14th Jan day 91 homeward bound

For the last part of my journey from Hong Kong I was flying with Emirates. They are a really good airline, the food and service are excellent, they even have stainless steel cutlery which makes eating on a tray so much easier. But the down side of Emirates is that you always have to touch down and change planes in Dubai. This adds another 5-6 hours onto a trip back to the UK which is less than ideal. 

Arriving in Dubai in the middle of the night and trekking across this enormous airport was exhausting. I had been given a voucher for a free meal or refreshments in the airport but there were none of the outlets in the immediate vicinity of my gate and I was way beyond wandering around at that time of night. This is my last shot of a departure gate on this epic trip.

Once again when settled on the plane sleep eluded me, apart from a few minutes catnapping. I watched the film Everest which is excellent, but was very glad I had recently read the Bear Grylls book about the mountain or I would have found it a difficult watch. For the rest of the journey I read my new book and channel hopped when the lights were down and it was too dark to read. 

Unfortunately a passenger had to be taken off this flight just before we took off as they were poorly. This meant their baggage had to be found and off-loaded, never a quick process. This caused an hour and three quarter delay in us reaching Heathrow. Cheryl was there with her gorgeous smile and a picture Seb had done for me. He had given her explicit instructions that she had to hold it up. Am sorry I must have caught her blinking but obviously this special moment of being reunited with my girl was not one for checking the photo quality!

After an easy journey home with no holdups we got back about 11.45am. We had a cuppa and crumpet at Cheryls and she took me home. I wanted to see Jack as I had missed him a lot, that's why we went to hers first. I had intended to do my usual after a long haul flight, of going to bed for a couple of hours, then making myself get up and stay up until it was normal bedtime. This formula has worked well for me over the years and I have never suffered from jet lag as a result.

However I needed to insure and tax my car before I could drive it so I got on with sorting those things - never a quick job. When I had finished I realised I didn't have time for a kip, as I wanted to pick up Seb at 3.20pm from school and I needed a shower and to put on my scaffolding before I went out. So instead of sleeping I went through 3 months mail and then got ready for the school trip. As I walked to school I appreciated afresh what a beautiful place this is to live.

I took Jack with me which was a mistake because I was so busy keeping him in check by the school gates that I missed taking a video of Seb seeing me for the first time. He suddenly appeared at my side with the biggest smile and gave me a huge hug.

As it was Mark's birthday I stayed at their place for his present opening and party with friends. Here are the 2 boys with Sienna, their friend's little girl, they are both gorgeous with her.

 

I left there at about 10pm and by then had been up for more than 48 hours, getting into my own bed after 3 months was absolutely bliss.

My intention is to write another couple of posts to finish off this blog properly for myself but in case you are completely bored with it, and don't want to read any more, I thought I would include these stunning pictures of the views from my apartment on Sun morning so that you can see why I love this place. This is the view from my bedrooms.

And these are the views from my kitchen and lounge windows with the mill stream below. The house on the left is Cheryl's.

And here is the church I now attend. Thank You Father for bringing me safely home after a trip right around the world, it's been phenomenal.