Circus, Circus...

So we arrive at the airport after a flustered departure from our house including a stop at the bank - which bank is it again Fran?? and get through customs in record time. We didn't even have to declare any liquids - craziness since a flight from Regina to Calgary the weekend before required me (Jules) to leave my crabapple jam at home - oh curses!!

Finally - we have boarded the plane, settled into our seats, excited about our two headphone jack for the Ipod and are ready to go!! As we are waiting to leave the Captain comes on to tell us that our unfortunate tale of trial and tribulation was about to begin. We had a flat tire on the plane. And of course, why would Air Canada keep spares in Calgary - on no they had to fly one in from Vancouver which would take 1 1/2 hours. Of course - why would we think that our trip could start smoothly. After entertaining ourselves during an hour of the wait one of the flight attendants comes on to say that by the time they get the tire changed, the pilots remaining air time willnot be long enough to get us to London. As such we will have to stop in Toronto for a crew change. Now you would think that this should be enough of a gong show for us but no - it gets better. Toronto has a curfew which does not allow any plans to land in the middle of the night. So this means that the earliest we can land in Toronto is 6:30 am. Our 7:30 direct flight departure has suddenly turned into a 12:30 am departure with a layover in Toronto. Oh - the trials we must endure. However, rock paper scissors is always guaranteed for a good time. And Yorgo, you will be happy to know that Kelly Gruber back in his time was the high bid for 'buy or be bought'!!

OK - now that I (Fran) get a chance on here to rant, let me tell you just how much I hate Air Canada. When we were told that we had to wait - I thought for sure they would come back with a "just kidding" but no - this is Air Canada, not West Jet and they don't tell jokes here, in fact they like to be as rude as possible - just ask Jan the names she has been called by them. Soooo....naturally I want to rant - so the first person I call is Jan & Yorgo, who else would appreciate this? BUT...much to my dismay all I got from them was the shaft - they weren't answering the phone. NO ONE was around to hear my rantings, so we had to entertain ourselves elsewhere - nachos seemed to do the trick, along with buy or be bought. Thank goodness we can entertain ourselves. AND...good 'ol A.C. made it up to us by providing us with....drum roll please and your best Dr. Evil voice.... one hundred dollars for our "trouble". I'm selling it on e-bay - someone PLEASE take it.

We arrived in London at about 8'ish, managed to navigate our way to the Heathrow express (look at us - two little SK girls finding our way around!) and even managed to transfer trains to get to the King's Cross station closest to our hotel. We just had to surgically remove my (Fran's) suitcase from the subway turnstalls! Juliane managed to get her purse stuck in the cab door - but that's normal for us. We had a night cap of Subway - pretty exciting but by this point we were pretty hungry & it was the closest thing.

We made our first friends in London - 2 Irish boys named Johnny & Kevin. Pretty entertaining blokes once we could actually understand what they were saying. Who knew that jokes are still just as funny the third time around? They gave us some good pointers on navigating Charles de Gaulle in Paris - and told us the best of luck in allof our future endeavors whatever that means (Johnny had no clue as to what it actually meant - he had just heard it on Friends). The highlight of the night was two-fold...for whatever reason he had no problem remembering my name(Fran) but apparently Jules is a woman of international mystery - responding to the names of Marie , Suzanne and Elizabeth (She even gave her real name the first time around Jimmy - see where that gets you?) The second part- he sneezed and managed to spill his drink on Jules' pants at the same time. I thought I was goin to pee mine when that happened.

Irish charm only goes so far however and it was bedtime - we had an early morning of London sightseeing to do. I did manage to get some sleep,but was wide awake around 6/6:30ish. Jules managed to sleep until 7:30. Things were going good until we discovered that the converter was only good for the blowdrier - and baby does that thing dry quick when it runs on twice the voltage. Jules hair was dry and frizzy in no time. I opted for the "I have straight hair and can't get it wet look" . Neither option is doing us very well right now,so we are off to find a converter today. thank goodness for photoshop!! We can still look like the goddesses we are. Keep an eye out for pics from the bus tour - we even managed to photo a rare phenomenon - a mullet curlier than both mine & Jules hair put together - Trent you would love it! Anyway - time to hit the streets again and finish our tour. Till next time...