Tuesday, November 15/2016

On the move. Too little sleep countered by the slight spurt of adrenalin that always accompanies a travel day. Tube commuter packed to King's Cross St Pancras. Eight twenty train from St Pancras even more sardined, again with commuters. As J says, after conversation is once more possible, it's a bit embarrassing to take up space with even our small suitcases when not everyone on the platform makes it onto the train. Eight coaches this run instead of the usual 12, but thins down quite quickly as we leave central London and plenty of seats out to Gatwick. As usual we're ridiculously early, but see no other way to allow for the unexpected - such as the train out of St Pancras that was cancelled while we were on the platform. Having the fare refunded wouldn't begin to cover the catastrophe regardless of their polite regrets for inconvenience. 

Flight very full. J and I have booked aisle seats opposite each other, as we usually do when there are banks of three on each side. Substantial wait while the luggage for a no show passenger is unloaded. Bright side is that there is now an empty place between me and the young man who has the window seat in our row, which we share amicably between his laptop and my lunch. It's a no frills flight but he, like us, has brought sandwiches. Unlike us, he hasn't brought water, and pays a hefty £2.50 (€2.90, $4.50 CAD) for a cup of tea. Personal opinion is that if you're going to buy onboard it would be better to go for the whisky at £5, only double the tea. However any austerity more than compensated for by the free inflight wifi. Does make you wonder, though, how critical all those warnings were about setting your devices at "airplane", which we followed religiously, even with the bookreader, which I couldn't seriously imagine struggling to connect with electronic shops from the genuine clouds. 

Make up the time with help of a tail wind and only slight delays at immigration. Avoid the queue where a young woman is saying "But this is my ID," in answer to "So you have no passport?" Do get an immigration officer who spends an inordinately long time examining the old (and totally irrelevant) luggage collection stickers on the backs of our passports, none of which are from this flight. Memo to self, remove same during idle moments watching telly. But then we're met by Jane and Bill. So lovely to see their smiling faces at arrivals. Lift "home" and plan for dinner Thursday. Greeted with hugs by Kiki at the Sunflower and given the key to our usual. We're back!