Where was I?

St Martinien

I just had to read my own blog to see where I had got to!

So..... I went to England for a few days to see the new baby grandson. Jon stayed behind, since he had been to England recently for about 24 hours and we didn't want to put the cats in the cattery again. They take a while to settle back down and had only just relocated the mouse supply so it seemed unfair to upset them once more.

I'm not particularly confident when travelling alone since I had my bag and all identity stolen on a trip to Paris some years ago. I am continually checking my passport, tickets, money, bank cards, driving licence, clean knickers. Then five minutes later I check it all again.

I got in the car, checking for the five hundredth time that day: passport, boarding card, English money, Euros, driving licence, clean knickers. Eventually I was happy and headed off to Bergerac Airport.

How lucky are we that the route to this tiny airfield is traffic free, back lane through woods, over hills with wonderful views, back into lanes lined with walls of cut logs and so on. I was thoroughly enjoying my drive and then my mobile phone rang.

I pulled over and hunted for the phone, which I found eventually and picked up. I saw that it was a call from me to me - which meant that Jon was calling me from the French mobile to the English mobile phone.

'Oh God' I cried, 'What have I forgotten or what haven't I done?'

I couldn't think of anything myself but there must be some dreadful reason for him calling me when I was half way to Bergerac.

'No, no problem, just to let you know that the fire fitters have returned'.

The two guys were back, unannounced having told us that they may not be back for another two weeks after their van broke down and blocked our lane. They had a hire van and were eager to finish the job, bees or no bees.

Fortunately, it was no bees.

'What if they want paying?' said Jon.

We agreed that they could take a cheque with them and I would transfer the money from one account to the other over the internet before they even got back to the office.

I set off again for Bergerac. I only took one wrong turn, having elected to try a new route and get to the airfield from a tiny track which I could see existed from the map.

At the airport I queued to drive into the car park. The barrier was broken so a very nice man came and let us all go in without taking a ticket - which is all very well until we returned and tried to get out again without a ticket. I decided to worry about that bit later on.

The departure lounge, which is only slightly bigger than our sitting room, was packed and the plane was delayed. I wanted some water but the drinks machine was fresh out and only offered nasty sugary drinks so I went without until I got on the plane.

Having never travelled with the Irish line before, and having had not so pleasant experiences with Sleazyjet, I wasn't looking forward to the flight. However I was pleasantly surprised, I had a seat by the emergency exit which gave me a little more leg room and the flight wasn't full. The flight time was shorter than Toulouse to Gatwick and we arrived only slightly later than we should have, the crew making up good time during the flight.

I then took the train from Stansted to London - the train was almost empty and I was almost lulled into a sense that everything was going to go really well.

Until we got to Euston station on the Victoria Line. Everyone in London seemed to have decided to work late that night and all got on the underground at the same time.

At Victoria, they all decided to get off again, as did I and we shuffled our way to the mainline station, where we all waited shoulder to shoulder for news of a platform for the next train to Dorking via Sutton.

Southern Rail let us down here as they only had two carriages available on a six carriage train, and the entire working population of London clambered in.

It was the most uncomfortable journey I have ever had in a train. I remembered exactly why I hated commuting to London all those (30?) years ago and decided to only work locally to where we lived.

Luckily I was met at Sutton by a very nice lady who took me home with her and immediately planted a very refreshing G&T in my hand. She then fed me and looked after me until the next morning when she deposited me with my daughter and her lovely sons for a couple of days.

Thanks Mum.

Oh, by the way, yes, the wood burner is fitted and the bill was posted to us.

More tomorrow.