I'm now safely in Iowa. The stay at Yotel, Heathrow on Sunday night was fine, though for some explicable reason I noticed on Monday morning that my blackberry was set an hour laster than it should be, so I was up at 4:45am, not nearly 6:00 as planned. However, I'd given myself plenty of time anyway, so it was an mild annoyance more than anything else.

The queues at Terminal 4's Northwst desk would quite easily have rivalled some of those for Disney theme park rides and I was in line for a good ninety minutes and was even queueing to get in the queue at one point. We took off over an hour late, but made up the time in the air. It wasn't a great seat, but I did get a window and the people at the desk were friendlier than expected given the stress levels.

I attempted to use my laptop when we arrived in Minneapolis, but the whole laptop appears dead, even when I use either a cable or the normal battery. NO idea why it's done this and very annoying as it was working fine at Yotel and there's a Peter Wingfield transcript and audio file on there that I don't have anywhere else - I didn't ahve the chance to abck them up last week. Can only hope the laptop is back in action before print deadline. I also put $5 in a internet-booth in MSP airport and it ate it without giving me my allotted time. Was glas to finally get on the plane to Sioux Falls, though that was an hour late too.

Arrived into Sioux Falls, South Dakota in the middle of a snow-storm and was met by Jill, her sister Mart and friend Natasha and with a quick pit-stop for food it took about an hour or so to get back into Iowa and home. By this tiem Jill's pets had run slightly amok, so there's tidying to be done today.

Despite warnings, it's not incredibly cold, just chilly as long as I wrap up warm. Doesn't look as if it'll snow again before Christmas, but the white stuff is already deep and crisp and even. But, I recommend you avoid the yellow snow.

Despite a couple of nose bleeds (these are quite normal for me after I've flown - it's the colder, drier air, I think) all is fine.

More pix to follow. But Yule Tide (B)log updates will be limited unless the laptop pops back to life (fingers cross), but hope to blog again before the end of the week.