Family re-united

Well it has been exactly 70 days and the family have finally arrived. With the expected arrival time at 4.50am, the thought of leaving at 1am for the drive to Heathrow was not going to happen. So I booked my self into the cheapest 1 room hotel I could find. At £37 per night, the hotel was actually an old house that had obviously been made unfit for living due to its proximity to the airport. When they say close they mean CLOSE!. It was directly under the main runway which meant that there was no chance of missing the flight as the room shook as each plane thundered what appeared to be 2 metres above my bed.

So the night was spent counting planes instead of sheep in great excitement for the arrival. I knew I couldn’t complain about the lack of sleep knowing Kathy was in a confined space 30,000 feet in the air with god knows what chaos going on. So up at 4am leaving no chance of being late, I waited for three screaming beasts to appear with armed guards escorting a deranged and unstable women from the plane. To my surprise a very calm lady and three children appeared from the door. It was only when there was a big scream ‘daddy’ that I recognised my beautiful girls were finally hear.

All went well on the flight and despite very little sleep from any of them, everyone was on their best behaviour. Not sure if Kathy found a new drug, but what ever it was, I were told they were all excellent.

So the last couple of days have been the girls getting over jet lag and myself getting over the increased noise level. It is great to be a family again.

Welcome to Heathrow Sir - ps; we have lost your bags!

Well I finally reached the other side of the world. Left Sydney at 3.50pm for 23 hours of joy. Luckily I had a very nice person (read young brunette) in the seat next to me so was good to have someone to talk to. Although most of the time I was distracted by the individual personal entertainment system with a choice of over 50 movies, games, TV, music and more - almost wish I had one at home.


Arrived at Heathrow at 6am to a warm 10 degrees even the train conductor commented to me that it had something to do with that "changing earth thing cos the crap we put in the air".

So here I am at the airport watching all the bags go around the carousel, watching for mine to make an appearance. 100, 50, ...23.......15...........6........0...... No bag! No point in getting in to a panic - just trying to work out how best to explain wearing track suite pants and a 4 day old smelly shirt on my first day at work. Went to the lost baggage and started to fill out paper work when this loan bag appears on the belt. Despite its best attempts to get on a plane to Hawaii and avoid the cold, it was rounded up and handed over. Looks like it is not the only one not happy going into winter.

Next step was a 4 hour bus then train ride to Weymouth. And it only cost me the equivalent of $145,877.... well almost - £43 which is almost $100 - ARGH.

Have now settled in to the house (more on that later) and trying to stay awake to convince the body it really is not the middle of the night!

Next few days involve looking around the town and getting ready for work.

Chat soon