Home

Good old João was there to collect us on Tuesday at 7:00 as promised, and drove us to the airport in plenty of time for our flight home.  The airport was remarkably busy, but I guess a lot of business people would be zooming off to morning meetings at that hour.  The non-Schengen end of the airport was much quieter, so we could sit and drink our tea in comfortable chairs in the Costa near the gate.  Unlike our flight out, the return flight was free of drama, thank goodness.  But I was wrong about the TAP seats.  We travelled out in row 7, and back in row 20, and at some point behind row 7, the cabin changes from business/cattle to cattle only, with a seat pitch that makes EasyJet seem super-generous.  Back at Gatwick, it was a return to the mediocrity that is the hallmark of the British infrastructure. Two of the moving walkways were out of action, which is bad news for those of an arthritic persuasion.  Still, the passport queue was very short, and we were out reasonably quickly.

The drive home was fine, with a pause in Edenbridge to shop for lunch and supper.  These days we’ve learned to avoid East Grinstead, which is a terrible bottleneck.  The road via Lingfield and Hever is marginally longer, but less prone to slow queues.

As soon as we got home I rang to ask for an appointment to see the doctor, and got one for 3:15 the same day!  We are unusually lucky with our local practice: Martyn had the same experience last time he went.  Anyway, after listening to the bellows, the doctor saw no reason to investigate further.  It must just have been another cold following the last one, since the symptoms are progressing normally now.

Annie returned home yesterday, managing to catch an earlier train than the one she was booked on, and with no need to change en route.  It was delayed by some sort of incident up the line, but she was still home sooner than expected.

So it’s back to the usual routines of shopping, laundry, gardening and cooking.  We’ve done a fair bit of gallivanting this year, so a couple of restful months are in order before our next jaunt.