Well, by popular (mostly Aussie) demand, I’ve been persuaded to continue my Blogging from the UK – goodness knows what I’m going to write about or how I’m going to find the time! But then …………..!!
We arrived back at Heathrow on Wednesday morning – that’s 22 hours in the plane, a 9 hour time difference and a 2 hour (yes that’s TWO hours!) wait at the baggage carousel for our luggage to appear! Problems with equipment, staffing and a new working system were cited as the causes – some things never ever change do they and that’s not the best way of ending a long night is it?! Anyway thankfully the taxi driver waited for us and whisked us home where we arrived a little after 9am.
All was well here; power and water were switched on and we were in business! A shower 30 minutes later never felt so good!!
In the afternoon our grocery order from Tesco’s arrived (we’d shopped online from Warriewood!) and the refrigerator and cupboards were refilled!
Watching TV with a tray of food on her lap and a glass of red wine in her hand at around 6pm, Shirley suddenly slumped forward shooting the wine all over the carpet! She’d apparently just nodded off!! As you can imagine the sight of red wine on a beige carpet brought her back to ‘life’ and she spent the next 15 minutes cleaning up! Amazingly the carpet looks fine with no sign of what had happened!!
Shirley seems to have been more affected by the jetlag than I’ve been – plus the tree pollen is everywhere so she’s sniffing and sneezing too! In comparison my jetlag has been almost non-existent and I seem to have settled back into the routine without any problem!
We’ve managed to reconnect with some friends and had a ‘planning meeting’ with Chas and Pam in advance of our sailing holiday with them in a couple of weeks time which we’re looking forward to. Our good friends Tim and Valerie Downes, John and Jo Gulliford and Brian and Norma Pover are off to Sarasota in Florida on Tuesday so we’ll catch up with them when we get back from Turkey at the end of May.
Today (Sunday) has been another glorious spring day with temperatures in the low to mid 20’s – it’s been London Marathon Day too so as I write now (at a little after 7.30pm) I’m thinking that some poor souls are still making their way to the finish line! ‘The London’ is always a superb and special event and watching the start at Blackheath on TV is amazing with 35,000 runners taking part this year; would you believe that one guy was running his 7th Marathon in 7 days!!!
It’s good to get back to the BBC news too – we miss the quality news coverage when we’re anywhere else in the world, especially in the US! Shirley is busy reconnecting with her ‘Soaps’ Coronation Street, Emmerdale etc but from what I can see nothing much has changed since she last watched them before we left the UK in November! Isn't that always the case?!
Oh and I almost forgot! I was soooo impressed with Jon Price’s Garmin SatNav system in Australia that I’ve bought one here (well, it’s an early birthday present!) – I ordered it online at Amazon for £180 and it arrived here yesterday; I’ve been playing with it ever since!
Boys DO like their toys don’t they?!!
Unlike places like Australia and the US, our 'National Day' isn't a public holiday either although there's a campaign to get it recognised as such!
