Wednesday April 1. No April Fool’s today. Actually it was more like serendipity. The plane left on time last night and the flight was wonderful. My seatmate was a guy from Nfld who worked on ships installing communication cables in the ocean. He was quite nice. I did sleep quite a bit after having one complimentary drink of rum and listened to classical music. It has a soothing effect. About 8am UK time, they served us a pretty good breakfast. We had to go into a holding pattern but landed at 9:45 only ten minutes late. I found out that carrying bags that weighed 50, 40 and 10 pounds respectively made you really think about what you pack. I developed a good system and was able to function pretty well even when I had to climb and descend lots of steps in the subway and train stations. I took a train from Heathrow to Paddington Station and changed to the tube for Victoria Station. From there I bought a train ticket from London to Chichester. The train ride was good and only took one hour and 32 minutes leaving precisely at 12:02 and arriving at 1:34. From there I wrestled the luggage over to the bus depot and caught the #60 going to Lavant. The bus driver never heard of my B&B West Faldie but said he could drop me off at the second stop. It took about 15 minutes. While on the bus I struck up a conversation with two older ladies (older than me) asking if they knew where my B&B was. They never heard of it and lived all their life in the area. I couldn't bring up the website but did know it was close to a pub so they suggested I get off at the second stop as well. So there I was on the doorstep of The Earl of March after negotiating my luggage across a fairly busy street. I asked the barman, Joe if he knew where my B&B was - he never heard of it and lived here all his life, Now I am sure that I have come to the wrong community. At any rate Joe and I struck up a conversation and I ordered a real ale - Fuller's London Pride and a ham and cheese sandwich. Both good choices. Joe was pretty interested in my volunteering at West Dean and went to get some promotional material. South Down which is a huge area encompassing West Dean and surrounds was just declared as a National Historic area two days ago. When he came back with the brochures he had one from West Faldie which turns out to be just around the corner - 2 minutes- Hallelujah! But you know I wasn't worried, somehow this place just felt right. The next thing that happened was that a lady came to the counter and asked if Joe could help her in contacting her B&B which was just across the street (not the same one as mine). She mentioned that she was curating an exhibit at West Dean starting tomorrow and I knew it was an Art and Memorial exhibit as I had seen it on the webpage. I told her I was volunteering at the West Dean Gardens and she was pleased that I knew about it. She and her partner provided me with an invitation to the private opening for tomorrow, a fairly exclusive event. Now isn't that amazing. Everything is falling into place. . Then when I went to ask detailed directions to the B&B from the bar, a patron said it would be too far to walk so he offered to drive me. It wasn't too far really but then I showed up and the place was beautiful. I'll try and upload some pictures I took to my blog. Well wouldn't you know it after unpacking, I have about 20 shirts, 20 pairs of socks and two pair of underwear. Good thing they are Tilley's. By the way the adaptor for the electricity doesn't work with three prong plugs such as the computer so I'll have to figure something out when the battery needs recharging. Hilary my B&B owner had an adaptor that is charging the computer. Now if I can connect to the wireless internet I'll be fine. I can catch a WIFI at the Earl of March but can’t get Aliant webmail to work. Joe provided me with a Welcome to the area pint. Life is good.