Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Traveling by airplane just doesn’t have the sense of excitement as it used to – particularly when there are three to catch.

The flight from Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg was non eventful. We had a short wait of about an hour or so until the overnight Air France flight to Paris. Entering the plane things weren’t so good. It seemed there was no cold air flowing so it felt like an oven. Worse still – someone near us (couldn’t/wouldn’t figure out who) had wiffy armpits and it smelt like someone with 20 arms. We were promised the plane would cool down when we took off. The best we got is it got less hot. The smell didn’t blow away.

I was wedged between Helen and a German lady. My seat didn’t want to stay back and it felt like the padding beneath my arse had worn out as the chair felt quite hard. The German lass didn’t feel this as she had a rather large amount of padding of her own which made it’s way into my seat from time to time over the night. As a consequence of all this (the heat, the smell and the German invasion) I slept very little, if at all.

I caught up a little sleep at Charles de Gaul airport where we had a three hour wait for our London flight. Helen found some adjacent seats without intervening handles which allowed me to lie down and sleep for a bit.

The London flight took off about 45 minutes late for various reasons. We landed about 10 to 11. The busses which we wanted to catch left the central bus station at 15 minutes past the hour. We didn’t hold much hope for the 11:15 bus but despite this we hurried along. We whizzed through immigration without delay and the first of our bags appeared almost as soon as we arrived at the baggage claim. Our hopes were raising. Could our second bag arrive in time?

An agonizing wait ensued and eventually our next bag arrived. We practically ran through customs, ditched the trolley, down the stairs, picked up another trolley, ran to the bus station basement, crammed ourselves into two separate lifts (elevators), and finally ran (me with three bags/cases) to the bus stop. We arrived a minute late. The bus left two minutes later. Phew.

On the bus we started our calls to figure out what we’re doing for the next couple of weeks. Looks like we’ll stay in Chesham for a couple of days then drive up to Manchester to visit one of Helen’s sisters. A couple of days there then down to Cornwall, probably stopping off somewhere along the way. A few days in Cornwall then back to Chesham. We may have an opportunity to stay in London for a couple of days so we’ll do that if we can just before heading back to Grenada.

Helen’s son John came to visit on Saturday staying the night.  Not to miss out on the good food at our old local Indian restaurant we ordered takeaway to make it two nights in a row.

Monday was a bank/public holiday here in the Uk.  Usually this means poor weather and long queues on the motorway for folks returning from a long weekend away.  For us this meant a visit to our friends Erin and Robin for a BBQ where we were joined by our old karate instructor Ashley.  We had great fun catching up and the weather was great for us.

We finally got quotes together for all the remaining bits and pieces we need sent to Grenada so at least that seems to be moving on now.

We went for a walk yesterday before it got too hot.  Pleasant trails through woods and saw some old churches.  Had fish n chips in the evening.  The British influence in this place is evident.  Being in England this is hardly surprising.  Remember – when writing this we were pretending to still be in Grenada.  We had fun writing these things into the blog.

We’re now in the Uk.  Yesterday, Jackie picked us up from the boatyard and took us to the airport.  In exchange for this favour we bagged up all the spare food from our fridge (now turned off) and brought it into the car for Mike and Jackie to finish off.  Unfortunately, once left at the airport Helen discovered the bag of food alongside our luggage.  I received the initial blame for this until my innocence was declared accepted.

The flight to the Uk took us via Tobago where we waited on the plane for about an hour before proceeding overnight to the Uk.  We had ordered a car to take us from the airport to Helen’s sister Betty.  Apart from the usual jams around the M25 all went smoothly.

Really not a lot happening on the boat at the moment (it wouldn’t as we’re not there) so we’re just relaxing and reading at Betty’s. Still trying to sort out our parts order on the internet. Fingers crossed this will be sorted soon.

Internet continues to be very patchy in the yard (not that it matters as we’re not there). Need to find somewhere reliable for occasional communications. (Found one)

Big event for Friday. Went out to eat last night and found a curry establishment serving food tasting as delicious as the good stuff in the UK (it would be because it was the same place as we last went to in the Uk). Must go there again.

Weather is fine in Grenada which means it’s hot, hot, hot (for everyone who’s there). September approaches which is peak hurricane month. Looks like another is forming to the east but will miss us (by very many miles).