23rd July 2019
Touchdown felt like the plane had square wheels, if not it certainly had them after.
The time was 2.45pm whereas it should have been 1.15pm. The delay leaving Chicago was due to an “engineering issue” the pilot announced. His voice sounding that he had lost the will to live, and not the tone you want to hear as you are preparing to fly across the Atlantic.
Fortunately they had only let on the Priority boarders, before they halted everyone else, so there were only a few seats occupied.
I settled down and started the first film. Intermittently the pilot would update us on progress in a drawl that sounded like he was deflating. The “issue” was something to do with damage to one undercarriage door, possibly a stone. I could only imagine the engineering crew trying to beat out the dent.
So the film ended, and I was still on the ground, but the good news was the other passengers were embarking.
As it happens the aircraft was not full leaving me with a completely empty row to stretch out on.
I was totally unprepared for the weather when I landed, standing out in the blazing sun in a long sleeve shirt.
Damian turned up ten minutes later in his black Porsche GT3, we loaded up, and roared off to join the traffic queued on the M25.
I picked up the Shogun and headed back to Bradford on Avon.
When I arrived, I was greeted with an abundance of flowers, the garden look great, completely different when I left three months ago. I owed a lot to my sister and my friend Rob who had added extra plants and to them plus Louise for keeping them alive.
It was a wonderful sight.
I settled back and started planning what work I needed to do, it felt like I was in a hotel room, I was not yet connected to it, my mind was still in Holland wondering about things I should have told Kelli about how to fill the lawn mower with petrol using the new can.
I was looking forward to a long restful sleep.
However the thunderstorm put paid to that.
Another Lifetime to go 