Welcome to England

She came gently, shy almost, as I led her from her place to mine...

...her life in a bag, we escaped the bustle of Heathrow, to Terminal 3 short stay car park; oooh, how romantic :p

Up the stairs to pay the parking ticket and then back to the car...

...ah yes, the car...

...so...

...who is that, body hunched, low-down, so close behind my wagon? Someone breaking into the trunk? Are they after my hot wheels, the stereo or a sample of my CD collection?

My time in the dojo comes into real-life effect, the spring coils, the tension inward and outward all is calm, ready to react at the drop of a...

Oh, what relief; it's only some random girl squatting behind my car for a piss...

Tuck yourself in and be on your way, random girl; I have guests to these shores to whom your actions do not endear this country we share, our green and pleasant land...

Random girl goes.
Random girl is gone.

I turn to my dearest American friend and apologise for her first experience of Old Blighty, I'm sorry, sweetheart, but nonetheless...

"Welcome to England"

So, M4, North Circular, down the Barking Road and enter the heartland of my team...

...a whistlestop tour of London's East End, talking with random coppers, the backdrop of thunder, lightning and violent hailstorms, she travels the London Underground and the DLR with me.

We do breakfast/lunch in Canary Wharf, we watch the passers-by, talk to some more random people, step out into the air of Docklands, the surreallity of some San Fransisco-esque financial district, replicated & transplanted into a working-class bastion of London...

...she tastes British beer, chips, football and promotion to the Premiership...

...the East End lights up, the crowd goes wild, we celebrate.

That's more like it.

This is the life, this is what we came for...

"Welcome to England"