Because I've already said we're in Houston you can infer that I got my passport issues sorted out. It only took a day trip to Glasgow and 6 hours in the bureaucratic nightmare that is a UK Border Agency office. My application went smoothly, but there were problems with the system and things just took a lot longer than they should have. A few days later I received my new identity card in the mail. It looks very futuristic. Let's hope it gets me back into the country in a couple of weeks.
We worried a lot about our trip through US customs. How would they treat us? Would the re-entry permits be accepted? It turns out we worried about nothing. For once we had very friendly border agent and even got a heart-warming "Welcome Home".
Our flight was good. Uneventful, but that's how trans-Atlantic flights should be. We mostly spent the 10 hours catching up on some movies. We both watched "Date Night": enjoyable, but how could it not be with Tina Fey and Steve Carrell? While it was hard to stifle some out-loud laughter at some points, we both thought it could have been better. There were definitely some slow parts. I somehow managed to sit through all 90 minutes of "The Losers". This one was pretty contrived with a "twist" halfway through that made no sense and pretty much ruined the rest of the movie. If you're in the need for mindless action-adventure, then go see the A-Team. We went with Roger and Cathy when they were in Aberdeen. I was prepared for a plethora of explosions, but even those expectations were exceeded. And yet, somehow, it also managed to be fun. Part of that fun was watching Fiona swoon every time Bradley Cooper took his shirt off - which was a lot. I also watched "Shutter Island" with Leonardo diCaprio. It had a pretty cool vibe and twisty plot, but it had the unfortunate luck of being seen after "Inception", which is a similar version of the same movie, but done much, much better. In fact, I think "Inception" was probably the best movie I've seen this year (and am likely to see). The only one to perhaps give it a run for its money was "Kenny", an Australian pseudo-documentary about a guy who runs a porta-potty business. It never degenerates into the obvious run of poop jokes, although there are a few. You end up getting really attached to Kenny. Fiona and I both highly recommend it.
We picked up a great rental car at the airport - a Dodge Journey. Although I'd never heard of the model (I'm getting too used to Citroens and Vauxhalls) it is really growing on me. Big enough without being ridiculous, comfortable enough for long trips on the I-10 and powerful enough to overtake without being too hard on gas.
We quickly sprinted down the Sam Houston to the office where we managed to sign all our new re-entry papers with enough time to make it to Pappadeaux for our fill of fried crawdads, crabcakes and Andouille sausage. With an ice-cold Shiner on the side. Fabulous.
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