It had been about a year since I was last back home in England. It was a journey I was more than ready to make, as I'd had such a busy year with work, study & more work...plus I missed my family. The main reason for this excursion though, was my best friend in the world, Lisamarie, was having a Christening for her beautiful baby girl, Alice, and I had the honour of becoming her God Mother.
I travelled from Los Angeles, with Virgin Atlantic. It's always a headache travelling, but especially internationally, as you're supposed to report at the check-in desk 3 hours prior to travel. Everything went smoothly, although I had to be quite difficult with them to get a window seat, and of course, the duty free shops caught my attention - hence more hand luggage. So the time finally arrived to board the plane. I was in the line all ready to board, when an announcement was made that a crew member had taken ill, and that they were having to take them off the plane. Next thing I see is an empty wheelchair being pushed past me and onto the walkway to the plane. After around 10 minutes ( which felt a lot longer) we were allowed onto the plane. I found my seat next to a dishy young man, who looked rather horrified when he saw all my hang luggage that I was keeping under, and in front of, my seat. However, everything fit underneath, as I had imagined, and I was ready for take off. But, oh no, nothing is ever that simple... the captain made an announcement that due to the crew member who was rushed to the hospital, the plane wasn't legally allowed to take off with the number of crew on board, and that we would have to wait for another crew member to be located and come on board for the journey. Some time goes by, and the captain made another announcement that another crew member had been contacted so we should only be delayed another hour (yep an hour on the ground, with a full plane load of moaning passengers - oh what fun!). However once the "extra" crew member had arrived, it was all "plane" sailing - so to speak.
After a nap and some "interesting" food, I think it was supposed to be beef stew, so I guess one little lump of chewy meat, and some potatoes and carrots would pass as that (right?!) But the desert was tiramisu so I have to give them a thumbs up for that! Then after a movie (and btw they offer a choice of about 30 films, plus tv shows and games etc) I was ready to take a walk and get my circulation going... Ummm no chance, the dishy guy who had the aisle seat next to me was knocked out, well sleeping anyway, so there was no chance of me getting up any time soon. Two or three hours went buy, and by this time I had been keeping legs crossed for over an hour to exert bladder control, and my legs had gone dead as I'd been sat in the same position for so long...then finally I got a breakthrough. Dishy guy (who by this time, was not looking quite so dishy) had finally woken up and got up for a walk around! I felt like doing a little dance, I was so relieved, but I thought better of it, as I composed myself and got up to get the circulation moving in my legs, and to join the small queue (line) for the bathroom - although by the time I got to go in, I think I had started doing a little dance just to keep moving lol.
Five hours later we finally landed in London, and surprisingly it was a beautiful day, no rain in sight. I took a shuttle to a rental car place, where I had a reservation, and was exhausted and excited at the same time. I thought at this point I would just have to sign some paperwork, and get on the road "home". Yep, once again, I assumed too much... The rental car desk person informed me that they had pretty much rented out all of the cars that were in the class I had pre-paid, and that they only had one left. He walked me out and showed me this "car" that looked like something Noddy and Big Ears would be seen driving around in (if you don't know who they are, google them!) My face must have expressed absolute horror, as I knew he wasn't joking, and I honestly wouldn't have felt safe driving it. It was pretty much, half the size of a mini, if that's possible. So we went back into the office, and he told me I had an option to upgrade to the next class of cars, which was almost double the price, and when I saw one of those cars it was only slightly bigger than the first car he showed me, but this car didn't even have a boot (trunk)! At that point I must admit I was quite dramatic and difficult to deal with, as when I'm tired I can be quite grouchy, however combined with the travelling, it enhanced my grouchiness quite a few notches higher, to a point that must have been effective enough to make the guy back down and offer me a semi-decent car for no extra charge! So with a proud sense of satisfaction and well yes, ok, a minor victory on my part, I was finally ready to take on the last lap of my journey - the highways of London, Surrey and Kent. I must admit, it felt a little strange at first being back in a manual drive (stick shift)car and then driving on the opposite side of the road to what I have become accustomed to in the United States. However, after stalling the car engine a couple of times, and getting hooted at by a couple of other cars passing, I found myself adjusting quite well to the narrow roads, and motorways. Dodging the speed cameras was like playing a driving game on the Wii, which took quite some time to manoeuvre through. Then I saw the sign, yes the sign which said Sevenoaks and the A road I needed to exit on... At that point I became oblivious to time. I noticed the green fields, and hills that looked like a fairytale painting, trees that stood tall and strong with an aura of life, and picturesque old cottages that I grew up around. Next thing I knew - my mother was standing outside her house, and gave me a huge hug...
