go. In fact, when he arrived, Rhonda was in her PJs trying to relax.

As I mentioned, Ian planned ahead for the time to meet, but no thought was made as to where we were to eat. Deep down Ian wanted to go to the Royal Turban, an Indian restaurant across the street from his friend's apartment.

After Kiddush, the debate over where to eat started. I know a great place but it's in London but it's shomer shabbos (closed on shabbos).

We drove 15 minutes around the suburbs and settled on a modest Chinese restaurant, whose name came out as "organ failure", instead of it's real name "Orchid Veil".

Typical of Chinese eating, it's communal. You order several dishes to get several tastes. Ian stated it was individual. WRONG!

The plates came on a small hot plate assuming that everyone would share and not the eat large individual portion my esteemed uncle assumed.

It was like feeding time at the zoo. Disgusting! He ate his entire dish himself and commented about how large the portions are. He had no idea that the portions were that large because there were four people at the table and each person was supposed to take a little bit of each. I guess he just naturally assumed that Rhonda really liked lemon chicken, as he expected her to eat her entire dish of it.

Rhonda and I even hinted at the fact that it was communal eating by offering some to each other. Ian's friend even got in on it, and she shared hers as well. But Ian just sat there, eating his entire dish of duck and vegetables.

I'll take "people who don't have a clue for $100, Alex..."

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