Philadelphia - toll troubles, Chinese and Princess Diana

Although my alarm was set for 8am, I woke up at 6am so I got up and started writing my review of last night's gig. I checked out and left at 9.45am to drive into Philadelphia. My Sat Nav directed me onto the New Jersey Turnpike but when I got to the entrance, there was nowhere to collect a ticket. As there was a car behind me I had to drive onto the turnpike. When I got to my exit, I thought I'd try the dumb English-woman card but I had the rudest turnpike person I've ever met. At one point she told me that I must have been blind because I didn't see the entrance with the ticket machine! I then asked to see her supervisor so I was directed into the office. He immediately knew where I'd entered the tollroad and confirmed that there was no ticket machine there. I ended up having to pay all the way from Ohio (over $20) but he gave me a claim form and said that I should be able to get a refund as I can prove that I entered it at Horsham. He also suggested that I made a complaint against the other toll person's attitude.

I then drove into Philadelphia. We were supposed to be meeting outside the Ritz Cinema at 11am. I was on time but my friend wasn't there so I asked inside and was told that there was another Ritz Cinema nearby. I went there and was told that there was a third Ritz Cinema a few blocks away and we finally managed to meet up! We had a gorgeous Chinese lunch at a place that we've been at before but it's a lovely restaurant. Unfortunately they didn't have my favourite Orange Chicken but I had General Tso's Chicken instead which was nice and spicy.

We then went into the Princess Diana Exhibition which was basically the same as the one that I saw at Althorp House during the Summer but it was laid out better as, for example, you could see all of her wedding dress and walk around it, whereas at Althorp I could only see the front and none of the train. There was also a part where a dancer was there and spoke about meeting her. The astonishing thing was that there were a few people crying in the final room that dealt with her death!

Afterwards we had a wander around the centre of Philly. One of the main department stores unveiled their Christmas windows today so we walked up to that but it was a bit of a let-down!

We left at about 3pm and I drove back to New Jersey but along the NJT there was a bad hold-up so I took a detour off which extended my journey. I booked into the Howard Johnson at Newark Airport and I was annoyed that they didn't mention that there's a compulsory $15 fee to park there when you have no other option! The room was nice enough and I had a relaxing evening in just watching stuff on my iPlayer. I was still full from lunchtime so I just had a bag of crisps for dinner and, as I was so tired, I got to sleep by 10pm!

Living it up in the US, eh?!!!