Coming home

We headed to Hong Kong airport for the final leg of our round the world journey. We’d been watching ads for a couple of days about ‘the new business class’ on Cathay Pacific but it hadn’t yet arrived on the London flight. Still it was very exciting as I’d never been upstairs on a 747 but the old business class has a very strange seat configuration with tiny cubicles which do not allow for socialising with a partner and are rather claustrophobic. Still the service was excellent and the bed flat so I can’t really complain! After a couple of hours at Heathrow we took the final short hop to Manchester and we were home.
It was really exciting to see spring – we missed it last year being in Abu Dhabi and the daffodils, blossom and light green of the trees looked even lovelier than I remember. It was a really beautiful sunny day to welcome us back and Manchester looked particularly attractive and felt pretty warm. Apart from a strange smell emanating from the main bathroom which will no doubt require a visit from the plumber, the flat was in good shape and we soon had everything stashed away and several loads of washing drying! We managed to get John a new handset, since his phone has been out of action since it gave up the ghost in Argentina and he is now back in contact with the world again.
We’ve had such a marvellous time and created an enormous memory bank of experiences but it is always nice to be home. Despite being 10,000 km from where we were the day before, spending 18 hours travelling and coping with a 7 hour time difference we seem to have managed very well and not been too pole axed by it all. On Monday it poured with rain so more of a return to normal weather but on Tuesday we packed a case again and set off for Skipton and enjoyed the loveliness that is Yorkshire in springtime complete with little bouncy lambs, flowering currant and a heron wading in the stream. It was great to see mum again and enjoy a home cooked ‘British’ meal of cottage pie and apple tart. I’m sure we were able to bore her for some time going on and on about our trip and all the things we’d seen! I took Kirsty for a run in the woods – determined to get fit and trim again after all the good living though I did run quite a bit in Port Douglas and Manly.
Spent a frustrating afternoon printing out the blog and the photos ready for John’s mum – the transfer of electronic material to paper is never an easy experience, I’m sure the techno boffins don’t really believe in paper and therefore don’t spend nearly as long working on the technology! Thursday we were back with the suitcases for our next small trip. Since it was our wedding anniversary we’d decided to pay a short visit to Luton Hoo. Last year we celebrated at the Shangri La in Abu Dhabi so we thought it would be nice to go back and I managed to persuade them to come up with a good package for dinner, bed and breakfast and a room upgrade.
Despite all our wonderful travel experiences Luton Hoo is still one of my favourite places in the world. Clearly it has a step up being associated with the glorious memories of our happy wedding day but it is such a relaxing and charming place. Although it looks very grand, the staff are so friendly that it never feels imposing or stuck up. The gardens looked brilliant and we had a tremendous room overlooking the lake with a small balcony and the usual luxurious bathroom. We had a stunning anniversary dinner with champagne and desert wine and spent the next morning swimming it off in the beautiful pool. It was a heavenly wedding anniversary and a great way to celebrate our return to the UK.
We joined the beginning of the Easter rush on the M25 to head to Leysdown and John’s mum’s for the weekend. For the next couple of weeks we’re rushing around saying hello to family after being away so long, then hopefully we’ll be able to hook up again with our friends. I guess after that we really should start thinking about making useful contributions to society, getting back to some work and even earning some money but for now I’m very happy to enjoy an English spring and reflect on our epic trip.