Our seven-hour, overnight flight to London was blissfully uneventful. Emerson fell asleep well before take-off and remained zonked out until we awoke her to have breakfast before landing in London. Libby was also went “lights out” shortly after we were “wheels up.” I stayed awake to watch Hyde Park on Hudson and then called it a night, managing a respectable 4-5 hours of sleep.
We arrived in London ahead of schedule and parked two gates down from one of the Malaysian Airlines A380 that we’ll be taking out to Kuala Lumpor on Friday. I considered this a good omen. 
We breezed through immigration, found our luggage awaiting us in baggage claim, and found our driver. Since our timeshare week starts on Saturdays, we found the room at the Allen House check-in ready on our arrival. We’re in unit #38 this year, which faces Kensington High Street to the north. It has a larger sitting room but smaller bedroom than our regular flat. Libby and I are divided on whether the layout is preferable, but we agree that the usual view overlooking the garden is better.
After getting settled in, we followed our traditional arrival day ritual and headed out to Kensington Gardens with Emerson. This also gives us a chance to survey the changes along Kensington High Street. This year’s big news (to me anyway): the West Cornwall Pasty Co. closed its outpost in the tube station! I’ll have to search out other options to get my pasty fix.
Emerson really enjoyed the park. We took her to the Diana, Princess of Wales’ Memorial Playground. It’s a really nice facility for kids and parents: lots for kids to play on and do, yet sympathetic to naturalistic landscape of the gardens. In the past, we’ve found the playground with an entrance queue on bright, sunny weekends. Today was blissfully overcast, cool, and less crowded.
Emerson in action at the Diana, Princess of Wales' Memorial Playground
After the playground, we headed to the T-Mobile store for me to top-up my UK Internet access and went shopping for dinner fixings at the world’s best Whole Foods. We returned to the Allen House, watched some television, had dinner, and got ready for bed.
