It has been very foggy here in the valley the past couple of days. Growing up here, it was just part of life and you adapted and got used to it and sort of noticed it and at the same time sort of didn't. Last year it felt like we got a reprieve from it and when it rolled in this year it seemed more noticeable to me. It also cast a gloom, especially in the evening. Normally I would think it very depressing and lock myself in the room huddled under the covers hoping to fall asleep early. Tonight it had me nostalgic for the trip to London I took about seven years ago.
My brother was doing a work study program in 2003 and left for London that August. Immediately my mother made plans to book a trip for that Thanksgiving weekend so that we would be there to celebrate with my brother when he turned 21. Once we arrived we realized that we completely forgot that the legal drinking age in England is 18 and that my brother had been imbibing for months. His 21st was still a blast though with one of my fondest memories of the trip was the two of us racing half blitzed through Piccadilly Circus trying to make the last tube back to his flat in Earl's Court and down the street from the hotel mum and I were staying at.
The next morning, and almost every morning of our stay there, mum and I had tea (with milk, the way I was raised drinking it) and digestives for breakfast. Don't get too grossed out by the word "digestives" because it is not what you think...they are fabulous cookies. Not too sweet and almost like a thick graham cracker, Mc Vitie's Digestive Biscuits became a fast favorite. Our absolute favorite were the milk chocolate and caramel cookies, they tasted almost identical to a Twix candy bar. When we crossed the pond and arrived back home I very often missed my new favorite little cookie. Fortunately I was able to find them at Cost Plus World Market, right here in my hometown. For a long time I was able to find the identical biscuits that I had in London. With the dense fog and my memory of those cookies haunting me, I decided I had to have them tonight. I headed over to Cost Plus and found the isle immediately. I had forgotten how much I loved this store. Scanning the shelves, I found that my particular type of digestive was missing. I was tremendously disappointed and settled for the dark chocolate ones. When I got home, I made my cup of Lipton (what I grew up drinking but Typhoo tea would have really brought me back to the banks of the Thames), and limited myself to two digestives. This was after I had already consumed about four on the car ride home...I ain't gonna lie. Even though they were missing that ribbon of salty caramel, the dark chocolate variety served its purpose. I was instantly taken back to my tiny tiny hotel room watching the BBC and every once in a while, gazing out the window at the fog rolling over the shadows of the inveterate buildings outside.
**Oh, in completely unrelated-to-this-post news...my good friend Cocodoodle started a little bloggy blog of her own. Don't walk, run over to Paperback Writer and continue to do so. I can't wait to see how it turns out.
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