Monday 5th December - The Journey Home and some recollections and thoughts

Monday 5th December - The Journey Home and some recollections and thoughts

We left our packing until this morning. Space considerations demanded it. We had booked a shuttle bus from a firm called Kings and Queens and they had phoned yesterday to tell us that they would pick us up at 13.05. Di and I did some last minute leaf sweeping and housework and then the bus arrived just on time. The driver loaded our luggage into a trailer and we said our sad goodbyes to our darling daughter and grandchildren. Ollie seemed excited that we were going on an aeroplane and asked if he could come too. This is the saddest part for us. Leaving little Ollie who is old enough to appreciate our love and concern for him. We will miss his exuberance for life, his humour, his curiosity, his uncomplicated expressions of affection. We will miss him coming into our bed every morning with his empty bottle, his "Greycat' and his "Lamby" and his demanding to watch nursery rhyme videos on the iPad.  We will miss playing with him, building "Twax" with his wooden railway, practising catching and kicking, taking him to the park and beach. We will miss his closeness as he sits in your lap listening intently as you read him a story.  We will miss putting him to bed, his endearing habit of running around the house kissing and hugging everyone goodnight. We will miss his toughness and the way he so quickly bounces back after after any hurt: a quick cuddle, a little sob on your shoulder, a little complaint about the "ouchy" and what caused it and then back into the fray as though nothing had happened. We will miss his love of learning and marvelling at his ability to pick up words and numbers so quickly. And of course, we will miss our darling little Toby who is growing so quickly. He has gained a cm a week since birth and is now 59 cm and around 6 kilos. He is an easy baby. He doesn't cry very much, he is content to lie and look at the light when he is awake, he is a good feeder and sleeps for long enough periods to allow you to get on with jobs. At 5 weeks old, he only takes one feed in the night.
Anyway, Tash promised that she would bring the children back to the UK sometime in June and July and possibly stay for two months. Will would accompany her but would have to come back after only two or three weeks as he needs to work. We had said our goodbyes to Will last night as he went off to work at about 6.30 this morning. We kissed our lovely daughter and then we were off  waving to them standing on the road outside their rented house. There were two other people on the bus with whom we chatted. We made another stop at Gosford to pick up two more people and then we were off down the Freeway to Sydney. We stopped at a ferry terminal to drop off two people who were going on a cruise around New Zealand and then we headed for the airport where one lady alighted at the domestic terminal leaving just three of us to go on to the International terminal. The journey had taken just over two hours, arriving as we did, at about 3.20.
We checked in with little fuss, the queues bring very short. We had three bags to check in plus a child car seat that Tash wanted us to return to the UK for use when Ollie visits us in the Summer. They had brought it to Australia when they emigrated last November but had found that it didn't conform to Australian regulations. I had to take the car seat across the hall to a special cage for outsized luggage, but this was done with the help of the lady who checked us in so was no problem.
At about 4.45 we went to the observation deck cafe where we bought a small beer to drink with some ham and cheese rolls we had brought with us, and then we went through security. We had to remove our shoes and go through a body scanner and I had to have my leg swabbed for an explosives test. We only had to wait a few minutes before we were being called for embarkation and we duly boarded at about 5.10 pm.
The BA 747-400 plane took about 8 1/2 hours to fly to Bangkok. On the way, we were served an excellent beef dinner with sparkling wine and nut starters and red wine to accompany the beef. Our seats were fantastic, we had been assigned to row 12,  the front row which had about three feet of legroom and which was where the serving trolley always started. I watched a couple of movies, Columbiana and Cowboys versus Aliens, and even got a little sleep before we reached Bangkok where the co pilot landed the plane in what was possibly the smoothest landing I had ever experienced.  There was literally no impact whatsoever and it was not possible to distinguish the flying from the taxiing. Here we had to disembark with all our hand luggage and take a very long walk down an immense hall and then go through security again before walking down the immense hall again and collecting at a gate before being loaded back on to our replenished aircraft. I have to say that I find this practice irksome. What is the necessity? Why not take us off into the collection area and then load us back on without the long walk and extra security check? This is especially inconvenient for disabled people like myself and, I suspect for aged people like Di's parents who may well be making the journey with us next year. I will make enquiries to see if it's possible for them to sidestep this unnecessary walk.
The second leg of the flight took just under 12 hours and we arrived at Heathrow about 15 minutes ahead of schedule at 5.50 am. Once again, we were served dinner, snacks and then about two hours before landing, breakfast. I must say, the quality of the food and service was excellent. I seemed to sleep a lot during this leg and it passed seemingly quickly. I tried to watch another film, Another Earth, but it didn't grip me and I gave up, opting instead for some reading and ipading.
We collected our luggage without mishap and were met by a taxi driver Susan had arranged for us. Susan and James are good friends of Natasha and Will and have had several stays with us in Devon.  They are useful as they have a large courtyard  at their house in Bray and always allow us to leave our car there when we travel through Heathrow. Unfortunately, our battery was flat and James had to give us a jump from his car. It didn't take too long and we were soon on our way through a dry but cold Southern England. We had gone from the relative warmth of what was, in fact, an unseasonably cold NSW at about 15 degrees C, to a 4 degree England in about 22 hours. We had left Sydney at about 6pm on Monday and arrived at Heathrow at about 6am Tuesday. Taking into account the 11 hour time difference, the actual journey time was about 22 hours. With the two hours road trip in Australia and the four and a half hours road trip in England, plus the waiting times at the airports, the whole journey took us 33 hours. That's 11,000 miles in 33 hours which gives us an average speed of 333 miles per hour! Not bad.