Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Wednesday 12th July – the return to the UK



We landed on schedule, just before 9am to an unsurprising overcast day at Heathrow.  Our lift, Si’s Dad, timed our collection perfectly so that we could grab a coffee before meeting him and heading off.  I remember dreading being reunited with the British roads after the spacious and empty American roads, but thankfully the M25 behaved itself today and we made it back to Rochford for 1130am.  As we approached the house, out came Simon’s Mum, Ann, along with our spaniel, Ralph for a reunion in the street.  I had my concerns that Ralph would have forgotten us in the last nine months but he seemed pleased enough to see us. This was despite him having been dressed up in ribbons with A4 posters of himself tied to his sides as decoration!  He had no idea what was going on and you know what dogs are like?  I don’t know if the welcome we got was precisely the same as if we’d popped to the shops for ten minutes!  Ralph appeared to have gained some weight during our time away but was clearly very happy.

It was great to be reunited with another important part of my life that I had missed dearly – a decent cup of tea!  We both felt a little ‘vague’ due to the time difference and lack of sleep.  The plan to defeat the jet lag was to allow ourselves a couple of hours nap before forcing ourselves to stay awake until a reasonable UK hour.  The first part worked like a charm, I was even able to join Ann for a dog walk. Then we were spoilt by being given a roast dinner before I knuckled down to try to catch up with this blog – no rest for the wicked!

It is probably just as well whilst we are jetlag zombies… but we are 'in hiding' until the weekend.  We have been in cahoots with Simon’s sister-in-law for months in order to surprise Simon's brother, Andrew, at his 40th Birthday party this Saturday night, the 15th.  It means that we have resisted the usual temptations of social media updates and photos indicating our return.  A few people are in the know, but we are still trying to create the impression that we remain Stateside.  Hence, I have been posting belated sandwich updates on Facebook to cover up the fact we are back!  Sneaky, eh?!

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