Whatever Simon says, these girls will do...

The line for customs was quick and painless. Even more surprising was the speed at which our backpacks came out on the baggage claim belt. We didn't spend more than 15 minutes total waiting around at Gatwick.

The Gatwick Express left the airport at 9:20 a.m. and delivered us to Victoria station in promptly 30 minutes. I managed to find a Vodafone store within minutes of emerging from the train, so I had my mobile phone activated a few minutes later. Kate and I then took the tube to our hostel, dropped our bags, and rang Simon Deverell to meet him at Hyde Park Barracks.

As our plane was nearly two hours late, we were too late to make it for the changing of the the Queen's Life Guard as originally planned. Simon greeted us in all of his breathtaking handsomeness at the gate to the barracks around 11 a.m.. Even Kate was silenced by the striking aura that surrounded Simon - we were smitten.

Simon showed us around the barracks, the stables, and we watched the troops return from the guard changing. It's a highly choreographed dismount the group must do in order to not stab one another (or the horses) with their giant swords. Simon pointed out the good horses and also the stupid ones - we found his calling out the dumb ones to be particularly amusing.

Our tour ended and we parted ways 30 minutes or so later - cheek kisses from Simon for both of these girls. He's all we could talk about for a good long while as we walked back to Knightsbridge to shop around Harrods.

I found little Anna a friend at Harrods for Hattie the dog, who I purchased a little over 3 years ago for Anna before she was born. I'm carrying the new stuffed dog back with me, as Anna said he might get lost or scared if I sent him in the mail.

Kate and I left Knightsbridge and went to Waitrose to buy lunch and bring back to our hostel room. I had my traditional sunblished tomato salad along with hummus and organic bread. Kate was craving sushi, so she picked out a nice selection for herself.

I'm typing this from the computer corner of the main lobby of the hostel. Kate and I are about to head out to Paddington Station to buy my train ticket for tomorrow and then we will take the tube to Covent Garden and shop until we meet our friend George at Pasta Brown for dinner around 7:30 p.m.

Looks like we made it....

Good news everyone - Kate made it through security at RDU!

While we didn't have any problems, the flight ended up being delayed in Raleigh for a good hour and a half (maybe a bit more, we lost track) because the crew was "cleaning the plane". Half of the flight was filled with small children, but they all behaved quite well, give or take two or three crying spells (we honestly expected it to be much worse!). Kate read magazines for most of the flight and somehow I was the one that did most of the sleeping. Overall a very uneventful trans-Atlantic flight, which really isn't a bad thing to report